March Madness Continues!

Right....so I'm just going to add more pictures to this as they come until the end of the month:


Starting last weekend, which is to say, the weekend before St. Pat's day, Himself and I started to expand the patio. In the background from the steps to the wall is what we did last fall when the addition to the house was completed. The strip of two rows in the foreground is what we just did--you can see the stepping stone molds we use. You mix up the concrete in a wheel-barrow (bag of Quickrete and enough water to make it like a thick soup; then you shovel it into the molds. After it's hardened enough to stay together, you can remove the molds. I then mixed up an extra liquid-y concrete mix to pour in bottom of the cracks so that weeds can't grow between them, and fill them up the rest of the way with sand so everything is level.

Well, it's back-breaking work, but I'll have you know that this past Friday (before Easter), I, me, myself, personally mixed 10 40 lb bags of concrete in succession and laid another whole row, and made free-form shapes to fill in at the ends and on the edges. Ahem. I am woman, hear me roar! There's a lot more to do, though, and I will post pics as it goes.

Here's some more pretty, pretty, flowahs!


The clematis (I have many plants) are coming back up from the ground and here's one blooming right at the base of a rose bush with artemesia in the background (note Mr. Bug on the petal on the left):


Here's a 'Pink Diamond' Amaryllis. I think this is one of the ones Annabelle donated to my garden to get them away from some dreaded bulb-eating plague of beetles she had in hers. Here it is, Annabelle, all happy and healthy!!

Behind it is that cactus that should bloom with beautiful fuschia flowers in May....I can't wait!


These poppies are really cool--notice they have white picotee on the edge. What's up with that?


Oh, here's the 'Pink Diamond' Amaryllis I have around back. It has a 4-bloom stalk on it. Magnifique!


And here's the fancy-schmancy 'La Paz' Amaryllis:


And finally, for it is now the last day of March; I now have a pink corn poppy blooming with the red ones:


We've had lots of rain in the last week and the wildflower forecast for April is looking up. We are starting to see bluebonnets along the roadsides. Yayyyyy! Hopefully we can go on a spring "color tour" soon!

Butterflies and Wildflowers

It's March and the butterflies are out! Here's a Black Swallowtail on some Dianthus:


Silver-spotted Hairstreak on more dianthus (dianthus is very popular):


Also starting to put on a show is the wildflower border I planted last winter along the street-side fence. Last spring I got a few bluebonnets out of it, and some mixed-color corn poppies and coreopsis. This year I'm getting a whole 'nother variety, probably on the theory that some of the seeds really took two seasons to get established. It's interesting that these are coming up now in my yard while there is still no sign of them in the wild around here, and apparently things are only just in the earliest stages in key wildflower blooming areas, like the Hill Country. We had a rather dry fall and winter (after the deluge of Spring), so we are only expecting marginal blooming this year, but it's rained several times in the last few weeks, so maybe that will boost it?

I'm also surprised that I don't see any bluebonnets at all in my yard--not even the plants as far as I can tell (and they do have rather distinctive looking foliage), since I thought they were some of the earliest bloomers. Mebbe the few I had last year didn't self-seed much? I dunno. Right now though, I've got a whole bunch of these "Showy Primroses" (I love these, they used to bloom out of the sidewalk cracks back in my hometown in Jawja):


And amazingly I have this whole row of red poppies too. Only four blooms open as of today, but the plants are absolutely BURSTING with buds, so I can guarantee some more pics in the near future. A town we like to go to south of here has a "Red Poppy Festival" at the end of next month, but nyaaah, nyaaaah!! Mine are blooming NOW:


Stay tuned! We are going into peak season next month! Woohoo!

Potted Plantapalooza

My african violets spent the winter on a light rack in my study (this is a metal rack with flourescent plant lights--the cacti and succulents in small pots hung out here too). A bunch of them started to bloom, and I moved them into the bedroom to enjoy them. Aren't they beautimous?


This is a proto-bonsai'd Japanese Maple--love the wee dainty leaves:


Here's a sweet quince I have in a pot; I believe it's "Charlotte Falconette" (got it from Evergreen Gardenworks--great resource for pre-bonsai's)


GAH!! I'm goo-goo for Gerbera Daisies! I had a couple that survived in the yard, and more that over-wintered in pots in the greenhouse. This is a new one I bought to fill in a blank spot in a large pot:


The front porch pots have come out to play. See the red flowers? Gerbera Daisy:

Bloomin' in March!

Anemone & Pansy--Wheee!
Snappy Snapdragons

Salvia Greggii

Purple Oxalis Bliss

Dianthus & Blue Agave

Texas Scarlet Quince in foreground, Anemone in background.