A walk around the yard

I took a walk around the yard to see what our Spring showers brought us.

Bluebonnets

We have bluebonnets! Not in a place I expected, tucked up against the trees near the road, but maybe they will spread.

Ironweed

I have three ironweeds sprouting this year! These are in the meadow, and in a place we don’t mow. I only had two last year, but they grew chest height and bloomed purple.

Pumpkin sprouts

The surprise finding was the pumpkin vines poking out around the compost heap. Hm. It will be interesting to see how far they make it, as I don’t water over there and it doesn’t get that much sun. Here is for a pleasantly wet spring.

Hello oak pollen

Yup, it is definitely Spring. Everything outside is yellow with oak pollen and everyone’s allergies are on high alert.

“Pollen” written in pollen

The picture above is of my usually black metal bench that sits by my front door, under an overhang. It is currently dusty yellow from all the oak pollen, despite having some protection and not being directly under an oak tree. We have Post Oak and Cedar Elm in the yard. The Cedar Elm has already spread its confetti of seeds, so I guess it is now the oak’s turn.

Now someone has pollen on their pants

Spring flowers

It must be spring here, our noses are stuffy, there are flowers blooming, and Malt the corn snake is refusing to eat. All sure signs.

Veronica Creeping Blue Speedwell

It is on the list to clean out this front flower bed. The abelia bushes did not make the winter, so need to be replaced. The hibiscus needs to be trimmed back, as well as the honeysuckles. Hello Spring.

Filling in

I love my spider plant, and love the curtain of off shoots it sends out around the perimeter. However the top starts to get thin, and the parent plant droops. It is under a vent, so gets dry. I’ve increased the amount of water I give it, but it still doesn’t fill in. I used to root out the baby spider plants in water and replant, but they wouldn’t always take. So I have a new method. I keep the baby plant on its lifeline and set it in the soil. It is still getting support from the mother plant, but its base is touching the soil and moisture, which promotes root growth. When the baby is firmly established, then I cut the cord. It has worked several times so far. In the picture below I have used a twist tie to secure the cord to keep the little plant pressed into the dirt (else it goes flying back out with its siblings).

Spider plant baby looped back into the soil

Ice leaves

The ONLY good thing about rain that freezes when it hits the ground is the discovery of ice leaves.

Ice leaf

I was sliding my way out to the chickens when I noticed all the leaves I stepped on looked like broken glass. Hm. Yup, I could peel the layer of ice off and get a shard of crystal leaf. Here is a short video. I would have investigated the phenomenon further, but it was raining. Raining. And freezing.