March Bloom Day

First, the blooms:


The mountain laurels in the front yard are in full swing.

The color on the autumn sage is great, but it needs to be pruned back.

The lantana's also in need of a drastic pruning, but the edges are starting to bloom.

Rosemary's got the same flowers it's had the past few months

Just moved the potted kolanchoe outside last week

Redbud

The remaining broccoli plants all have flowers...end of an era

First strawberry flower of this year

Pear blossom petals among the lettuce

Pear tree overhang from the neighbor's yard

Random tree or shrub in the fence line

And now the buds:

Soon to be evening primrose

Shallot buds

One of the few freesia plants to survive the freezes (the bulbs are 5 years old)

The dreaded sticky leaf buds of the cottonwood, soon to be brought in the house by shoes and kitty paws.

And view more gardens around the country at May Dreams Gardens.

Bird's nest

Somebody's building a nest up in the hackberry tree.

Walk in the park

Spring happening along various dogwalks this past week

Sunny morning

From the top: remains of yesterday's snow in my mint, a redbud branch (not too many buds this year due to the summer of aphids raining sap down on everything), honeysuckle coming back strong after the drought, eve's necklace beginning to leaf out






Pineapple sage which didn't die after all, curly parsley (all the parley's looking so big and healthy right now), one of several broccoli plants, shallots (when should I harvest??), my garden "helper" watching over the onions





The square foot garden, beet greens, baby lettuce, lacinato kale

Light snow day

It's nice to have little snow every once in a while, though I'm a little worried for all the spring flowers that started blooming over the balmy weekend (buds were showing yesterday on the mountain laurels in the front). The yard's looking so shabby right now; time to get busy pruning after this cold front moves out. Across the street was the smallest snowman ever.

Saw lots of windflowers (white and purple) on the Turkey Creek hike Sunday.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - February 2010

I think this is the consistently coldest winter we've had since I moved to Austin 9 years ago. Not surprisingly, the rosemary and a few dandelions are the only things blooming outside. Everything else is waiting for spring, which is a wise choice. Or possibly just dead; won't know for a while.




From the top: two kalanchoes are blooming indoors (one cream, one coral); broccoli doesn't mind the cold nights; got 6 of these iris from Boggy Creek Farms last fall, so I can't wait to see the blooms (supposedly apricot); I think these are showy evening primrose, which used to show up by the thousands in my yard (guess I'll find out soon).

Backyard birds

Cedar waxwings and a downy woodpecker couple were hanging out in the cottonwood tree this afternoon. I don't know how they do it, but every winter I get this feeling I'm being watched and look up...and there are the waxwings, silent and masked.