Wordless Wednesday: March camellia

Point of view, March edition

Time again for a look at my backyard garden from a defined "point of view" as I have shown you in January and February. If you look back at last month's post, you can see how the view looked in both months. And here's what it looks like this month.

Greener still, as I think you can see, and some of the shrubby plants are bushier. Also, Charlie the garden cat decided to get into the picture.

The clear blue sky is typical of March.

When I walk down the path a bit, you get a view of the new patio. That pile of rocks that you see just this side of it marks the new fountain. I'll give you closer views of that later.

For a slightly different "point of view" from the same spot, if I point my camera to the right , you see the magnolia tree and the house, as well as the little pond and birdbath in the distance.

And, if the camera looks left, you see the wild hedge along the back fence and the bottle tree bed with its agaves, Mexican feather grass and Texas sage.

If we move in for a close up view of some of the plants along the path, you can see that the autumn sage is in bloom.

The Copper Canyon daisy that I pruned back severely in January is full of new growth.

The daylilies are sending up new leaves. Some of them will begin blooming as early as April.

'Pride of Barbados' dies back to its roots each winter and puts out new growth in spring. That's what's happening here. By summer it will be as tall as my head and full of orange blooms.

The yellow cestrum is just beginning to open its blooms. By next month, it will be full of these butterfly attractants.

And speaking of butterflies, the milkweed plants along the bed are putting out green shoots and will be open for business from the Monarchs in a few weeks, but, in the meantime, I do plan to get a few fully grown plants from the nursery to tide the butterflies over.

The new leaves shooting up from the amaryllis bulbs are well-grown and some already have flower buds. By next month, for sure, they will be in bloom.

Yes, April should provide more diverse colors than just various shades of green for our "point of view."

This week in the garden - #54

Weed, prune, repeat. Weed, prune, repeat. That's been my week in the garden. Those never ending chores are truly...um... never ending. But, I did manage to do a couple of other things, as well.

My new fountain was delivered and Hubby Dear installed it for me. It still needs some rock work to surround it, but it's flowing, much to the delight, I'm sure, of all the critters that call the backyard home.

I got my tomatoes and tomatillos planted into the veggie garden beds. I have to tread carefully in the vegetable garden these days because there is a new family there. My pair of Eastern Bluebirds are feeding a family of nestlings and I don't like to stress the wary parents with my presence. I haven't checked the box to see how many babies there are, but there were five blue eggs in the box last week. I hope they all hatched, because you can't have too many bluebirds!

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While I was in the backyard today, a Monarch butterfly fluttered by. That's the first one I had seen in almost a month. My milkweed is beginning to put up green shoots, but there isn't nearly enough of it to feed ravenous caterpillars yet. I may get some more plants from the nursery, just to be prepared in case a passing Monarch wants to leave me some eggs.

Earlier this week, I saw my second Tiger Swallowtail butterfly of the season. I continue to be surprised by the presence of these butterflies so early in the year. I'm beginning to get used to the Black Swallowtails which seem to be ever-present in the garden these days.

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White is the color of the new blooms in the garden this week.

The white loropetalum, 'Emerald Snow,' isn't nearly as floriferous yet as the pink variety, but it has a few blossoms now. I've had the plant only for a couple of years, while I've had the pink one for many years, so it hasn't quite had a chance to establish itself. One day I hope it will be covered with these white blooms, even as its cousin is covered in pink "fringe.'

The white yarrow is beginning to bloom, also. I didn't notice until I uploaded the picture that one of the blossoms has a visitor.

 It appears to be an assassin bug, one of the many insects which do such good work to help the gardener who is canny enough to forego pesticides.

I do like these pretty blooms and they are very attractive to butterflies and other pollinators, as well.

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Well, the story isn't all about white.

The 'Red Baron' peach that had its very first bloom just last week is now almost full of its delightful blossoms.

And, in another part of the garden, the little redbud tree is just beginning to bud out. Many of the redbud trees in the area are already blooming, but mine seems to be of a different variety from them. It always blooms just a little later. By this time next week, it should be full of those iconic spring flowers.

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My work is cut out for me in the coming week. If I can get the load of moss rocks delivered, I can begin forming the beds around the perimeter of my new patio and begin my planting there, and I can finish the rock work around the fountain. If I can manage all that, I'll have a lot to show you next week!

Happy gardening and don't forget to "spring forward" tonight. Daylight Saving Time begins in the wee small hours of Sunday morning.

Life interrupts blogging

No "This week in the garden" post today because life interrupted my gardening with a sick daughter. Nothing serious, but she was under the weather and needed Mommy to come over and take care of her today. And, of course, Mommy was happy to be needed.

We'll try to get back on schedule tomorrow.

Wordless Wednesday: Texas' state flower in bloom

The patio is finished

Our patio installation crew came over the weekend and, in less than two days, the little patio was complete. Here are a few views of their work, taken today. (Note: My "editor" complains that you can't really see the colors in the patio in these pictures because the sun is so bright it washes them out. Yes, well, it is Southeast Texas and the sun is extremely bright. Maybe I'll take pictures again on a cloudy day and post them. Happy now, "Editor"?)

Now comes the fun part:

1. Putting in planting beds around the perimeter.
2. Deciding what plants to put in those beds.
3. Shopping for said plants.
4. Planting the plants.
5. Watching the plants grow and thrive, or, alternatively, watching them fail and performing steps 2 through 5 all over again. Until I get it right. As any gardener knows, this is a never ending process.

A new fountain is on the way, to be installed next to the patio, just one more step in creating my pleasure garden.

This week in the garden - #53

The changing of the seasons continued at breakneck speed this week. Even though we've had several nights of temperatures in the 30s and low 40s, and it looks like we'll have a couple more, the spring quickening was unfazed.

Spring, of course, means bluebonnets, and in my wildflower bed, mine are beginning to bloom. Among the blues, there are always a few pinks, as well.

   Among the citrus trees, spring means that the kumquats are almost ready.

And, nearby, the Mandarin orange tree is just about to burst into bloom.

Among the fruit trees and shrubs, Mother Nature staggers the bloom cycle so that all of the blooms do not open at once, just in case there is a late freeze. You can see this in the blueberries which have blooms at all stages now. Incidentally, I've been very interested to notice that the Rufous Hummingbirds that are overwintering in my yard love these little blossoms! They may not look like your typical hummingbird flower, but at almost anytime of the day, you will see one of the little birds sipping from these blooms.

Elsewhere among the fruit trees, the 'Red Baron' peach has its very first bloom. It won't be alone for long.

The 'Gulf Rose' plum tree has been blooming now - in stages - for almost a month.

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Some winter blooms are still hanging on, of course, notably the pansies and these little violas.

 Love these sweet little faces!

The "autumn sage" should be called "all-year sage" because that's when it blooms.

And the purple trailing lantana has bloomed all winter long and is now putting on a whole new flush of blooms. I really need to prune it, but it's difficult to harden my heart to cut all those blooms away when the butterflies and bees love them so. The bees have been especially busy among the blossoms this week. You may be able to distinguish some of them in the photographs on the left.

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Spring in Southeast Texas is azalea time. Unlike most gardens around here, mine is very azalea-deprived, but I do have one old indica that was on the property when we moved here in 1988. It is almost ready to burst into bloom once again. A few of the blossoms have already opened, but this plant always lags behind most of the other azaleas in the neighborhood by a week or two. Most of them are already in full bloom.

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Our long-delayed patio project begins (Knock wood!) tomorrow! The workmen should be here to start preparing the area and then installing the pavers. This is the way the space looked this afternoon.

 It's a mess, isn't it? But I hope by Monday it will be a lot prettier.

Happy gardening and have a lovely weekend.