Woohooo!- spring is here – at least according to the Texas Redbuds!! It’s been such a warm winter so far that they are ready to go! The bees are very happy about this too. Tomorrow it gets cooler and we may have a frost. I had one Redbud tree die from the drought – only 3 left, so I bought me another little one. Hopefully he’ll grow fast.
Spent the day today fertilizing and trimming back my front yard garden. Only got halfway done.
On the south side of the house, which means sun loving shrubs and perennials will be planted here. This is rocky soil and I will need to add at least 3 inches of top soil.
This is a Anemone Berlandieri – a relatively common Texas wildflower. I have the entire back section next to my house covered in these. They open up first thing in the morning and then close in the early afternoon. It’s been so warm for the last 2 days (over 80 degrees) and everything is budding.
I went for a walk in my back yard yesterday morning, to check on, and possibly clean out my bluebird nest boxes for the upcoming nesting season, when I looked down and found this mushroom. Isn’t it beautiful? There was dew on everything and the air smelled moist and fresh. I had to run back to the house and get my camera. It was a glorious morning.
As you can see in the picture below, we have some erosion problems. This site is on a light slope and heavy rains have washed the soil away and exposed the limestone, rocky gravel underneath. Nothing will grow here until I control some of the runoff from my property. I would like to eventually get some native grasses and wildflowers to grow so their roots might help hold the soil in place.
But first I have to slow the water down to prevent it from rushing into the nearest drainage ditch and taking all the soil with it. It’s so much better for our ground water to let rain slowly percolate into the ground to eventually refill the aquifer below us, instead of just rushing down the gully and into the river carrying all the soil and pollution with it.
Here is my first attempt at creating a little berm to stop the water. Luckily I have NO shortage of rocks on my land and this took no time to build. Only a strong rainstorm will tell me if it was built sturdy enough to hold back a gush of water.