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Saturday, March 21, 2015

Signs of Spring

I had mentioned last week that I'm starting to see signs of spring in our back yard.  It's a dreary, dismal sort of day here in Texas but I got out with my camera this morning, to see what was going on.

First of all, here are some of the weeds - um, "lawn companions" - I was complaining about last week.


I *think* this is wild strawberry.  It grows rampantly along the side of the house in the soggy area that gets run off from our neighbor's roof.





Here's another photo - you can see just how rampant it is.  I don't mind it though, the birds seem to enjoy the teeny tiny berries it eventually gets on it.  




I'm not sure what this grassy plant is.  We only have it in the corner of the back garden closest to the bird feeders, so I think it may be growing from seeds that have either blown off the wall or been dropped by birds.  It's tufty and very fine and you can see here, it has lots of seed heads.  In fact, last weekend when it wasn't raining, there was a flock of sparrows out there, pecking the seeds from it.  it keeps coming up in the borders and containers too, but I just pull it out by hand before it gets out of control, as it has already done in the lawn.

On to more cheerful subjects, I'm letting this bramble type vine grow along the back, underneath the Southern Wax Myrtle.  Just recently it's become covered in pretty white flowers and I hope that berries will follow.  I'm sure the birds will enjoy it.

The native honeysuckle, Lonicera sempiverens, still looks rather puny but at least it's blooming.  I had thought it was too early for it to bloom, since it's a major hummingbird magnet, but I had forgotten about the hummingbirds' spring migration.  So really, it's right on time.

I haven't seen any hummers out there yet, but I'm going to put up a feeder this weekend and start keeping a watch for them.




The "Sam Houston" peach is blooming and beginning to leaf out.  I hope we don't get another freeze, like we did last year, and that we might be able to enjoy a peach or two this summer.




This is the original cutting of my Rose of Sharon that I bought over from my previous house.  I was happy to see green leaves sprouting all over it.  I have two others in different parts of the garden that are also starting to leaf and I'm especially pleased to see that the cutting I took from this one last year, and planted further along the wall to fill in a gap, is leafing too.  It's got a long way to go, being only a foot high, but I'm pretty confident that will grow well in the spot I chose for it (probably better than this one, which is getting crowded by the Wax Myrtle)


 
My husband's grape vine, a "Mars" table grape, is leafing out.  Eric pruned it back last year, so we're hoping for some vigorous growth and lots of grapes this year, as last year was very disappointing.

Other than this, we've got daffodils blooming, there's new growth appearing at the base of the Tropical Milkweed, the New Gold and White Gold lantana and the St. Bernard's lily by the waterfall.

And if it stops raining this weekend, I have some Purple Coneflowers and Black-Eyed Susan's to go in, as well as four new native milkweed plants that just arrived yesterday. 

Have a great weekend everyone.  I hope you're enjoying the Signs of Spring in your garden too. 

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

3 comments:

Dorothy Borders said...

Looks like spring has definitely arrived in your garden. With all the rain we've had lately, everything should be well-watered and bursting forth with new growth.

Misti said...

I think your strawberry is likely false strawberry, Duchesnea indica. It's rampant in my yard here just north of you near Magnolia.

So happy for spring, too!

Jayne said...

Thanks for that ID Misti. I had seen teeny tiny berries on it before so I knew it had to be something like that.