Fat Beet

Above is an artichoke in amongst the wandering jew.
Below are two varieties of poppy.













Fresa








Lushness

Belated update.

Two trees in bloom, the flowers have since fallen.
Best bloom yet!

Flowers

These are some of the Flowers in my yarden.

This is the very first flower of the season on the amazing
Mexican Anacacho Orchid Tree.
I love this tree.
this is its 3rd
year in the ground
and it looks as though
it will be the best bloom yet.







I just planted this tree yesterday
it's name is
Alexander Magnolia.

It will be absoloutly covered
in these flowers this week
and putting on leaves the next.









Here is the lettuce flower...

it came and went.







Onion Blossom
Soon I'll have big
beautiful sweet
onions.





Bulbine. 1st year

Well, Spring is just on the other side. The buds are begining to split, blossom, tiny leaves are peaking out of the tips of branches, ladybugs and bees are about, and the weather may soon be right for the hot times vegetables. But before we say goodbye to the beauties of the winter I'll tell you all a story.
This experience for me was a reward. I went with my lovely girlfriend to the grocery store to fetch some vegetables to cook up some dindin. We grabbed an onion and carrots, then I looked around for some others. I saw beets, I have beets in the garden. I saw lettuce and spinach, those two too I have. I saw broccoli and chard, growing healthily also in my garden. Garlic chives as well. We went on home with just the onion and carrots. We went on home and harvested. The prize that night was the human fist sized beets, lord they were delicious.

Below are some new pics.
1. Early Bluebonnettes
2. Broccoli in flower with bee
3. Broccoli in full flower
4. Various lettuces
5. Beet

Oh the burgeoning springtime!

Photos

Well, I was going to post these pics as the subjects came up but I was egged by a friend to post more photographs. So I thought on it a bit and figured that there will be many more plants and many more photos. So here are some recent pics of the winter crops and my baby Loquat.


I ate this carrot raw straight out of the ground.MMMMM






I saw baby Loquat growing under a neighbor's daddy Loquat and I asked and was given permission to dig her up.

A breif history of the yard.

My father and mother bought a piece of property in 1991 at 824 Harris Ave. Two trees and half a yard of grass. They planted three Crepe Myrtles and a Texas Red bud and a Texas Mountain Laurel. Those trees are all still there. Though I feel that the Red bud may be on its way out. For years my father attempted to grow the grass thick and hearty, a mighty feat here in Austin. My mother planted a few perennials, some of which are still alive and well. About one year ago I began to redo the entire yard. With my father's gracious blessing I installed a raise bed vegetable garden,(Dimensions-12'x12'x10"). That was the first leg and is the center piece of the yard.

Vegetable bed- Built of reused decking lumber nicely donated by the Seibert family. I first obliterated the grass beneath by hand and hoe. Then I spread about two cubic yards of composted horse manure, I mixed in a few garden bags of fallen leaves to add some carbon to the manure in order to help break it down and neutralize the nitrogen rich manure, then I covered it all with about two cubic yards of "Hill Country Mix" soil from "The Natural Gardener".

By the time all that was ready it was approaching summer. I planted peppers, watermelon, basil, green beans, squash, corn and a few other things. I had a few successes but all in all I think the soil wasn't ready yet, everything looked stunted and a little freaked out. However, the Green Malabar Spinach grew like mad, I had to defend all the others from it overtaking the whole bed. That stuff is aliens.

In the meantime I planted some perennials in a space just to the east of the Veggies. Hibiscus, coneflower(purple), gregg's mist, plumbego, etc. I've cut most of those for the winter and am ready and waiting for them to poke their lovely heads out. Those reside behind the Mountain Laurel. In front of the Laurel, and just before the street curb I planted 5-6 Blue Agave that I rescued from someone's garbage. They were pretty beat up but I put them in the ground gave them a massive sun to live under and fed them copious amounts of water. Now they look absolutely magnificent. Refugees of a culling. And among them I have sewn wild flower seed. Oh Spring arrive yourself!

Next I mulched nearly the entire front yard. GRASS BE GONE.

I also convinced my father to allow me to remove two homely old Juniper trees flanking the front stoop.

That's a pretty good introduction. I have planted a few trees, but we'll talk about those later. It will give us something to look forward to. Long term stuff.

I will be updating weekly; maybe more.