80AcresOnline

Even in a dry year, spring comes early to central Texas.  I’m recovering from pneumonia so can’t get out to the full 80 acres, but here are some pictures from around the house.   (I need to plant some elbowbush up by the house, as it’s one of the very earliest.)

Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum bud

Rusty blackhaw viburnum is one of the most beautiful of the native shrubs, but it’s routinely scraped off by developers as “brush”.    Here, the buds are just opening to show the bud-cluster that will be a puffball of pure white within a week.  Easy to see why it acquired the name “rusty.”   It’s a valuable plant for wildlife, producing tasty blue berries for birds–and nectar for the early butterflies and moths.

Another native early bloomer is the Mexican plum.   This is the tree-sized wild plum, and it comes out before the thicketing plums.   It’s another valuable wildlife food source.  Right now, nectaring butterflies and moths are flitting around the branches, waiting for the flowers to open.

Mexican plum buds opening

We’ve been working on this year’s garden space.  Last year, we didn’t plant a garden so digging the aggressive Bermuda grass out of it this year was a lot of work.   Muck-buckets of aged horse manure have been dug in this year as well.    It’s so dry, however, that it’s gong to be hard to get a good crop.   In an ordinary year, the space between the beds would be bright green with winter annual grasses and forbs.

Garden prep

This was taken before the drip irrigation was completely re-installed.  The old timbers are finally rotting out (they’ve been there about 20 years.)