80AcresOnline

Though nearly all our land is used for wildlife,  we do have a vegetable garden.  Twenty-something years ago, we put in raised beds edged with landscape timbers.  Though some of those are rotting out, the main design is still there:

This is the garden from the east; the near bed had radishes in it and still has some carrots; to the right is a huge (HUGE) Mexican oregano plant from previous years.  We did not get the winter stuff in on time because of the severe drought and water use restrictions.  The next bed has corn on both ends and beans and sunflowers in the middle.

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We’ve all had the experience of visitors arriving just before, or just after, the best show of flowers/vegetables…the garden just isn’t looking its best the day they come, but it was right before (or after.)  We once spent a small fortune watering a patch of bluebonnets, trying to keep it in flower in a drought year for my husband’s aunt, who–when shown them–said “Is that all?  Why do people make a fuss over those?”

Well, we had houseguests this past week–late for one set of flowers and early for another–but the land graciously showed them something anyway:

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This is the season when all my plans for writing sensible, helpful, organized entries about this or that aspect of our project go blooey…because since we finally got some rain, the flowers (and their insect “friends”) are burgeoning and all I want to do is take pictures and say “Look!  Look at this one!”    For instance, stiff-stem prairie flax,  Linum berlandieri, gold from a distance, but up close decorated with delicate, precise lines of dark orange.

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I was out photographing wildflowers yesterday, after returning from the trip, and saw something I thought at first was an unfamiliar butterfly or moth, orange with black-tipped wings.  It flew oddly–more mothlike than butterfly-like, but not quite that, either.   Once it landed, I was able to get a first shot, then–slowly sneaking in,  and using the zoom–closer ones.

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Plains Nipple Cactus, Coryphanta missouriensis, is a small, inconspicuous ground-hugging cactus that almost disappears (shrinks a lot) after between flowerings.   Unless you know where you have a patch, you do not see it then.  But when it flowers, it opens elegant little flowers with long, pointed petals.  The lacy pattern of the spines on the plant, and the starry shape of the flowers, makes this one of the spring joys around here.

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Despite the way their roots attack the pumps, we plant water iris in the larger permanent water features: they offer desirable habitat for odonates  above water, and shelter for tadpoles, red-lined ribbon snakes, and other aquatic critters below the water surface.  And though the “land” iris isn’t native here, I enjoy the older varieties that still mark out house-sites and yards in fields where a homesteader’s house has long vanished.

This robust yellow water iris multiples quickly and once more we need to yank about half of it out of the big pond–but it’s attracted hummingbirds and butterflies as well as the odes that perch on it and (some of them) use the stems to lay their eggs in.

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Though our prickly pear cactus has been hit by a disease or parasite, as well as the drought, a beautiful lace cactus, Echinocereus reichenbachii, that a rancher lady gave me off her place is thriving.  They used to be common on the gravelly-rocky hills around here, but they’re salable and have been pirated off some slopes where I used to see them every spring.

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Monarchs come through central Texas in both the spring and fall migrations.   In spring, they particularly need wild milkweeds on which to lay eggs,  but they also need flowers that provide nectar, in case they must fly farther to find the milkweeds (and this year, that’s important.  Because of drought, the milkweed abundance is way down on our place.)

I usually see monarchs mating while perched on Ashe junipers–as wind protection–and nectaring on whatever’s blooming.  Some years, they have a choice.  This year, because of the drought, not much choice.  The reliable woody shrubs bloom even when the flowering forbs are scarce.   Rusty blackhaw viburnum and wild plum (both the Mexican plum and the thicketing plum) provided monarch feeding stations this year.

This particular viburnum overhangs the creekbed (now dry) and is at least twenty feet tall.  Sunday it was covered with white flower clusters.   Since we’ve owned the place, excluding livestock from the creek woods has allowed the growth of new viburnums, so in another ten to twenty years, we should have a lot of flowering shrubs–and some very happy monarchs.

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Spring has leapt forward this week.  On the way to church in the city, I saw drifts of bluebonnets…but the following pictures are from our place, taken in the last day or so.     They’re small and scattered, but beautiful–and very popular with the local small wildlife (insects, for instance.)

I haven’t had time yet to look up which eager little eaters these are.

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Here’s the view we’ve had out the back door the past few days, minus the clothes on the line and the corner of the barn.

The pinky-purple is redbud, the green is roughleaf dogwood (not yet flowering), and the gold is a flowering red oak.  All are native, though these are yard plantings chosen to look good in (most) seasons.

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