Spring Has Arrived (Pic heavy)

You wouldn't know it with the drop in temps we've had this past week, but spring has definitely arrived in the garden. I've spent about 30 mins or so each night pulling weeds in the flower beds and trying to ID seedlings. I've been successful with some, but most I have no idea what they are! In the first flower bed I started I am now to the point where I'm ready to move plants and rearrange things so the shorter plants are closer to the front and the taller plants are towards the back. I have a few plants I'm still waiting on to come back to life, especially the Esperanza plant. It's always the last thing to come back, but I'm not so sure it survived the extremely cold winter we had. Here are some pics from my walk about the garden beds this morning.

The butterfly weed showed up last week sometime. Hooray!

My Brazos Penstemon has really taken off since the late winter. I can't wait to see this thing bloom.

This Balloon Flower will be moved. This is the first year I've gotten a volunteer in addition to the mother plant.

This sedum will bloom a pretty yellow. It's planted in a small Weber grill!

The Texas Gold Columbines are starting to bloom. Love these flowers! The plant gets pretty scraggly looking in the hot summer weather, but they go crazy in the winter and really start growing like crazy.

The gaillardia (Blanket flower) is starting to get its flowers on! This thing will bloom non-stop till fall.

I thought I'd lost my Four Nerve Daisies this winter, but they survived!! Here they are with their happy little flowers.

This dianthus (Sweet William) has been waiting for a year to bloom. Finally put out flower buds and started blooming this past week. Love the color!

My Cranesbill Geranium is going like gangbusters. I have it in a pot, but I'm going to divide it and transplant it out in the flower bed by the front curb. It loves the sun and will survive the winters.

My little Cowpen Daisy has come back from the dead of winter as well. Sooooo excited about this!

May Night Salvia does so well in my flower bed. It's a bee attractant like none other in my garden.

Pincusion Daisy (scabiosa daisy) is putting out its pretty pink flowers.

A look across the flower bed to see the height of the poppy in relation to the pincushion daisy.

A Stroll Through the Gardens Today

It was an absolutely perfect day today, after the rain and hail moved out of the area. The temperature was in the 70s, the sun was shining, there was a bit of a breeze, and all was well in my world. Around mid-day, I took a stroll through my gardens to see what was going on and what was coming back to life, what weeds needed to be pulled (got a bumper crop this year!), and what new seeds had sprouted in my winter sowing jugs. Here are a few, okay many, pics from my little excursion.

My winter sown jugs of tomatoes and bell peppers.

A strawberry bloom on one of the strawberry plants the DH dug out of the bed leftover from last year.

Radish seedlings poking up. I planted these last week. :>)

Found this bird's nest in our holly bush! Not sure if it's currently in use or not.

Jug eyeball! Those are self-heal sprouts in there!

A baby toad lily! I just planted these last year, 1 little plant in 4 different places in the front bed. I've already got at least 2 new sprout on each plant!

This Brazos Penstemon has doubled in size over the winter. I have a total of 6 of these and they've already started producing clumps. Yippee!

One of my May Night Salvias coming back from the dead. I was really thinking I'd lost these this winter.

Poppies! Need I say more?

John Fanick Phlox. I only had one measly little stem on this last year and already I see about 3 or 4 stems!

An Evening Stoll through My Garden

The past week, we've had awesome temps, so things are really starting to green up (including the weeds) and I've been itching to get outside and get some dirt on my hands. I'm also gearing up for the spring plant swap. Hope to be able to get some great things as well as give several things away.

The Texas Gold Columbines are really taking off. Starting in February, they start putting out lots of new, green growth in preparation for their annual profusion of blooms. Found my first buds almost ready to pop today! Sorry for the blurry pic, but I was so excited to find the buds!



Among the leaves of covering among the columbines, Pigeonberry is starting to show its leaves.



As always, the Four Nerve Daisies are strutting their stuff.



The daylilies have really leafed out! They look so mature this year, like real clumps! LOL



The poppies are growing. Can't wait for these to set buds and bloom. I threw these out late fall last year. Not even sure how big they get or when they bloom, so it'll be interesting with them. Sometimes the best gardening is trial & error.



This Hummingbird Sage (aka Texas Sage, aka Salvia coccinea) survived the winter and has buds on it. They're about to pop!



This is a very prolific bloomer and seeder, so I got TONS of seeds leftover from last year's harvest. If you're interested, I'm happy to share.

Lastly, my winter sowing project has been a hit! At the beginning of February, I started about 13 milk jugs of seeds outside. I wrote about it on my gardening blog if you want the blow-by-blow description. Out of the 13, only about 4 or 5 don't have anything peeking out yet. I'm most excited about the one pink skullcap seedling I saw today. Here's a peek into a few of the jugs today.

I think these are one of the salvias I planted. These will definitely need to be thinned!



This is a low growing mix from Wildseed Farm. I have no idea what's sprouted in there! LOL



Here's the container of Gaillardia, better known as Blanket Flower.