Texas tropics

When you mention Texas most people envision vista's of dust and sagebrush. That may be the case in some areas, but not here at the edge of Hill Country. The year we bought the place Kendra had to deal with 12 foot tall giant ragweed (that is not a Texas boast - just fact!). This year my nemesis is bedstraw. This trailing weed not only  stretches for six feet or more from the center of the rosette, but all the leaves and seeds are covered with minuscule Velcro-like hooks - not a good combination with long haired dogs for one thing, and we've had such warm weather that coupled with the rain, this stuff is drowning out all the other wildflowers. I've pulled pounds of it and filled up the compost multiple times - I know I can't win, but I can put up a good fight! (Kinda like fighting the squirrels!) Other plants grow like crazy too. We had drizzly weather for a couple of weeks, but very temperate temperatures, so it was hard to mow, but things kept growing!

We're still tracking which wildflowers show up in our yard, and when, so I can map the best places to encourage next year and recognized them by their leaves. If  you wait until they bloom sometimes it's hard then to time the cutting so the bad ones don't have a chance to go to seed. I have a hard time getting to town without stopping to take photos. I took this one two weeks ago. The bluebonnets lasted nearly a month this year, due to all that drizzly weather no doubt, but they are all but gone this week. Only a few patches remaining here and there, but now the red and yellow flowers, like blanket flower, are blooming. As a result of Ladybird Johnson's emphasis on wildflowers all the roadsides are planted and just bloom like crazy until the summer heat really hits. Each day is a little different as the varieties bloom in succession.

We let some of the areas around the edges of the yard go unmowed for several weeks to see what would come up - you can see how much growth there was - this is Steve working with the DR mower - what a super machine.

I love it! It will take down a 3" sapling with no questions asked. As we have some areas in back that haven't exactly been "groomed" it's valuable for getting the area ready for the riding mower. It rides up over fallen logs and rocks that would damage the mower blade, but it is a little effort to follow it around, and you can't drink an iced tea while driving it like you can a riding mower!