Spring 2014

Spring has been very odd this year.  Our winter was long and cold with lots of ice.  No, I am not interested in comparisons with locations farther north.  We have very mild winters compared to almost everyone else in the country but for us this was a cold year.  And spring has come slowly.  Here it is almost May and I have yet to sweat outside.  This is truly remarkable since sweating usually starts sometime in February or March and is in full swing by early April.

I spread out a pound of wildflower seeds last fall and am just beginning to see the fruits of that labor.  I was hoping for bluebonnets which I have not found in my wildflower patch but am getting some nice color.

The ponies have started to shed out and are leaving little tufts of while hair all over the place.

Our butterfly bushes are in full bloom although I haven't seen to many butterflies yet.

The spineless Opuntia is busy putting out both new pads and lots of flower buds.  It's a very good thing since I'm planning to cut off chunks and plant them several other places on the property.

Even the marigolds are busy putting out blooms.  I only planted these a couple of weeks ago and I'm already harvesting!  We use the marigold flowers to dye with - they give a wonderful clear yellow.  One 7' garden bin will produce plenty of flowers so we will have dried marigolds for sale later this summer.

After taking a couple of years off, I decided to plant cotton again this spring.  I'm afraid I've missed the traditional planting day which is Labor Day.  But, I've only missed it by a week and I'll be planting this weekend.  I know I have green and brown seeds and I should still have some white pima cotton seeds too. I love the look of cotton plants and we should have some soon.