Spring Wild Flowers

There is an area south east of the studio that is where the drain field for the septic system lies.  The actual drain pipes are underground and it's safe to walk on or drive a tractor or mower over.  It's OK to drive over it with my Kawasaki Mule.  It's not OK to drive a truck or car over it.  I thought the best way to define this area as "not drivable" would be to plant flowers over it.

I bought all sorts of spring wildflower seeds the fall the 2009 and spread them over the area.  The spring of 2010 was glorious and so was my new wildflower garden.   The roads were lined with coreopsis and Indian paintbrush and Texas bluebonnets and my garden was lush with all sorts of wild flowers.  OK.  Lush might be overstating it a bit but it looked really nice.

The fall of 2010 I bought even more wildflower seeds.  The Wildseed Farms Seed Company in Fredericksburg, TX sells all sorts of wildflower seeds and has a great mix of plant seeds especially for Texas and Oklahoma.  I bought a pound.  And some extra bluebonnet seeds and some extra coreopsis seeds.  I thought I  might get better coverage if I mixed the seeds with some good soil.  I mixed and broadcast the seed/soil mix and eagerly waited for spring.

There was almost no rain that winter and no rain in the spring.  It was the beginning of a horrible drought that we aren't out of yet.  Last spring came with no wildflowers at all.  Not one.  My plan was to wait until last fall and order some more wildflower seeds but it didn't happen.  I think I was too worried about watering the trees to think about ordering more seeds.

We have had a fair amount of rain this last month and what should pop up in my wildflower garden but three wildflowers!  Three is not hardly lush but it's three little plants I didn't expect.  It's too late in the year to buy more wildflower seeds now so I will have to wait till this fall.  In the mean time I'm hoping more seeds survived the year's drought and will pop up out of the ground and give me some more flowers.