Today's Flowers - Garden Bloom Day

What's blooming in my garden?

First, what was planted (by me)...

Gazania rigens - African daisy

Flowering Chives

Morning Glory

Salvia

Marigold

Those my neighbor planted...
(creeping through the fence)

And these nature planted for me...

One Texas Bluebonnet
(Literally one, in the smack dab middle of the yard,
but I want more so I'm mowing around it.)

Some Texas Dandelion (a lot more than one)

I don't know what...would love to know!
The flowers look similar to wild carrot,
but they are at every leaf intersection
down the stem, and much smaller.

(Oh no...I found out...a weed!)

Another mystery weed/wildflower

 

Dakota Vervain 

Texas Vervain

Wild Evening Primrose

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Garden Bloom Day

Throwback Thursday

Garden Bloom Day - June

Last summer, I let my yard grow wild to see what wildflowers would grow if I left it alone.  (You can see the chronicles of that experiment here.)  This summer I am enjoying the wildflowers I discovered, while doing a lot of selective weeding to keep my yard from turing into a jungle again.

Here's my favorite corner of the yard....

It's dried out a little from earlier this month.  You can see that tall tufted grass I love in foreground (looks even prettier in motion), surrounded by frogwort, which makes a great groundcover.  In the back you can see a bed of horsemint, expanded from the two plants that grew last year in that corner.  I love how it comes up just as the wild primrose is fading.  All of that grew without digging, mulching, planting, or watering!    The only thing I did back there was weed!

In another corner of my yard, the first wild sunflower started to bloom today!

Please ignore the junk in the background (we have some building projects going on, and some random summer toys that needed to be put away).

And in my front yard, this pink beauty popped up.

But, I have started to add a few "domestic" plants as well.  Last year I planted some daisies and Salvia.  The daisies didn't make a comeback, but the Salvia returned:

And I planted some new flowers in a nice flower bed with some strawberries:

So, that's what's blooming in my garden!  You can share what's blooming in yours at Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

Garden Bloom Day - My Backyard Experiment

Well, August took it's tole on my garden. Not much blooming, and not much could have pulled me out there to plant anything else. Here's one of the survivors...

That one I actually planted.

This next one is a weed. 

No, not a wildflower...a weed

As some of you may remember, this summer I did 

an experiment in my yard, called "don't mow and see what grows."

(OK, I mowed the front yard, but not the back). 

  Through May, June and July I discovered one beautiful wildflower after another.

And then August hit. The only thing blooming in my yard, other than 

the flowers above and my basil bush, were these...

 Ah, doesn't it look pretty and daisy-like?

UNTIL you see what it grows on

...this bramble of a bush that was taking over my yard!

It was time to mow!

I've only gotten half the yard done.  

I'll show the comparison pictures tomorrow for Foliage Follow-up Day.

(Update:  Click on Foliage Follow-up link above
to see more blooms that weren't there when I posted this.) 

Garden Bloom Day

My Backyard Wildflower Experiment Continues

This summer I've been doing an "experiment" in my back yard. I have left my back yard mostly un-mown, motivated in part by curiosity over what I might find, and in part by laziness and distaste for mowing in hot Texas summers (even not quite as hot as usual Texas summer). That and our lawnmower ran out of gas nearly as soon as I started in the back yard last time I tried (luckily I had finished the front)...and it took a while to refill it.

Well, I've discovered a lot of wildflowers gems already!  And here's what's blooming wild in my backyard now!

Sunflowers!

This little white lovely!

What is this?  I'd love to know!

And WHATEVER this is!

Seriously, what is this?  I don't think I like this one.

Probably gonna chop it down...and I do mean chop.  It's huge!

If you want to see more gorgeous blooms,

or share what's blooming in your garden

head on over to Garden Bloom Day 

and Today's Flowers.

You can also check out more wildflowers at

Wildflower Wednesday!

Wildflower Discoveries

Letting my yard go wild was one part laziness and one part curiosity.  After I discovered the Mexican Evening Primrose, I began to wonder what else was out t
here!

I didn't put weed killer on my yard, just went after the stuff I knew I disliked with a vengeance, and let the rest grow.  Here's what I discovered.

Mexican Hat

Horsemint

These Tiny White Beauties

They're called Frog Fruit - what a cute name!

These Tiny Pink Beauties

(Possibly a type of bluet...not sure)

Pink Morning Glory

There was one pink morning glory last year,

and I scattered some more seed, 

so this one might be wild, might be planted.

White Morning Glory

These were covering our yard last year,

so they weren't "discovered" so much,

but I'm happy to have them back!

I love the wildflowers in my yard,

but I wanted to add some more color too,

so here's some lovelies I bought.

These were all grouped together in their pots...

even now only a few have been put in the ground.

They sure do look pretty though.

My NON-Wildflowers

If you want to see more gorgeous blooms,

or share what's blooming in your garden

head on over to Garden Bloom Day 

and Blooming Tuesday! 

You can also check out more wildflowers at

Wildflower Wednesday!

Also shared on Throwback Thursday.

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