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Catching Up On The Blog So Far
If you’re catching up on reading about my urban “rewilding” project that started in February 2023, here are some key posts: And here’s a cloud image of the 100 most popular (as defined by WordPress!) key words and phrases in the posts I have written. Selecting any of these tags will pull up related posts,… Continue reading
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A Pink Bluebonnet
Occasionally I have seen white bluebonnets here. I wrote about that when I saw my first one, but I’ve seen a few more of them now. What I hadn’t seen until now was a pink bluebonnet. This one popped up in my wildflower meadow. Pink blooms result from a normal genetic mutation that sometimes occurs… Continue reading
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Mexican Buckeye Survived The Winter, And Acquired A Companion
The first Mexican Buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa) seedling that I planted in front of the house in 2024 did not survive. I was gifted a replacement that was planted in 2025. This little tree started last winter just 7 inches tall. I protected it from the freezes with mulch against the trunk, preventive watering, and a… Continue reading
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The Wildflower Meadow Is Happy After Two Inches Of Rain
We have had a very dry winter and early spring, so we were pretty parched by the time we got to early March. In fact, as of March 3, 2026, our entire county (Guadalupe) and surrounding area was defined as being in extreme drought. (Image is from drought.gov.) From March 7-11, we finally received 2.46… Continue reading
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Red Buckeye Blooming For The First Time
Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia) is a small tree that I planted in 2024. It seemed to be settling in, but then failed to grow new leaves the next spring. I thought it was dead, but a few weeks later it started new growth from the ground and by the end of its season it was… Continue reading
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Maximilian Sunflower Patch Is Growing
Very early in my time here, before I had much of anything planted, I was blessed with an abundance of volunteer annual sunflowers. There were two types: Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus), and Beach Sunflower (Helianthus debilis). Those sunflowers have reseeded themselves every year since and where they are not in the way, I have let… Continue reading
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How Frostweed Grows Back After A Freeze
This has been my first year to have Frostweed (Verbesina virginica) plants. They are so called because their stems crack open during the first hard freeze of the winter, and the sap that is pushed out forms ice sculptures. My two young plants did exactly that, and the photo above shows one of them. This… Continue reading
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The Toad Chorus Is Back
On March 6, 2026 I started to hear toad calls around the pond after dark. So I went out with a headlamp to see what was going on. Sure enough, I spotted this Gulf Coast Toad sitting on the pond edge. Then, since I knew there were at least two voices, I looked around to… Continue reading
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Unintended Companions
In May 2025 I planted a Spineless Prickly Pear (Opuntia ellisiana) that had been propagated from a mature plant in San Antonio. It still has only its two original vertical pads, but they have grown in size since planting. Volunteer Texas Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) have taken advantage of open soil beside the Prickly Pear and… Continue reading
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The First Firewheel Blooms Of 2026
Firewheel aka Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) are one of my favorite wildflowers and therefore I seeded them both in front of and behind the house in fall 2023. As it happens, these plants thrive in my particular environment and so each year I have an abundance of their cheerful blooms that have self-seeded from the… Continue reading
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Spring Trim Of The Back Yard
Trimming away dead parts of plants in front of the house was a fairly small job. The meadow area had already been cleaned up last October, and tidying up the pollinator garden plants a week ago didn’t take very long. The back yard is a different story. Because it’s out of view, I let it… Continue reading
About Me
Nature Lover.
Inquisitive Observer.
Student Gardener.
I invite you to join me on my journey to convert my sterile (from a nature point of view) new house lot to a healthy and diverse ecosystem, as I make discoveries, mistakes, and hopefully progress. I am not an expert or professional. The project started in February 2023 and the location is Seguin, Texas, USA.
Rewilding My Lot 