Rewilding My Lot

In March and April there was a surprisingly impressive display of Texas Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) in the wildflower meadow in front of the house (see first photo in this post). It was surprising because elsewhere in Central Texas where we would normally see bluebonnets in fields and beside roadsides, the displays have been poor this year. I have no idea why mine did so well.

Now that we are in May, many of those first bluebonnets have already finished their seeding process and other blooms are beginning to appear.

Because this meadow is in front of the house, I’ve done some tidying up to make it look a little neater, and so that the newer flowers can be better seen.

If a bluebonnet stem had completely finished seeding (it’s easy to see when seed pods are empty), and if I could get to it without trampling on other things, then I trimmed it off and saved it for later shredding (photo below). Because bluebonnets are legumes and fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil (with the help of rhizobium bacteria in root nodules), I intentionally leave the roots in the ground even after a plant has died. The decay of those roots feeds the soil.

Some old bluebonnet bloom stalks still have intact seed pods and so I have left those in place for now.

And some bluebonnets are still in the bud stage.

So what can be seen in the meadow at the moment in addition to the bluebonnets and Firewheel aka Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) — two of the seeds that I used to start the original meadow? Other plants that I have spotted include Tall Poppymallow aka Annual Winecup (Callirhoe leiocarpa), Prairie Verbena (Verbena bipinnatifida), Roadside Gaura (Oenothera suffulta), Texas Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa), Goldenwave Tickseed (Coreopsis basalis), Spotted Beebalm aka Spotted Horsemint (Monarda punctata), Texas Verbena (Verbena halei), and Lazy Daisy (Aphanostephus skirrhobasis).