Blog
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Digging The Swale Deeper
At more or less the lowest point in the back yard, I dug a shallow hollow, or swale, to temporarily capture water during heavy rainfall. I would rather have water sink into the ground than run off the property and into the street. I still haven’t decided whether this will be a permanent feature of… Continue reading
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My New Favorite Weeding Tool
For years, my favorite weeding tool has been this one (photo above). I’ve used it so much that I’ve significantly worn the prongs down. Its thinness means that I can push it deep into the ground to pry roots out without too much disturbance of other plants nearby, and it is strong enough that it… Continue reading
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A Rain Gauge With Accuracy And Capacity
In November last year I enrolled with the CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow Network) citizen science precipitation monitoring system as a volunteer. I bought one of their required manual rain gauges and installed it in my garden in a location where there would be no interference from other structures. As station number TX-GP-173… Continue reading
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Standing Cypress
When I was new to Seguin, whenever I met a native plant gardener or naturalist, I would ask what was their favorite plant or tree and several of those suggestions are now in my garden here. One of those early recommendations was Standing Cypress (Ipomopsis rubra). Not only is this a beautiful drought-tolerant plant that… Continue reading
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Short-Term Effects Of The Freeze
In the past week we have had five nights of below freezing temperatures, with the lowest recorded here of 16.0 F. I expected to see some wilting, blackness, or loss of leaves and we certainly had that. With native plants, that is almost never a concern, and it’s just a part of nature cleaning up.… Continue reading
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Preparing For A Freeze
Technically, the first frost of this winter season was early morning 12/11/2023. I didn’t have a thermometer here then, but I think the lowest temperature was maybe 30-32 degrees F. There was no precipitation overnight, just a light coating of frozen condensation. The plants here showed no noticeable reaction to that light frost. However, a… Continue reading
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Burclovers
Black Medick (Medicago lupulina) is an invasive weed, although it can improve soil quality because of its nitrogen fixing properties, and most livestock will eat it. Plants of the genus Medicago are otherwise known as burclovers because they are related to other clovers and their seeds are highly barbed. Surely everyone at some point has collected… Continue reading
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To Pull Or Not To Pull
As new plants start to grow here for the spring season, I need to identify them as soon as possible so that I can decide what to do with them. Plants will generally fall into one of three categories: The main thing to determine for a volunteer plant is how invasive or aggressive it is.… Continue reading
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Tree & Shrub Growth Report, January 2024
I think that about once a year I will take approximate measurements of the trees and shrubs that I have here. Like children, when you see them every day, sometimes you don’t appreciate how much they’re growing (or not). The measurements were recorded on January 6, 2024 and the photos were taken a day or… Continue reading
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More Logs
I wasn’t planning to add more logs to the garden, but an opportunity presented itself that I chose to take. Four heavy Pecan logs were delivered to me from San Antonio and for now I’ve put them in a place that is currently unplanted and was already covered with mulch. Unlike the logs in my… 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 