I had a huge head of broccoli that I harvested last month--it was the size of a basketball. Amazing! It took us so long to eat it that next time I went out to pick more the rest of the florets had flowered. It's all seeds out there now. The onions planted last fall have finally started making their bulbs, and they look good. Last fall's chard is tough, so I'm trimming it back and hoping to encourage new growth to eat this year.

Tons of stuff blooming. Daffodils are mostly finished, just some of the little multi-head fragrant ones out still. Iris are queen of the yard for the last couple of weeks. Last year a late freeze zapped them, and this year they're making up for lost time. The salvia greggi are blooming as hard as they can. Other salvia (victoria) are fully leafed out and starting to send out little blue blooms. Grape hyacinth are mostly finished. Texas star hibiscus are knee-high now, or taller. Datura is coming up from seed. Cannas are knee-high, lantanas are just starting to send out little stalks of leaves, same with Mexican heather.

I transplanted a large spiderwort last year from the woods across the road. It has bloomed and bloomed and bloomed this year--such a beautiful color of blue. I bring home wild things every so often--how horrible that someone admired your yard only as a place to steal stuff! My neighbors and I tend to share our extras of bedding plants and cuttings. I gave away a lot of iris last year, and I see them popping up around the neighborhood now.

The quince planted out back a few weeks ago finished its short bloom, and the redbud finished a couple of weeks ago. The coreopsis are showing but not going full-tilt yet, and the gaura are just barely getting started (they put out slender stalks with butterfly-shaped flowers for many months).

Spirea that I just planted hasn't started budding yet. The rock rose is just showing buds (it's in the evening primrose family).

Tomatoes are growing, and I just put in some peppers and squash. A few weeks ago I put out some cards with trichograma wasps to hopefully keep the caterpillers down. I need to put out some more this summer. Each card covers about 500 square feet with these microscopic wasps that attack moth eggs. Keeps them from becoming the critters that devour the garden. I'm planning to put some veggies out in my front yard for entertainment value. It's also much easier soil to work!

I saw my first tarantula of the season last weekend--we bumped into each other, literally, when I was clearing out some trash beside the garage. I'll build a brick thing over there for shelter for various critters.

Okay. I'll stop now. I keep a log for the yard, and I need to go enter some of this stuff there.

SRS