Springtime in the Texas Hill Country

Throughout the winter, much of the Texan plant life seems to be missing in action.  Blades of grass are dry and brittle, cacti lie flattened on the ground, and the landscape takes on a brownish color.  If you look carefully enough, though, you’ll find that these plants are not actually dead; they’re hibernating.  Under the clumps of brown wispy grasses are young green leaves, waiting for the signs of spring.  The cactus takes a nap all winter, but miraculously stands back up and sprouts up new growth after the last frost.  Colors emerge, the days grow longer, and the landscape truly comes to life.  I’ve been in awe of these changes over the last few weeks.  And just like the Texan plants springing to life after their wintertime slumber, I am resurfacing out of my prolonged dormant period to share some of these natural changes with you.  It’s good to be back!

Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush

 Small wildflowers are filling in all over the Texas hill country.  Those of us who have been used to seeing grayish-brown rocky terrain with very little greenery are delighted to discover splashes of purple, yellow, pink, and orange along the roadsides and in our own backyards.  It’s not uncommon to see little butterflies jumping from flower to flower, like the well-known monarch.

Prarie Phlox, also known as "Fragrant Phlox" is one of the most aromatic wildflowers in Texas.

Algarita, Desert Marigold, Prarie Phlox, and Juniper

The lone star state’s “national” flower is the Texas bluebonnet, whose flowers emerge for a brief yet brilliant period of a couple weeks.  We are graced with the bluebonnet’s presence thanks to Lady Bird Johnson (LBJ’s wife).  During the Johnson presidency, Lady Bird took on the Highway Beautification Project and propagated many flowers along the roadsides of Texas.  Incidentally, I currently live 20 miles south of Johnson City, the birthplace of LBJ.

Texas Bluebonnets

When folks think of Texas plants, usually something prickly or pointy comes to mind.  Most of these plants are obvious, but some sneak up on you.  Yucca is one of those plants.  Seemingly harmless from afar, one could easily brush by a Yucca and receive an unpleasant surprise by a sharp poke in the leg.  Their blades grow in clumps, and the tips of those blades are dangerously pointy.  Native women chewed up these ends into finer bristles (yikes!) to create paintbrushes.  This time of year, the Yucca offer some beauty in exchange for their unfriendly ways.  They send up a long shoot from the middle of its clump, and beautiful white flowers emerge at the top.  Hummingbirds utilize the flowers’ nectar, and the later in the season deer will nibble on its fruit.

Two side-by-side Yuccas in our driveway have recently sent up their shoots

Eventually these will produce showy white flowers

The agave tree is closely related to yucca, and is basically a blown-up version of its relative.  This plant is best known for its use as tequila and agave nectar (natural sweetener).  It begins its life in a clump of symmetrical bladed leaves, and it stays in that stage for up to 15 years, waiting for the opportune moment to act.  When environmental factors are right, it transforms all of those years of energy into a giant stalk, exploding upwards from its heart. At this point, it becomes evident that the agave is part of the family Asparagaceae.  Its stalk looks like an asparagus for the gods. This stalk then flowers, and a big pollination party is thrown, with guests including bats, hawkmoths, ants, birds, and beetles.  Agave are monocarpic, meaning that they flower once and die.  So, after the stalk is thrusted up to the heavens, it soon crashes back down to the ground, releasing its seeds onto the ground.

An agave on the side of the driveway is in the process of shooting its stalk up

This agave performed its thrust in a past season, and is slowly falling to the ground

Prickly pear's response to winter conditions is to deflate, flatten to the ground, and nearly shrivel up.  I assumed they were dead all winter, so was quite surprised to see them standing back up a few weeks ago.  New green pads grow off of nodes from the old plant, so they really just get bigger every year.  This time of year, the cacti produce gorgeous rose-like yellow flowers. 

Notice the brownish pads toward the bottom and newer growth on top.  This one is right in front of our camper, so it has been interesting to track its progress over the last few weeks

Some nodes send out spines, and others shoot out new pads

Changes on the farm

If you read my last post, you’ll remember that one of the major goals of Reverse Pioneers (the current farm I’m working on) is to improve soil life through animal rotation.  In short (sort of), moving chickens and goats in a certain pattern through the dry and brittle landscape, along with mulching and cover cropping, result in a few improvements: 1) The soil becomes richer in microbial life and nitrogen, thanks to the animal poop 2) The natural hay-spreading provides mulch, which adds carbon to the soil and helps retain water 3) The last two points allow the cover crop (a combination of grasses and edible plants) to establish, which provides further water retention, CO2 sequestration, and minimizes erosion.

We’ve been rotating these animals and seeding cover crop every week for the last 6 months.  The effects of the animals’ work (and ours) are becoming more evident each day.  The ground below our feet is squishier, evidence of improved topsoil.  The land is now lush with greenery from all the cover cropping.  We’ve really been enjoying the edible field greens, like kale and mustard, as are the goats.

And, of course, I can’t possibly discuss springtime on the farm without mentioning the BABIES!  All three of the goats were pregnant, but one had a miscarriage (we think) sometime in the winter.  Darla had two healthy girls, and a week later Wren gave birth.  There were some major complications during her birth, and her two girls didn’t make it.  We were left with her one little boy, who Sean and I like to call “Stimpy”.   Baby goats are cute and all, but I was more excited about the milk than anything.  Fresh goat milk, cheese, and kefir have been some our staples over the last couple months.

Wren's little boy, "Stimpy"

Darla's two girls

The original garden

When we arrived, the garden consisted of one bed containing mostly brassicas (brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage) and allium (onions, leeks).  One of our big projects recently was to expand the garden and add a new irrigation system. Now there are three large beds filled with tomatoes, kale, collards, pac choy, and herbs, and some perimeter beds for crawlers like beans, peas, and melons.  

We used a pretty interesting irrigation method for the new beds using terra cotta pots.  The open ends of two pots were glued together, and a bunch of these pairs were daisy-chained together with tubing.  The tube system is connected to a large barrel which feeds water into the pots.  All the pots got buried under the soil, and the pots sweat out the water passively (more water gets let out when the soil is dry, less when it is wet).  It was a lot of work to set up, but now we don't need to water the beds!

All of these changes have left me feeling more active and engaged with my surroundings, so hopefully you'll be hearing more from me soon!