2011 Lifeless Landscape Returns As 2012 Weed World

The Texas drought of 2011 left a tortured, burnt landscape here in Central Texas. The huge fires east of here in Bastrop decimated about 1500 homes. Unlike those hills in California that seem to burn every year this area hadn't seen a major fire for a hundred years. As the drought continued it gave the impression the only plant life that would be viable in the future was cacti and other dryland adapted growth.

This is a shot of Lake Travis. Note where the water line usually lies.

Soon after the picture above was taken we started getting some periodic rain. About 2 inches in November, almost 5 inches in December and as much as 10 inches in 2012 up to mid-February. Coupled with the very mild winter, the weeds are loving it. All the seed that never germinated throughout 2011 has made up for lost time. Since many suburban yards lost their turf cover the weeds have ample places to spring to life. There are a couple of yards nearby that have 12 inch henbit weed completely covering all soil areas. Since it has a little purple flower it almost looks decorative - almost. The bad ones are where the predominant weed seed was barnyard grass and thistle types. Besides looking unkempt in the extreme they are also producing new seed to spread around the neighborhood. Many folks have already mowed this year - but it is just weeds and more weeds.

All weeds, all the time.

I've decided that my small front yard is going to a no-grass condition and have started working on a rock/perennial/mulch/paver/etc. landscape design. No mowing and reduced watering - yippee!

The point of interest is going to be this 1800lb. chunk of limestone. It has some calcite layered in it that gives it some character and a bit of bling. Since I'm attracted to shiny objects it's a perfect fit.

At certain angles the calcite layer kind of looks like eyes. My wife named it Smedley.

 More on the front yard conversion as it develops.