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Annie in Austin
Welcome! As "Annie in Austin" I blog about gardening in Austin, TX with occasional looks back at our former gardens in Illinois. My husband Philo & I also make videos - some use garden images as background for my original songs, some capture Austin events & sometimes we share videos of birds in our garden. Come talk about gardens, movies, music, genealogy and Austin at the Transplantable Rose and listen to my original songs on YouTube. For an overview read Three Gardens, Twenty Years. Unless noted, these words and photos are my copyrighted work.
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Friday, April 20, 2012

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day April 2012

Spring 2012 has brought some pleasant surprises, like blooms on the Hesperaloe/Red yucca - the first flowers in three years.
Annieinaustin, hesperaloe, Red Yucca
The mild winter allowed the unfrozen Loquat tree to give us fruit as well as flowers.
Annieinaustin, loquat has fruit
But our tree seems to be better at making flowers- the fruit is quite small with very large seeds so it took an enormous amount of loquats to yield enough pulp for one batch of loquat salsa and a few jars of loquat jam.Annieinaustin, loquat poblano salsa

It wasn't exactly a surprise when the 1940 US census records were released at the beginning of April - genealogists and family historians were counting down the days. Building the index is a huge project, requiring thousands and thousands of volunteers. I've tried to balance my desire to quickly hunt down my own family members in 1940 with my wish to help other people find their family history. Now I sometimes hunt and at other times I am a volunteer indexer, working from my home on my own computer to add to the index. If this idea intrigues you, look into becoming an indexer, too - the project is huge and should go on for many months.

One of my favorite not-quite-surprises is the Sweetheart arch. When I planted the 'Climbing Iceberg' rose and Confederate Jasmine on opposite sides it didn't seem like a gamble - those are plants that are usually pretty tough in Austin. They lived but didn't thrive in 2010 & 2011. This spring the arch is almost covered in white flowers - makes you want to walk through and sit on the bench, doesn't it?
annieinaustin,Climbing Iceberg rose on arch

If you'd like to see the complete list of everything that was in bloom on April 16, 2012, with my best efforts at the botanical names and more photos, click over to my companion blog, Annie's Addendum.

Since Carol of May Dreams Gardens started this meme in February 2007, on the 15th of each month she makes a post & a roundup of participating gardeners from all over-here is April 2012.

Happy Spring from Annie in Austin!