Spiderwort. Several clumps are growing in my shady “woodland” garden. On one plant, both blue and purple flowers appear. I tried to capture the two colors with this photo, but it shows just true blue.

Since the cedar elm has started growing in earnest—well, it’s really been doing that since day one; I love this tree!—the area beneath it has gotten quite shady. With the redbud and small smoke tree planted nearby, and with the naturalistic native plants beneath, this area has become my woodland garden, even though the “woodland” consists of just three trees. Last week I toted home part of a fallen tree from a common area in my neighborhood and added it to enhance the woodsy feel. I don’t know if it really works, but I like it anyway.

From back to front: Texas redbud, spiderwort, golden groundsel, the new log, purple heart (coming up under the log), Texas betony. The cedar elm’s trunk is visible in the foreground.

Looking the other way, you can see that the container pond has a visiting grackle. I’m not troubled with too many grackles—for one thing, my trees aren’t big enough yet to provide good roosting sites for them—but each day one or two will bathe in the pond. I enjoy watching them splash around.

The columbines are still going strong.