My roses are blooming and our ice plant is blooming, too. I have two beds full of wildflowers that are going crazy. The palo verde is getting ready to bloom, and if you've never seen one in bloom it is a sight to behold! We dig up weeds as we don't like to use pesticides on anything, and fire ants aren't a problem here yet. We do have leaf cutter ants but they're harmless. I read somewhere that sprinkling cornmeal around ant hills will eventually kill them - they carry it into the nest, can't digest it, and die. Whether or not this really works I don't know.
_________________________
Well-behaved women rarely make history. - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
http://ruthrainwater.wordpress.com/
http://newbeginningsgratitudejournal.wordpress.com/
http://sablewings.wordpress.com/