2nd garden–2011

March 24, 2011 How we wonder whether we have a nesting pair of screech owls or a solitary, shy male in our nesting box. Our dining table is situated so that we can watch him perching drowsily in the opening as we sit down to dinner each evening. If we ...

March 23, 2011 Miraculously, my two large soap aloes (Aloe saponaria) in the raised beds behind the house survived last winter’s deep freeze. They are each celebrating their narrow escape with a fantastic, muscular stalk supporting torches of buds about to flame into bloom. I particularly like seeing them against ...

March 20, 2011 Out of town for a few days last week, I came home to find my garden in bloom, eagerly welcoming spring—and a string of 85-degree days—with open arms. Here’s our native spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis), a shade-lover that some consider weedy but I love for its early spring ...

March 17, 2011 The new shed is finished! Here’s my husband showing off his excellent workmanship. Adorable, no? Yes, both of them. But whew, what a project, a year-and-a-half in the making, to build a shed-like structure to hide the pool pump and, in the process, add a charming garden ...

March 16, 2011 Thanks for joining me for Foliage Follow-Up, a celebration of leafy goodness (or any non-blooming plant part) on the day after Bloom Day. It’s all about agaves for me today because I’ve added a couple of new ones to my collection. Pictured above is a beautiful little ...

March 16, 2011 Thanks for joining me for Foliage Follow-Up, a celebration of leafy goodness (or any non-blooming plant part) on the day after Bloom Day. It’s all about agaves for me today because I’ve added a couple of new ones to my collection. Pictured above is a beautiful little ...

March 10, 2011 Among the many other garden projects I’ve been working on lately, I hired out one addition I’ve long wanted: a disappearing fountain to add the movement and music of water to my garden. I chose a simple blue pot with an enclosed “saucer” at top rather than ...

March 09, 2011 Balmy weather last week and a few hot days this week (Tuesday’s high reached 85F/29.4C), and my garden is sitting up and taking notice. A warm, golden glow lights the afternoons. The aloes—the ones that survived the deep freeze this winter—are seizing the moment and sending up ...

March 09, 2011 Balmy weather last week and a few hot days this week (Tuesday’s high reached 85F/29.4C), and my garden is sitting up and taking notice. A warm, golden glow lights the afternoons. The aloes—the ones that survived the deep freeze this winter—are seizing the moment and sending up ...

March 08, 2011 After planting my succulent wall last week, I built a contemporary-style cedar screen to hide the A/C unit, trash bins, and gardening miscellany from view of the upper-patio garden. I’m happy to borrow good design solutions from others, and I modeled my screen on one constructed by ...

March 07, 2011 A two-week frenzy of outdoor projects has accompanied the first stirrings of spring here in Austin. This weekend I completed a project I began in January: a succulent wall planter made of cinderblocks, inspired by a photo I saw at Apartment Therapy of a project created by ...

March 06, 2011 After admiring ‘Blackbird’ euphorbia on several West Coast garden blogs, and unable to find it locally, I purchased three small plants from Plant Delights last September and planted them in my xeric raised beds. Two immediately wilted and died. The third, situated in bright shade next to ...

February 28, 2011 Winter has ceded ground in Austin, and I’ve caught a bad case of spring fever. The garden and I are showing distinct symptoms. What are they, you wonder? Well, doctor, I’m seeing… New plants! This is the worst symptom of spring fever: the unchecked buying of new ...

February 16, 2011 February 14 marks the transition between winter and spring in central Texas gardens. Around Valentine’s Day, Austin gardeners do their big cut-back of summer- and fall-blooming perennials and grasses in preparation for spring growth. We may still get a couple of freezes (the last average freeze date ...

February 15, 2011 Does your cast-iron plant look ratty? I have several large clumps of Aspidistra elatior in my shady garden, and their frayed and browned leaf tips were really bugging me. So yesterday I pulled on my gloves, got out my hand pruners, and went to work on them ...

February 14, 2011 Ever optimistic about trying a cool new plant, even after the drubbing my garden recently received from Old Man Winter, I planted this Valentine shrub (Eremophila maculata ‘Valentine’) in one of my stock tanks this morning. This mounding desert plant is evergreen, hardy to 15 F, and ...