Let there be light and light rain
March 12, 2007 Front garden in the rain, and with new lighting Summery temperatures (Ha, ha, who am I kidding?)—OK, spring-like temperatures, plus a stubborn bicolor iris, nearly had me beat on Saturday. It was 83 degrees by early afternoon, and with no shade yet in the front garden it ...
Great Austin nurseries
March 09, 2007 Check out M. Sinclair Stevens’s post about Austin’s nurseries over at Metroblogging Austin. Be sure to read the comments; a few more faves are mentioned there. For my own take on the local nursery scene, check out my sidebar link to nurseries. You’ll find links to photo ...
Spring frock
March 08, 2007 Spiderwort. I just love these bluish purple flowers that appear in early spring and then die down beneath the summer perennials. So be prepared to see a lot more of them in the next few weeks. Yolanda Elizabet over at Bliss, a blog from the Netherlands, commented ...
Birds doing their spring fling
March 07, 2007 Female cardinal silhouetted in the vitex tree Yesterday morning, the birds were atwitter all through the garden. A male cardinal preened and pursued a female in the vitex tree, a wren sang in the tall hackberry, and a pair of sparrows toiled over the feeding of their ...
Early-spring garden views
March 06, 2007 Bottle tree at sunrise Garden bloggers are always looking at their gardens in close-up, filling posts with macro photos of plants and flowers. I tend to do this more than some. So today I thought I’d compensate by including several long-shot photos. It’s easier to see how ...
Construct a trellis screen to make a vine-covered garden wall
March 05, 2007A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my winter-garden eyesore, the trampoline. Undisguised at this time of year by towering summer perennials like Tecoma stans (Yellow Bells), the safety-netted, blue-and-green plaything is the unfortunate view from my back porch. A trio of colorful birdhouses on 5-foot posts ...
Guest blogging at Garden Rant
March 01, 2007Check out my guest post over at Garden Rant. I’m ranting about mixing cacti and agaves into the garden: “Just Deserts? No way! Cacti are for every garden.” ...
Every day is Bloom Day
March 01, 2007 Mexican plum branches and blue sky With temperatures in the 80s the last couple of days, the garden is practically unfolding before my eyes. If I hadn’t just pruned all my perennials back to the ground, I suspect some of them would be blooming on last year’s ...
Life and death among the flowers
February 28, 2007 Spider feeding on moth When I walked through the garden this morning, I could smell the faint, spicy scent of the Mexican plum blossoms. Sparrows and wrens sang in the trees, and one sparrow anxiously kept an eye on me as I neared the birdhouse in which ...
Sproing! Spring is here
February 27, 2007 The Mexican plum is blossoming After a high of 87 degrees yesterday (no, I can’t quite believe it either), the garden is rubbing its sleepy eyes and throwing back the covers. The cedar elm is unfurling a few chartreuse leaves. The spiderwort is lush in the elm’s ...
Daffodils, harbingers of spring
February 26, 2007 Fewer this year than last, only three ‘Avalanche’ daffodils have pushed up. Also known as ‘Seven Sisters,’ they are reputed to naturalize in central Texas, but perhaps the extended drought has hurt mine. At any rate, the ones that returned are certainly lovely—a welcome harbinger of spring ...
Blue Hole off season
February 25, 2007 Driving in the Wimberley area today, we stopped at John Knox Ranch and strolled down to its spring-fed creek, which, like Barton Springs Pool in Austin, remains a chilly 68 degrees year-round. Blue Hole is what they call the swimming hole at the ranch (not the same ...
Austin bloggers meet Amy Stewart—and go public
February 24, 2007 Me, M. Sinclair Stevens of Zanthan Gardens, visiting author Amy Stewart, Annie of The Transplantable Rose, and Julie Ardery of Human Flower Project. Annie and I have never posted photos of ourselves before, preferring to let our words and garden photos represent us, but today we decided ...
Fun new plants
February 24, 2007 Sedum mexicana ‘Angelina’ With temperatures a little cooler yesterday—in the mid-70s—I took advantage of the balmy weather to plant a few beauties I found at Natural Gardener. Above is an orange-and-chartreuse sedum I’m adding to my new pomegranate bed in the front garden. Next to the sedum ...
Hyacinth season
February 23, 2007 The ground-hugging spikes of the grape hyacinths have appeared. The daffodils won’t be far behind, though I don’t seem to have as many coming up this year. Perhaps the drought has taken its toll on them. A wider shot Tonight at 7 pm is Amy Stewart’s reading ...
Austin garden featured in Great Gardens magazine
February 22, 2007 Yesterday I opened Great Gardens (Summer 2007), a softcover “picture book” published by Fine Gardening magazine, and stumbled upon a photo essay about James David’s Austin garden. This gorgeous garden was open to the public last October during the Austin Open Days tour, sponsored by the Garden ...
