2nd garden–2016

September 28, 2016 It’s not even Halloween month yet, and we’ve had a few spooky garden visitors…or should I say, spooky residents? Exhibit A: a coral snake in the swimming pool. I heard my husband’s startled reaction as he reached into the skimmer yesterday afternoon and found himself hand-to-face with ...

September 27, 2016 Finally! An honest-to-goodness cool front has pushed the awful heat out, and we’re enjoying some rain and 70-something temperatures here in Austin. In response, the oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida), which were tentatively pushing up last week, have burst joyously into bloom. I like their rich red trumpets ...

September 25, 2016 I like to show in-process pictures — not that garden making is ever about finishing a space — so here’s an update on a little-talked-about part of my garden: the front side-garden path, which leads from the circular driveway (out of view, upper right) to the gated ...

September 23, 2016 Despite the heat (which may be coming to an end this weekend — yay!), I’ve been working in the garden nearly every day this week, doing the usual end-of-summer tidying plus cleaning up Moby’s old bed and potting up all his bulbils. It’s given me plenty of ...

September 22, 2016 My whale’s tongue agave, Moby, came down last week. This week I’ve been sorting and planting bulbils (baby agave clones) from the bloom stalk. I’ve never had an agave bloom before, much less harvested its bulbils, so I looked online for advice and found Len Geiger’s helpful ...

September 19, 2016 So much for calling the end of summer. It’s been as hot as Georgia asphalt for the past week, and I’ve been out in it every day, getting the garden in shape for fall. At least it’s given me a chance to appreciate the spider lilies (Lycoris ...

September 16, 2016 It was time. Moby, my 11-year-old whale’s tongue agave (Agave ovatifolia), valiantly hung on for months after flowering, eventually making bulbils at the top of the bloom stalk. I’d been anticipating the leaf collapse that has occurred with every other agave I’ve ever seen in bloom, and ...

September 10, 2016 The majority, I think, are waiting for that first fall rain. But two oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) are trumpeting red in my garden, including this stray in the sedge lawn out front. I transplanted the bulbs from the front to the back last year, after the deer ...

September 08, 2016 I’m calling it. We’re over the hump of Death Star Summer and sliding into mellow fall. I know, it’s not exactly mellow out there yet, but I can feel it coming. Can’t you? The beautyberries do. In the lower garden, black beautyberry (Callicarpa acuminata) is laden with ...

September 05, 2016 https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Agave-ovatifolia-aka-Moby-Flowering-April-to-September-2016.mp4 Want to watch my super-professional video of Moby flowering? Of course you do! And here it is, only 28 seconds long. My beloved whale’s tongue agave (Agave ovatifolia) bloomed this year, as regular readers know. I long ago dubbed it Moby, and I’ve watched it grow ...

September 01, 2016 Although I was gone for half of it, which no doubt helped, August was one of the most pleasant Augusts I’ve experienced since moving to Austin 22 years ago. It just hasn’t been all that hot (in the low to mid-90s F, and even some days in ...

August 16, 2016 Surely August will be our last worst month here in central Texas. It can’t possibly remain blisteringly hot and humid through September, can it? Yes, it can, and it probably will, but that’s why I love agaves, yuccas, prickly pear, and other tough plants. They breeze through ...

August 08, 2016 As the Death Star sizzles for weeks on end — 100 degrees F and no rain in sight — it might seem as if all the garden can do is endure. But no! Plants that put on their best show in the heat of summer, even a ...

July 16, 2016 Mid-summer is all about foliage in my garden. The spring flowers are long gone, but evergreen plants like ‘Winter Gem’ boxwood, ‘Color Guard’ yucca, bamboo muhly grass, and squid agave look good even when the Death Star’s on full blast. The stock-tank pond helps the garden feel ...

June 21, 2016 There’s a baby boom happening in our northwest Austin neighborhood. Yep, it’s fawn season. This one’s mom has been leaving him in the front garden, in a raised bed along the driveway, tucked into soft Berkeley sedge or silvery woolly stemodia, while she goes off to forage ...

June 16, 2016 Even plants we grow primarily for the beauty of their leaves and their form will flower. On this Foliage Follow-Up, I’m sharing two bold-foliage plants that are adding a jolt of drama with surprising bloom stalks. One is dwarf Texas palmetto (Sabal minor), a native Texas plant ...