Plant This: Garlic chives
August 20, 2012 As the days grow shorter in late August and early September, garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) burst into bloom, with clusters of starry, white flowers held aloft on long stems, like 4th of July sparklers. They’ll bloom for weeks, giving you at least a month of beauty—more if ...
August garden planning & fall anticipation
August 19, 2012 August is a waiting game for central Texas gardeners—waiting for fall rains to arrive, waiting for the muggy blanket of heat to lift and a cool breeze to blow in from the north, waiting for nurseries to fill up with their fall shipments of new plants, waiting ...
Beekeeper to the rescue, saving the bees!
August 17, 2012 On Monday I posted about the swarm of honeybees that had moved into our screech owl box over the weekend. Yesterday evening beekeeper (and high school teacher) Jim Hogg of Daddy’s Bees came over and carefully removed them for us. He took them home, transferred them to ...
Chirpy succulent dish for Foliage Follow-Up
August 16, 2012 What’s sweeter than a bluebird of happiness for Foliage Follow-Up? Join me in posting about your lovely leaves of August for Foliage Follow-Up, a way to remind ourselves of the importance of foliage in the garden. Leave your link to your Foliage Follow-Up post in a comment ...
Bee swarm
August 13, 2012 I came home from a weekend with family to find a honeybee swarm in our owl box. Bee activity around the stock-tank pond is higher than ever too, thanks to the newcomers. While it’s sort of fascinating to see them balled up in the doorway, and while ...
Ponds and patios are made for lazy summer days
August 09, 2012 OK, so my days haven’t been too lazy. I have been working on my book, after all. But as summer winds down (by the school calendar, not by any actual cooling from the 100sF), I’ve given myself the gift of some unscheduled leisure time so that I ...
Hot potted plants for hot summer days
August 07, 2012 During the lazy days of summer, the last thing I feel like doing is standing for an hour with the hose in my hand while the Death Star beats down on me or mosquitoes suck me dry. So I skip right over all those magazine stories about ...
Freshening up potted succulents in mid-summer
July 31, 2012 Do you ever buy plants and then leave them sitting in their plastic pots on the back steps for months? That’s what I did with a handful of small succulents, which I purchased in the spring to use in freshening up the cinderblock wall planter (click for ...
In the Night Garden, scented by datura
July 26, 2012 Ruffled, white trumpets scenting the evening air. Ah, datura. Look and smell, but don’t taste. All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited ...
New front walk and porch gable updates our house
June 28, 2012 After 3-1/2 years of dreaming and planning and 3 months of sporadic construction, the front of my house has a fresh, more contemporary look thanks to a small but detailed remodeling project—adding a gable roof to the front porch—and new landscaping. I’m delighted with the new look, ...
Summer color in the hot garden
June 19, 2012 Cheery color for you on this almost-summer Tuesday! This is purple skullcap (Scutellaria wrightii), a low-growing native suitable for a sunny rock garden. ‘Color Guard’ yucca catches the sun’s rays behind it. Another long-blooming Texas native, hymenoxys, or four-nerve daisy (Tetraneuris scaposa), blooms its yellow head off ...
Green heron fishing in my pond
June 17, 2012 An early-morning thief has been visiting my stock-tank pond for the past couple of days—this green heron. Glancing out at the pond around 8 am two days ago, I spotted this fellow stalking my fish from the edge of the tank. He walked stealthily all the way ...
Agaves and yuccas: A summery Foliage Follow-Up
June 16, 2012 As summer’s Death Star begins to bear down on central Texas, and as our blessed spring rainfall dries up, the plants that continue to look good no matter what are the baddest of the bad boys: the spiny-tipped agaves and yuccas. No really, don’t be afraid of ...
Texas mud baby – cutest plant name ever?
June 14, 2012 This spring Vicki at Playin’ Outside and I exchanged divisions of pond plants, and I was given an unprepossessing clump of leaves in a pot, which Vicki informed me was a native bog plant called Texas mud baby (Echinodorus cordifolius). Texas mud baby?! How could I resist? ...
Southwestern plants, French style & tropical verve in the garden of Curt Arnette
June 12, 2012 Landscape architect Curt Arnette, of Sitio Design, is one of the best and yet most modest garden makers you’ll meet in Austin. Back when I was a newbie gardener, breaking ground at our first house in Austin, he and his wife Melisa were our across-the-street neighbors. What ...
Can I, can I get a Tropicanna canna?
June 11, 2012 I’ve been immune to the charms of canna for many years, finding them too tropical in looks and too water-loving for my gardening taste and habits. So I was caught off guard by my longing for a bright orange ‘Tropicanna’ canna after I spotted one paired with ...
