1st garden–2006

August 02, 2006 Springtime view of my garden from the street My rambunctious, lawn-free, front cottage garden sticks out like a green thumb (I just hope my neighbors don’t privately think “sore thumb”) on my street of older homes, most of which have small St. Augustine lawns, a row of ...

August 01, 2006 First fruit on the Mexican plum The summer sun circles overhead. Temperatures rise to that evocative number with two circles: 100 degrees. In the garden this morning, more circles abound. The sapling Mexican plum, which this year offers a little shade to the back patio, has produced ...

July 25, 2006 Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ As I write this I hear frogs singing loudly out back. My neighbor’s backyard stream attracts tiny, charcoal-colored frogs that sing as loudly as cicadas . . . or an alarm clock. I’m amazed that such small creatures can make that big sound. They don’t ...

July 20, 2006 ‘Colorado’ water lily The high temperature has been over 100 degrees every day for several days. No rain, and none in the forecast. Going swimming is the only way to stay cool. The water plants agree. I took these photos of water lilies at my child’s school ...

July 18, 2006 The seed clusters on the inland sea oats hang like fish on a line, their Granny Smith green now mixed with a toasty brown. I adore inland sea oats in all seasons. Their delicate, bamboo-like foliage reminds me of Japanese paintings, and their flat, hanging seeds are ...

July 16, 2006 Heat lovers A heat wave is suffocating not only central Texas (par for the course this time of year) but also parts of the country that don’t usually contend with triple-digit heat: Minnesota, Chicago, New Jersey. Ouch, because I know a lot of homes in the north ...

July 14, 2006 ‘Helvola’ water lily It has been so hot for the past week—with more upper 90s to come—that it seems the garden will either crisp or spontaneously combust. This water lily looks as if it has chosen the latter, as seen with sunlight shining through it. A monarch ...

July 10, 2006 Zen-like serenity at Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park I love to travel, but I’m always ready to come home after a week away. Before I lug my suitcase into the house, I’m drawn into my garden to see what I missed and what needs trimming or ...

June 29, 2006 Flame acanthus It’s back to the hot and muggy. The mosquitoes are happy and active. Despite the heat, I bundled up in a zipped jacket over jeans to photograph the garden this evening. I think it worked. The only exposed skin was on my face and my ...

June 29, 2006 Flame acanthus It’s back to the hot and muggy. The mosquitoes are happy and active. Despite the heat, I bundled up in a zipped jacket over jeans to photograph the garden this evening. I think it worked. The only exposed skin was on my face and my ...

June 28, 2006 Angel and deer sculpture While Laguna Gloria’s formal gardens enjoy the view of Lake Austin and get all the glory with weddings and galas that are held there, the informal garden has its own attractions. Amid the junipers and live oaks, you can find peacocks from nearby ...

June 27, 2006 Water lily at Laguna Gloria Today I visited the grounds of Laguna Gloria. Once the home of Clara Driscoll, “Savior of the Alamo” (she raised money in 1903 to keep the Alamo from being destroyed to make way for a hotel), nowadays Laguna Gloria is home to ...

June 26, 2006 Aviary at Barton Springs Nursery, Austin M. Sinclair Stevens over at Zanthan Gardens was just asking what everyone’s favorite nursery hangouts are. Like Stevens, I go to Barton Springs Nursery most often, even though a perfectly decent nursery, the newly updated Shoal Creek Nursery, is literally right ...

June 25, 2006On June 11, I posted here about the gradual decline of Austin’s beautiful Zilker Botanical Gardens and its Hartman Prehistoric Garden . (Please take a look if you didn’t read it already.) Craig Nazor, Zilker Gardens volunteer extraordinare, was quoted in a Statesman article about the problem, and ...

June 25, 2006 This silly-looking squirrel with a short, brushy tail has something in her mouth—a nut from last fall, maybe? Treasure! After posing for my camera, she dashed down the tree and across the street. My real quarry was not the squirrel but a resident hummingbird. I spotted him ...

June 24, 2006 Unripe vitex berries. The vitex tree is still flowering a little, but now it’s mostly just green with the addition of these greenish-yellow berries. According to Mountain Valley Growers, vitex is “originally from the Mediterranean and western Asia. Where winters are marginal for the plant’s survival (Zone ...