Deer

June 07, 2011 Spotted, knobby kneed fawns are taking their first wobbly walks through the neighborhood, even in broad daylight under a strong, noonday sun. This doe and fawn strolled through my neighbor’s yard a few days ago, enjoying the cool green of the grass, I imagine. The fawn stopped ...

June 01, 2011 The heartleaf skullcap (Scutellaria ovata) is going to seed against a backdrop of chartreuse bamboo muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa) and burgundy cordyline (Cordyline australis ‘Red Star’). Tough plants, every one. Heartleaf skullcap is the spring-blooming native. Cordyline is a cold-tender but dry-shade-tolerant subtropical that I replant every year ...

May 12, 2011 Sue Nazar’s garden, which you can see Saturday on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour, is a lush, expansive oasis tucked in the hills of west Austin. I got a sneak peek on Tuesday, courtesy of the Travis County Master Gardeners, and I’m sharing it with you. Over ...

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 ...

December 15, 2010 Argh! A small herd of deer moved through the front garden this morning, as they do nearly every day, and I caught this buck in the act of shredding one of my softleaf yuccas with his antlers. I’d wondered why this yucca seemed a little beaten up ...

July 30, 2010 It shows an incredible amount of restraint that I have not planted my entire garden with nothing but ‘Color Guard’ yucca (Y. filamentosa ‘Color Guard’). That color! The starburst form! Those curly, white filaments threading through the sword-shaped leaves! This deer-resistant, drought-tolerant “shrub” will grow in full ...

July 27, 2010 Image courtesy of morgueFile Do certain gardens remind you of high school, where everyone orbits around the popular girls—Rosa (KnockOut), Stella (D’Oro daylily), and Myrtle (crepe)—simultaneously admiring their peppy beauty and begrudging their general domination? I’m not talking about mean girls. After all, Rosa, Stella, and Myrtle ...

June 15, 2010 The new island bed out front, where deer make daily foraging rounds, is holding up well thanks to fuzzy and spiky leaves and strong-smelling foliage. While foliage is the backbone of that bed, flowering perennials are going strong too. It seems natural, then, to combine Bloom Day ...

June 15, 2010 The new island bed out front, where deer make daily foraging rounds, is holding up well thanks to fuzzy and spiky leaves and strong-smelling foliage. While foliage is the backbone of that bed, flowering perennials are going strong too. It seems natural, then, to combine Bloom Day ...

April 16, 2010 For April’s Foliage Follow-Up (a celebration of foliage on the day after Bloom Day), let’s see how the one-month-old garden in the deer-infested front yard is holding up. It’s mostly a foliage garden, after all. In case you’re wondering, by “deer-infested” I mean that a half-dozen to ...

March 28, 2010 A week ago I planted out my redesigned island bed in the front yard—my first personal garden in a deer zone, though I’ve designed such for others. ‘Color Guard’ yucca (Y. filamentosa ‘Color Guard’) guards the island with un-tasty leaves but yummy, yummy golden-yellow color. Everyone who ...

March 28, 2010 A week ago I planted out my redesigned island bed in the front yard—my first personal garden in a deer zone, though I’ve designed such for others. ‘Color Guard’ yucca (Y. filamentosa ‘Color Guard’) guards the island with un-tasty leaves but yummy, yummy golden-yellow color. Everyone who ...

March 07, 2010 A few years ago, I’d never come across gopher plant (Euphorbia rigida) in local nurseries. But now it’s everywhere. And with good reason. Euphorbia rigida‘s pretty blue-green foliage is topped in spring with chartreuse bracts and yellow flowers. After the hottest summer on record and one of ...

December 28, 2009 Bundled up in coats, scarves, and seldom-worn gloves, we spent several enjoyable hours at the acclaimed Fort Worth Zoo yesterday before driving home to Austin, following a post-Christmas trip to Dallas to visit my DH’s extended family. Among the many birds we saw at the zoo, these ...

June 13, 2009 Orange narrowleaf zinnia ( Zinnia angustifolia) loves the heat. Ah, summer. The Death Star is back. For the past week Austin has felt the heavy hand of summer pressing down, with sticky humidity and temps near 100 degrees (37.7 C). Summer also means thunderstorms, and on Thursday ...

June 13, 2009 Orange narrowleaf zinnia ( Zinnia angustifolia) loves the heat. Ah, summer. The Death Star is back. For the past week Austin has felt the heavy hand of summer pressing down, with sticky humidity and temps near 100 degrees (37.7 C). Summer also means thunderstorms, and on Thursday ...