Deer noshing on my dianella
June 26, 2020 Getting into my car last week, I was surprised to see a doe walking steadily toward me, ambling down the driveway like she owned the place. Did she have a fawn stashed nearby, I wondered? (I saw twin fawns in the garden soon after, so maybe.) I ...
New landscape lighting for back garden
June 24, 2020 Uplighting on an agave, path light near a yucca in the foreground, and existing string lights It only took 12 years, but we finally installed path lighting and uplighting in the backyard, and what a big difference it makes. We already had two sets of string lights ...
Agave ovatifolia switcheroo
June 22, 2020 Aw, how fast they grow up! Agaves, that is. And then they start nipping at your shins every time you walk past. …was only this big 3 years ago — the perfect size for this spot, but still with room to grow. Recently we added to our ...
Cobalt garden wall views
June 16, 2020 One thing about covid-times is I’m spending a lot more time in my own backyard. But yay for the social medium of blogging, so let’s take a look around together, shall we? I’m loving the cobalt wall more than ever thanks to the addition of the steel ...
Dusky blues in the garden
June 10, 2020 While photographing the owls and beating away mosquitoes a few evenings ago, I pointed my lens at the Circle Garden for the umpteenth time. This view makes me so happy! ‘Sterntaler’ coreopsis (foreground) is beginning to flag in the near-100-degree heat we’ve had all week. Who can ...
Summertime plant whacking
June 04, 2020 Whacking — it’s what I do in summer as plants grow bushy or tall or lean where they shouldn’t. I had to whack back the Verbena bonariensis in the Circle Garden so that I could walk, not sidle, along the path. The ‘Winter Gem’ boxwoods also got ...
Beebalm, skullcap, and more wild creatures
May 27, 2020 The early summer flowers are strutting their stuff, so come along for a virtual tour! Here’s dazzling ‘Peter’s Purple’ monarda (Monarda fistulosa ‘Peter’s Purple’) in the driveway bed. It was a breezy day. Looking toward the neighbors’ house and their fast-growing Yucca rostrata In the shady island bed ...
Fawning over this baby
May 22, 2020 A young visitor dropped by my garden yesterday. Actually I think she was here a couple of days ago, although I didn’t see her that day. I was moving around the side of the house and heard a startled rustling in the sedge and thought I might ...
Plant This: ‘Old Mexico’ prickly pear
May 17, 2020 Everyone needs at least one beautiful beast of a plant in their garden, a tough old boot intent on annexing adjacent real estate, but not so quickly that you can can’t beat it back. Texas tough. Meet ‘Old Mexico’ prickly pear (Opuntia gomei), also called wavy-leaf prickly ...
Early May, summer as it should be
May 08, 2020 Hesperaloe ‘Desert Dusk’ flower spike I’m always grateful when early May rolls around, even though it means summer’s sauna-like heat is right around the corner. Why? Because the 20 mature live oaks in my garden are finally done dropping daily heaps of leaves and pollen catkins. And ...
Verbena explosion
May 07, 2020 It turns out a 6-foot-tall stand of Verbena bonariensis is all you need to dispel traces of coronafunk. For years I’ve grown tall verbena in a halfhearted, one-plant-in-part-shade way. Not bad. But now — shazam! — a mass of it in the Circle Garden delights me whenever ...
Plant This: Coahuila lace cactus
May 01, 2020 Slow-growing Coahuila lace cactus (Echinocereus pectinatus var. coahuila) bloomed in one of my wall planters recently. Tight quarters and dry, gravelly soil don’t bother cacti and succulents (that’s a little ghost plant tucked in there with it), which makes them perfect for small containers. Speaking of slow-growing, here’s how ...
Wild kingdom in the backyard
April 28, 2020 Texas spiny lizards tend to be skittish, scuttling under the car or a potted plant when you walk by. But one very laid-back lizard has taken up residence on the shady upper patio in recent weeks. It calmly eyes me and holds its ground, even when I’m ...
Last hurrah of the poppies
April 27, 2020 My seed-grown ‘Lauren’s Grape’ poppies debuted a week ago, to my delight. In my first blog post about them, I hoped temperatures would remain mild to keep the flowers going. Instead Austin hit a record high of 98 F! Still, the poppies kept popping. I babied them, ...
Back garden walkabout
April 24, 2020 Y’all may get weary of seeing my garden each week while I hole up at home during the pandemic. While I’m missing all the gardens I’m usually able to visit and photograph — and share here at Digging — I am enjoying the time spent in my ...
Cactus flower jewel tones
April 20, 2020 A corona of a non-viral kind tops mammillaria cactus in bloom. It’s a crown of jewel-toned flowers! This particular specimen elicited chuckles from certain dirty-minded members of my family, when I cajoled them outside to see the cacti in bloom. All I see is a ’60s flower ...
