Sleepy screech owl
May 09, 2013 Over dinner on the deck last night, we watched Mama Screech Owl sitting in the door of her owl box, looking for all the world as if she needed another nap before dark. We think she has chicks in there, as she spends much of her time ...
Happy about these garden blues
May 07, 2013 I’m singing the blues with majestic sage (Salvia guaranitica)… …with a blue bottle tree, purple skullcap (Scutellaria wrightii), and ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (Agave ovatifolia)… …with Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis)… …and with more purple skullcap and bluebonnets, plus velvety mullein. Another view of the purple skullcap and mullein, ...
Gorgeous succulent bowl
May 01, 2013 Wow, check out this stunning succulent bowl! It was a gift from my friend Diana of Sharing Nature’s Garden, put together by Vivero Growers Nursery, and I LOVE it! The colorful aeonium (please let it live through our hot, humid summers!), the teeny-tiny yellow sedum (?), the ...
Honeybees spelunk in aloe flowers
April 30, 2013 The life of a garden is sometimes better revealed in close-up views. Take these honeybees, for example. They love the candelabra-like flowers of Aloe maculata, formerly A. saponaria. When the tubular blossoms open, bees converge to spelunk the depths. Completely hidden inside the tubes, the bees disappear ...
Plant This: Spuria iris bloom at last
April 28, 2013 About 4 years after acquiring them, my spuria iris are blooming at last. Passalongs from Linda Lehmusvirta of Central Texas Gardener, who told me she received her divisions from author/designer Scott Ogden, these tall (about 3 feet), beardless irises would send up their slender leaves each winter, ...
Screech owl in the April garden
April 26, 2013 Someone’s been watching me as I amble through the garden in the morning and evening. Whooo? I didn’t see him when I was dazzled by the variegated agaves and yuccas in the raised bed along the back of the house. I didn’t see him when I stopped ...
Leafy spring Foliage Follow-Up
April 16, 2013 In the wake of the bombing in Boston yesterday, putting together a Foliage Follow-Up post seemed awfully trivial, and I didn’t have the heart for it last night, even though I’d already taken my photos that morning. As the wife of a former marathoner, I’ve stood at ...
Lawn Gone! going into 2nd printing, plus a sneak peek of new alt lawn
April 12, 2013 Holy smokin’ lawn alternatives! My publisher just told me that Lawn Gone! has gone into its 2nd printing, just 2 months after publication! Huge thanks to everyone who’s purchased a copy, carried it in your store, or given Lawn Gone! a shout-out or positive review. Oh, and ...
Spring garden stroll
April 09, 2013 After the big rain of last week (3.75 inches recorded in my garden), accompanied by an instant freshening and greening up outdoors, I feel it’s time for a garden stroll. The annual garden-burying live oak leaf drop is over, but you’ll have to ignore remnant leaves and ...
Screech owl returns
March 30, 2013 We’re now half-convinced that the squirrel and the screech owl are cohabitating in the owl box. Either that or they’re still time-sharing the critter condo. We continue to spot the squirrel peeking out of the box on occasion, and then the next day the owl’s there. It’s ...
How to spring clean your stock tank container pond
March 26, 2013 A few years ago I wrote a post explaining how to make a container pond in a stock tank, and many readers have since written to tell me they’ve made their own ponds by following my instructions. I also get a lot of questions about how to ...
Picture perfect abutilon packed with pendant pink petals
March 12, 2013 Was it the mild winter? The evenly cool spring so far, combined with plenty of sun? Finally getting its roots settled? Whatever the cause, the pink abutilon (no ID; purchased from Barton Springs Nursery) in the back garden is absolutely loaded with veined, bell-like flowers right now ...
Soaking up the sunshine on the deck
March 11, 2013 Y’all. We’re getting the weather we long for all summer in Austin. Cool, sunny days with a bright blue sky floating overhead and a soft breeze carrying the grape-soda fragrance of Texas mountain laurel. If you’re in the Austin area, I hope you’re dashing outdoors every single ...
Gopher plants at peak bloom
March 10, 2013 As the Texas mountain laurels fade and the redbuds glow rosily at their peak bloom, the gopher plants (Euphorbia rigida) are doing their best to outshine everything else in my garden with their screaming yellow flowers. They outshine even the ‘Color Guard’ yuccas. Pulsing color held aloft ...
Steel wall planters are succulicious!
March 08, 2013 Ooh, I am so excited to show you my two steel wall planters that I commissioned last fall from talented metalsmith and Austin blogger Bob Pool at Gardening at Draco. It’s taken me all this time to hang them and plant them, but that was just as ...
What’s with that big pile of dirt? and other garden happenings
March 01, 2013 I am having such a good time in the garden right now. And by right now I mean the past few weeks. My annual Valentine’s Day cut-back of the garden spruced things up and revealed the structure of the garden again, just before spring revs up lush ...
