Signs of fall

Leaves are starting to drop, although temperatures are still in the 80s during the day (and this week the low temps are still in the 70s!). We finally got our first bout of fall rain, thank God. It's been a long, dry stretch, and while I was trying to water pretty regularly, it seemed like it didn't really make an impact. The clay that we have around here seems to become an impermeable membrane.

Here was the view of the oncoming rain a couple of days ago from the Mueller parking lot. That was the last little bit of sun...

Trees are losing their leaves. I'm not great at identifying trees, but I think the distinctive seeds are characteristic of the American sycamore. I love the beautiful bark of sycamore trees. They are elegant, aging ladies. 

Here's our pecan tree in the front yard:

I went to work and came home, and half the leaves were in my driveway. I hadn't even noticed the color changing much.

And my favorite sign of fall - the blooming fall aster, full of bees. I wish this plant bloomed longer and earlier because it brings such a lovely jolt of color and interest to the garden.

Sunday morning - Battling the hard, dry clay

I'm slowly putting all my plants in the ground that I got from the Wildflower Center last week. Already I'm mourning the loss of a black dalea - I placed it in a pot, and some animal (I'm guessing raccoon?) dug it up. I didn't realize it until yesterday, and I think it's too late to save it.

I planted the yellow bells (esperanza) and the big muhly in the front garden yesterday. I've put down some cardboard and mulch over the grass - I'm hoping to expand the bed in the front yard and remove grass while I'm at it.

Let's see... today I planted some indian grass in the back yard, a barbados cherry to help screen the air conditioning unit, the Mexican buckeye and one of the coral berries. Digging holes for the buckeye and coral berries was painful - the earth is so dry, the clumps of clay in our soil are hard as rocks. The forecast is calling for 100% chance of rain later in the week, and I can't even begin to express how excited I am. And nighttime temperatures are finally falling below 60.

I'll still need to plant the second coral berry and the kidneywood tree - but I think I'll have to save that for next weekend. Hopefully once we get some rain it'll be easier.

Here are some random pictures of my garden. The row of wax myrtles in my backyard that I pray someday will screen our view of the back of a grocery store. Still not sure I love the placement of the trees, but I guess I'm committed now:

Anacua, or sandpaper tree - this might be my single favorite tree in the whole garden because of its cool trunk and leaves that are rough as sandpaper. Also, I'm counting on this one to improve our backyard view as well because it is semi-evergreen. 

 I saw a black swallowtail in my flame acanthus as I returned from shopping this afternoon, but it flew away before I was able to get a shot. Happily, I spied one monarch over in the mistflower, which was soon joined by a friend.

The monarchs love my mistflower.

          

Inside Austin Gardens Tour

I saw four gardens on the Inside Austin Gardens tour yesterday. Here are a few highlights:

Monarchs in the Crestview neighborhood, dining on orange cosmos.

Pam Penick's backyard (soooooo jealous). Her pond.

Her whale tongue agave.

Beautiful mix of yucca, sotol, grasses and some flower plants in west Austin.

Passionflower still on the vine. I'm thinking about getting some kind of a trellis over my walkway and growing a passionflower vine, or maybe around the entrance to backyard.

View from the last stop overlooking the river. The pool had a waterfall. Some people have it all.  

I've never seen this plant before - cobweb spiderwort - but I love its thick, fuzzy leaves. Apparently comes from Northern Mexico and doesn't need a lot of water. I wonder where I might find more of this?

Esperanza with orange flowers, instead of the usual yellow. Pairs beautifully with fall aster. This picture gave me some inspiration for my yard. I just planted an esperanza that I bought from the Wildflower center - perhaps I'll dig up some fall aster from other spots in my yard to place below the esperanza. They both bloom in the fall, so it'll be the perfect pairing.  

Working in the garden

It's 93 degrees out and sunny today, although the Weather Channel is saying that winter weather will be visiting the Northeast this week. I knew Texas would be warm, but I never imagined summer would bleed into fall as much as it does here.
I wanted to go ahead and start planting some of my plants today. I'll have to continue into next weekend, though, because I have way more plants than I should have bought. In fact, I only managed to put two plants in the ground today - my two gray globe mallows. I almost feel like it's still too hot to plant, but I know cooler weather is around the corner - somewhere. I think I might have gotten a bit of a sunburn.

baby gray globe mallow in front of a flame acanthus

Grady helps me out in the yard

I did manage to repot some of my indoor plants and put a new mint plant in a pot. I really want to straighten out the underdeveloped bed in the front yard - it's really just a mishmash of random plants, and I'd like to get in there and get some kind of order and cohesion going. I find it hard to figure out how to lay out that side of the garden. I xeriscaped the side of the yard between the driveway and sidewalk, but the other side of the yard is still grass with a few plantings surrounded by wood mulch. I'm wondering if I should use decomposed granite on the other side as well, to balance things out. 

I love that red oak - I planted it about a year and a half ago (?) and I received it for free through the Neighborwoods program with Tree Folks. One day they stuck some flags in my yard and told me I could get a free tree and plant it where the flags were. What a brilliant idea! I noticed a lot of new trees being planted in my neighborhood shortly thereafter. Too bad my neighbors didn't opt for a tree after their old one was cut down - we could use the shade since they are to the west of us. Far as I can tell, though, they have no plans to plant any other trees over there, so I have to do my part in my garden. 

Well, I have quite the list to get to next week - plant indian grass, barbados cherry, Mexican buckeye, two coral berries, big muhly, yellow bells (I still don't know where I'm gonna put that one). I have a kidneywood tree as well, but I think I might wait another couple of weeks before putting it in the ground. 

Visit to the Wildflower Center, continued

A few fun pics from my visit to the Wildflower Center yesterday. 

Passionflower fruit looks like a jewel encased in a protective :

I like the arrangement of this border with the gulf muhly, big muhly, and salvia.

Here's a close up of Osage orange bark. My friend told me she's seen these used to create live fences. The volunteer guide walked up to us as we were admiring the tree and he told us Native Americans often used the wood for bows.

Visit to the Wildflower Center

Today was the bi-annual sale at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which is one of the highlights of the fall and spring for me.
As usual, my eyes were bigger than my wallet, and I brought back quite a few more plants for my garden.
In the back corner I'm planning a woodland garden. I had planted an anacua and rough leaf dogwood last year, and I have a very successful grouping of turk's cap. While the trees are still small, I'm trying to start plantings with the future in mind.
Today I got a Mexican Buckeye for that section. It usually grows 8-12 feet, so should be a good fit for the tight spot back there. Here's an example of the tree in bloom.

As a ground cover/low shrub I got a couple of coralberrys. I've been looking for them for a while. I love the distinctive foliage. It prefers part shade and apparently spreads with runners. The plant grows about 3 ft tall by 3 ft wide. 

I purchased some globemallows, and I love the orange color of the flowers and the silvery soft foliage. I'm not yet sure where to plant them. It's very drought resistant, likes full sun, and only grows 1-3 feet. I feel like they'd do best in the front yard where I get full sun, but knowing what to pair it with a dilemma for me.  

Other plants I picked up include indian grass, kidneywood, dwarf barbados cherry, big muhly, yellow bells.... and to think I started out just wanting to get the Mexican buckeye. Oops.