Container plants

Container Plants on my Porch 

I managed to kill all my tropical container plants over the winter during our weeklong deep freeze in Austin. I wanted to replenish my supply, and add some greenery to my screened in porch. I promise to take better care of this batch of plants. 

In the front, birds nest fern, followed by monstera in the middle, and alocasia silver dragon in the back. 

I'm probably taking a risk with these plants. Upon further research, I'm finding that the silver dragon requires a lot of humidity, an environment like that of its native rainforest. This porch is north facing, with very little direct sunlight, mostly dappled light through the pecan trees in the backyard. But the humidity will be hard to come by in a few short weeks. March is a weird month in Texas; it lulls you into thinking you can have a rich, green, damp garden. I always have high hopes in March, only to have them dashed by late June. To monitor this plant for problems, I will keep an eye out for yellowing leaves (signaling root rot) and curling leaves (signaling too little moisture). I think I will place that pot on a tray with water, to help with ambient humidity. And I'll probably have to bring it inside during the hottest summer months, as well as the winter, naturally. 

Last year, I had good luck with a white bird of paradise. I'm aiming to get another one this year. I killed it in the freeze - it stayed out overnight in 20 degree temps and it was done for. I also killed my night-blooming cereus, which had been doing well. I was pretty upset with myself. 

I also have a coleus and a prayer plant. I was looking for plants that would do well in shady conditions. But I will have to take care about watering this year. 

                 

 

  

Spring Refresh

Updating the garden 

Spring weather means a run to the garden center. I spent an enjoyable morning at The Natural Gardener's, which is probably the best nursery in Austin, both in terms of wide selection and price. I visited with some friends and their children, and the nursery is fun for kids as well. They have goats and chickens, a labyrinth, and lots of display gardens.  

Sun-loving plants 

• White Yarrow - 2-3' tall, spread somewhat aggressively, good for cottage gardens. part shade or sun 
• Tropical Salvia - 2-4' tall, sun, part shade; 
• Pink Skullcap - Low water use, in fact recommended for a rock garden. Good for a border, as it only gets about 10" tall, spreads 12-18" wide. I might put this in my new garden bed that has some black dalea in it. It gets full sun, and needs a good border.

Shade: 

• Texas Betony - 3 ft tall, red flower, part shade, moist soil
• Gulf Penstemon - 18" tall, purple flower, sun or part shade, moist soil, clay. Will reseed. Good companion with yellow columbine. 
• A few more pigeonberry - working on a shady part of the front yard under a newly planted mountain laurel. 
• Coleus for planting in some of my pots. 

Herbs: 

I needed to fill in some more herbs. Also, I like to give over a few herbs to swallowtail caterpillars. I got a few basil plants, but I couldn't find dill or chives. 

Trees: 

I have been wanting to plant another tree in the backyard to screen my view of the alley with dumpsters directly behind my house. Also, after last summer I just want more shade. They had Mexican plums, which have beautiful fragrant white flowers in the spring. 20-25' tall. 

I have a Mexican buckeye which produces a lot of seeds and seedlings. I am attempting to transplant a few of the seedlings to a few other spots that can use more trees. I think they're fast growing once they get established. But, also, they'll probably require a lot of maintenance given how prolifically they reseed. They are multitrunked as well, and in some spots I'll probably need to do some pruning to keep them manageable, near the house. 

Can't wait to get these all in the ground! 

Jumping back in...

 I haven't posted in a loonnnnggggg time. 

Life has rolled along. Not tranquilly, exactly, but in a blur, like the landscape passing by through a train window. Moments of joy, boredom, anxiety, contentedness, sadness, all rolling past so quickly that I haven't really registered much of it. I suppose I'll have to reckon with it at some point. 

This is why I'm thankful for my garden. It's the work that makes me slow down, be present, meditate on the slow progress of a young tree putting out a new branch with a few small leaves, or the sudden burst of weeds after a thorough rainfall. 

So. 

I planted a lot of new things in October, once the rains returned after the brutal heat and and drought of the summer. It was a relief to see the rebirth of life in the garden as the fall asters and gregg's mistflower and the white mistflower all bloomed and attracted buzzy pollinators. I did not notice as many butterflies this year, however. A handful of monarchs, and almost no queens. 

That's it. What new story is nature weaving for us, amidst climate change and human turmoil? 

Sunset walk

One thing I have come to appreciate in Texas is the dedication to preserving native plants, especially the wildflowers that make the prairie so distinctive and beautiful.
The Mueller development (just south of my neighborhood) used to be the Austin Airport. When it moved further south some 20 years ago, the land sat vacant for a while, but was purchased with the goal of creating an ambitious housing development with mixed use. I feel so lucky to have purchased a home a  mile away, in easy biking distance (and occasionally a long walk) to restaurants, movie theaters, swimming pools, and beautiful parks. There are a series of water retention ponds on the southern end of the development that have been planted with native wildflowers and trees, and it's practically a little nature preserve with all the wonderful birds, insects, and wildlife attracted to the little area.

Yard of the Month!

I won Yard of the Month for my neighborhood. To prepare for the honor, I cleaned up the front a bit, primarily focusing on the edging of the garden beds to create nicer, neater lines. I'm going to work on edging the backyard flower beds next. I planted gulf muhly grass in the mulched areas between the agave and the blue mistflower bushes. It's taken a while for them to get comfy in the spot, but I'm hoping in a year or so they will fully root and flourish there. I've tried gulf muhly a couple of different places, but I've struggled with them for some reason - maybe not enough drainage, or water, or sun. We'll see which ones end up doing the best.
The Gregg's mistflower is really starting to fill in nicely around the pecan tree. Another season or so and I bet the whole ring will be filled in. I can't wait for all the monarchs and queens to visit in the fall.

Rainwater Management

I'm placing these videos here so I can go back and reference them. We had quite a few torrential downpours this spring - wonderful for the plants, but as I watched the torrents sweep across my yard, I wondered whether I can do something to manage the rain flow a little better. Here are images from the front yard.
The water sweeps down the slope from my neighbors' property, floods the little gravel path I created and creates a puddle on our walkway. I'm thinking I could dig out the garden on the left side of the picture, build a small swale to encourage water to drain off the sidewalk. This is one summer project I plan to attempt. 

In the backyard, this is the scene. The gutters are not very effective (they might need to be cleaned out as well). But they just haven't seemed to work well since they were installed. So, right next the house we get a giant puddle. Again, I'm thinking I could dig out a swale to carry water away from the house, and down toward the side garden by the fence.  

New Garden

Here are some more photos of the side of the backyard. There used to be several indifferent seeming irises and daffodils back here. I dug up several, and meant to replant them, but forgot. I don't know if there's too much shade, but many of them didn't bloom. So I dug them up, and it's probably too late to replant them. I hear bulbs can't stay out of the ground for too long. 

Anyway, I put cardboard and mulch down to facilitate creating a new garden scenario back here. It's not super well-planned. It's quite shady, with some late afternoon sun. I placed some yellow Indian grass; we'll see how that does. I transplanted some coral berry from the other side of the back yard (see photo below). That stuff is a great groundcover for a shady spot, and it's spread all over my woodland, so I had to dig a lot up. I tried replanting over here, but it's not looking super perky, even after the 4 days straight of rain. 

will it survive?

I also transplanted turk's cap, which grows like gangbusters, so it'll probably take over within the next two years. I also transplanted a tropical sage, which was super easy to transplant, and two yellow columbines, only one of which survived. The rain def helped there.

I bought a Mexican honeysuckle and a beauty berry. I guess I'm aiming for a garden grounded with several large shrubs, and salvia, coral berry and twist leaf yucca for ground cover. It'll probably come out fairly eclectic, but I guess that's okay. That's more or less what I did in the front yard, and I'm enjoying that a lot.