The Not So Big Garden

Dry Creek Bed

2012-01-27T10:56:00.000-08:00

This was last fall.

This was last December. I pulled up more grass, and just kept digging, so I have a depression at one end (the visual end of the creek) and the "creek" then going alongside our house. The creek bed's shape is being designed by our kids, as they discover where they like the water to go or not go.

It will be a slow process, but I'm liking the joy I find in this slowness.

Grass continuing to go

2011-10-14T18:13:00.000-07:00

Just a progressive account of the disappearance (deliberate) of our lawn. I decided to relocate the turf to the back of our garage, where we just had mulch. Even if it doesn't spring back, it'll be something less likely to get worn down by the dog, when she makes her turn arounds after catching balls.

This wavy pattern was abandoned as you'll see a few photos down for one that makes a full circle with the other side of limestone trim.

Just bags of cedar mulch from Lowe's and voila. The only thing I've found tricky with a mulch "lawn" is that you can't spot poop as easily. Now for the other side of our front lawn (actually that's almost done...but haven't got pics of that yet).

A happy goodbye to grass

2011-07-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

It's clear that around our part of north central Austin, others are getting the same idea this summer: get rid of the grass, and "furnish" the yard instead. I like the idea of furnishing our yard. Grass was the easy way for me of dealing with space on our property, but the water it requires is so hard to justify in a drought year, or any other year in Texas for that matter.

Without grass, you have to think about "furniture" like paths, plants, rocks, a dry creekbed, maybe? All fun things for kids. Natural playscaping. I love this idea. Of course grass is soft and easy to play on, yes. So we're keeping, for now, a patch in the back yard that will be just big enough for a slip and slide, etc.

We've asked our "old" landscaper to come back and help with the design of a dry creekbed that will wrap around the side of our house, visually beginning in the back. Another vision is rain capture - rain barrels under our gutters, the overflow of which will spill into the creek bed. For whenever rain does happen to fall here.

I started pulling up the grass today, and it was like taking up dry carpet. It came up so easily, I was surprised. Goodbye grass!

Fall Joys

2010-10-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the reasons I love our second Spring here in Austin. Especially one that began, at least, with a lot of rain.

Esperanza (hope) or Yellow Bells - at last!

The giant Muhlys have never looked more spectacular

American Beautyberry - mockingbirds love these berries, and you can make jam from them.

Mexican blue sage - velvety soft and plentiful

I just couldn't believe how these things erupted in purple once fall hit

Yeay! My Yellow Bells or Esperanza finally bloomed and bloomed and continued to grow taller...

The star attraction, clearly, for me!

Where's the yellow in this picture?

2010-09-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

Howdy, Garden bloggers,
Check out these yellow bells ... but wait, you say, where's the yellow? In fact, where are the bells? These are two plants that just love the space and sun, clearly. But seem to not want to bloom. I planted them last Spring, so I figured, surely by now. Maybe I'll call the Natural Gardener and see what they can tell me.

What blooms in over 100 degrees?

2010-08-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

Here's what: Pride of Barbados (by far the winner); catmint (in purple, tho not prolifically now; but our cat does love to roll in it);

sunflowers (we took most of them out of our median, but it was amazing how long these guys lasted);

morning glory (of course they curl up during the day);

society garlic (just keeps on going, unlike the rest of us who are all wilting),

and beds of yellow lantana, which get almost no water.

Here's what's not making it: our banana plant (actually, too sad to show pictured). Too much pm sun and I'm unwilling to pour water on it, which it begs for; I'm debating whether to just let it die, or move it somewhere else, but where?
So the quest continues: what to shade the west side of our screened in porch with? I'm thinking a crossvine, but I have to look for a simple grating, and be handy enough to install it next to a screen wall, that will need replacing now and then.

Let's Go Bananas

2010-06-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

I have been asking visitors: what type of plant would best screen our back porch from the afternoon heat? One common answer: try a banana plant or two. So I bought one at Barton Springs Nursery for $24.99 - a "red banana." Compared to the green, the leaves are, surprise, reddish, and a little more ornamental.

They helped me stuff it into our small sedan, with my daughter sitting in her car seat, happily hiding under one of its leaves all the way home.

The red or green won't produce fruit unfortunately (I was told) unless they can make it through several winters without dying down. But it's still a striking thing to have in the back - it's the first tropical I've actually put in the ground, so I feel I'm going a little against my original goal of having only native plants.

Keeping it well watered was a concern of mine, until I realized that it is very close to the dog's water bowl, as well as the hose. I love how I got our dog in mid-leap over our sprinkler, in the background of the first photo.

I first tried putting it in a galvanized tin tub, but decided it would be better off in the ground, and be better protected come winter.

I figure if I can get about 5 more, we'll have that whole porch nicely screened!

Still Life

2010-04-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

My still life photos are rare, especially now my life is faster than ever. This scene practically made itself, I did a double take as I walked past the dining room table. Roses from the side of the house, with purple verbena.

Clean Up Time

2010-04-20T19:56:00.000-07:00

At long last, our agave americana (so called, even tho it has red spines instead of black) got the pruning it needed. And what a pruning it was. It now looks like a giant pineapple. But hey: it's alive. That's all I care about.

The drought last year wasn't the only peril the succulents found themselves in. The other was an infestation of snails...to a nightmarish degree. Fertile Ground Landscaping who came yesterday did a terrific job putting diatomaceous earth (crushed shells) around replanted pups of our agave celsii and americana. The earth cuts the snails' flesh, so they stay out. Cayenne pepper also helps.

The team also planted some cat mint to replace ponyfoot that suffered last year. We added a carolina jessamine vine to the amazingly resilient bougainvillea that sprouted up at the last minute from what I thought was a dead plant.

The back around the playhouse got lots more mulch; and our kids loved helping with their own wheelbarrow.

And we put two new African bulbines in the back. They were some of the only plants that didn't survive last year, amazingly.

And we put a potato vine next to the garage to grow up over our old metalsmithing frame. To my amazement, Julie, owner of Fertile Ground, showed me where my old Passion Vine was in fact resurrecting. So we'll have the two vines meet in the middle of the framework.

I think that's all, but it sure wore us out - the kids took exceptionally long naps yesterday after the crew left!

Hail to the Survivors

2010-04-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

I'm amazed at how plants can make it through a drought as tough as we got in 09. Two Mexican blue sages I was sure were dead, along with some plumbago plants are back, albeit taking their time, justifiably.

The bluebonnets in our median are stunning. They came out in late fall 2009 (no blooms) and lay real low during the winter. Maybe that's what gave them the base to rise to great heights--that's my totally unscientific take on the bluebonnet phenomenon this Spring all over Austin.

The rest of the photos show off the beautiful, blooming survivors, including the crossvine, the best Spring it's had so far.

Our kitty loved the photo opp...

And I forgot what ground cover this is...anyone know? It just keeps spreading and looking wonderful.

The feather grass has never looked better...

Our poor agave americana is another survivor, but barely. Fertile Ground is coming to prune it back to a stick next week.

A "New" Driveway

2010-02-05T19:55:00.000-08:00

After 3 years, we really needed a top up for the driveway - decomposed granite for the level part, slightly larger, similar rosy-colored granite rocks (Fairland pink) for the slope, to hold up to rain runoff.

Geo Growers in south Austin delivered it in a huge dump truck, to the glee of my kids. And one of their own, Samuel, stayed to help us shovel and rake it out. After three hours of that work, my back is reminding me that I am no longer 25.

I spread it straight to the walls behind the plants along our house, so it would serve as mulch for a climbing rose, grasses and the ponyfoot and bougainvilla I'm hoping will all resurrect in the Spring.

We even had enough to use for the back perimeter bed around our back porch. It was like getting a Christmas present in February. Yeay!

A cold front! 96 high today

2009-08-31T19:14:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to present my first Pride of Barbados bloom, which would have done well in the drought anyway, but did better because it's right where the outdoor faucet is, which leaks a little.

Garden by dog has meant that dog-owner has had to find ways around dog's destructive ideas. So here is the back perimeter bed that I fenced off with stakes and fencing I bought at Lowe's. Half-chewed skullcap and rosemary lie recuperating in there. Much is empty, and I'm eager for the fall planting season. Ideas welcome.

(BTW, that's an original incinerator in the background from the 50s, when the house was built, not a smoker, though someone creative could convert it, I bet).
I'm thinking: turk's cap, more mexican oregano and mexican honeysuckle, yellow lantana. I'd just like color, but even more ideally, living things in there, safe from dog.

Here's our crossvine, now with orange berries everywhere instead of orange flowers. It loves this color. So do I.

No Rain but Rain Lilies

2009-07-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

It's not like I'm watering things much, but these rain lilies I learned about from Pam at Digging truly are a miracle. They don't need much water it seems and they just pop out at the hint of it.

They are so refreshing in a yard where everything else that could bloom is just looking plain tired.

Spock, don't sniff it

2009-05-11T17:07:00.000-07:00

The sproinging agave celsii finally started blooming, and boy is it freaky and wonderful. It reminds us of the old Star Trek episode where Spock takes a whiff of an alien blossom, and goes "mellow." We haven't wanted to venture too close to this thing not knowing what was going to happen!

The blossoming finally started from the bottom (about 5 ft up the 10ft stalk) and it is working its sweet, slow way up to the top. It's like watching green/yellow fireworks in very slow-motion.

It also reminds me of a cell phone tower.

Still Sproinging

2009-04-21T09:39:00.001-07:00

Our middle of three Agave Celsii is still shooting up its bloom stalk. It must be around 10ft high. Each "bud cluster" is a little trinitarian unit.

I keep expecting to come out and find them blooming, but they're all still closed. The anticipation is high high high.

Sproing!

2009-03-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

This is one of three succulents that Jennifer Schaffer put in when she did our landscaping. They are agave celsii and they are, sadly, monocarpic (die after flowering once).

We're looking forward though to seeing what the flower looks like. It's sort of creepy - I left town for 2 days, nothing; when I pulled up in the driveway, the shoot was suddenly there: at least 3 ft tall.

Bluebonnet - Texas' state flower

2009-03-16T17:51:00.003-07:00

Here they are, full-grown, with a little bit of red tucked into each petal.

They've popped out all along our roadside strip, after I scattered some seeds last year. They just make me smile.

Isn't it illegal to pick bluebonnets in Texas? Nope, it's an urban legend.

Planting, planting, yeay!

2009-03-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

An established African bulbine, a succulent, and a good grower in droughts. No rain all year and look at this just one bloom of probably thirty or so in its cluster. We've two in the backyard, so far winning against dog.

My son likes to help me prune - I took the opportunity while we were enjoying that gorgeous sunset the other night. So did he...

I forgot what this ground cover is (above), but the two previous other groundcovers we put in a) drowned in the rain of 06; or b) dried up in the drought of 08. Go little flowers!
Some kind of salvia - I liked the contrast of the society garlic just behind it.
My big project last Saturday was purchasing and planting "climbing pinkie" and "lamarque" antique roses from Barton Springs Nursery. They were recommended as good climbers and bloomers throughout the year.

Dear ole Dad managed to fix trellises to our limestone siding (used anchors and screws). Climb, babies, climb!

Passion in Lent

2009-03-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

Spring abounds with surprise: the passion vine I put in a thin layer of old dirt, next to our driveway, has produced its first flower. Check out Wikipedia's entry on Passion Vine for the meaning behind the name: all aspects of the flower have been associated with things relating to Jesus' suffering and death.

The bluebonnets by the road are also popping out now, among other things.

Thanks to one and all for your comments. I'd like to email you personally, and I'm still learning how to do that on websites like East-Side-Patch. Help!

Here comes color

2009-03-01T17:59:00.001-08:00

Our mountain laurel every mid-Feb. decides either to leaf out or flower out. Looks like this Spring it's a bit of both. It smells like Welch's grape juice. Yum.
This is an ice plant. Alien-looking. It's a succulent ground cover. Wikipedia says it's now classified as an invasive species--fitting, huh?

Below foreground is the result of bad pruning. I learned that a plumbago can be cut back almost to the ground. Because it seems to grow back in the Spring from way at its base. Does anyone know if I should go ahead and prune these old branches anyway?

Last summer, I scattered bluebonnet wildflower seeds over our easement (whatever that space is that's publicly owned between sidewalk and street). I pressed a few into the ground for good measure.

To my delight, about 8 of the 20 or so seeds took.

Talk about anticipation.

Spring in Austin . . . with dog

2009-02-24T13:07:00.000-08:00

A testimony to what even a small drop of rain can do for an Austin garden in a drought.

Hooray!

Welcome to our back yard in mid-February.

We lost most of the zoysia grass to a fungus last summer,

so my anticipation is to see some recovery after lots of TLC following the diagnosis.

(We came to our senses way too late: "Why are there increasing amounts of yellow patches in our back yard?")

We also gained a dog last fall, so as another discovered blogger in Austin said, right now, it's "Garden by Dog," til I can get tips on gardening WITH dog.