I’m generally not a huge fan of the shrimp plant, but it’s taken a beating the past two years, and it’s back in force this year. To clean it up after it looked like it had been burned in a forest fire I just broke off the stems to the ground. I really wasn’t expecting it to come back.
The rose bushes. I really like rose bushes. I think it’s funny that people baby them. You can definitely do that, and your flowers won’t look as beat up as mine do. But these bushes are planted in a hellscape where they get blasted with afternoon sun and get dumped on when it rains (I really should put in a gutter to rain barrel right there). But roses love it. Great hardy plants most of them.
I almost squeeled with excitement while I was weeding. Bulbine is one of my favorite plants, and it was growing in the middle of some grass sprouts so I assumed it was just grass. I tend not to buy it anymore since it’s a Mexican native and not that cold hardy, but I assume if it’s starting to spread by itself, it’s established enough that it might start living through the winters.
The second picture is a nandina that I cut back to the ground last year. That’s less than 6 months of growth pictured. That stuff freaks me out. I really need to get rid of it before it manages to take over the world.
I used to go to garden centers and pick one of this and one of that. I love plants. I love how different and cool they are. But my garden always looked kind of scraggly. And you couldn’t really see the plants. Nothing stood out.
A while back I read that you should plant in 3s. So now that’s what I do. I buy 3 of each plant (unless it’s something that will be a strong focal point and able to stand on its own. Think tree. Or prickly pear).
I then plant these in triangles, and try to overlap the triangles so I don’t end up with plants in straight lines. I generally tend to think more of tri-corner boomerang shapes when I’m mixing plants together. This is easier in practice than to demonstrate in a picture, since plants are different sizes and it’s easy to keep them from lining up.
If you haven’t tried this, I’d highly recommend it. It makes a HUGE difference.
I’ve started a garden wiki. Mainly to help myself remember what the names are of everything in my garden. But hopefully it may be useful to others.
To visit just click the ‘Garden Wiki’ button at the top of the blog.
And now for a sense of perspective. Because I don’t believe there really is an ‘after’ in gardening.
This is what the front of our house looked like when we bought it. I dug it so little I wanted to keep looking. Thankfully Julie convinced me that we could get rid of that gunmetal gray and it would make all the difference.
Just a quick note on how I do irrigation. I’ve gotten really into the drip irrigation kit they sell at home depot for abou $18. The basic kit has everything you need to get started. And they have pretty fantastic spray sprinklers you can attach that are fantastic for things like grass without straightforward trunks to water. Those sprinklers cost like $1.80 a piece. Which is ridiculously affordable when compared to pretty much any other type of sprinkler.
The long stakes in the picture above are those spray sprinklers. I got 4 90 degree sprinklers and 2 180 degree sprinklers. They didn’t quite do the job, though, so I’m going to have to add one or two more. It’s a pretty huge area I’m trying to get there, though.
I ran the main hose under the edging and under the path, so both garden segments are watered at once. But now my fingers hurt like hell from squeezing on all those tiny hoses.
This is by far the most affordable kit I’ve found, and most people will be able to do all the flowerbeds in one yard with just one kit.
And apparently installing one guarantees rain. This is the second time I’ve installed one of these, and both times it has rained.
Planting today. Installing drip irrigation tomorrow.
The planting was pretty uninteresting. Just a great sense of relief that it’s finally done and the yard can actually start growing again.
The last two pictures are part of the process. I’m attempting to have very geometric modern looking beds, while still keeping an organic look to the plants. So I laid bricks dividing the various beds to provide spacing and prevent some plant mixing. Only time will tell if this works and is interesting.
If you happen to be near a garden center please snap a picture and email it to Julie to prove I didn’t buy EVERY plant in Austin. Our budgeting process has been fun for this. Julie asked what my budget was and I said I figured I wouldn’t spend over $1000. Julie mentioned she was thinking more like $100. Ah… gardening.
Planting tomorrow. Can’t wait!
The cactus are from East Austin Succulents. Wonderful place over there right next to the Greater Austin Creative Alliance (GACA! ACoT!) on Tillary Street. They let the kids feed the fish. So Etta repaid them by falling down and crying a lot. Also sticking her arms in the fish tank and sticking her face in the fish tank. Yay! Thomas (the owner?) was concerned about germs. I was concerned about his fish.
I took only Stella to Barton Springs Nursery while Etta napped. It’s my new favorite nursery. But don’t go there. Because it’s less busy than the Natural Gardener. And cheaper. And they have tons of the 1" containers which are what I prefer to grow since they establish with less coddling. I am horrible at coddling plants.
I checked out Northpark Mall in Dallas this weekend. What a beautiful mid-century modern mall and garden. Definitely worth the trip for anyone who loves succulents.
Took out a bunch of dandelions and more bedstraw today. I tired of bedstraw. I also think I took out a bunch of wild petunia today. Whoops.
I love the smell outside. You can almost smell things growing. Looks like I’ll have roses in a day or two, and I’m hoping to plant the front yard this weekend…