The first bloom from my desert globe mallow. Thanks to Jeff Maxwell of Garden Gnome Landscaping for the recommendation.
More cactus blooms. I’ve been fighting a battle with spider grass right now, so nice blooms like these keep me weeding.
Also apparently a lot of squirrels took those nice unplanted mulched beds as a fantastic place for hiding pecans, if the number of seedlings is any indication.
On Saturday we went to the Austin Succulent Societies plant sale at the botanical garden. It was mostly to get some awesome house plants for Julie, but I did pick up two sedums. I have not had much luck with these in the past, but I’m hopeful this time.
Yesterday was a lovely day for gardening. At lunch I pruned back the prickly pear that was threatening to eat visitors to our house and did a lot of weeding.
The rose pictures are just because. They’re doing fantastically this year.
I can’t get enough of the blooms this year. And I love having cactus blooms. They have always been some of my favorites, and I’ve had cactus for nearly a decade and this is my first plant that bloomed.
Trimming the boxwood hedges is on of my least favorite tasks. But these paths bordered by hedges was one of the things that drew me to this house. I can still remember how much I would have loved to have these hedges to hide behind (and in) as a kid, and am preserving them for my kiddos.
Two of these died last year and I’m having to bring the rest of them back. It’s always such a delicate dance. If you let them grow unfettered they’re nearly impossible to get back into shape, but if you trim too much they die.
Beautiful flowers on the prickly pear. 3 more opened this morning. Julie took this picture which explains the higher quality and better composition.
Allandale Xeric Yards
A great post of what some neighbors in Allandale are doing to make their yards Xeric.
Some nice blooms from around the garden. I think this is the first year that the Octillo has bloomed like this for us.
Our house came with two flower beds right up against the house. This one happens to be right by the dog door, and the dogs had torn it up. I finally got around to cleaning it up on Monday.
This bed is under our roof overhang so it gets next to no moisture. And I really can’t get excited about the amount I’d have to water it to keep flowers alive in it.
So I put in a new cactus. There’s an existing flame acanthus that seems to enjoy the abuse. I pulled some rocks from other parts of the yard and put down some pavers to hopefully keep the dogs out of the bed proper.
I’m really happy with how it turned out without spending any money.
I replaced my attic stairs this weekend. Which was a completely un-fun non-gardening task. But while at the Home Depot I passed by these knee pads and had to pick them up.
The biggest problem with my old knee-pad was that I would reach rather than move. Because it was a pain to move. Which leading to back pain.
Now I’ve got to retrain myself that moving is easy. And stop reaching.