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…
So in previous years I’ve been known to pull up anything green that comes up in my yard. Which would make you wonder why I bother planting wildflower seeds. I’m pretty sure I’ve pulled up every wildflower that’s sprouted in my yard.
But this year is different. If I don’t recognize it, and it doesn’t have tendrils or huge seed pods, it stays put.
Which leads us to this pretty flower. I thought at first it was just a dandelion. But the leaves are subtly different, and my patience was rewarded with this beautiful flower.
So what is it? Anyone know?
I left my phone at work so no pictures today. Boo.
I felled two small dead trees today and cleaned out my vegetable garden. Turns out it has become the neighborhood cat box, so I guess it’s good I have no plans for it this year.
Still on the to-do list. 3 more dead trees and shaping the boxwoods. Hopefully they’ll be able to handle the shaping. I feel bad for them because they almost died last year. At the same time I need to be able to get down my garden paths.
Some pictures of the backyard for a change. I’ve been doing Elder Care for my Grandmother, and I’ve been finding weeding especially therapeutic this year. I went back and did a bit more weeding after I took the pictures. Been doing a lot of weeding. I think I’ve gotten most of the bedstraw out now.
Some pictures from cleaning up the lower garden. This is our front yard on the other side of the driveway. The pictures are from a week ago.
When we bought the house we didn’t actually know we had this lovely area. It wasn’t until we were enjoying our yard one of the first nights we moved in and wandering around that we noticed the steps and went down. There were vines strangling almost everything. When I trimmed down a nandina and pulled all the vines out of it I noticed there’s a lovely live oak on my neighbors property shading the area. I put the decomposed granite down there when we did the rest of the front yard, and it’s actually killed most of the vines since their root system was under the grassy patch in the middle and the visible parts coming up in the flower bed.
My work at making sure there’s not too much leafy buildup has really led to a increase in blooming irisis this year. But there used to be a ton of mondo grass that I let die in last years drought. I couldn’t justify using the water to keep it alive. Not sure what I’ll replace it with yet.
I planted a ton of Damianita, Black Foot Daises and transplanted a plant that I can no longer identify that spreads by runners into the backyard this past weekend. So I’m really excited about the rain and not having to heft a watering can around.
Then this morning when I left the house I was nearly knocked out by my yellow bearded irisis. I’ve been trying to rehabilitate the lower garden where they live and it appears to have paid off. A huge number of blooms this year.
Today’s my no gardening day. Can’t wait until tomorrow. Hopefully some pictures.
Man, still going with the weeding. It’s a pain, but the end is in sight. Hopefully by the end of next week. I decided that with the weather we’ve been having now would be an ok time to put in a tree, so I added the persimmon tree you see in the photo. I like it because it will provide berries and fruit.