xeric – Page 3 – Xeric Front Yard

A Favorite Combo

This gomphrena plant has had only one bloom for months now. It’s simplicity next to this smoke agave (?!?) is so refreshing next to the riots of gomphrena rampaging through the rest of the garden.

Oh crud. I tried to figure out what this plant is. I’m pretty sure they sold it to me as a “smoke agave” at The Great Outdoors, but I can’t find any references to that online.It has white tips and edges…

Grasses

I love grasses all year long. The way they move in the wind is mesmerizing. But it’s hard to capture that in pictures.

But fall – fall is their time of year. I think the seed heads are as pretty as any flower.

What I’ve been up to

Oh man, my yard is calling to me. But it won’t get any help for another week or so. I’ve been working on producing and doing technical stuff for my latest play.

It’s been a lot of fun. I’m so proud of the finished product, and hopefully some of my readers will make it out to see it. But I’m definitely ready to get back in the yard…

A Month!?!

Holy cow. It’s been far too long since I posted. So what’s been going on? I got a new gardening buddy. Junie actually likes to hang out with me when I garden. She tastes the plants and occasionally licks my head.

Rhett’s more like Julie and thinks gardening is far too warm.

I pulled my back out programming a computer game with the girls, and then we went on a 10 hour trip to East Texas this past weekend. Also not good for the back. And a messed up back is no good for gardening.

Yesterday while pulling weeds a gentleman pulled over his car and talked to me about xeric plants. I think that’s my favorite part of the yard. People stop and talk to me. Never once had anyone stop and talk to me while mowing the lawn.

I’ll try to post a picture of the front yard. It’s really beautiful right now. Gomphrena blooms have stated to dominate in the extreme heat.

Wide angle shot for July. It is July right?

Things are starting to look a little long in the tooth. I’m starting to pull them.

And the gomphrena’s coming back with a venegance.

Pam (http://www.penick.net/digging/) gave me this tiny little guy that had been growing in the bottom of a soggy cardboard box lid. A few of them seem to have transplanted.

It’s July’s wide-shots! I’ve been loving the rain. Having fun with transplanting cuttings, and pulling weeds and pruning. So much organic matter around here.

Foliage Followup – June 2014

So since I was just writing about trimming trees for drought, I thought I’d talk about one of the things that puzzles me most about my yard. I have really nice St. Augustine foliage.

It’s wonderful to lay in and take a nap. At this time of year you just want to roll in it. And it takes very little water. I haven’t watered this area since sometime last summer. Which begs the question, why? Well there happens to be a gigantic oak tree just west of the best parts of the lawn:

Note how high the eastern facing branches are trimmed.

I have problem beds where I can’t get almost anything to grow. Even with supplemental watering. The tree that shades them looks like this facing west.

I think I might try a drastic haircut to see if I can improve things.

On the east side of your grapevine, where the sun rises, you strip all the leaves. That allows for better airflow. On the west side, where the sun sets, you keep a good canopy of leaves to protect the drought. We do it by hand.

I feel like this is next level pruning. Seems fairly obvious, but it’s not something I currently do. Even though it’s pretty obvious that plants that grow east of my large trees do better than plants on the west side of the them. From Slate on Dry Farming.

Propogation

I’m getting into propagation. I spent most of the money I received as birthday gifts on seeds. I know that makes me old.

I keep having plans for more Turks Cap, but for some reason never end up buying it at the store. So I decided to try propagating cuttings. I had Etta help me do the cuts and put them in mason jars.

For the first few days they looked really rough and lost a lot of leaves. I am the king of procrastination, though, so I left them. And a few days later the remaining leaves started growing and the plants perked up. Plus the water proved really good at catching flies.

Today I took them out and filled up some pots with cactus mix. Used a chopstick to make a hole for their root, and put them in.

They’re looking a bit rough right now, but I have faith they’ll pull through.

Some close up details from the driveway.

Roses. This area never gets enough love even though it’s very visible to cars driving by.

My pride-of-barbados I thought was dead.

Another pride-of-barbados wish this one would get a bit taller to clear the lantana visually.

I’m really digging the various levels this year.

A dyckia that froze that I pulled off and threw in the ground on a whim. Still alive!

So these are ostensibly my wide-shots for May. This has been a magnificent year. My goal has been to enjoy my garden more and I really have been. I don’t let the weeds get me down, just watch the grasses and blooms sway in the breeze.

EDIT: It’s June isn’t it. *sigh*