Happy New Year everyone! I haven’t been out in the yard in quite a while and finally started cleaning up from that freeze we had. 

Here’s the wide shot:

After this picture was taken I cut back more of the lantana and mistflower. But that massive lantana bush on the left is still out there waiting to be tamed.

I took out the Gomphrena. The girls were amusing themselves with all the seeds that dropped out, and Stella pulled one of the plants which was about as large as her.

Underneath we found some grasses still doing pretty well.

The yard is feeling very drab, but I love that around Christmas that this succulent blooms. 

I’m feeling like it’s time to start planning. I need to pull a lot of plants and create some order. I’ve got a lot of wildflowers coming in. Finding structure in reseeding plants is going to be a new challenge, but I learned a lot last year. Let’s get started with 2014!

• xeric

Before I start let me just say I’m a huge proponent of native plants and this discussion is not about suggesting we should have a mono-culture or that our grass farming habits are ideal.

That said I was thinking about the role of animals in propagation and natural selection. We talk all the time about the fact that bees and hummingbirds like certain colors and the plants produce flowers to attract them.

Yet we tend to not think about the role of humans in propagation. Clearly we have a huge influence. Even when planting native plants.

I was reminded of this today when weeding. The plants that tend to propagate naturally in my yard:

a) are sticky
b) are prickly

They are, in short, things that stick well to mammals. More specifically cats.

These are, however, not traits that most humans look for in native plants. With the exception of cactus we tend to avoid sticky and prickly. And both together is almost certainly not making it on the list.

Which begs the question. Will the next phase of plant evolution cater to the tastes of humans? Perhaps dropping seeds from flowers as we cut them and take them inside?

• xeric

I’ve been somewhat neglectful of my garden recently. I planted some wildflower seeds in October. Expecting them to bloom next spring. But the deluge of rain set them off. Now I’ve got quite a few plants coming in and our recent freezes didn’t kill them off.

Very interested to see what develops. And another random picture of unplanned beauty.

• xeric

This feels a bit like ancient history now that I was out weeding after the rain today. There’s gomphrena, feather grass, gregg’s mist flower, and prairie verbena reseeding in many of the parts of the front yard that previously were only good at growing spotted spurge.

So I feel like these are going to be some fantastic before shots. That retama is growing insanely quickly. And there’s a nice pile of decomposed granite in the street. Still need to clean that up… Look away!

Looking at this, I’m really feeling like next year is going to be amazing. And the gomphrena, ruby crystals, berkely sedge, and laura bush petunia are still going strong.

I know our mail lady likes us quite a lot. But I wonder at what point that prickly pear will change her impression of us.

And the cleaned out lower garden. Looking… clean. And uninteresting. But change is coming…

• xeric

I’m really excited to be at the point where I have a kid at the right age to be a fantastic helper in the yard. Stella today helped a massive amount. We pulled all the bearded-iris bulbs and replanted them. This is something I hadn’t done since we moved in, and it turns out we had a TON of them.

I also cut down two more Nandinas in the backyard and a Ligsutrum that had been growing back after being cut down. Stella (and Etta) helped move a lot of brush to the front yard.

If you’ve ever thought you’d like to live in my yard this picture might disabuse you of the notion.

A picture is truly worth 1,000 words. That’s less than 6 months of brush.

• xeric

So I really want to work on the front lower garden for next spring. I lived in New Jersey until I was 8 so I have these memories of amazing beds full of irises. So that’s the plan. I want to create flowerbeds of irises, lined with Turks Cap and Texas Sage nestled among a Live Oak and Pecan Trees. 

So the first phase of that was removing the Photinia bushes that had grown into trees, and the Nandina.

Before:

After:

I’m going to put an Eve’s Necklace where the Photinia’s were and replant a lot of the bulbs to more evenly distribute them. I still need to take out the Ligustrum on the right, but that will take professionals.

Some of my favorite plants right now

Gomphrena Fireworks. This is one plant.

Laura Bush Petunia. Like many of you I’m not a huge fan of the name, but it is fantastically hardy.

Ruby Crystals

And I haven’t gotten around to trimming the Lantana. And I really need to trim it. Looks like it’s coming for the house…

Yes, it is over 4 feet tall. Nom. Nom. Nom.

But I was putting up Halloween decorations last week. I pulled out the pickled punks from Loaded Gun Theory’s show “The Brother’s Merlin”. And found these fantastically gothic mums at Home Depot.

The light we believe was original to the house. Which is an interesting choice. But it does make for a fantastic Halloween lamp.

I hope to at some point get a picture of the night time effect. It’s spoooky!

• xeric

So this is all out of order, but Julie took the pictures which means that:

a) I have to wait for her to download them from her camera.
b) It’s worth the wait because they actually look good. They have depth of field and shit. Amazing what someone who can use a camera can do with a camera.

Weekend before last we went out to LBJ ranch because my Uncle was in town. And Historical Nerdism is a genetic trait passed down both maternally and paternally on both Julie and my side of the family. Stella is currently reading Texas history books she got at HEB and enjoying herself immensely.

It is a spectacular hill country ranch, but wouldn’t you know it - we go there during their annual Wildflower Seed Stomp.

Stella’s stomping.

Etta’s stomping.

Tim’s stomping (although my technique may explain why I have trouble getting wildflowers to grow):

And Julie’s stomping (clearly the one who should be planting the wildflower seeds):

There were chickens: 

And cows with pompadours:

It was great fun. And LBJ’s house was incredibly interesting. All in all a lovely day.

Finally I close with a picture of a really interesting Agave bloom. Guess this was caused by the rain/drought/rain cycle this summer.

• xeric

So Heather over at Xericstyle suggested that everyone post more wide shots of their garden. I definitely could take more time looking at the big picture over the little details. I tried to include some of the shots that I normally wouldn’t take. The light was wonky. My yard is normally blindingly bright. But whatever, if I keep postponing the shots they’ll never happen. 

The first bit of front yard I did. Still love this bed. It could use a haircut though.

Speaking of haircuts. I think this Lantana is nearly 5’ tall.

And the front. With a new addition from Laura of WillsFamilyAcres.

Some of the amazing Gomphrena with Berkeley Sedge underneath it. I love that combo.

These are my “coming home from work views”.

And here’s what will hopefully be a before shot. Katina over at Gardening in Austin gave me a fantastic idea for this area so hopefully I’m going to start cleaning it out over the next few months.

I went to another GoGo gardening meeting this morning. It’s hard to believe I’ve been meeting with those fantastic folks for less than a year. This is a cactus I got from Pam at the very first GoGo I went to at Wizzy’s (what is her blog?). She suggested I throw it over the fence since I was having trouble with people climbing it. Now it’s getting nearly as tall as Etta. 

• xeric

I am not trying to rub it into my gardening friends who haven’t gotten any, but we’ve gotten close to an inch in the past two weeks. You’ll just have to take my word for the fact that this is a tenth of an inch from yesterday afternoon. Even just the clouds are soothing.

And here’s one of my favorite combos right now. Berkely Sedge and Gomphrena Fireworks.

That’s Stella, my helper, in the background. She’s discovered a love for pulling Nut Sedge. She’s still not into pulling spotted spurge, but I’ll take what I can get.

• xeric

So yesterday after a morning investigating a lovely garden. I rounded up the children and headed out to The Natural Gardener. Stella and Etta insisted on taking pictures in the  Butterfly Chair like at the Arboretum. 

Even though we were going to the Arborteum today. We also went through the labyrinth. Which they found confusing. I tried to explain that some people find walking them clears the mind.

I picked up some butterfly bush, which I’m going to use to replace the desert mallow that has taken over my front yard. More pictures. To come. 

This morning we picked up some cactus at the Cactus and Succulent sale at the arboretum. Of course discovering some plants I can’t identify in the process. (UPDATE: @annieinaustin identified it as Blue Porterweed)

Loved this bird of paradise in the Children’s garden.

Julie was not exceptionally amused with us wandering the botanical garden in August. Now out to the front yard. More pictures to come!

• xeric