In My Garden...

After reading Carols blog May Dreams Come Gardens about how big her garden is, I decided to step outside and have a look at mine. This is my side garden, or my greens-garden on the left, and my Texas-Toughies on the right...plus rose. It's a new location and I haven't paid it much attention since I busted up the sod and thew down seeds with about a cubic yard or so of Eco-Growers mix. We decided to try this bare space of St. Augustine because the previous location just didn't get enough sun...I think we've found our spot. I just put in two fruit trees, a Fuyu Persimmon and a Wonderful Pomegranate. My husband wanted to do the square foot gardening but my messy organic nature wouldn't allow the straight lines, you can see the cacophony of species and sizes...I especially love it when things start blooming and going to seed randomly...it feels like agri-nature.

I was asked to be on the Master Gardener Garden Tour this October (Lord knows why?) so I've been making a sincere attempt to organize my space into "rooms" like all the proper design books advise, but I really do prefer living in an experimental-cottage garden. As it is, I know exactly where to go if I need something...it's next to it's companion plant usually, or in a grouping of like minded species, or with something that's color makes it pop. It makes sense to me, it's just that coming up with an actual garden size...is probably impossible (well, not for a mathematician!)
Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Arugala, Mustard Greens and the base of the Pom.

Lady Banksia gone wild...I need an arbor!

Arugala Flowers

Lately, I've been obsessed with finding native perennials at all the nurseries and finishing up old projects along with the laborious task of busting up rock hard mulch...in some area's it was over 4 inches thick! Not a drop of water could penetrate that...just in case we get rain some fine day. While I was working away on my knees I noticed the base of this old cactus that I'd pineappled and was unable to remove on my own. I needed it gone because it was sticking out into the street and I was worried about all the kid-folk passers-by. I was sort of cursing my dear sweet spouse for not removing it as I had so sweetly asked time and again, when I looked up and noticed it had sprouted! I couldn't believe it! I'd jumped on the shovel and worked up a sweat trying to get the thing out and here it was rewarding me with a summer of joy...I will be watching this baby daily. I love the slow, steady growth and the gigantic blossom!

Blackfoot Daisy

The purple Irises in the front yard always spell S-P-R-I-N-G...to me.

Gregg Dalea...very tiny but tough and sweet.

Cherry Sage going wild!

This is my front deck built by my friend Curtis with a 3 year old, Old Blush Rose. Don't ask for his number...he only fiddles these days...for the White Ghost Shivers...if you are in town, you have to see them...they're sort of carnival meets Vaudeville meets Austin Swang...super entertaining!

This area is always a mess. It's where our garage cat Sappho-Moon (who we would love to find a home for...she moved out when the dogs moved in and has never adjusted...) jumps up through the window. It's also where I tore the English Ivy off the wall and it left horrid thrashes in the siding...so, I'm trying to get some Mexican Honeysuckle going from cuttings out at Zilker.

The predictable clover in the Goddess Garden.

My baby cacti-nursery out for a sunny afternoon.

My brother drug this ebony boat home from Africa when he was in the Peace Corps...I replanted some Aloe and Mother-of-a-Thousand in it and shoved it against the tree house.

A lone Bulbine blossom.

River Fern from my friend and neighbor, Sabrina. She cleared a bunch off the side of her house and called me and said "come get it or I'm throwing it out..." I thought it had died...but the lovely curls are out!

So, I build two mound plantings in the back yard...un-did a veggie bed that wasn't producing...not enough sun...and then topped it off with what was left in the compost. Both mounds are covered in sprouts! We'll see how they survive...

My little bird from my French neighbor Regine...we call her our "French Bird"...Regine that is.

The "survivors" of the latest Dorothy Belle massacre...that's my Boston Terrier. The Road Island Red is Florence Jean Castleberry II, the Silver Laced Wyandott is Lucinda and the Mexican Black is Shanaynay, after one of my favorite students.

Patrick's Abutilon, a baby that I put in the back yard. We had a speaker at the Austin Garden Club last week who said that this is labeled as an annual but that they had it live through the past 3 winters...so I thought I'd give him a go! He looks like a Chinese lantern!

Humming bird, humming bird which one is real?

I love bud. (Bud is my dog.) This one is a Mexican Buckeye...such a seasonal beauty I can't wait 'til she blooms!

My new butterfly watering hole.

The Omaha onions are coming along. A friend of mine was over the other day and she said my bed looked like an abstract of the state of Texas...West Texas we decided.

This is my winter triumph, a pale pink Brugmansia that is just one year old, I watered her heavily before the "threat" of frost, wrapped her in a hoodie and then carefully covered her in a pillow case...she made it through the winter!

A view of one side of the Goddess Garden...all transplants and cuttings.

I wanted to catch this row of Trumpet Vine before it burst into bloom!

Autumn Mum, in the window box.

Spider Wort Lilly

This little flower stumps the ladies at the park daily. Today the open air painters were in my garden and several of them wondered over to ask what it was...when I said Spider Wort, they all...in unison it seemed rememebered their grandmothers calling it by that name, though one little lady insisted that it was Snot Wort. I asked her why she thought it was that, she said because of the gooey stuff in the stem. Learn something new everyday.

Happy Gardening.