What the Rain Brings

Dorothy Belle has been keeping a sharp eye on my garden. She hates getting wet and it's killing her to see all the squirrels, birds, bugs and butterflies out enjoying the break. Word has it that we are in for a long wet winter and after the brutal summers we've had the past two years, I'm ready.

Randy's rose, neither of us know what variety she is? Rose experts...what's her name?

I just can't get enough of Datura Metal. The Brugmansia is covered in as many blooms but droops and only smells lovely at night.

The Cannas think it's Spring

There are hundreds of funky molds and fungi every morning. Dog Vomit, Fuligo Septica is my favorite though...I check on it several times a day when it pops up just to see it grow and change color.

In just a few hours it's lost it's brightness but spread by several inches.

Can anyone identify this golden pear? I think it's Hobis Lobbis Craftian Gold? I've had quite a few visitors in the past week and no one has noticed it... smack dab in the middle of my yard. This is a peculiar little tree that hasn't grown in 13 years. I think it's a Buckeye, well...I know it is but it drops it's leaves in early Fall, buds out and remains a stick until March when it puts on a garish show. This is first time it's created a seed pod, which never fell off.

I'm just tickled about the Guest Haus. I hadn't foreseen the curtain pattern but otherwise the colors and window boxes are as I saw in my minds eye over a year ago. The plants below are not as tall, due to the drought.

I captured the shot below when I was up on the ladder hanging a chime. When I look at a property for the first time, the image I see immediately is a downward flow of either color and texture or both, and then the birds eye view of curvilinear flow, and that's what sticks. I'm not one to question or understand how it happens. It just does. Two years ago when I set out on this new business venture, I imagined myself doing elaborate landscape design drawings and was elated by the idea of marrying my art skills and gardening passion. I have one class left in my National Certification from the National Gardener and Texas A&M's Landscape Design Course and what I've learned is that if I have to sit down and color green circles I WILL go mad. It will choke the passion right out of me. So, what to do?

East side of my front yard facing the street. The rock line is a functional swale.

This little mushroom at 3 days old.

The same mushroom at 7 days, from below.

The rains have brought so many cool things but mostly a change of direction for Conscious Gardening. I'm looking into designing a new business model specifically for the DYI's that span a year of consulting, one on site hour each season with computer and telephone support. I've looked at several 'landscape design' businesses and I feel that what I have to offer is unique but for a specific kind of person. I want to collaborate with solid people who want to learn about sustainable, ecological best gardening practices, those who recognize that they need an artists touch, and respect the developing process. The amount of work necessary for success in this climate enormous.

There is no such thing as a low maintenance garden.

I can't remember who said it...Skip Richter maybe, that "there are gardeners and there are yardners.."I think yardners hire out, and believe things like "low maintenance" and gardeners have dirty hands, deep smile wrinkles and curious minds. I hope to work with gardeners and perhaps inspire yardners to come outside and discover the magic that living in your own private Eden holds.

Happy Gardening