Memorial Day, Who Cries For The Flower's Lost?

My Crestview home, 15 years ago, when we moved in.

Where I live, in the middle of Austin, Texas...directly North of the University by 5 miles, used to be the edge of the Black land Prairie.  My neighborhood is called Crestview, because of its a gentle rise and the old timers say that they used to be able to see the West Hills before all the trees were planted and it was a beautiful view of what O'Henry named the "Violet Crown" referring to sunset.  That is the original name of the neighborhood, still printed alongside the old survey of my property. 

Times change.

The house is now yellow, I've removed the sidewalk and the driveway, designed and added a pergola, among other costly hard scape features and probably over 100 plants...some are still with us and some didn't make it through the crazy Texas heat and some were lost in the freaky long freezes of 3 days or more.

Here is a little yard art I created a last fall, after the summer of hell.  I did not plant for pleasure last year, only food...this represents all the tagged plants that are no longer in my garden.  I'm still losing mature trees, most notably the American Elm, 3 Red buds a plum and I will be losing my Sycamore out front...soon.

I have loved this tiny lot of land and consider it the only real home I've ever had...home being a place that is, rather than a state of mind as in...with the people you love.  My nuclear family moved all over the place so I have no attachment before here...and now, to the land.  And, we are moving and I will miss this place something awful, but change is coming and its reward is growth.

I will miss this view out my back door...the paths I meander through the various rooms of my garden.

I wonder what will survive the coming droughts and tenants.

I wonder if we will make it back.

  In the route of my life, I've returned to places I've lived for only a short period of time and end up having a strong urge to keep forging forward.  I stayed in this one house for the sole purpose of giving my two daughters a sense of home.  It's been hard to stay, every few years I've had to fight the urge to get the heck out...usually in July and August.  It's the garden, the feeling that I need to be here for the plants and animals that has kept me tethered...for I believe that they love me as much as I do they...and my daughters don't have the same attachment as do I, though I'm told that they will remember it fondly and realize that they grew up surrounded by beauty and blossoms, when they mature.  

I hope so.

I know that they are going out into the world finding their own way and I don't worry so much about them.  They are smart and strong.  I worry about my flowers and trees and if the hummingbirds will still come to see what's blooming and I hope to find my way back to this precious place.  

Memorial day is about remembering people lost, and I do.  But I also remember and cherish the times spent growing and cultivating and loving and laughing in my garden.


I cry for the flowers lost.

Happy Memorial Day and Happy Gardening

North Austin Funk...Numero Dos

I don't remember the dimensions of "The Wall" but the message is clear. Jean Graham is the Brentwood artist who had the idea and it was a long process. The wall runs along Woodrow Ave behind the neighborhood MiniMax (located in Crestview) one of the coolest places in the 'hood. The first meeting of minds happened at El Mercado years ago, Linda Anderson, the wonderful art teacher at Brentwood Elementary School, myself and Jean made the first sample pieces that sold the idea to the hood. It's a massive piece of historical art.

Hedrich Michaelson is a dedicated gardener with a beautiful yard and her husband Phil, a great sense of wonder. They have toys tucked in here and around the veggies and native flowers in their xeriscaped front yard. It's always fun to walk by and see what's new.
My friend Ellen's house is on the market (check it out here) one of the coolest, biggest houses in Crestview...but you can still see the shadow of an artist if you're paying attention to detail. She threatened to "shoot my ass" if she found me in her yard...hehe. I love the turquoise balls on the Redbud tree out front. Hi Ellen, ya missed!

Charming gas lamps painted by children, or someone with a childlike perspective. (Note to self: repaint your pathetic lamp!)


I had to hang over the fence to capture the wonderful metal art below.

Wabi-Sabi and I have been walking the 'hood all summer and I'm only showing a few of Michele's playful charms with permission of course!

Every time I try to write something, some bone-head has stolen the Sharpie!

Pan, the goat-god with breasties, sits beneath the Oak tree out front, playing an invisible flute. The story is a good one as to how she acquired it...but not necessary...it's a delightful, melancholic, blast from the past, on its own.

In order to present our neighborhood in full spectrum, I'd need a turret entry, a color entry, a this isn't art but trash entry and many more...There's a lot of new construction and many houses on the market. I think some may still consider this part of town "transitional" but then again, what isn't? Featuring my 'hood is hopefully a great way to draw artists to this part of town...we have a plethora of creatives, but I'm always open to meeting more cool people...it's all part of the dream. Stay cool and...

Bloom Where You're Planted, if you're not planted...transplant yourself here.

Happy Gardening!

North Austin Funk...Crestwood/Brentview (numero uno)

Since I moved to Crestview 13 years ago next month, I've been told by dozens of people that "you belong in South Austin." I didn't know what that meant, but by the nature and timing of the comment, I took it as a compliment. Last year, when my North Austin property was put on the "Inside Austin Gardens Tour" hosted by the Travis County Master Gardeners, that idea got tossed around ever more and I was told by many a folk in my yard that day that the word had gotten out that my house was the "funky yard" destination and when Central Texas Gardener reviewed the tour, my house was again mistaken for "South Austin Charm" by the host.

(All photos taken in Crestview and Brentwood Neighborhood.)

I'm not from Austin, I'm a transplant who means to stay. I've never called anyplace on this blue ball "home" but here. Here's where I've lived the longest, reared my daughters, taught school, worked as a professional gardener on both sides of the river, learned to brew beer, where my first big public artwork is, started blogging, found the love of my life, married him barefoot in the backyard and well...it's just plain easy to stay where folks are just down to earth, environmentally conscious, liberal-minded, free and kind as all get up...most of 'em.
But South Austin, really doesn't have anything up on my hood. We've got trailer-food, Alamo Drafthouse, Threadgill's, Lala's Little Nugget, Poodle Dog, Shoal Creek Nursery, Toy Joy, Ruby's, Mann's, Mayfield Park, The Triangle, Brentwood Pool...which is still free, my favorite little Mexican restaurant La Casita, The upcoming BlackStar Coop, The Homebrew Store, and appropriately named Crestview Station, the center of "the Line." I'm sure if you're a North Austiner your mind is tallying up all I've left out, ohhh, Genuine Joe's, Spider House, all that cool stuff off North Loop and of course Sunshine Gardens, Patchwork Farms...so the list goes on...
A few years back, local artist Jean Graham applied for a KAB grant and her main point was that our neighborhood "78" didn't have a public work of art. Since then artists, musicians, story tellers, gardeners etc. have been crawling out of the woodwork en masse...a few of us in the hood are biting our nails waiting to see if this years KAB grant will shine on us...again.

Well, my idea is for a neighborhood sign art project and we'll see if we get the dollars to do it, if not...it'll happen some other way. But, until it does, I'm still walking the hood with my best gal, Dorothy Belle...you can see her sweet squished face in the lower right hand corner of the shot above...checking out what we think is just plain "cool."

You gotta love the Barbi-car. So, I'll be puttin' up shots from my walk occasionally, because we've just got some real funky treasures here in the hood, and I'm all about sharing. Take a drive through our hood sometime...stop by the Minimax for a 6 pack of micro-brew and grab a pie at the Little Deli...this is home.

Happy Gardening, and keep it cool folks!

Fairwell to Sister Sycamore...hello Green Goddess!

Yesterday was stressful. Today I woke up with a fever blister and a vague memory of the noise and sickening feeling I had dealt with the previous day...throbbing in my lip. We had 2 trees, Redbuds, the stars of my yard in February/March taken out. They have been slowly dieing for years, but while removing the very last stand of Nandina in my yard, we found massive ant damage, that explained what was going on. Both trees leaned dangerously near the house, garage and power lines and had dead wood that creaked when the wind blew...it was time.

I posted this photo of one of the Redbud bases....Jacob made several new stumps for the imaginary tea party.

Look how old they are! I've found two saplings and put cages around them so their next generation can live on.

Toadstool tea anyone? I'll let these babies dry out before turning them into Amanita Muscaria.

This is the now bare site of the Redbud that had the worst ant damage, hidden by a 3 ft. tall stand of Nandina that stretched 9 ft. long. Jacob is carefully removing a nest with baby doves.

He was very quiet, and gentle and they were amazingly calm.

He offered to relocate them, but got busy with the other trees. Should you find baby birds out of their nest, do not touch them, or offer them food. If the parents are around, they will usher the little one into a safe area and within a few days, teach them to fly from taking off of the ground. If no one is around, you can try to relocate them (with gloves) to a bushy area, and make sure to keep all pets indoors until rescue plans are made. Austin Animal Rescue is a volunteer run and donation based organization that does not receive any government funding.
5401 East Martin Luther King Blvd. Austin, TX 78721(512) 472-9453
www.austinwildliferescue.org

This nest was inside the Sycamore tree, and had two entrances!

Here are the upper and lower holes leading to what appears to be an over 1 foot hollow home. The tree, was pretty hollow, and also had ants throughout.

I hope the ants will stay in the woodpile, a safe distance from the house!
And now for a few shots of the ant damage...warning, these are horrifying when you consider they were looming some 30 feet above my home!

and more....

more!!! They just kept coming!

Here's Salvador's truck with mulcher. What didn't remain as sculpture or firewood, now resides at the base of the other trees for a nice thick, nitrogen enriched (considering all the fresh leaves...it's nearly green!) mulch!

View from my porch looking up at the dead Sycamore branches.

You can see a little bird at the top. There were two huge dead limbs, that strangely enough, through all the wind, stayed put. It was the huge leaf covered, lower limbs that dropped. It makes me sad to take these limbs down because I've counted up to 17 birds in the upper branches at one time. It must be a fantastic perch for viewing.

And, they're gone.

Check out the woodpecker hole! This side of the limb was hit by lightning several years ago and just missed crashing through the pergola. The limb was huge and heavy but dropped, or rather slid down the tree at an angle and took out a few lower limbs. It was then that I saw the sculpture potential in this beautiful tree!

Can you see her form yet?

Here she is. I've been planing plantings of vines and a circular pattern at her base, which is a secret...if I committed to my ideas, someone might hold me to them! So...you'll just have to wait. Planting will begin this fall, and there are plans for the face/space between the V shaped top. I need to find a welder (I no longer have the equipment!) She will be a kinetic Green Goddess! Right now she's been called a few unsavory names..."upside down stick-person, unfinished...uh...what?" But you have to be patient...This is only Phase I.

When I stepped outside this morning, the Goddess had two birds on her, circling and surveying the neighborhood. There was a lot of activity, chirping, chip notes and what sounded like alarm calling. I wish I spoke bird...the noise was amazing.

Well, that's it. I'm glad it's over...of course tree work is non-stop, but so worth it! I love, love the sound of the birds in my yard...which is one of the reasons I became a wildlife habitat. If you have an organic yard and provide, water, native plants for nectar, food and shelter check into becoming certified at http://www.nwf.org/

And, they are currently seeking funds and volunteers to help with the oil spill!

Get Involved

and

Happy Gardening!

Also..shout out to Salvador's team of tree-monkeys, they were very professional!

Austin Tree & Lawn Service

Happy New Year Gardeners!

Whew! The holidays have passed and the best way for me to deal with stress is to escape into the garden. There was an unusual amount of drama this season so, instead of blogging I was outside in the wild-hot then cold then windy then rainy then cold then hot again crazy Texas weather, which laid me up with more than a few days with cold symptoms...which later I realized were allergies! Anyway, I did a lot of planing, cleaning, pruning, planting and moving in the yard and there are a few things I'd like to share with you. This first shot is of my raised onion bed. I planted 250 baby onions that we have ordered now for 3 years from Brown's Omaha Plant Farms Inc. and I highly recommend them! They are based in Omaha Texas and we just love their famous Vidalia, which is extremely sweet and is known outside of Georgia as Yellow Granex. This year we also ordered the Red Burgandy and Yellow Spanish varieties. If you've never tried onions you should! They are easy-easy to grow and if you're a cook you'll truly enjoy having a fresh variety of flavors and greens for months straight out of the ground and they keep in their paper skins for months after.

I hope my big fake metal grasshopper will keep the squirrels out of my beds!
Here's what the onion starts look like right out of the box!
The directions say to plant the starts 4-6 inches apart for full growth or 3 inches apart if you plan to pull every other one for greens when you like...I've got an aversion to straight lines so I just stick 'em in wherever, with plenty of room to grow! Onions are hardy to 20 degrees F. and should be planted about a month before your average last frost.
This is a "before" shot for my own documentation of a mound idea that I've started with the dirt from the demolition of a raised bed that I moved because it wasn't getting enough sun. I've been wanting to do this for some time now...we saw mounds at Peckerwood Gardens and the Utility Research Garden last year and then yesterday, Randy and I were tooling around after the Green Garden Certification class and saw a fantastic yard in the Travis Heights area that had more like 'miniature mountains.' They were covered with some sort of chunky grass and reminded me of Russian Hats...mounds are the rage...apparently so I'm gonna play with my own design!
This is another 'before' shot of an upcoming rose garden. All the roses are gifts or discarded transplants from friends gardens. I love roses but haven't developed the delicate touch at home. Howson Library is one of my regular gardening gigs and I love the Martha Gonzalez roses there. I've been singing to them and popping heads weakly and I'm just amazed at the non-stop bloomage! I put a few of these gal's in at the Green Garden at Zilker as they will be featured in the up coming Grow Green Guide coming out soon!

This is the last shot of winter sprucing and there is a little story that goes along with it. I love mushrooms! When I crochet, I try to make each hat in the shape of a mushroom, they are the necessary ingredient to several meals a week and I think they are adorable. According to one strand of Pagen thought, the idea of wrapping Christmas gifts comes from the red and white mushrooms that grow beneath pine trees which resembling gifts under the Christmas Tree. My neighbors a few houses down lost their Ash tree and I managed to roll several pieces down to my place to create children's toad stools...sure enough, little ones can't pass by without sitting down!
I also cleared the east side of my house and created a potting area in preparation for an upcoming cedar fence and rainwater collection site. So much work still needs to be done before the spring planting season begins!

My gardening New Year's resolution: know my weeds!

Happy Gardening and may the new year be filled with wondrous green growth!