Bloom Day! November 15th '08 Eve of the 1st Freeze

So, here it is...what was blooming today November 15th, 2008. I must thank Carol, again for doing this...what a fabulous record keeping idea! I was amazed at how many things are blooming and tonight we are expecting our first really cold snap...38 degrees here in the loop. I spent the day working in the yard, watering, piling leaves on tender plants, putting others inside and unloading my new glass mulch! Things are happening and I'd write more, but I'm just too tired...8 hours of gardening...and on a Saturday none the less!

Thanks to Carol for encouraging bloggers everywhere to share! Happy Gardening!

Mini Pom
Mexican Sage
Old Blush

Creeping Rosemary

Autumn Sage (Salvia Greggi)

Russian Sage

Mexican Oregano

Four Nerve Daisy

Lantana

Belinda's Dream

Firecracker Fern

Golden Flame Lantana

Fuschia

Desert Rose

Plumbego

Fall Obedient Plant

Mexican Tarragon

Skullcap

Bougenvilla

Loquat

Kumquat

Dianthus

Peep, my brooding girl...

Mexican Petuna

Thai Basil

Greg'g Mistflower

Polygunum

Datura Metel (Double Purple Frill)

Sweet Pea

Cross Vine or Trumpet Vine

Mums

Crown of thorns

Who You Callen' Peckerwood?

If you're making the blog rounds you know about the Austin Bloggers Field Trip to Peckerwood Gardens arranged by the lovely Diana of Sharing Natures Garden...we had a blast! Well, my idea of a blast...strolling the grounds of an artists dream, where every turn brings soft grass corridors lined with intricate textures, modern art, majestic oaks of every flavor mounded atop carefully designed contours. No thought left to Mother Nature...except of course the brilliant design of each healthy specimen. It was like the adult version of Willie Wonka's Chocolate room, remember the magic? Had I a nice organic Cabernet it would have been that for me...no Verruca Salt to boot.

When I got back to my tiny Crestview plot I wasn't as depressed or sad as I thought I might be.
My garden doesn't compare to the grande scale of Peckerwood, or any other arboretum, conservancy-fancy-schmancy work of living art, but it does look like me. Recycled yard art, unfinished projects, messy animals, work galore...it's where I am right now, and that's all I have time to do. I wish I had two full time gardeners and 40 acres...hmmm, what would I do different? That's another storey, but to start with...I'd make up a name. "Peckerwood" comes from the old 1955 novel by Patrick Dennis, it's a one liner referring to where Mr. Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside is from. My step-dad called anyone who disagreed with him a 'peckerwood' and it always raised a snicker. Apparently the name was coined in the early 1900's by blacks in the south who saw themselves as blackbirds and poor-working-class whites as wood-peckers because of their boisterous behavior, later being reversed as 'peckerwoods.' Today the white supremacists proudly call themselves peckerwoods and their female counterparts featherwoods. This wasn't such a pleasant finding...put a damper in my sunny afternoon, but got me thinking about what's in a name.

That being said, I was swimming in all those blasted botanical names that just rolled off our guides tongue...I ended up buying a baby cactus...neobuxbauhmia polyopha, say that three times. Still doesn't stick. It looked like a prickly pecker and made me giggle so I bought it, even though I couldn't say his botanical name, I just call him Peter.

Our tour lasted a short 2 hours and I could have stayed all day and watched the stars come up. It's outside of Hempstead about 2 hours east of Austin off 290, hardly any light pollution and I know the evenings must be glorious. Before you head out for an inspiring day trip, you need to check their website because they are hardly ever opened to the public and kids under 12 aren't allowed. It's pretty prickly, no pun intended.

Here's some of my view:

Punk Rock Cacti
Artichoke looking thingy
One of the many organic curvilinear edges
Knees.
Cute as a Button Cacti

This was just impressive and massive

Rock Plants

Magical texture
Magical texture with peckerwoods

Blogging hat ladies

Wisteria making love to a pole

The real history of the garden and it's founder John Fairey can be found on the website. I'm afraid if I upload anymore shots it'd spoil the trip! I'll leave you with just one more image from Peckerwood Gardens:

I was unable to find the artists name on this one...

Happy Gardening

Seeing into the Future

The corner of Woodrow & Dartmouth Av. Live Oak, Cypress, Peach trees

I wish I'd have been walking around with a camera because Saturday morning was awesome!
There wouldn't have been anyway to capture the neighborhood spirit though, it's intangible.
11 years I've lived on this block and I was amazed at how it all came together in the end...or rather, as you can see by the stick trees...the beginning. The project began last spring as a collaboration between the East side neighbors of Dartmouth Av and the Crestview Baptist Church...an unlikely pair. 5 trees down in a decade, left the backside of this 1970's brick block staring us in the face when we left our houses and yards of pavement cooking in the relentless heat of full summer sun. Today, 17 infant trees mark the beginning of change and growth. We had some 30 volunteers, including children and ladies from the CBC who graciously provided us with a taco buffet for lunch and coffee in the morning. In less than 4 hours all the trees and 8 cubic yards of mulch later we are looking at, again...the beginning of change.

Yesterday, I was working at Zilker, and explaining to my volunteers what had happened over the weekend and how we were able to bring some unlikely people together. Our side of the street with straight Obama signs and a parking lot that's been full of Bush/McCain supporters and not a person on our street in attendance or ever having stepped foot in the church or on the property sat down to eat and worked throughout the day...together to help improve the street we live on and love.

It's no surprise that this blog is appearing days after the fact. The energy around here and on our street has been so charged with optimism that at a neighbors house last night several of us popped the cork and ushered in what we feel with every cell of our bodies is something bigger than our street view...but an exciting, healing, peaceful change that we are proud to be part of and are amazed for our children as their world view has just been expanded!

Today I'm filled with brimming hope for our nation and also the earth. I wish every vote for Obama were a tree in the ground, rooting this full bloom of optimism. I think though that for true healing we all must come together and help each other understand that the beginning of a new era resembles a grove of freshly planted baby trees. It requires an agreement among neighbors and nation that we will all step up and get involved in the care and support of responsible new ideas. There isn't time or place for cynicism and doubt. Let's get to work!

Happy Governing and Happy Gardening!

Stay tuned for phases 2 & 3 of the CBC Beautification Project: The rose garden and pergola!
All Trees provided by TreeFolks, mulch proved by Davey Trees & Labor of Love provided by
the citizens of Dartmouth Av and the Crestview Baptist Church

Lost in Thought

Mexican petunia buds


Back again for fall!


Dwarf pom bloom

I've been out in my garden non stop for about a month... too engaged in the act of gardening to even think about writing. I'm back now, though the questions that were racing around in my mind haven't been answered in full.

I go to the garden to breathe. To squat and be near the earth and to find that meandering span of time that is both meditative and blissful. I don't know about you but I've been gardening like mad trying to find some peace of mind concerning the direction of our country and how or why we come to our convicted belief systems. My friend Don sent me a link to a lecture on TED, http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html

which was well thought out and while I was perusing their site,found another interesting article by PHd John Francis. John Francis gained fame from his vow of silence and walk around America while working his way through school in Environmental sciences. The article was fascinating and as stories like these do, it started me wondering about civic duty and environmental responsibility.
Of course that wraps back around to the election and so goes the cycle.

He's a very humble man who has admitted to not being able to articulate some of his biggest decisions because they are passion driven. It's that level of passion that I think stands in my way of full understanding.

I was raised to not talk about politics or religion...it's rude and you never know who you are going to offend. The problem with that is that if you don't talk how do you come to an understanding about what your fellow man is going through and how do you learn the sincere language of peace? I'm talking Diplomatic Peace, yet maintain your passion and individuality?

While the political landscape has been reshaping my grey matter, I forgot to live in the moment and threw out my back. Stuck in bed, I've been watching the political shows and getting more and more worried about the nature of our two party system and the growing rift between the two that seems to be separating at such a rapid pace that the middle class is falling into the space between.

I've stuck my foot in my mouth numerous times when folks stop to chat while I'm gardening. I walk away wondering how? How did they come to their decisions when we both live in the same world. So, I garden on. I'm counting down the days to the election. I'm trying to avoid the TV...I'm suspending hope and my garden is the sole recipient in this internal struggle. The flowers bloom on, and will no matter what.

My own recycled junque blooms:)


Happy Gardening!