Nursery Crawl...Plus Chickens!

We got off to a late start Friday due to some planing at Randy's place, which is also going to be on the Master Gardener Tour of '09...the theme being Inner City Wild Life Habitats. Since we are both on a "no spending diet" we decided to review Taco Stand fare, Torchy's Taco's on S. First, neither of us had been so we were excited!

This first shot is a view from under the trees. Shuggie's there on the left is a burger place slated to open this summer. It was high noon and there was a line forming as we pulled up.
The menu is fun, a great place to bring guests you want to show unique character of Austin. On the menu were "The Republican, pork filled, The Democrat, beef filled,The Dirty Sanchez...you get the idea...
The staff was helpful and polite! This young lady was working the line so that by the time you reached the trailer you have only to pay, pick up your drink and number...they'll deliver your food to you under the oaks.
You're looking at a "Fried Avocado Taco" and a "Fried Shrimp Taco." They have a selection of 5 different sauces, corn or flour tortilla's and it was excellent! I was intrigued about the fried avocado taco with beans...crispy on the outside and cool and creamy on the inside! Delish!

Look at all that Avocado! My favorite vegetable...bury me now:)
Check out Randy's blog...Horse Lips Horse Sense, for his review! We both gave it a thumbs up, though Randy was thirsty the rest of the afternoon...salty beef.

We pulled into PlanteScape Gardens and were greeted by one of the most docile and sweet Boxers I've ever met...Xena. She was lumbering and gentle...then came...

Scrappy! Twice her size and looking like he didn't care for us none to much, but we were wrong...he's a big lover and wanted to get in on some cuddles! Adam the owner says he often scares people but he's really just a push over.

Diaz Gallery changes Artists every 3 months
Once the greetings were underway, Adam's mother Sandra came out to say Hi as well and we all started in on plant talk. It turns out that Sandra is taking the city's Green Garden Certification program with Randy and I, and she recognized us from the previous Wednesday. PlanteScape has been in business for 5 years and is a mother-son operation. They are both gardeners and landscape designers who focus on low water organic gardening...right up my alley!

A few months ago I was on a search for Ocotillo cactus. I had to get permission to plant them at Zilker, against the better judgement of the Architect who felt like they are not really Austin friendly. The reason is that they are a true desert plant and thrive in draught situations of a yearly rainfall of only 17 inches...well, things aren't getting wetter. I know that weather runs in cycles but it seems to make sense to plant on the dry side rather than the opposite. The Diaz's are from El Paso and they carry a huge variety of cactus and succulents along with lots of natives and adapted plants and trees. They have a huge Ocotillo on the side of their property that survived the wet year a few years back. They include them in their designs and I asked about root-rot and they simply said, "plant on a mound"...which is what I had planned on doing, and they confirmed. I bought on...since I saved on lunch:)

Here is a shot of the greenhouse, everything was healthy and thriving

They have a really nice variety of outdoor pottery and rod-iron yard art.

Driving south on First street, it's easy to miss on the east side of the road...turn after the sign and make a sharp left into the customer parking. Landscapers recieve a 15% discount and coming soon is a Coffee/Juice bar featuring organic wheatgrass shots!

Florence Jean Castleberry II Rhode Island Red...I've always wanted one of these!

When we left, we decided to head over to Callahans as Randy had never been and it's one of my favorite places in Austin. Francis, the chicken lady is one of my hero's. I've had chickens in my backyard for 3 years now and it's been a roller coaster learning experience. I lost my favorite chicken...Tammy Faye on Memorial Day this year and my Buff Orpington Peep hasn't laid an egg since, leaving me with my little Japanese Silkie, Esperanza who lays the tiniest eggs possible...two count as one in a recipe. I explained the situation to Francis and told her that I wanted to have more chickens but didn't really want to go through the baby chicken scene again, it's just to time consuming and precarious. She suggested that I get 6 month olds. They are kept on the side of the store in the warehouse in tiny cages, separating breeds. The chickens come from a hatchery and their beaks have been clipped and it just broke my heart. She said that I should get more than I had so that they could protect each other and that they wouldn't be mean because they had never been out of a small cage, on the ground or around other chicks so the pecking order would come from my girls...and it did.

Flo, Lucinda Silver Lace Wyandotte & Shanaynay trying to decide if they like me coming closer with my camera...no, they didn't like it!

Francis suggested that I sneak the new girls in during the night so that they all would wake up together, and that I get out there first thing in the morning to snuff out any pecking...by...um pecking. Miraculously, I didn't need to. Esperanza was feisty but the new gals were big enough to just get away, jump on the hay stack but they didn't seem to bothered. To prove they felt at home, someone left me a lovely brown egg in the corner!

My lovely birds...

Francis is the best thing at Callahan's in my opinion. She's been there for years and is the caretaker for the hatching's...she knows her birds. As far as food goes though, I buy the organic layer pellets at Buck Moore Feed Store, right up the street from my house on N. Lamar. Last I checked, it was the only place in Texas that sells it!

Callahan's is on the East side of 183 heading south towards the airport. They have lots of seeds and right now fruit and nut trees in packages. They also have garden clothes, shoes, kitschy folk collectibles and carry 1950's kitchen ware. Get on out there, there really is something for everyone.

The girls have settled in and that was it for the crawl. Randy was sweet enough to help me get the birds home instead of heading out for Margaritas.
Happy Gardening!

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!

Snugglin' down on the Solstice

It turned bitter cold on this shortest day of the year. The weather this month here in Austin is wearing us all out. Yesterday it was almost muggy and we woke up to chilling winds and a grey, grey day. The sky looks like snow but there's nothing in the forecast. It'll be awhile before we get back in the garden so snuggle up and stay warm!
Happy Solstice, Gardeners!

Bloom Day December 15, 2008

Yea! It's Bloom Day December 2008. This is my first year participating in this National/International event brought to us by the lovely Carol at May Dreams Gardens,

and it's starting to sink in...the wonderful documentation tool this idea provides. Thank you!

The above photo was taken yesterday of a baby Japanese Maple I planted in my back yard. It comes up to my hip and I can't wait to see what she will look like next year!

I wanted to also document the wonderful color of this years foliage, the only gift I'm aware of, from the drought! This 8ft. Red Oak was a volunteer in my yard; I put a tomato cage around her when she was only about a foot tall!

Oxallis still blooming among the Autumn leaves.

The kumquat has been blooming all fall! I hope we get fruit this year!


The basket that hangs outside the Chicken Coop keeps making it, these are flowers from last year!

Purple Lantana thriving in the cold!

Another basket with succulents about ready to die! They come back every year though!

A few blooms left on the Trumpet Vine.

I ate the last of the sweet peas yesterday while working in the garden...I doubt these will make it beyond tonight...we'll see.

Mexican Sage blooming in both the front and back yard.

Polygunum thriving under the leaves.

The Gregg's Mistflower continues to flower sans butterflies.

Not a great photo...in fact I'm going to apologize now for the lousy photos in this post. My fingers and camera were hardly working due to the cold! I wanted to show the many blooms on this mini Pom! It was transplanted last winter and has come back with an explosion of flowers.

Pink Geraniums blooming inside!

Yellow Lantana blooming in the front yard. I may need to rake....naaaaaa.

Poor Bougenvilla crying in the wind!

This sweet Fall Aster is a native volunteer in my yard this year. The funny thing is that I've walked up and down my street looking for her relatives and can't find them!

Second apology for nasty photos! I came in to warm up between doing the front and back yards to catch the blooms indoors and my camera and glasses fogged up! This Cyclamen was won by my husband at the Austin Garden Club Christmas Party! No one left without a few plants in tow! It's a great little club that meets monthly and engages in all sorts of volunteer gardening throughout the city...they had spiked punch...oh yea, they know how to throw a party!

Free plants and liquor...I'm there!

This is one of 3 Christmas Cactus...this one blooms both white and red on the same plant.

We did our Christmas cooking last night, also blooming on the table...Pointsettia, I miss the Pointsettia trees in Santa Barbara. It was the first time I'd seen one and I thought it must have been something else at the time.

Here's the solid red Christmas Cactus on the front porch.

I had to get down under her, but this is Loropetalum...fringe flower in the front yard.

Third apology...I could not get a shot of this Firecracker Fern whipping around in the wind...my camera simply refused to focus! What I'm documenting though is the Nastertium up from seed.

Blooming like crazy in the back is my giant Creeping Rosemary with the Nastertium blooming!

The last of the Plumbago I bet!

Hymenoxys...Four Nerve Daisy hanging on! Good grief, is that paper in there?

Lavender blooming and staying warm next to the Art Car.

Sweet Salvia Greggi refusing to die!

Copper Canyon Daisy blooming late in my yard.

Upright Rosemary

Old Blush, my favorite southern belle will go to hip soon!

These are the removed blooms from a pink Christmas Cactus given to me by a neighbor on Saturday. They are planted and I can't wait to see if they bloom for me next year!

Happy GBBD everyone! Stay warm!