Because Weather

"I know, summer doesn't officially start until June 21st, but it's been in the 90s for half of May already.  It may not be summer yet, technically, but it's already feeling like it."

- Me, on this blog, May 21, 2015.  

Three days ago it was 85ºF, and this morning when I left the house to go to work, it was 32º. 
(Insert obligatory "welcome to Texas" joke). 

Thankfully, all the new plants seemed to be perfectly happy despite the cold this morning. Thank goodness it wasn't also raining.

Although it DID rain two nights ago, and I'm pleased to report that the new mulch prevented the rain cascading off the roofline from digging a trench in the bed.  It wasn't a frog-floater, by any means, but that was the first test passed.  I imagine it'll be a month or two before we get a big, thundering gully-washer and I'll find out exactly how stable the mulch layer actually is.

Two Favorite Flowers

Columbines 

me, 2017

My grandparents lived in White Rock, New Mexico, which is a little bitty village about 40 minutes up the mountain from Santa Fe, near Los Alamos and about a thousand little ski resorts.  We drove up there several times a year when I was a kid, most often in the spring and summer.  I spent countless hours there wandering the little streets, gawking at all the alien trees and the huge mountains, and touching and smelling all the flowers that were planted within arm's reach of the sidewalks and streets.

One of the houses a couple of streets over from my grandparents' house had columbines.  And I mean, they had hundreds of plants, all over the yard and in the traffic strip, so that walking past that house you were surrounded by columbines in every color and shape.

Best of all was a tiny, cheerful sign with flowers painted on it, which said, "Pick some!"  I did, on every walk, and every walk ended high atop the tallest slide at the local playground, watching the evening thunderstorms roll in over the mountaintops, with fistfuls of graceful, cheerful columbines piled in my lap.

Clematis

 

also me

While I love all Clematises, especially Sweet Autumn, 'Romantika' is my absolute favorite, simply
because I have gotten to know one of them, and it's been a constant friend for nearly twenty years.

I bought it when I was 22, and grew it in a container where it clambered around an upside-down tomato cage for nearly six years, moving with me from apartment to apartment.  When I bought my last home in 2004, I planted the vine in the ground for the very first time, and there it stayed for twelve years, wrapping itself around the post on my back porch each year, each year growing longer vines and larger flowers.

I could always count on 'Romantika' to come back bushier and brighter, every time it was cut back for the winter - or if it got out of hand and I had to shear it back to the ground to start over, which I did at least twice a year.  This plant above all others, I wanted to bring with me to the new place - it had stuck by me for so long, longer than people, or places, or any other possession. It was part of me. So I cut it back one last time, intending to dig up the root ball once it recovered and started growing again; but it never did.  I was heartbroken to see it finally go, especially at a time I was letting go of a place I had anchored to and wanted desperately to keep a little bit of it with me.  I hope to find a new one soon (the original came from Joy Creek Nursery in Oregon). It won't be my same old friend, which sheltered me from the rain on the back porch, hosted many families of lizards and birds, and shone a thousand different shades of green in the morning sunlight -- but it'll be just as beautiful to look at and sit under.

"Unknown Variety"

I'm disappointed by how many of my plants didn't come with labels, or had labels with less than complete information.  I like to know what I'm growing.

So, I made a list!

Plants In the Front Beds as of 02-12-2017: 

SUN
Columbine, "Harlequin Mix" (Aquilegia vulgaris), some container, some in the ground
Lavender, "Goodwin Creek" (Lavandula x ginginsii "Goodwin Creek")
Lavender, English (Lavandula angustifolia)
Strawberry, unknown variety (Frgaria), container
Rosemary, unknown variety (Rosmarinus officinalis), container
Powell's Crinum Lily (Crinum powellii), from the old house
Iris, German Bearded, "Before the Storm" (Iris germanica), from the old house
Iris, German Bearded, unknown variety, pale purple (Iris germanica), from the old house
Garlic chives, unknown variety (Allium tuberosum), from the old house
Autumn Sage, white (Salvia gregii, unknown variety)

PARTIAL/DAPPLED SUN
"Serenade" Azalea (Rhododendron x 'Serenade')
Hosta (Hosta spp.) "Patriot" and something that was labeled "Old Glory" but isn't
Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum),  container
Louisiana Iris (Iris x spp.) "Full Eclipse"
Caladuim (Caladium x hortulanum) "White Christmas"

MOSTLY/FULL SHADE
Cyclamen, unknown variety, white (Cyclamen persicum)
Bird's Nest Fern, "Victoria" (Asplenium nidus x 'Victoria') 
Japanese Holly Fern (Cyrtonium falcatum)
Swedish Ivy (Plectranthus verticillatus), container
 

I'm sure I'll add to or change things around in these beds, depending on how things fill in (or don't), and as I learn which plants are happy in their new homes and which aren't. I may also end up planting some things in the yard, or scattering containers about.  I haven't decided yet.

Small Steps, Into An Early Spring

Last week, three things happened:  a Texas Mountain Laurel in my neighborhood burst into bloom, I noticed that many of the trees around were budding and beginning to show new leaves, and a friend texted me a picture of a bluebonnet by the side of the road, fully open.  In early February.  I've lived in Austin all my life, and I've never seen a bluebonnet open before March!  The grasshoppers and katydids are already out and about; and it makes me wonder what the junebug population at this new house looks like. I detest those things.  More than anything, though, it all makes me worried for this summer - how bad is it going to get this year? La Nina is over, and NOAA tells us that we're in kind of a stable place for the moment, but how long will that last? When will the next El Nino pattern begin, and how severe will it be?

Well, whatever happens, for the time being it meant that I got to get my front garden up and running several weeks earlier than I'd planned.  While I'd intended to dig and prep the beds over the winter when it was cold, and let them sit for a while, I never got around to it (too much else to do, and too cold!)  So I ended up doing it all over this past weekend.

Thankfully, the soil in the front beds isn't bad at all - it was planted, once, and while it was then ignored for many years, it was full of good, black soil, a bit of red clay, and underneath it all, the remains of somebody's old rock garden, full of sand and red pumice.  No wonder it drains so well in the rain!

This was taken in December, but until Saturday it stayed about the same - though many more leaves had collected in the beds.  Between these two front beds, and what had blown into drifts on the driveway, I filled up my 96-gallon yard waste bin to capacity with JUST leaves.  Holy crap!

I broke up the soil here with my garden claw, and mixed in a blend of compost, planting mix, and peat moss; and covered the whole thing with hardwood mulch.

I'm hoping, by the way, since there are no gutters on this house, that the mulch will be proof enough against the rain that sheets off the roof, especially in the corner behind the post.  It's supposed to rain frogs tomorrow, so I guess I'll find out.

The next day, I started by disinterring all of the plant scraps I'd harvested from the old house, and which had been heeled into a plastic planter box all winter.  After cleaning them all up and dividing what could be divided, I ended up with 2 garlic chives, 3 pink crinums, and 15 irises! I have no idea which irises are which, by the way - some are light purple, and some are the purple-black "Before the Storm" that I've grown for years.

I also went plant shopping, for the first time in years.  I'd missed doing that, so much!  The nursery folks didn't bat an eyelash, but there was a gentleman at the Lowe's I visited who seemed to be enjoying the sight of a crazy lady petting all the leaves and smelling everything.  Maybe he thought I was stealing things.

And so, for the first time in over twelve years, I got to build a garden, and populate it, completely from scratch - from the ground up, if you will.  (I know, I had to dig deep for that one).  Where my front and back yards were in full sun all day, every day at the old house; the front yard here is almost entirely dappled shade, and the front beds only see a touch of full sun, for a bare three hours a day:

 

I reserved those spots for a couple of lavenders and columbines.  Everything else in the beds are part-full shade, which is an area of gardening I've never really gotten to work with before, so we'll see how it all turns out. 

Here's a direct view of the front entrance.  I matched up plantings right by the sidewalk - chives and azaleas, and blue ceramic pots that need to be planted (there's a fern thrown into one for now, but it isn't staying there).

Except for those matched plantings, everything else in the beds is pretty much only arranged by sun requirements.

New beds look so empty! I did a ton of work over the weekend, and yet this looks like not much is happening.  I can't wait to see it in a few months when everything's huge and fluffy. 

Most of the flower colors here are purple, aside from the pink azaleas.  They won't be up for a while yet, but the empty places in the bed are full of white caladiums, to fill in around the feet of the taller things, and to bring a little light to the shady places.

Back in the corner is a Bird's Nest Fern which is about 2' across.  I've had it in a pot for several months in this corner, and it seems to love it here.  I've wanted one of these every since I saw Paul James with one on his show.  It's surrounded by Japanese Holly Fern, and hostas.  I love hostas, but I haven't been able to grow any for nearly a decade and a half!

The Tree of Things I Don't Know Where To Plant:
A rosemary that was once a Christmas-tree shape, now pruned into a ball wad; and my Earth Box, which is now full of baby Columbine plants that will one day go into the back yard (?).



I'll be back in a couple of days with a list of all the plants that went into these beds, and plans for whatever thing is next.

Cat tax.