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.