Patio

So it seems I haven't posted since January.  There's been rather a lot going on.  The biggest thing (thankfully) is that I moved house. Sylvan and I now live in a duplex on the opposite end of town, and aside from some freak-accident plumbing issues in the first couple of weeks, we both really love it.  The place is small, but good.

And it has a lovely backyard patio area.  It was finished, freshly power-washed, and just waiting for someone to love it when we moved in.  Here's a quick sketch:

made with Icovia

The patio surface itself is tumbled aggregate cemented over the slab - kind of golden brown and agate-y.  A lot of people hate this kind of surface because it's outdated (the house was built in 1965, after all); but I like it.  It's natural-looking, and easier to keep clean than plain concrete.

It also coordinates well with the 3' wide gravel-filled garden bed to the north of the patio (sorry, guys, north is at the bottom in this pic), and to the south underneath the big paving stones that are set into the ground there.  On top of the gravel are a trio of stepping stones in the same tumbled aggregate. 

On the west (left) side of the patio is a wooden trellis built into a frame, which comes down from the roofline - the whole thing is covered, and shaded. Woohoo! 

I put an outdoor rug down to cushion my (and my dogs') feet against the aggregate, and matching blue chairs.  I also put nearly all of the former houseplants out here. 

The poor houseplants got no light at all at the old house.  I crowded them around every available light source, and rotated them from room to room, but by the time I moved out, nearly all of them were dying.  Being outside, however, has perked up every single one of them.  "Dying" plants are now blooming and putting out new branches for the first time in years!  With the exception of one scorched Dracaena which I placed in direct sunlight by mistake, everyone's done great.  Everyone also got a new pot, and fresh dirt, about three weeks ago, and they're loving it. 

Daisy surveys her domain

One day I'll figure out how to get a nice picture of lights,  but for now, I'll just tell you that to the left of this picture, , I have several tiny hanging plants in little pots hanging from hooks on the trellis, as well as several little colored glass "Moroccan" candle lanterns with LED tealights in them.

There's also a string of 1" cracked glass globe lights lining the entire top edge of the patio area.  When it and the candles are all lit up in the evening, it's really lovely. 

Too bad my camera HATES it.

Here's that bougainvillea. I have no idea what variety it is - I rescued it from a table full of sad-looking plants that were marked down and ready to be thrown in the trash.  It's a little stringy and slow, but it'll be just fine eventually.

This little guy starts out white, then slowly turns to pink, then hot pink. 

Almost-mature flower bracts.

A little scene I made on the table by my chair, hoping to learn to draw silver, and reflections in shiny metal.  It's harder than it looks.

A Rabbit's Foot Fern, which has fuzzy rhizomes that [will eventually] stick over the side of the container.  They look like tarantula legs.

Tiny spotty neighbor is a Scilla of some kind, but I forget which.  The only thing I really know about this plant is that cats LOVE it and will mow the entire thing flat in a single night while you're asleep. 

Tarantula legs!

A wee "Moss Rose" Portulaca.  I have grown these for nearly twenty years.  I love their little waxy flowers. And the fact that you can practically just LOOK at them and they make more plants.

I can never remember what these are called. 

But no kidding, this died over a year ago. I forgot to clean out the pot and just left it - keeping plants at the last house was just a Sisyphean clusterfuck, and I got so disheartened. 

I stuck this pot out on the patio to see if I could figure out what to put in it. In the meantime, it got watered along with everything else, and after about two weeks, it sprouted a leaf! And then it sprouted another one!

This is my Asparagus Fern, now about 4' across.  It was drooping badly, pale and dusty looking.  In addition to lack of light, it was ridiculously potbound.

All of the plants got new pots and soil.  About three weeks later, this guy threw up a THICK new stalk - it was so big, I thought another plant had taken root in the pot.  It had been so long since this thing made a new branch that I'd forgotten what a new branch looks like.

Ghost branch.

A Coleus, and a Dracaena (var. Janet Craig). 

Fun fact about me: I think I might be a hoarder.  Or at least, was headed down that road, before the move.  Thanks to that, at least, I had a BUNCH of nice flowerpots in the garage.  I used them all on this patio, and recycled all the plastic, and threw away all the broken, ancient terra cotta. Didn't spend a penny, and everybody got a new outfit. 

A red Mandevilla I picked up at the store when I went to buy soil for the pots. Oops. 

This is on one of the stepping stones to the north (bottom) of the patio, in the gravel area. The metal trellis behind it in this picture is an old Ikea iron headboard, which has made a really good trellis over the years. 

Two Dracaenas (Warneckii) and a pot full of itty bitty Sansivieras. These plants are the ones that are struggling the most to come back from the half-dead.

Especially since the Warneckiis were a single plant until about three weeks ago.  It'll be fine - this plant is over 20 years old, and I've split it and repotted the parts probably a dozen times.















That's all for now.  I've got some woodworking projects and some art I'm working on. My duplex-neighbor is moving out this weekend, and the owers are going to be doing some work around the place.  I think I'll talk to them about maybe doing some real, in-ground gardening, now that my neighbor's 15,000 dollar-store lawn ornaments will be out of the way. 

A Storm, and Some New Plants

It rained Sunday morning. The way the news fussed about it, you'd think it was
going to rain frogs and kill everyone in the state. It was pretty epic, but it was also
really nice to wake up and enjoy my coffee to the sounds of a thunderstorm.

My front garden is under water!  Note the big, empty spot in the center
there where a kind squirrel has been good enough to relieve me of all of
the  Caladiums that I planted there in February.

Flooded yard.  Apparently people all over the Austin area got just
pounded by this storm - there was a lot of straight-line wind damage,
and even reports of a funnel cloud in west Austin. 
All I got was a lot of water. 

Like, a LOT.  Bye-bye, mulch.

After the storm cleared, it was a GORGEOUS day, which I
used for a quick trip to It's About Thyme to shop for pretty
things to pot up for the patio. There's a blue Plumbago here, with
a Pink Jasmine, and a Fernleaf Lavender.

Veggies and herbs on this side, along with the columbines in the EarthBox
 from the front yard.  Yellow Pear tomatoes, a "Patio Tomato", Serrano pepper,
onion chives,  a dentata lavender, Lime Mint - and you can't tell in this picture,
but the  potted rosemary from the front yard is now planted in the ground,
just off  the corner of the slab.

Daisy assisted, and then we both sat on the patio and rested for a while.
She watched the birds. 

A Saw! A Paintbrush! Hoocha Hoocha Hoocha - LOBSTER.

So, anyway...


Back in 2010 I built this pot rack shelfy thing for my kitchen, out of cheap 2"  sleepers, painted to match the walls.

Seemed like a good idea at the time.  And it worked - my pots and pans were right there, ready to grab; and for a while, at least, the trash can being somewhat sheltered kept the dog out of it.  Until she figured out how to drag it out and open the lid (without knocking it over, even).

Once I began living alone (nearly a year ago, now!), I had far more cabinet space, so my pots and pans got new homes out of sight, and the pot rack that I built moved to the back porch, as a beautiful potted plant display random-crap-I-couldn't-be-arsed-to-put-away repository.

Last night, finally fed up with it looking like hell, not matching the house, and being completely too big and in my way, I took a saw and some black paint to it:

And because I'm nothing if not consistent, I hereby vow to: 

• fill this with beautiful plants and toys
• put the tools away that are standing in the corner
• finish cleaning up and updating the rest of the porch, and
• post pics when I'm done. 

None of which, as you know, will get done.  But hey, you never know.  

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Front Porch Stuff

A wee green Oxalis, in a pot given to me by a friend, along with a cute little blue glass watering globe:

A Jade plant from Ikea, $7 - one this size (6" pot) at the local everything-store is usually twice that, and in terrible condition!   It's tucked into this old, painted, terra cotta pot as a cachepot, until I read up on care and feeding.  It's been several years since I killed one of these. 

And then there's this monster.  This is a Wisteria vine given to me by a [different] friend.  When she said she had one for me, I assumed it was a wee start from a nursery, and that I'd have every chance in the world to keep on top of pruning, root pruning, etc., to make sure its size didn't become unmanageable.  You know how these things are.  

But no, what showed up on my front doorstep was this thing, which is over half as tall as I am, and nearly half as tall as the front porch post that I was going to plant it near!   

ceci n'est pas un car battery.

I honestly don't know that I have anywhere to plant this where it'll be adequately supported.  There's already a vine on the back porch post.  The back fence isn't exactly falling down, but it's closing in on ten years old, and it's not in any shape to support something this hardcore.   

It may be time to shell out for some lumber and build the half-pergola I've been wanting to put in for, oh, nearly ten years now.  I'd better do it quickly, or at least get the site measured out and plant the damned vine. 

It should feel right at home, at least.  It came with its own fire ants.  I have those.  I hope they all get along. 

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"Vegetable Garden"

As I said, I won't be able to have a "real" vegetable garden this year - at least not until fall.  But in the meantime, I just had to have some tomatoes.  It's been years since I had an actual container garden, and I'm kind of excited to be starting one up again!

New additions to the back porch:

a Serrano pepper

"Juliet" and "Homestead" tomatoes

Despite the complaints from my lower back, I actually had fun digging out the compost bin to fill these pots.  There was some good stuff under there!

After I potted these veggies up, I swept and washed the patio floor, walls, and windows, and hosed off all the furniture, too.  At first I thought I'd have the strawberry on the wall...then the two tomato plants, which, when grown in, should shade that side of the porch a bit, but without blocking light from the living room windows.

Now I'm thinking I may just create a whole container garden out there!  For the time being, though, I need to deal with the two Clematis vines by the side of the porch that are going to need support very soon.

More later this week!


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BRB

I'm heading out for a camping vacation for a week in Mississippi; but first, I wanted to share some pics from my front porch and garden before I go:

The rose in the front garden is getting leafy again.
So are the weeds, but, I'll deal with that when I get back. 

A gardening friend bought me this lovely Bougainvillea yesterday!  

I've moved the buckets from the front door, since the one on the right was getting in the way of the storm door opening
properly.  The Begonias are loving it here, but the ferns...um, apparently not.  Different watering/sunlight needs.
Meanwhile, there's a strawberry still in its nursery pot; and a Fernleaf Lavender that is just taking OFF.  (It's in a real
pot, and you can't even see it, it's grown so fast!) 

Wishing you all lots of green leaves until I get back.  :)


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One Small Step For A Front Porch

There's a lot new going on at home, folks, so this one will be quick and dirty (pardon the pun).

Once Upon A Time: 

Every year, actually with new plants.  This was 2010, with Hostas and Purple Heart. 

Before: 

Empty containers. 

After:  

Begonias and ferns in the silver planters; plus a Fernleaf Lavender
and a strawberry I haven't planted in the front bed yet. :) 

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