Armchair Gardening

How many people read this blog, anyway? Like two? Well, if either of you has been wondering why I stopped posting, here it is: 

On May 14th, I broke two bones in my right foot (for my fellow nerds: extra-articular calcaneus fracture; it's cuboid neighbor basically got its top sheared off), and hyperextended the ligament that wraps around the outside of my ankle.  As much as I'd like to be able to say it's a cool cycling injury - because I was out on a ride when it happened - it actually happened while I was off the bike posing for a group picture.  And yes, I finished the ride after it happened, because I didn't know it was broken.  I thought, "Well, you stepped in a hole, dork.  But the motion of the pedals should limber up that sore foot, right?  And I'll just ice it when I get home."  But by the time we got to downtown Austin I couldn't put my foot down at stoplights and had to switch feet; by the time we got back to the shop I couldn't walk anymore.  I drove home, slowly and carefully, and in a lot of pain, and then my roommate took me to the ER.

For the past four weeks, and likely the next four as well, I'm stuck in a big, velcro space-boot, wheeling around on a little blue knee-scooter.  That part is pretty cool.  The crutches I started out with were destroying my hands; the scooter is fast, comfy, versatile, and has a dinky little basket on the front which has been a life-saver at work.  The scooter feels something like being on a bike and a skateboard at the same time, which has been a bit confusing to my reflexes (do I bunny-hop over this extension cord on the floor, or ollie it?)

This means no gardening for me, aside from sitting in a chair or on the couch, thinking about gardening.  Thankfully, it's been raining about once a week for the past month; but with warmer and drier weather setting in, I'm thinking about that sprinkler I never got around to buying a few months ago.  Sure, I could wrap a trash bag around my leg and water by hand - but I can't really stand up that long.  Popping down the street to the nursery isn't as easy as it was: I have to pack the scooter in the car, take off the boot to drive, put it back on when I get there, unpack the scooter, then traverse the parking lot and store without bumping into anyone and without being able to carry much in my basket...all the while knowing that if any one were to harrass or attack me while I'm out on my own, I couldn't defend myself or run away.  Not that I'm exactly Van Damme on my best day, but still - knowledge of your own vulnerability is, well, it's pretty much the human condition anyway, isn't it?  So, whatever.  Shut up, brain.

Anyway.

Even if I haven't been doing much lately, I hate to leave you without any pictures.  Most of these were taken during the last storm, so, just know that in these pictures, I'm wearing a trash bag on my right leg:

First flower cluster on my first Plumbago

I love the way this Oak looks in the rain

This ball moss, all decked out in dead leaves and raindrops

My friend Star brought me a basket of
Petunias when I broke my foot   <3

I can't get over how cool the bark is on this Lace Bark
Elm in the front yard.  I love this tree. 

Raindrops on roses leaves is one of my favorite things.
This Caladium was in my bag of "White Christmas"
Caladiums, but I think it's a different kind.

I bought this gal in May, shown here on a trail near my house which I only
discovered two days before the ride during which I broke my foot...which
was only my 5th ride on it.  I cannot wait to get rolling again.   

See you both next time.

My New, Very Loud Neighbor

I may be down one giant spider, but I'm up one giant, extremely loud cicada:

This little guy (gal?) was hanging out in the Live Oak tree in my front yard this past weekend. It's about 4" long.

I'm not sure what kind of cicada it is; I sent the pics with a query to www.whatsthatbug.com, which is a
FANTASTIC website if you haven't been.  Go check it out!

So beautiful.  SO LOUD. 

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The Last Day of Spring

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. 

Today, though, it's cool and overcast, as gigantic storms race past, mostly to the north of where I live.  It's been a rainy spring so far (thank you, El Nino!), and for once, Texas has been officially declared out of the drought that's been beating down on us for the past several years.  Who knows how long it'll last; but for now, it's a beautiful, grey, restful day.  

I took a walk this morning, which is something I haven't done for nearly a year.  I used to walk every evening, but last Summer, when the crushing heat and my asthma got the better of me, I joined a gym, and traded my daily walk for a workout in the air conditioning each day after work.  That lasted from about June to November, when I lost my job and was no longer driving by the gym every day at 6:00.  I've been active since then, but nowhere near the level I was before.  

So I took a walk this morning.  And more than the exercise, it reminded me how much I love walking around my neighborhood.  It's not an affluent neighborhood, but it's well kept, simple, and pretty.  I love getting to see everyone's landscaping and exterior decor - and it was nice to see how much my old favorites have grown and changed in the last year.  I had almost forgotten about "The Garden House", a block behind where I live, which is is beautifully landscaped, so pretty and nearly-wild-looking, that I want to roll in the beds every time I walk by.  It was that house which made me decide to get a Chaste Tree for my backyard.  

Every time I walk - today, and I remember doing it every time I walked last year - I feel so refreshed and inspired by everyone else's landscapes...and then I get home, look at my front yard, and go, "...Oh."  My front garden is looking better and better, with all the work I've been putting into it this year, and my Bluebonnet patch looks really lovely while it's in bloom (it's already done for the year), but the rest of the yard is pretty...well...not "bad", but not all that great, either.  It slopes steeply to the street from the house, and the fact that it barely retains water at all means that my grass has never done well.  In fact, the front yard is mostly made up of buzz-cut weeds and a patchy carpet of tiny, sprawling weeds that look like itty bitty ferns and are covered with tiny pink starburst-flowers growing from long runners covered with hidden thorns.  Not that I mind - you know how I love a wild mishmash of Whatever Grows Here in place of a boring monoculture lawn;  I just wish it was healthier. 

Last year I built a small ring of those concrete cobblestones I pulled out of what used to be the back patio around the small Live Oak tree in the front yard, and backfilled it with compost and mulch, to help retain water for the tree - and it's done REALLY well.  The canopy has nearly doubled in size since I pruned it back in January! Similar water-retention efforts in the backyard in the areas where the yard slopes the most have worked out really well in the past, too.  So I think I've decided to create a water-retention garden at the front of my front lawn.  

Here's what the yard looks like now: 

(Made with Icovia Space Planner)

The slope from the house to the sidewalk is only about a 10• drop, but it's enough that the whole "front half" of the yard (from the tree to the sidewalk) is pretty dry, even in the wettest weather.  In heavy rains, the soil and all the grass and weeds growing in that front half washes almost completely away.  So I think I'll do this: 

That looks like an enormous difference. It's not, really (and no the drawings aren't exactly to scale, but they're close enough for me to get an idea of how things look).  It's a 16" border at the end of the lawn, on both sides of the driveway, which I'm hoping to plant with Columbines, more purple Irises (to echo the flower and color scheme in the front garden bed), and whatever small greenery happens my way as I'm developing and implementing this plan.  I'm also planning to fill the traffic strip, between the sidewalk and street, with similar plantings, to create a pretty little walkway between flowers (HOA be damned. They don't like it when we plant our traffic strips, but since that area is technically city property, they can't stop us, either. The only thing the city says about it is "be ready to have it dug up without notice if we ever need to", and I'm fine with that).  

The plan also calls for more cobblestone pathways to be laid near the driveway to provide more walking space, since I have a roommate now, and therefore two cars in the driveway.  For the first time in eleven years, I'll actually need to buy more cement and make NEW stones!  I've actually finally used up all the stones from the old patio (in various garden borders, tree circles, and some low areas in the backyard where, for right now, they're helping keep the soil and grass in place as the grass finishes growing into the spots where Raven used to dig).  

It'll be awhile before I can get to work implementing this.  I'm still unemployed (six months, you guys!!), but I'm hopeful that that situation is going to be ended soon.  Sometime in the next couple of weeks I need to make a few runs to the dump to stock up on mulch; and my compost bin is nearly ready to be emptied out - I have roughly 9 cubic feet of compost just about ready to go (YAY!!), which is more than enough to cover the lawn-side beds on both sides of the driveway - maybe not the traffic strip, but, we'll see how it all goes. 

Anyway.  As soon as I can get more cement for the stones, and make a nursery run, I'll get started on this.  I'll let you know how it goes. :)

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News From the Front Yard

Texas Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) in the front yard

Slightly less exciting when you see them from a distance,
LOL.  But the patch is growing!  

Magenta African Daisies (Osteospermum) and red Cyclamen in the front bed

My yellow roses, now five years old; and my purple irises, some of which have grown under-
neath the rose bush and mingle with it. :) 

Leafminers on my culinary sage. 

More African Daisies.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE the camera on my new phone? Wow. 

The whole front yard scene - again, less exciting in its entirety.  I'm working on it. :) 

That big bush by the electrical box (and let me tell you how utterly overjoyed I've been about its
presence for eleven years...) is the only plant that I still have from the original builder's plantings
in front of the front porch.  I think the very first thing I did after I moved into the house in 2004
was to remove ALL of the builders' plantings, five each Nandina (which I detest) and these
things.  I potted them all up and put them on the curb with a sign that said "FREE PLANTS"

 - all except for this guy.  And in eleven years, this is all the growing it's done.  It has little dirty-looking white flowers in the spring and early summer, smells like oven clearner and gym socks, and I can NEVER remember its name.  I tried googling for it, but nothing comes up when I search for "fugly generic bushes nobody actually plants intentionally."  Except for the four people who took the FREE PLANTS within like two hours after I put them on the curb. Suckers! 

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It Was An Ambush

Let's see...

• roomate moved out, been focusing on the house mostly, not the yard
• yard grew to like nineteen feet high, and
• became overrun with these weird, indestructible weeds that went from "what is that cute little thing?" to "WE'RE SURROUNDED! RUN!" in like half a day
• oh, and also, like half the damn yard is suddenly covered in spiders mites.  What??  AUGH.  
• Plus all the veggies died because I quit smoking and forgot to water them. 
• best part: the yarrow has taken over the front beds so thoroughly and rambunctiously that I got a letter from my HOA about it.  FML.  

Sigh. 

Update soon...

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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A Weekend of Gardening: Saturday

Holy crud, I did a lot of work in the yard this weekend!

Front Yard and Garden

• Mowed the yard
• Hoed and weeded the front garden bed
• Planted the Fernleaf Lavender in the front bed, that's been in a pot on the porch for weeks
• Found a wee elm tree in the front bed!  Hooray for volunteer trees! 
• Cut down a big, overgrown Gorizia Rosemary in the front yard that was in. The. Way.  In the process, I discovered SIX clones that had layered themselves off the main plant!  I moved one to the back yard, and heeled in the other five to give to friends.  

This was basically a giant Yarrow patch before.  

Fernleaf Lavender (Lavandula multifida)

The first roses and buds of the year. These start out yellow, then ripen to a pretty pale cream. 

Goodbye, Rosemary.  

Rosemary clones heeled in to open space in the front bed, awaiting pickup. 

More tomorrow!


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A Bunch of Trees

I couldn't find a collective noun describing "a random collection of trees" - things like copse, orchard, stand, etc. all refer to a group of the same type of tree.

I'm a dork.  You know, in case you hadn't already figured that out.

Anyway, allow me to present to you my own personal bunch of trees:

Front Yard

The Measley Oak in the front yard, sometimes called
"Builder's Oak" or "I wish I had the money to replace this".
(It's a Texas Live Oak, and will grow to be far to large for my
yard. Thanks, builders). 

That's it!  Thanks, bye.


 Back Yard

Mulberry Tree, only six years old, which started out as a wee seedling. 

A Mexican Orchid Tree, actually a great shaggy shrub,
pruned to a tree form last year for the first time. 

A wee Chasteberry, only a year old, Spring 2012

More on all of them as time goes on. :)


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