flax lily Archives | Diana's Designs Austin

My garden and design photo faves of 2019

It’s a new year and I’ve just passed the 6 month milestone in a new garden. I miss so many things about my previous garden – an acre and a half that I nurtured and loved for more than 16 years. I’m also excited about having a new challenge. A BIG new challenge!

So, I’m recapping some of my favorite 2019 photos of my gardens, both old and new.

This Japanese flowering quince always joined the daffodils and hellebores as the first harbingers of spring. These are plants I will definitely incorporate into the new garden. I’ve already planted several varieties of daffodil bulbs.

The row of Mountain Laurels lining the old driveway was heady with grape-y goodness when they were all in bloom. Luckily, there is a Mountain Laurel in the new garden.

I dug up and brought several hellebores from my collection to the new house and they are thriving. I lost one in the process (I might have been too busy to take good care of them in their pots for months before I began creating a bed for them).

These lyre leaf sage also came with me. They provide lovely ground cover all year and put up these delicate blooms in the spring.

All of the Austin Garden Bloggers will recognize this as Lucinda’s iris – passalongs that I believe we all share.

Rest assured, Lori, the ditch lilies you brought me back from Wisconsin in a bucket traveled with me to the new house, too. I’d never leave those behind!

Dianella and loropetalum were building blocks in the previous garden and the will be again when I start building some big beds.

I think I’ll find a home for another ebb tide rose, too.

The current yard (it’s not a garden!) is covered with ivy. I hope to craft a happier habitat for beneficials and pollinators and birds.

I loved the hot, confetti pops of color in the front bed at the previous house. This is the one I jokingly called the hideous bed.

Swedish ivy always perked up the shadier nooks and crannies in the garden.

I fell in love with crocosmia at many Garden Bloggers Flings and was happy to add some to my garden two years ago.

I always made room for cordyline in the garden and in ornamental pots.

Of course I brought all of my pots with me. I think we moved 75 of them – yikes! Having them all here made us feel right out home on the big back deck and outdoor living areas.

This eyesore area at the new house needed an overhaul. We had to regrade, take out trees, build a French drain and dig out a dozen trashy shrub volunteers. As a small project, it was my first garden creation.

I started by giving some curves and shape to this part of the French drain to define a new bed area in this square space. Then I painted the dilapidated concrete. This area is the view out of the dining room French doors that open onto a courtyard. I designed these steel panels and had them custom built to surround the AC units at the previous house, but don’t need them here. They were perfect for adding interest to this odd space.

Plants and a bird bath were the crowning touches! The wrought iron table and chairs in the courtyard offer a lovely spot for morning coffee.

Lots of fun projects are on tap for 2020. I hope you’ll come see how things are progressing.

Happy New Year and Happy Gardening!

By Diana C. Kirby|2020-01-05T10:39:28-06:00January 5th, 2020|2019, bulbs, Cordyline, cover plants, Crocosmia, daffodils, day lilies, Dianella, ditch lily, drainage, dry creek, flax lily, four-nerve daisy, Garden, Hellebore, irises, japanese quince, lady bugs, lily, loropetalum, mountain laurel, narcissus, new bed, passalongs, quince, river rock, river rock bed, rose, roses, screen, sculpture, shade plants, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring, spring bloomers, Swedish ivy, Uncategorized|6 Comments

Winter is planning season in the garden

We’ve had such a mild winter here in Central Texas – we haven’t even had an official freeze yet at our house. A few plants have been affected by close-to-freezing temps. (Though some other gardnerers in cooler spots around the city have had one or two brief dips to or just below 32.)

It even hit 88 degrees last weekend, and I welcomed it complete with shorts, sunscreen, big hat and a few much-needed breaks inside to avoid what truly felt like heat stroke. It was January, for goodness sake!

I’d been sketching out a few ideas for changing beds — vowing to treat my own garden with the same care that I give to design clients. Than means I need to tame some overgrown plants, move some others to better locations and add in some more evergreen color to create a cohesive design.

The bed in front of the garage did well last year, but I’d neglected to prune back the pale pavonia right in front of the window. Last fall I moved the purple-blooming salvia ‘Amistad’ in front of the pavonia – they were small and leggy in their previous spot. Well, they REALLY liked this bed – so much that they grew even bigger than the pavonias behind them. Gorgeous, but unruly and completely out of scale. Pavonias: chop. Salvia ‘Amistad:’ move. Dianella: add.

They looked beautiful against the Senorita Rosalita cleome I planted in front of them, but they soon grew OVER the cleomes and the yarrow and tried to accost guest walking down the sidewalk! They will now look beautiful in the bed at the corner of the house now — I hope!

After a trip to the candy store — well, really, Vivero Growers — I found some beautiful new plants to complete my design. I added in a third variegated dianella and put in several Loropetalum ‘cabernet’ to provide more evergreen color in the bed. I left one ‘Amistad’ in between the pavonias and I promise I will keep it pruned down just a bit.

A stunning Japanese maple, Acer palatum var. dissectum ‘Tamukeyama,’ went in toward the house, where an ‘Edward Goucher’ abelia came out. To echo the burgundy colors, I added a few more Ajuga ‘black scallop’ around the dianella. The maple has deep red bark and delicate weeping branches. The leaves are very fine. I can’t wait to see it bud out. It will only get early morning sun in this spot and will be protected by the house.

The deciduous tree in front of the new maple came out – it’s a Caesalpinia gillesii, or often called by one of its common names, Yellow Bird of Paradise. It needed a drier bed – so I relocated it across the driveway to a sunnier spot with tougher conditions.

And here you see my favorite shovel — I bought it at Red Barn and it has a nice foothold for pushing down on and the handle makes it easier to get some oomph into your motion!

I haven’t re-mulched after adding in some Geo Growers thunder dirt to the bed — I’m still debating whether or not I want to plant some seeds in here in a few carefully selected spots.

Because I’m a plant collector, I don’t always follow my own design rules (or even loose guidelines) if I’ve found some wonderful new plant that HAS to get squeezed in somewhere. I also suffer from the guilt of getting rid of plants that aren’t working. Thank goodness I know so many other gardeners and garden bloggers who might have the perfect spot for things. BTW – Austin garden bloggers, I still have that nice 5 gallon-sized rock rose that came out of this been and needs a home – it’s about 2-1/2 – feet tall, but the deer keep eating it outside of the fence and I don’t have a place for it inside of the fence…first comment, first come and get it!

What are you sketching for your spring garden?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:26:57-06:00February 5th, 2016|amistad salvia, Blog, Cabernet loropetalum, Cleome, Dianella, flax lily, japanese maple, loropetalum, planning, salvia, Senorita Rosalita cleome, Sharing Nature's Garden, Tamukeyama|0 Comments

Very Variegated V…..

Phooey – I’m late for Foliage Follow-up, and I couldn’t think of anything else appropriate that starts with “V.” (Writer’s block!)

But I do have some lovely foliage in the garden thanks to some good spring weather and the recent rains.

I’ve been introducing more variegated plants into the shady areas of my garden over the last year, and they are putting on a show right now.

This is new growth on an agave that almost died last winter.

Walking my garden with me this morning, Robin of Getting Grounded commented that its foliage looks soft, not hard like an Agave. Guess that’s that fresh, new growth.

Isn’t it funny how something so tough and so spiny can also look so delicate at times?

This is a Crystal Palace Gem Geranium.
This is variegated Mikaela Euonymos – it’s a very compact shrub – hasn’t grown much at all since I planted it two years ago. The deer have munched on it once or twice, and while it didn’t do what I wanted it to do, it looks pretty right now.
The variegated Dianella — Flax lily — died back in the freezes, but they are all coming back nicely now.
This is an Agave americana var. mediopicta f. alba.
Sparkler sedge that I got at the Great Outdoors last week — Carex abula — thanks to a tip from Pam at Digging.

This is Carex hachijoensis ‘Evergold’ — well, maybe it’s not. Actually the Carex across the path is the ‘evergold’ — so this would be…..hmmmm….another kind?!
This variegated Vinca keeps coming back in the middle of my Abelia, and I will rip some of it out, but I may try to plant it somewhere that I would actually LIKE for it to grow. It is pretty.
Another variegated sedge or miscanthus — my record-keeping last summer left something to be desired, didn’t it?
These are my blooming African Hostas. Aren’t they cool? Drimiopsis maculata.
The variegated shell ginger by the pool are all coming back nicely.
And last, but not least, the variegated Eureka Lemon tree that rose from the dead and will live to fruit another day!