river rock bed Archives | Page 2 of 2 | Diana's Designs Austin

Spring garden project …before, during and during…

It’s time for spring garden projects — time to implement the ideas that have been percolating over the winter, waiting for sunny days and a fresh, new start.

A section of my landscape has been sad for several seasons. It wasn’t quite what I wanted and most of the plants just wouldn’t grow anymore. Lantana wasn’t growing, for heaven’s sake. What does that tell you?!

So, this week, we (the royal we – meaning I had help!) dug up the strip of grass designed as a contrast, shoveled up the existing rock to make a more natural-looking dry creek, brought in a yard of soil and turned up what little existing soil was there — some of which was caliche and some was actually road base, left by the construction workers when they built the house 12 years ago. Seriously? You just dumped it here?

I planted a row of bright edge yuccas and some mystic spires salvia along with a firecracker fern. There are still some Mexican mint marigold there, along with some blackfoot daisies that are going to have to move, but I had to look at them with the other plants to make decisions about what to do with them.

So, it’s not done-done, but it’s pretty close and I’ve got a good sense of what I’ll do next.

When it comes to spring projects, are you still plotting or planting?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:32-05:00February 13th, 2013|Blog, bright edge yucca, dry creek, landscape project, projects, river rock bed, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Signs of fall in my garden…plants and projects…

There are several signs of fall in my Central Texas garden. The Mexican Mint Marigold is in full bloom after a summer of green. I can always count on their bright and cheerful flowers after the temperatures begin to cool.
The fall asters are look like lavender firecracker bursts with the fine little petals.
The end of summer also brings out these sunflowers – Helianthus Maxmilliani. They are rather leggy this year from getting too much shade under the oak trees, but I still love their statuesque 6 feet tall form.

Blooms are the only thing that comes with the fall garden. As the temperatures drop, I get the itch to start a garden project…or two!
This little bed on the edge of our woods was pure happenstance. After laying out the bed below, I had quite a bit of leftover recycled glass and decided to make use of it, clearing out little understory scrub oaks and cedars and making a proper place for the birdbath that was tucked in the brush.
But this was the real project. This very large terra cotta pot (not my favorite) had been sitting at the edge of the woods gathering dead leaves, because I kept forgetting to water it and the deer kept eating my plants.

So I decided to move it to the crushed granite path entrance as a focal point and surround it with some recycled glass so it would look like a pond leading into the dry river rock dry creek.

Inside it, I planted a volunteer agave, from a passalong given to me by Phillip of East Side Patch . (One of many, I might add! He’s renown for sharing his agaves.)

And the small river rock outlining the tributary came as a donation from my neighbors — left over from a project they did and sitting by the side of the road with grass growing in it! I asked to buy some and they gave it to me.

With the free rock, $5 worth of recycled glass from the city, and old pot and a volunteer agave, this was designing on a budget! My only real cost was labor for the help I had hauling and spreading the rock.

I’m happy with the result, and now I have some more space in the accidental bed for planting! Imagine that!
While we’ve had temps down to 40, the days can still get up to 80 here, so we have about another month to garden here.

What’s on your fall project list? Or is fall already over for you?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:25-06:00November 6th, 2010|Agave, Blog, dry creek, fall asters, Mexican Mint Marigold, new bed, recycled glass, river rock bed, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Rain, rain, come again!

The last few weeks we’ve had an uncharacteristic amount of rain here in Austin. No real relief from the heat, mind you, so it’s been a tropical sauna.

Since it’s such an unusual occurence, I had to capture some of the beauty of the water in the garden.

A lovely, long cool drink in the garden. And this week, fall will really arrive — tonight’s low is forecast to be 58 gloriously cool degrees!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:12-05:00September 26th, 2010|bird bath, Blog, Moy Grande hibiscus, rain, river rock bed, Sharing Nature's Garden, water restrictions|0 Comments

And some new clothes to go with the haircuts!

We have a little drainage problem here at Nature’s Garden. Well, we have several.

Which I am sure seems odd when you consider we are living in a drought-stricken area that’s just hot and dry at best.

But when the rains do come, everything floods around here because it’s all clay and limestone (like at Gail’s!), and the water pours off instead of seeping in.

And our homebuilder didn’t anticipate the volume of water we get and how it might collect in places where you try to get into your house.

So, yesterday, after 5-1/2 years, I finally took care of the front walk. In a good rain, we got a lake on the walkway about 3+ feet wide. NOT enough to step over if you were coming to our front door.

Of course we don’t use the front door ourselves, hence my procrastination. But it’s cold out and I can’t plant yet, so I had to think of some other garden project to do!

So after removing several inches of mulch and some soil, a dry river rock stream bed now graces the front of the house.

I like it. It adds interest and texture in some big beds.

And it really will be a stream in May when the rains come (IF they come this year).
Nice, huh?
And I just couldn’t resist taking pictures of some lovely Spring color — the daffodils like this breezy weather.
And, in spite of a cool day today, this Verbena is smokin’ HOT, don’t you think?