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Sharing Nature’s Garden

How to use color, texture and movement to add depth to your landscape…

Our beautiful fall weather makes it the perfect time to visit your local independent garden centers and do some fall planting.

This Sunday, October 27 at 2:00 p.m., I hope you’ll join me for my upcoming appearance at It’s About Thyme Garden Center 11726 Manchaca Rd. (512) 282-1192, for my presentation on:

Jazzing Up The Garden with Color, Texture and Movement

I’ll be talking about using fundamental elements of design to unify your landscape.  Learn how the addition of color, contrast, texture and repetition can add interest and harmony to your garden.  


With just a few strategic additions, you can enhance your landscape with depth and dimension.  Learn how to brighten up a shady garden or how to add texture to show off your prized plants.

If you’re interested in taking your garden to the next level, or if you’ve been reading my Austin American Statesman gardening columns, I hope you’ll come join me in person on Sunday.

Hope to see you there!

By |2017-11-29T23:27:12-06:00October 25th, 2013|Blog, color, contrast, garden talk, It's About Thyme, movement, Moy Grande hibiscus, rythym, Sharing Nature's Garden, speaking engagement, texture, yucca|0 Comments
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Too much of a good thing means TLC for my Mexican olive tree…

We’ve had about 7 inches of glorious rain over the course of the last week.  Plants that were gasping in the drought are lush and full.  Plants are re-blooming and those that didn’t bloom at all are now full of color.  It’s been heartwarming to witness.

Rain water is considered “soft” water. Void of the chemicals found in treated water. Its also highly oxygenated and normally of a neutral PH.

Read more: http://www.physicsforums.com

One reason the rain has made such a difference because we’ve had so much of it.  It’s also because rain water is so much better than treated municipal water because it is “soft” water that is oxygenated and has a relatively neutral pH.  (Unlike more industrial areas that may experience acid rain)

There have been a few casualties, though.  After the 6″ deluge last weekend, I went out to inspect everything and discovered that my new Mexican Olive tree was lying down – literally.  At the end of a slight slope, the rush of water loosened the soil enough that the top heavy canopy and lack of well-established roots toppled the tree. 

I knew I had to act quickly — I had no stakes and the ground was squishy with more rain coming.  So, necessity being the mother of invention, I pushed up the trunk with my back and used a sturdy  outdoor chair to brace it.  Then I used a roll of plant tie on the other side to keep it upright, tied around a neighboring tree. 

It’s still working.  When the ground dries up it will clearly need to be staked for a while.  That will be at the top of my garden to-do list, because this tree has become my new favorite. 

The Mexican Olive tree, Cordia boissieri,can grow  to 30 feet tall and it has  large, dark green leaves and bold clusters of trumpet-shaped white flowers that are ruffled like crepe paper. It also has an attractive, structual trunk. It can’t tolerate really cold winters, but it has been grown with success in Austin, when we don’t have a winter like several years ago with 3 days and nights below freezing.  It is drought tolerant and attracts birds and butterflies with its bloom and fruit. 

 I’ll keep babying mine along – I can’t wait to see it in its full-grown glory.

Rain water is considered “soft” water. Void of the chemicals found in treated water. Its also highly oxygenated and normally of a neutral PH.

Read more: http://www.physicsforums.com

Rain water is considered “soft” water. Void of the chemicals found in treated water. Its also highly oxygenated and normally of a neutral PH.

Read more: http://www.physicsforums.com

By |2017-11-29T23:27:13-06:00October 17th, 2013|Blog, flooding, Mexican Olive, Mexican olive tree, rain, Sharing Nature's Garden, trees|0 Comments
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Rocky, no soil spot? No Problem!

After several years of trying various vines along a fence, the light bulb finally went off in my head.  There is a sizable section of fence on the back corner of our driveway, and I really wanted to cover it in beautiful blooms.  I have grown morning glories, white potato vine, Mexican flame vine, passion vine, and star jasmine.  Some lasted longer than others.  The passion vines were decimated by caterpillars almost as soon as I planted them.  Others vines just struggled in the hot, rocky, dry bed.

This bed is shallow, and below a few layers of amended soil you will find nasty caliche and rock.  No amount of building it up helped, and even then the soil would often wash away.  I have been known to keep beating my head against the gardening wall, but I finally got tired of losing.

Then it came to me — I needed a container to fill with good soil.  A BIG container.  I was motivated by a stunning evergreen wisteria that I just had to have.   (It’s not a wisteria at all, it’s millettia reticulata, but that’s one of its common names.) 

This was my motivation:

Isn’t this the most amazing bloom? 

So, off I went to Tractor Supply in Dripping Springs to get myself a small, 2x2x4 stock tank.  Add a few cans of Rustoleum hammered-metal spray paint and I went to town.

I didn’t think the silver would work in that bed, and this is a great color that I’ve used on countless pots, home fixtures and other items when I was flipping houses.

I should mention, in the interest of full disclosure, that the spray paint mist did give my feet and toenails a nice tan that required nail polish remover to take off. 

 Removed the pathetic jasmine vine and smoothed out the tank’s new home.

There – that looks nice.

Last night, with my dear husband’s help, the wisteria, Natural Gardener garden soil, decomposed granite and Native Texas Hardwood Mulch all went into the tank. 

All ready for the rains forecast for this weekend.  Didn’t want to miss that opportunity. 

The Amistad salvias in front of the tank will have to find a new home this fall — with a little less sun.  They struggled there this summer.  I haven’t decided yet what will join the bright edge yuccas in that spot.  Any ideas?  Magenta vine, yellow and lime yuccas, yellow cassias — on the other side is a desert willow.  It’s a hot, dry and rocky bed.  But I want a hot color to play off the yuccas.

Now we wait for the next bloom on the wisteria!

By |2016-04-14T02:39:29-05:00October 11th, 2013|Blog, bright edge yucca, Cassia, evergreen wisteria, millettia reticulata, Sharing Nature's Garden, stock tank, vine, wisteria|0 Comments
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Toughing out the drought, agaves abound in my garden…

Like many Central Texas gardeners learning to cope with the drought, I have a growing collection of agaves in my garden. 

The common misconception about agaves is that they are giant monsters and that they all die after they bloom.  Most agaves are monocarpic, but a few of them are not.  What many call a century plant – a common name often used for many different varieties, doesn’t actually live for 100 years before its first bloom.  Most bloom at about 40 years old, primarily because of the soil, water and environmental conditions in which they are grown in landscapes.

This agave ‘Americana’ does get large – typically 5-7 feet tall by 8-12 feet wide (including its offsets, or pups).

There are many much smaller and manageable species that can be used as structural focal points in the landscape and beautiful potted plants. A few of the more compact agaves suitable for small gardens and containers that do well here include the squid agave, quadricolor agave, Parry’s agave and the regal Queen Victoria agave.
These agaves above are quadricolor agaves and they stay quite small.  Mine is about 18 inches tall.  It does create offsets, or pups — creating new plants through underground runners/roots.  This variety makes a great potted plant.

I believe this is a Webberi – it will get very large and it’s growing in a very xeric bed outside of my back fence.

This beautiful, deep green agave is ‘green goblet,’ a passalong Pam of Digging shared with me.   I love the uncommon color on this one, but be careful, the spines on this one are absolutely unforgiving!

This is an agave parryi truncata, which typically grows 2-3 feet tall and 2-4 feet wide – a very manageable size for a smaller garden.

This is what I believe to be agave ovatofolia, or ‘whale’s tongue’ agave.  Frequently confused with parryi agaves, they are sometimes mislabeled.    It is one of the agaves proported not to pup, and it grows to 3-4 feet tall and wide.  Because of its neat and uniform growth, it makes a wonderful focal point in the garden.

 This agave is called “blue glow” and it’s easy to see why.

 This variegated agave has fine spines and is quite happy living in partial shade with very little water. 

 One of my favorites is the “squid agave” with it’s delicate tentacles curling out into the sky.  After several years in this bed, this one is starting to produce quite a few pups. 

These prolific pups belong to my Agave franzosinii — a beautiful and graceful piece of sculpture that is the centerpiece of the raised bed at the entrance to our home.  They are a lot of work – removing them is a  regular chore because I don’t want a mass tangle of unruly agaves, I just want the one focal point.  But it’s worth it.

And here’s the mama Franzosinii from afar in its bed.  The Spanish dagger in the foreground had to find a new home, though, because it was stealing the show from the blue agave!  Can’t have that.

With the dire forecasts of this unbearable drought, I’m pleased with these xeric additions to my garden.  There are many more wonderful varieties to try, and many of them are on my list.

By |2017-11-29T23:27:13-06:00October 7th, 2013|Agave, agave Americana, agave blue glow, agave parryii, agave webberi, agaves, Blog, Franzosini agave, green goblet agave, octopus agave, quadricolor agave, Sharing Nature's Garden, squid agave, whales tongue agave|0 Comments
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A sure sign of fall…

Whether the temperatures cooperate or not, fall announces itself in the garden.  One of the harbingers of the changing seasons is the arrival of my Oxblood lilies. 

Passalongs from my friend at Zanthan Gardens, they pop up like clockwork, even if the sun is still scalding us.  Small and delicate, they always bring a smile to my face, knowing that the cooler days of fall are just around the corner.

Fall.  And a whole new palette in the garden.

By |2016-04-14T02:39:29-05:00September 24th, 2013|Blog, bulbs, fall, fall color, lilies, Oxblood lilies, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments
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When it rains, it pours…and pours and pours…

3.66.

That’s my lucky number.  At least for a while, it is.

That’s how much rain we got yesterday between 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.  It came down in buckets.  And I began putting out buckets, and watering cans and coolers.  We have several rain barrels, but I didn’t want to waste a drop.  It was delightful … but a little scary, too.

When we get rain here in Central Texas these days, especially in the middle of what they’re calling a 10-year drought, we see quite a few gully washers.  Because of our rock and clay soil, a high volume of the good stuff, results in serious flooding.  This dry creek, for example, isn’t supposed to be a creek at all, just an interesting addition to the landscape in this spot.  But it had moving water in it yesterday.

The rain came so fast that the overflow pipe from the pool (only a few inches in diameter), was gushing, but just couldn’t handle it all.

This was the pool at 3:00 when we were still in the deluge.  I thought it was going to overflow and started to worry about all the surrounding beds.

The path to the greenhouse and the vegetable garden looked like an aquarium for a while.  Those plants, used to very little water and hot, baking sun, may be a little stressed for a while.

And the AC made terrible noises.  I thought it was going to blow up!  I turned it off and it’s fine this morning. 

The migraine is gone and it’s cool and windy outside.  Feels like fall.  Real fall.  Fall like they get way up north.  Ahhhh.  Jeans and long-sleeve weather.  Football weather (oh nevermind, we’re not going to talk about that – Central Texas readers will know whereof I speak). 

I’m about to bundle up and pull on my galoshes and head out to survey.  Something I do most mornings.  I know that one Candlestick tree – Cassia alata — was pushed over by the weight of the rain, but it isn’t broken.  
 

I can imagine the plants – all recharging and taking deep breaths, ready for an amazing growth spurt and some fabulous bloom time.

I know some of the plants – especially some of the indigo spires salvias – will have brighter blooms.  They’ll do that with even a little extra water, so there might be a show this morning.

While I’m excited about seeing the garden, it’s going to be an inside day — too wet and mucky to do anything outside.  Organizing my office will be the perfect chore for a cool, breezy fall day, and it will feel good to finally focus on the inside for just a while.  (A short while!)

Ahhhhhh….

By |2017-11-29T23:27:13-06:00September 21st, 2013|Blog, creek, dry creek, flood, flooding, rain, rainfall, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments
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