A Horse of A Disparaged Color

Poor horseherb (Calyptocarpus vialis). It's gotten bad rap. Some consider it an invasive pest. You have seen it often, one of those weeds that, if you live in Austin, is ever present on the periphery, popping up in St. Augustine lawns or clinging to the driveway, an afterthought, like the variety of moss rose (portulaca) that grows out of the cracks in the sidewalk pavement. Yet its miniaturized charm is hard to resist: spritely green foliage dotted with even tinier yellow daisies—that bloom throughout the spring and summer. But it has a role as a viable groundcover plant. It is growing here and there all over my plot, and today I dug up bunches and transplanted them to the front yard which is currently a dirt patch. The plan is to convert much of the front "lawn" to horseherb cover. It can be mowed; takes foot traffic, and tolerates poor soil, drought, and variable light conditions. What's not to like? Since it will be contained between a sidewalk and the driveway, I'm not concerned about its robust spreading by runner. Horseherb's other name is "Straggler Daisy." Clearly this plant needs a PR firm to handle its image and conduct a relaunch under a new and more positive name.
Daisy Carpet?
Little Miss Sunshine?
Yellow Star of Texas?

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Cottage Cheese

Does it get any sappier than the twining vine on the front porch? No, it doesn't. I have achieved my holy-grail gardening esthetic of the Little Cottage down the Lane. It struck me recently that this star jasmine is in EXACTLY the same spot as the star jasmine on my mother's house: front left corner. Possibly creepy or just that it happened to be the best spot.
Poor Aurora Primavera has been sadly neglected lately, blog and garden taking backseat to forced march wedding invitation production and mailing. But a MOB's gotta do, what a MOB's gotta do. Imagine my surprise when I looked up from my writer's cramp and saw that the iceberg roses had mounted their own campaign of blizzard white-out in the front garden. Apparently the combo of mild temps and fleeting rainfall is just their cuppa tea.



The front garden is finally looking remotely presentable just at that moment in time when all of the grass in the front yard has up and left the building. I go out and stare at the bare earth for long periods of time. The neighbors have probably concluded that the strange gardening lady is losing it or into the wine again. But really I'm just puzzling over whether to bother replacing it at all or do Something Completely Different. Today I saw a rose called Peach Drift, apparently some new small groundcover rose. I'm thinking I might shrink my already tiny yard to nothingness by planting deeper and deeper beds of this groundcover rose. Thoughts?



While I had planned to dig up and pot the Pink Indigo due to its water-hog fraities, it got the jump on me and roared into life and bloom and now I can't bear to move it. It has also started spreading, sending suckers to all compass points (this is its second spring in my yard). But since it's in a huge whole in my side yard this growth pattern suits my needs. But if you are concerned about spreading: DO NOT PLANT THIS SHRUB. It's definitely right up there with Port St. John Creeper for aggressive growth.



The now ubiquitous Red Knockout rose makes a nice jolt of color at the end of the backyard. The big black tub was my compost bin but either an acorn or a butternut squash seeded itself and is happily growing so I dragged it out to the sun. Maybe I'll get some produce.




I'm anxiously awaiting the bloom of this agapanthus, a division given to me by my wonderful neighbor Joe. It's the blue-violet color. It's been in this pot for a year and half with no action thus far, so this is big doin's!

Days of Heaven

Wow. In Austin, these have been possibly the two most beautiful days on Planet Earth. Here's an image of crossvine (Bignonia capreolata Dragon Lady). It's a two-tone version of the more common orange—I’m never sure if I like it...
I've been traveling to San Antonio lately and stop in at a wonderful nursery there on Blanco Road that has a great edit of plants and much cheaper prices than Austin. I got a 10-gal pot of Golden Bamboo and a flat of something called Wildfire Verbena that is already my new favorite bedding plant. I put it in the empty holes in my front garden, still limping along due to drought. This verbena has huge blossom heads and is a psychedelic purple. LOVE.
For all garden-travelers check out this link of Great Gardens Around the World. Austin Garden Bloggers, let's make one of these our next field trip!

Leaf ’Em Laughing

This pile cost me $75. That was what I paid to have someone blow all the accumulated leaves from last spring and fall’s historic oak drop (following on the crazy wet summer of ’07 which now seems a dream) into my back-of-the-shed dump.


And now of course, it’s starting all over again. I swept this corner yesterday and this morning a new pile has accumulated. Live oaks. Yes, indeedy.


Doing my part to stimulate the economy, I bought three dripper hoses to deploy in the rose beds. I love dripper hoses; they function well and seem to last forever.


This pretty little verbena, an annual variety, survived the winter and is blooming.


Brug. Charles Grimaldi has emerged unscathed from his winter slumbers. He has a new companion, St. Francis. Do they not make a fine couple?


The loquat topiaries are doing well and if I can just keep...



...him and his brethren from gnawing the bejeezus out of them, all will be well. The loquats, in case you’re wondering, are about 5 years old. They self-sowed from fruit dropped by a tree at my old house. Sledd’s has loquat topiaries that are not as big and not as well shaped for $150. Yowza.


No pictures ever do justice to the Rainbow Knockouts, which honestly, are on many days, the only reason I get out of bed. They bloomed throughout the winter, and were actually more true to their real coral and yellow colors.

Let Me Just Rain on Your Parade

Four Views of the Mopac Bridge in Winter

CAUTION: WEATHER NERD DATA AHEAD!

Okay, if, like me, you’ve been swooning over the recent pitty-pat of raindrops like a 14-year old with a crush, prepare to come down hard. There was less than a half an inch in my rain gauge--how about you?

Doesn’t matter, because it is in no way enough.
For Austin-Camp Mabry, rainfall of 16.07 inches was the 4th driest year on record dating back to 1856, and was the driest year since 1956. Rainfall was 17.58 inches below normal.
LCRA points out that the current drought began in September 2007 (coincidentally the month before I put in my front garden (cue tiny violins).

Now that I’ve discovered that LCRA’s chief meteorologist,Bob Rose has a blog I shall be haunting it daily hoping to read of some sign that La Nina has decided to pick up her tattered skirts and get the hell out of town.

Ouch.

In case you missed it in the Spaceman, the news ain't good.