De Nada Triangle

That little gray spot in the middle of Texas would be Travis County.

I Smell Dead Things

In my yard. The wafting is coming from here and there, presumably from small critters or birds. This heat is the killing kind. This is the hottest July in recorded history. Cool front this weekend will bring temps of 98. I was so worried about Brugmansia Charles Grimaldi this winter; but he is more threatened by summer heat. He looks like the character crawling across the cartoon desert. No amount of water can save him.

Summer Delights for Your Edification

Rosa Caliente Strangulata

Loquatus Burnus Crispis

Agapanthus Scorchiana

Crinum Tostadita

Rosa "Hot Mess"

All hail the lowly Sunflower of the Culvert

I didn’t plant it. Presumably it’s courtesy of some birdshit, because I've actually planted seed heads in the yard that failed to germinate. It’s growing in the driveway in 4 inches of gravel on top of 30 years of compacted substrate. I must carefully maneuver around it, which I consider a privilege given the fact that it brightens my every day with its relentless cheer. I've never watered it.

STOP ME BEFORE I TRANSPLANT AGAIN!

Oleanders
Growing outside her door
Soon they’re gonna be in bloom up in Annandale
I can’t stand her
Doing what she did before
Living like a gypsy queen in a fairy tale

My Old School
Steely Dan

Well, at my back door, the oleander has yet to bloom. It’s only a foot tall, propagated 2 years ago from a cutting taken near my house. On my way to San Antonio yesterday, I saw that despite the disease that ravaged so many oleanders over the past few years, there are still lots of O’s on the highway that have endured, robust and blooming. This time of year, the crepe myrtles and oleanders really deserve our respect.


In my garden now, the invincible soldiers include the indefatigable crossvine, the deep-green and visually cooling liriopes, dwarf palmetto, upright rosemary, cenizo, powis artemisia, and all the blue-green agaves, yucca, and cacti. Not a long list, and short on flowers. If I could tell the the iceberg roses to not bother blooming, I would. They continue to valiantly produce buds that open into strangled and stunted things that can hardly be called flowers.
The worst thing about the heat is that I tend to get cabin fever and commit gardening atrocities. This morning I stepped out just to get the paper and ended up doing two hours of crazed labor. One of which was TRANSPLANTING. I have a long sad history of transplanting things during intense summer heat. To make matters worse (because it only encourages me), quite a few of these crimes have resulted in success. Today I dug up chunks of palm grass from the backyard and put them in the front bed and moved a rooted bunch of Port St. Creeper to the back fence wall. Fortunately by that time, it was around 10:30 and I had the sense to withdraw back into my air-conditioned cave before heat prostration ensued.

Palm grass, an invasive pest in Asia, goes mano a mano with Austin clay.

The variegated ginger is blooming a lot, but you have to get close to see the orchid-like flower.

The Pindo palm loves the heat and is throwing off new fronds happily. It gets fed frequently and is mulched heavily with leaf rot. At right are fencerow of crinums that have yet to bloom at this house.

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?

Dig Dirt? This is your job.

Garden-ville is looking for a “fearless” woman in Austin, to call on landscapers and soil yards. The position worth 50 - 65K plus, includes a car allowance and all health benefits, matching 401K etc.



Chuck Butler

Sales and Marketing Manager

Garden-Ville / Texas Organic Products

P 210-483-1933

C 210-710-4169