From Linda: July 1, 2009

Here’s about all we’re good for right now.

The Barbados cherries are stripped clean, and I know why.  The mockingbirds are feeding their nestling, secure at the top of our front mountain laurel, but definitely hungry.  I don’t know how I can help them at this point.

Our problems are pretty minor compared to theirs. At the same time, as urban/suburban gardeners, what affects us definitely impacts them. When the surprise rain came, I was thankful for the gardeners and the farmers, but my first thought was for the wildlife getting a break.

I grew up thinking that summer was prime-time gardening.  In Central Texas, that’s not the case, but at least I used to get things done in June and even July.  And though I concentrate on indoor projects in August, I always relied on a little break at the end of the month, when it’s time to gear up for fall.

Not so sure about that anymore. For years, we’ve teased our northern friends,  “Ha ha, we can garden all year long, with a 5-hour break in January.”  They’ve got the laugh on us now.

So, I’m catching up on chores that get minimal priority most of the year, like cleaning out the filing cabinets and scrubbing the refrigerator shelves. I might even clean the oven. Yahoo.

When a St. Joseph’s lily finally bloomed next to the kiddie pool, I was back in business. I got excited again and started redesigning beds in my head (more wildlife food on top of list).

Since my garden is hunkering down, I invite you to share another significant anniversary this July 4th weekend:  Harvey’s first year with us!  At this time last year, I wasn’t sure we’d celebrate even two weeks with him.

Some of you already know that it was the holiday weekend when our new friend Cynthia rescued Harvey from the school up the street.  Greg had noticed the dumped pet bunny on his walks with Chester. At that point, we’d been in an over-100 pattern for days.  He was getting a tad thin and obviously on the lookout for help. At least we could rescue him.  And take him for walks in our garden.

Like gardening, we learned about rabbit care from scratch.  Along with Cynthia, the volunteers at House Rabbit Resource Network (HRRN) helped us.  Everyone, especially Theresa, who has been our personal mentor, remind me of CTG’s importance and mission.

New gardeners are as clueless about gardens as we were about bunnies. There’s tons of information on the web, but it can be tough to sift through it for what’s truly relevant and accurate, especially when you’re totally new at something.

Thanks to personal guidance and trusted local resources, we’ve gotten more comfortable as bunny parents. We decided it was time to get (neutered) Harvey a friend. (Sort of like gardeners, you can’t stop with one plant).

HRRN took in little Gaby last January and got her spayed.  After that, devoted foster mom Penny cared for Gaby in her warren. With Penny’s loving attention, this bunny is a little sweetheart.

To make sure that Harvey agreed, he and Gaby spent a few days at Theresa’s house to see if they were a match or a miss.  It was a match!  Here they are cuddling at our house during indoor playtime. They’re relaxing after serious runs, joyous dancing, and jumping competitions off the couch.  They’re litter box trained, so no problems there. Thanks to them, I keep up with my rose and herb pruning as their house litter box enticements.  Dandelions are their favorites, but for garden treats, the bunnies eat in season!

I told Theresa that we felt like parents and in-laws at the same time.  To start the new couple off right, we ordered a two-story condo from Leith Petwerks and installed it in the den.

Pet care is like gardening.  Get the right tools, provide the right situation, pay attention to what they want, and stay in touch with the people who can guide you.

Since now is a good time for planning garden projects in the comfort of air conditioning, this week we repeat our CTG program featuring Debra Prinzing and William Wright on Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways, and a visit to a very elegant shed and tough garden in Bertram.

Until next week, sweet dreams of more rain and cooler weather, Linda

From Linda: June 25, 2009

When Tom and I first met Mary Irish and her photographer husband, Gary, we danced around the studio with joy. Their passion for plants is infectious, and Mary’s knowledge captivates us with question after question. I’m always thumbing their book, Agaves, Yuccas and Related Plants, and the later one, Perennials for the Southwest.

On her last visit, Mary told us about her project in progress, Trees and Shrubs for the Southwest. I kept an eye on its publish date to pester her about when she’d be in Austin again.

Mary’s native to Austin, but moved to Arizona, where for years she was Director of Public Horticulture at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. So, she’s very astute about what grows in a widespread region.

Producing a weekly program is like gardening: looking ahead pays off!  This week, Mary meets with Tom to enthuse us again, with her beautifully written and photographed now-in-print latest adventure.

I can’t get enough of this book.  Mary has the knack to combine specific horticultural details with hands-on, personable insight, including design ideas. Plus, she has a lot of great suggestions to renew our passion, despite the heat!

One shrub she mentions on CTG is Texas olive (Cordia boissieri).

It was coincidental that the week after taping, one of my neighbors mentioned how much he loves his.  Here’s my pictures of his growing in east Austin at his curb, obviously in hot reflected sun.

For more inspiration on these too-hot days, our video tour takes us to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum. We taped it last fall, so it’s changed its scenery for the season. That is part of the captivation. On every visit to Umlauf, I fall under its reverent spell once again, but with Ed Fuentes’ video, I was often in tears as I edited this one. Director Nelie Plourde is one of my personal inspirations, too, so this one means a lot to me.

I’d rather be sitting under the trees at Umlauf quietly communing with the sculptures than actually sweating in my garden. There sure is work to be done. I wonder what would happen if I put it off until November?

Well, I know the answer to that, so I’ll venture into the steam bath for a few early hours this weekend. In the evenings, I’m too pooped to do more than a little watering and a tour around the “grounds.”

Even in this record-breaking heat, I always find something that keeps me from throwing in the towel on gardening in Texas. (It does help to be IN a towel, after a cooling dip in kiddie pool).

In the crape bed, Bouncing bet (Saponaria officinalis) flowers recently topped their evergreen carpet.  Later, they got pinker. Lambs ears beyond.

They’re in the front of the bed, which gets morning sun with a few hits, and then a blast in the late afternoon. They do like to run, which is fine by me, since they’re gentle runners in my spot.

But a rampant runner is the passionvine.

One of my chores this weekend is pulling it off the neighboring trees and perennials.

Still, we’re harvesting a good crop of future Gulf fritillary butterflies.

Once he/she eats enough to pupate, it will find a good hiding spot to transform into a chrysalis (moths are cocoons). One year, they were determined to do so on the garbage can. Thanks to advice from the Austin Butterfly Forum, I managed to carefully remove the chrysalides before trash day. One got stung by a spider within five minutes and died. The others successfully emerged.

After that, when I saw caterpillars on the trash bin, I coaxed them onto a stick and put them somewhere safer to transform.

These caterpillars are poisonous to birds, but that doesn’t mean something won’t interfere in the process that turns them into this:

I had a hard time getting this shot of the Barbados cherries (Malpighia glabra) due to wind. But every time I went back out, the crop had diminished, so here’s what I’ve got.

When their mouths aren’t full, the mockingbirds have been spreading the word about this buffet. Here’s a wide shot of the Barbados cherry in former photinia-ville, when it still had some fruit.

In Tom’s interview, Mary gives us her reasons why she loves Barbados cherry.  In her book, get more details about growing it.

She also mentions Red Bird of Paradise/Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima). Mine needs more sun to perform like the showoffs around town or in her book.  I treasure the flowers I do get. Am looking for a sunnier spot for it, though.

No pictures, but Greg reports that the hummingbird(s) love dancing through the birdbath fountain for a little shower.  A few years ago I got a mister when fellow gardeners told me the hummingbirds loved it, since they like to shower. I’ve never had much luck with it, possibly because our water pressure is so low, but I’ll try it again this year. In the meantime, they seem to like the birdbath fountain.

Event note! Last year I attended the Travis County Master Gardeners’ free seminar: Becoming a Garden Detective: Diagnosing Plant Problems. I plan to go again this year, since it’s a great way to find out what’s going on in the garden (insect/disease/wrong spot?)  It’s July 11 from 10 a.m. to noon at Zilker Botanical Garden. Bring $3 for parking.

By the way, if your club or organization has an event, please submit it to CTG’s web site for our calendar.

Until next week, stay cool,  Linda

From the producer: June 18, 2009

We may be annoyed about the heat and low rainfall (last week’s precious event dried up so quickly, and today’s was just mosquito fuel), but the wildlife is frantic. Somebody chewed up our birdbath fountain tube.

We had a spare, and like stupid-bears, put it on, only to have it eaten the next night. Don’t know who, or why they would chomp it, but they did. Must have been a teething raccoon.

Once again, the shed came to the rescue.  I brought out the copper tubing left over from the lettuce bed hoops.  It’s a little large to fit securely on the pump, but Greg got out the glue gun, and bingo!  He clamped the top to create a small fountain.  That wasn’t enough for me, so he tweaked it with a screwdriver to get enough water to see and hear even from the patio.  So far, so good.

These days I don’t get too emotional over animals/birds/insects eating or destroying our stuff.  When it’s over 100º for days, and  they can’t hit the store or farmers’ markets or turn on the faucet, I figure we can give back a little. It adds to our challenge, that’s for sure. But we’re sharing the real estate with them, and as partners in the big scheme of it all, must acknowledge life in all its forms.  Good and bad and ugly. That is not to say I don’t take protective measures or squish things or douse with them with water. Or yell at them. But I left this bad guy alone since he let me take his picture.

To counterpoint, here’s a good guy, a Gulf fritillary, at the patio zinnia.  The hummingbirds have sucked on them, too.

All over the garden, butterflies, a few bees, and hummingbirds are busy with many plants, including flame acanthus, lantana, Dicliptera suberecta, salvias, rock rose, and turks cap. To extend the welcome carpet for the hummingbirds, I set up the feeder on the patio.  1 part sugar to four parts of water, heated in the microwave. Replace it every few days and clean the feeder.

Trees have taken a hit in drought, too. Deep watering is essential.  Many times, though, the problem started at planting time. On CTG this week, Tom meets with certified arborist Guy LeBlanc from Arbor Vitae Tree Care about the most common reasons that trees appear to suddenly up and die.

If you’re thinking about adding a tree, don’t do it until you see this! (On YouTube if you miss the broadcast.) If you have a tree that’s withering right before your eyes, this might explain what’s wrong.  But if you have a valued tree with serious problems, I highly recommend consulting a certified arborist. I did it a few years ago, and it was valuable education, especially when the guy practically pulled up the tree with his hands.  Its demise after 7 years was due to the situation that Guy illustrates this week.

Like with any living thing in our gardens, it all starts with site selection, plant selection, and proper planting. One of the most common problems I’ve heard from fellow gardeners results from planting shady plants in sun and sun lovers in too much shade.

Yes, you say, that seems SO obvious, but plant tags can be confusing, especially when you’re new at this. And sun/partial shade/part sun is not very clear.  Or, we don’t realize that a shaft of sun hits our shade lover for 15 minutes at 4 p.m., just enough to do it in.

That happened to me with my firespike (Odentonema stricta).  I knew it didn’t want any sun, but I really thought it was in shady land.  However, it got just enough drift of sun through the trees to wilt it on impact. I moved it to the patio cove where filtered morning sun touches it ever so briefly.  It hasn’t bloomed yet, but it’s nicely filling out with its neighboring gingers. I will say that this guy is not xeric.  Our relationship may not be permanent if rain doesn’t come.

When I moved it from the rental side bed, I planted an abutilon to fill its place, because I thought, aha, there’s a bit of sun there.  So sorry, not enough sun.  Too shady, too dense a soil, too everything wrong.  Croaked plant before I could save it.

Or we stretch our hopes, and just maybe, maybe, our 5-6 hours of sun really is enough for the plants that want full sun. But it depends on which 5-6, and is it really that much?

Morning sun and afternoon sun are two different ballgames in Central Texas. My newly planted bicolor sages (Salvia sinaloensis) in the crape bed get morning shade and afternoon sun.  They don’t look thrilled.  Conversely, the ones that get morning sun and afternoon shade look great.  However, the crape ones are new and getting their feet in, so this is not a fair test. I’ll know better by fall and give you a report.

Constantly, I hear from viewers that their esperanzas (Tecoma stans) don’t bloom. Ditto mine.  They want as much sun as they can get, and the hotter the better.  Every year, I admire this display in my neighborhood.  These plants get scalding sun and reflected heat many hours of the day. I love the glass mulch underneath.

I’m glad I took a chance and moved the withering. almost leafless Valentine rose a few weeks ago from its too-shady spot to a sunnier place in a patio pot.  Look at it now!  Even the mint I plucked out of the pot and replanted is thriving.

I figured that saving this one cancels some of my guilt over last year’s abutilon murder.

I get points, too, for saving the Iceberg and Mrs. Oakley Fisher roses.  In their sunnier spots in former photinia-ville, they keep sending thank you cards.

In the cat cove, I watched and waited for this moment:  my new plumeria and old-time daylily blooming side by side.  Sometimes things work out just right.

Until next week, Linda

From the producer: June 11, 2009

Lookee here!  It worked!  My first plumeria flower ever. I never knew such a glamorous plant could be this easy.

And a surprise rain lily.  It may be Habranthus robustus, but don’t take that to the bank.

It’s also a big week for CTG, because Tom and I got to meet Chris Corby, editor and publisher of  Texas Gardener magazine.

In 1981, Chris realized that Texas gardeners needed their own magazine, since, as you know, gardening here can be rather bizarre.  I rely on Texas Gardener as much now as I did when I first started out.  It’s page after page of on-target info, written by hands-on gardeners, about the vegetable garden, ornamental plants, design tips, and maintenance how-to.  I know you’ll be delighted to meet him, too, and to get his tips for summer planting and survival.

Also this week, meet two of my other heroes:  Jo and John Dwyer, the pioneers behind Angel Valley Organic Farm.  We visited them at their farm in April, as they were still harvesting lettuce and watching their tomatoes fatten up.  I said, “I didn’t know that” about 50 times that day. Even though you’ll certainly get some garden tips from this one, mainly it’s the tip we all need most:  how to follow a dream and stick with it, no matter what bizarre things come our way, including the insects that want to beat us to our hard work.

But, I’ve enticed Jo & John to join us in-studio in September to go into more detail on their how-to for summer to winter vegetable transition.  This summer I’ll be getting my new fall garden beds ready!

Meet them in person at their farm stands and fill a basket with their latest organic yummies on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  And sign up for Jo’s newsletter to follow her around for seasonal how-to and her witty perspective about life on a farm.

Another thing I learned from them:  the ultimate garden pants.  I noticed the comfy pants they were all wearing at the farm.  Men’s sleeping pants from Target.  I raced there that weekend and nabbed mine for $9.99.

Cool, lightweight cotton that still protects limbs from what ouches us. And with the stretchy waistband, it’s very comfy to get into those awkward positions to nab a weed or prune without stepping on anyone else. Best investment I ever made.  I looked at the women’s versions, but they were too frou frou, and cost more (go figure).  And they didn’t have pockets.  Any gardener knows you need pockets.

My latest purchase:  a soil thermometer.  This was on my Christmas list, and I dropped lots of hints, but Santa was busy.  So I got one myself.  I’m still figuring this out, but I took the temperature in the cat cove with sun hitting at 9 a.m. and it was  80º.

In the shadiest part of the crape bed, at 1 p.m. it was 80º.

According to the chart that came with it, pumpkins like soil temp to be 90, so that explains why Chris Corby told us to plant our pumpkin seeds in June!  Online, you can pick from your choice of soil temp charts.  For years, I’ve known that soil too cold or too hot is a germinating factor, but now I can know for sure. Fascinating!

Both Chris and the Dwyers would have known the answer right away for a viewer’s question this week about why her squash shriveled up at 3-4″. I had to investigate, but learned (and confirmed with our Extension agent) that it was a lack of pollination.

On the heels of that, I’d noticed that this year I don’t have that many bees or wasps.  There are some, for sure, but not the cavalcade usually in my garden. MSS from Zanthan Gardens told me that she’s seen fewer wasps, too.  What’s your situation?

But I have more ants than ever.  Not fire ants, but these guys still bite if I step on their turf.  Certainly, I’m not killing them since they are free soil activators, and I don’t have a flea problem at all (maybe a connection?). If I get in trouble with the ants, I rely on the aloe vera plants on the patio to deal with it.

Right on target, the first tree I planted long ago is dazzling us from the patio or from the den window inside.

My botanical horizons have widened since I first adorned my crape myrtle with a circle of dahlias, a short-lived newbie experiment that had me looking locally for garden information!

‘Helen von Stein’ lambs ears with crape petals

Purple umbrella plant (Tracellium ceerueleum)

Many times I’ve questioned my idea to plant a crape myrtle and a mountain laurel in the same large island bed.  But now they’ve created a sort of “room” between the front and back parts of the backyard.  This year, they formed the perfect “window” to our new birdbath. With some gentle pruning now and then, we can maintain this focus.  Is that elegant or what?

Here’s the birdbath with a few customers, though in my haste to catch this, I’m rather off skew with the camera.

A few minutes later, the sun hit the solar panel for a really great waterfall, but by then, my jammies and I were busy at work.

Until next week, Linda

From the producer: June 4, 2009

Even the birdseed sunflowers say, “It’s hot!”

So, now’s the time to go places, like Idaho. If you can’t swing that this weekend, check out the Mueller Parade of Homes tour, featuring five green-built homes in the new development at the old airport. Bring your checkbook in case you want to make a down payment on a million dollar house. Despite their price tags, it’s just too much fun, with lots of energy-wise and design ideas to keep you cool, helpful people to answer your questions about green building, and a chance to check out the most amazing kitchens, bathrooms, floors, and windows.  Drool drool.  But after I slathered myself off, I lent a keen eye to the garden designs. Many of them include clumping bamboo as privacy barriers and for the clean, elegant lines.

And what a coincidence!  This week on CTG, Tom meets with Merrideth Jiles from The Great Outdoors on that very topic:  clumping bamboos.  I never realized how many there are, for every application, including this diminutive version, Bambusa multiplex ‘Tiny Fern’.

In case you’ve never been to the Nimitz Garden of Peace at The National Museum of the Pacific War, check out our garden tour to Fredericksburg.  It’s soothing and comforting even in the heat, a chance to connect with important history, and for gardeners, to appreciate a fine-tuned garden that you don’t have to maintain!

My garden will never be that clean and elegant.  It is soothing, though, especially after midnight, these days!  But in the heat of day, I love one of my past experiments, Mexican flame vine, Senecio confuses.

I’d heard back and forth on its cold hardiness, but it’s been around for me for years.  Last year it took a drought break and I thought I’d lost it, but it’s back.

On orange, the flame acanthus (Anisacanthus wrightii) is already at work in the cat cove and sunny side beds. The shaded ones have yet to bloom.

In cooler spots, like under the crape myrtle, I love the coneflowers against ‘Powis Castle’ artemesia.

Here’s one I like for its spidery form.

And another with something that looks like a spider, but I don’t know what it is. If you do, I’d love to know!

Under the Chinese pistache in back, plumbago is blooming along with the shrimp plants.

And Salvia regla.

Last weekend on pruning chores, I deadheaded the blooming mums and coreopsis to keep the flowers coming. I couldn’t resist collecting coreopsis seeds, and got such a kick watching them spill out into a box as I squished the fat seed heads. I’ll leave them in the box to dry until this weekend. Then  I’ll bag them up. I bagged up the dried larkspur seeds and poppy seeds, actually remembering to label them this time!

I finally got around to digging wayward grass around the trees and mulched them, a nice clean look that’s better for the trees, too. Rose dead heading continues, with the cuttings going into a basket for the bunnies’ dinner.  Daylily scapes and browned bulb foliage go into the compost pile. As a gardener once told me, “A clean garden is a healthy garden.”

With my new discovery of plumerias, I was thrilled that KLRU’s new senior VP for Development, Betsy Gerdeman, shared this picture of hers.  On December 26, she took a cutting from her aunt’s house in Rockport and stuck it in a pot.  Look at it now!

Finally:  a question to you.  A viewer has a Gerber daisy given to her by a very special person.  What’s the secret to keeping them alive in Central Texas?

Oh, and from last week’s post, a lot of people thought my Hymenocallis was a daylily.  Those are Hemerocallis.  Too many “h” words here!  Anyway, Hymenocallis are bulbs that typically bloom in summer (or so I’ve heard), though my Sulphur Queen got a jump on things.

Until next week, Linda