Summer survivors, Zanthan on tour

Here’s a Halloween treat!

My ‘Patrick’ abutilon has celebrated lots of “holidays” in its first year, rarely out of bloom. It grew so fast that I had to move it. After a brief whimper, it accepted its job to fill this blank space. Drought and heat didn’t faze it (though I put a slow hose on it now & then), so I think it’ll be a favorite haunt by next Halloween. Oh, it gets morning sun, afternoon shade.

On calendar events, for the first time in CTG’s history, we taped a garden on April Fool’s to air on Halloween!  The real treat, and no fooling, is that we visit Zanthan Gardens in her early spring garden to prompt a few ideas for your fall planting scurry. Most significant is her eloquent philosophy of gardens and how she applied it to hers. (These images captured from the video).

As one of the first garden bloggers in the country, Melissa opened up a whole new conversation among gardeners, not just from around the country, but from the other side of town. An exacting gardener, she gives precise details about planting, bloom times, seed sizes, and specimen habits.

As a creative, curious gardener, she shares her investigations, unafraid to include failure as well as success. She also keeps a short thumb on the hose.  No radical water bills at Zanthan Gardens!

To go along with our tough plants theme, Tom joins Tricia Martin from Forever Gardens for her short list of plants that survive on their own.  Tricia reeled off the list right away: the plants in her garden that bid goodbye to mom and dad when she and husband Jon opened their nursery seven years ago. In their dedication to connect you to great plants for not-so-great weather and soil, their brood was on their own. Instead of suffering separation anxiety, their plants partied down!

One is thryallis (Galphimia gracilis). Mine is in former photinia-ville, where its job is to hide the air conditioner and shade it a bit. I love this fast-growing, tough, and pretty shrub.

Nearby is a cenizo, another one on Tricia’s list.  Mine is ‘Silverado,’ a white-blooming version. Behind them are Iceberg and Mrs. Oakley Fisher roses, surprisingly drought-tough too.

Get Tricia’s complete list and extensive details about each plant on CTG’s web site, including plants we didn’t have time to mention.

For more tough plant ideas, see what survived drought in Getting Grounded’s garden.

I’d love to have your list of tough-as-nails plants!   We’ll put them on CTG’s site to assist fellow water-savers.

One note: when moving drought-tough plants, as I just did with my Plumbago scandens, it doesn’t hurt to give them a bit of shade.  It’s cooler, but afternoon sun wilts them pretty fast. Here’s my quickie version until their roots catch up a bit.

If you miss the broadcast, watch Melissa’s garden, Tricia’s tough plants, Daphne’s tips on when to prune oaks, and how Trisha Shirey forces bulbs on KLRU.TV or on iTunes.  And if you’re in Oklahoma, starting November 3, you can watch us on KRSC!

Until next week, Linda

Busy bees, busy dogs

Right now, we’re all busy as bees.

This one’s a syrphid fly (also called hover fly/hover bee). At least I think it is; looks like just two wings instead of a bee’s four.  If so, this beneficial lays its eggs inside aphids. When the larva hatches, it eats aphids.  After pupating, the adult pollinates the garden.

For them, like us, fall is spring all over again.  Huge gaps suddenly disappear as plants explode, doubling in size almost before our eyes.  Forgotten spring bulbs are peeking at us already. August’s garden decisions to fill all the gaps get a second look.  Do I really have any room left?

As always, in August, I was disgusted with the cat cove. But now that it’s overflowing, it’s hard to get tough with a shovel. For sure, it needs some editing. Yet, while the pavonias bloom against my first success with blackfoot daisies, I defer my wrecking ball yet again.

The Buddleja (or Buddleia) ‘Butterfly Heaven’ that I planted near the cat cove entrance made it through its first summer.

It’s still pretty small and tentative about blooming, but if it made it this far, it’s either going to be a cove asset or a hog that I’ll need to move. Yet another decision to defer.

I’ll never take a shovel to the Cecile Brunner on the shed, though I should take the pruners to it. It’s flopping all over the place. I make a few cuts every night for the bunnies’ appetizers.

Since pets, like our plants, need some garden control, this week CTG goes to the dogs!

I’m always getting questions about how to garden with dogs. So, Angie (pictured above), Devon, and their friend Kaiser join Tom and Janice Patton, dog trainer & behaviorist from A Real Friend Dog Training.

First, the dogs had to get through all the studio pup- paparazzi. They don’t give autographs, but they’re not stuck-up about kisses. And they put on a show for their cause: to help out their buddies who get a bad rap for things like digging.

Janice gets 4-paws-up for insight behind your dog’s behavior in the garden, and how to turn their instincts into an asset.  She also clues us into doggie dangers, like cocoa mulch. We’ll have her extensive details on the CTG web site. As she once told me, “Dogs can’t write an essay.”  But people can, and you’ll find value in hers. Though, honestly, I think her dogs (like Devon) wrote this essay, and she’s just the one with the keyboard.

You and your dogs can watch it online at KLRU.TV starting this weekend.

Until next week, Woof!

Fall flowers & garden tour

Hey, everyone! If you’re from around “these parts,” please join us at KLRU on October 20 at 7 p.m. for our monthly Community Screening. This time, KLRU features local productions.  Meet Evan Smith from Texas Monthly Talks, and see a few clips from a new independent production, Austin Daytripper.

AND, meet CTG’s host Tom Spencer, director Ed Fuentes, and me. After the screening in the Austin City Limits studio, you can tour the CTG set. (And I’ll just say that on weekly ACL studio tours, some visitors race over to our set and exclaim, “Wow, it’s Central Texas Gardener!”). I like that.

Can you beat last weekend’s sweetness?  Sunday’s rain interfered with my to-do list, but I love that kind of interference!

Despite the drought, the asters started blooming right on schedule. The yucca youngsters are still a bit overtaken, but in a few years, they’ll be the alpha plants.

I took advantage of the light rain to divide some lambs ears to fill a few spots along the crape bed border. Now it’s all “connected.”  While there, I couldn’t resist a picture of garlic chives against some caladiums that got their second wind.

To their right, I planted three pink rain lilies (Zephyranthes labufarosea) in between my recent ‘Diamond Frost’ euphorbias.

In the middle of the bed, white Salvia coccineas are overwhelming the dianellas, but I like the ethereal look. It’s not worth taming them now, since it won’t be long before they’re history. After the first hard frost, the dianellas will be back in control.

I never need a calendar to know it’s fall. Along with the asters, under the Chinese pistache, Salvia regla announced it.

So did Mexican mint marigold (Tagetes lucida) and Gregg’s mistflower (Conoclinium greggii) in the cat cove.

On CTG this week, take a look at the really fabulous Travis County Master Gardener tour, coming up October 24 from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Thanks to Loretta Fischer for providing images of these outstanding, hands-on gardens.

This year’s theme is Sustainable Gardening for Urban Wildlife. At each garden, meet the gardeners and ask them how they made it through summer, and how they attract wildlife.

On top of that, each garden features seminars for tips on plants, wildlife, and garden problems. And of course, they’ll have plants for sale!   It’s only $10 for the whole shooting match or $5 per garden. Get all the details here.

On CTG’s video tour, we take our camera to one of them to illustrate how Lindy McGinnis turned her front yard into a garden that attracts both wildlife and the neighbors.

If you miss the broadcast, or want to get ideas from afar, including John’s how-to on the EarthBox, watch it starting Friday night at KLRU.tv.

Until next week, Linda

Renewal!

Gardeners are pretty funny. When others are grousing about the rain, we’re out in it, lapping up its drops. Like parents, we’re gleeful for the joy it gives the dear ones in our care. Last weekend, the rock rose (Pavonia lasiopetala) and turk’s cap (Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii) along my back fence forgave me for everything they think I’ve done wrong.

When the rain’s but a tease, we quickly sow seeds and dig holes, in hopes that their second drink will be one that doesn’t come from a hose.

Or we run for the camera. I pulled off my gloves for this one of cosmos against purple sweet potato vine (an Ipomoea, like morning glory). Both are annuals for us, but this picture will remind me that I’ll do it again next spring.

Spring bloomers showed up again. In the cat cove, a wayward sunflower chose a spot to get next to a fellow yellow, Calylophus berlandieri.

Thanks to severe pruning a few weeks ago, the zexmenia (Wedelia hispida or Zexmenia hispida) celebrates again in fall.

The crossvine (Bignonia capreolata ‘Tangerine Beauty’) also likes autumn almost as much as spring.

The big surprise was this one next door to it on the back fence. This pink trumpet vine/desert trumpet vine (Podranea ricasoliana) suddenly got busy. It dies back in winter (though not last year for me in east Austin).

I discovered it beyond the mountain laurels while testing the soil temperature in the lettuce bed.  70º, just about right. My chart says 40- 75º, the 75 being ideal.

Weeks ago, I ladled in compost, fertilizer and bunny poop. I turned it a few times, let the bits of rain fall on it, and did a final turn last weekend. I watered it lightly, then planted lettuce seeds, a couple of Buttercrunch and parsley transplants, and watered again.  I only planted half the bed.  I’ll do the next half in a few weeks to keep things going. In the bunny garden, I turned in compost and fertilizer and planted cilantro, arugula, and Swiss chard seeds.

And I planted wildflower seeds.  Now’s a good time to get those in the ground.

Even though some think that autumn is winding down time, for us it is a renewal. And after two miserable years, it’s a time for ideas. You’ll find both renewal and ideas at The Garden Conservancy’s symposium, Limestone & Water, on Saturday, Oct. 31, at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  The night before, landscape architect James David and Gary Peese host an exquisite reception in their garden. At the symposium, Stephen Orr, garden consultant & writer, addresses Smarter Gardens: Gardening With Less But Getting More. Local designer Dylan Robertson looks at the Outside You can Live in.

And,  Lauren and Scott Ogden share their philosophy of plant-driven design that honors plants, place and spirit.

This week on CTG, they join Tom to renew our spirits and ideas with their passion that ignites a few concepts to enrich your perspective as you plan this year’s changes.

For more details about Limestone & Water, the Friday night reception, and to register online, visit The Garden Conservancy’s site.

And, since we’re all stampeding to the nurseries to renew our gardens, Trisha demonstrates how to pick the right plant.  Find out how to know the one to leave and the one to take.

Happy picking until next week, Linda

Wildflowers and garden dogs

Maybe it’s me, but it sure seems like everything is blooming with more intensity than usual when we hit this leg of the calendar. Colors are especially saturated and vibrant. I planted the Philippine violets for fall moments like this. It’s not a native, but it’s tough.

Perhaps all the plants were so miserable that when they finally got some rain relief, they just had to party down!  The passion vine has gone nuts.

It reminds me of getting the flu. The only good thing about getting sick is that when you recover, you feel so glorious!  Both Barbados cherries (Malpighia glabra) are definitely feeling pretty darned good. This one is against the shed in the cat cove.

Since there are so many chores this time of year, it’s nice to work around such exuberance. Last weekend, one of my tasks was dividing daylilies. This group came from one single clump.

They’re not drama queens about being dug up and divided. With some, you can gently pry apart with your fingers. Others require a little knife action.

For me, this week was really a big deal because finally, one of the baby Plumbago scandens bloomed!  It gets some sun, like this late afternoon shaft, but more shade than sun. I got them from the shady group at the Wildflower Center sale last year.  I wanted them for summer white that pops out in shade.

Andrea DeLong-Amaya, horticulturist from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, assured me that by next year, these natives will really take off.  It happens to be one of her loves, too, one she includes on her list this week on CTG.

Since I’ve gotten a lot of questions about planting spring wildflower seeds, Tom and Andrea get together to explain how to do it, like for pink evening primrose.

Then, Andrea wows us with an array of “wildflowers” throughout the year, from claret cup cactus to Havard’s agave (Agave havardiana), that work even in containers for gardeners with limited space.

I want them all, but especially the Texas bluebell (Eustoma exaltatum ssp. russellianum). It’s hard to find this native in nurseries. Usually you’ll end up with one that doesn’t do so well for us.

You can pick up the plants on Andrea’s list and lots more at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s Fall Plant Sale & Gardening Festival October 10 & 11 (Member preview Oct. 9).  Find out in advance what plants will be for sale!

If you want to clear out some of your plastic pots, take them along to drop off.  Maybe next year they’ll house a new plant for a fellow gardener.

Also this week, if your garden and dog aren’t exactly “getting along,” Trisha has helpful tips to keep everyone happy. And, see how she uses cow panel to deter digging in beds or under fences.

Until next week, Linda