My Blue Period

The latest blooms on the sweetpeas are a lovely light and dark blue. They are using the cosmos as a trellis.
















In a couple of days, the zinnias will enter into the color chaos in the cutting garden. I don't remember what color they will be so it will be a nice surprise.

In the front yard I'm having more a purple phase. The Chinese ground orchid that was so small at Zilker Garden Fest that the seller gave me a discount is blooming.























The heartleaf skullcap (probably the strangest named plant, at least in my yard) is blooming like crazy.























I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that the shady front yard will never support the variety of bloom color that I would like. But I am beginning to appreciate the nuances of green in the yard. I mean with blog called Vert, shouldn't I?










And yet, the colors of the cosmos just make me smile.
















And I'm not the only one.
















Who are your plants making smile these days?

A Mixed Bag of Mulch

Yesterday MSS and I went to the city's recycling center to pick up our free glass mulch. (She took some pictures, which I hope she will post because I didn't bring my camera.) Given the size of Austin, it's actually a pretty small facility (maybe there are others?).

Karl, who couldn't have been nicer, showed us where the mulch was and warned us about how heavy the tiny pieces of glass could get. He also explained that the workers there spend almost all their time sorting out nonrecyclable items that are in the with the recyclables. The list of what is recyclable may be smaller than what you think. Karl can't wait for the single stream recycling--all materials will go in one container and many more items will be accepted--that the city is supposed to be rolling out in the fall. A computer will then sort those items.

MSS and I filled all the containers we brought and filled my small car. Next time I think we will both wear better shoes. I wasn't even thinking when I wore my gardening crocs--too many holes for the small pieces of glass to fall in.

The glass itself is somewhat tumbled and smooth for the most part, but I wouldn't put it where any sensitive, bare feet or paws will be walking. You could still put it in an area where people will be walking, if you are fairly confident they will be wearing shoes.

At first glance, I was a wee bit disappointed. The glass looked more like sand, and I could see nonglass items in the mulch, mainly plastic and metals pieces that were probably caps to glass bottles. But Karl assured us that , the sand would disappear with a little rain, the labels would disappear with a little wind, the plastic wouldn't be as visible, and we'd be left with pretty, sparkly mulch.

I put the mulch down in the front in area between the driveway and the walkway that will be part of the new walkway, if I ever get around to it. I've tried to grow plants there but they are always getting trampled, because there isn't enough room to step from the car to the driveway or walkway.

Sometimes visitors just don't see the plants. Last summer my neighbors' African grey parrot got loose and settled in a tree in my frontyard for a few hours. Earlier that morning I had seen the father, mother, and child running through the alleyway behind our house with some sort of net. It was really quite funny to watch. About an hour later I heard some weird bird calls out front and opened the door to find my neighbors in the front with a ladder trying to coax their bird down.

The parrot wasn't budging. It had smelled freedom and was making the most of it. I offered the neighbors coffee and a phone so E. could call into work and let the office know he'd be in late because his parrot got away. (Wouldn't you have liked to have been on the receiving end of that call?)

E. was understandably somewhat oblivious to the struggling plants he was trampling with the ladder. G., his wife, caught me wincing, but I said nothing because really, what could I do? They needed to get the bird--their son was near tears--and those plants weren't exactly huge.

After a few hours, the parrot zoomed down and buzzed its owners before flying back up and alighting in another neighbor's tree. Another few hours later, the owners got their parrot back after squirting him down with a super soaker water toy.

That evening, G. came by with a huge bouquet of stargazer lilies as a thank you for letting her family trample my plants.

And really, once you see the plants, you'll see that I came out way ahead on that exchange.

Here are the fairly pathetic looking pigeon berry plants and two new mint plants.
















When I took this picture, I was not happy with how the mulch or this area looked. Since I needed to water the mint anyway, I watered the whole area, hoping that the rinsed mulch would improve the look.
















The mulch looked better, but the area didn't. The problem is the plants. They are too small, too spread out, and just not right. As everyone steps on this area already, I think moving the plants and leaving this area as just mulch will fix it. I think the pigeon berry will survive moving. I just hope the mint will too. These plants are my third or fourth attempt to grow mint. It may be invasive for other gardeners, but I've never even grown enough to make a decent mojito.













I'm much happier with how the mulch looks in the free plant area/alleyway. It sparkles and highlights the variegated agave MSS gave me quite well. (That is one promiscuous agave--its pups have gotten around from MSS to Pam, back to MSS, to her friend, and now to me.)

I obviously need a lot more mulch for that area so I will be going back. Karl said he'd take care of me.

What We Won't Do for Gardening

Even though I have contracted with my friends and neighbors to be their recycler--for wine bottles, only--and my husband and I doing our part, I am still far from my goal of 175 to 200 bottles for the edging on the new bed.

So, I decided to redirect the wine bottles in my extended neighbors' bins into my yard. Pickup is today. I had planned to forage under cover of darkness last night, but I got too busy and then too tired.

So, yes, if you happened to be driving through my neighborhood this morning, that was me. The lady with the bag, searching through the garbage.

A Riot of Color

When I originally planted a variety of seeds in my cutting garden area, the plan was, well, obviously, to cut the flowers and bring them inside.

But now the seeds have germinated, the plants have grown, and the flowers have bloomed, I find the flowers are just so pretty, and look so happy in the bed, that I decided I would just visit them outside instead of bringing them in. Because I wasn't planning on leaving all the flowers together outside, I didn't even consider how the colors would combine.

Individually, I love the colors.
















The cosmos are from a random seed packet I picked up one day. They are blooming like crazy.























Someone who combined the cosmos seeds knew what she was doing, because the color variations complement each other.


















Even this white sweetpea looks nice against the cosmos backdrop.























But once you start adding the reddish sweetpea,





















and the yellow and orange nasturtiums,
















it becomes quite a riot.

Not to be outdone, the passionflower vine in my new sun bed decided to get in on the action. About an hour ago, I was still amazed that I had a bud on the vine. The plant isn't even tall enough to stretch up the trellis, and it already has a bud.

I thought I maybe had a couple more days before it bloomed. Twenty minutes later I was outside again checking on something else, and it caught my eye. It had bloomed! Completely. No gradual unfurling, no teasing, just full on passion.

And it's not the color I wanted! I feel like Pam and her maroon bluebonnets. I wanted it to be purple, not white. The sale tag only said passion flower; if it said what color or any more specifics, I missed it.
















Maybe the other one will be purple?

(In case you don't recognize that nose, my efforts to keep the dog out of the new bed are obviously NOT working.-))

Just Another Monday Morning

I know how this looks. But really, I don't generally let my wine bottles go for a swim and goof off. (At least, I spared you the photo of them getting rowdy and naked.) Sometimes they have to work.
















Here they are working, just starting to form the edging* for my new full sun bed. While I know many winos wine lovers, I need about 140 more bottles. So if you feel like drinking for a cause and are in the Austin area, wine up and drop me a note. I'll pick up your empties. For those of you outside of Austin, drink up and post the pictures.
















I could have cropped this picture but then you would have missed the huge pile of tree limbs. As I mentioned before, I realized after digging the bed that my neighbor's hackberries were providing too much shade for a full sun bed so my husband cut one of the trees down.

Then I went and bought two roses, which needed even more sun, so more trees and limbs needed to come down. I've already filled about 10 bags with cuttings. My husband even broke the chain on his new saw. I hope to have the rest of the big limbs cut up soon.
















We made the 6' by 15' trellis from a cattle panel and t-bars. I hope to get something to front and hide the t-bars, maybe cedar posts like I've seen at Pam's house and at Zilker Garden. I wanted to do it all at once but I was already behind on getting the new plants in the ground.

I hope the plants on the trellis will eventually screen a bit of my neighbor's shed but not her adorable pig.














I bought most of these plants at the master gardener sale at Zilkerfest; a few others are passalongs. I bought the plants at two different times so I didn't quite keep track of what I had already bought and ended up three butterfly bushes. I also think I don't quite have enough textural variety, but overall I am happy with what I've got:























one purple, one white, and one yellow butterfly bush
two Mexican bush sage (salvia leucantha)--one bought at the plant sale, one rescued from Lady Bird Lake when we dug the vegetable bed
three Mexican milkweeds























two Husker red penstemon (penstemon digitalis)--a new one to me; I like its dark, reddish foliage
two passionvines--one has a bud already!
three or four moon flower seedlings--I started these from seed and had a horrible germination rate but hope that the survivors will grow and flourish
Duchesse de Brabant rose
Cramoisi Superieur rose
three purple coneflower--I bought some seed but they didn't germinate well so I added a few plants I bought at Link's garden during the garden tour
three variegated sedums--also bought at Link's
















one Mexican mint marigold--a passalong from the MG plant swap
one Pride of Barbados--currently hidden behind the butterfly bushes; I wish I could have gotten a gallon-size but only a four inch pot was available. It's a bit lost now but should eventually go taller than the butterfly bushes
one rock rose--see below

(Annie, I'm confident you could get a 12 days of gardening song out of this list).














When I picked the spot for the bed, I tried to put it in an area that the dog hadn't already claimed as her own. I probably erred in letting her help me dig the area. She now feels some ownership over it. And I definitely should not have encouraged this behavior:
















but she just looked so comfortable and demure, note the crossed paws, that I didn't shoo her out.

I definitely should have stopped her when she buried in the bed the mini-waffle my nieces gave her. Unlike me, when my pup is given something to eat when she isn't hungry, she doesn't eat it. She buries it and saves it for later. When she buried the waffle, she carefully avoided any of the plants.

When she went to retrieve it hours later, however, she wasn't as careful. I came home to find something missing from the bed--the rock rose. I replanted it but I don't how long it was just lying on the grass. It may be the first casualty of the bed.























But as luck would have it, I didn't quite heat up my compost pile hot enough to kill all the seeds and have ended up with two volunteer plants. My guess is that they are cucumbers, possibly a melon, and just maybe a squash. Time will tell.
















*I totally borrowed this idea from fellow Hyde Parker Jill Nokes. I probably walk by her yard and admire her fence and edging at least once a week. I also considered using tequila bottles to edge the bed, a la Lucinda Hutson, but I decided that drinking that much tequila just meant too much trouble.

Inside Austin Tour: Bannockburn Church

Bannockburn Church was the only public space on the Inside Austin tour so if you missed it, you can still stop by. It's a huge space, nine acres in all. In fact, I wandered around for about 20 minutes taking pictures and admiring the roses before I ever found the other half of the property, including the iris garden.

I felt like I was back at the Antique Rose Emporium, both in the abundance of roses and the lack of signage on the roses growing in the space. (The signs might have been there on the day of the actual tour but not on the pre-tour .) So, alas, I can't provide names for most of these beautiful roses, but you can still enjoy them.























These roses look a little spent, but you might be too if you were growing on the side of a busy road. I walked around the front of the church to get this picture. I also got a few honks, but nothing is too much for the right photo.

The garden is really the brainchild of Jack Campbell, a retired farmer, who started working on the grounds with his men's Bible study group.
















The story I love about this garden is the Angel Neighbor. One day Jack was working in the garden, and a woman stopped and gave him a check for $1,000 for the garden's care. She lived down the street, enjoyed seeing the garden every day, and wanted to help. As she wanted, she has remained anonymous.

















The space has also been certified as a National Wildlife Federation Backyard Habitat.

I do recognize these Belinda Dream roses.
















I think this is a bald cypress. This area is just one of the many outdoor rooms on the church grounds.























I finally stumbled upon the iris test garden, which was a site for the International Iris Show. Some of the irises didn't even have official names yet, because they were still being tested.

I wish I had gotten this shot from a different angle, without the port-a-potties, but I was running late after getting lost in the roses.












This iris is named Seven Thunders.























I missed the name of this one.
















This bearded iris is Passion and Purity.
















I don't know how the irises look now but if you are in the area, I would recommend checking it out from time to time. With so many plants, I am sure something will be blooming there.

More High-Rises on the Austin Skyline

After two summers of struggling to keep my tomatoes supported with free, second-hand, big box, too small tomato cages, I built six-foot, heavy duty Tomato Towers (cue echo sound).
















At first, I wasn't too happy with the rust color of the concrete reinforcement mesh, but it really seems to blend in better with the garden than silver would.























It actually took me a while to get photos where the cages were visible. Of course, the main reason for building these condos is to keep the tomatoes happy and contained. And to prevent last summer's tomato massacre. After one of last year's summers heaviest storms, I asked my husband to check on the garden. He said it looked fine from the kitchen window. When I got up, I saw all the five and six feet tall plants--and their cages--lying toppled on the ground!

I yelled inquired nicely of the husband what was he thinking; obviously, my tomatoes weren't fine. He then admitted that he wasn't wearing his glasses when he looked.
















So far the new condo inhabitants seem happy with their new digs. I've already eaten two of the yellow currant tomatoes.
















I'd like to think this of this photo as the view from the penthouse apartment, but I'm afraid it might become the squirrel's eye view.

















Now if I could just stop singing, "Movin' on up . . . to the DEE-luxe apartment in the SKY-Y-Y, We're movin' on Up!" I'd be a happy gardener.