Fall Purples and Yellows

The garden is being totally controlled by the appearance of purple and yellow blooming plants right now, and the effect is kind of cool. Not all of them are right next to each other, but when taking in the entire space, the repetition of the two colors is quite nice.

There's the esperanza or Texas yellow bells:


Gold lantana and Indigo spires sage:



Golden thyrallis and Indigo spires:



Gregg's blue mistflower (which is really quite purple) and tall goldenrod:



Mexican petunia, which is pretty invasive, but also quite pretty right now:

A yellow variety of tropical milkweed:


Society garlic backed-up by Mexican bush sage:


You know, with all my talk of natives, I must say that pretty much everything I've listed here is non-native. The only plants that are "native" are mistflower and the goldenrod, which are native to Texas, but not sure that their range is around here or not, and Texas is a big place. The Blackland is really different than the Chisos. Hmm. Food for thought.

Pavement to Parks

In Austin, as in many cities apparently, there's a ton of asphalted, concreted space just sitting around in a "land bank." It happens when people buy up land, destroy what was there before, and it sits there waiting for a better time in real estate. For an example in Austin, just go look at the very sad concrete pad that used to be the vibrant and much-loved Las Manitas.

Allison Arieff has a great article on this today in the New York Times.

She also opened my eyes to this amazing movement in San Francisco and elsewhere to convert Pavement to Parks.

This is so incredibly cool. Check out this crazy little park in the Castro District in San Fran that was made just by throwing down a few planters and chairs, right in the middle of a dangerous street.


Now the space is full of people sitting around, playing music, and generally engaging in urban cultural activities.

With a little more creativity, these places can also become temporary home to pretty serious gardens that can be grown in old trash bins and air conditioning vents that have been made to look really colorful and interesting.

WE NEED THIS IN AUSTIN. My newest inspiration.

Front Garden: Befores and Afters

Ok, one more post about the front garden project, and then I'm done. (Yea right.) It's always fun to look at before and after photos side by side. So here they are. The before photos are taken in July 2006 when we first bought the house. The front garden had changed since then - we removed trees, added beds and removed some grass - but the circular brick walk and falling brick wall had remained until this new project. Here we go...

Before

After

Before
After

Before
After (different angle, but same bed with the rose in it)

Before (with the circular brick walk) After

Front Garden: Steel Steps are In!

We've now basically completed the hardscaping for the front garden, with the installation of steel steps for the entry path.




We decided to go with steel steps in the front to bring a bit of modern style to the limetone wall, and to tie the front together with the back, which also has some 1/4" steel edging around the patio. The steel work was done by Jonathan at Austin Outdoor Studio. Check out his really nice work.

He also carved out some sweet house numbers for us, using the same Bodoni typeface that is used for the other numbers we bought a while ago from Design Within Reach.

Jonathan also has an online store with steel planters and benches. Great stuff.

Boomers

We've been having this crazy wet stuff fall from the sky. I think it's called rain? Though I can't be 100% sure. Whatever it is, we've had about three inches here at the Grackle, which seems like a miracle after all these months and months of nothing.


With the moisture has come an explosion of various mushrooms growing around the garden.

Chisos Mountains: Part 2

Natural Inspiration in West Texas. [This is part 2 in a series on the Big Bend area, from natural to built environments. Part 1 is here.]

The view heading up the road into the Chisos.


This might be a bit hard to see, but here is an understory of Mexican feathergrass with agaves spiked throughout. A great combination, and the agaves seem more like the "whale's tongue" agaves I see for sale around here - squatter and more compact than the huge "century plants."


I think this little beauty is Scarlet Bouvardia or Trompetilla (Bouvardia ternifolia). There were so many flowers blooming up in the Chisos, and I only captured a few.


This path below is lined with agave and prickly pear with "tunas" or fruits in the background. Apparently, Big Bend has the most species of cactus of any national park in the U.S.


Another great combination - the purple of the tunas with the yellow of whatever that plant is, which was blooming everywhere.


This was common on the mountain too. It's a nice peach blossom on gray leaves and stems. I've seen this planted and growing near the water tower at the Wildflower Center, but can't recall the name.


A fabulous pairing of sotol and agave.


A crazy red flower - another unidentified.


And I'll leave the post with this picture of Mexican feathergrass lining a trail and framing the aromatic pine.

Chisos Mountains: Beautiful and Inspiring

Natural Inspiration in West Texas. [This the first post planned in a series that I'll make on the Big Bend area, from natural to built environments.]


We just returned from a short jaunt out to West Texas, to clear the mind and liberate the soul. There's just something about those wide open spaces. To our great surprise, the Big Bend-Marfa-Marathon area has had a cool and rainy summer, so everything was lush and green compared to Central Texas. Temps were about 20 degrees cooler during the day than here in Austin - hovering around 80 - and during the 65 degree nights, my thin blood required a long-sleeved pullover.

On Saturday, we headed south from Marathon (where we stayed at the Gage Hotel) to Big Bend National Park and the Chisos Mountains. When approaching the Chisos from far away, the mountains look rather barren. But the closer you get the more they reveal themselves to you.

We hiked the Lost Mine Trail - a short 5 mile hike up the mountain that took a while because both John and I were in love with everything happening there. Big blue throated hummingbirds zipping around, acorn woodpeckers squawking like parrots, and rufous-sided towhees shuffling in the leaf litter.

The woodland-grassland mountain landscape was gorgeous and totally inspiring from a gardening perspective. Below, you can see a mountain grassland anchored by Mexican feathgrass (Stipa tenuissima), grama grass (I think side-oats), and other grasses. Small shrubs and perennials like damianita (Chrysactinia mexicana) fill in the spaces to make a dense cover.

It was cool to see Mexican feather grass in its native habitat (it does great in Austin too). Look how everything hugs the well worn path. I love the simplicity and calmness from the repeated grasses, but they hide a great diversity of plants. Bees were everywhere...


The red blooms in this photo below are mountain sage (Salvia regla), another Chihuahuan Desert native in the highlands. This is also growing in my garden, but won't be blooming until October and November. The hummingbirds were all over this stuff, defending their little feeding territories.


Check out this beautiful arching grass. Don't know what it is yet...

I have a ton more photos and will be posting more soon. Blogger was giving me a hard time tonite. So, this is the first in a series of posts...