Thank Goodness It's Spring!

The Great Ice of December 7

It was colder than a witch's rear end here in Austin this weekend. "Ice fog" they called it during the Baylor-UT game. Gnarly.

The fountain froze a bit and the fall/winter colors around town are dominating.

That's about all to report from the Grackle at this point.

Spring Sunset

Amazing.

cold: Assessing the Damage

Strolled around the garden this weekend assessing the damage from the Great Cold of 2011 (it better be done, by the way, because this weekend was amazing). Most things at the Grackle actually fared pretty well, but there are some things that are freeze dried and mushy. Mostly the zone pushers and non-natives. Here they are:

These pretty little yellow and green agaves are toast.

 Barbados cherry, as last year after the frost. Crispy and freeze dried.

The lavender is not looking so hot either.

Anacua, or sandpaper tree, with brown sandpapery leaves. If it doesn't freeze, this is an evergreen. This year, as with last, it is freeze dried.

The bamboo muhly - so green just a week ago - is yellow and toasty. It's still pretty though, catching the sunlight.

cold: Snowman

I couldn't resist...

cold: Snowpocolypse!

cold: F**k This S**t

Apologies go out to any sensitive readers out there, but I guess this blog isn't really for the 18 and under crowd. So, I just have to say that this cold weather f**k'n sucks! Me and my plants, we didn't move into this yard to have to deal with two years in a row of below 20 degree weather. This is not the norm for Austin. Poor me. Poor plants.

These crazy cold snaps are really stressful for me as a gardener, and my thoughts go out to all those farmers around Centex that are trying to make a living out there. This cold sucks! (Oh wait, I already said that.)

I definitely push the zone a bit with my plants, and of course, those are feeling the burn right now. Dark green frozen cells that will turn to slime on Saturday when things warm up. The zone-pushers like anacua (sandpaper tree) and Barbados cherry are going to be really unhappy with this situation. I can hear them screaming out there as I type...

But even my zone appropriate natives are used to this crap. The pale leaf yuccas are all curled up like hand-rolled cigarettes, the columbine is dying back, prickly pears and turning white as ghosts, and etcetera. Damn it.

Whaaa. Ok. Done with that.

weather: Drought on the Horizon, Again?

Well, here we go again. It hasn't rained in Austin since September to any great extent. And now, it looks like we might be headed for another drought. From the Statesman:

State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon told the Houston Chronicle that continuing dry weather is likely to persist at least into the spring. Nielsen-Gammon, who's also a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, says "it's probably going to get worse before it gets better."

The U.S. Drought Monitor on Thursday indicated 85 percent of Texas is abnormally dry, compared to about 29 percent a year ago.

I've got the perfect solution: Why don't I get rid of all of my plants (which are relatively drought tolerant anyway) and plant all cacti? The very moment I would do that, I can tell you, the rains would pour and pour and my cacti would rot in the damp clay.