Thanksgiving Tree

Who needs a Christmas tree when you can have a Thanksgiving tree? 

I'm so thrilled to welcome a new chinquapin oak to our back garden, which replaces the xylosma that I removed a few weeks ago. The oak is perfect, and I can't wait for it to grow larger and provide us with shade from the hot summer sun.

Oaks are some of our most important trees for wildlife. They are hosts for tons of species of bugs, which means they are great sources of food for birds. The acorns are important for a lot of species too, such as blue jays. Even early settlers and Native Americans ground the acorns into flour. 

Great trees.

An added bonus is that this tree already looks like it belongs here in our deep black clay, near our creek that's in the Colorado River watershed. The xylosma never did. Something about it just seemed out of place, even though it was a nice specimen of a tree. The chinquapin looks at home. 

I'm thankful for this tree. Yes indeedy.

Getting Rid of an Unwanted Guest

Years ago, I planted a small Asian xylosma tree that I purchased on a whim from the Natural Gardener (they have since removed them from their stock). At once, I felt some trepidation about planting it, but desire won over. As the years have gone by, the xylosma has grown into a lovely evergreen multitrunked tree that anchors the patio garden.

But still, I've often wondered if it was the correct thing to plant, and pondered as much here on this blog.

When I bought the tree, I was under the impression that it was "sterile." I should've done more research. I recently discovered that it is not, in fact, sterile. These berries... 

Turn into new little xylosma trees...

I knew it was germinating from seed, because from seed it reverts back to having thorns (see above). A deep search on the Google-bot led me to even find xylosma listed as an invasive on the Bayou Preservation Association site.  

Though the bees like the little flowers and the birds clearly like the little berries, I decided that it was time to remove it. I do not was to be ground zero for another non-native invasive species creeping across our vulnerable landscapes. They are in enough trouble, thank you very much. 

Here's my process from this weekend:

Ack! My garden is as nekkid as a jay bird.

Ultimately, it was very hard to cut down a tree that had grown for so long and was looking so developed, but I'm really happy to replace it. I've decided to go with a large native shade tree, a chinquapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii), purchased from Ted's Trees down the road.

It will eventually be much nicer because it will shade the house from the late (very hot) western sun in the summer. It's also deciduous, so we'll get some much needed light in the winter. The acorns will be great for wildlife, and the leaves will, too. Oaks are one of the nation's most important trees - host to hundreds of different insects that are in turn important food for birds.

I can't wait for the oak to be delivered in a couple of weeks! And then will begin the process of exploring what that patio garden should be.

Garden from Above

It's this time of year that I end up on the roof cleaning gutters or hanging Christmas lights. I can't resist snapping some photos of the garden from up there, which provides such an interesting "plan view" of the space.

Bodi relaxes by the Ocular. A "plan view" of the front garden with yuccas, sedges, loquats and yaupons in view.

The garden has moved fully into its tan and green winter phase. I love the bright yellow color of this young Mexican buckeye, planted from seed a few years ago.

Sedges, pale-leaf yucca, Mexican buckeye and Lacey oak dominate this space.

In planning a garden, it's great to think first about what things will look like in the winter. We often think of blooms and summertime, but taking time to consider how plants will look in winter can go a long way to providing the essential structure of a landscape. What will stay green? What will have vertical form? What stem shapes will be around in the winter to provide geometry and form to your space? 

A grid of Carex retroflexis var. texensis creates anchors the back bed.

New Screen to Cover the Compost Zone

John got the gumption recently to build a screen to block one of our back utility areas, and I couldn't be happier.

Though it's way in the back corner of our back garden, the compost bins have always driven us nuts, and the back chainlink fences that we share with neighbors are forlorn. The screen is a good way to create a visual block without having to spend a bunch of money and time on a complete fence.

Plus, it creates a "behind the scenes" space where we can toss compost, tree limbs and etc while we figure out what to do with them all.

Here are a few process photos:

For anyone interested in implementing something similar, we used 4x4 rough cedar posts and 2x2 rough cedar for the slats. We decided not to cement this in, because it's not a weight bearing structure, and we might have to remove it someday if we do any other bigger projects out back.

It should hold up just fine for a number of years.

Creating a Serene Seating

Decided to move the vintage bench up front. We have had various seating scenarios up there over these years. The latest was a vintage patio table and chairs on loan from a good friend. 

She was ready to get them back and we figured that the bench would work well up there. We don't normally hang out in the front in big boisterous groups, so don't need a ton of seating. The bench is perfect for a short rest and moment of meditation.

Enchanting Micro Gardens

Here's proof that beautiful small native gardens can be grown on little to no soil and with natural amounts of rainfall.

In these parts, all it takes is:

• Little bluestem
• Prickly pear
• Yucca
• A small shrub or two
• A ground cover (try blue grama, moss or frogfruit)
• A small tree, even an oak will make a nice little bonsai

And voila!

For inspiration, I suggest a visit any time of year to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.

Goodbye Desert Willow, Hello Grill Throne

Though it was with a twinge of sadness, the time came this weekend to remove the desert willow. See that whispy tree behind the bench?

I loved that desert willow - its pink blooms and the unique scent of its leaves. But I also didn't love it. There were times in its 7-year life in our garden that it was a lovely ornamental tree. But too often it looked like this, all scraggly twigs and thin leaves:

The desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) is a Texas native that naturally occurs out west. The same goes for the feather grass that was planted beneath it, and I've also used that extensively in the garden. I've found that both of those species don't do very well in my garden's soil and light regimes. The Mexican feather grass always looks like crystal meth hair, all limp and matted. Not the wavy gorgeous feather grass of the open sunny Westside gardens.

Well, things have changed a bit at the Grackle. The plants are changing. Some of them that were doing wonderfully just aren't anymore. And some that used to be small, like the xylosma, are becoming quite large.

And sometimes, practicality must overrule design: we needed a place for our new Weber grill. I was sick and tired of going out to the driveway to use the old grill, and tired of the way it looked sitting out there by the cars.

So we said goodbye to the desert willow on this fall equinox, thanking it for all the good times.

In its place, we have created the grill throne.

Now, I actually can't believe that I ripped out a tree (practically a native) to put in a grill. That just seems like heresy, on a certain level. But on another hand, it sure was nice to grill some burgers there tonight. And there is a new simplicity that may be emerging in the back patio zone.

This probably isn't the final design, but it's a start. 

Next steps may include planting a coral honeysuckle vine on the wood slat screen behind the grill, and maybe, if budget allows, moving the steel edging back a bit and expanding the pea gravel patio. That being said, for a guy of my height, the grill being 3-4inches taller is purty nice.

I'm also going to start planting different plants under the xylosma, which has created quite a shady spot. Perhaps I'll move away from several different species and head toward more of a mass planting of something - more sea oats or some other shade tolerant native.

Anyhoo, out with the old in the with the new. Sniff.

Mountain Inspiration

Hiking in Colorado, I recently came across this wonderful planting scheme, planted by Ma Nature herself. It felt to me like one of those things I should learn from. There's a great mix of low growing groundcovers, such as sedge, with a couple of vertical accents, all backed by the woods themselves. This is good inspiration for a woodland opening type of planting design.

The sedges:

The low growing perennials:

The vertical accents:

Further Defining the Back with Patio Work Surface

We used to have a nice rectangle of grass in the way back, about 14 x 20 feet. It was the last patch of lawn in our entire yard, and we rather liked it conceptually. But, the drought has taken care of that.

So, we've evolved our thinking of the space too. John has been quite diligently piecing together patio limestone to create both a nice walking surface beneath our laundry line and a visual delineation between the well-defined pea gravel veggie beds and what will become the wilder area in the back corner of the yard. It's design is very gyo, with so materials and a rectangular shin shape.

What remains of the old lawn is now a dirt square that we'll fill in with stuff. We've decided to basically give that over to the wild, letting things seed themselves and planting new plants that will benefit the wildlife. We have plenty of space for ourselves, so this area and one other are going to become more completely natural.

Lest it looks like it's all for show, here's what the new limestone workspace looks like in service, towels on the line...

The Capri, Marfa

Two years ago, John and I ventured out to Marfa and stumbled across the Capri event space, which is directly across from the Thunderbird Hotel and owned by the same folks. The gardens were designed by Christy Ten Eyck, and they are really very amazing. The space once held a hotel and parking lot and it has been transformed into a West Texas garden wonderland.

Ten Eyck made ample use of native grasses, such as blue grama and side-oats grama, as well as West Texas stand outs, like Mexican elder (if anyone knows where I can get this small tree, please let me know!).

Here's a fantastic clump of blue grama in bloom:

Here you can see the crushed stone paths weaving through the grass plantings to connect visitors with steel fire pits ringed by stones. I can only imagine how magical those fire pits are on a cool starry night in West Texas.

Side-oats grama edges a limestone path:

A very Donald Judd-like geometric cement pool is nestled among tall gabeon walls:

Here's a few shots from a recent 2011 visit. A lot as grown in 2 years. It was really cool to see how everything filled in. (These three photos are from my my iPhone after the batteries died in my SLR...bummer.)

This is a lovely little scene with freestanding steel posts standing in a row among big fluffy grasses. Fantastic idea.

Ten Eyck is a landscape architect with offices here in Austin and in Phoenix.

Back Veggie Garden Beds Finished

This weekend, we got up the gumption to move dirt and lift limestone to complete the redesign of the back vegetable garden beds. We've now gone completely from the three rotten wooden raised beds to four small squares of limestone.

I'm extremely satisfied with these. Their form brings some much needed design structure to the back utility area, and the limestone and square grid pattern really plays well with the rest of the garden design.

For now, we're testing out having the Mexican lime tree in the center, but that may change with weather and whimsy.

Truthfully, part of the motivation for redoing these beds (aside from the rotting wood of the old beds) is to reduce the amount of space that we have devoted to growing vegetables. Veggies are just really difficult and time consuming to grow, and though I still delight in having fresh, homegrown veggies, I want to limit their pull on my life.

Now, we have a bed or two for seasonal veggies, one devoted to herbs, and I'd like the last of these to be devoted to flowering perennials, both for using as cut flowers and as a nursery bed to grow seedlings to place in other parts of the garden.

This is also really a step forward in making the garden even more drought proof. Veggies require a lot of water and the old wood beds dried out very quickly. Hopefully, these smaller, lower beds edged by water-retaining stone and planted with more drought tolerant herbs and perennials will lesson our load.

Gyo Wall

I stumbled across this absolutely gorgeous limestone wall in the Brentwood neighborhood today. It screams "gyo," where controlled stones are mixed with natural stones to create a wall that seems highly precise, yet organic. The combination of sawn limestone with natural aquifer karst and other patio limestone is just incredible. Very well done. Actually, this whole garden was nice, but I hated to lurk to long in front of it with my iPhone out snapping photos...I'm such a garden stalker...

Reuse and Recycle to Make a Table

One side effect of a typical project around here is that we always mismeasure a bit or screw something up or both. So, in the end, there's usually extra materials or scraps. In the case of the pergola/gate project, we screwed up and had some extra cedar boards laying around.

John happened to be ambling by the hippie house down the street and they were tossing out a glam silver table base. I imagine it used to support some smoked, beveled glass top.

Based on some inspiration from a bench built over at The Brick House out of an old fence, John had the cool idea to make a small table with the scrap cedar boards and the silver base.

The three-board top is secured to the base by the cross-boards that hold them together. The cross boards fit nice and snug and secure the top to the base.

The finished table is a great combo of the natural wood and the circa 80s manufactured base. Now it sits all purty next to the bed.

It still needs a good sanding and maybe a finishing oil, but for now, it's holding up the books and alarm just fine. I love reusing things and finding stuff in the garbage! (Our other garbage finds - among so many - include this white chair, the gray old Adirondack chairs on the back patio, and this planter.)