THE SECRET GARDEN

We have a small garden around the side of the house which used to be called the Spanish Oak Garden. That was until the severe drought of 2010- 2012 killed them. It was the year of the massive tree loss in Texas and we lost not just these 3 oak trees but 7 more on the property. Texas estimated a loss of over 300million trees in rural areas. As this area faced the west they had provided much needed shade in the summer.
It is now the job of umbrellas to create shade.

Last year I added a little table and chairs and as I was passing through one morning I had a FaceTime call from one of the boys. It was a perfect place and time to just sit down and chat awhile, as well as look around and see what needed to be done.
I was quite upset when, last year when the gate banged to in a strong wind knocked off the lovely cicada planter I had purchased in France 2 years ago. But, as luck would have it, I had the perfect planter waiting in the potting shed. I had purchased it several years ago and never used it. Now, here was the perfect place. Yesterday I potted it up, not with anything exciting, but with some rooted cuttings that were growing in a pot of plumeria. Being metal it should survive better.

That birdbath definitely needed a good scrubbing.

The concrete retaining wall, which surrounds this garden, is covered with fig ivy. It takes some work to keep it looking neat. Once a year I have to shear it but it is a constant job to keep it off the wall hangings.

It likes nothing more than to creep under this hypertufa pot and then climb up the sides. The texture of the pot makes it an easy climb. I don't want it there and I don't want it destroying the lovely little mosses that grow on the surface. They are more prominent after a rainfall and during winter.

At certain times of the year they actually fruit.

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This is my favorite of the troughs I have made because it has a very authentic look. It was supposed to be trough shaped but when I came to fill the mold with the mixture I realized there was not going to be enough to make the large one and had to reduce the size. It ended up being much more manageable and it was easy to find a permanent home for it.

It is now planted with Drimiopsis maculata, the African false hosta, which was given to me by a Houston garden visitor. It is so happy there that I am going think about dividing it this winter.
With variegated pittosorum which has grown to a good sized bush there is plenty of shade beneath but this is very dry shade and very poor soil. Beneath a thin top layer of soil is limestone road fill which was brought in to fill the large void created during construction when they had to remove a layer of ledgestone. One gardens loss was another gardens gain as these were used in the sunken garden.
Color comes to the garden in the fall with the flowering of the oxblood lilies. After blooming their scrappy leaves look pretty untidy until they wither and die back. Their jobs done to feed the next fall's blooms.
I think that they would look better if they were in clumps and interspersed with something that would hide the foliage during the summer. Possibly some echinacea. Maybe now is the time to dig some of them up to relocate.

The planting in the garden is simple. Several variegated pittosporums which are becoming tree-like. A rather spindly Anacacho orchid tree, Bauhinia lunariodes

The good thing about working out here is there is sufficient shade in the early morning. And a nice place to take a break.