FROM CLAY TO GREY

The stucco on our house is grey. The previous owner chose everything grey, inside and out. It would never have been my choice but the expense of changing it is not on the cards. Furthermore the house is very angular with large square pillars which support the patio. My clay pots no longer worked. We purchased several square pots which work well. They were 50% off which made them affordable.

 They are planted up with succulents and cactus which need little in the way of water and seem safe from predators as long as raised.  I brought with me only two of my homemade hypertufa pots. One is planted with succulents, the other with desert mammillaria. All are set up on pedestals because of the pack rats and pocket mice and desert squirrels..  I learnt that lesson early on in our desert life.

 

One of the pots we bought resides in the front entrance way. A difficult place which gets no sun until  the afternoon. If I tell you that the handle on the front door requires an oven mitt to open it you might imagine what a hot corridor this is in summer. We searched high and low for something suitable to but in it and finally settled on a metal plant. Mr roadrunner came with us from Austin. I bought it from my neighbor when she left the house.

 Here's another clay pot that got a paint job and the masonry block that supports it. 

As shade is at a premium it seemed the perfect place for these kalanchoe, beneath the shade of the Texas Mountain laurel which I am pruning as a tree. I once got a surprise from a Gila monster when I was pruning all the lower branches. Now I can see clearly if there are any snakes or monsters hiding there. This is a Gila monster who crossed our path on the trail yesterday. He was about 18" long and considerably smaller than the one who visited our garden. 

 

 

If they do bite they will often not leave go and the venom will penetrate deeply causing serious symptoms. It's best not to let that happen. 

I myself am a dangerous person when I get a pot of paint in my hand. Slowly I am painting all the pots grey. I use craft paint in different shades of grey and a touch of black. Here is a clay pipe repurposed as a pedestal for one of my spheres.

 The planters I made from styrofoam coolers were already grey and didn't need painting.

When it comes to grey rocks this is a different matter. The 9 large grey rocks that came with the builder's package ( requirement of the neighborhood) just didn't look right against the brown coronado riprap rock they used to create the drainage from the scuppers. Plus, I needed more large rocks to create a rock garden. We managed to find some on a building site. They had been jack-hammered out of the ground to put in underground utilities and could not be replaced. Not the right color but I had a plan. I would give them a paint job. I had done this successfully in my Austin  garden with a dilute solution of grey acrylic paint. But those rocks were limestone and absorbed the paint easily. My rocks here are granite and it didn't work. I was aware that iron chelate must be used with caution around paving as it would cause permanent staining. Maybe it would work work with my grey rocks.  It did, and I had good success with toning down  the grey so the rocks looked more at home alongside the riprap. Until I ran out of the product.

 

 I went out to buy some more, only to find that they have changed their product and it no longer stains. I'm still on the lookout for a product that will stain my granite rocks. They all need a second coat and there are more rocks that need the treatment. 

 Maybe the treatment won't be permanent. After all the surface rocks have had thousands of years of weathering to reach the color they are today. Sometimes you can see layers that have flaked off revealing the grey granite beneath.