THE NARROW SIDE GARDEN

I have thought about changing my blog name to Gardening on the Edge, which is exactly how I am gardening these days. Each of my gardening spaces follow the footprint of the house. The edge that needed attention was at the side of the house leading up to the side garage door. I get the feeling that the previous owners never walked around there because there were several bushes whose branches would grow at odd angles and grab you as you walked by. We use this way frequently and were tracking dirt intot he house. First step was to remove them leaving only the photinia and the Texas olive at the front and at the back a beautiful Anacacho orchid tree. 

In the spring the arching branches hang over the walkway and are reminiscent of times when I had apple and crabapple trees in my garden.  The fragrance isn't quite the same but not unpleasant and the bees love the flowers which give them black pollen.

This narrow 7' space is bounded by a low wall with fence on the left had side. On the right the garage wall. There are two scuppers coming off the roof. They carry water of the flat roof which drained away along the bare ground. The first job was to create a place on which the water could land before passing into a proposed wet weather channel.  And make it possible to walk past without getting muddy feet.

I marked out a winding channel which David lowered a few inches so water would flow out towards a drain at the front of the house. I knew we did the right thing bringing our pick axes with us.

This is a budget project using rocks abandoned by builders in the area and some taken from areas of our lot where we created more garden space.  To add more interest I found a couple of large ones and then filled in with smaller stones.

 I wish I had some larger rocks to create a rock garden but as my mother used to say " beggars can't be choosers" This is what I had to work with.

There will only be planting along the left side. I already have some native plants growing from seed( thanks to a gift from Syd Teague)  and hopefully they will soften the jagged rocks that I am making do with. By late April native Desert marigold, Bailey multiradiata, and Goodings verbena, Verbena gooddingii, are already flowering. They are short-lived plants but reseed easily. I['m also saving seeds from my very successful damianita and chocolate flower.

I have also added a few pups of Octopus agave. I really don't have a big enough garden for this large agave but they will stay until I find substitutes or they grow too large. 

As I mentioned this is a shoestring garden of native plants that are not attractive to the javelina. We finished off the walking area bu adding a small clean gravel. Most of them were bought at the 50% off bin at HD where they put their opened bags.

A FIRST EVERY DAY

You walk around the garden and spot the first bloom on the ....... I'm sure you could easily fill in the blank. Surely every gardener shares this experience. And spring is the time when every day seems to bring that 'first flower' experience.
Here are some of my first flower experiences this week and most of them natives.

First I saw the bud then overnight a flower on the Ladyfinger cactus, Echinocereus pentalophus. These flowers last for at least 3 days and usually arrive in succession.

The blue gilia,  Giliastrum rigidulum. More commonly found in west Texas but I found one small patch growing on my lot and was successful in moving it to a place where I can see it and enjoy its beauty. It is almost at eye level so cannot be missed. It usually opens in the afternoon. Do you see the weevil? Not the dreaded agave weevil though.

Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium angustifolium, seeds among the gravel and between the pavers. As does the Engelmanns daisy which has seeded alongside.

the pink evening primrose, Oenothera speciosa. Oh! Yes, it will run wild but that' fine. A quick pull here and there will keep it under control.

Baby blue-eyes, Nemophila phacelioides. I only have a little patch of shade and that's where they grow.

Everyone else may be able to grow the spiderwort, Tradescantia sp with ease. For me it is a rare event.

What's that I see through the shower window? It's the first blooms of the Anacacho orchid tree, Bauhinea lunarioides.

And the cross vine, Bignonia capreolata. has found tis way 20' from the mother plant.

And I have a mental block on what this plant is called. Help me out will you, please? Update. Thanks to Lyn for the id of Pavonia lasiopetala if I remember the species name correctly.

And wood sorrel, Oxalis.sp. For some it is a weed, for me I am happy to have just a few flowers in this shady corner.

Oh! How I love that morning, spring-time stroll around the garden. There will be more tomorrow, I'm sure.

LITTLE WHITE FLOWERS

David mentioned how much he enjoyed the view, through the shower window, of the little white flowers on that spindly tree. That spindly tree is the Anacacho Orchid tree, Bauhinia congesta.

There are a few reasons why it is so spindly. One is the terrible soil in which it grows. Although amended somewhat there is a depth of road base underneath it. This area was where they removed all the huge ledge stones you see around the garden, in order to get the house level right. Then they filled in with this road base. It is also a very dry spot sheltered from our recent rains by the house wall. But more significantly it bore the brunt of the 2015 hail storm which caused excessive damage to much of the bark. Still it soldiers on producing a nice bloom every spring. Its two lobed leaves are sometimes described as butterfly or clove-like and are characteristic of this genus.

Being a member of the pea family the blooms are replaced by wiry seed pots which are not very attractive. I usually snip them off but occasionally there is one that escapes me and germinates in the soil below. Sad to say I have had poor success in trying to transplant them. 

In this same garden are two variegated pittosporum, Pittosporum tobira 'variegate' Their flowers are sweetly fragrant which gives it the name Japanese mock orange. This afternoon my son visited the garden and he remarked he didn't like the way the plant was growing with such low branches. I have always liked that aspect of its growth but maybe I need to take a second look as to whether it would look better pruned up. I'm always open to suggestions.

You have to look closely to admire the blooms of the chain plant, Callisia fragrans.

The plant was given to me as a grandfather's pipe but I have never found any reference to this plant being named so. More often it is called the basket plant or chain plant. The latter because the plant produces a long shoot which forms a new plant on the end. If grown along the ground it will root at this point. This one is growing in a hanging basket where it has grown out of the side. More commonly I have it growing in the ground in a shady location. It is not truly winter hardy but does survive in a very sheltered location with overhanging branches.

But just wait until the flowers open fully. They are like delicate bouquets of bridal flowers and they have the sweetest fragrance which explains their species name 'fragrans'

The garden is full of sweet fragrances at the moment but this is one demands you get a little closer to appreciate.

WHITE IS A COLOR TOO

I didn't realize how many white flowers I had int he garden until I went out to photograph them today.

The mock orange, Philadelphus sp Natchez is putting on the biggest white show.

Followed by the Anacacho orchid tree, Bauhinia lunariodes.

There's even a single rain lily, Cooperia drummondii, coaxed into blooming by the recent rains.

In the English garden the white knockout rose puts on her first full flush of blooms.

The native blackfoot daisy, Melampodium leucanthum.

Love-in-a-mist, Nigella sativa, with the spiky foliage. A faithful spring returner.

Larkspur,

A single white Shirley poppy.

The multiplying onions, Allium sepa, making a great stand. I think I may mix them in with my other garden flowers next year.

The potatoes are flowering.

And the snow pea flowers mean lots of peas over the next few weeks. I always plant Pisum sativum 'Cascadia' because they are open pollinated and I can save the seeds for next year.

The first pods.

And the tiny star flowered sedum, Sedum potosinum.

YOU MIGHT WELL SMILE, MR SUN

Look at him, pleased as Punch. He now gets to shine in the Spanish Oak garden. So, I thought it fitting to put this plaque on the wall where once a shade loving plant grew.
The fierce heat and drought of last summer was responsible for the demise of the clump of five Spanish oaks that have shaded this small garden for the last 10 years.

You can see the trunks of these oak trees above the retaining wall. Their leaves used to cast beautiful dancing shadows on the walls and floor.

There will be no more. David is taking the trees down little by little as they hang over the house. We would also like to do as little damage to the surrounding trees as possible. These aren't the only trees to die. All over our lot are oak trees in a state of decline. The Spanish oaks seem to have been the hardest hit.
This is not the only change this little garden has seen over the last few weeks. When we discovered water leaking from the base of the wall into the garden, it wasn't long before the wall was opened up and jackhammers were pounding at the slab in search of a leak, in the copper pipe, deep in the foundation. It resulted in some damage and loss of plants in this area.

I had replaced a large butterfly iris, in the fall, with an Anacacho orchid tree, Bauhinia lunariodes, and was fearful for its life when scaffolding was erected to repair the wall.  I wrapped the tree in cloth to protect it as best I could. The men worked really carefully and a week later, with new plantings in place the tree came into full bloom. I did have to get over the loss of a large clump of the blue gilia which was about to burst into glorious bloom, replace for now with an A. desmettiana.

Bees have been hovering around the flowers and an overnight visitor hung around until the air temperature warmed up.
This is my easy care garden. The only real job being the clipping of the 'hedge' the creeping Ficus repens, which covers the retaining wall.
But all this means that we shall have to re-name this garden. Any ideas?