HOW TO DO IT WITH WILDFLOWERS

The front courtyard garden is blooming with Texas native wildflowers and has entered its most floriferous season. Using short season wildflowers in the landscape requires some structural specimens as well as hardscape. We are fortunate to have some great agaves that do the job well.

Under the whales tongue agave, A. ovatifolia, the once blooming flowers of Tulipa hummilis, have been replaced by flowering purple skullcap, Scutellaria wrightii, and yellow blooming square bud primrose, Calylophus berlandieri. The skull caps will bloom all summer if given a trim back after flowering.

And on the other side beyond the Mexican feather grass is the damianita, Chrysactinia mexicana with its aromatic, fine-leaved shrubby foliage.

Of course the bluebonnets, Lupinus texensis, being an annual will soon be gone but the accompanying blackfoot daisies, Melampodium leucanthum, will bloom all summer and will be at their best in the fall.

Blackfoot daisy

The claret cup cactus flower, Echinocereus triglochidiatus, is one of my favorite. The flower is longer lasting than many cactus flowers.

In a shady corner, and there aren't many in this garden, baby blue eyes, Nemophila phaceliodes.

A few seeds gathered from some flowers on an unbuilt lot and I now have several clumps of Barbara's buttons, Marshallia caespitosa. They are perennial but when summer comes the foliage dies back only to appear again in late winter.

Lyre leaf sage, Salvia lyrata, pops up all over the garden and would make a great ground cover with its attractively pattered leaves.

One of my favorite places to sit in the garden is in the breezeway between the garage and house There I can enjoy the view of this part of the garden with flowers and bubbling water feature. Yesterday I watched the wrens flying back and forward building a nest in-between the pots on the top shelf of the cactus theater.

Such messy builders but such fun to watch.

I hope you are enjoying spring in your garden wherever you are.

THE JUNE GARDEN

One thing that always surprises me, and more so this year because we had such an early spring, is how much is still blooming in the June garden. Our recents rains have probably helped extend the life of some plants, like the California poppies, which make a great companion for the Bee Balm, Peter's purple.

And when I thought the white one on the edge of the pool looked ready to pack it in for the year it decided to bloom again. Admittedly not quite as perfect and the flowers are smaller, but it still has a few days of bloom left before I cut it back.

This nameless day lily, a plant rescue, is the last of the day lilies to bloom. A parsley plant, going to seed, adds a fine backdrop.

The sunken garden is due for a big tidy, which involves cutting back the skullcaps, chocolate daisies, and blanket flowers to keep them blooming.

The same applies to the gaura which seems want to take over.

I have struggled to grow cleome in the past but this year seems to be the year for it to do well. I wish I had bought more than just the one.

I am thrilled with the hanging basket that I purchased this year. It was in a smaller basket and when the wind knocked to the ground breaking one of the plastic hangers, I was forced to repot it in a larger basket, in which I used baby diapers line the bottom! I pruned it back and it has now made up for lost time.

It hangs outside the kitchen window where I can admire it.

 In the front garden now that the spring bloomers have faded, there is just the odd pop of color from a flowering cactus.

Or the peach brugmansia which opened up a whole new display of flowers today.

What a show!

For a little respite from all this color I just have to take a walk outside the gate. There everything is green and serene.

MY NEXT HOBBY

I'm pretty sure that my next hobby is on the near horizon. After all, much as I love to spend every waking hour outdoors, I can't go on for much longer tending this huge and ever expanding garden. Just yesterday, when we visited Zilker gardens, David was contemplating terracing our hillside. "And where are you going to get the rocks from? Down the hill?  !!!" He who said he was never moving another rock.

No! My new hobby will not be quilting. But it will be collecting the inspiration for this quilt, which was on the silent auction table yesterday. Cactus should go quite nicely on a small patio, balcony or even indoors in a bright window. That time will come.
Even though I didn't make any purchases at the Austin Cactus and Succulent Show, yesterday, I was still interested to see what exotics might be in my future.

Maybe I will have to invest in some nicer pots. And I shall definitely have to think more about display.

Not that I haven't already amassed quite a collection one way or another! For instance, this barrel cactus came from a concrete drainage ditch in Ahwatukee, Arizona. We were out walking our son's dogs in the neighborhood and I spotted this cactus right in the center of the drainage ditch. Until I went down to take a look I thought it was actually growing out of the crack but discovered it was loose and clearly had been washed down during a rain storm. The only thing I had to hold it was a clean doggy poop bag which I opened and made into a sling.

Then a broken pad on this unknown prickly pear. Beavertail?Opuntia basilaris, 

And then there is our very own cactus wren. Our Carolina wren has made a nest on the cactus theater.