I'M A HOARDER AND A DREAMER

I have to admit I'm a garden magazine hoarder. I have magazines dating back to the early 90s. When I get them out it is often as though I am reading a new magazine and I always hope that this time around I will find nothing of interest to me and I will be able to throw the magazine away. Even though my tastes and ideas change over time I usually find something there which requires me to put that magazine  back on the shelf. The other day after lunch I sat down with a 1998 Sunset Garden Guide.

This is a photo of a retaining wall in Scott Spencer's Southern California garden. Oh my! This photo makes my garden soul jump up and down. My friend Pam Penick wrote on her blog recently about reproducing a garden scene from a magazine by substituting plants local to one's own area. What a great idea, which you can read about here.

I have the retaining wall. Isn't it a beauty? David did this retaining wall hauling thousands of pounds of limestone rocks from lower down on our lot.

I think it is magnificent and yet it is lacking something.... I have made excuses; no water, no soil, deer, raccoons, turkeys mice, squirrels. Things have changed recently due to the prolonged Texas drought. We have lost many of the trees and with more sun little Texas sedges are starting to pop up everywhere. The yuccas and opuntia I have planted are doing well producing their first heavy crop of tunas this year. Bluebonnet seedlings are everywhere. With some gentle winter rains we may have a wash of blue next year.

When I visit English gardens I dream of having aubretia and campanulas growing out from between the rocks. Nothing seem to survive life in the dry, drystone wall.
Now after revisiting that wall in California I am inspired to make some improvements. I can have Mexican feather grass and maybe a Weber's agave hanging over the wall. Maybe some euphorbias and of course rock rose. I am going to head out into the garden and pick some seeds to throw among the bluebonnets.

WHEN IN DOUBT, ADD MORE ROCK

This morning I went to the stone yard. It was the final step in the completion of a project I started on Labor Day.

This summer I lost the two Japanese aralia in the front courtyard garden. They were growing against the wall in a long neglected area. I have never been happy with this part of the garden. It is mostly hidden from view except when I walk down the hallway to the bedroom. I always avert my eyes because I don't like what I see.

It was probably the least photographed part of my garden ( you can just see the area in the far left hand corner of the photograph, with the Japanese aralia during better times) and I needed to change that. I knew exactly what I was going to do; extend the dry creek up into the corner.

Sometimes thing have to get worse before they get better. I began digging out the new creek bed only to be confronted with a drain pipe running right across the path of the new creek. We did however decide that it was an offshoot from a drain in the far corner of the house and as the pipe was higher than the drain it really was not functional( not our doing). David now became involved in the project cutting off the pipe and sealing both ends. So I carved out the new creek bed and lined it with granite. Meanwhile David was sent on a mission to find a new bridging stone.

Here comes the stone. I can't tell you how long it took him to drag this stone up the hill. Hours. Later that evening we were sitting quietly when David said, "that is the last rock I am bringing up the hill" Should I believe him. I think he may mean it this time.

Here is the rock in place, spanning the new creek.

The original stepping stones leading to the door needed some adjustment before I began filling the creek with New Mexico river rock. I moved the rock from lower down the creek. It was an opportunity for a good clean out. Then today I went to buy more. $30 of stone finished the job.
The larger rocks were repurposed. They had once been used around the fountain pot in the sunken garden. In order to tie the river rock to the rest of the area I added some native limestone rocks. I can just about manage the small ones by myself.

For me, the design of the hardscape is the easy bit. The planting is the hardest. What I need is plants that are easy to care for, drought tolerant, and don't shed leaves. The sun never shines in the far corner. I relocated this twist leaf yucca from one of my vegetable beds. I hope it isn't too unhappy in its new home of limey rubble.

You can see that it was about to produce a bunch of new shoots. In the shady corner, for the time being, I relocated another plant from the vegetable bed, A.weberi. It may just be a temporary plant until I decide what is best for the corner. I'm always open to suggestions.

All I need now are a few plants to soften the edges of the creek. I already see bluebonnets have germinated at the top end.