SOURCING IDEAS FOR THE GARDEN

When I started my first garden in 1973 all the ideas came from my own head. I had a Better Homes and Gardens loose leaf book and that was it. It was very basic. I never thought of looking for gardening books at the library or even buying garden books or magazines. Around 1998 I began visiting a few gardens on my travels and buying garden magazines and books, many of them at charity shops in England. By the year 2000, when we started this garden, I had quite a file of ideas snipped from magazines; garden styles I particularly liked; plants that I thought would do well in Texas. It was time to start incorporating some of these ideas into my new landscape.

The front of our house has 4 square high windows. As I looked from outside up at those windows  I remembered an idea I had seen in Sunset magazine years ago.  I found it in my file.

What could be more perfect than to replicate those high windows on the front wall of the garden. It would just add some permanent interest to the wall which looked particularly bare before there were any plants.

David built the boxes and stained them the same color as the front gates.

But the box of mirrors had 12 pieces and sometime later I decided it might be fun to have some on the inside of the curved wall in the front courtyard. This time we used grey stain. This week I caught sight of the reflection of hesperaloe and American beautyberry in one of the windows.

I have seen mirrors used in gardens before. Hung directly on the wall they add another dimension sometimes creating the illusion of another garden beyond and the mirrors seem to remarkably resistant to damage. Some of mine have had to have the wood replaced because of rot and from time to time I clean off the beak marks of the cardinal and mockingbird who see themselves in the glass. It is hard to find the right size of wood and unless you have a router, and when ours died David had to use two sizes of wood to create the inset for the mirror. It would probably work just as well without the mirror being inset as long as it was well sealed.

Another recent project gleaned from a magazine, and squirreled away in my file, was the sliding shutters in both the side entry garden and the English garden. I was trying to work out how we could add shutters to those openings when flicking through my file I came across this sliding shutter.

Another great Sunset magazine idea. David built the shutters and hung them on sliding barn door hardware. The first one he made was for the opening in the side entry. Wind-driven rain was a problem at the side door. This was the perfect solution. It works. No more wet shoes and doormat.

And one thing led to another. "Wouldn't it be nice to have similar shutters in the English Garden?" I asked him. A similar problem exists there with rain and wind from a different direction. Not only are they functional but they add interest to another very dominating wall. What would Dick Clark be saying about this?

Then there are my little sayings. Remember this one above the side entry? I'll be honest I didn't make this one. I actually bought it for $1 at a garage sale with the intention of stenciling my own saying on there. I hunted for a stencil that was the right size and gave up. In the end I thought the saying wasn't such a bad one after all. But the idea to have some writing on the wall came from a garden I visited in England.

At Snowshill Manor in England there is a passage from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Charles Wade might have said that of his own garden and I agree with him.

To make some for myself I found I had to make my own stencils by printing out the letters and cutting them out. One for over the Sun and Moon Archway.

I also saw this idea in a garden shop in England.

And using some wood from the old compost bins I made a similar one to place just by the side entrance.

And those of you who came to the recent Garden Bloggers' Spring Fling might have noticed this one I made to guide you through the front gate and around the side into the other gardens.

I saw this simple theatre at Holehird Gardens, home of the Lakeland Horticultural Society, in the Lake District, England. They have taken the idea of an Auricula Theatre and used it to display miniature hostas. If you want to see an amazing display of auricula theatres then just google the words.

My theatre is for cactus and succulents and replaces a, difficult to water, hayrack planter.

Holehird gardens was another source of one of my garden projects. My trough planter.

But in making this large one I realized just how much material is needed and mine ended up being more shallow and not so thick. And of course alpines are out of the question here so I chose succulents.

And then came some easier planters to make from styrofoam boxes seen on the Hypertufa Gardener They can be made in next to no time and look just as good.

And my largest project of all was my first one and that was the dry stone wall for which the English Garden is named. They abound in the part of the country I grew up and you can see one behind the troughs in the picture from Holehird.
Here's mine.

Then sometimes I have my own ideas as in the stock tank water feature set in a raised bed.

But then recently I saw this idea in a British garden program and filed it away because if my stock tank ever springs a leak, and it will, I will try this idea.

I'm always on the lookout for little things to bring interest into the garden.  I watch gardening programs from England, Australia as well as the US. I watch videos, read magazines, and books and troll Pinterest. There is such a wealth of ideas at our fingertips these days! No one should be short of a source for garden design.

THE STOCK TANK POND

Wander to the back of my vegetable garden and you'll find a 4X2' stock tank water garden tucked in behind the potting shed wall.

 We added it a few years ago to fill in an empty spot that was an awkward shape. It had become a weeding nightmare and covering that extra area meant less weeding. It did not mean less work! Beautiful as a pond may be it does involve some maintenance but the rewards are high. This week I had 5 of the 'Colorado' water lilies open at the same time. Later the dwarf yellow Nymphaea Pygmaea Helvola ' opened its first bud. This water lily is more hardy and can be wintered over quite easily in freeze areas as long as the water doesn't freeze to the bottom the pond. I remember reading a long time ago that exotic water lilies will be up on stalks and hardy native ones will be floating on the water. I wonder if this is true?

Both these water lilies were divisions from my friend Pam Penick who gardens at Digging and who has an 8' stock tank garden. In the summer the Colorado water lily can quickly cover the surface of the pond. You need that to keep down the algae bloom.
To add a little height I added a couple of native limestone rocks, on which sit a ceramic frog. Today I noticed that a seed from the dwarf papyrus had settled in one of the depressions in the rock.

I have a couple of plants growing in floating islands, A variegated Japanese sedge and a dwarf papyrus. Directions on how I made these floating islands can be found here. Regrettably my lovely fish fountain succumbed to the two nights of 18° temperatures this winter. The water continued to flow which at least kept the ice from completely freezing over but caused the concrete to spall and eventually break apart. So sad to see it go. It has been replaced by a small bubbling fountain.

Those water lilies were down at the bottom of the pond during this freeze period so they survived to bring me joy again this summer. The papyrus and sedge in large buckets in the greenhouse.

ONE MAN'S ASH TRAY IS ANOTHER MAN'S...........

One morning I was out watering and water collected in a depression in one of our rocks. A little bird came to drink from the water. It wasn't at all shy about my presence.

We have multiple bird baths and a bubbling water feature but there is always room for more. Driving into the neighborhood on Friday I saw a sign to an estate sale. I pulled in to see if they had anything garden wise. Nothing of interest except half buried in the ground outside I saw this stone with water in it.  When I asked about this forgotten piece of stone they told me $1. I'll take it. As I walked away the man said, "I think it was an ash tray" Then I saw the two places on the side to put a cigarette. Oh well, the birds won't mind I'm sure. I scrubbed it out and half buried it in the gravel.

PLANTS GROW QUICKLY IN TEXAS

It took a harsh winter to get me moving and redo the planting in front of the dining room window. In late February we removed everything. I did a complete turnaround on the plants replacing the old Indian Hawthorn and Butterfly iris with Red Yucca, Salvia greggii, Mexican feather grass and Whale's tongue agave. See how quickly they are growing. I purchased one gallon red yucca and quart salvias. Feather grasses were transplanted from the granite pathway at the back. I also popped in some ice plant I grew from seed this year and several ruby crystal grasses, also from seed. A few Mexican ruellia and skullcaps round out the rest of the planting. I'm really happy with the outcome. It has a much neater appearance which I hope will stay that way.

A NEW WATER FEATURE

Sometimes something good comes out of an unwelcome event. I am referring to the our record low winter temperatures. All the butterfly iris in the front of the dining room window were lost to the freeze. When we took them out they had left their mark on the Indian Hawthorne. In the end the decision was made to remove everything and come up with a new planting. The hawthorne had almost overgrown the little water feature we had made form a large native rock which had a perfect hole in the center. Suddenly the water feature didn't look so hot anymore. The new planting deserved something better and I had just the thing.

Last fall we were helping our son clean up in the alleyway behind his house, when I spotted this hexagonal piece of concrete with a square hole in the center. Years ago it must have held a 4x4" wooden post. The nails which held the post in the center were still there. I just knew it would make a great water feature. It took my husband and son to load it onto our truck. Last week David struggled to bring it into our front garden, positioning it over the original planter buried in the ground. It is supported on a some old blocks, with a wire mesh over the top and an old piece of garden hose passing through that square hole. It was now my job to tie it into the existing dry creek by repositioning the rocks around the feature and arranging some rocks in the hole so that water will flow over the top as well as drop down into the sump. Voila!
The new planting in front of the window will include red yucca , Hesperaloe parviflora and autumn sage, Salvia greggii. In front the Whale's tongue agave, Agave ovatifolia.