A GARDEN WITHOUT GRASSES JUST ISN'T A GARDEN

There is no lawn to mow in our gravelly garden but there are grasses. Not the sweeping vistas of grasses that are sometimes used in garden design but individual clumps scattered throughout.

One of my favorites is the ruby crystal grass, Melinus nerviglumis, with its pink puffs of seed heads It mixes well with the Mexican feather grass, Stipa tenuissima. Melinus maintains its green color throughout the season, flowering several times, whereas feathergrass takes on buff tones after producing its seeds. Despite their propensity to reseed in great numbers they are a valuable asset in the landscape.

In the past I have had little success with the burgundy fountain grass in the ground. This year I decided to grow the plant in a pot where it receives regular water. Success at last.

I can never understand why lemon grass, Cymbopogon, is so expensive to buy in the store. Although not hardy through the winter here it quickly grows from a four inch pot into an enormous plant. It did survive the mild winter last year and I found a much better spot for it to grow. Alongside the potting shed where it is welcome to the sandy gravel below. I think it makes a carefree stand.

Among the more diminutive grasses Festuca glauca, is a favorite and easily grown from seed.

I am on the lookout for more grasses for my garden. I don't mind if they reseed but they must be pretty carefree of their surroundings. Having said that no Miscanthus please. I have one in the sunken garden which I cannot get rid of. We have pulled up the paving to get to the roots but still it comes back. Let me know if you have ideas.

A BLANCO RANCH

It isn't often that I can be drawn away from my garden in the morning but the chance to visit a bridge playing friend's ranch near Blanco was enough to do it. Friday we drove out though Dripping Springs, making a quick stop at Vivero Gardens, on the way. We arrived at the entrance to the ranch and this splendid gate. A good sign of things to come. Passing through we drove along the rather rough unpaved road, past an uninhabited house and through another open gate in a high fence to reach their hacienda. After the pleasantries of introductions were over we took a tour of the new patio that J has been working on for some time.

I persuaded the two of them to pose beside the structure which houses their pizza oven. J explained that the free standing oven housed inside was build without any mortar; even the domed roof and lintel! And if you don't care for pizza then move over to the barbecue area on the other side.

There is a fire pit for those chilly Texas evenings!

What a classy outdoor shower this is.

This area uses the Texas limestone with which we are so blessed but where concrete has been poured for walkways they are decorated with impressed patterns of large leaves.

So where do you think this door leads? I would have guessed 'a bathroom'. Were we to get the surprise of our lives.
Now we all know what is under the ground where we live here on the Edward's Plateau. Several hundred feet of solid limestone. We may hack away with a pick axe to make a hole large enough to plant a plant but......

Not many of us dig this deep.

Assured that the roof would not be coming down any time soon we climbed down the steps Looking back you can see there is a room in which appears to be a perfect place to store wine. One wall has been provided with such accommodation.

Our host assures us that there is a large slab of extremely hard limestone shelf overhead! We move further on down the narrow passage way. There is evidence of the many layers of limestone formed over times when the shallow seas came in then receded.

large chunks of geodes protruding from the wall surface.

And then the light at the end of the tunnel.

And we were outside looking back.

Wow! Look at all this work. So this is where the project started. At the top of the tunnel there was a small horizontal slit in the hill. Shining a light in there they could see it was a small cave. That is how it began. The floor was gradually lowered so that walking would be comfortable for J who is rather tall. And let me just add here that they dug this whole structure out by hand. The cave was shallow and went nowhere.
We talked about landscaping above the seating area. I favored native agaves and plants with good solid structure. A mullein was already growing there among small shrubs and trees. The cave lies on the edge of the escarpment, the land dropping hundreds of feet to the valley floor.

We ate lunch on the screened porch. You can see how the house is situated on the top of the escarpment.

A Texas style gargoyle.

The rainwater collection system. One of two tanks.

We left through the side gate having spent a fun day on a Texas Ranch with lots of surprises and a full understanding of why J is known as  'The Cave Man of Blanco'

GARDEN BLOGGERS' BLOOM DAY, JUNE 2012

The middle of June already!  What is more amazing than that is that flowers are still blooming in my garden as we join Carol of Maydreams for a late spring bloom day. After all, we have been having summer in Texas for weeks on end with very little in the way of rain.

The pink evening primrose, Oenothera missouriensis, is blooming along the pool edge, for the second time this year. I cut it back severely several weeks ago and here it is again. Angel's fishing rod may not grow in this climate but the arching flowers of the gaura are a great substitute.

One favorite from last year is the Gomphrena 'fireworks' In the fall the root had gone so deep that I couldn't pull it out. I just cut it to the ground thinking the root would rot over the winter. Happily the mild winter didn't kill it and here it is back again. Gomphrenas of all varieties are a summer favorite because they just keep on blooming.

Here's the flower, hence the name.

On the other side of the pool more favorites, like the narrow leaf zinnias Zinnia linearis,  line the edge. They come from seeds saved from last year.

By and large this is a self seeding garden and at the far end a beautiful cone flower has seeded in among the stones, its growth curtailed by lack of irrigation.

They would normally grow much taller as the ones above next to the yellow knockout rose.

The chocolate daisy never seems to stop blooming. It is there in the morning but flowers have faded by late afternoon.

Among the flowers that the hummingbirds adore are Dicliptera suberecta, above, and flame acanthus, Anisacanthus quadrifidus, below.

I think it's about time to cut back the lantana, in the sunken garden, once again before it takes over..

Another plant ready for a clipping is the wall germander, Teuchrium chamaedrys. I am gradually re-establishing the plant as a low hedge in the English garden.

Last week we planted a new tree close to where the 5 Spanish oak trees once grew. It will never take the place of those trees but it may eventually offer some shade in the lower garden. It is the native, desert willow, Chilopsis linearis 'bubba' Although they say this is a small tree I have seen some pretty large ones around here. I have put it on a drip system to make sure it makes it through the summer. On the subject of the lost shade in the once Spanish oak garden I planted a new seed today. I talked at dinner about the possibility of doing an overhead arbor in this garden! We really miss the shade we once had and I see the plants in this garden are none too happy.

And who would not fall in love with its pretty orchid-like blooms?

There are lots more blooms but I think I will end here with my 50c pot of plants. They came from the rescue table at Lowes. Each 4" pot was marked down to 10c. All they needed was some TLC.

Have a great bloom day and a great summer!

SNAPDRAGON VINE BOUNTY

Several years ago, while visiting the former house of fellow garden blogger, Pam Penick of Digging, my eye was drawn to the snapdragon vine, Maurandya antirrhiniflora,  growing on her dovecote. The following year I bought a 4" pot of the vine which I trained up a trellis near the patio. The vine never grew well and the flowers were very small, probably due to lack of water, and this year I pulled it out.

Then at the nursery one day I spotted a snapdragon vine with much larger flowers. The tag said Snapdragon vine 'giant purple'. I snapped it up and planted it in a pot in front of another trellis.

Its flowers were indeed much larger but I had no idea for the bonus I was going to receive with this plant. A common buckeye butterfly, Junonia coenia,  came into the garden and was busy flitting around this area. I couldn't get a photo of her because she wouldn't sit still. But I did a little research and learnt that this plant is a host to the larva of the buckeye. So that's what she was up to. Sometime later I spotted a minute caterpillar on one of the leaves.

I have been watching closely for days and this morning counted 5. Three are at the top of the plant which is looking a little ragged.

I shall be watching carefully for the chrysalis to appear and then there will be 5 little buckeyes in the garden and maybe no plant left if they all get busy!

SHOULD I BE DISAPPOINTED?

Two years ago I bought another Texas clematis, Clematis pitcheri, at the Wildflower Center Sale. It performed poorly last year but sprang back to life this spring following the winter rain. A week ago it began to bloom.

The unopened bloom looked like a little Chinese lantern. The color a little disappointing but then maybe it would color-up in time.

It didn't. As someone who loves everything in nature I find myself rather disappointed by the underperformance of this flower.

YOU CAN'T BEAT A TEXAS MORNING FOR SURPRISES

This is a typical Texas spring morning. It is 7am and this coolness on the air will last approximately 2 hours if we are lucky. I walk outside with my camera to capture the early morning light on the patio, put my camera down, then shout out in delight.

I can see this mass of white where no white was last night. The Echinopsis has flowered again, this time with all the flowers opening in unison.

What could me more beautiful. A closer encounter brings a faint waft of perfume. It will be but a brief flowering. By tonight the blooms will have faded and will hang down from their wilted stalks.

Not so pretty a sight came when I walked to the potting shed. I caught another sight of something that wasn't there last night. A dead baby opossum on the top of one of the beds.

I don't think that he was casually walking through the garden and upped and died. I think he fell from the sky, dropped by an owl during the night. This is the second time I have found a dead animal in the veg. garden. The last time it was a rat. He has a wound on his side which reinforces my belief.
Just another hum-drum day in a Texas garden!

THE QUEEN"S DIAMOND JUBILEE

Celebrations are underway in Great Britain and many Commonwealth countries to mark the  Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth the second's ascension to the throne. She ascended on February 6th 1952 following the death of her father George VI. Her coronation took place June 2nd 1953.

Only one monarch before her celebrated a diamond jubilee and that was Queen Victoria on June 20th 1897.
Floral tributes have been many.

Waddeston Manor Gardens courtesy fo the Daily Telegraph.

Charmaine's Florist, Southsea courtesy of the  Daily Telegraph

St James' Park, courtesy of the Daily Telgraph.

At the Chelsea flower show this rose named Rosa 'Queen's Jubilee Rose' won a Gold Medal for Peter Beale's Roses. The rose took ten years to develop.

There will be many celebrations going on in towns all over the country. Champagne corks will pop and Pimms will be drunk at many of the street and private parties. The celebration will be similar to that of the coronation on June 2nd 1953. I was one of 2 million children who received a coronation mug and drank her cocoa in it every night! On the day itself we went to my grandparent's house to watch the coronation on TV. We didn't have a TV at the time! There was such excitement although for an 8 year old the ceremony was rather long.
I certainly hope I will be able to catch some of the celebrations on TV.