Rugged late spring beauty at Inks Lake

This week, the family and I took a much-needed mid-week break from our daily routines to soak up the lovely natural surrounding at Inks Lake State Park. The weather remains unseasonably cool this year in Austin, which means it is downright perfect for camping. Temps ranged from upper 60s in the early morning to upper 80s at the peak of the afternoon. Great swimming weather, very enjoyable in the shade.

A dry creek on the way to Devil's Waterhole, as seen from the wooden bridge on the trail. My 4-year-old was looking for wildlife footprints and hoping to find some here.

Our one family hike this time was down to Devil's Waterhole and back. Last time we camped at Inks, we lugged our then 3-year-old and 15-month-old up the steep ridge of the Valley Creek trail that starts from Devil's Waterhole. This time, being 8 months pregnant, the walk down to the waterhole and back was enough for me! Our kids probably would have handled more of a hike.

I wish I was able to snap pictures of the ample and diverse wildlife at this park. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Roadrunners appeared several times. Ducks and geese abound at the lake. Cardinals flit in male/female pairs among the oaks and brush. They were too fast for my iPhone camera.

We saw a skunk poking around near our cabin on our first night, and took great care to pack away all traces of food from then on.

White-tailed deer made several appearances, too.

My crew, headed for the playscape, as was our evening routine.  The sticker burrs out there make the ones at my parents' place in Dripping Springs look like marshmallows by comparison. Yowza!

A bed of xeric perennials was one of the few obviously human-influenced touches to the landscape. Autumn Sage, Blackfoot Daisy and a couple of others dressed up this dry, sunny spot.

This was our little lakefront beach spot for the trip. My husband and I parked our camping chairs in the generous shade of this Mexican Sycamore and took turns playing with the girls in the water. My 4-year-old pointed out that the water shines with gold glittery particles, thanks perhaps to the fine granite sand at the bottom.

I took a solo walk early on our last morning in the park, to soak up the pretty pink granite/green foliage contrasts, enjoy everything bathed in yellow sunrays, and try to capture a striking purple bloom I'd seen on the little barrel cacti surrounding the park headquarters.

Mesquite trees are just perfect in this rugged landscape, no?

Pencil cactus caught my eye, adorned with charming red fruits at some of its joints.

Granite + cactus + sunrise = a little bit of heaven

They have rain lilies at Inks Lake, too. These were smaller with spikier petals than the ones I see in our Austin neighborhood. I like the pink tips of the petals.

Another of the rare human-orchestrated vistas: Softleaf Yucca (or is it some variety of Sotol?) getting ready to bloom, anchored by granite boulders.

I did find the purple-blooming barrel cactus, though it wasn't until later in the day, on our way home, that I could catch the flowers starting to open.

These eye-catching flowers made the cacti look like a bunch of little flashlights in the evening sunlight. The flowers weren't fully open in this picture, but you get the idea. The combination of this with yellow Prickly Pear blossoms was just lovely--wish I had caught it on camera!


Inks Lake, like most of Texas I imagine, is a little different every time you visit. A month ago, I'm sure bluebonnets would have made for dazzling photos.  I delighted in seeing the array of blooms and colors this time around.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - April 2014

So I've been lurking in the world of garden blogging, quietly posting, but more often, reading all the gardening blogs I can get my eyes on. I think it was probably Pam Penick's terrific blog, Digging, that clued me into the delightful monthly recurrence that is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, Carol at May Dreams Gardens hosts GBBD, in which she posts photos of what's blooming in her yard, and encourages other gardeners to do the same, and posts links to their blogs.

Being a novice gardener and blogger, I haven't yet had the audacity to post for Bloom Day... until today. Without further ado, onto the blooms!

As is the case in other parts of the US this year, the blooms here in Austin are a little behind. Maybe a month behind, if I reckon accurately.

The annual Gazania that I picked up recently sports a number of different colored blooms. At the moment, the only one opening during the day is this fetching maroon and white striped one, which my Aggie friends would love. I like that the maroon seems to be painted down the middle of the petal.

Purple Oxalis has been sending up dainty pale pink blossoms lately. These also seem to open just for the sun, then close for the day. They're in part shade here.

More annuals--Torenia 'Kauai Deep Blue' is strutting its stuff.

The strawberries the girls and I planted back in... November? They're regularly putting out charming white flowers, and even berries now. Can't wait to eat one--if we can get to them before the critters do!

Blurry close-up of a multiplying onion flower. My 3-year-old daughter loves these, but she can't muster the patience to avoid picking apart the flower wrapper to expose the circular head of flowers. At least this year she managed to do it gently. I see an Anole lizard photobombing this one, right above my older daughter's wall tag.

Crookneck Squash is putting out some bright yellow spring flowers.

Knockout Rose is back.

The first peak of the Yellow Shrimp Plant bloom showed up this week. This is a new plant in my garden, so I'm eagerly awaiting the show.

Salvia 'Mystic Spires' is putting up a pretty purple spire.

Martha Gonzales roses and Blackfoot Daisies are blooming in the front yard, along with Lavender and Salvia 'Caradonna Meadow Sage'. Here are a few pics:

Here's one of the two Martha Gonzales Roses in the parking strip, with its first blooms of the year. I managed to trim the other one, but didn't get around to this one (oops!) I might give it a light shaping this weekend.

A closer look at the merry Martha roses.

The Blackfoot Daisy I divided last fall--this is the mother plant. It's about half the size it was at the end of last summer.  This plant seems to love the hot, dry parking strip most of all. The babies are small, with just a few blooms right now. All in good time...

Here are some photos of the front-yard purple duo, Lavendar (I don't recall which species) and Caradonna Meadow Sage.

Here are the "twins", side by side in the front pea gravel bed.

Caradonna Meadow Sage doesn't bloom for very long in my garden, but those purple spikes are pretty, and the foliage makes an attractive mound for the rest of the year. This one is growing slowly, perhaps in part because I transplanted it from the parking strip last year.

Lavender -- this is my third attempt at growing this drought-tolerant beauty. I don't know why it took me so long to try it in the front yard, where it is decidedly sunnier, hotter and drier. I think the third time will be the charm, as this one already seems much happier than the previous two.

What has already bloomed and faded this year? Leucojum (Snowflakes) and my Texas Redbud tree.

What hasn't bloomed yet? Texas Mountain Laurel--and since it normally blooms here in February, we might have missed the opportunity this year. I saw one blooming at Springwoods Park here this past week, so I'm holding out hope.

Lantana, Pavonia (Rock Rose), Esperanza, Salvia Greggii 'Autumn Sage', and the crinum bulbs I planted haven't joined the party yet, but I wouldn't expect them to until the weather gets genuinely hot. Turk's Cap and Plumbago are still gradually recovering from the freezes, too.

Happy Bloom Day!

Hi! This is my first post in my brand new garden blog. I started it at the end of September, and I'm just now getting around to posting it.

I hope you'll forgive me for rambling and being disorganized here in the beginning. I've been reading some impressive garden blogs that are stunningly photographed and organized. I am not there yet.

Pictured at right is the new fall garden box my husband built for me at the end of August. I direct-seeded way too many things, and threw in a couple of cucumber transplants just for instant gratification.

I am very much an amateur gardener. I have never had a real garden box before. A few years' experiments with a few tomatoes, peppers and herbs in pots never yielded much success. The few successes I could not take credit for--volunteer Juliette cherry tomatoes that went wild with fruit for the past two years, and serrano peppers that didn't give up even after I did. Once I noticed that they were thriving, I started watering again.

I've diligently watered our St. Augustine lawn since we moved into this house 6-1/2 years ago, and gradually come to the conclusion that I don't like caring for such a boring and thirsty plant. In the meantime, we planted a row of 9 (!) crape myrtles of varying sizes along the back fence, to serve as a privacy screen. This has been a mixed success at best, for several reasons. Crape myrtles are deciduous, so that screen is only up for about 8-9 months a year. We didn't know anything about the varieties we bought--just that they were on sale at Red Barn Garden Center and we liked the colors and wanted a few different heights.

I enjoyed what little gardening I did, while it was also frustrating and I felt like I never knew enough to really get into it. I was intimidated by the vast amounts of information out there, and my success rate at winging it was pretty lousy. I probably killed 3 out of every 4 plants I cared for, before they could produce flowers or fruit, or get to the proper height, or other measure of success.

 My husband, Rob, built a beautiful covered deck in the backyard, finishing right before our first daughter was born. We were working hard to great a lovely and functional home, and loved the deck right away, but still lamented that our yard wasn't what we wanted it to be.

I knew I wanted a beautiful yard, and didn't know how to get there.

I had a demanding job, which I traded for life as a busy stay-at-home-mom when my first daughter was born. It wasn't until my second daughter was about a year old (and my oldest was 2-1/2) that I caught Garden Fever.

I started watching Central Texas Gardener, which stoked my interest and faith in gardening here in challenging Austin. I saw an interview on CTG with David Meeker of Porthole Design, and contacted him to come help us craft our vision for our yard. I knew I wanted something relatively low-maintenance and drought-tolerant, with added privacy around the fence line.

 This week, one month after starting that fall garden, we had Porthole Design carve out, level and install pea gravel pathways around the house.

They excavated a huge amount of dirt and sod, which we were able to donate to our girls' school, the Joyful Garden, for an upcoming hugelkultur project. I love it when things work out like that!

 After day one, there was nothing but bare dirt.

 At the end of the following day, the guys had installed landscape edging, brought in 3-mix and road base and tamped/leveled it, and topped it with almost an inch of pea gravel.

We have walkways. Some of them are plantable--I'll probably hold off until spring for that, though it is so tempting to start now.

 David Meeker assures me that the relatively loose pea gravel will tamp and pack down with time. We had a big fall rain just following installation, and I was pleased to see that we barely had to rake or sweep any rocks back into place.

We particularly love this backyard area, which for now we are using as a gathering area around our previously neglected fire pit.

Here's a little Butterfly Garden nook along the back fenceline. I'd like to expand it in the coming years. We've seen Monarchs lingering on the Tropical Butterflyweed, and Swallowtails on the Bougainvilleas.

Top-of-electrical-box experiments. This can't be the safest place to have these little guys.

The Japanese Yew I planted in the front yard kitchen window bed isn't going to make it, sadly. I think I either overwatered when it was in the ground, or left it in the container too long and underwatered it then. Oh well! The Turk's Cap is taking off like gangbusters. In my mind, it was supposed to be the shorter plant in between the tall Yew and Mountain Laurel (such a slow grower... maybe in 15 years?)

Recently, I fell in love with Caradonna Meadow Sage and bought one, along with a charming Blackfoot Daisy. I planted both in the front yard death strip, but I'm not sure it's their permanent home. It's so much trouble to weed, and I can't seem to get the upper hand on the bermudagrass there. Someday I'll dig it all out, transplant the perennials, and backfill it with decomposed granite and yuccas and succulents. I want to get to where I neither have to weed nor water this area more than a handful of times a year.

We bought a lovely loquat bush/tree at the Natural Gardener in January of 2012, and it has been reliably attractive and low-maintenance. In 100+ degree weather, I watered it weekly, slow-dripping the hose for an hour. In hot but not scorching weather, I backed off to every two weeks. It gets some water when I water the cursed St. Augustine. It seems happy with this routine.

Cenizo, esperanza (yellow bells), plumbago, a Texas Redbud and wild garlic chives fill the informal bed on the SE side of the house. Note the TreeGator on the redbud. This is probably what saved it in 2011. I planted it March 9, 2011, as the worst draught year in history was just kicking off. It survived, but barely bloomed at all in 2012. I'll be watching carefully as bloomtime 2013 approaches.

Here's Natalie at Barton Springs Nursery, along with me as I picked out some ginger, flax lily and liriope to replace the dead Japanese Yew in the kitchen window bed.

I attempted to grow vegetable seedlings in the garage. After about three weeks, they looked like this. They didn't last more than a few days in the garden--I think maybe squirrels ate them. Maybe transplants should be a lot bigger. For now, I'm going to give up direct-sowing and buy transplants.