May update

 May flowers- the lantana has come in, the Engelmann's daisies have flopped (probably thanks to my chickens) the plains coreopsis are blooming and the blue sage is attracting hummingbirds. In the veggie area the Brussel sprouts plant keeps teasing me with a promise of bounty, the collards get trimmed and fed to the chickens and the tomatoes have become tall, though a bit straggly.

Farther back the flame acanthus plants have gotten bushy and Turks caps have filled in around the AC unit.

Glorious bumble bee

 Foraging on lemon mint along Town Lake- so fuzzy and large that it was like a mini stuffed animal.

April Update

 Gorgeous time of year to see changes in the garden before the heat comes!

I managed to watch a flock of cedar waxwings as they devoured the berries on my yaupon holly tress outside my bathroom windows a few weeks ago. They flew in all of a sudden, cheeped and squawked like mad, then left in a flurry a few minutes later.

My Engelmann's daisies (aka Cut- leaf daisies) are taking off in the back, with the lantana bushes that come back and take over in late summer forming nice mounds behind them. I placed two blue salvias behind them and have spotted a hummingbird coming to visit already. All of the plants host native bees and butterflies.

As for the veggies- I have gotten some broccoli and sugar snap peas. I could have waited for the broccoli head to get larger- but I needed to clear room for my tomatoes to spread out. I used the broccoli leaves like chard- chiffonade-ing them (is that a word?) and sautéing them with garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. Yum! The spinach made a couple of good salads too- the type was "America" and I will plant a lot more next winter since it did so well. The sugar snap peas are best when snow-pea like in thickness as they got tough when I let them fatten up. It is getting to hot for them so the shoots that are fading are getting fed to my chickens (who love them).

Broccoli, spinach and sugar snap peas

The veggie bed looked so empty when I started- now it is full of tomato plants and a left over snap pea and kale or two. On the right side are some beets and carrots but they are crowded out so I will harvest them soon and use their greens.

Waiting for the tomatoes to ripen! I have been more diligent this year about pruning the suckers and making sure they get fed with organic fertilizer- and they are in the new bed with good soil and compost (and a drip irrigation system) so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they won't fade quickly this year.

Handsome cabbage in the lower bed forming a head.

Other odds and ends making me happy: Spiderwort growing bigger every year with its cheerful flowers. There are offshoots scattered through the far back garden which is great!

My little cactus collection out on the back back porch. Some are ones I couldn't resist at the plant store, the Queen Victoria agave has been steadily growing for many years (and is surrounded by my kid's old art chalks as part of its mulch), one is a gift from a friend who recently moved (taken from her cactus that had produced many babies), and one is a cute hedgehog cactus from my parent's place in Mason which they are selling soon.

I am never fast enough for the bees and insects that I see including shiny green ones, carpenter bees, dragonflies, admiral butterflies, sulfur butterflies and others. But this honeybee stayed put long enough on one of my citrus plants for me to get a photo.

I have a selection of native vines popping up that I am encouraging (or tolerating like the Virginia creeper below). They host natives and look lush when they get thick so as long as they aren't smothering anything important I let them grow.

Virginia creeper can smother the bamboo behind my lot for all that I care! Below is inland sea oats taking off.

Passionflower vine- These are native to Texas and I have two types in my garden- purple passionflower vines with deep green lobed leaves (the first photo) and a pink passionflower vine (second photo) that provides fruits that my soon enjoys eating (pop open the red cover and eat the few slimy sweet seeds). I need to encourage/baby a few of my vines since my neighbors have eradicated most of theirs. They are the host plants for several butterflies- the main one I see in the garden is the Gulf Fritillary but I’ve also seen Zebra Longwings and it also hosts Crimson-patch longwings, Red-banded hairstreaks, Julia butterflies, and Mexican butterflies. For a while my purple passionflower vines smothered my rose bush (now deceased) and would make my flame acanthus flop over. I’ll try to train them over to a structure that is more convenient- though nature always seems to want to do things her way.

Light through the anacacho orchid tree- most of the white flowers have faded but I like the structure of it in the afternoon light.

Friend or Foe

 

The wisteria and anacacho orchid tree are blooming and my back yard smells delicious. I've taken quite a few pictures from this angle in the past and it made me think of what has worked in my yard, and what hasn't over the last 17 years that I've lived in the house. Every yard has its own microclimate and mine (Travis Heights, clay-ish soil with rocks, becoming more partially shaded as trees grow, no watering system except for in my veggie bed) has changed over the years as trees have grown in and light has changed. I started a list of friends or foes- plants that either work well with minimal effort, or those that I work to eradicate. I'll post about them when they look pretty with future posts. Of course, the house was built in 1950, so some of my friends and foes have been here longer than I have been on the planet!

Friend/native or xeric: 

Plains coreopsis

Engelmann’s daisy

Inland sea oats

Turks cap

Flame acanthus

Frostweed

Purple coneflower

White mistflower

Zexemenia

Evening primrose

Lantana

Goldenrod

Mexican plum tree

Cenizo in the right place

Kidneywood

Rock rose as long as you let it grow where it wants to be

Red spider lily- I have been slowly buying bulbs and placing them throughout the front yard beds

Anacacho orchid tree

Friend/not native or xeric but hold up well regardless:

Yellow unnamed hand-me-down irises

Oregano

Fennel (I don't get any bulbs for cooking, but the swallowtail butterflies love to lay caterpillars making the fronds worthwhile)

Parsley (a biennial, so I have to replant it periodically)

Garlic chives (need some chicken protection but once the chickens have alternatives they leave alone)

Random amaryllis bulbs chunked into the soil after blooming indoors. They don't always rebloom every year, but they come out and surprise me pleasantly every so often

Dutch blue irises (not bearded)- a big box store purchase that come up regularly every spring. When the strappy leaves get brown in the summer well after blooming I tie them into "pretty" knots to look tidy

Daffodil/narcissus- they might not always flower though

Hyacinth bulbs- come back regularly every early spring and smell great

Pomegranate tree

Came with the house and help out:

Drummond’s onion

Horseherb

American elm tree

Cherry laurel tree

Yaupon holly

Red Oak tree

Sycamore tree

Mountain laurel

Ruellia carolinensis (Carolina wild petunia)

Passionflower vine

Rain lily

Wild violet

Came with the house and have pluses and minuses:

Henbit

Carolina snailseed

Purple bindweed

Mustang grapevine

Virginia creeper

Wild violet (spreading everywhere)

Came with the house and is not native but smells good and the bees like it:

Wisteria 

Foe:

Bamboo

Stickyweed

Cat claw vine

Tree of heaven

Ligustrum (waxy, I think)

Failed: 

• Texas Redbud- Despite coming as a gift from my mother from The Natural Gardener (my favorite nursery) it never put out many colorful buds in the spring. I would drive around the neighborhood having bud envy! It grew well, but froze during Snowpocalypse.
• Ornamental plum- It was in place in the front yard when we bought the house and died swiftly and definitively. It made a good scaffolding for Halloween decor for a year or two.
• St Augustine grass- I don’t particularly like chemicals, pesticides and fertilizer. I also never installed a watering system. That means my St Augustine lawns in the front and back yards were doomed. My eldest (now 17) had a few good years rolling in the grass in our yard, but by the time my youngest (age 13) came around I let it die in the back yard. I replaced it first with Thunderturf (seeds with mixture of native grasses), then I let leftover Bermuda grass and horseherb take over when the Thunderturf died due to lack of.. something- probably sun and attention. I reduced the grass area in the front yard significantly by carving out beds along the edges. I keep the small remainder in the front hobbling along so that my eldest doesn’t complain too much about me taking away all of his grass. I spread out a small amount of anti-grub poison once or twice a year (its the front yard so no chickens or veggies are there), top dress it with compost, add occasional organic fertilizer, add corn meal gluten at all the wrong times (damn you dichondra) and try to remember to water it once a week when it gets hot.
• Mexican bush sage- wrong place, not enough sun
• Artemisia- same as above
• Mealy blue sage- same as above
• Plumeria (gifted from a friend, it hardly ever flowered though I moved it to many places looking for the right sun exposure, then I let it freeze)
• Missouri primrose- I love the flowers, but I can’t keep them going in my front yard- maybe too much partial shade, maybe the wrong microclimate.
• Squash/renegade pumpkins/intentional zucchini plants- Last year every specimen I had was destroyed by squash vine borers. Will take a hiatus from them this year.. maybe.
• Any bearded irises that aren’t the hand-me-down yellow irises that were rescued from the yard across the street. The non-yellow ones are expensive- and I’ve had at least 5-8 of them fade away in various spots in my yard. I bought three more last fall at Barton Springs nursery in a fit of optimism but while my yellow ones are blooming away, the new ones have barely grown an inch of leaves.
• The cenizo in my front yard- It is slowly slowly withering. I should probably just take it down, but it gives me a place to hang a wind-thingy gift from my sister-in-law.

Did well for a while until sun/physical space changed:

• Coral honeysuckle- It grew fantastically, until we took away the fence that acted as a trellis. Understandably, it never bounced back after getting a severe trim for that. It likes sun.
• Pyracantha- It is non native, but was nicely thorny in front of a bedroom window so it gave a feeling of security. It put out orange berries just in time for Halloween and looked great with the rest of the seasonal decorations. It was excessively trimmed by a crew that my husband hired and died soon after, probably because its light was blocked by the flourishing Red Oak in the front. I think it has a descendent growing out of a crack in the stonework that lines the front bed- I’ve been humoring it (I have a sentimental streak).
• Corn poppies- my chickens ate them all :( I threw out more seeds this winter and might get one or two. If you don't have chickens they are worth the investment (a few dollars for a seed packet).
• Old Gay Hill Rose- It was a small 4" pot found at Barton Springs nursery and did really well until the last two years. I think the Snowpocalypse and this recent freeze did it in. It did well with partial shade and with no supplemental water- so if you want a tough climbing-ish rose with pretty red blooms and you can find it- plant it!
• Purple lantana in the front- I think the Red Oak has grown so much it doesn’t get enough sun. It used to be riotous a decade ago and drought tolerant. I’m trying plumbago in there now.
• Zinnias- my chickens eat them, I don’t water them and they might not get enough sun. Nevertheless, I’m trying again this year.
• Salvias under my kidneywood and pomegranate- not enough sun.
• Lambs ears- they wither after a season
• Lavender- I can't find the balance between too much water/rotting and not enough/drying up
• Mexican feather grass- They did well for about 5 years, then were outcompeted by the irises. I still have a few. They look great planted in large groups.

A few pictures of my friends and foes:

Friends:

Plains coreopsis, golden tickseed- what it looks like right now:

What it will look like in 1-2 months

Native to the western plains, it has naturalized widely. It has stuck around the most from native wildflower seed packets I threw out years ago and self seeds itself regularly. It provides nectar for bees and butterflies and seeds for birds. Native Americans apparently used root tea to treat diarrhea and as an emetic. Zuni women drank tea made from the plant (not the roots) to help conceive daughters. Multiple groups made dye from the plant as well. 

Engelmann's Daisy

It is a native perennial that comes back every spring, tolerating even the pecking from my chickens who take nibbles of the green leaves that come out before most other plants in the garden. My plants have come back easily from all of our winter storms and are also heat and drought tolerant. Birds eat the seeds and butterflies and bees enjoy the nectar. Really, my only problem with them is that they get ragged by mid summer and so I have to trim their brown stems and leaves sequentially through late summer and fall. Luckily I have yellow/orange lantana plants next to them that fill in around that time and take over the bed for the rest of late summer until the first freeze, covering up the ragged daisy rosettes well.

Turks Cap

(last fall)

(this spring)

Before I started gardening beyond pots of herbs on a balcony I thought Turks Cap was boring-  such coarse leaves, such small flowers that don’t even open all of the way. Now though that I have a yard full of partial shade (and no watering system except for my veggie bed) I am huge, enormous fan of Turks cap! It’s a native, drought tolerant shade plant that reliably comes back from the roots to grow into big handsome shrubs that hide my AC unit and attracts butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. My Turks cap plants tolerated Snowpocalypse and the recent freezes just fine. They even have the cutest fruit (“apples”) that taste ok if a little bland- I pick them on walks in the neighborhood and eat them. Apparently the flowers and young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked. One site said the flowers taste wonderful (“like honeysuckle”) and are loaded with nectar. I’ll have to try them this year. The flowers can make a pink lemonade type drink and the fruit can be made into tea or preserves. The flowers have antioxidants, the leaves are high in minerals; and the fruit is high in vitamin C if you need to fight scurvy. Chickens don’t eat them.

As for invasiveness- Turks cap does so well in my yard that it does self-seed - mostly a bonus in that I get many free plants to fill in the places I want. When they are poorly positioned I don’t usually have the heart to pull the seedlings, though I will need to do so on some that are growing in a gap between the stone edging of a bed and the stairs up to my house walkway as you see in the picture above. 

Inland Sea Oats

Are native to Texas and do well in partial shade. They line the old stone wall in my back yard to soften the edge and they fill in well and have pretty seedheads in the fall. They are supposed to like moist areas but I find mine do ok with minimal water in the back partial shade. They do try to self seed and since the far back area is “wild” I generally let them. I usually pull the seedlings up in the immediate back yard (I really should pot them and take them to a plant swap at some point instead). At times they almost look like my main foe bamboo so some clumps get dug up as I dig to see if they are connected to a bamboo root. Mammals and birds eat the seeds (though I can’t find any mention that they are edible for humans) and they are larval host plants to several skipper butterflies- of which I’ve seen the Bell’s roadside skipper and Bronze roadside skipper in the garden before. Also birds use the stems and leaves as nesting material.

Flame acanthus

Volunteer

Just starting to grow this spring

Flame acanthus is a shrubby drought tolerant perennial native to Texas to Mexico. I use them to cover up my AC unit and along the wall in the far back. Some flowers are orange, some are brighter/redder. Bees and hummingbirds enjoy its nectar and I love watching the hummingbirds. I haven’t quite figured out how to shape my plants near my back porch so they don’t grow lanky and flop over, though apparently I should shear them to make a hedge. I just trim back any particularly wild or free form branches that are in my way. They freely self seed and so I have a ton of self-sown ones in my back yard. I’ve gotten better about pulling the ones that are inconveniently located. Again, I should pot the ones I don’t want and give them away- they dig up fairly easily. I let the ones in the far back grow as far as they want and they usually form a 4-5 foot wide mass. My chickens leave them alone (well, my chickens will dig at the roots of any newly planted plant in my garden, but once established they have no interested in flame acanthus).

Frostweed

 I picked up a frostweed at a Wildflower Center plant sale and it has liberally self-seeded in shade areas in my garden, which is a mixed blessing. I put a seedling in the middle of my partial shade circle bed (where I didn’t have enough sun for Artemisia or Mexican bush sage) and it has become a drought tolerant large healthy perennial plant that dies back to the roots in winter but returns reliably every spring. It grows tall, lush and provides small white flowers in the fall that bees and butterflies enjoy- but then it gets overgrown and tends to flop all over its neighbors with heavy rains. I keep it because it provides nectar for monarchs during their fall migration. It’s also a host plant for Bordered patch butterflies. I should have spaced it farther from the Nolina next to it because it crowds it out. Its oozing phloem does make a really fascinating ice-like sculpture form when it freezes (called crystallofollia) which gives me something to look for and appreciate when most other plants look grim. I don’t think it is edible but apparently indigenous people dried its leaves and used them tobacco. Plant it if you need to fill in a partially shady area with easy and self-seeding native plants that that attract bees and butterflies, but put it somewhere that you won’t mind coarse leaves and hulking shape.

(note the volunteer flame acanthus in the lower left corner..)

Came with the house:

Drummond’s onion - Native to prairies and meadows and is a nectar source for bees.  Brightens up the hilly grass next to my wall and pops up in my garden too. I haven’t tried to spread it but I’ve let it grow where I find it (even waiting until flowering before mowing in the spring). Indigenous Cheyenne would boil meat with it for flavor and eat the bulbs.

American elm tree

Early spring green

It is currently snowing seeds

Seedling that needs to be pulled

It is a native tree found widely throughout the US. I’m happy with the old large trees that shade the house between us and our neighbors. But they try to seed everywhere and so I am frequently on the lookout to pull seedlings where I don’t want them. They are host plants to multiple butterflies and moths: Question mark, Painted Lady, and Mourning cloaks. 

Left alone in the back yard:

Henbit:

 Is not native and was apparently brought over to North America as fodder for chickens. My girls would probably eat it though they don’t seem too enthusiastic about it. Henbit can apparently be consumed fresh or cooked as an edible herb, and it can be used in teas. The stem, flowers, and leaves are edible and it is high in iron, vitamins and fibre. According to Natural Medicinal Herbs this edible plant is anti-rheumatic (helps w aches and pains), a febrifuge (so could be used for fevers if you are stuck with nothing else), but you should watch out because it it can also be a laxative and a stimulant. 

I don’t mind the small, pretty flowers and the fact that it is ground cover. My chickens can take the risk of eating it. 

Foe that might not be so bad:

Stickyweed

AKA Stickywilly, Catchweed Bedstraw, Cleavers, Common Bedstraw. It’s a spring time annual that pops up in my front yard. I toss it in the city compost bin since I can’t stand its sticky/velcro-like texture. It is apparently edible and can be sautéed like spinach or used to make tea. Its seeds also contain caffeine can be dried and roasted similar to coffee beans when they turn brown to purple in color. Good to know in case of the zombie apocalypse, though I’ll use my yaupon holly leaves for caffeinated tea before resorting to letting stickweed stick around long enough to go to seed. It is apparently rich in Vitamin C, and can also be used as a diuretic.

My true foe:

Bamboo- please don't plant this!

Bamboo shoot trying to sneak in

There was a clump of bamboo on the border between my neighbor and our property when we bought the house that I have worked to contain and keep out for over 17 years. The most effective thing I did was put in an (expensive) concrete retaining wall when we added on the studio and shed in the back while the bobcats moved earth around and disrupted most of the roots. But, some roots remained viable and so I am ever on the lookout throughout the year, pulling up and trimming bamboo shoots as soon as they pop up so as to deprive their deeper roots from any encouragement. For a bit I was worried that they were going to smother my Mexican plum tree- but I haven’t seen shoots around it for a year or so. They seem to be making their way south along the fence line where hopefully they will be stopped by a stony hillside. The one good thing about the remaining bamboo on the other side of the concrete wall and my fence is that I can trim a few poles for trellises and stakes when I need them. Not worth it though- I would love for it to all go away. I am certain if I let some shoots live they would quickly take over.

Six years later

 Same house (post minor remodel), same children, same spouse, some different chickens. I finally installed a drip irrigation system for my veggies and I wanted to document and track the results. And so- voila- a new post.

A few weeks ago with the chickens free ranging, before our fire pit was found to be completely rusted out

Mandarin flowers

I got 4 pullets in January from Bird and Bee Farm, which is a wonderful place. The four I got were FluffFluff, a Brahma, Jersey May, a Jersey Giant (she might get up to 10 lbs!), Quicksilver, a Blue Star Sapphire Gem, and Almond Joy, an Ameraucana

Back up to 6 chickens. The black and white dotted hen in the bottom photo is Dottie, my cockoo Maran who is 8 years old and still laying eggs. Next to her is HazelPeanut, a 2 year old Buff Orpington. They are the older ones and boss the younger hens around.

View from a few weeks ago with winter grass (not seeded on purpose). We lucked out and lost small limbs in the ice storm but nothing significant.

I worked for a week after this picture of my Mexican plum, and while I walked back and enjoyed the burst of bloom this was the only pic I got.

New raised bed. I was so proud of laying everything out- then my cat rolled around it all.  I've changed things around since.

The old raised bed a few weeks ago. I kept planting chard only to see it devoured and have found the culprits- not cabbage loppers but birds! Local lesser goldfinches have taken to my chard like a salad bar.

Sasha in the sun

Hard to see- but on the chicken wire guard is a lesser goldfinch getting ready to snack

Holey chard

Garden helper- lady bug

Biergarden sage coming back steadily for years

A decade ago I tossed starter asparagus into a bed and it always sends up just few enough spears for me to feel bad and never eat it

New soil in the raised bed to try to avoid the wilt that I was having in the old beds. I have 6 types this year- Roma, Green Zebra, Carmello, Black Krim, Early Girl and Indigo Berries

The birds ignore the arugula and curly parsley. I'm about to harvest the arugula before it gets too strong-tasting in the heat and bolts.

Mexican plum close-up after flowering. I'm going to try to baby it (ie actually give it some fertilizer and water instead of complete neglect) to see if I can get some plums.

Xeric area with yuccas, self seeded Englemann daisy, gopher plants, santolina in the front, lantanas and tropical milkweed in the back. My Color Guard yucca didn't handle the chickens well but I've protected the surviving few leaves with rocks and am waiting to see if it comes back. I had a globe mallow plant that was gorgeous for many years but it doesn't seem to be coming back after the freezes this year- I planted a replacement near it. Everything seems so small and I have to remind myself to be patient since in a month or two everything will fill in.

Handful of arugula for lunch

Self seeded wild violets. They are edible and a good source of Vit C- though I hear you should eat them in moderation because they can be a mild laxative

They spread everywhere so I moved them to a damp shady spot

Newly moved violets