Playin' Outside

  You are clearly a discerning group.  There are less than 100 of you and I'm deeply grateful for each and every one.  However, I'm about to lose all of you.   Blogger's "easy to follow instructions" to export my subscribers to a CSV don't seem to apply to me, even though I actually do know what a CSV listing is. After searching every single aspect of my blog, every bit of minutiae behind the curtain,  I found a list of "followers".  But there was no "Analyze", no "Email Subscriptions", nor "Manage Your Email Subscriber List" to open a new page to then export. So here's my request for a early fall/late summer activity.  Once Blogger gets its subscribe feature working again, or  I decide it's worth a move to WordPress, could I  possibly trouble you to follow me again some day? I'd be ever so grateful.  Otherwise, hope to see you at a Garden Bloggers Fling or even out gardening. See you again soon and thank you

There HAVE actually been some good things happen in 2020.   One for me was being fortunate to join a small group working to certify Austin as a Bee City through the Xerces Society.  As part of that effort, we've formed Pollinate Austin - PollinATX for short - and, of course, I wanted to share it with you. We intend to publish a newsletter with articles we're sure you'll find of interest.  We'll link to events and resources within our community as well as simply delight in our favorite "gateway bugs" (yes, they're not true bugs but well, you know.)  If you share our passion, you'll want to be part of the fun. Subscribe to the newsletter here:  https://forms.gle/VcYiKxqmi618PjBSA And follow us on Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/PollinATX     Looking forward to seeing you!

Ironweed  Vernonia fasciculata is my pick for Wildflower Wednesday  as it's just starting to bloom in my garden and is one of my all-time favorites.  One look at that color, and its mop of flowers often covered with bees, and I knew it belonged in my garden. But where to find it?  As with too many native plants, it wasn't available locally so I deployed an even better option - found it in a field slated for commercial development, asked permission,  and "rescued" several. It took a couple of years to seem happy, but now it dies to the ground each winter only to return the following late spring/early summer to make me and the bees happy. Evidently ironweed doesn't make everyone happy.  Check out this quote I found online:    " Ironweed  was  named  for its rugged stalks, which stubbornly persist throughout the winter. Its underground stems are equally tenacious, sending up sprouts even when repeatedly mowed. The plant's vivid purple

Each year as the Monarchs funnel through Central Texas on their way to Mexico's oyamel forests for the winter, I hope they see my welcome mat.  It's a small multi-colored spot in the midst of the green  suburban lawns and brown pastures surrounding me.  Nectar producing plants are planted in clumps at least 3 feet wide to increase visibility for my anticipated guests, and offered in a variety of colors to appeal to many eyes - both single and compound. At the beginning of this 2019 fall migration, the mistflowers were the big draw.  They create a long early swath of blue in the front yard that gives way beyond the Turk's cap ( Malvaviscus arboreus ) to a tall blue mistflower that threatens to climb the six foot tall fence in the back.  The blue in front is Gregg's blue ( Conoclinium greggii ) and the tall one remains a mystery that was sold to me as "fragrant mistflower".  Just as they fade, the shrubby boneset ( Eupatorium havanense ) fires up on the

This morning I stepped outside and was met with a solid wall of hot air, stifling enough to convince me to go right back inside to complain about it.  Motivated by the sight of a gasping oak leaf hydrangea, a bit later I headed out again.  Honestly the air was so thick, I wondered why no Texan had yet developed something like diving apparatus to allow us to breathe in the summer heat.  Oh right, I remember, it's called air conditioning, but I've yet to figure out how to take it outside with me. This is summer gardening in Central Texas - a little time snatched from the crack of dawn,  short mid-day forays faster than an anole's tongue out and back again,  then a final exhaustive push to finish in the afternoon when the heat has built up but you do it anyway before collapsing in a soggy heap.  It's when 90 degrees is considered a cold front. So you've probably already figured out there won't be any pictures of cheerful, healthy posies in this post.  Th

When I first started gardening, it was great fun seeing what would or wouldn't grow.  I collected cacti and scented geraniums (pelargoniums), and had a wide assortment of culinary herbs.   Little forethought went into any design or view of the yard as a whole, and you would have been hard pressed to call it a garden.  Playin' outside is exactly what I've always done, with little attention paid to the longer view of gardening - design. Gaining proficiency in propagation and some skill in keeping plants alive did not lend cohesion to my chaos.  Local garden centers never talked about design but were always happy to feed my addiction to the new and unusual.  Being a master gardener put me in the company of others who shared my fascination, but who also rarely if ever discussed design.  So I gathered more plants but it's fair to say my yard looked MUCH better in close ups.   Chaos continued to reign. A gardening friend calls it "cramscaping". It'