September 10, 2024
The weather gods gave Austin a month-early taste of fall over the past few days. Summer returns this week, but wow, what a delight it’s been to step outside in the morning to temps in the low 60s with low humidity! All day yesterday I tidied up the summer-tired garden and hardly broke a sweat. Is there anything better than getting your gardening mojo back with the return of good gardening weather?
The oxblood lilies are up following a quarter-inch of rain last week. Seeing their crimson trumpets blazing in the stock-tank planter makes me happy.
Oxblood lily is a late-summer-to-early fall bulb that does great in the heat and humidity of the South.
The flowers remain for only a week or so, but they herald the end of summer, which forever makes them a favorite of mine.
‘Labuffarosa’ rain lilies sprang up after the rain last week. They’re mostly done now, but a few flowers are still hanging on.
I put a bunch of ‘Labuffarosa’ in the stock-tank planter, and they popped up through the woolly stemodia.
The variegated whale’s tongue agave in the tank is getting bigger and spreading its flukes.
Spider lilies, another late-summer bulb, are up too. These are not as consistent for me as oxblood lilies, but they’re nice when they deign to appear.
A happy clump is flowering in the culvert bed near the stock-tank planter.
An overhead view
We still have weeks of pool weather ahead of us, but soon it will be patio weather, which is even better.
The beaked yuccas are growing fast, and one stands head and shoulders above the blue wall now.
The terraced bed along the back of the house is kind of a hot mess of volunteer chile pequin, but I don’t have the heart to pull any out. Soon they’ll be full of red berries that the birds love. I content myself with trimming them away from the soap aloes and oxblood lilies that are starting to bloom.
The first of the oxblood lilies are popping up in the terraced bed, fighting their way up among the toothy leaves of soap aloe.
The gifted mangaves from Hans Hansen suffered a little this summer, during my neglectful, can’t-stand-the-heat phase. But a few weeks ago I fertilized them, and yesterday I pruned off the crispy leaves, and they’re looking spiffy again. ‘Praying Hands’ is one of my faves.
‘Praying Hands’ all folded up
‘Desert Dusk’ hesperaloe has been tempting hummingbirds.
Its flowers are a deep rose rather than the coral-red of standard red yucca.
The squid agave in the fluted pot doesn’t show any ill effects from my summer of neglect.
‘Amistad’ salvia has been a steady bloomer, and hummingbirds love it too.
‘Feather Falls’ sedge is one of my new faves this year. I trialed four in my garden this year, and every one of them looks amazingly fresh after the long, hot summer.
The little chocolate plant under the copper snake is hanging on. North Texas designer Toni Moorehead shared a division with me from her garden, where she uses it extensively as a shade-loving groundcover. My garden is probably a lot drier than hers because we can irrigate only once a week in Austin and I’m not good about doing much supplemental watering with a hose. But I did manage to keep it alive, and hopefully it’ll perk up with cooler temps on the horizon.
On the covered patio, ghost plant is one of my favorite winter-tough succulents.
A straggly tillandsia hairdo adds character to a mezcal shot glass I found at Ceremony in Wimberley.
A little Oaxacan dove from Santa Fe lives on the porch too.
A blue damselfly taking a seat beside me
Out front, I’ve improvised a new way to protect my agaves, big yuccas, and sotols from antler-rubbing damage by deer during the fall rut. Long rebar stakes pounded into the ground make a minimalist palisade, which I’m hoping will prevent more damage like you see above — those shredded lower leaves on a ‘Vanzie’ whale’s tongue agave. The rebar is 4 feet long, and I’ve put a rubber cap on each exposed end for my own protection. Fingers crossed it does the trick. It’s definitely easier to install than wire fencing, since my garden is so full.
While coming through the side gate yesterday, I noticed I had company, a Texas spiny lizard.
Hi, little fella. Just hanging out?
Datura rules the evening garden with its fragrant, salad-plate-sized flowers.
After the sun goes down, I go out to admire the new flowers and enjoy their lemony fragrance.
A few other scenes from outside of my garden, starting with a pretty desert willow in my neighborhood. It sprawls above the sidewalk, forcing passersby to shift to the street, where you can more easily admire clumping hesperaloes and grasses — plants the deer leave alone, aside from eating any flowers the hesperaloes try to send up.
In my friend Diana‘s garden last week, a couple of purple beauties caught my eye: ‘Purple Pillar’ rose of Sharon…
…and purple sweet potato vine, which looks especially pretty against a gray-green wall.
That’s my back-to-the-garden post! I don’t expect more excellent gardening weather until October, but I’m ready if it comes sooner.
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Join me for an evening of gardening community, learning, and inspiration at the next Garden Spark talk. On October 24 at 7 pm, Jennifer Jewell will explore how gardens and gardeners are powerful agents for positive change in the world, helping to address challenges as wide ranging as climate change, habitat loss, cultural polarization, and individual and communal health and well-being. Jewell, host of the national public-radio program and international podcast Cultivating Place, will explore that power through the lens of seeds: how they grow, where they grow, who grows them, who sells and/or controls them, and their care up and down the seed-sheds of our world. A handful of tickets are still available; click here for more info.
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