Gardening at Draco

A New Year

2012-01-21T23:05:00.000-06:00

I'm so glad that 2011 is over, it was not a good year here at Draco. After Lyn fell and broke her arm in March, a compound fracture that required plates and screws, her back started to bother her. After months of agonizing pain and many doctors visits and finally surgery, she is almost a hundred percent again. During this time I had to step up and do all the cleaning, washing and cooking and still try to make a living. I didn't realize how much that little woman does around here. I always wondered what the two big white cubes in the shop were for. You can actually wash and dry clothes in them. Who knew?

We have been married for 31 years now and Lyn has exercised every one of those days, always wanting to lose a few pounds. Well, after several months of laying on the couch, getting no exercise and eating my cooking it appears she lost 12 pounds. If her back problems had persisted for much longer I would have starved her to death.

Just when I was able to sneak a post in during September we found out her Dad had lymphoma and would have to start chemo. A few weeks later her mother found out she had cancer in her liver, originating from her breast cancer 16 years ago. While it seems an ingrained tradition to hate your in laws, that is not my case. I have the best mother and father in law that a man could want and feel I should do every thing I can to make their problems better.It's made things a little slow here on the blog but things are starting to perk back up a bit.

The gardens took a pretty big hit this last year with the drought and me not taking very good care of them but it can be fixed. The damage to the country side around here looks to be permanent. A drive just before Christmas shows the damage.

These are not trees with fall colors but are dead trees. The next three pictures are driving along CR 258 going toward Tejas Camp.

It seemed that the Spanish Oaks were hit the hardest with the Cedar Elms almost as bad. This is a view from Ronald Reagan just north of Hwy. 29.

The damage here at the house wasn't as bad but I will show that here in a few days.

Hill Country Natives Nursery

2011-09-21T22:21:00.001-05:00

I went to the Hill Country Natives open house today. I had a great time, visited with friends and met some new ones as well. The owners, Mitch and Kathy Mitchemore, are the nicest people you would ever want to meet and oh so knowledgeable about native plants. The nursery is around their house and extends out under the big oaks in every direction. There are trails winding through the trees and little alcoves and sitting areas are plentiful. With little ponds and creeks and garden art, it is just a very enjoyable place to spend some time. Even though it is mainly a whole sale nursery, I think us commoners can still buy from them.

I have done several projects for them through the years and every time I go they have added new additions to enjoy. This is a gate I built for them several years ago.

As you can see it's still swinging just fine.

This year I added some metal picket fence, a drive through gate and a walk through gate on the other side of the house. They were starting to have deer coming into the nursery here so a fence was needed. They wanted it to look nice and I think we pulled it off nicely. I built the big gate with a sun flower medallion in the middle and built sun flowers to go in the middle of the fence panels as well. In a normal year there are sun flowers that come up all through the nursery and they just let them grow. It's way cool.

I built the small gate to match the rest of the fence but I built a grape vine climbing up the open end of it. The grape vine is actually the latch for the gate as the top two foot or so is not welded and flexes side ways to pull the leaves away from the vertical of the big gate. It came out well and they really like it a lot. I'm just glad there are people that are willing to let me build things like this.

While the gates look good, they are only accents to a beautiful nursery. The rock work, by Larry Hullems, is just stunning. The man has serious skills. But again, accents to the whole of what Mitch and Kathy have done. Here is some pictures of a beautiful self made nursery.

The tall plants in this picture are some kind of canna that likes shade. I want some.

Just this last year they added a creek system and it is something. I really liked it a lot. All the plants were native and were just perfect for a little stream in Texas.

There were little ponds tucked into the gardens every where and they were all beautiful.

It was just a wonderful day all around. If any one needs native plants I would certainly give them a call. It's kind of hard to find but so worth it if you need native trees or plants.

http://www.hillcountrynatives.biz/

Man It's Hot

2011-07-20T00:35:00.000-05:00

It's not only hot but it's dry as well. I have only had 1 7/8" of rain here since the first of the year. I'm praying that the well holds up so we have water to the house. Having the 24,000 gallon rain water collection system makes me feel better about watering the plants. This being the first year to really use it I haven't been watering any more than normal. Normal for me is letting a lot of plants die as I am a real water miser. I am down to four tomato plants left and one still puts on a tomato every week or so. That particular plant is in the shade from 10:00 until 6:00. I am wishing I had more shade and am thinking about shade cloth for next year now.

I finally decided to get a ladder and take a look inside the water tanks and see how much water I had left. They were not full at the first of the year but were very close.

This picture may not make much sense but it is looking down into the tank through the top portal. You can see the reflection of the pipe running across the top of the tank and the hole the water flows in. The little dark place on the bottom is dirt that has washed in. Not much at all, it tells me my home made roof washer system is working well. It appears they are down about one third as the water level is on the 2000 gallon mark. Times eight tanks, I have 16,000 gallons left and have used 8000. I feel better now.

I have been building a metal building lately and working in the heat all day. I just don't feel like working in the garden in the evenings. I may pull a weed here, prune a little there but I'm watering every where. With this kind of heat I'm just trying to keep plants alive until fall now. It is a learning experience though. I know now what plants will hold up and maybe even bloom a little.

I always have zinnias in my garden. They are descendants of plants that were seeded years ago. It may be time to buy new seeds as they seem to be displaying with less and less color every year. They don't mind the heat though, if they get a little water. Unfortunately they never seem to come up where I want them to. These came up in a tomato cage. The tomato didn't make it but they did.

While neither Lyn or I, are big fans of egg plant, I always plant a couple plants for my neighbor. He doesn't garden but loves egg plant. He swears they are the best he's ever eaten. I don't really know what kind they are. I just buy what ever I can find at the nurseries. I just don't tell him that, he thinks they are some special kind.

I got lucky this year and got a great heat tolerate plant from my buddy, Philip, at ESP. It was just a little thing in the spring when I got it but has grown well and is about to bloom despite being eaten down to the ground by a rabbit once. I don't know the name for sure as I think Philip is pulling some good ol' Scottish humor on me about the name. When I mention to him that the Pearls of Opar is doing well, he says no, it's Jewels of Opar. If I say Jewels of Opar then he says no, it's Pearls of Opar. I am fairly certain that it is one of those two. Either way it is a great hot weather plant and doesn't even require that much water to do well. I think I picked the perfect place for it if the rabbit stays away.

While working on a ranch last year I happened to notice a tiny, purple, little bloom on a plant by the ranchers drive way. With the bloom and the spiky little leaves, it was enough for me to tell that it was a Wooly Ironweed. I've wanted one for a long time and asked the rancher if I could dig it up. In a typical rancher response he said "You want to dig up a weed? Sure, go ahead and dig it up if you want it. I think there might be a few more down in the lower pasture if you want some more." I could tell it had been mowed over it's entire life. It is a happy plant now and has just started to bloom.

Temperatures over a hundred for months, like we have had this year, will take it out of most plants, but if a person has ponds and pond plants, then you know you will have plenty of green in the garden.

The upper pond has just about been covered in Lotus and Arrowhead.

The middle pond has Pickerel Weed and Umbrella plant with miniature lilies in it.

The big pond has lotus, lilies and Red Stemmed Thalias. The Thalias are a little behind this year and are just now big enough to start showing the red in their stems.

There have been more blooms on the lotus than in any year in memory.

As the leaves die they make for interesting patterns in the garden.

At least I have some green even if I don't have many blooms.

Garden Metalwork

2011-05-11T19:55:00.000-05:00

Metal worker by trade and gardener by hobby, it's nice for me when the two come together. It seems metal just goes well in the garden, the lawn or the patio. I always consider myself lucky when I get those kinds of jobs because I just enjoy it more and maybe because I have an artistic yearning to satisfy. While a gardener can get a lot of metal work from nurseries, it is usually cheap, poorly made stuff from Mexico or China. Some people have their own ideas of what they want and need to have it custom built. I've gotten to do a couple of jobs like that recently and both of the customers were great gardeners as well.

One was just a simple arch over a gateway. The house is just a beautiful old ranch house that has been restored. The lady that lives there was raised in the house but has only been living back there now for a few years.

She plans on having vining roses climb up and over the archway. It should look just stunning.

There are flower beds behind the snort rock wall all the way around the yard with roses staggered through them.

She showed me pictures of them from last summer and it was gorgeous. This was in early March and I have an invite to go back and see them all in bloom. Can't wait.

The next job was a gate for a deck. The lady that lives there has beautiful gardens as well as plants in pots just every where. She was worried about accidentally falling down the stairs while tending her potted plants on the deck. There really wasn't that much room to move around on that part of the deck. She is in my native plant club and had seen another gate I had built for some one in the club and wanted hers to be similar.

The gate turned out just like she wanted it and should fit it's function well.

After installing the gate, I was privy to a stroll through her gardens, and lovely gardens they were.While it was not a mature garden, as she has only lived here two years, it was still beautiful.

She has a stunning Peggy Martin rose that sprawls along her fence. You can see the first pink blooms, a promise of the explosion that is about to come. I must have one.

There is still some grass in the front yard but it is short lived. The crew to remove it was arriving as I was leaving.

I like leaving little surprises when I do these kinds of jobs. I left a grasshopper at the first house and a lady bug at the last. Both ladies found them within a few days and called to say what a nice surprise it was.

I haven't posted in a while. The gardening just about came to a stand still. Lyn fell and broke her arm....bad.

A few days afterwards, her left leg started to give her some intense pain as well. After an MRI, it was discovered she has five bulging discs as well. I've had to do a lot more than normal around here. I didn't realize how much she takes care of until I had to start doing a lot of it. That and going to a lot of doctors has put the gardening on the back burners, but I'm getting back to it now.

Wandering Buffalo

2011-04-03T23:06:00.001-05:00

Agnes Plutino was one of the first people I met when I joined the Georgetown chapter of the Native Plant Society. She certainly must be one of the nicest people I've ever met. She is also the most knowledgeable person on native plants that I know of. Last year her good friend and editor of our news letter, Christene Powell called me up and wanted me to help her with a birthday present for Agnes.

While Agnes' whole yard is planted to natives with blooms of every imaginable color, her back pasture has been turned into a prairie. I mean the kind of prairie that was here before most of it was destroyed. There are grasses of every sort along with all the prairie flowers. I mean a real prairie. However the one thing she was missing in a real prairie was a buffalo.

This is where it gets good. Christene wanted me to build a buffalo like one she had seen some where. It was cut out of a sheet of metal and had legs that drive in the ground to hold it up. It was almost life size. I would do the work for free and Christene would buy the metal. It came out very nice and Agnes was thrilled with it. Now her prairie was complete. Well, for a while it seems.

Some low lifes have stolen the buffalo. Now Agnes' prairie is incomplete again. Why would any one steal a sheet metal buffalo? If any one sees this buffalo any where, would you please get in touch with me.

Bugs

2011-03-25T22:37:00.000-05:00

While most gardeners are always on the look out for bugs, fly fishers are as well. Gardeners try to determine if they are good or bad, anglers try to determine if they would be fish food. The very astute gardeners will observe them, take closeup pictures of them [ESP], and learn about them. If they are good, whoo hoo, if they are bad, squish. Astute fly fishers will observe them, take close up pictures of them and learn about them. If they are bad you just toss them, if they are good, [aka fish food] then you copy them.

There are two lines of thought on making bugs that catch fish. Some tie the bugs to sorta look like the bug they want to fish with. Fish aren't too smart and that is really good enough. However there is another group of fly tiers that fish with bugs that are realistic looking.

I know several people that do this and their bugs are just unbelievable. They are just so realistic looking and they also are tough. They will hold up to getting cast back and forth in the air as well as getting wet and getting mauled by fish.

I thought it would be interesting to show some pictures to gardeners of some of the bugs that these guys make. They are unbelievable in their looks as well as being fishable. I got most of these pictures off of flytyingforum.com if anyone wants to check them out.

Important Native

2011-01-29T21:40:00.007-06:00

While hunkered down under a piece of farm equipment I was supposed to repair, the rancher that owned it was bent over, looking into the grass. I thought he had lost something for a moment but he looked up and had a little smile on his face. He looked over at me and casually said that the wildlife would get through this winter OK. I asked him how he knew and he pointed down to the ground and said "Filleree, it's every where this year and doing right well".

Filleree, as the old rancher pointed out, is probably one of the most important plants in the hill country where wild life is concerned. I'm sure he also knew that his cattle as well as the neighbors Barbado sheep would make good use of it as well. The native plants in the hill country of Texas are notorious for having very low protein values with very few even over 10%, and that is when they are at their prime. In the winter time they are closer to zero. Filleree has a protein content of over 17%, even in the winter, as that is when it is young and growing. That protein will be utilized by deer, turkeys, rabbits and other wildlife to keep them healthy through the rigors of the winter when many other food sources for these animals are lacking or gone altogether.

Such an important plant and you would have to look closely to even see it, growing flat to the ground. It's really easy to see though, if you know what to look for. During the winter many of it's tiny leaves are crimson red instead of green, and show up easily.

While the old rancher knew and appreciated the filleree for it's benefit to the animals, he could have cared less about the show of violet blooms that all native plant people would recognize as Stork's Bill. It's not one of the big show natives, with the blooms only hanging around for less than a month, but while it's here, it's here with a bang.

All those blooms will make the very thing that Stork's Bill is named for, the seed pods. They look just like a stork's head and bill.

So, whether you call them Filleree or Stork's Bill, it's a very important plant to have. And just how many plants can be this important and be this beautiful as well?

Quality Tools

2011-01-12T22:02:00.005-06:00

As the shank of the little garden trowel broke, my hand shoved the handle on down into the soil, my index finger sliding over the edge of the blade. I looked at the finger and just caught a glimpse of the bone before the blood flow hid it. I said a few choice words about what a blankity blank piece of crap it was and slung it into the cedars. After letting it bleed for a while I headed into the house to get the cellophane tape. Lyn is big on getting cuts stitched up. I on the other hand, am not. I was able to get it taped up tight and just hoped she wouldn't see it with cellophane tape on it. It had worked before.

I got out another trowel and noticed it had a big notch out of it. It was crap as well. There just had to be a better garden trowel out there but I had never seen it. I looked at my Corona pruning snips laying on the porch and thought about what a quality piece of equipment they were. They are just a joy to use as were my Mom's Felco snips. They cost more than the cheap ones but here it is nearly thirty years after buying them and they still work perfectly. The Coronas still snap a limb right off and they have never even needed the spring replaced. Buying quality is always worth the extra price in the long run.

In snips, Felco and Coronas have long been known to be of top quality. What about garden spades and trowels? Uhhhh, I don't know. You never see any good ones in the stores or nurseries. There had to be some available some where. Before I started looking, I thought about what I would require in a good garden trowel. A strong shank from handle to blade came right to mind as I looked at the cellophane tape hiding my wound. I didn't want any soft or pliable material on the handle. It seems that it always wears off or breaks over as you push on the handle in really tough soil. Stainless construction for no rust and last forever tool. Tough blade, no aluminum here. I've got trowels with aluminum blades with notches and broken blades. Lastly, did I mention a strong shank between the handle and the blade.

Every one knows that the English make the best gardening tools, so I started out looking at them. The best of these are Snow and Neely, Spear and Jackson, and Burgon and Bull. Why each brand has two names I don't know. [I'll have to ask my friend Philip at East Side Patch Blog about that, he's from over yonder] The English love wooden handles and I could get by with them, even though they can crack, splinter and flat out break. The steel in the blades is top notch and you shouldn't have to worry about it...ever. Then we get to the shank. On every one of these, the shank is very small and is riveted or spot welded to the blade. I kept looking.

I tried Japanese gardening tools next. While they have some great pruners, weeders, hoes and sickles they don't use trowels. They dig with a knife. Keep looking.

Finally, I looked at American made tools and there it was, the perfect trowel for me. The Wilcox All Pro. I was literally giddy with delight. It was just perfect. Stainless construction, solid built handle with a good grip. The best part.....there was no shank. It was a part of the blade, just blending right into the handle. Did I mention that it was just perfect, well perfect for me, you might not like it at all.

I figured I would try to find one in the spring before I started planting and promptly forgot about it. I did however tell my wife, you know, the one that likes stitching for woulds and never forgets anything. Well while opening my presents for Christmas, I got to the ones from my Mother in Law, the best Mother in Law in the world, and there they were, a pair of Wilcox All Pro trowels. And yes, they are just like I thought they would be, the perfect garden trowels. Thanks Mom, your the best.

Winter, Blahs

2011-01-02T20:48:00.025-06:00

Winter, my least favorite time of the year. I look out at the barren emptiness of my gardens and grimace. How I miss the green tendrils of vines growing across pathways, making Bonnie's garden patrols that much more difficult.

I miss the rich greenness of Thalias.

I miss cantaloupes,

watermelons,

and cucumbers, looking good and tasting great.

Beautiful red tomatoes, ready to eat and so delicious but now gone.

Green beans, thick as hair on a dog's back, complete with a surprise that came up right in the middle. It was so pretty.

Deep reds,

delicate pinks,

and not so delicate pinks. Not there now.

There were vibrant yellows,

and orange.

Even blues and purples were there.

Even brown is nice when it's on a flower.

Now, nothing but the bare nakedness of the winter landscape.

I want my gardens back.

Year of The Caterpillar

2010-11-21T22:13:00.023-06:00

This has certainly been the year of the caterpillar. I had more this year than any year I can remember. It certainly makes me wonder what causes over abundances of certain critters in certain years. While some years we have so many frogs of different varieties in the ponds that the evenings are deafening, this year we hardly had any. I must say I would rather have noisy evenings than caterpillars though. While they may turn into beautiful butterflies and moths, they can sure do some damage to the garden.

Tomatoes in the garden? Yep, you'll have these.

I don't know if there are little bitty Horn Worm Caterpillars or not but I had a bunch of tiny ones as well.
I much prefer the woolly ones as they are just more fun to play with.
They were on the Tall Rosen Weed.

They ate the Cleome.
They were on the Granite Gaura.

They even ate a lot of the Blue Bonnets. I didn't think anything would eat a Blue Bonnet.
Around the Welding shop was a type of horn worm that I haven't seen before. They were all similar but different as well.

And then there is the woolly bears. I think every one has these. But all summer long? I'm still seeing these around the garden and we've already had several light frosts.

My friend, Tom Nash, had caterpillars around his house by the thousands and they were not like any that I had. They were only feeding on one type of weed in his yard and really didn't bother any thing.

While most of the caterpillar species we have seen were in major abundance we only spotted one of each of these two varieties. This one looks like a south Austin artist painted it.

This one was on a lily pad in one of the ponds. And yes, it was eating it. The brilliant chartreuse color was absolutely stunning.

The side view revealed other colors I couldn't see from above. This was truly a stunning example of natures art work.

While they can be a pain in the butt to deal with sometimes, they are still a beautiful part of nature even before the beauty they eventually become.

Porter Weed

2010-10-16T23:02:00.006-05:00

Last year, Pam, that has the blog Digginghttp://http//www.penick.net/digging/, let every one in the bloggersphere know about a great plant she had that was a real winner in our Texas heat. It bloomed all summer, looking great right up until frost. It was Seniorita Ma....., wait a minute, I'm not going to tell you. You need to look it up on her blog. If you haven't seen her blog , you need to. It's a dandy. Any how, this year I found one I would like to pass along.

In the spring I went to a Master Gardeners plant sale on the court house square in Georgetown, Texas. I was perusing the plants, picking out several, when a lady handed me another. With the selection I had picked out, she thought I would really like it and it was the only one they had there. You just know I bought it, even though I had never heard of it. I always buy plants when something special like this happens. It was very nice of her and she didn't lie either.

It's name is Porter Weed. I immediately looked it up on line and found it comes in red, blue, coral and pink. Mine was the red, thank goodness. I love red in the garden, and yes I have plenty, and no, I don't have enough. I didn't know any better at the time but the blue is native to the east coast and can be considered to be invasive. It's not a big showy bloomer but has a lot of long, very slender bloom stems that twist and curve for an interesting look. The info on line said it was a long lived perennial. Judging from the pictures on line, I think it should be much bushier than mine but I think the heat from our early summer might have kept it from that as the heat hit about the time I planted it. It did bloom all summer and didn't wilt from the heat even once, and this summer was another doozie.

Is Porter Weed for you? I'll let you decide after looking at the pictures.

Where Did The Frog Go?

2010-10-08T23:00:00.002-05:00

It was right here a minute ago. Where did it go? Darnit, that was my favorite frog.

The Oxblood Mystery

2010-09-18T21:29:00.006-05:00

The Oxblood Lilies that I grow have been in my family longer than I have. Oxbloods are the perfect pass-a-long and have been passed to every family member that is interested in plants. They have looked the same as long as my memory goes back. Red. Always red. Oxblood Lilies are red. Every one knows that.

I was walking to my back shop one morning and noticed a new crop of Oxbloods had popped up after the big rain. Nothing unusual in that. However I was shocked to see that some of them were pink. Not light red but pink, even light pink. I was wondering if it was because of all the rain, [that would be 14.7" of it] and it just washed all the color out as the plant took in too much water.

You can see some coming up in this picture that are almost white.
If any one has any ideas why then I would like to know. Has any one seen this before? Also does any one think they will come up this way next year? Is this natural hybridization?

Hermine

2010-09-08T22:34:00.022-05:00

In the last 24 hours, here at Draco, we have had 14.7 inches of rain fall. It actually fell in about 18 hours as it has not been raining for a few hours now. I thought I had better walk around the gardens and check out the damage if any. I didn't expect much but better check any way.

It was obvious the 4 O'clocks in the front yard/new bed, didn't fare so well. They had been beat down badly but their neighbors, the big Petunias, looked perky. Lyn and I had decided to take out the yard and make a big flower bed in the hottest part of the summer so I decided to put something in that I knew would fill in quickly. They didn't disappoint but they sure look bad right now.

I walked around the house, noting all the places I would have to move gravel around in the pathways to cover the ground up. Bonnie was leading the way as she always does. She thinks I am incapable of going anywhere on my own. Good dog, Bonnie. You might note that she is looking back to see what is taking me so long. I'm coming, I'm coming!

Looking down the pond, every thing looks OK. In the back ground I can see the dead leaves on the roses by the fence. This rain has saved them.

The front ponds and the plants around them look good. I was worried about the shrimp plants getting crushed by the heavy rain fall as they are so thick leafed, but they look great.

Coming to the Red Bud that I grew from seed, I can see that the big perrenials that grow along the fence for a visual boundary are not too bad. The Skeleton Leaf Daisy and the Snow Cloud Artemisia are laying over a little but the big native Lantana and the two different Flame Acanthus are just fine. I really need to cut that one limb on the Red Bud so people don't have to duck to get by it, but I ain't gonna. Have I mentioned how much of a wuss I am about pruning?

Taking a left I looked back up the big pond and things appeared OK. I looked down and noticed only a sprig of Silver Ponyfoot left out of the mass that had been there. This is where the pond over flows and I never thought about the shallow rooted Ponyfoot getting washed away. The Chile Pequin Peppers were fine and the Duelbergs, Henry and Anna, were good. Looking at the pond again I could see that the water was up to the big stone slab bridge that crosses in the middle of the pond.
Got to stop and ogle the beauty Berries. They just look so good right now.

I come upon the raised beds and notice the Cosmos has been pushed down by the rain. Even though I know you shouldn't, I plant my sweet peppers in this same bed every year. It's shallow dirt in this bed and the peppers are really the only thing that does well in it. I mean, except for the Cosmos. It comes up in this bed every year and in the walk ways as well. It is some kind of strange Cosmos that I originally got the seed for from some old lady I met in a nursery. It gets over five foot tall in a good year and doesn't bloom until the last of September or in early October. It really puts out the seed too.
Things in the back seemed fine.
The two little ponds under the gutter spouts were OK. A couple of the little gold fish did wash out but Lyn was able to scoop them up and get them back in .
Another new bed that we have been working on lost some dirt from all the water running across it. The Potato Vine looks good. It has certainly faired better than the the two chartruese green ones that a rabbit ate. The Hoja Santa and the Mountain Sage look quite perky, better than they have all summer.

The pear tree lost some fruit but there is still plenty left. It's almost pear eating time.
The Ocatillo only had about five leaves on it a few days ago. Now look at it. I've had this little guy for about five years now and it has hardly grown an inch and has never bloomed but I like it any way. You can bet those rain water tanks in the back ground are full, 24,000 gallons worth.

Going back around the raised beds I notice the Indian Mallow is squashed pretty badly. I don't think it is too bad though. It will come..............what is that? Right there, across the walk from the Powis Castle. What is that shiny thing? Oh no, it can't be. It is, it is, it's Ol' Charley, my catfish. He must have washed out of the pond during the night and lay there until he died.
I put him in the big pond when he was only four inches long. I wanted him to eat the baby gold fish so we wouldn't have to give them away every year. He did too but he has been getting lazy this last year and we have a lot to give away again. He would eat out of my hand, he really liked me and Lyn. He was more affectionate than a cat. I really liked that catfish and it was almost time to eat him, dammit. I guess the rain did strike us a severe blow. Say good bye to Charley, Lyn. He was a really good catfish and I just know he would have been excellent dipped in a mustard sauce and rolled in corn meal.

Evening Walk

2010-08-21T22:39:00.026-05:00

I put in a long, hard day today. I was putting the finishing touches on a horse barn I'm building for a customer. I got home right at supper time and ate, but I knew I needed to keep going for a while. I just can't stop that suddenly after a long day in this heat. I need to taper off to a stop.

I decided to take a walk. I am so lucky in that respect. The Corp of Engineers property around North Fork Lake is right behind my house. It's only a couple hundred yards to the water, and that water is the absolute upper end of the lake when it is at normal pool level, so you have standing water and a river running into it. It's really beautiful and I'm lucky enough to have it so close by when I need to go walk about. Of course I took a camera.

Before I even got out of the gardens I spotted a Coral Snake by the raised veggie beds. I got a quick picture before he got into the Powis Castle. It was a pretty big one as well.
After going through the back walk through gate, I turned onto the trail. As I walked by my neighbors place I noticed his calves playing king of the mountain on a mound of dirt. They do this a lot.

Leaving the calves to the watchful eyes of Ol' 272, I stayed on the trail I had built nearly fifteen years ago when we first bought this place. I was lucky to find an old road bed going down the hill into the river bottom. I cleared it out, with Lyn's help of course. It is like a tunnel in the cedars, openings on both ends and not much of a way out through the middle. In cooler seasons I would be on my mountain bike instead of walking. I noticed the big Summer Grape vine at the top had already lost most of it's leaves in this oppressive drought we are in. The leaves just don't have that crisp, bright color of fall leaves.

Even as thick as the brush is along the tunnel trail there is still some nice scenes, thanks to the fading evening light.

Before dropping down into the shadows of the tunnel I noticed a little life and death in nature taking place. A big ladder spider had caught itself a big buffalo grasshopper and had it trussed up neat as a pin. Just about every one I know calls these banana spiders. I always think of the Alien movies when I see this as I know the grasshopper is still alive, biding it's time until eaten.

After exiting the evening darkness of the tunnel I noticed the wild plums were having a fairly good year even with it being dry. They do have the advantage of growing in the riparian zone and in central Texas that is a big advantage. The moisture in the soil here is enough to grow a completely different assortment of plants that won't grow above it.

They look tasty don't they? You don't want to eat them though. They are a solid ten on the pucker factor scale. One bite and your lips are further back than your tonsils. Leaves a chalky taste in your mouth as well. Oh yeah, you know I've tried them before.

The Saw Leaf Daisy's were just about to have their big show. A few were already blooming but there were thousands that were almost ready. I almost never miss the big show, it's rather spectacular.

With these daisies the petals don't fold out but grow after the flower is formed. I much prefer the looks of the blooms when the petals are almost non existent.

I can't imagine why they are called Saw Leaf Daisies.
I finally waded through the thickets of Saw Leafed Daisies and got to the road. I wanted to check on the lake level and river flow while I was down here. Just before getting into sight of the water I came upon one of the most vividly colored of the flowers we have around here. I did not alter the color of this picture at all. The colors look almost fake but they are not. It is Eryngo, prickly looking but only for people with secretarial hands. Those colors are almost electric looking.
One look down river and I knew it was bad. With the last of the demon sun's rays on the cliffs, the view was beautiful but there just isn't the water there should be. I looked around and was pleasantly surprised to not see any trash. Some times it is so depressing to see what we humans can do to something this beautiful.

I looked up river and it showed the same lack of water that should be there. Man we need some rain.
I headed back to the house. As I exited the cedars, the view of our place looked pretty good. The nice neat row of cisterns, the fruit trees, the flower beds and the log house that we built with our own hands. I liked the neatness of it but it didn't look terribly out of place with the natural world we had tried so hard to keep close.

Here at the start of the trail is where we had buried two of our dogs and I'm sure where we will bury the ones we have now. I like it that they are here by the trail they so liked to traverse.

As I started forward I noticed a cloud of reddish dust start up at one of my boots. It was the pollen of a star fungus. Every one called them devil's snuff boxes when I was a kid. They have a thick, tough outer shell that protects the pollen until the time is right. It splits into pie slices and peels back to reveal a softer membrane that has the pollen inside of it. Some of these are very poisonous if you inhale much of the pollen. In the olden days they would say you were dealt the Devils Hand if you were poisoned with it. I think it takes a long and painful time to die.

You can see the pollen dust here. Looks just like Garrett snuff to me.

I got back to the house to find out that our old dog, Pepper, had up chucked 15 peach pits and some blood. Looks like a trip to the vet tomorrow. Oh well, it was still a good walk.

Where The Buffalo Roam

2010-08-04T22:34:00.005-05:00

Agnes, a lady in my native plant club has spent years turning the back part of her property into a natural prairie. I think of it as ungardening to have a prairie, but in actuality it has been very hard gardening work. She has had to hunt down, then buy, plant and hopefully naturalize plants that were endemic to her area when it was all prairie. She was talking to her good friend Christine about how she thought it was finally a real prairie. All it lacked was a buffalo. Well Christine, conniving Queen of Gabions, decided she would get Agnes a buffalo for her birthday and called me. She wanted a cut out of a buffalo with stakes on it to stick out in Agnes' prairie. I love welding jobs with gardening themes. Oh yeah, I get all the fun jobs. Here I am with Agnes, out on the prairie, you know,where the buffalo roam.

Gabion Garden

2010-07-30T23:06:00.008-05:00

A lady in my native plant club recently asked about building her some gabion walled garden beds. I promptly replied that it would not be a problem, just let me go to my truck and get a pad and a tape measure. When I got to the truck I immediately called Lyn and asked her to Google gabions and tell me what they are, what they are used for, and any other pertinent information. She gave a me a quick run down on them and I went back acting like I was in the know on gabions. Oh yeah, technology saved my butt.

Christine is the editor for our news letter and is very savvy, native plant wise. She is also pretty savvy in the realm of garden design and construction. She realized she had a drainage and wash problem between her house and her neighbors. It was the side that had the air conditioner and a neighbor that really likes his carpet grass and is not too enamored by native plants. So there were some problems to over come.

Christine is British, or Scottish, or Welshish or something. So as not to insult any one I just refer to them as from over yonder. Well, as any one who knows any thing about gardening will tell you, the people from over yonder really know gardening. And she is one of those. Christine gardens with a larger percentage of natives than just about any one I know. She is one of my go to people when I have questions about native plants and where I want to put them in the garden. Well, when she started talking gabions for walls for beds and fixing drainage problems at the same time, I was all for this project.

She knows that they would not be for every body as tastes differ. But for her and for this application, they would be perfect. There was to be two walls, 12" tall and 12" wide that would make the sides to a long narrow raised be. Toward the end, one would curve out and then back in to make a larger area that would stop rain water from washing the side yard out. After seeing her design and drawings, I knew she had it down pat perfect and all I needed to do was start building.

I knew the job wasn't going to be easy as welded wire panels are a booger to deal with. I build a lot of horse stalls and cattle fences out of them and you know going in that they are tough to work with and there will always be blood spilled. It's just a matter of how much. I was able to get all 13 pieces built with out too much of the red stuff on the ground. This is the last piece and the hardest piece, as it is horse shoe shaped.

I dropped by a few days later and she was almost through filling them with rocks. Yeah, the woman is a work horse and I say that as the highest of compliments.
A couple more days and she was through. It really looked good and I could really see how it was going to fix her drainage problems and make beds all at the same time. She already had plants in it, all natives of course.

I stopped by to see her the other day and was surprised to see that she and her husband had completely wiped clean the front yard and had redone it with new walk ways, new beds and of course a lot of new plants almost all of them natives. It was simply stunning and they were only half way through with the project.
These are the kind of people that I respect most as gardeners. They have a dream or idea, they plan, they scheme, they plan the costs......then they just do it, and do most of it them selves. Truly admirable. You can see more of these types of people on so many of the garden blogs that I visit. I invite you check out as many as you can. So many ideas, so little time.

Product Review-Pump

2010-07-20T23:04:00.007-05:00

With almost 24,000 gallons of water stored and the super summer season almost upon us, it is a shame that with out some kind of pump I would only be able to use it with the pressure of gravity. The tanks are 8' 4" tall and about a foot above the level of the upper most beds. With that height I would have about 4 lbs. of water pressure. Watering from our old tank with that kind of pressure took several evenings to do. It seemed like when you got through it was time to start all over again.

I have been looking since we put in our first tank, almost ten years ago, for some kind of pump that would hook up easily and be simple to use. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on one as I fully intend to have a filter and pump house with a pressure tank at some later date. Well, I think I've found one, and I bought it.

After a couple evenings of use I will say I think this is the perfect pump for the small time rain water collector if it will last. I got it from Harbour Freight mail order. I really hate buying any thing from them as most every thing they sell is made in China and isn't very good quality. That said I haven't been able to find any thing like this that is American made.

It's called simply Portable Utility Pump. It pumps at the rate of 25 gallons a minute or 1500 gallons an hour. The motor is 800 watt but what impresses me the most is it has a 120 ft. lift capacity. That means it will pump water straight up for 120' of elevation. For comparison the biggest pond pumps will only have twenty or so feet of lift. That to me equates to some real power. It's fairly small, less than 12" long and isn't too heavy even for a woman to move around.

It's best attributes though are that it can be used with any reasonable sized extension cord and, get ready for this, the inlet and outlet connections are for regular water hoses. That's right, garden hose for water going into the pump and garden hose coming out to water with. That is a great idea to do this, however, whoever decided to put male hose ends on both inlet and exit sides needs to be fired. After I found this out I had to go buy a washing machine hose, because they have female fittings on both ends of the hose, and put that on the pump on the inlet side. Other than that one little glitch, it was a cake walk to hook up and water with. I was a little disappointed to find that it is not supposed to pump against any pressure. That might mean that it wouldn't work on drip systems unless you were sure all the water it pumped would go out the hoses with out any back pressure. I'll have to think on this some more.

In a comparison to my favorite hose watering sprayer on our regular water system, it seemed to have almost, but not quite, as much spray coming out the sprayer. It is plenty to satisfy me though and I seem to be able to water every thing in about the same time as normal. I like it, am glad I bought it, and will recommend it if it has a reasonable life span for the $80 and shipping that I paid for it.

It would also work very well for emptying ponds or the big water troughs that are so popular for ponds. You could empty your pond and water your plants with pressurized water all at the same time.

Go Away!

2010-07-06T21:33:00.006-05:00

After seeing several blogger's front yards that were no longer front yards, I decided that is what mine should be like as well. I don't think it will ever be as beautiful as Lori's garden in South Austin, or Cheryl's in North Austin as I just don't have that much dirt over the rocks. Both Lori and Cheryl as well as Philip at ESP have the perfect front yards with no grass and just so beautiful. Low water needs and no mowing either.

The grass never did grow well in our front yard so I decided to bring in more dirt and put in native plants or plants that are well adapted to our heat and that would be drought tolerant when established. There was also a path from the front steps toward the back shop, right through the front yard. It was made by the dogs as they tend to go in straight lines and not follow paths. Lyn and I had decided to dig up the limestone curbing we had put in so many years ago and put a path through that section of the yard and redo the limestone to match. Here is the project with the path fixed and more dirt brought in and a few plants in.

We do have a problem that Philip, Lori and Cheryl don't have and that is the deer. It will take some serious thought and planning to have a beautiful area with nice plants that will not be ravaged by all the deer here. People that visit comment on how deer wouldn't come up this close to the house. Yeah, they will.

While eating supper a couple of nights ago I looked out and the "Queen", of our local deer herd, just came walking through the front garden, sniffing around and looking for a snack. I picked up the camera and took one through the screen. She would sniff this plant and then that plant and walk a little further. I walked to the front door to take more pictures without a screen in the way.
You can tell by the long head and roman nose that she is a very mature deer. She raises twin fawns every year and takes no guff from other deer.

My choices in plants so far must be good as she took nary a bite. Yeah, me. She finally turned and went on around the house, I guess to get the last of the plums that have fallen over the back yard fence.

Fruit 2010

2010-07-04T22:34:00.016-05:00

With the last hard freeze, I believe the set up was there for a great fruit crop this year and it looks like I might be right. Many old fruit men think it is not only the number of frost day but having one or two really cold days that sets up the year for a grand fruit crop. The fruit trees here at Draco are packed beyond their limits with gorgeous, tasty fruit and Ol' Bob has been eating plums and peaches every morning and every evening.

Plums being my favorite fruit I have two plum trees, both of which are Santa Rosa. One was supposed to be a Methley but I think the label was wrong. No problem as Santa Rosa is an excellent eating plum and I have been eating them since I was a kid.

I'm very lucky that the three peach trees I have get ripe at different. It makes it much easier to deal with as far as keeping the varmints out of them and dealing with all that fruit in the kitchen as well. All the peach trees I have are great producers with great tasting fruit and two are freestone. I would tell you what they are but I don't know. I want to know, I just don't. All these trees were bought from different nurseries, at different times, and they were all labeled Nectarines. That's right, the peach with no fuzz. The answer was the same from all three nurseries when I took them a peach from my nectarine tree and asked them about it. Oops. Yeah, that's about it. I used one of my holes dug by backhoe and $36 worth of dirt on a tree I didn't want and all I got from them was oops. I was really mad back then. I'm not so mad any more. You can tell why when you see the pictures. This is the first peach tree to get ripe and it's the worst of the three. It's hard to believe, but it gets better with the other trees.

In the next photo, if you look close on top of the top peach is a member of my ground crew. Daddy Longlegs usually only go out in the evenings or at night as they seem to be very light sensitive. The fruit trees are so heavily leafed that they can stay in the trees all day, just looking for some hapless little bug to eat. And they are as the trees are "crawling" with them. I believe they are the best predator bug you can have in your garden. I've set and watched them eat aphids by the zillions. Keep your little orange Lady bugs, I'll stay with my Daddy Longlegs.

With so many peaches I had to start holding the limbs up with boards and that was after some serious thinning.

And, while I did lose some to the squirrels, I didn't mind with this many peaches.
Even though this tree is about over the next one is only a week or so from producing another round of delicious peaches for Lyn, I and friends.

Oh, Not More Armadillos

2010-06-11T22:11:00.010-05:00

I have had more than my share of armadillo problems through the years, both at this house and our previous house. From my vast experience at the previous house and what I know about armadillos from seeing them all my life, I have tried to make my gardens as armadillo proof as I can. I have still caught several inside the yard and had to haul them down the road. I have trapped a couple in live traps with the "Herd em' to the door V" set up that I devised. I really should patent it, as it is that good.

The middle pond sticks under the fence so that the local deer can water. One armadillo was swimming under the fence to get in. As rocky as the ground is around here I can only imagine just how juicy all my dirt looks to an armadillo. Yeah, the digging is good in here.

I would think with all the catching and trapping and hauling off that there would be no more armadillos for a long ways around. I guess that I just don't know how fast they can breed. Armadillos have what is called a quadranted egg. It takes one sperm to fertilize it but then it splits into four eggs. They are all exact duplicates and are the same sex.

It's hard to get a picture of an armadillo. I have had poor luck doing it, especially with as many as I've had here. There has only been one posted on this blog and it was a back end shot as it was disappearing into the Greg's Mist Flowers. Well I've gotten lucky. Here is a picture of an armadillo, in all his destructive glory.
But wait, what's that moving in the brush? Not another one.
Who would believe, two armadillos in one picture. But wait, what the heck?
This is unreal, three armadillos in one picture after only getting one picture in the last ten years. Way cool. But wait. Oh my gosh, here comes another one. Now there is four of the destructive little bull dozers.
Even though they look to be mostly grown, I am sure it must be a litter that is sticking together longer then usual as I've seen much smaller armadillos rooting in the woods all by them selves. Even though I know I will have to be dealing with them eventually when they find the house, it was still nice to get to watch four armadillos rooting along through the woods along my driveway.

What Time Is It?

2010-05-25T22:39:00.022-05:00

Why, it's cactus time. This is the time of the year that all the cactus bloom at Draco. Not all are in the gardens, but they are on our place. Unfortunately they are a lot like iris in the fact that they don't look all that impressive for fifty weeks out of the year and are real stunners for a couple of weeks. Out of the two I would take the cactus. They just fit me better.

This is one I dug up on a ranch I hunted down around Ensinal. It's a stunner.

My Cholla was given to me by an old rancher out west of Lampasas. He had one on either side of the walkway to his house. They were like trees, twenty foot tall trees.

The Claret Cup Cactus came from the same Lampasas county Rancher. They are also called Strawberry Cactus and the fruit is shaped and colored like a strawberry and, while not tasteing like strawberries, is very good eating. The yellow inside is so bright it almost loks like there is a light shining in it.
Here on our place, there are Horse Cripplers, Lace Cactus, Nipple Cactus, and Prickly Pear Cactus. The Horse Cripplers almost never bloom here, and I saw none this year. The little Nipple Cactus and Lace Cactus made up for it though.

These are pictures of Nipple Cactus. The blooms look raggidy to me, but beautiful none the less.

The Prickly Pear never have a bad year and it's a good thing as so many animals feed on it. It is great fun just going around and looking into the blooms and on the pads to see what kind of little critters are there. The pollen output of cactus is ginormous. The bugs in the blooms are just covered in it, making them look yellower than they really are. At this point, my buddy Philip at ESP blog , would insert a picture from the Dune movies with the "spice" every where.

I saved my favorite for last. The Lace Cactus grows all over Draco. There must be thousands of these friendly little cactus around here. I say friendly because you can handle them with out getting stuck by them. I've asked a bunch of people to tell me what they are reminded of when they see them standing so proud and every one of them has said the exact same thing. I won't go into it here but if there is a pepper called a peter pepper because of it's looks then we should rename this cactus. Just saying.

The blooms are absolutely stunning and they produce more blooms for their size than most of the other cactus. This cactus also lends itself to use in gardens very well. Even when not in bloom it is a very attractive little plant and as I said, user friendly, so you don't have to worry about kids around them.

Ol Blush

2010-05-16T21:34:00.010-05:00

The Ol Blush Rose has really put on a show this year. The rain has been just enough and at the right time so all the roses look good, but the Ol Blush is just spectacular.

You can see wire mesh I've had to add to the outside of the fence to keep the deer from eating it.

I wish I could add aroma to these pictures as it is on a par with my Don Juan rose for sweet smell. I would grow it just for the aroma but it is a beautiful rose as well.
I always get two good flushes of blooms a year and some times a third in good years. There usually is a few blooms on it between flushes as well. If you have a gate top or arbor, it is a good plant to use.

Finally Finished Walkway

2010-05-01T22:58:00.014-05:00

Patience is something every gardener must have. It seems we are always waiting on something. Waiting to plant, waiting to harvest, or waiting for blooms, we are always waiting for something. I started this walkway in the winter of 2008. I got all the way to the last rock and didn't have one. The last rock is always the hardest as it needs to fit in a finite space. That space has a shape as well, so the last rock has to be sized right and be shaped right. I now have hauled enough rock in to almost make another walkway, just looking for that perfect rock to fit "the space". The walkway is now complete, a year and a half later.

This is what the area looked like before we started.

The walkway around my raised beds had gotten to this point the year before when I ran out of rock. I used a string level to find the amount of fall between the high ground and the lower ground. With that information I could get an idea of how many of how thick of rocks that I needed to make a good transition down the slope.The first job is looking at your rocks and deciding which rocks you want to use where. The second job is hauling the rocks closer into the job. The Chief might be little but she's got heart. She insists on helping with all the projects. She's tough as nails but some times get's something she can't handle. Here she looks like she's making good progress, moving this big rock.

If you don't keep up with where your fingers are when the big rock shifts then you get this kind of look on your face.
After that it was up to the common laborer to haul the rocks. Notice that my rock is smaller than the one she was moving.
When I build walkways up a slope I always start at the bottom. I have the next higher rock overhang the lower rock by an inch or so. I bed the rocks in with sandy loam dirt and stomp the dirt down and leave the rock a little high on the uphill side to allow for settling.
This view shows how they overlap a little.
The roses had to be tied back to run along the fence so more rocks could be added. The rosemary got a good trim later.
After finally finding that last rock, here is the rock walkway finished. It looks like Bonnie, the Blue Lacy, really likes it.
We are on to other projects now. Weve started a new bed in the back. Of course there are big rocks involved. I told you, she's got heart.

Bluebonnet devastation

2010-04-13T22:12:00.006-05:00

I had a post recently about taking pictures of the kids in the Bluebonnets. There was a picture of a family with the kiddos in the bonnets. I mentioned how careful these people were in not harming the bonnets. Here are some updated pictures of the exact same spot. WARNING, these pictures are graphic and may cause sickening of the stomach.

It looks almost as if someone purposely was trying to destroy all the Bluebonnets on these slopes. How some people can destroy such beauty just to take their picture in the very beauty they are stomping into the ground. I am totally disgusted by this. Here is the previous picture.

My Kind of Bottle Tree

2010-04-11T21:51:00.006-05:00

My two nieces are the closest I will come to having a daughter. They are also exactly what I would want my daughters to be like. Their unbelievable beauty is unbelievably over shadowed by their intelligence. And, they are really nice people. They can get just about anything they want from Uncle Bob. One wanted a head board for her bed when she was smaller. She was into Harry Potter at the time and wanted to have a moon, sun and stars on it. You can bet that Uncle Bob would build one for her.

Well now she wants a wine rack. Not just any wine rack but one that will hold six bottles of wine [I didn't even know she drank wine] and has a small foot print because she lives in an apartment and counter space is limited. She was just accepted to vet school at Texas A & M so I thought it would make a nice gift to congratulate her. With anything I build, the hard part is in the design. I thought on it for a couple of weeks with no luck. Then one evening I was looking back through some of Pam's posts on her blog, http://www.penick.net/digging/ and noticed a bottle tree. It had the colored bottles sticking up and out from a post. The design came to me then, a bottle tree for full bottles of wine. After completing it I took it to High Point Powder Coating to get it sand blasted and powder coated. The owners wife saw it and decided she needed one as well. Now I have strict orders to go inside to see if she's there before I bring anything else in for treatment. It's probably time I made some money off of him for a change any way.

The Lady Monster, Part II

2010-04-04T22:11:00.006-05:00

I posted a picture last year of a Lady Banksia Rose that grows along the railroad tracks in Liberty Hill. It grows almost completely over an old house and was probably planted way back when the house had paint. I can just imagine that it was a favorite of the woman that lived there. I would bet that she never dreamed it would still be alive and doing so well.

It is now grown to the top of the 50' oak trees where it is planted and spans through those oak trees as well. If you click on the pictures they will enlarge and you can see the blooms all the way to the top and to the far side of the oak trees. Looking at it from the rail road track side, it is hard to believe there is a house under there.

The Last Of The Old And The Start Of The New

2010-04-04T21:52:00.007-05:00

Lyn pulled the last of the carrots today, and they were the last veggi's from the fall/winter garden. They are sooooo good, much better than store bought. We must have already pulled up ten times this many all ready. They are just so easy to grow.

While it is the end of one, it is the beginning of the new. The potatoes are all ready up and looking to produce a bumper crop for us.

As with every year we have had these raised beds, there has been a Blue Bonnet come up in this bed. Not several, just one, not any other bed, just this one. I collect the seeds every year so I won't have any in the beds. I guess I miss one every year.

I think this is going to be a great gardening year. Let's hope so.

The Blue Time Of Year

2010-04-02T23:02:00.005-05:00

The big draw along side the roadways right now is Blue Bonnets. If you have kids then it is a must do at this time of year. I think it has been done since cameras were invented. They just look so pretty and the kids look even better when seated in Blue Bonnets. There is just one thing about it that really irks me. To get your kids in position you must trample large bunches of the very beauty you want to picture your kids in. Some stretches of high way look like vandals stomped them down just so no one else can enjoy their beauty.

I was admiring that beauty along the road I live on when I spied a couple taking pictures of their two little girls. As I drove by something caught my eye. The man was trying to get one of the little girls into a little bare spot in the Bonnets, and doing it rather carefully I might add. I turned around and went back to also get a picture. Sure enough, both little girls were in little bare spots and I could not see a Bonnet out of place. I asked the man if I could take a picture of his family while they took pictures. He asked why and I told him it was for my gardening blog. He agreed whole heartily then. I didn't tell him why I wanted their picture but I did tell him the blog address so he could look at it. I hope he does. Here is the proper way to take kid pictures in the wild flowers.

Say It With Me, Red And Yellow.......

2010-03-24T21:21:00.007-05:00

Well, it's been warm enough for a few days and gardeners need to stay alert while pulling weeds and planting new plants. It's official at my house, the snakes are out. Lyn found the first one of the year. She called earlier today to say there was a large Coral snake by one of the ponds. I told her to catch it so I could get some pictures. She scooped it into a bucket. For a Coral snake it was a pretty big one, around 26" long. The largest one I've ever seen or heard of was one my younger brother David and I caught when we were kids. It was 36" long. I've never seen one even close to that long since then.

This Coral snake has been around the ponds for years now. So, after taking some pictures I turned him loose. They are really not all that dangerous as they have such a small mouth and are very tame and easy going. I really don't know what you would have to do to get one to bite you. Plus, with that color, they are as pretty as any flower I've ever grown. In my opinion, a good thing for the gardens at Draco. Now say it with me, "Red and yellow, kill a fellow, red and black, poison lack."

Metal Gate

2010-02-28T22:37:00.004-06:00

I had another garden project recently that was metal. It was a gate for Hill Country Natives Nursery in Leander. Mitch and Kathy Mitchamore own the nursery and love garden art. I like going to see them just to look at all the really cool art work they have. I've done several pieces for them and like their sense of style. They know what they want but let me design it. I like that.

Recently they had a rock fence built separating the front display gardens from the actual nursery. The rock work on the wall was stunning but Mitch decided he wanted something more. He had Larry Hullums, a really good stone artist, build an arch over the opening in the wall. Then he decided that it needed a gate. That is where I came in. He told me he wanted to keep it simple and it needed an arch to blend with the stone arch. He let me take care of the rest.

Here it is, I hope you like it.

Snow In Central Texas

2010-02-26T20:19:00.016-06:00

It's hard to believe that only a couple of days ago there was four inches of snow on the ground and did not get over 31 degrees and today it was 62 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. That would be all systems normal for central Texas. I've lived in Texas for all my life and can count the times we've had snow on both hands. It's good to have a snow every eight or ten years but I wouldn't want it every year all winter like it is up north. Here's some pictures of the snow at our place.

Metal Work And Gardening

2010-02-07T20:24:00.013-06:00

I always like it when my love of gardening and my job come together. Metal just looks good in and around the garden whether it's gates, sculptures, trellises, or just knick knacks placed among the plants. I've had a couple lately that are not the norm of what you think of in regards to metal and gardens. It's hand rails and stair rails. One is needed and one is for effect.

The first was for the Meyer house in Georgetown. I first talked to George and Barbara in the fall but as I'm always a month or two behind I just finished it recently. The house was built in 1878 by one of two brothers that owned the lumber yard in town. There is an identical house across town that was owned by the other brother. The house is filled with era furniture that the Meyer's have bought through the years. Only the kitchen and a den have modern fittings and appliances. It was very interesting to look through it. The house has six exterior doors but the back door is the one leading to the garage and garden house.

Barbara loves to garden and I got a great tour of all her gardens. The land the house sits on takes up an entire city block in both directions so there are lots of gardens. The problem was getting down those back stairs to the garden house. Barbara is 80 years young and wouldn't hear of any one else doing her gardening for her, although she does get some help from time to time. I want to be just like her when I'm eighty.

She had one plant that I really liked but she couldn't remember the name. It has variegated leaves and pretty pink blooms. She said it had been in her gardens for over twenty years and it had spread through a lot of them. She said she would give me one in the spring.

Barbara looked through pictures of other handrails I have built and chose a selection that she thought would go with the old house. I didn't think so but it's not my house. I chose a roughly textured powder coat finish for a surer grip for her as the stairs are rather steep.

This is George by the finished railing.

You can see the rough texture on the shoe and added turn down here. The screw was painted black.

The next one is for a house in Berry Springs where the people were doing a remodel of the patio, pool and the flower beds in the back yard. The people that this was for are both graduates of UT. If they ever decide to sell, it will have to be for more UT fans though. They are also big on all things Texas and the hand rails really show it. They graduated in the early eighties and the longhorn cut outs are of the longhorn symbol used at that time.

They also had me make four towel hooks out of the medallions that were on the bottom of the rails but bigger.

Although I still have to build barns, cattle pens, horse stalls and work on heavy machinery, I like doing the ornamental stuff best. When it has to do with gardens it just makes it that much better and hardly feels like work at all. It fulfills my inner urge to build things and when those thing are beautiful it's really fulfilling.

I'm doing a walk through gate for Hill Country Natives nursery right now. It goes in a rock wall with a lime stone arch over the opening made by rock artist Larry Hullems. Larry did a stunning job on the arch and I hope the gate, also done in arches, compliments it appropriately. I will post some pictures of it when I'm done and have it installed.

Where Draco Got It's Name

2010-01-29T23:41:00.005-06:00

I have a habit of stopping to read historic markers along the roadways. This one is just down the road from our house, so of course I read it soon after we bought this property. This stretch of the San Gabriel river, that runs just behind the house, is a beautiful place no doubt. However I can only imagine the beauty of it when the Indians lived here. There is evidence of springs in just about every draw that empties into the river. The influx of cedar [Ashe Juniper] has sucked them dry now. And although the riparian zone still holds a vast variety of plants, it just can't be as fine as it was before the bad ranching practices of the last hundred years. After it was over grazed until there was nothing for cows to eat they moved in goats and sheep. That finished it off for the plant life and the three plus feet of top soil either washed away or simply blew away with the winds. All I can do is make my little part of Draco as beautiful as I can and maybe help the wild life as well.

Click on the picture and it should enlarge so that you can read it.

Play Big, Lose Big

2010-01-15T21:33:00.009-06:00

The low temperature here at Draco was a chilly ten degrees. I wasn't too concerned about any of the plumbing as it's been very close to that in the past. But there is new plumbing since then. Yep, the rain water system. I had all the valves on the tanks turned off and with around 1900 gallons in each tank, I knew they wouldn't freeze. The pipe that connects all the tanks together has a valve on one end to bleed the water in it off so that shouldn't have been an issue. That is, if it had been opened. My feeble little mind registered that I had done that. In reality I had not done that, and man did it cost me.

When you glue PVC pipe the glue actually melts the fittings to the pipe. essentially making it one piece. Sooo, when a pipe cracks and it comes to a fitting, the crack just keeps on going.

On one tank a crack made it into the valve and the water was lost.

The big problem with this is to change out the PVC pipe I will have to replace the valves on three tanks. To change out the valves I will have to empty the tanks. So as not to lose the water in those tanks I am going to pump the water into other tanks while I change the valves out. I will use brass valves this time even though they cost double the PVC ones. You know what they say "you play big, you lose big".

The gardens stood up fairly well though. The huge Nopalito cactus out front looked so pitiful I didn't have the heart to take a picture of it. Usually it is about five feet tall and is now about two feet tall. The other spineless prickly pear cactus is still about an eight feet tall tree. The freeze didn't affect it at all.

The perennials had already died back to the ground and the pond plants already had their shearing. I've always felt that in springs following really hard freezes that the perennials attain their most stunning presence.

The prettiest parts of the gardens in a good freeze are the ponds. The big pond had never frozen over before but had about one and a half inches of ice over it this time.

The fish don't have a problem with the cold as goldfish and koi are really cold water fish. It is good to break the ice off daily just to help with getting more oxygen into the water. You can see in these pictures where the ice had been broken the day before and had just refrozen over night.

We have two above ground ponds of about a hundred gallons that are built under the rain gutter outlet in the back. Lyn likes to keep a bubbler in them for more oxygen for the fish. It was the only unfrozen water in any of the ponds.

A couple of days after the weather had warmed up I found this guy crawling across the driveway. I guess it didn't get his cocoon made in time for winter. He must have been deep under the leaves so as not to freeze. It was moving very slowly.

I know, like the caterpillar, that when we get hard freezes here in Texas, they just won't last very long. Even though I look at other blogs and think how nice it would be to live where the summers are mild and there might even be dirt, I will stay here. That's because, even though I don't like the heat, I hate the cold.

The Last Tank Is In

2009-12-16T23:17:00.001-06:00

The last tank went into place last week and it was a job. I havne't been able to round up the usual suspects to help in a while now so Lyn suggested we do it our selves. She hates starting a project and not staying on it until it's finished or at least until your at a good stopping point. When doing something like this I have to ponder the situation a while, first to make sure it's doable for us and second, that it can be done without her getting hurt. It's not the same working with heavy stuff with a 120# woman as it is with a 200 plus pound man. When it comes to work, Lyn doesn't know quit, and I try to watch out for any danger that would involve her. These tanks weigh close to 400# so going slow and being careful was paramount.

Lyn and I moved the last three tanks into place in one evening. As with the others the leveling after getting them into place was the hardest part. This is the last tank loaded onto the trailer. The Chief, in her normal work attire looks satisfied but a little pooped. It really was hard work but then again, we make a hellava good team.

All tanks in position now and plumbed up. Next I start the pump and filter house. I'll keep you posted when we start and build it.

Nursery Crawl Comes To Draco

2009-12-05T23:56:00.002-06:00

Day before yesterday, the now almost famous Nursery Crawl, where Cheryl of Conscious Gardening, and Randy of Horselips horsesense go nursery hopping, came to Draco Gardens. It was a fun time had by all. These are two of the most fun people I've ever had the pleasure of spending time with. They both have a great sense of humor, really know their plants, and are polite enough not to mention the weeds. As any one who reads their blogs knows, they always eat Mexican food for lunch and drink a margarita. It was my job to pick the restaurant. We couldn't eat in Georgetown because the city is dry so we had to eat at Jardin Corona in Liberty Hill. I was pretty nervous in my choice as these two are serious critics of both Mexican food and margaritas. I think they liked their meal and their margaritas but it's hard to tell because they are nice people and I don't think they would say it if it was bad. You can check out the whole story on her blog to get the true scoop. I know I will.

If you ever get a chance to spend time with them or visit their lovely gardens, don't miss it. They are just plain good ol' folks.

Watermelon at Thanksgiving.

2009-11-28T20:49:00.001-06:00

I picked my second to last watermelon the day before Thanksgiving. I'm going to try to get the last one to make it to Christmas. I've already gotten it ready for the tarp covering to protect it from frost. Wouldn't that be a hoot to eat a fresh watermelon out of the garden on Christmas?

It is a Crimson Sweet, not very big, about fifteen pounds. It tasted great, really sweet. It's the only type watermelon that I've ever had any luck with. After slicing it up, I dug right in. Philip, this picture is for you.

I planted six seeds and all of them came up. They produced several watermelons in the summer but they all got blossom end rot. The vines all died but one because of my chinsy watering. The one vine that is left has covered about thirty feet of fence and has had five melons this fall. The one I am eating started out on the fence but I had to cut the tendril that was holding it and put it on the ground.

I ate the last of the cantaloupe last week. The vine still looks good but there are no more fruit. This great fall has saved the melon harvest. Lyn is still harvesting beans and is canning around four quarts a week. The beans look even better than they did in the spring.

After watching the weather tonight I think it's about over for the vegetable garden for this year. Even with the severe drought in the summer it's still been a good year for vegetables, thanks to the fall.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T23:26:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving at the Pool house was good this year.

We used to have Thanksgiving with my folks and Christmas dinner with Lyn's folks. After my Mom contracted cancer, Thanksgiving was scheduled as normal, even though she was getting sicker by the day. She just insisted that she could still do it. The day before Thanksgiving she called and said she couldn't do it. Lyn and my sister volunteered to pull something together but she said no. Lyn and I had Thanksgiving dinner at some restaurant in Round Rock and it wasn't all that good.

Lyn told me this wouldn't happen again. Like I've said before, I am a lucky guy. I married a woman that loves to cook and is very good at it. She said next Thanksgiving would be at our house, no ifs, ands or buts about it. My Mom passed away the next February, and my Dad passed away five weeks later. About a month before the big day, Lyn told me I had better start rounding up some people for Thanksgiving as she was blowing it out. She was cooking it all and it was going to be a big meal for just the two of us.

I came up with nine the first year. The second it jumped to thirteen. The third it was fifteen. The next it was twenty two. This year it was back down to fifteen. My sister always comes but Lyn's siblings go to their in-laws. However the last two years Lyns sister, her husband and their two daughters have come. The couple that owns the local feed store are always here as well as several customers of mine. A couple of neighbors come and a couple people that are just regulars at the feed store as well as a couple of friends. Some can't make it some years but make it others. This year we had two newbies. A young fella that works at the place that I buy pipe and his wife came. She is expecting on Christmas day and her doctor had told her not to travel as they had some problems with the pregnancy and should stay close. You can't have an expectant mother to be missing Thanksgiving. Katina of Gardening in Austin and her husband were supposed to come but something came up and they couldn't make it.

The turkey was deep fried.[that's my job] Lyn cooked two pies and a pumpkin cake as well as candied pecans for snacking. My sister brought peanut brittle and Fran at the feed store always brings a vegetable snack tray that is to die for. It's huge. Lyn's sister, Chickie, brought a big pasta salad that is always a big hit. Lyn made fresh green beans right out of the garden and mashed potatoes from ones I had dug in the summer. You can always tell the corn was our corn as it is so dark yellow. Lyn made a new dish this year that was absolutely wonderful. It was sweet potaoes in a hollowed out orange. There has never been any store bought bread in our house so of course there was home made bread and home made rolls.

Like I said, I'm a lucky guy. I have so many great friends, a wonderful wife and great holidays. I hope all your Thanksgivings were as good as mine.

Photo Contest

2009-11-21T21:57:00.010-06:00

This is my entry for the Gardening Gone Wild photo contest. Growing in a sea of Coastal Bermuda grass that will never die, is a Mullen plant that was able to fulfill it's destiny in this summer to beat all summers. It survived, grew a bloom stalk, produced seeds and died. It is at the end of the line.

You can go to the Gardening Gone Wild site and see all the entries here--Gardening Gone Wild

Blogging Theft, More Common Than You Think

2009-11-15T23:22:00.012-06:00

Every one, it seems, has a bed that nothing works in. I actually have two, but this is only about one. This one is in front of the house and to one side of the drive way. It gets just an hour of mottled, early morning sun and then is shaded through the rest of the morning. Some where around noon it is in the blazing sun for the rest of the day. I have planted an enormous variety of plants in it, and all to no avail. I have planned and plotted, bought and potted. I tried to do an interesting mixture of plants, something like Pam at Digging would do. She is really good at her planning and plotting. I, on the other hand, am not so good. Then I started blogging. The ideas that one can get from blogs is mind boggling. I surmised that for one to get the most out of blogging it should be all right to steal, errr, I mean to incorporate other peoples ideas into one's own garden.

Quite a few months ago, Philip, at East Side Patch, had pictures of a garden design that he had come up with for some friends. He, like Pam, seems to be good at this planning and plotting. It was comprised of only two types of plants. That's right, only two. And it looked really good, at least to me. I stole, I mean used his idea to plant my bed. I decided to use plants that I already had and that needed thinning or relocating. I looked around the gardens and picked two that were totally different in texture, color, shape and blooms, but were about the same height.

I chose Daturas and Gregg's Mist Flower. I know what your thinking, that ain't right. The broad, grey-green leaves of the Daturas and the frilly, almost chartreuse leaves of the Mist flower have plenty of contrast and look nice, even with out blooms. It started looking rather fetching early on, you know, before the summer from hell. Then it languished in misery through the summer. But in the last few months it has turned into the bed I had pictured in my feeble little mind. Most people that have come by have liked it as well. Now I am hoping the first frost will hold out until after Thanksgiving so our guests can see it as well.

Mixing Work With Pleasure

2009-11-08T23:00:00.015-06:00

Mrs. Cole called me last week. They needed a mail box built. It seems the local riff raff have been beating theirs flat lately to the tune of five in the last month and a half. They have land along the Lampasas river just north of Oakalla. That's pronounced O'cally by the locals. I have done a lot of work for her and her husband over the last year. They are some of my favorite customers. They are just wonderful, friendly people and Mrs. Cole loves native plants. She started some flower beds this spring but the drought got most of them before they got established. I dug her a Rock Rose and took to her when I delivered the mail box. She was so excited, you would have thought I gave her money.

She has built what must be the king of bottle trees. I like hers better than any I've seen. Mr. Cole just thinks it is hard to trim around.

She also has more bird feeders than any one I know. The tin around the trees is to keep the local coon population out of the feeders. You might notice a deer in the back ground. They have to feed the deer early in the evening so the wild hogs don't get it all.

They moved here from up north to retire where it is warmer. They have always let me have access to the river to fish since the first time I met them. I had to drag my kayak off a dirt bluff to get to the water. I kept telling Mrs. Cole about all the beautiful plants I would see down in the riparian zone that didn't grow on the higher ground. Early this summer I went up to fish and she had hired someone with a dozer to build a road down to the water so she could see them as well.

There is a little Bequilla bush growing on the sand bar where the road ends.

The last time I was there Thoroughwort was growing on the gravel bar as well.

Ground Cherry was thick in places with their Chinese lantern looking fruit.

Across the river was huge thickets of Inland Sea Oats but I couldn't get close enough for a picture. I did spy a Cardinal Flower on the other side of the river. You can barely see the crimson red of it in this picture.

On a little higher ground was clumps of Marsh Fleabane. It really looks good in clumps of several plants but kind of plain by itself.

At the top edge of the riparian zone was Pigeon Berry scattered through the mottled shade of the pecan trees.

Along with the Pigeon Berry was this beautiful sage with vibrant blue flowers. The plants were over four feet tall. I believe it is Bog Sage but I'm not sure.

This is such a beautiful place owned by beautiful people that like other people to enjoy it. They moved to Texas for all the reasons others do. They have had to resort to signs to keep people out as the trash left by trespassers has gotten to be too much.
Now their mail box is being vandalized so they had to get me to build them a smash proof one.

If your ever on the road between Oakalla and Kempner and see an older couple out picking up trash along the road stop and ask if you can check out the river for plants. They are small in stature but rather large in spirit. Tell them you know me, it can't hurt. I just wish they were being treated a little better here in Texas.

Is It Fall Or Is It Spring

2009-10-22T10:11:00.030-05:00

Looking around the gardens it is hard to tell whether it is fall or spring. With all the rains lately the gardens have blooms everywhere. Even some of the plants that are not usually thought of as fall bloomers have a few blooms on them.

The summer Shrimp plant stayed looking good all through the heat but its blooms are gone now, replaced by the fall Shrimp plant. I staggered the two when I planted this bed so I would have blooms from spring all the way to frost. The summer plants have more yellow and green in the blooms than the fall ones. This is the summer Shrimp back when it was blooming.

These are the fall Shrimp plants now. You can see how much darker in color they are, showing a more maroon color.

The little Spanish Flag that hardly got up in the summer has come back and even got a few blooms on it. I didn't plant this and have no idea how it got here but I am glad it is. I had to look it up to know what it is.

While all the other Austin area bloggers were posting pictures of their Ox Blood Lilies, all I had showing was a few leaves. I had hardly watered them all summer and thought they may not make it let alone bloom. But let the deluge begin, water and then blooms.

The Duranta had a pitiful blooming in early summer but came on strong after the rains.

The Hummingbird plant, while not blooming prolifically, did bloom a little all summer. With mega doses of rain it is a stunner. Please excuse the dirty hand, I am a gardener and I never wear gloves, ever.

The Garlic Chives that has never bloomed since I've had it finally bloomed. I guess it will only bloom when flooded.
I felt lucky to have all the roses put on a few blooms one more time before settling in for the winter. The Mutabilis put on the most and had roses in the all the different hues that it's capable of.
The Belinda's Dream only had a couple but they were beautiful and smelled great.

And the Knockout has the most blooms. That's why they call it a knockout probably.

Because of my total lack of gusto in pruning any plant, the Don Juan only had blooms so high I couldn't get close enough for a picture without a ladder. I could still smell the blooms though and that's what counts. The Chief says she is going to prune it this year as I'm such a wuss at it.

The Turks cap hasn't had a bloom on it for most of the summer but is making up for it now, it's really loading up.

The Stone Crop is running a little late this year because of the drought but it finally made it. The bees are loving it as well.

What happened here? I think a Zinnia bloom must have fallen here and all the seeds came up in one place.

The fall Astor is right on schedule, drought or no drought. Being a native, you can expect performance, no matter the weather. Although I knew it was a native, I had never seen it in the wild. While on a kayaking trip on the Llano river at Junction last week, I saw it blooming in a profusion of color all along the banks.
We didn't plant much of a fall vegetable garden this year because it was just too hot when the planting needed doing. We did, however, plant a couple of beds of beans. They are going to make, I think, before frost. They have little beans all over them. You can also see the huge Cinnamon Basil in the middle of the photo. I always plant a few of these in the beds because I just love the smell, my favorite of all the aromatics. I also think they help keep the bugs away from the other plants.

There are still two cantaloupes on the vines that were planted in the spring. I think they are going to make it before frost as well.
I have two watermelons as well. I haven't gotten to eat one off this vine yet this year. All the vines died in the heat except this one, and it has gone crazy since it rained. Maybe it will be like one year when I got to eat a fresh off the vine watermelon at Thanksgiving. That would be great.
Why would anyone plant radishes like this? I love radishes and always have them in the beds when it's cooler weather. Favorite is a Russian radish that is an heirloom, so I save the seeds. It takes a few more days to mature but gets as long as a carrot, takes heat well, tastes good and doesn't get woody. Back to the first sentence, why? When they came up and I saw how they were, I at first didn't understand. Then I saw the edge of a chewy sticking up and knew the secret. My dog, Bonnie, had buried it, shoving all the seeds into one row. I know I will have some deformed radishes now as I don't intend to thin them.
There's more but you get the idea of just what rain will do. It's too bad we went so long with out any of it.

Rain Water Collection System is Getting Bigger

2009-09-20T22:29:00.009-05:00

Last week I was able to get my friend Andy to bring his backhoe over to finish the excavating that the little Bobcat skid loader wasn't able to do. He did a very accurate job and I won't have to use a bunch of sand to level things out for the tanks. Lyn was very nervous with him digging so close to the existing tanks that were full of water from the recent rains. I wasn't the least bit worried as I've seen Andy operate so many different pieces of equipment and he is very good on them all. He bales hay for a living and is always running huge tractors and dragging even bigger implements and I've never known him to damage anything. He knows I'm a plant person and always asks before he drives over or plucks out any plants. He drove the backhoe seven miles here, did all this work, and drove it seven miles back home and would not hear of me paying him a cent. That's a true friend and I know I'm a lucky guy to have several of these true friends. I don't think he reads my blog but if he does, thanks Andy, I owe you.

The next day Lyn and I were back to shoveling sand and making ready to move a couple more tanks in. Getting the sand at the same level as the existing tanks is hard work and takes a lot of time. Moving the tanks around is even harder. They really aren't that heavy, around 400#, but they don't have handles. I weigh about 185# and Lyn weighs about a buck ten so pushing these around is really tough. We got it done, however, and now I'm ready for the rain on Monday and Tuesday.

It's starting to look quite impressive. With the eight inches of rain we had last week, all of these would have been full. As it was, we got 9,000 gallons in the tanks. The tubes at the top are the overflow tubes. I made them long enough to have the overflow fall beyond the pole that holds the sand back. After the last rain it was evident that it was important to do it as we had a major washout of sand. There is screen mesh over the ends to keep mosquitoes out.

Here is one of the reasons I'm doing this. This is the entrance to the Lauren concrete plant north of Seward Junction on Hwy 183 at 3:00 in the middle of the day, watering their driveway. Talk about wasting water. Hardly any of it is falling on the grass. That's my drinking water they are wasting.

Rain Water Collection

2009-08-30T19:57:00.007-05:00

Work on the rain water collection system has been going slowly. Friends have been busy so moving them has been impossible with just Lyn and me. Also I just had no idea how difficult it would be to level them to the first tank. I had no illusions of perfection but thought I could keep them within an inch or two so as not to lose too much of capacity. The plumbing has been extremely difficult and has changed from my first concept of how it should be.

The inlet hole in the top of the tank is only 1 1/2". Where the water comes out of the gutter is 4". You don't have to be too bright to figure that the four inch line would have to be attached to several of the 1 1/2" lines or water would be lost. That was my first plan but after hooking up the first tank I could tell that the weight of the PVC pipe would need supports. Sometimes it is better to just start over and that is what I did.

This is the first configuration.

I really didn't like this as I would have to have a line to every tank. It finally registered that I could just drill a hole in the center of the top and put in a larger line. I already had a 4" hole saw bit so I went with 3" PVC as the outside of the fittings are 4" and it would be a perfect fit that I could caulk to keep mosquitoes out of my water. The unused 1 1/2" holes would be the over flow holes and I could easily put screen wire over them for mosquito protection. It is also a little easier to do the plumbing as I can get by with only having the inlet line go to three tanks.

I now have three tanks hooked up to receive water. The new hook up looks like this.

All I have to do now is level off 50' more ground, shovel in a lot more sand, move and level five more tanks and do the plumbing only on the bottom of them, and then I can start on the pump and filter house. I'll keep you posted.

Too Many Goldfish

2009-08-24T22:54:00.004-05:00

The big goldfish give-a-way got rid of about seventy goldfish. It helped but was no where close to the number we need to move. Lyn has been running her trap line several times a day getting the little ones out and moving them to some tubs in the back. The tubs make for easy extraction when we find a sucker, errr, I mean someone who needs fish. We called Hill Country Water Gardens and asked them if they wanted any little goldfish and were surprised to learn that they needed fish in some of their ponds. You can see in the picture there are a lot of little fish in the buckets. I would guess a little over a hundred.

The fine folks at Hill Country Gardens are some of the nicest folks around and I didn't mind helping them out as they were helping us out as well. I would say that there is at least a hundred more that will have to come out of the big pond so if anyone out there needs any goldfish just let me know. They are in all colors, most but not all fantails. Other wise they are going here.

More bugs

2009-08-18T22:55:00.003-05:00

I was playing with my dog this evening and seen a red and black streak go by, close to the ground. I immediately ran for my camera. I had wanted to get a picture of one of these wasps for a long time. It was a Tarantula Killer. It's a huge wasp, second in size only to the Cicada Killer for wasps in central Texas. This one was almost two inches long. They have bright red wings and an evil black body, the kind of black like a Black Widow spider. Like all non nest wasps they are very non aggressive. Even though they will take other spiders, Tarantulas are their main prey. They only take the male Tarantulas as the females are just to big for them to fly with. It's hard to believe that this wasp can fly while holding onto it's prey that is several times bigger than it is. However I know this to be true as Lyn and I got to witness it at our house when we lived in Liberty Hill. We had been working in the garden and were sitting on the porch steps, resting and enjoying a Shiner. I saw the Killer looking around and under the rocks that made up our walkway. I started to explain to Lyn about them when suddenly the wasp went under a rock and drug out a Tarantula. He had a hard time of it. When they were out in the open, the fight was on. It actually looked like the spider was winning for a while. We noticed that the spider started to slow down in it's movements. The wasp flew off. I thought, what's going on here, you kicked his butt and now your leaving. I have learned since then, the wasp was checking on the hole that the spider would go in. A little while later the wasp returned, flipped the spider on it's back, folded it's legs together neatly, grabbed onto the legs, and flew off, low to the ground. I felt that this spider was about as big as this wasp could handle as it could barely fly with it. You see, the wasp didn't kill the spider, it merely paralyzed it. If it had killed the spider it would rot before the egg that the wasp would lay on it, would hatch. The wasp stuffs the spider into a hole, lays an egg on it and covers it up. When the larvae hatches it eats the paralyzed, but still fresh spider. [This is where the much more computer savvy, Philip, at ESP blog, would insert a picture of the guys in the Alien movies all trussed up, but still alive] Think about this, for every egg that the wasp lays, it has to risk it's life fighting a much larger prey. I like 'em.

Gardening Gone Wild Down Low

2009-08-15T19:49:00.003-05:00

I had to crawl through a lot of Petunias to finally get a shot I liked. I'm telling my wife that the dog mashed them down. This is my first time to enter this photo contest. It sounded like it would be fun and it was, certainly a different view. Here is my entry.

Watch out, it's a Vinegaroon

2009-08-09T22:19:00.008-05:00

A friend dropped by today, recently back from a hog hunting trip in the panhandle. No hogs. His group was staying in an old house on the ranch. Just after he went to bed he felt something crawling on his foot. He turned on his flashlight and saw a huge bug on his foot. He jumped up, screaming like a little girly man. Everyone got up with lights and then they found a bunch of them. Whip Scorpions or Vinegaroons [Mastigoproctus giganteus] are not poisonous but they are ugly and big. He told me everyone slept in their trucks the rest of the trip. He scooped one into a coffee can and brought it back with him. He knew I would want pictures. He tried to catch a big one but couldn't. The one he brought back is a medium size one-he says.

You can see the whip tail here. They sling a vinegar like substance out of it, hence the name.
You can see that it has two pincers on each forward arm and both work. They use them to catch bugs as they are strictly meat eaters. With the penny in the picture you can tell it is a very large bug. Although it looks like a scorpion and is called a scorion, it really isn't a true scorpion. It's an interesting bug none the less.

You don't see one of these every day

2009-08-05T23:06:00.006-05:00

A gentleman [I can't remember his name] in my native plant club has one of the animal rescue operations. After our club tour here earlier in the year, he asked me if he could release a Ringtail close by the house here. There was everything that he needed to survive, especially the water in my ponds. I thought it over and decided it would be okay even though I know he will get some fruit off the trees next year. They are really cool little animals and I like the idea of having one around even though I think he is eating tomatoes to survive right now. I was pretty sure I saw him scurry off the other night from right at a tomato plant. Their main food source is berries and seeds, especially Hackberry seeds but they eat fruit and veggies as well. With this drought I'm sure my garden is his only food source.

When checking the next morning I found this.

I don't really care though. He couldn't put a dent in the damage the Cardinals do. Here is a picture in the animal carrier before he was released. As you can tell by the huge eyes, Ringtails are almost completely nocturnal and this is probably the only picture of one I'll ever get.

Rain today and I was ready

2009-07-30T21:50:00.008-05:00

I awoke to rolling thunder this morning. Shortly after hearing the first boom I could hear that wonderful sound that rain makes on a tin roof. I rolled over and went right back to sleep. That sound always puts me to sleep and I knew the next couple of hours would be sound sleep before I had to get up. I just had to check the rain gage before I left the house and there was already an inch showing. We ended up with 1 1/4". By noon you could hardly tell it had rained. The ground just absorbed it all and could have taken in more. This evening all the plants looked so good, as only rain water can do. By dark there were bunches of new blooms on the cantaloupe vines that had hardly been alive hours before. Rain water is just special for the plants. Rain water makes plants grow and my well water just keeps them alive. And in some cases, not.

The best part about this rain was the fact that I was ready for it. I had the first tank of the rain water collection system all hooked up. It wasn't easy, as the plumbing part got tricky. It was plumbing as an art form. The first tank will be the hardest though as it is the one that hooks up to the gutters and eventually to the pump and filter house. I checked this evening and it was almost half full. Insert big smiley here.

This is what I was looking at when we went to get the tanks. See the crates of granite in the way. They were supposed to be moved and we were going to be able to load them with their fork lift. Well, neither of those things came to pass. We had to load the eight I bought by hand, laying them over and rolling them up onto the trailer. In the heat it was a killer. It took three loads to get them all here. It cost me a serious lunch for the guys and beer. It's really nice to have friends that will help you with this big of a project even when the plans change like they did.
PEC, the local power company, gave me a pole they had just removed. I laid it on the ground to hold back the sand that I would use to bed the tanks with. I was able to dig it into the ground so that the top edge was dead level for it's full length. As I progress down the line of the tanks I will always have a constant to use for leveling. Billy was able to bring his Bobcat skid loader back and move the sand to behind the pole. Lyn and I leveled a spot big enough for the first tank. I then shot it with my sight level to determine that I could maintain that level all the way down the seventy feet that the tanks would set. To move them from the front of our place down 1,800' of really windy, steep up and down drive way, I borrowed a small trailer from Billy. I had to build a ramp for the back of the trailer to roll the tanks up. It turned out to be not as difficult as I thought it would be to move them back.

The first tank is in and I've started to play with the plumbing. The tall, light blue thing is the roof washer. It was there already from the first set up. A roof washer catches the first several minutes of rain water before it goes into the tank. That helps keep the debris out of the tank. I built this one out of 12" PVC. It has a 4" T at the bottom with a faucet and a clean out. It worked so well with the other tank I decided not to change it.

Here's a view from the other direction. You can see the pole and the sand behind it. You can see a wire sticking out of a conduit next to the vertical pole. I put that in when we built the house. I planned that far ahead for a rain water collection system, as I wanted one that bad.
As I said, the plumbing got difficult. And maybe just a little artsy. Being a welder and not a plumber, it was mainly difficult.

However, the first one is installed and has an end cap duct taped on it so that I was able to catch the rain water that fell today. I'm a happy man. Now seven more to go.

Blooms in the heat

2009-07-23T21:39:00.022-05:00

Work on the rainwater system has ceased for a while. The heat is just too much to get friends out in. Not many of my friends work outside like I do so they might keel over in this heat. I don't want to use them to death. I might need help in the future as well. The garden has needed some mulch added anyway and irrigation to some of the raised beds needs work. It always seems like there is some little something that needs doing. It also seems like there is constant watering as well. I am watering every other day but only do half at a time. Normally I don't water on to the plants, but now I am spraying the plants down as well as giving them a good soaking. The spraying, I think, cools them down. I am definitely going to consider even more natives and heat hardy plants in the future. I think there is a difference between heat hardy and drought hardy. You can always water but you can't do much for the heat. When we have this many days over a hundred and such low humidity, no plant can live up to its potential. However, there are still some blooms here at Draco.

The Shrimp Plants, both maroon and the green, could care less how hot it gets as long as they have a little shade and some water.

The Zinnias that I plant every year do fairly well in the heat but miss a day of watering and they are gone fast.

Another one that blooms through the heat is Society Garlic.

These are the kinds of plants we all need more of. The first is one type of Hummingbird Plant and the next is Mexican Honeysuckle. Neither have had as many blooms this year as in previous years but have had some blooms on them all through the heat.

This Skeleton Leaf Daisy is one of the most heat and drought hardy of all my plants. It is ever green and with its weird looking leaves, looks good with or without blooms.

Although the Passion Flower vines have withstood the heat well, they have not had nearly as many blooms this year as in the past. But that is true of most of the plants.

This next one has been a surprise star performer this year.[pun intended] I have moved this Texas Star Hibiscus several times through the years trying to find the place that it would grow. Last year, while touring the Pond Society Tour, I noticed some people had them growing in their ponds, and with great success I might add. After building a bog pond last winter, I planted it there where its roots would be wet all the time. It has had more blooms by far this year than in any other year. I think it is finally home.

The next three plants were all given to me by customers of mine. In some ways I don't like given plants as they might not be plants you like or plants that don't fit your garden. I always feel obligated to plant it and try to make it grow. When I give plants I always tell the receiver that if they don't like it to simply pass it on, it will find a home sooner or later. The first is an Ice Plant. I only received a sprig. I have a hole in a big rock that I have planted several different plants in without much luck. I stuck the sprig in the hole and it has surprised me by growing well and has had a few blooms.

The next one, a customer that has become a good friend, gave to me. I really didn't want it because I knew that I would have to put it in the greenhouse every winter. My Mother moved truck loads of plants into and out of her greenhouse every fall and spring. I vowed that I would never do that. My vows may not be too reliable though as I really like this plant. It is right out in the blazing sun and requires no more water than any other plant. It is also just stunning to look at. I'm not sure which Plumeria it is but it's a beauty. It has been blooming all summer.

This last one is the strangest of all. It was given to me by the lady at the feed store after Christmas was over. I mentioned how it was so terrible all the Poinsettias were going to die in a week or two because Christmas was over and everybody would just throw them away. She handed hers to me and said "Well go grow it then". I took it home and put it in the greenhouse till winter was over and planted it in a bed. I was so surprised that it really grew well and put on lots of new growth after it nearly died in the green house. The heat doesn't seem to bother it at all and it doesn't seem to need a lot of water either. I was going to read up on how to force bloom it but my dog ran over it yesterday and broke it off at the ground. I will gather all I can this Christmas. I think they will look good in a mass planting even without their blooms. Blooms meaning colored leaves with these.

Scre-e-e-e-ch

2009-07-12T22:58:00.009-05:00

Here is an update on the Screech Owls in my brother-in-law's back yard. They have hatched off and raised their babies. It looks like everyone is doing well and healthy. This is about the third batch of babies that Mike and Chickie have observed from their owl house that Mike built. As I said before, Screech Owls are like most Austinites when the weather gets hot. They love the water and really enjoy a good dip. That "thing" you see in the bird bath is an owl splashing around.

One of the best things about having Screech Owls living in your own owl box is that they are so easy to observe. As you can see, with Chickie looking one over from just a few feet away, they are very tame. They almost look fake, like little owl dolls.

New Rain Water Storage System

2009-06-25T22:31:00.015-05:00

Last year I posted in the blog about my well pump motor going out. I told how the water table had gone down 30' in the first twelve years since it was put in, and how it had gone down 235' in the last eight years. I had the pump lowered 200' more but the well is only 630' deep. If the water table keeps dropping at the rate it is, I will have water only seven and a half more years. Of course the water table could rise back some and my fears would be for naught. With this drought I feel I should plan for the worst, and I am.

I got lucky, years ago, on a welding job and was able to get a 5,000 gallon fiberglass water tank for free. I installed it for rain water collection, but the tank was so tall that it had to be put in a 4' deep hole in the ground so the gutters would drain into it. What I didn't realize was it would keep me from adding onto the system because of its height. In February I was able to sell the tank to a man for the price I could buy two new 2,500 gallon, plastic tanks. In the meantime I located a granite company that had eight new 3,000 gallon plastic tanks they had bought but then decided to sell because the economy went bad and they were worried that business would decline. Lucky me, as they were selling them for less than half price. Although I bought all eight of them, four equaled the price I sold the other tank for. Now that I know it's going to really happen I thought I would post the process of getting the new system up and running.

I have read extensively on rain water collection so was able to get the other system set up without too much problem. I already have the gutters and the roof washer, but because this system will also be plumbed to the house, there is much more to do. There will be a new water house to contain the pressure pump, pressure tank, and a filter system. The water for the garden will come off after the pressure tank but before the filter system. One of my customers is in the water filtration business and has agreed to help me with that end of it. I will be doing all the work myself, with the chief helping of course. Lyn is always hands on with all the big projects we do here but she is a tiny thing and I always worry about her getting hurt. It hasn't happened yet, other than a mashed finger here or a bruise there. I have worked in all kinds of construction for 35 years and know what to look out for but she might not. When I tell her it's time for her to get back and let me take care of it she knows it's time to get back and let me take care of it. Although these tanks are not heavy, at about 440#, they don't have handles or lifting cleats, so are really hard to load, move and set up. Thank goodness I have a lot of really good friends. So let's start with removing the old tank.

Big Andy and Steve were the unlucky ones this time. We pulled it out of the hole it was in with the gin poles on my welding truck and was able to lay it down on the back of my trailer.

We laid a piece of carpet over the back edge of the trailer and pushed it onto the trailer. That wasn't too bad.

We put two by fours angled in from the sides to make a V shape so as to cradle the tank. As the weight of the tank went up the back of the trailer, the back of my little Toyota truck started rising. It stayed on the ground, but just barely.

Does it look like the tank made it out from under the carport roof? It lacked two inches. We had to let the air out of the trailer tires to pull out with out tearing off the gutters. Then we aired the tires up again.

After the 5,000 gallon tank was removed we started to prepare for the placement of the new tanks. Remember what I said about having some good friends. Well, I mean some really good friends. Here's Billy with his Bobcat working to fill in the hole and grade the ground to as near level as he can get it.

I shot the site with a sight level so we could walk out with a tape measure and see how much more Billy had to take off. As long as it ended up a little low it would be OK. It would just take a little more sand to level it. I used sand as it is considered to be self-compressing. In other words, you don't need to tamp it, just wet it down after leveling.

Next post I'll show the plumbing of the first tank. It will be the most difficult as it is the one first in line off the gutters. I did also want to show these rain barrels that I found while researching tanks. They are made in Burnet and you can buy right from the company. They come in several colors and look quite nice.

Night at the Ponds

2009-06-21T21:15:00.021-05:00

Sunday night was Night at the Ponds at Hill Country Water Gardens. We go every year. They have expanded to almost double its previous size. The new area was just as well landscaped as the original. There was plenty for the early birds to look at around the parking area as there was beautiful beds everywhere.

When the gates opened at 7:00 there was already a large crowd and a long line. They had free wine from several different Texas wineries. I could hear the band as I walked in. They had a nice sound and the singer was very good. It's Austin so you would expect that.

I noticed that they had doubled their water lily ponds. There were many new varieties of lilies but the pond plant that caught my eye was a miniature lotus. It would just be perfect for smaller ponds and trough ponds. My pictures of the blooms didn't turn out very well. I so wished they had as it was a dark color of pink with a bright yellow seed pod in the center. Quite stunning and about the size of a hard ball. The leaves are about 8" in diameter. Not so big as to overwhelm a small pond.

Examples of different pond set ups and possibilities were everywhere.

A train set up had been incorporated into a new pond in the expanded area. The kids really loved it.

Most of the ponds are more natural looking but a new pond had been built of interest to the more formal crowd. It wasn't my cup of tea but I thought it was quite stunning none the less.

Although there was a 20% discount on everything, I took one look at the check out and decided not to even try. I did make a list of some new plants that I wanted. I hate standing in lines and putting out new plants really should wait till fall. Over all, a really enjoyable evening, walking through the plants, along the trails and around the ponds. Ya'll should try it next year.

Little prizes

2009-06-12T23:27:00.018-05:00

This post is about two weeks old but I was having some problems with Blogger and posting pictures. Not being real computer savvy it took a while to figure it out.

This is the time of year, here, that you start finding the little prizes in your garden that you have worked so hard for. Sometimes it takes looking through the leaves to find them and sometimes they are right out in the open. The beets are all canned and Lyn is constantly picking and canning green beans. We are eating fresh carrots and radishes but there is a lot more. Here's the more.

Burpees Ambrosia has been my favorite cantaloupe for 28 yrs. but I have been trying others the last few years as Ambrosia just doesn't do well for me here. I really gave it a good try but have only gotten a few in some years and none other years. This year I'm trying Stutz from Seeds of Change. It may well be the winner. There are three cantaloupes in this picture.

Watermelons have been about the same as the cantaloupes. Crimson sweet was an excellent performer where we used to live and had a great taste. For some reason it just will not perform here. This year I am trying Dakota Rose. It doesn't look all that good for the watermelons as I could only find five.

Our standard for cucumbers for too long to remember is the Armenian cucumber. It is for eating raw and is almost a cantaloupe it is so sweet. The skin is very thin and tender. It is also the most heat resistant of any cuke that I know of, setting fruit all through the summer.
I would love to try different types of potatoes and have ordered from several sources. No matter what you tell the people on the phone at the suppliers, they will not send the starts to you in time to plant here, they send them when it is time to plant there. Of course that would be way to late to plant here. So-o-o, I just buy the potatoes that McIntyres Nursery sells and plant those. They do pretty good most years and really good some years. This year looks like a really good year. We've been spooning a few taters already. That's what older folks call it. It's where you dig around some of your plants and harvest a few potatoes to eat before your ready to harvest the whole crop. I don't use a spoon though, just my hands. I plant my potatoes on top of the ground and cover with leaves or grass clippings so they are real easy to harvest.

Corn is another one that has come with mixed results but Burpee's Early often has worked the best for us. I don't get the name, it is early but after the pollen has fallen off the heads there will be no more corn. So, I don't know about the often part but we do get several stalks with four ears on a stalk. Not all ears will fill out though. We do get quite a few big ears but I think we could still do better. I like this corn though because it is short and fits raised beds well.

The Bell peppers are really putting on. These are California Wonders.

And the tomatoes, definitely some surprises here. I didn't even take any pictures of my Big Beef as they are doing that poorly. Normally this tomato is the best for me. I started growing them after Texas Gardener magazine recommended it as the best they had tried. It has been great the last few years but I think there is a problem with these. I will write about it later. I always plant Yellow Pear and Sweet Olive tomatoes. Just a couple though. Any more and I wouldn't know what to do with all the little tomatoes. There is over a hundred on one of the Yellow Pears right now.

The big surprise for me is the regular, old, normal, Roma tomatoes. They always do well for us, but not this well. There are over fifty tomatoes on each plant and I have already picked quite a few. Now I wish I had bought more instead of the Big Beefs. They taste wonderful, and being a sauce tomato, they have few seeds and lots of meat. I'm trying to eat all I can before Lyn gets set up to make sauce.

This next tomato is one I am very excited about and yet, it doesn't even have a name. While visiting Italy, a good friend of my sisters, Mary, asked about the tomato sauce that a little restaurant used. They said it was made with their families tomatoes and that was why it was so good. She told the lady she had a gardening friend and the lady gave her some seeds to bring to me. I received them a little late so the plants aren't as big as my others but they are catching up fast. There are only three little fruit on them now and they are interesting to say the least. They have deep creases and a long naval line on the bottom, and seem to be shaping up to be rather flat in shape. Usually this denotes a large tomato, but we will just have to wait and see. This is another case of gardeners anxiety that I talk about from time to time. It's a wonder more of us don't have breakdowns.

Beets

2009-06-12T22:34:00.008-05:00

We have dug our first beets. The rest will be dug in just a few days. I love pickled beets. My Mom would put up just a few jars every year. No one ate them but her and me. It was certainly a delight to see them out at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Lyn has had to figure the beet canning out on her own as we never found a recipe book when Mom passed away. I was lucky to marry a woman who loves to cook, that takes it very seriously, and just can't stand it if something doesn't taste just perfect. Lyn doesn't like them but experimented by putting up one jar at a time of slightly different changes till I thought it was perfect. She couldn't hardly stand to watch me do the taste test. I was sucking on them and slurping them around in my mouth, slowly chewing to get all the taste out of them. She just couldn't watch. She stayed with it till they taste just perfect, the way Mom's used to taste. We put boiled eggs in the extra juice to have beet juice pickled eggs. U-u-u-m-m-m, good. Yeah, I know what your thinking. Man, I'm a lucky guy.

I usually grow only one bed of beets and that puts up no more than ten quarts of beets. Detroit Reds have always done the best for me. Chiogga is one I will try next year in a small plot to test. I don't want to take up space from my main performers though.I tend to horde them to make sure they last all year and still have a couple of jars to give away to friends that like them.

It must be dry

2009-06-12T21:22:00.006-05:00

Every time it get's really dry the snakes start showing up in the pond. We've already had several water snakes in the pond and have lost a couple of really beautiful koa. I guess when you have some of the only water around you have to expect it, but it really makes me mad to lose koa that are starting to get into the large size. I usually borrow a snake grabber stick from the feed store to catch and relocate them to some place a long way from my ponds. The snake stick was already borrowed when the snake was here and it was able to get his meal and take his ill gotten booty and leave. I know it will be back and I am ready now. I built my own snake stick and it is much better than the other one.

Lyn has already used it to catch a juvenile Blotched Water snake so it is already worth the time it took to build it.

On another note, I am having a heck of a time loading and moving pictures on blogger. I have several long posts with lots of pictures but have been unable to get them done. Is anyone else having this problem?

This year's veggie beds

2009-05-22T22:22:00.017-05:00

This year's vegetable gardens are coming along great. We've been eating on the winter started red cabbage for a while now. The beets have recently been appearing in meals as well as green onions and the neighbors have been given extra crook neck squash.

These two beds with potatoes and cantaloupe are covered up and not just with mulch. Pretend like you don't see major construction in the back ground. That's a future post.

With raised beds it's possible to build your soil to a very rich level so that planting can be very crowded and all the plants still do well. As with these two beds we always plant corn in the middle and beans on the side. It's easy to reach in to pick the corn as it's tall. With beans that will require picking more often they are planted down the sides so they can hang out of the beds.

You can plan your bed spacing for the roots if you can get the rest of the plant out of the bed. This trellis [a stock panel] is for the Armenian cucumbers to climb. The beets are a new variety I'm trying and they will be gone before the cuke vines sprawl very much. The trellis for the Armenian cukes is never enough. It will cover this entire bed and more in a month. That's why I have the beets and some radishes in this bed, so they will be harvested before the vines cover them. The Armenian is our favorite cuke, very sweet and extremely heat tolerate, but it must be allowed for.

These beans are yellow wax and needed to be away from the Blue Lake that is our standard. I think the only reason Lyn grows these is to put a few in with the green ones when she cans so that they look nicer in the jars on the shelves. The watermelon is Sweet Dakota. I think it's going to be a bust. They are not nearly as far along as the Crimson Sweets, my standard.

You can't go wrong with Dark Detroit beets. I've raised them everywhere we've lived with good success. I still try other kinds though. I live for pickled beets.

As I said earlier, you get used to crowding in raised beds. You don't think in terms of rows as much as just spacing and places plants will fit. I love radishes and just plant them wherever there is room. In this picture you can see carrots planted in front of and between tomato cages. They won't bother the tomatoes and the tomatoes won't bother them. If you don't plant something there it is just wasted space and in beds space can be at a premium.

No vegetable gardener is ever completely satisfied with a variety of plant as there could always be something out there that performs better in their particular soil. My favorite cantaloupe has been for years, Burpee's Ambrosia. Even the name is cool. But I still have to try another or two every year. This year it's Stutz. The story of its development is worth the try. To try different varieties you must separate them to make sure you get them true and not have any cross pollination. With tomatoes I've heard everything from 5' to 25'. Who knows? Some separation is a must though. I originally made seven beds in a group. As I added beds I started to spread them out more. I now have 15 beds in four different places. I think this is enough beds although as a gardener you just never know.

Water usage

2009-05-11T23:15:00.004-05:00

Man, I'm mad at Lance Armstrong. I saw on the news tonight that his water usage at his house is around 330,000 gallons a month, and he's not even home most of the time. After reporting that, the talking heads stated that they would have water saving tips for all us schmucks because we are in drought conditions. Oh yeah, we need to save so that Ol Lance can squander it on I have no idea what. It was already reported once that he was the biggest water user and he hasn't even tried to cut down. Years ago when it was reported that ex Austin mayor Roy Butler was the biggest user, he cut down a bunch on usage. Lance's usage has gone up since the last time. How arrogant can you be. And this was after he nearly destroyed a creek and land mark swimming hole. If I lived in Austin I would have to call my councilman to complain.

When we lived in Liberty Hill and got a water bill, our highest bill showed water usage of 3600 gallons, barely over 1/100th of his water usage. We had gardens there as well as a lawn. We also had milk goats, chickens, and pigs. Maybe I'm just mad about him dumping Sheryl Crowe, even after she watched his kids during his races. But I don't think so. I must ask, how can he use as much water as I used in a month, in 8 hours?

Building a Bog Garden

2009-05-03T22:12:00.008-05:00

We tend to do our really hard projects here at Draco in the cooler months. Also, some projects require planning, plotting, scheming, logistics study, and budget analysis. Well, there may be some procrastination in there too. I mean who can get pumped up about digging in the hard ground and lifting big rocks? We made up our minds that we needed a bog garden. They can work like natural filters for your pond system and a place for plants that fall between "in the water plants" and "out of the water plants." After going on the Austin Pond Society Pond Tour again last year and talking to people about their bogs, we knew we wanted one too. [Damn, that pond tour.] I wanted to improve on the filtering capabilities of the bog even more than the ones I had seen. I studied several filter systems and decided I wanted one that the water would rise through the filtering medium and then run over gravel in the rest of the bog before it reentered the pond system.

The Pond Queen approved the plan and budget. The budget was less than twenty dollars as we had a piece of liner and gravel left over from previous projects and I picked up the rocks at a friend's ranch. Only things to buy were PVC pipe and fittings. Let the work begin.

You can't have a pond without a hole. Thank goodness it was in the only place that has any dirt on the entire place. Oh, but there were tree roots. As you can see in this picture, there is the main, big hole and there is a trough. The trough is where the pipe with holes in it will be laid. The gray stuff is mortar mix, the kind you buy in a bag. The mortar mix is used to form over dirt that wants to fall away and not stay to the right shape.

The liner is laid now. You can see a bulge where the tree root is. Don't cut any big roots if you don't absolutely have to. The PVC is plumbed. The part in the trench has holes drilled along its length. The PVC comes from the pump at the far end of our big pond over sixty feet away. The dirt is added before the gravel goes in. We will have plants growing in there to help filter.

This is not a quickie project and takes considerable planning. It needed to be higher than the other ponds, if only a few inches. The wall on the trench had to be a few inches below the outside perimeter. The number and size of the holes had to equal or exceed the area of the PVC supply line. And of course you need to have some place to put the dirt you take out to have a hole. Here the Pond Queen is taking the spoils to parts of the garden that could use it.

Here the gravel has been added, a few plants are in, it's been tested, and the rocks are laid out to start bordering it for the final look. Of course final looks are not when you complete it, but when it has matured a bit and gets away from that just finished look.

This is closer to the finished look. The water bubbles up through the gravel, runs across more gravel and around plants and over the little falls and back into the pond system.

These kinds of projects are great to do yourself. It doesn't take any skills that can't be learned from books or on the computer. They aren't meant to be fast, so you can take your time, enjoy the planning, the scheming, and the challenge. Plus you really have something beautiful that you will enjoy for a long time. My greatest thrill is in the planning and gathering the materials. I am a real scrounge when it comes to our projects. That's why this whole project cost less than $20. But then I had to load rocks out of the San Gabriel river on a friend's ranch and haul them home in my little Toyota pick up. My wife, the Pond Queen, dug almost the entire hole by herself. I have no idea how much this project would cost to do it professionally but I'm sure it would be a whole lot more than $20.

Coming soon we will build a new section of rock walk way. And we will be using some big rocks. Also in the near future we will be getting into what may be the biggest project, other than building the house, that we have done here at Draco. It's all just a bunch of good clean work. But, there is always something to look back at when you're done. That and it's a lot better than exercising to stay in shape.

Nopalito in Bloom

2009-05-01T21:55:00.024-05:00

I've always been a fan of cactus. Most cacti are like irises, not much for looks for fifty weeks of the year and two weeks of blooms. That's why I really don't care much for irises. My big Nopalito cactus is an exception though. It's just starting to bloom and will have some blooms on it the rest of the summer. The first flush is the best. It will cover up in big, waxy, yellow blooms. Those blooms will draw many kinds of beetles and bees to them. The blooms have no odor that I can detect so I would suspect that they are drawn by color. The yellow of the blooms is a pale but pure yellow, much like Calylophus or Fluttermills. Here is a series of pictures showing how beautiful Nopalito blooms are start to finish.

Here is a bud just starting to grow. Click picture to view full size, it's just stunning.

This one is a little more developed.

This one is about to make the big show.

A bloom just opened up and a bee is in it immediately. The bugs really like these blooms.

It looks like I'm in for one heck of a show.

And of course I will be getting plenty of these.

Where it grows more pads instead of blooms, these little clusters come up. I can only imagine the picture that East Side Patch would have beside this.

It looks like there will be plenty of new pads this year as well.

Little Owls

2009-04-24T21:23:00.011-05:00

As gardeners we must always consider the wildlife around us. It's always there whether we are dealing with it trying to destroy our gardens or enjoying it because we have made our little piece of the planet a little better for it.

And retailers are always coming out with new products to get our money because they know we deal with nature or enjoy it. I look at some new products and just have to wonder if it will work or not. Well here's one you don't have to worry about whether it works or not. You can buy these or you can build them with only basic carpenter skills. It is the owl house for the little Screech Owls. My brother-in-law, Michael, built this one several years ago and put it in his back yard. The owls were in it almost immediately and have come back every year since and have raised a brood every year. These pictures were taken with a game camera set in an adjacent tree. This is the same camera I was able to catch photos of the coons that were getting into my bird seed that was in an earlier post.

He sent me a lot of pictures and it appears that Screech Owls just sit at the entrance a lot.

Here you can see one's wing as it flew right in front of the camera.

Here the male has brought a lizard or frog and is tearing it up for the little female.

Freeze tonight

2009-04-06T22:14:00.005-05:00

It looks like we are going to get a freeze tonight. It is supposed to be right at freezing in Austin and we are usually a few degrees lower than they are. Being a long time gardener, you learn to deal with it. I have saved large pieces of plastic and wraps for bundled material, so that I can cover the beds of row type crops. I use buckets and flower pots for the individual plants like tomatoes and peppers. You can't forget to put a rock over the hole in the pot though.

So come on frost, I am so ready.

Lady Monster

2009-04-04T21:41:00.003-05:00

I was in Liberty Hill this week and remembered to take a picture of a Lady Banksia rose that I look for every year at bloom time. It is a monster, climbing completely over an old house. It is so thick you can't even see the house except for the very peak. There are blooms numbering, literally in the thousands. If you get up this way you can see it right across the tracks from the Hobo Depot cafe in the middle of town.

The Spanish Dagger blooms

2009-03-21T21:02:00.013-05:00

Twelve days ago Lyn came in to tell me the Spanish Dagger at the property corner was starting to bloom. I had dug this plant up on the Marshal Ranch close to Lago Vista about ten years ago. I had asked Mr. Marshal if it was okay and he said to take as many as I wanted. I dug up two little ones about a foot in diameter, getting a goodly amount of roots with both. I planted one along the driveway and the other a few feet away from a corner marker of our property. As there is no fence on that side I thought it would always let me know where the pin was located. The property next door has been surveyed twice since then. Both times I've been lucky enough to see them start working. I told them where the pin was to save them time looking and gave further instructions to not hack my Dagger as by then it had gotten much larger.

In only ten years the Dagger has grown to over ten feet high, and is over eight feet wide and has developed two heads. I've never tried to trim it or make it look nicer like some do. It can't be seen from the house but I always like to see it bloom. It can be quite spectacular.

Here is a picture of the bloom head just twelve days ago.

Four days later.

Four more days later.

And finally, today.

My NPSOT garden tour

2009-03-07T19:32:00.004-06:00

This past weekend the Williamson Co. chapter of the Native Plant Society came to tour my gardens and take a stroll on the Army Corp of Engineers land that is just through my back gate. I really didn't have much blooming in my gardens yet, just the trailing Rosemary and a few Iris. However, they were very interested in the combos of natives and non-natives in the garden as well as all the rock work my wife and I have done around our ponds and gardens.

Our walk through the woods on the Corp land did turn up some early bloomers as well as other points of interest. It was a good time and I learned some new things about several plants. There are some very knowledgeable people on native plants in the club.

Nice solution for a sticky subject

2009-03-02T21:22:00.008-06:00

I was driving on CR 200 just north of Liberty Hill a few days ago and spied some big blooms at a driveway entrance. I knew nothing should be blooming of that magnitude now so I just had to turn around and check it out. It turned out to be a rather artsy way of dealing with Century Plant thorns close to where the kids wait for the school bus. I've never cared for the way some people plant an Agave or a Yucca and then lop off the thorns so no one will get stuck. It just makes the plant look bad. It seems they should have planted it elsewhere.

These looked like they should have been on my Sisters street in south Austin as they just have that south Austin flair to them. Very innovative.

Oak wilt and Oak decline

2009-02-21T22:06:00.010-06:00

I drove down to the river the other day to get some big rocks for a walkway we were building. I was on the Burkett Ranch. My friend Andy lets me get all the rocks I want and sometimes even helps me using their backhoe. He also loads me up with dirt when I need it. Yeah, I know, I'm one lucky guy. As I was driving through the ranch I was both amazed and saddened by the huge live oaks that were on the ranch. Although there are hundreds of acres of beautiful big live oaks there were also an equal amount of dead and dying oaks as well. It's such a shame that trees older than our country can be killed by tiny bugs and parasites. I get a sad on that lasts for days after seeing this.

I also saw this flock of wild turkey gobblers running through the dead limbs. I love watching turkeys. They are not too bright but they are really majestic looking. There isn't any hunting for turkeys on the Burkett Ranch as they are Mr. Burkett's pride and joy. They come right up to his house to feed in the evenings before they go to roost. That man loves his turkeys.

More critters and varmints

2009-02-16T10:51:00.023-06:00

Now that all the "less than desirables" are out of the way, I will show the other animals that we have seen in our gardens this year. This was an extraordinary year for seeing animals at our place. I think it was because of the drought conditions. Well, that and we have five ponds and a new bog garden, so that there is water for the wildlife. I did notice, after we built our first little pond, the immediate increase in bird life. I think every gardener should have a water feature, if for no other reason than to provide water for the birds and other animals. But water features do give a new array of plants to grow as well.

With ponds you can expect to have frogs, and we have frogs. Lots of frogs. Leopard frogs, little creek frogs and even an occasional bull frog. It can be loud at night with several different kinds of frogs peeping and croaking.

Add in the twitter of the Screech owls, a hoot hoot of the Great Horned owls and the weird sounds of the Poor Wills Widow and it's noisier than a honky tonk parking lot.

My friend Andy almost always has his camera with him, and it's a good thing he does. While visiting one day, a Great Horned Owl flew in and lit. Andy just had to raise his camera and click. The picture of a lifetime. It's really stunning in the original format with more pixels. Just look at those eyes.

My wife noticed this little Screech Owl on an old shed one day so I decided to take some pictures. When I went inside to look at them, none were any good. I went back for more and another good friend, Steve Slevin drove up. He is an excellent photographer so I asked him to take some pictures. Of course, his were great. This owl stayed almost all day and would let us get very close.

I spied a Road Runner at the pond and talked Steve into taking its picture as well. By the time he changed lens, the Road Runner was about to leave. But not before Steve got one picture.

Every gardener has a compost pile and I have a couple as well. They are simple, just having cattle panels around them. The coons and the possums are always getting in them to eat the kitchen scraps. The raccoons are too fast to get pictures of but I was able to get a picture of this mama possum with one little baby on her back. Possums have as many as 21 babies but only 14 will make it as they only have 14 teats. When born, all will fit in a table spoon as they are that small. They must crawl to the pouch and attach to a teat to survive. The ones that don't make it to a teat don't survive. I don't know what happened to the rest of this one's brood but she only has one left. I don't mind possums too much except when melons or cantaloupes are getting ripe. They will eat them all if you let them. I put home made cages over the ones that are getting ripe to keep them from getting them.

Along with the possums we have our share of raccoons as well. Here is a game cam picture of one of the little thieves getting into the deer corn.

I love all animals. I love watching them. I like the idea of animals being able to live around me and me not getting in the way of their lives. But, and it's a big but, I constantly have to do things so that they do not ruin my gardening as well. The one that has given me the most grief is the armadillos. I have gone to great lengths to keep them out of my gardens. But, every year it seems there has to be one that figures out how to get in and make my gardening life a living hell. This one was rooting his merry way through a my zinnias and May Night sage. I used my usual removal technique. I scooped him up with a large dip net and hauled him down the road, possibly to be some one else's problem. But probably not, as no one close by gardens.

I found this little guy in the driveway on Christmas day. I gently picked him up and moved him into the trees before one of the soon to arrive vehicles could run over him or one of the dogs would get him. It is a Deer mouse I think. These little guys are always very tame when I find them. I find where they chew on vegetables from time to time but it never bothers me much. They have a short life span and they are like popcorn to any predator. I have no idea why I would have any because of all the snakes we have but I do see them from time to time. They are not like the mice you see in town. These are very clean. They don't live in groups like town mice and do not carry diseases.

Like any one living in the country we have deer, lots of deer. I like having deer but have taken the precautions needed to coexist amicably with them. We see them every day and know the differences in them and know their individual traits. And yes, some have been given names. This is Big Boy. He is not only the biggest but also the tamest. I don't want them to be too tame but it is nice to have some that hang around when we have visitors and not leave. But we must face reality. Our back fence is the Corp of Engineers boundary and they allow bow hunting. So,there is the chance that one may not come back. Big Boy has been with us about three years now and we anxiously await his return from his yearly wanderings in his quest for does. Let's all hope he makes it.I debated on whether to post this next picture or not. I even talked it over with my wife. I decided to post it. This is a picture of Betty. She was the queen of our deer. She had triplets one year and always had at least twins. Most people don't realize that, like humans or dogs or any species, there are good mothers and bad mothers. In deer the bad mothers just can't seem to get their fawns to adulthood. Consequently they cannot build a family group with which to bond with. Therefore, they will always be low on the pecking order and get treated badly by other deer and not get to prime feeding places. Betty was a great mother. She always raised her fawns. Consequently she had a large family group made up of daughters, granddaughters and all their offspring as well. Last summer Betty was killed by a car. They must have been going too fast and it was probably at night because it was in a straight open stretch of road just down from our gate. The saddest part was both of her fawns were killed as well. I can't even imagine how a driver was unable to see three deer in the road at one time. I hope their car was torn all to bupkis and they had a high repair bill so that maybe they learned to slow down a little. It could just have easily been kids and he wouldn't have seen them either.

Out of all the animals we have here, the next one is the only one that gives me any real concern. I put up my game cam to get pictures of the nighttime animals. I got this picture of a coyote. I know a lot about coyotes and that is why it bothers me some. It is really close to my house. I know coyotes have a place in nature. They are the smartest and most cunning animal in the woods. But they are opportunist and will kill and eat anything they can, including cats and dogs.

We hear them howling and yapping in the woods up and down the river behind the house all the time. But I didn't think they would get this close to the house. I look at this as a common criminal snooping around just casing my place for a future crime. Coyotes very seldom get over 45 lbs, with most being much smaller. I walked my Blue Lacy dog in front of the camera the next day to get a size comparison. Bonnie weighs 52 lbs. This is a very big coyote. After this I go outside at night when I let the dogs out to do their business.

That's about it for the animals from last year. I hope ya'll enjoyed seeing the pictures as much as we enjoyed seeing the animals.

Critters and varmints

2009-02-08T21:56:00.031-06:00

I've decided to do a post on all the animals from last year that were nice enough to stay still long enough to get their picture taken. I think seeing lots of animals in and around your house and gardens is a sign that you have done things right. No human can live on this planet without animals dying in their behalf. We can, however, make as little impact as possible and even make our surroundings desirable to all the animal life. Although I did have to fence my gardens in to keep the rabbits and deer out, I still feed them just outside the fence. Both my wife and I enjoy all the animal life we have as much as we do our plant life. And we have plenty of animal life. There are too many pictures to put in one post so I will have to have another one.

This is a large rattle snake that got into the implement shed and would not leave. Sad to say, it had to be dispatched. It was over six feet long and was too big to catch and remove.

This is a Blotched Water snake that took up residence in the big pond. They will eat the fish so it had to go.

This is a western Coachwhip. When I was young they were called buttermilk coachwhips. They are very fast snakes,on the ground and in the trees.
Everyone in central Texas has Rusty Fence lizards. They are on every tree around here I think. This one ran out into the drive way to get a grass hopper. These are some bug eating dudes.

This is a large Red Stripe Ribbon snake. I have these in abundance because I have Leopard frogs in abundance.

We also have plenty of Hog Nosed snakes. I don't like it that they eat my toads but they are fun to have around. After they hood up like a Cobra to scare you, and it doesn't, then they play dead. Unlike possums that faint, these guys actually play dead. They are good at it too. If you roll him over on his belly, he will roll right back over on his back. If you look careful you can see his tongue is out as well, because dead snakes have their tongues out. They are just that good.

We mainly have the Red Striped Ribbon snakes around the ponds, but this year I happened to spy this Texas Garter snake. They have an orange stripe instead of the red and are a bit bulkier as well. They still eat my frogs though.This is a Coral snake. I've had this picture on here before but I added it again because it's so pretty. Although they are poisonous they are really nothing to fear. I coiled this one up to make a better picture. Red and yellow, kill a fellow, red and black, poison lack.

I've had these pictures on here before as well but think that they are interesting. It is a shed skin of a Texas Rat snake. It is a complete skin right down to his lips and eyes.

Although this is not a good picture, I think this is the snake that shed that skin. It's a Texas Rat snake, about six feet long, and grouchy. He will bite. Don't ask me how I know. I also have a really big Bull snake that lives around the house, about seven feet long, and very tame. I've partially picked him up before and he doesn't mind at all. I haven't seen him in a long time and think something might have happened to him. I sure hope not. While working in the garden I felt something crawling on my arm and it was this little Gecko. I don't think they are native to Texas but I have lots of them.Everyone has Anoles and I have a bunch. They really liked being in the corn I noticed. Gooood, eat more bugs.

Over half of the animals around our place, I do not see first. My dog does. Bonnie is a Texas Blue Lacy, state dog of Texas. Really, I mean it. It's official, the state dog of Texas. They are very smart dogs with an unbelievable sense of smell. I let her out one morning and she immediately took a right and went into the woods on one side of the house and started barking. I went to check it out and found a turtle that had dug a hole and was laying her eggs. How she smelled a turtle that was below ground level and around the house I'll never know. I didn't want to disturb it so didn't get close enough to tell what kind it was. It's probably a Creek Slider.

We had a little Red eared turtle show up in one of the ponds one day. He hung around a few days and went on, I guess searching for bigger waters. I caught him out sunning itself for this shot.

The last of this post is the cutest little guy I've seen at our ponds. I've seen several Tree frogs but they are always gone by the time I get my camera. This guy stayed here for hours. They change colors just like the Anoles do, to fit their back ground. I thought I would end this post with some cuteness after all the snakes and such.

Fall Colors

2009-01-16T23:22:00.010-06:00

I'm behind on some of my posts that I wanted to get out. We have been having Internet problems. It just won't stay connected for more than a few minutes. Makes posting a real problem. I was told it was from wind damage to an antenna somewhere in some nether region that our signal must pass. It's been getting better as time goes on so here is the post that was supposed to be in late November.

Here on our little acreage we have three draws that go through the property, with the driveway going across them all. It was an expensive undertaking to make a good road across them but does let us have a little more variety in the plant life, from high and dry to almost riparian. It also lets one have better views across and down the draws of the plant, as well as the animal, life. I wouldn't be as happy with a level piece of property.

The overly dry summer made for some good fall color, even though I didn't think it would. Some of the Spanish Oaks were blood red and others seemed to stay with more of a yellow tint.

You can see the combo here.

Even the forest floor was a lot more colorful with these Spice Bush and Summer Grape leaves strewn about atop the walnut leaves.

There was even a little fall color on the lotus leaves in the ponds. With the sun on it, this leaf just pulled my attention to it over the last of my gardens fall blooms.

Raised Beds

2009-01-10T20:53:00.008-06:00

Katina, at Gardening in Austin, was asking about the construction of my raised beds. I've had several readers and personal friends ask about them so I thought I would show how they were built. First off I must say I am a known frugalist. I don't know that it's a word but it sounds better than tightwad. I will spend several hundred dollars on a new fly rod but some things just must be done on the cheap. Gardening stuff falls into that category.

When I built these beds, some over ten years ago, I went with what I had and what I know. I had wrecked out, 2"x6" redwood porch decking and I know metal. The metal was scraps from the shop. The total cost of these beds for me was just the cost of a box of screws. Now that's being cheap--uhh, I mean frugal.

The heart of these beds is the corner brackets. They are made of 2"x4" angle iron with eight holes in them. The boards are screwed to the short side of the angle first and then the board is placed on the long side. This keeps the screws on both boards away from the end of the board where it would be more likely to split. By doing it this way instead of just nailing the boards to the ends of the other boards, it keeps the pressure of the dirt pushing sideways to the screws instead of always trying to push the screws in an outward direction. You can see what I mean in this picture. Pretend like you don't notice the Henbit I need to pull.

Not even one bed has gotten loose in all these years. I put plastic down in the walkways before I graveled and it keeps a neat and almost weed free area around them.

The only mistake I made, and to me it was a big one, was to make different sizes of beds. Most of my beds are 3' x 8' but four are 4' x 8' and a few are narrower and longer. You need the first two sizes only. With consistent sizes you can have bent hoops that fit any bed so you can easily install shade or frost cloth. The hoops can be slipped into screwed on cable clamps placed on the sides of the beds. And with the beds being wood it is easy to put trellises up from the sides.

I have built these beds for several friends and my Dad as well. They have worked well for all and I can't imagine anyone gardening any other way.

It's a dragon, no, it's a snake...

2009-01-10T20:15:00.006-06:00

I don't know what it's supposed to be but it looks like it should be in south Austin. I saw this out in a pasture on my way to Lampasas. There were no houses or barns anywhere around. I would imagine the dozer track it was made from came off while pushing cedar and was in too bad shape to put back on. Dozer track is very heavy, so instead of hauling it off they made this. What a great idea. It is a real attention getter.

Winter Garden

2008-12-20T22:29:00.013-06:00

Although I love my ornamentals, my vegetables and fruit trees give me a greater feeling of accomplishment when they do well. And I must admit I don't get a feeling of disappointment when they don't do well. A no lose endeavor in the feelings department if you know what I mean. I don't like it when the nine banded dirt digger from hell [armadillo] gets into the raised bed and destroys the whole lot of my fall beet crop too late for replanting. It is just the trials of gardening. After all, the seeds only cost a buck or so. But let him dig up a new golden orange Shrimp plant that I looked high and low for, with months expended in the search, and I will stay up nights to exact my revenge. And the cost was more than a pack of seeds, you can bet on that. I'm getting flushed with anger just thinking about it. But don't worry about the armadillo, I released it down the road in front of a neighbors house that waters his lawn too much. Thaaat's right, I am just that mean.

There are ornamentals that evoke strong feelings in me. Some of my gimme plants mean a lot to me, especially ones from my mother, my sister and close friends. With the vegetables it is different. They are food...good, healthy, better tasting, and cheaper food. You feel that you have accomplished something grand to actually produce some of your own food. I think if all gardeners would have some food plants in their gardens it would make for feelings of that accomplishment in them as well. And cropping through the garden with a little bowl of Ranch dressing ain't bad either.

Remember the aerial picture of the winter garden plants in the raised beds that I took off my roof? Here's what it looks like now. No, I didn't climb back on the roof.

The broccoli is doing good with a few large heads already. I noticed my wife salivating a little while looking at it. A little bit of gardeners anxiety that I talk about a lot.

The Cauliflower is doing equally as well but is not quite as far along, with the little heads only slightly bigger than a golf ball. You will notice the leaves curled over the heads. This is called a self-blanching variety, keeping the sunlight off the heads, thereby keeping them white and not yellowing and wanting to bolt. I jouust losve callifouor. Oh, sorry. Now I'm salivating all over the keyboard. Thinking how good, firm and crisp those heads are getting, I can barely type on these wet keys. Did I mention that I just love cauliflower.

The Romaine lettuce has been getting eaten for weeks now but there are still several heads left.

The head lettuce is starting to have heads now. They never head out and are ready to pick in the time they are supposed to for me. At least they are not too prone to bolt.

The Buttercrunch, however, is another story. I don't know why I still buy it as it always bolts.

Lastly is the Red Cabbage. I've always had better luck with the greens but all I could find this year was the red. The reds seem to grow slower and are more prone to bolt. I can see little heads forming so maybe I'll be cutting cabbage heads before spring.

The last of the garden color[I think]

2008-12-08T21:38:00.021-06:00

It got down to twenty four degrees night before last. I expected to see a bunch of plants that had died back to the ground, expired for the winter. I guess the cold didn't last for very long as nothing was damaged to any great extent.

I don't keep any extensive records on my gardening, so I can't be for sure, but it seems like there are more blooms at this time of winter/fall than in previous years. Not complaining mind you. However, some of the plants are still covered in blooms. Surely this will be the last as this weekend is supposed to get cold and stay cold for several days. So, here's one last show of color.

The Copper Canyon Daisy still has a lot of blooms on it and of course still smells great when you brush up against it.

This Mexican Bush Sage is still just stunning. When people ask me about plant choices I always say, all the Mexicans thrive in Texas.

The Plumbago has clusters of blooms but not as many as earlier. I love having it because of its true blue color and there are not many true blue color choices for the garden. It is my choice for blue.

All the roses have had a few blooms...even as of today. Visitors comment on how good I am with roses but my blogging buddies will know from my pictures that I just grow the easy-to-grow varieties. It does make me look wise to the uninformed though.

This is Red Cascade. It's still small but I really like its creeping habits. The blooms are only about the size of a quarter but sometimes it really loads up.

This is a small pink rose that someone gave me. They told me the name but because of my pathetic record keeping I no longer know it. It has done well, seems very hardy, and has a habit of putting on a lot of blooms down in the plant where you can hardly see them. Those hidden blooms get cut and taken to Fran at the feed store. Maybe someone out in the blog-o-sphere will know what it is.

The Mutabilis says "what cold."

Everyone should have a Knock Out rose and every one just might as it is the most popular rose sold today. And it should be. No rose tries harder to thrive or is easier to grow. I know where there are two growing at a storage place and they never get watered, or pruned, have been run over with vehicles and still bloomed on and off all this hot dry summer. Damn, I think I've talked myself into buying another.

This next rose is my favorite. As my niece used to say "It's the bestest." If only one bloom opens then the other aromatics in that end of the garden will be completely overwhelmed with the rose aroma of it. Hands down the strongest aroma of any rose I've ever smelled. It's the Don Juan. I've always called him Lover Boy. I know, it is completely goofy for a grown man to name a plant but I swear it's the only one. No, really, I mean it, it's the only one. It is usually darker than this but right now the red is really about like the picture. Maybe because of the cold. This is the only cluster of blooms on it but I was thankful for them. I just love that smell.

The only rose that hasn't bloomed in quite a while is the Mermaid and it actually looks almost dead. It's my least favorite but it is a beauty in a flat rose kind of way.

While poking around through the bushier parts of the garden I came onto several Oxalis, both green and maroon. The green seems to like this cooler weather as it has been blooming ever since the heat subsided. The maroon looks as if it's about to start blooming.

I don't know where the butterflies go when the temps drop at night but I sure know where they go when the day warms back up. They go to the Greg's Mist flower or the Indigo Spires Salvia. I believe it's a tough choice so it's good I have them planted close together. Good too, that they are still blooming.

The Indigo Spires has bloomed all summer, off and on, and still looks pretty good.

Indigo Spires

Greg's Mist Flower with butterflies

That's going to be about it for the garden color this year as I think it's all about to end soon with the weather getting colder fast. But if I find any more lurking in the hidden places that all gardens have I will post them up.

Some of the last of fall color

2008-11-17T22:20:00.014-06:00

We got a freeze last night, 26 degrees. There wasn't enough moisture to have a frost though. I was amazed at how little things were effected. Not much damage at all. I think we may be at the end of the fall color. I already posted some color in the garden last week. Here's some more I didn't get to.

Big Mama Turks Cap

Fall Shrimp plant

Green Shrimp Plant

Giant petunias with a volunteer cosmos in the foreground. These petunias usually get over head-high but only managed about four feet this year.

The trailing Rosemary finally bloomed. I was getting a little gardener's anxiety about it. Thought it wasn't going to bloom at all this year.

I had forgotten about my Strawberry Gomphrena until it bloomed.

The Stonecrop finally bloomed in the big limestone planter. I got this planter from a nursery that had it for years and it hadn't sold. They told me if I could carry it out to my truck I could have it. I don't know how much it weighs, but it's a bunch. I wanted it bad and, well, it's mine now.

The Tropical Sage and the Duranta make a wonderful color combo when looking out the yucca gate.

Well, the Flame Acanthus had to flame on just one more time. You can see the two different varieties in the picture. The true native is in the background.

Stay tuned, there is more fall color to come in a few days.