Hello Dolly

I'm sitting in my office watching Ron watering the vegetable garden wondering if we are going to get any rain from Dolly up here in Austin. I was hoping for an inch or so at least, but the local forecast at noon wasn't very reassuring at all. Oh well....I guess that's why Ron is out there watering. We have been installing drip irrigation systems in all of the vegetable and courtyard beds, and we have laid soaker hoses in the in-ground planting areas. I have also been applying an inch of compost and a couple of inches of native Texas mulch to all of the beds. These are the best insurance against the relentless heat and dry conditions that have become the norm around here this summer.

Laying Rock in the Courtyard

Work on laying out rock in the courtyard has been going slowly. It’s just too darn hot to move rocks for more than an hour or so at a time. It was 102 today! Brutal. But in the afternoon, rain developed north of us and the outflow cooled it down to 90 so we worked [...]

First Passion Vine Flower

I have never grown passion vine before, so this is my very first passion vine flower. I like the scarlet color of this variety, Passiflora Coccinea. It works well with the red knock out rose hedge that lines the fence that the passion vines are growing on. I also like the large dark green foliage [...]

Nightshades, Ferns, Bamboos and Ponytail Palms

The front yard beds are full of volunteer nightshades that are now blooming profusely. I don’t know how many of these I have pulled, but they keep on sprouting, so I sort of gave up trying to remove all of them for the time being. I am keeping them from smothering and crowding the plants [...]

Rain and Moonflowers

At long last we got measurable rain last night. We are still in an extreme drought condition, and it looks like that will not change any time soon, but the half an inch of rain that we got yesterday was extremely welcome. The moonflowers were opening this evening just before sundown, and I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of the huge snow white blooms. I love the contrast of the white against the dark green foliage.

Featured Post

Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Although the wind was blowing steadily at about 25 mph when I was shooting these pictures, I couldn't resist trying to get some photos of this beautiful Western Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. I had been bemoaning the fact that we haven't had many butterflies in the garden yet this year, and then this guy showed up this morning.

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