My shrubs and woody perennials: Alive, dead or in-between? Evaluating plants 2 months after Texas freeze
April 14, 2021 ‘Winter Gem’ boxwoods shrugged off the freeze with no damage, as did ‘Micron’ yaupon hollies (center circle) Texas gardeners are feverishly comparing notes about plant survivors and croakers after February’s Big Freeze. I’m doing the same and documenting how every plant in my garden fared. Please see ...
My trees: Alive, dead or in-between? Evaluating plants 2 months after Texas freeze
April 12, 2021 Getting closer to a state of acceptance It’s been two months since the Big Freeze of mid-February, and my garden, which thankfully has many thrivers, is still revealing struggling survivors and dead-as-doornails. During those two months, temperatures have ranged from a low of 5 F to an ...
Plant This for purple power: Spiderwort
April 08, 2021 Every year native spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis) seeds itself into rocky nooks and crannies and pops up in new places in the garden. I usually like where it shows up, like this spot at the top of a stone stair. Bees love the flowers too, so having lots ...
Ghost plant in bloom is boo-tiful
April 01, 2021 A few years ago I hung from a tree a dish planter with a few sprigs of ghost plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense) tucked around a variegated squid agave — each one a cutting or pup from existing plants in my garden. A bunch of leftovers. And now it’s ...
Signs of life
March 24, 2021 I planted 5 small bluebonnets before the Big Freeze. The deer took two as tribute, leaving me with three, and they came through the deep freeze just fine. Now they’re blooming, a hopeful sign of spring! Keeping it real, though, this is how the past couple of ...
Early spring blooms and Athena the owl at Wildflower Center
March 20, 2021 When they’re offered, I take advantage of late-admission hours to gardens. The light is better for photography in the early evening, and you have a better chance of seeing wildlife. On Thursday our local native-plant botanical garden, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, stayed open late, and ...
Still cleaning up after the freeze but making progress
March 16, 2021 In the 3 weeks since the Big Freeze, there’s been much gnashing of teeth and grim side-eye given to the cold-toasted garden. There’s been escape. But mostly there’s been a slow acceptance of the changed garden and daily efforts at cutting it all back, removing plants that ...
After the beautiful, terrible Texas snowpocalypse
February 25, 2021 A 6-inch snowfall blanketed our street in northwest Austin. Not a footprint had marked it when I took photos that morning. You might have heard about a little snowstorm that happened in Texas last week. If you experienced it, you might still be reeling a little — ...
An icy garden on my 15th blogiversary
February 14, 2021 I started this blog 15 years ago today, a Valentine’s Day treat to myself as I joined the online gardening community. At first Digging was all about documenting and sharing photos of my Austin cottage garden, which I left behind 13 years ago when we moved to ...
Twilight in the garden as wicked cold arrives
February 11, 2021 As I look out the window, it’s hard to believe this beautiful, warm twilight by the pool was just two evenings ago. Today a cold rain is freezing to tree limbs and encasing ready-for-spring plants in heavy ice. Shrubs are bent low. Bamboo is nearly prostrate. As ...
Green texture in my live oak-shaded garden
January 31, 2021 At the end of a dog walk a few days ago, I ran my eyes along the streetside edge of my island bed, automatically checking for fallen branches, weeds, armadillo holes — as one does. Suddenly my perspective shifted, and I saw the plantings anew, as if ...
Snow day in Austin, Texas!
January 12, 2021 The biggest snowfall in a decade turned Austin into a floofy white wonderland on Sunday, January 10. All day long, fat snowflakes floated down from the sky, as if the clouds were having a pillow fight. Sure, this may not look like much to you northerners, but ...
