After derecho devastation, a garden blazes beautifully
November 08, 2024 The derecho in Houston last May snapped in half a tall tree that shaded my sister’s tiny Heights backyard. Miraculously, while it caused some damage, the broken tree didn’t take out the house, swimming pool, or patio seating on the way down. And now there’s a bonus ...
Door greeters
July 31, 2023 During Austin’s infernal summer at least the porch plants are looking good. Coppertone sedum spilling out of a Pot Inc. hanging planter even matches the door color — Benjamin Moore “Wasabi”, if you’re curious. Most of these were grown from cuttings, like the Coppertone sedum, blue chalksticks, ...
Surviving the record-breaking heat
July 20, 2023 Heat waves are everywhere all at once right now, and Austin too is broiling in the hottest July on record, according to KXAN. That’s saying something because last summer was incredibly hot. I felt sure, after enduring Snowpocalypse, last summer’s oven-like temps, and then February’s Arbormageddon ice ...
Arbormageddon ice storm smites Austin’s trees
February 08, 2023 Icicles are picturesque on a whale’s tongue agave Most people’s gardens get shadier over time. Mine is growing sunnier. Extreme weather events over the past 15 years — droughts, hotter summers, and Snowpocalypse — have stressed and thinned the tree canopy in my garden. A week ago, ...
My succulents, vines, and groundcovers: Alive, dead or in-between? Evaluating plants 2 months after Texas freeze
May 01, 2021 Foxtail ferns regrowing quickly from the roots Today I’m taking a look at all the remaining plants in my garden: my small succulents and cacti, vines, and groundcovers, as well as bulbs and rhizomes and a few annuals. I grow some of my small succulents in pots, ...
Pittosporums and palms zapped by February freeze at Zilker Botanical Garden
April 26, 2021 The damage and plant kills at Zilker Botanical Garden stunned me when I visited a week and a half ago. No garden in Austin was spared during February’s Big Freeze, and of course our public gardens weren’t either. But I still wasn’t prepared to see the ancient, ...
My grasses, sedges, and bamboos: Alive, dead or in-between? Evaluating plants 2 months after Texas freeze
April 25, 2021 Carex leavenworthii breezed through the deep freeze Today I’m taking a look at my grassy plants — my ornamental grasses, sedges, and bamboos. While I have no lawn at all, I grow a lot of clumping, shade-tolerant grasses as groundcovers, screening plants, and accent plants. Deer ignore ...
My agaves and other woody lilies: Alive, dead or in-between? Evaluating plants 2 months after Texas freeze
April 19, 2021 Freeze-damaged squid agave Today I’m taking a look at my woody lilies and bromeliads — plants like agave, yucca, nolina, sotol, hesperaloe, mangave, and dyckia. Some of these plants took a severe hit while others sailed through the freeze. I use them mainly as focal points or ...
My perennials: Alive, dead or in-between? Evaluating plants 2 months after Texas freeze
April 15, 2021 Growing coreopsis foliage. I don’t know about the beetle but hope it’s not a pest. Today I’m taking a look at my perennials, the second largest plant group in my garden, and one that happily suffered little lasting damage from the freeze! But first, the backstory. Texas ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
