Replanting a front bed
Looking west from my front porch two nights ago, I noticed a beautiful sunset behind a filigree of bare trees.
Yesterday I enjoyed perfect gardening weather—about 65 degrees, sunny, no wind. I dug in the front garden all day, tearing out a perfectly good sapling redbud and a few other plants. I realized last year that the redbud was going to get too big for its location near the house. I would have been continually pruning it away from the house, and eventually it would have shaded out the small, sunny front beds. No, no, no. I want to keep my sun-loving perennials and agaves, thank you very much.
I can’t blame previous owners for this gardening goof. It was all mine.
So I dug it out, covered its butchered roots in wet newspaper, and gave it to a friend who is nearly always willing to give a homeless native plant a try.
Rejected Texas redbud
I also pulled out a large, raggedy bicolor iris, several orange lantanas, and a salvia leucantha. All great plants, but common as dirt around here, and I want something new and exciting (for me, at least) by the front door. I’ll be mixing in a load of compost and decomposed granite in the bed this morning, to loosen the black clay, and then I’m off to a few nurseries to contemplate my options. I’ll post pics of the changes when I’m done.
The flame and amethyst colors in the sky look wonderful – you caught them at just the right time. Pam, don’t you have another redbud in back? Because you’ll still want those little flowers popping out along the branches. Good luck to your friend the tree rescuer.
And it will be fun to see your new cool and unusual plants… well, they’ll be unusual until they’re in your photos and become the latest gardening craze in Austin!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Good memory! Yep, I have another one in the back that’s a bit bigger, so I don’t have to give up those pretty, fuchsia flowers.
I’ve actually made this mistake in my garden several times. When I first planted it, I wanted one of all my favorite trees, more than one of some of them. I added more ornamentals to my own garden than I’d ever have done for a client, all because I loved each one and just had to have it. Then, of course, they grew, and I could see that I’d overplanted for my small space. The list of small trees I had to edit out : two Texas persimmons, flowery senna, desert willow, possumhaw holly, a Texas mountain laurel. Sigh. Expensive mistakes—what I did for love, so to speak. Once I corrected the mistakes, I found I had room for several yaupon hollies, a flameleaf sumac, a smoke tree, a redbud, a Texas mountain laurel, a Mexican plum, a vitex, and a kidneywood.
Still, there’s always more I wish I had room for. If only I had a few acres, I could indulge in Arizona cypress, desert willow, Mexican buckeye, red buckeye, Mexican orchid, goldenball leadtree, evergreen sumac . . . Sigh, my wish list. —Pam
I thought you’d mentioned another redbud, so I searched the archives, and hoped the one in back hadn’t been booted out! We had Desert Willow and Texas persimmon at the last house, so I have seen them grow. There are some trees on my wish list, too, but the Pecans take up half the back, and the Arizona ashes are currently [but not forever!!] in command of the front. Gardeners like us with not-so-large lots always seem to want one of everything, while non-gardeners end up with the large lots containing few tree species or lots of lawn.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose