Enjoying the end of spring in Austin
Any day now it’ll be summer in Texas, hot and sticky. But this week we’ve enjoyed several cool mornings — in the 50s! — and warm, non-humid afternoons. If I could bottle this up for summer I would.
May is a beautiful month in Austin, no doubt. I miss the Wildflower Center-sponsored garden tour, which for 10 years was held on Mother’s Day weekend. I always looked forward to it and attended with gardening friends. The tour has been kaput, however, for the past two years. I wish another group would sponsor a spring garden tour.
Phlebbbb! The batface cuphea (Cuphea llavea) are blowing raspberries.
Thanks to our very mild winter and pleasant spring — not to mention the blessed end of leaf- and pollen-drop season under the live oaks — the cinderblock succulent wall is looking pretty good. I did fluff up a few of the holes recently with cuttings from some overgrown succulents. (If you want to know how I planted this, please click the link above and read the how-to post. I always field this question multiple times when I show a picture of the wall. Please, read the link.)
Speaking of overgrown, Moby, my whale’s tongue agave (A. ovatifolia), is still perfecting his candelabra-like bloom stalk. Where it’ll stop, nobody knows.
Cosmo only knows it’s time to play. Fellow gardeners, here’s to playtime in the garden for us too!
I welcome your comments. If you’re reading this in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment link at the end of each post.
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Digging Deeper: News and Upcoming Events
Come see me at Festival of Flowers in San Antonio, May 28, 10:30-11:30 am. Get inspired to save water in your garden during my presentation at San Antonio’s 19th annual Festival of Flowers. I’ll be at the book-signing table after the talk, with copies of both The Water-Saving Garden and Lawn Gone! available for purchase. Tickets to the all-day festival, which includes a plant sale and exchange, speakers, and a flower show, are available at the door: $6 adults; children under 10 free. Free parking.
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It’s been in the 40s, the last couple of mornings here. Not ideal for the tomatoes, but nice anyway. Warming up a little fast, though.
I just about had the leaf fall cleaned up, then last Saturday’s storm hit. So, doing it over again. So much fun.
Hope you have a happy Mother’s Day.
Wow, 40s is pretty chilly, Linda. I’d sure take it, but I know a lot of people, my husband included, who would find that too cold. Including your tomatoes, right? Good luck with the storm clean up, and happy Mother’s Day to you too! —Pam
Because our summers are so much milder here in Ohio, I’m doing the opposite, and wishing for it to start! Spring has been cool and damp, and I can barely even get out to the garden to work. Weeds are running rampant! I’ll be wishing for rain later on, but for now, I wish it would lay off. I’m cold! *whine* ha ha!
Feel free to whine a little, Robin. 🙂 I’ll no doubt be whining about the heat soon enough. Hope you get some nice gardening weather soon! —Pam
This weather has been wonderful and I don’t want it to end either. It will end and we’ll have to count the days until fall.
I like the message to email readers at the end and should add something similar to my blog. Several email readers I’ve met mention an issue with reading my blog or seeing the photos and are surprised to learn they’re not actually visiting my blog if they stay in email and don’t click the link.
It took me a little while to realize just how many people are reading my blog via email rather than clicking through to my actual website. It’s convenient, and I definitely encourage people to subscribe so they don’t miss my posts. But it can lead to less engagement via comments. So yes, that’s why I added that message at the end of each post. —Pam
Cosmo knows how to enjoy the garden. Full out…
Loving this spring weather too. It is very cool here with the wind chill. It as been a few years that it has been so cool at this time. I will enjoy it while it lasts. Soon it will be time to complain about the heat and drought. 😉
There’s always something, right? Hah! —Pam
Pam,
Thought of you yesterday while with my granddaughter at the orthodontist. In a corner of the sunny office was a carefully preserved and placed agave bloom stalk. It was anchored with a metal stand (think along the lines of a Christmas tree stand).
An avid reader and admirer hailing from Azl, TX Thanks for all your gardening goodness!!
How fun that they preserved it, Susan. Thanks for thinking of me! —Pam
Boy howdy, this last week has been a treat and then some. I like to think of it as one Mother (Nature) saluting all the rest of the Mothers out there, gardeners or not.
Moby’s bloom stalk is impressive but I’m sad to consider it sounds a death knell. There is a large agave (americana I think) on a corner I drive by routinely that is dancing to that same tune. I’m glad we humans aren’t expected to put on some big last minute display like that as precursor to our end of days!
It’s definitely the season for agaves blooms. I’m seeing quite a few around town too. I kind of like the big blow-out at the end, as opposed to a quiet withering away. But I don’t know that I’d have the energy for it myself. 😉 —Pam
We’re starting to have reason to dread the long, hot summer as well. All the more reason to bask in the loveliness of spring. I had some of those little bat faces in a planter last summer. They made me smile every time I looked at them.
Even though they’re not reliably winter hardy here, I always think of them as a mascot plant for bat-loving Austin. —Pam
Your garden is looking lovely under Moby’s steady gaze, Pam. The signs of summer are here too. The Jacarandas are blooming already and more Agapanthus buds appear every day – a couple are just about ready to bloom in my back garden. However, there are rain clouds on the horizon and a 60% chance of light rain tonight so perhaps spring hasn’t quite deserted us yet.
I envy you the jacarandas, Kris. Here’s hoping for more rain in California too! —Pam
Beautiful! Late spring is a wonderful season… Your succulent wall is still gorgeous. Every time you show it, I think about building my own…
It’s easy and fun, Renee. —Pam
I followed your lead with a prompt to click thru for the added layer of conversation.
I catch up on a backlog of blog posts by reading them in Feedly. I also have Bloglovin subscribers. Anyone using a reader, will miss comments, sidebar whatever, and our carefully constructed blog ‘look’. In a reader we are ALL disconcertingly vanilla.
Diana, yes, when you think about how your blog looks without the design and colors you carefully selected, as well as the extra enticements from the sidebar, it makes you think very hard about how to convey more information in each blog post. —Pam
Nights around 50 and days from 65 – 80? That’s what we call summer here in the Puget Sound. Looks like Moby will be going out in as grand a way as he’s done everything else in his life.
That’s why we love this weather so much while we have it, Peter. Our summer is, shall we say, much more summerier than this. —Pam