End of Month View: Spring Garden Tour 2018

Those yucca blooms keep drawing me outside, even though I'm trying to blog more (by request).  But whenever I sit at my computer I see this view!

Silvery Yucca rupicola is blooming for the first time having been planted as a small pup about four years ago.  Sometimes yuccas go on the wane after blooming, fortunately it has produced a number of pups to keep going should the originals die out.

Gorgeous!

Since I'm already out here let's take a tour of the spring garden which I'm linking to End of Month View hosted by Helen at The Patient Gardener.  Helen and several other UK bloggers are making the trip to Austin for the annual Garden Blogger's Fling.  I look forward to meeting so many bloggers I know mainly from photos of their gardens.

It's been a good spring with cool to average temperatures featuring more than a few cloudy days.  Clouds are good because we will have endless sunny days all summer.  For now we can use the extended opportunity to get seedlings and transplants off to a good start without a pounding from hot sun.

Just enough sun breaking through momentarily to show off Mexican Feathergrass inflorescences with pink Salvia greggii.  This is the view we see most often when returning home and I love the way everything has worked out.  I'm pretty much done and any tweaks will be minor from now on.

More than one yucca bloom is on the way!  Yucca rostrata by the garage is happy enough to bloom during its first spring in the ground.

Straight on front view showing lots of green and silver.  Later in the year yellow and gold flowers fill in as the green of spring fades.

Experts advise against pruning up the Cycad.  But they don't have to get to the mailbox through all those prickles.  So prune we did.

Entering from the north end of the drive.  A little deer proofing to protect Agave cornelius planted to replace Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard' which bloomed and died out.  The garden needs a spot of yellow and green color here and the agave fits the bill.

Pale yellow blooms on purple pads of Opuntia Santa-rita  creates a perfect complementary scheme.



The island bed in silver awaiting more gold flowers later in the summer.

Callistemon 'Little John' nearly froze to death in a rare snow fall last December.  I'm happy to see it has recovered well enough to bloom.

Down through the courtyard garden collection of vintage white clay pots which coordinate much better with Ilex vomitoria 'Grmicr" or "Micron Holly" instead of a random collection of plants.

Wildflowers have changed over from Bluebonnets to oranges and yellows of Greenthread, Firewheel, and Mexican Hats.

I've tidied up the "Flower Bed" and added Salvia guaranitica 'Amistad' in a pot to better watch hummingbirds from the porch.

The view from the porch where I spend a lot of evenings watching darkness cover the garden.

The beginnings of a wildflower meadow on a scruffy slope below the deck.  First task is to get native grasses going but Larkspur has other ideas.

And my tours always end with a peek over the south side fence where it seems that as soon as I clear out potted plants from under the trees, more take their place.

Now there you have it; a dual purpose spring tour of my gardens to both link up with The Patient Gardener and a place to point if someone at the Garden Blogger's Fling should ask how my garden is doing.  It is doing very well, and thank you for asking.

A Soggy End of Month View: February 2015

It's been cold and wet for much of the last week and I needed a reason to get out in the garden so an End of Month View tour was just the ticket.

Brrrr, it was just a few degrees above freezing!  That's a very cold afternoon temperature even for February.  Just outside the front door....do I want to go out in this?

Venturing a little farther along the walk.  The Gopher Plant I copied from Pam at Digging is blooming and repeating the yellow of the Color Guard Yuccas in the background.

Love this plant and plan to add more this spring.

The watering can is not needed today!  I'm training ivy around the lantern from Yeya's Antiques and Oddities.  Salvia Indigo Spires in the foreground has bloomed throughout the winter months.

Pinecone finial from a thrift shop nestles in the iris bed..

Agave ovatifolia always shines during cloudy weather.

Color Guard Yuccas also seem to brighten up on gloomy days.

Golden Barrel cacti bring that same yellow-green combination across the drive

One of the neighborhood cats wonders what is going on, and if there is any food in it for him.

Variegated Elaeagnus (back right) completing the yellow and green circuit that works so well with silvery plants.  The Bismarck Palm is closed up ready to be wrapped if the temperatures go too low.

Through the gate the deer fence across the back is progressing.  Wildflowers are the only green in the dormant buffalo grass lawn at the moment.

The tank from my latest visit to Yeya's is getting settled.  It needs to be leveled and filled but there's no work in the garden today.

It's been set on an axis with the tank in the circle garden, which is a fancy way of saying they are lined up.

Blooming Gregg's Dalea is taking over one wedge of the circle.

Cinnamon Bunny Opuntia hunkers down in its strawberry pot for now.  I need to lift it and fill the top of the pot this spring.

The lemons on the Meyer Lemon might be frozen concentrate soon.  We brought this and several other plants out of the garage when it warmed up last week.

Mexican Flame Vine is blooming bright by the kitchen window.

A last look over the back gate at those arching oaks.  The Brugmansia did not freeze back this year so they should really put out the blooms this year.

That's the tour for this cold ending to February.  But overall it's been a good winter for allowing plants to continue growing since there were no deep freezes here this year.  We should see temps back in our average 60 - 70F range soon.

More End of Month Views from garden bloggers can be found at The Patient Gardener's Weblog.

End of Month View: August 2014

August is a quiet time in the garden here in San Antonio.  The blooms of July have faded and the perennials have been trimmed back to await the cooler weather of autumn.  It's time for a walk through the garden and I'm joining Helen at The Patient Gardener's Weblog for a tour.  We have had a good summer with fewer triple-digit highs than typical and more clouds.  Although rain is predicted regularly we haven't had more than a few light showers this month.  But generally, things look pretty good for August in South Texas.

End of Month View July 2014

A big surprise during this summer of 2014 has been the weather.  In my End of Month View for June I wrote about our relatively cooler temperatures along with rain, and that weather pattern continued into July allowing plenty of time to finish up a few projects.  It's time for a walk through the gardens to see how things are going, so in this post I'm joining Helen at The Patient Gardener for the End of Month View to look at the progress.

Most days still begin with a cloudy sky that burns off through the morning as the sun casts shadows on the east facing front of the house.

End of Month View June 2014

June has been great for growing here in San Antonio, with cloudy days, relatively cool temperatures, and almost daily predictions of rain that ensure new plants and transplants have a fighting chance.  That's unusual for here, and has allowed continued planting and transplanting later than normal.  It's been good to have plenty of rain for a change after almost none all winter.  In this post I'm joining Helen at The Patient Gardener for the End of Month View of my garden for June 2014 to look at the progress.

Summer begins in the front garden with most of the blooms taking a rest while the silvery agaves and yuccas take center stage.  The Bismarck Palm which took a big hit this past winter is recovering and producing new fronds again.

End of Month View: May 2014

I enjoy taking stock to see how much the garden has grown and the changes that have been made in the garden each month so I'm joining Helen at The Patient Gardener's Weblog in sharing views of the garden for May.

I usually begin with a view of the front garden where things don't seem to change much so we'll just skip to the driveway side where the yucca blooms have turned to skeleton forms.  I like the effect at least for a few more days.  The Texas Sage along the drive are just about to burst into bloom due to the recent rains.

End of Month View April 2014

I look forward to looking back.  What?  I mean looking back at changes in the garden over the past month which why I'm joining Helen at The Patient Gardener for the End of Month View for April.

We haven't had much rain yet this year but spring has brought a nice green-up and most plants have recovered from the exceptionally cold winter by now.

March 2014 End of Month View

Sometimes we gardeners are so focused on what remains to be done that we forget how much progress has been made.  This is why I enjoy looking at the changes through past photos, and just one of the reasons I'm joining  The Patient Gardener for the End of Month View for March.

March is one of the best months for gardening in our climate and we are typically in a big push to get large projects finished.  Plants put in the garden now get a chance to grow in and gain strength before the heat of summer sets in.  This year March has been cooler than usual, but the weather has been great for gardening except on a few days when high winds kept us indoors.

The Salvia greggii blooming along the street are an especially welcomed sight after our cold winter.  These tough native plants are evergreen and resume blooming as soon as the weather warms a bit.  By design the front view does not change much through the seasons, providing an enjoyable view throughout the year.

End of Month View February 2014

Let's face it.  January and February were a gardening disaster this year.  So where are we now?  I'm joining Helen at The Patient Gardener for End of Month View.

February is typically a time of big changes in the garden when we South Texans try to beat the heat with big projects and plant moves.  But February started off gray, cloudy and cold.  Here is the view of the front yard in early February.