Love Creek Apple Orchard

It's Fall in South Texas so it's time to head out to the Apple orchard.

Visiting a plant collector's garden

San Antonio is full of surprising gardens and gardeners and I had a chance to visit one recently.  One significant contributor who helped make the Mitchell Lake Audubon Center gardens I posted yesterday such a beautiful place to visit was local plant collector Al Del Rio.   I had the opportunity to visit Al's garden one evening last week.  What a surprising visit it was!

Let's get started in the back yard where Al has recently removed most of the lawn and added areas for cactus, agave, aloes, and other succulents.

Mitchell Lake Audubon Center Fall Festival

Last Saturday I joined friends at the beautiful Mitchell Lake Audubon Center just southeast of downtown San Antonio for their annual Fall Festival.  The local Audubon Texas group has restored this beautiful 1910 home as a center.  The home was moved to the site from the McNay Art Museum east of downtown.

Support Your Independent Nursery Month: The Natural Gardener

During the month of October I'm joining Pam at Digging for Support Your Independent Nursery Month.  Independent nurseries are especially valuable local resources for plants that grow best in our climates.  This week I'm featuring The Natural Gardener in Austin.

Another Austin nursery?  When I visited The Natural Gardener back in February I knew I would enjoy returning to see how it looked later in the year.  I got my chance when gardening friends invited me along on a plant shopping trip to Austin.  In a previous post I wrote about our visit to Barton Springs Nursery and this time it's our stop at The Natural Gardener the same day.  Since I covered much of the nursery grounds back in February I'll focus on some of the areas I missed and those that look best this time of year.

Of course I always take time to visit the spiky plants and The Natural Gardener has plenty of them.

Plant ABCs: T is for Tecoma Stans

Plant ABCs is an ongoing series where I highlight a plant from my garden for each letter of the alphabet.  I'm currently going through the entire alphabet A - Z, then will continue updating and adding plants to the list over time.  My previous posts in this series are on the "Plant ABCs" tab under the header.  Today's letter is "T" and Tecoma stans is the choice.  It's also Texas Native Plant Week so featuring Texas native Tecoma stans or Esperanza fits right in with this week's theme.

Wildflower Wednesday October 2013: Texas Native Plant Week

Since last spring I've joined Gail of Clay and Limestone for Wildflower Wednesday to celebrate wildflowers in the garden on the fourth Wednesday of each month.  It's also Texas Native Plant Week so I'm celebrating both with a tour of native plants currently blooming in my garden.  Collecting and growing native plants in my garden has become a bit of a quest for me since they do best in our challenging climate.  October is when many plants look their best here after having recovered from the long hot summer and with several fall rains to help them along.

Helenium amarum reseeded in this location from last year and should continue to grow along the gravel path in the circle garden.

Medina Garden Nursery for Texas Native Plant Week

During the month of October I'm joining Pam at Digging for Support Your Independent Nursery Month. Independent nurseries are the best resource for plants which work well in our climate.  It's also Texas Native Plant Week and I'm featuring my favorite native plant nursery.  I recently re-visited Medina Garden Nursery just over an hour west of San Antonio with a group of gardening friends.  Besides being a beautiful drive, it's well worth the trip just to spend time with native and butterfly plant expert Ernesto Carino.  Ismael Espinoza, who usually works with him, was at his other job on this day so we missed him.  We spent over two hours touring the nursery and gardens surrounding Ernesto's home.

As I wrote in my previous post on Medina Garden Nursery, it's all about the plants.  Texas natives and plants adapted to our tough Texas climate--they know what grows best where we live.  They collect cuttings in the wild and trade with native plant enthusiasts from all over.  Ernesto says he often receives seeds or cutting in the mail from those who just want to preserve native plants for future generations.