More Progress on the Driveway Project

It was a beautiful weekend here in San Antonio so we took the opportunity to work on the driveway project.  You can read about the beginning of the project here.

We added a row of Mexican Feather Grass (Nasella tenuissima) along the driveway and Gulf Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris)  near the front.

Yes, that sure is a lot of concrete and these plants should help soften it.

In addition to the low maintenance requirement, we have chosen plants that can be easily and inexpensively replaced should they be lost in the inevitable encounters with skateboards, soccer balls, or car tires.

The next step is to remove the grass over to the neighbor's driveway near the street and plant more grasses.

Sometimes it helps to look back at the before photos.

Okay, that does look so much better already and it should improve quickly from here.

Garden Visitors - American Redstart

Last spring a flash of orange and unfamiliar song in the trees sent me along the creek in pursuit.  Was it a Baltimore Oriole?  Maybe, but the white underside didn't quite match up to the photos I found.

It took a while, but I found that this was an American Redstart migrating through and confirmed it on a birdwatching forum.

We're busy transplanting and dividing this weekend.  Since it's a bit slow in the garden these days, I've been going through the archives and plan on posting more photos taken before I started blogging.

Propagation Class - The Next Step

Some of the plants from the propagation class had developed very long roots and were ready to move on to the next grade level.

I was concerned the roots would dry out so yesterday I moved 28 of them to 4" pots and the rest will continue growing in the original cell tray for a few more weeks.

All of them will be brought indoors at night until it is consistently warmer.

It's a pain to carry stuff in and out so we have a plan for a screen house to winter over plants in the future.  It should be finished this summer, right after we finish updating the bathrooms and kitchen!

You can read about my trip to pick up the rooted cuttings here.

Taking the Two-Lane: Cow's Tongue Cactus

Yesterday I headed up to Hill Country Gardens in New Braunfels to retrieve my cuttings from the propagation class I attended in November.  I took the back way along a series of two-lane roads which is much more interesting than I-35.

A recent post on Cow's Tongue Prickly Pear at Las Adventuras had piqued my interest and I wanted to stop along the way to take photos of some I had previously seen in a pasture.

Got Cactus?

This front yard (yes, FRONT yard) belongs to "Jean the cactus man" in San Antonio.  You may notice that he has a wee bit of a passion for succulents. 
 

Squirrel Appreciation Day - January 21, 2012

Yesterday was Squirrel Appreciation Day!  When I read about it on Facebook a few minutes ago, I knew just what to do.  Better late than never.  It's the perfect time for a sequel to the first jumping Squirrel slideshow!  The (bleep) Picasa wouldn't create a slideshow today so kindly click here.

Deary, Deery, Deer!

It's a good thing they're kinda cute because gardening with deer around can be a challenge.  Most of the time I'm okay with it and select plants accordingly.

On Sunday I took this photo of a red shrimp plant for my Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post.

A few hours later I walked through the same spot and noticed all but one of those same blooms missing.

I knew right away what had happened.  The deer, again.  Even though I had been out in the yard much of the time and they don't usually bother shrimp plants.

So I looked around....

I didn't have to look far because these two were over by the creek grazing and watching me.  They even waited while I retrieved the camera and calmly posed for their mug shots.

Busted!

I was surprised they went for the shrimp plants since one neighbor has a large bed of them right next to a popular deer hang-out by the creek.  Very few plants are completely deer proof.


Later  in the day I found this damage to a Bush Morning Glory in the front yard so it will have to move behind the fence.

We also planted a row of Hesperaloe parviflora along the driveway Sunday afternoon.  The next morning several had been pulled out.  

Deer typically inspect new plants this way so it wasn't a surprise even though hesperaloe are not palatable to deer.  My husband put them back in the ground and there was only a little damage since these are pretty tough plants.


In the last two cases, the "perp" made a clean getaway.  That's a lot of damage in just two days.


It's all part of living with deer in the neighborhood.