Rock Planter in One Hour

How often do we see an item in a garden shop and say "I can make that"?  Then how often do we follow through?  Me too.

Rock planters are quite common in nurseries and shops around my area and I often think I'd like to have one but decided we could make one ourselves.  So when Neal showed me a rock from our rock pile and offered to give it a go I was all for the idea.



And it was completed in just under an hour!

Succulents on the rocks for a lush vertical garden

The San Antonio Botanical Garden (SABOT) is one of those places I never tire of visiting.  On Monday I joined a group of local gardeners in front of this gorgeous succulent wall just inside the main entrance of SABOT.

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.

More new plants for Spring!

It's like gardening Christmas.  New plants are always fun and finding a box of new plants on the porch, as I did Wednesday afternoon, is even more fun.

With so many good native and adapted plants available locally it's easy to find plants I need so ordering plants online is rare for me.  When Santa Rosa Gardens had a pre-season sale in January I decided to give them a try.  I've had my eye on their white-blooming Gulf Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris 'White Cloud')  and haven't found it locally so ordering was the best way to go.  I easily found several other plants to try in my garden.  They even let me pick my ship date nearly six weeks ahead so I didn't have to hold the plants through the winter.

Groundhog Day Projects

Up in Pennsylvania the big news is all about Punxsutawney Phil and his Groundhog Day prediction of an early spring.  When I was growing up in sub-tropical Houston I thought it was an odd story and wondered why anyone would want winter to end early since our February weather was pretty nice.  The rare snowfalls and icy days we experienced seemed like fun to me and a nice break from our typical heat and humidity.  I married a Pennsylvanian, learned to drive in bad weather and spent the next 30 years in very cold places like the upper midwest and New England before returning to Texas for good a few years ago.

Groundhog Day in San Antonio means I'd better get busy and finish my big garden projects because it will soon be too hot to build new border beds or a fence.  Our record high for February is 100F/38C and the low is 4F/-15.5C, not in the same year but it could have been.  In the summer the trend reverses because by July gardeners up north will be out enjoying their gardens and we will be focused on indoor projects to beat the heat.

We have two large projects on the spring agenda this year.

First up is replacing the fence on the north side of the house and extending the perennial border around the buffalo grass lawn in the back yard.  The old fence was removed earlier in the week and we'll be out there soon putting in the new one.  We'll enjoy this view through to the front yard with the open fence while the trees make it quite private on this side.

Yeya's and more new plants for the new year

One of my favorite places for garden things is Yeya's Antiques and Oddities just east of downtown San Antonio.  I first wrote about Yeya's a year ago and I have been back there many times since.  It's about time for an update.

This area is known as "the yard".  Mario brings in lots of cool stuff on a daily basis.  The vintage garden chairs near the entrance sign (above) were being unloaded by one of his pickers just as I arrived.

Garden Tour San Antonio Style: Cactus Marty's Collection

This past weekend I attended the first annual San Antonio Herb Society Garden Tour along with my friend Ragna.  The tour showcased a wide range of neighborhoods and gardening styles with enthusiastic owners and volunteers ready to answer questions from visitors.  I'll share gardens from the tour throughout the week.  The first garden is a colorful cactus garden in northeast San Antonio. 

Marty Ruona is known as "Cactus Marty", so when we saw his garden would be on the tour, we could hardly wait to visit.  It was even better than anticipated because there's a lot more to his garden than cacti, succulents, and palms.

From the street the garden is beautifully designed and, despite the prickly plants, invites you in. 

Traffic cones in front of the house meant the full effect of the street view was not blocked by cars.  The manicured lawn is a lush counterpoint for the all his spiky plants.

The side yard is just as uniquely impressive

One of several carved opuntias on display

 The front walk

Colorful containers painted by Marty are featured throughout the garden.  These are along the driveway.

 

  The front yard from the side manicured lawn with a colorful tire planter, the best I've seen.

Marty was there to greet visitors and answer detailed questions.  Here he is with Ragna.

Turn up the volume on Waylon, Willie, and the boys.   We're headed around back to the party zone where tequila tastings are a regular event.

When he's not working on client's projects for his landscape design business, he's using reclaimed wood to build colorful garden furniture and plant displays.  The vintage turqouise Weber grill is one of a collection on display.  The house is painted with 13 different colors.

A shade house converts to a greenhouse in winter.  Marty purchases plant collections from those who can no longer keep them.

The back of the greenhouse is landscaped like a botanical garden

At the end of the trail is a place to sit while admiring an enormous beaucarnea and the rest of the collection.

Desert garden humor

Agave Viloriniana is impressive

Hanging basket Marty style

My thanks to Ragna for sharing her photos of some of the details of the shadehouse, including this miniature "Cactus Marty sign below.

The San Antonio Herb Society tour benefits culinary scholarships to St. Philip's College here in San Antonio.  The San Antonio Herb Society also holds is one of the sponsors of the popular San Antonio Herb Market event held each year by the Herb Market Association.  This year the market is on October 20th at The Pearl.

We visited six gardens on this tour and tomorrow I'll share the "Texas Eclectic" garden.

Foliage Follow-up July 2012: Succulents as Problem Solvers

Using succulents is a great way to grow plants where others struggle.  These problem solving plants are the focus for today's Foliage Follow Up sponsored by Pam Penick at Digging.

These cradle style planters worked out well at the breakfast room windows because the feet sit securely in the window frames and drilling into the stone for standard window boxes was out of the question.

The last two years I tried annuals here but there's not enough room for soil to keep annuals watered.  It's no problem for succulents with their small root system and limited water needs.   We enjoy seeing these green plants from inside and most of these will eventually bloom as well.

 
Strawberry jars with their interesting little planting pockets are a favorite of mine.  The problem is it's especially difficult in our hot, dry climate to keep many types of plants growing in them.  That may be why I find so many at garage sales around here.  I picked up these two in April for just $2 each.

This year when I planted strawberry jars, I took inspiration from my friend Ragna and went with succulents all around.  Succulents work so much better than annuals and I don't have to worry about the plants drying out.  I like mixing varieties of plants, mostly from plant swaps.

A welcoming grouping works at the top of the deck stairs where it's been difficult to keep plants growing.  These are planted with Aloe 'Blue Elf', Kalanchoe, and Portulaca.  Deer love these so all succulent planters stay on the deck,

I enjoy making my own pots from concrete and hypertufa mixes.  Concrete will dry out plants and soil quickly, so succulents are the answer here too.

 
Three planting problems solved with succulents and I'm still looking for opportunities around here.

Head on over to Digging to see how other garden bloggers celebrate the importance of foliage in their gardens in July 2012.