Panting, Plants, and Pie
Oct. 13th, 2006 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI had a lovely day today. I went for a jog. (The first time since last time I wrote about going for a jog--I lasted eighteen minutes. My thighs already ache.)
I caught up on dishes and laundry.
I played sudoku.
I trimmed my nails.
I went to the wildflower center's plant sale and actually found some things. Not a parking place--I had to park a couple of minute's walk away. Then I wasn't motivated to buy stuff. But I did get three perennials:
* Blackfoot daisy - a small daisy that doesn't even like water or fertilization or soil amendments. A sea of them make a great ground cover, especially surrounding a prickly pear. But I bought only one and I didn't get a prickly pear. This daisy is actually native to the rocky regions across the highway, not the clay region where I live, but it loves to live in my yard.
* Flame acanthus - a small bush with orangish-red flowers and bright green leaves that I first noticed in Zilker Park. Thousands of brilliant beautiful flowers! And it loves to be out in the middle of the hot, hot sun.
* Barbados cherry - a small shrub with pink flowers. I don't know why I like it, but it has a delicate elegant look to it that I like. It likes shade, so I'm going to try it in my planter on my front porch and see how it likes that. I've tried planting this on the shady side of my house before, and it didn't work, but probably I should have watered it more at first.
I brought the plants back to my car and then though to myself that I really should go back and look for some trees. It would be nice to get some new deciduous shade trees (which I did not find) and some more small evergreen trees for the back of the yard to hide the fence without getting tangled in the telephone wires. I already have:
* Afghan pine - obviously not native to my part of the world. Also tall, but I think I planted it far enough away from the telephone lines. It's one of the few pines that likes the alkaline soil, but apparently some horrible mildew likes to attack it when you grow it in clay soil like I'm doing. Oh, well, it was one of my first trees--I really wanted a pine and didn't know any better.
* Texas mountain laurel - a low glossy-leafed plant with wisteria-like blooms in the spring that smell something like grape gum. Possibly my favorite native tree. Interesting--the link above says that I am growing narcotics; previously I'd only heard the seed pods referred to as "poisonous."
* Yaupon holly - a tree that is covered in a ridiculous number of red berries in the winter. That link shows that I am also growing caffeine. I feel so just-outside-the-law now, producing my own drugs. (And you've got to love the scientific name for this plant: Ilex vomitoria.)
I know you're not supposed to plant all different plants for good garden design because it is pleasing to the eye to have some repetition. However, it's better for disease protection and general diversity issues to have different trees, so I looked for some more. Plants with the height I'm looking for are often referred to as "shrubs," but they are trees to me. I found two:
* Cenizo - a silvery-green-leafed short bush, supposedly, but I've seen eight-foot tall ones everywhere. My favorite one is near campus, planted so close to a blue plumbago that the two plants intermingle like one, and usually one or the other or both are blooming. The plumbago is drought tolerant but not native to my area. I still have one in the front, though because I think they are so beautiful. And long-lived!
* Wax myrtle - dark green, evergreen, short, native, perfect, but this isn't a plant that really grabbed me until today when I smelled the leaves of one. They have a really nice herbal aroma to them, not as strong as my rosemary bush, but nice. Supposedly the bayberry scent in candles comes from this plant, but I don't like that smell. (The same thing is true for lavender--I really like the scent of the actual plant, but not the soap or candy).
I dropped these plants off at home (I need to plant them tomorrow) and went off to La Madeleine to meet my sister. I tried something new there: a turkey sandwich. It comes on a croissant! Not a soft one, though, so sad.
Then we went to Borders books and I got her some birthday presents she wanted. We never did find the "unpleasant activities" because we got distracted by one of my sister's friends for a couple of hours, but apparently it involved word finds and other children's activities.
Then we went to Marie Calendar's for pie. Expensive, but huge. Also, false advertising. We got the triple chocolate cheesecake, but there were actually six kinds of chocolate.
I caught up on dishes and laundry.
I played sudoku.
I trimmed my nails.
I went to the wildflower center's plant sale and actually found some things. Not a parking place--I had to park a couple of minute's walk away. Then I wasn't motivated to buy stuff. But I did get three perennials:
* Blackfoot daisy - a small daisy that doesn't even like water or fertilization or soil amendments. A sea of them make a great ground cover, especially surrounding a prickly pear. But I bought only one and I didn't get a prickly pear. This daisy is actually native to the rocky regions across the highway, not the clay region where I live, but it loves to live in my yard.
* Flame acanthus - a small bush with orangish-red flowers and bright green leaves that I first noticed in Zilker Park. Thousands of brilliant beautiful flowers! And it loves to be out in the middle of the hot, hot sun.
* Barbados cherry - a small shrub with pink flowers. I don't know why I like it, but it has a delicate elegant look to it that I like. It likes shade, so I'm going to try it in my planter on my front porch and see how it likes that. I've tried planting this on the shady side of my house before, and it didn't work, but probably I should have watered it more at first.
I brought the plants back to my car and then though to myself that I really should go back and look for some trees. It would be nice to get some new deciduous shade trees (which I did not find) and some more small evergreen trees for the back of the yard to hide the fence without getting tangled in the telephone wires. I already have:
* Afghan pine - obviously not native to my part of the world. Also tall, but I think I planted it far enough away from the telephone lines. It's one of the few pines that likes the alkaline soil, but apparently some horrible mildew likes to attack it when you grow it in clay soil like I'm doing. Oh, well, it was one of my first trees--I really wanted a pine and didn't know any better.
* Texas mountain laurel - a low glossy-leafed plant with wisteria-like blooms in the spring that smell something like grape gum. Possibly my favorite native tree. Interesting--the link above says that I am growing narcotics; previously I'd only heard the seed pods referred to as "poisonous."
* Yaupon holly - a tree that is covered in a ridiculous number of red berries in the winter. That link shows that I am also growing caffeine. I feel so just-outside-the-law now, producing my own drugs. (And you've got to love the scientific name for this plant: Ilex vomitoria.)
I know you're not supposed to plant all different plants for good garden design because it is pleasing to the eye to have some repetition. However, it's better for disease protection and general diversity issues to have different trees, so I looked for some more. Plants with the height I'm looking for are often referred to as "shrubs," but they are trees to me. I found two:
* Cenizo - a silvery-green-leafed short bush, supposedly, but I've seen eight-foot tall ones everywhere. My favorite one is near campus, planted so close to a blue plumbago that the two plants intermingle like one, and usually one or the other or both are blooming. The plumbago is drought tolerant but not native to my area. I still have one in the front, though because I think they are so beautiful. And long-lived!
* Wax myrtle - dark green, evergreen, short, native, perfect, but this isn't a plant that really grabbed me until today when I smelled the leaves of one. They have a really nice herbal aroma to them, not as strong as my rosemary bush, but nice. Supposedly the bayberry scent in candles comes from this plant, but I don't like that smell. (The same thing is true for lavender--I really like the scent of the actual plant, but not the soap or candy).
I dropped these plants off at home (I need to plant them tomorrow) and went off to La Madeleine to meet my sister. I tried something new there: a turkey sandwich. It comes on a croissant! Not a soft one, though, so sad.
Then we went to Borders books and I got her some birthday presents she wanted. We never did find the "unpleasant activities" because we got distracted by one of my sister's friends for a couple of hours, but apparently it involved word finds and other children's activities.
Then we went to Marie Calendar's for pie. Expensive, but huge. Also, false advertising. We got the triple chocolate cheesecake, but there were actually six kinds of chocolate.