About our work in progress...

Ah... the first post. Well, at the moment, I'm trying to figure out how to make everything work. Oh, but wait, you want to know about the garden. It's a work in progress. Our neighborhood is in central Austin: North of Downtown, South of the Arboretum, and as close to Mopac as you can get without standing on the tracks. One of my friends decribed the houses in the neighborhood as being "atomic age." I think that's a polite term for "Fifties tract homes." I believe our soil is considered clay, but I'm not certain.

My husband and I are both guilty of planting things we've been told won't grow here. The plant death toll continues to grow, but that's not stopping us. We're also adept at killing things that are supposed to be foolproof. We have, however, had some pleasant suprises. The cherry trees and forsythia saplings that we got from the Abor Day Foundation are getting strong now that they've been in the ground for two years. A few of the tulips that I planted early in the winter of 2004 came up (without being dug up and refrigerated) in spring 2006. We've murdered a weeping willow, a corkscrew willow, a saucer magnolia, a bald cypress,and a japanese maple. I've figured out that I'm entirely too lazy to water container plants every day.

The plants I've found that are easiest (for me) to grow are: bearded iris, daylilies, caladium, some roses, cannas, and cosmos. I'm eager to try a few new things (like sages), but the average temperature is so high I've determimed that the planting season is pretty much over. June through mid September is less about growing new things, and more about keeping the ones you have alive.