We do loves our gardens. At our California House we had at least four separate gardens, but here at our Texas House we only have one area that can truly be called
a garden. But there are a lot of areas where we can use gardening skills and techniques, and we may have a second garden in the making.
Gardens 1 - The Garden
Let's jump right into things with some additions to our garden. You will recall from the
previous Episode that we initially planted only two raspberry and two blueberry plants. Because of the closeness of the two blueberry bushes, and because we likes our blueberries, we decided to get a third blueberry shrub and plant it at an appropriate distance from the first two. And because we likes our succulents we also added a couple succulents inside our garden fence.
Here is our initial plant staging area, full, and you will notice that we likes our cactus, also.
Left to right: blueberry, succulent, cactus, succulent.
Before we continue, I thought you might like to see a typical example of what I have to dig into in our garden. The dirt is pretty high quality, but it is chock (or chalk) full of rocks hiding just below the surface.
In the far corner is the new Echeveria 'Dick's Pink' (Echeveria 'Dick's Pink'). To the right is the new blueberry plant.
From left to right: Echeveria 'Dick's Pnk', climax blueberry, brightwell blueberry, premiere blueberry, raspberry variety one, raspberry variety two (I did not note which varieties of raspberry, but there are labels in the garden).
In the corner opposite the echeveria is this lovely Firesticks (Euphorbia Tirucalli). We really likes our firesticks.
The Golden Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus Grusonii) was planted outside of the fence, next to our sunburst cactus. Because of its profusion of sharp, pointy bits, we do not believe a deer guard will be necessary. Note the golf ball.
Gardens 2 - Hoses
Having a garden hose handy is helpful in maintaining a garden. However, our Texas House seems to have been designed to prevent us from having a handy garden hose, as you can see from this photo.
Yes, the hose bib was way up in the air, and required leaning out from the balcony to turn it on.
And then the hose had to be dragged all the way across the yard to where the garden is. Clearly something had to be done to improve the situation.
Something was done. Copper pipe was run down the wall to a human-reachable hose bib. We also added a shutoff valve up at the top.
A yellow hose connects the bib to this convenient hose reel. This is a much nicer setup, but it occurs to me now that there is still room for improvement... Hmmm...
Interestingly, and inconveniently, moving the hose seems to have broken our wonderful hose wand. Thankfully we had another, identical hose wand to replace the faulty one.
Gardens 3 - Invasion
You may recall that our California House was annually invaded by the accursed shamrocks (bermuda buttercup) between about October and April. Our Texas House was also recently invaded by unwanted, plant-based invaders.
This, friends, is bedstraw catchweed (Galium Aparine). Much like the accursed shamrocks, bedstraw is prolific, seasonal, fast-growing, and can be managed by physically pulling it up out of the ground.
Unlike the accursed shamrocks, bedstraw has a lot of clingy seeds; left unchecked it can smother and kill other plants; and it apparently has some herbal, medicinal properties (which you can look up on your own (I will not encourage the growth or use of bedstraw)). It mostly showed up in the planting areas to the right and left of our entryway, and I was able to pull up just about all of the plants that I saw in those areas.
Gardens 4 - Lizards
We are friendly toward our friends, the lizards.
This friendly lizard was spotted at a local plant nursery (that cactus looks familiar).
This friendly lizard was spotted in a large, scraggly plant near our entryway.
Gardens 5 - More Firesticks!
We likes our firesticks. In fact, we loves our firesticks so much that we removed some plants so that we could plant more firesticks (well, that was part of the reason for removing them).
First to go were these two plants on the left of our entryway. The white one on the left is a variety of Dusty Miller. It seemed to be growing and thriving, but a random whitish plant in the midst of the greenery just seemed odd and out-of-place. We do not know the variety of the green scraggly plant, but we did not like it very much.
This firesticks was planted roughly in the same spot formerly occupied by the green scraggly. Look at how much more beautiful it is. Ahhh....
What is up with this big grassy thing? What were they thinking when they planted it? It is just big, messy, and partially dead.
Much better. And look - the bedstraw is cleaned up, too! Please note that firesticks are said to be deer-resistant, so we feel relatively confident in leaving them uncaged.
Gardens 6 - Peppers
Since we have plenty of space in our walled garden why not add some peppers and cucumbers?
Here you see six pepper plants and one cucumber plant, in the plant staging area.
Here you see six pepper plants and one cucumber plant (and one firesticks), in the garden. Note that ALL of those rocks (large and small) were dug up by me, by hand (and shovel).
Here you see all of our garden plants so far, except for the echeveria.
Look what else we have in our garden! It seems that they followed us from California. Took them quite a while to get here. :)
Gardens 7 - More Cactus
We loves our cactus, so why not add more?
Meet our False Saguaro (Pachycereus Pringlei). It is planted roughly where the Dusty Miller used to be.
This is a broader view of the new look in front of our Texas House.
I mean, who could walk by this beautiful Torch Cactus (Trichocereus Grandiflorus Hybrid) and not want to take it home and plant it?
As you can see, it is situated in the back yard, near our sunburst and our golden barrel. Do three cactus make a garden? What if they're surrounded by more cactus?
Gardens 8 - Boulders
And now for a word about boulders. It's true that most of the rocks I dig up range in size between fist and ostrich egg, but every so often I encounter a boulder whilst digging a hole. Becky says they move around and place themselves in the places where I am digging (not unlike the creatures in
Tremors). And you know I can't let the boulders win.
This big beauty was uncovered and unearthed as I was digging holes for the peppers and cucumber. Gloves are for scale.
This slightly-less-large beauty was pulled out of the earth while I was excavating for the firesticks in the same photo. It is very rounded.
Okay, so this is not a true boulder, as it is made of man-made concrete, but it showed up in the false saguaro hole, and it had to be removed.
And the granddaddy of them all, so far, is this two-parter slab. Fortunately for me, it was already split near its center. Even so, I had to use rope and ramps (not unlike the ancient Egyptians) to pull each half out of the hole I was digging for the torch cactus. This behemoth will probably stay right where it is for a long time.
Gardens 9 - BYA
And now for a Back Yard Archeology update.
These rusty nails and fragment of zip tie were dug up somewheres, probably in the garden area, but I don't recall for sure.
This mesh piece is almost certainly from somewheres in the back yard.
The string was wrapped around some plants near an elm tree in front of our Texas House.
This interesting item was dug up in our garden area. After much study and scrutiny I've narrowed it down to three possibilities, which I present here in order of least to most likely. Possibility one is that it's just a random rock fragment - not very likely. Possibility two is that it may have been an ancient, primitive cutting tool or possibly an arrowhead - interesting, and a strong maybe. Possibility three is that it is a tooth from a long-dead, ancient shark - almost definitely. Said shark probably swam upriver (possibly chasing an ancient Egyptian), back when the Wadi al Bish was a huge river leading to the sea, and died where our property now sits. So far we have only discovered one if its ancient teeth.
I don't usually include the same photo twice in the same Episode, but since this is obviously a sentient-made object it needs to be studied by the Back Yard Archaeologists. As mentioned above, this chunk was dug up while preparing a hole for the false saguaro cactus. Why was a random chunk of concrete buried at our Texas House? and why that particular shape? Was it an early attempt at a massive arrow or spear head? Was it used at the end of a plumb line? And why does its shape suggest a model of an advanced spacecraft?
Notice also the black gloves that I use. They are not gardening gloves, per se, but I find them to be most useful for pulling up weeds, planting new plants, and such-like. They are thin enough that I get a good feel and grip, and at the same time they provide a layer of protection for my hands.
Gardens 10 - Wadi
Here's another photo of the Wadi al Bish full of water during some recent rain.
This is such an awesome sight that I had to share it again with all y'alls.
Gardens 11 - Early Results
Enough time has elapsed since the beginning of this Episode that we are seeing some early results in our garden.
Yes, folks, we have a few small blueberries. We don't expect to have enough for eating this year, but it's encouraging to know that they will indeed grow here (despite what one unhelpful lady told us at an out-of-town nursery).
And here is an immature cucumber. Since taking this photo we have discovered two more developing cucumbers. And at the time of this Episode there are two observable peppers growing on our pepper plants.
Gardens 12 - Parting Shots
We finish up with some relatively recent photos from nearby Landa Park.
Since this deer is not on our property I did not feel the need to chase it away.
Comal Springs Run One.
A comal is a type of flat griddle.
We conclude with this photo of the Founders' Oak. It is rather immense, and is quite stunning to see in-person.
Did I mention that we loves our
bIsh
