Zanthan Gardens
Week by Week in the Garden: Week 21: 5/21 – 5/27

From Austin’s Memorial Day flood 25 years ago, to the tornado that killed 27 in Jarrell 9 years ago, this is our week to look out for violent. weather.

In Austin this time of year, I can work in the garden a couple of hours in the morning before the low, heavy clouds rolling in from the Gulf burn off. After the sun comes out, around 9AM, then I take refuge in the house. Some people might consider this perfect hammock weather but lying drenched in my own sweat covered in mosquitoes doesn’t appeal to me. When I do get my hands in the dirt, I’m focused on weeding and mulching. My goal for late May is to get the plants ready for the dead of summer. I force myself to resist the bright summer annuals at the DIY stores. Their water requirements are too high and I don’t want to invest time in high-maintenance plants for July and August when I won’t want to be outside at all.

Late May is satisfying. The exurberance of spring has died down with the annual wildflowers and the garden has settled into a langorous green. The crape myrtles, rose of Sharon, and oleander (spectacular this year) are performing as I envisioned them four years ago. My desert willow and vitex are still duds. However, I feel like the garden is on the right track. Note to self: buy more shrubbery! [2007-05-27. I did not heed this note. In fact I went in the other direction and started growing annuals from seed again.]

First flower: LA lily (5/27).

In Bloom: black-eyed Susan, Consolida ambigua, Engelmann daisy, Hibiscus syriacus, Lantana ‘New Gold’, L. heterophyla ‘Goodwin Creek Grey’, Malvaviscus arboreus, Mirabilis jalapa, Nerium oleander, Pavonia hastata, Plumbago auriculata, rose ‘Blush Noisette’, rose ‘Heritage’, rose ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’, rose, ‘Madame Joseph Schwartz’, ruellia, Tecoma stans.

Dateline: 2006

2006-05-27. I have planted dozens of lilies but only this one plant has bloomed reliably since 1998.

Dateline: 2004

First flower: daylily ‘Gentle Shepherd‘ (5/23); Shirley poppy (5/23).

Dateline: 2002

The crape myrtles and Rose of Sharon are beginning to bloom. My plan is to have all the summer come from flowering bushes, rather than waste energy and water with summer annuals. This is only the second summer for most of my bushes, so they are still struggling to establish themselves. My desert willow still has not bloomed, but looks larger and healthier than last summer. It is in bloom everywhere else around town.

One iris, ‘Strictly Ballroom’, surprised me with a late flower today. Yesterday, the daylilies ‘Gentle Shepherd’ began opening. The Asiatic lilies are still blooming. The pale Pavonia hastata also began flowering this week.

Bearded iris: ‘Strictly Ballroom” 2002-05-26 Austin, TX

First flower: Pavonia hastata (5/24), rose ‘Buff Beauty’ (5/24), crape myrtle ‘Watermelon’ (5/24), rose ‘Souvenir de St. Anne’ (5/27).

June 7, 2002
The last flower on ‘Strictly Ballroom’ faded today. It was amazing. The stalk kept opening flower after flower over a 2-week period. I think there were 7 flowers, each lasting about 2 days.

Dateline: 2001

Wednesday May 23, 2001
The last two nights have dropped to record cold temperatures after the big storm ripped through north Austin tearing up fences, roofs, and trees and dumping rain. We didn’t get any damage, but we didn’t get any rain either. We didn’t even know that there had been a storm until we came to work on Monday and everyone who lived north was comparing damage. So Monday and Tuesday nights temperatures dropped into the low 50s.

Thursday May 24, 2001
This morning saw an armadillo in our yard. It’s the first one I can remember seeing in the wild and alive. It snuffle around the compost and in the brush pile. I wonder if it’s the creature that’s been digging up everything.

Monday May 27, 2001 Memorial Day
Summer is officially here and we celebrate with the first potato salad and frozen Margaritas of the year.

AJM helps me weed the larkspur and other spring flowers that are going to seed in the meadow. At first it looks bare and depressing, but the more we clean up the nicer it looks, once again like a grassy plain.

The bluebonnets that I dead-headed are still flowering, but they are a faded pale blue.

The Shasta daisys are doing very well, finally after barely surviving last summer and then being besieged with bugs in March just as they were budding. I want to try growing more from seed this fall. When they survive, they are well worth the trouble.

Dateline: 2000

First flower: Hybiscus syriacus (5/21).

Dateline: 1999

Sunday May 23, 1999
Work in the morning, but go to The Natural Gardener in the afternoon and by a half-yard of finely sifted cow manure compost. Also find two Genovese basil plants in good condition and buy those for pesto. AJM helps work in several wheelbarrows of compost into bare spots in the back lawn.

Thursday May 26, 1999
The morning turns dark and the winds gusty as a front moves through. No rain, but by noon the air is clear and refreshingly crisp. At 5PM, I walk home. Dark clouds are moving in from the northwest and by the time I get to Palmer Auditorium, the wind is blowing hard. I hurry to get the rest of the manure out of the truck. Sometime after 6PM it begins to blow hard and really pour. Small branches come off the cedar elms, but no large limbs. The trellis blows down. The rock garden is temporarily overwhelmed with water, but it does a good job of keeping the water away from the house and one can see that as it expands, it will be even more effective.

Monday May 24, 1999
Spend the afternoon mulching the vegetable garden. For each tomato and eggplant create a large well, dig in Epsom salts and manure compost, water deeply, then cover with hay.

After 9PM we get some more rain, though not as much as last Monday night, but measurable. (The paper said 4/100 of an inch, but I think we got more.) I race around beforehand trying to get as much of the compost on the lawn as I can. But the constant sheet lightening was disconcerting and I was forced to be sensible and stop.

First flower: Pavonia hastata (5/22).

Dateline: 1998

Wednesday May 27, 1998
Rain at last. Yesterday was horribly muggy and oppressive. The rain washes some of the smoke out of the air and the morning begins cool (in the high sixties) and with lower humidity. People and plants alike perk up.

Dateline: 1997

Friday, May 23, 1997
Heavy rain all week. As we were coming home from work, the police turned us around because water was flowing over Bee Caves Rd.

Sunday May 25, 1997
The heavy rains have beat down the poppies and larkspur and they are a rotting mass. Cleaned out some of the larkspur bed and the false dayflowers out of the south border. Mowed the back lawn at 2.5. The yard looks intensely green and the view from the south border is lovely.

According to the paper, last year on this date we set the record high at 96. JQS and I were vacationing in Japan.

Monday May 26, 1997 (Memorial Day)
Continued miserably hot and muggy.

The first bought rain lily opens. It is rose pink and larger in flower than the ubiquitous white rain lilies.

Pulled out much of the the fallen wildflowers to try to uncover some of the buffalograss. I don’t hold out much hope that the Cassiope crocuses could have survived without rotting.

Tore out much of the rocket larkspur. Next year, I will plant the chinaberry bed with daffodils and make it more formal. The larkspur doesn’t get enough sun there.

Tuesday May 27, 1997
I begin this from the office where we are trapped by a severe thunderstorm and tornado sightings. It is 5:00 and as black as night.

AJM and I carpool home. The electricity is out in our neighborhood, but not north of the river. A large limb has fallen off Mary Wolf’s tree, missing the hammock, missing the bird bath, but crushing a branch off the most beautifully shaped of the three Mexican plums. Another large branch has fallen off a cedar elm in the front, just missing Herman (the armadillo mailbox). Across the street the damage is much worse. The entire top has fallen off the tree in front of the day care center and lies in a heap in the driveway. At the historic house on the corner, one of the very large and well-trimmed cedar elms is split in half.

We don’t examine much more of the neighborhood because the lightning strikes seem too close for comfort. (Although AJM says they are miles away; I’ve read of three people getting hit by lightning in Austin in the last couple of years and I don’t feel like taking the risk.) We go to Book People instead. AJM buys “Three Men in A Boat” and reads it to me by candlelight.

We find out in the morning that the town of Jarrell was destroyed and 27 people are dead.

Dateline: 1995

Wednesday, May 24, 1995
We got another soaking rain last night.

Thursday, May 25, 1995
Went to see Felder Rushing speak and bought Passalong Plants–an autographed copy each for me, DF, and CBK.

Friday, May 26, 1995
DF and CBK were thrilled with their books. At lunch, DF went over to Barton Springs Nursery. And guess what! Felder was there. We all went to lunch together at ZuZu’s.

by M Sinclair Stevens