Zanthan Gardens
Week by Week in the Garden: Week 19: 5/07-5/13

May 13th, 2008
Week 19: 5/07-5/13

2008-05-08. The meadow just before it’s put to bed for the summer.

Dateline: 2008
As usual summer arrives in Austin with a vengeance in week 19. Last Friday temperatures hit a muggy 97F (5/9), cooling of to a mere 95F on Saturday. We received a wonderful reprieve on Mother’s Day and yesterday the high was only 78. I spent all day in the garden, tearing out larkspur and cilantro and mulching the perennials.

Even without the larkspur and cilantro, the meadow is looking pretty good. I did better job this year of balancing the early and late bloomers so that there is still a lot of color from Engelmann daisy, pink evening primrose, and poppies.

The coral bean is in full bloom and the root-hardy perennials that had been smothered under the exuberance of the wildflowers are starting to grow: the purple coneflower, the butterfly bush, the black-eyed susan. These are blooming in other people’s gardens (probably because weren’t hidden from the sun all spring) while mine are just getting started. And unlike last year, my red yucca is blooming very well this year. It has two stalks.

First flower: Plumbago auriculata (5/8); Rudbeckia hirta (5/8); Acanthus mollis (5/11); Ruellia (5/11) the passalong; Magnolia grandiflora ‘Little Gem’ (5/12); Zexmenia (5/12).

Dateline: 2007

2007-05-11. Lily LA Hybrid. Austin, TX.
I’m horrified to read below that we hit 102 degrees this week in 1998. By comparison, 2007 has been wonderfully mild with high temperatures in the low to mid 80s until the weekend when it hovered around 90. Except for Monday (5/7) when the humidity was high, sleeping without the AC is still comfortable.

We are squarely in summer now…the way I wish summer would remain until fall, hammock and iced tea weather. Too soon it will be the hiding inside the house and cursing the sun weather.

The mosquitos, however, are vicious. They love the dark mulch and black clay and swarm up whenever I’m hoeing.

I’ve started digging up bulbs and collecting seeds from bluebonnets and coriander this week. I finished pulling up (or stamping down) most of the false dayflower. In the front yard, the larkspur and the four o’clocks maintain the cottage garden feel. But in the back the meadow has gone almost completely to seed and looks ratty. I’m trying to clean it up as fast as I can but collecting seed takes time.

Mine must be the only red yucca in town that’s not blooming following the example set by my wisteria, redbud, and vitex. Some columbine that I must have put in the seedbed and forgotten sprouted. And the rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ rebloomed with two flowers.

First flower: Mirabilis jalapa RHS red (5/9); Lilium LA Hybrid ‘Spirit’ (5/11); Rudbeckia hirta (5/12); Turk’s cap (5/12).

Dateline: 2006
The week started off like a steamy jungle as last week’s heavy rains began to evaporate. By Thursday, just as we were leaving for Lake Tahoe, temperatures plunged 20 degrees and became very pleasant.

The sago palm sent up a mass of new fronds. The yellow columbines have been revived by the rain are are blooming again making a nice combination with the red four o’clocks, which are in full bloom. The indigo spires, which had gotten four feet tall, were flattened by the heavy rain. The crape myrtles are just starting to be in full flower. However my chaste tree (vitex) is stubbornly flowerless; I’ve seen some beautiful specimens around town. Only a few roses here and there on ‘Heritage’, ‘New Dawn’, and ‘Prosperity’.

First flower: Rudbeckia hirta (5/11).

Dateline: 2004
First flower: plumbago (5/8); rose ‘Mermaid’ (5/8); asiatic lily (5/9); white spider lily (5/9); bearded iris ‘Seakist’ (5/10), Antigonon leptopus (5/10).

Rebloom: rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ (5/7); rose ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’ (5/8).

Dateline: 2002

2002-05-09. Bearded iris: ‘Silverado’.

After 32 days of above average temperatures, a cold front brings a sprinkling of rain and delightfully cool temperatures. Our high today (Monday) is only a little more than our low was yesterday. And the air is so dry; the sky so blue. This is the way summer should be.

2002-05-10. Rudbeckia hirta (black-eyed Susan). Austin, TX.

The only flowers in full bloom this week are the black-eyed Susans, the Asiatic lilies, and the rose “Caldwell Pink”. Where they get water, a few larkspur and even a couple of bluebonnets hang on bravely. Some rainlilies popped up where I had been watering the buffalograss after collecting seeds.

We ate our first tomato ‘Carmello’ on some fresh mozzarella from Central Market and balsamic vinegar. Fantastic. It is even better with fresh basil, but I don’t have any this year.

Dateline: 2001
First flower: LA lily ‘Spirit’ (5/7), Shasta daisy (5/10).

Dateline: 2000
The ‘Velvet Queen’ sunflowers are taller than I am, and the ‘Carmello’ tomatoes need better staking, as they are too tall for the tomato cages and keep falling over. I plant more marigolds around the tomatoes. We harvest the first ‘Neon’ eggplant and several ‘Ichiban’. The taste of the ‘Neon’ is superior.

First flower: Lily LA Hybrid ‘Spirit’; Rudbeckia hirta (5/8); Hemerocallis ‘Gentle Shepherd’ (5/10).

Dateline: 1999
Sunday May 9, 1999 (Mother’s Day)
Water the back lawn for an hour. AJM finishes spreading the gravel on the patio. I plant another patch of sedum on the rock path. Spend most of the day cleaning up the meadow. Only about 1/3 done. Most of the new grass in the lower meadow was smothered by the bluebonnets.

Find three small brown snakes under a board.

If I were well-organized, I would have a lot of plants available for filling in the areas just vacated by the larkspur and bluebonnets.

After we are asleep, the heavy rain finally comes. I don’t know if it is two inches, but it begins lightly and then gets heavier, raining for more than an hour. (Update: The news reports that we received 1.57 inches by 8:AM Monday morning.) I get up to watch the rain, expecting the rest of our neighbor’s tree to fall. It doesn’t.

First flower: Lily LA Hybrid ‘Spirit’ (5/11)

Dateline: 1998
Thursday May 7, 1998
Record-breaking high of 102 degrees at 5:45 and the hottest day of the year so far. Other than today, the temperatures have ranged from the high 60s to the low 90 this week. The tomatoes are setting. The basil is sprouting.

First flower: Dolichos lablab (5/8).

Dateline: 1995
Monday May 8, 1995
The air is clear and cool and everything is soaking wet.

Friday May 12, 1995
Summer is upon us; the weather is hot and muggy. For my garden, this means the end of the planting season. In Austin, plants started too late won’t have developed strong enough root systems to survive the drought and heat of summer. In this season, the focus of my efforts changes to helping existing plants survive.

Since last August when four inches of rain broke our drought, it has been wet. (Update: The newspaper almanac says we’re two inches behind our average rain fall for the year.) I haven’t watered either lawn yet this year. I’ve mulched the front lawn with Gardenville compost manure and it has grown a solid healthy green. I’ve never seen it so fine. The back lawn remains chlorotic and diseased looking. Only the wetness of this year has created the illusion that it is filled in. If you bend down to look at it, you can see that it is quite sparesly filled in–hardly enough to keep its own roots cool and moist.

I began mulching bushes and trees with store-bought cedar mulch.

I’m satisfied with the look of the garden. Some people might fault the lack of color. But I like the various greens and the textures of the plants. In a few years, the meadow will be more developed, so there will be color there.

First flower: Hibiscus syriacus (5/13).

by M Sinclair Stevens