July 15th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

Saw these while we were in Fredericksburg a couple weekends ago. Very groovy:

I’d skip the succulents, though. Someone was missing the point here. I think they’d make the perfect addition to a foodie-gardener’s space… planted with sun-tolerant herbs like thyme, rosemary, oregano.

These pots (the empty ones) were obviously new, and were very expensive ($175). But I wonder if a trip to a pawn shop or second-hand store might yield good results. Maybe even Ace Mart (though they are pretty expensive). Once you decide to plant in something like this, you’d have to drill holes in the bottom for drainage, so going back to cooking with them would be impossible.

Update:
My mom pointed out that metal in Texas heat bakes the roots of a lot of plants. Appropriate for cookware, but not so much for plants. She lines containers like this with plastic pots or simply plants a slightly smaller pot and places it inside the metal container.

June 19th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

I thought I’d post a few shots I’ve taken from around my garden and elsewhere. Pretty things, great natives, or whatever else strikes my fancy for the moment.

Passion vine currently taking over my back deck. This thing would literally take over the entire back yard if I let it. Its root system must be incredible:

Lace cactus… done blooming now, but spectacular in the Spring:

There are lots of cool spiders hanging about, but this little critter was funny… challenging me for rights to the flower:

My crinums are blooming right now. I dug out 30 or so bulbs earlier this year and gave them away on Freecycle. I’m wondering how they are doing for the people who took them. I’d be happy to give them to some local readers next Srping when I dig more.

Ice crystals from frostweed stems earlier this year – a nice reminder of cooler (MUCH cooler!) weather. Hard to believe a few short months ago this was all there was of them. Most of my frostweeds are around 6 feet tall now, and ought to start blooming soon. The flowers are an important nectar source for monarchs and other butterflies.

Two-leaf senna. I really hope the seed I nabbed from somewhere comes up this year.

I also nabbed seed of this one, a Texas dandelion. We’ll see if it comes up next Spring:

That’s all for now.

crinum, frostweed, lace cactus, passion vine, photos, texas dandelion, two-leaf senna

May 4th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

Photos from this morning…

Tiny jalapeños:

Cherry tomatoes:

Gaillardia, a la Hipstamatic:

April 22nd, 2010 by marie

[Marie Catrett owns and operates Tigerlily Preschool in south Austin. She likes to get messy and write about it.]

Happy Earth Day! Tending to the garden- the soil, our growing plants and all the little creatures there- is a big part of our day.  About a fourth of our outdoor space is an organic veggie garden.  It’s been my experience that when little ones have a hand in planting the seeds, watering the plants and discovering the harvest they will take incredible care with the space. Wagons roll by, play breaks just short of the beds.  Teaching little feet to respect the bedspace does take some intention and effort. The change in soil usually makes a great visual marker for small feet needing to know where the rambling can stop and the tender plant space begins.  Sometimes I’ll use a line of small stones or even aquarium gravel to make a “line”. I do my gardening in plain old raised dirt beds and my heart really feels the tug I think the kiddos feel towards how fun it would be to, say, take a flying leap and stomp the dirt mounds flat. But with a few reminders they really do extremely well with the limit.  It’s hardest when the plants are teeny tiny seedlings or before anything sprouts. Again, visual markers are my friend. We also do a lot of practice making our feet go around. Free form digging gets redirected to our sandbox, except on one very memorable day, one of my favorite days ever.  Dirt Day.

Back in September the children helped prep a garden bed before planting a fresh crop of leafy winter veggies. As a gardener I’ll admit I get impatient with some of the more practical aspects of gardening- and in the past I can’t say soil prep was my favorite. Add children, however, it’s a whole different thing. Two’s, three’s and four’s with shovels, turning the earth? Oh yes. Yes they can, most happily. We spent a morning pulling out stray rocks, taking care with the earthworms, being both amazed and disgusted at the sight of those strange pale grubs. We talked about compost and added the lovely turkey mix from The Natural Gardener.  I did not manage to capture and can only tell you about the best image: later in the day after buckets and worms and mountains and holes our happy diggers were full of so much dirt love the only thing left to do was to lie belly down on the dirt just being…well, truly one with the joy that was dirt day.

April 17th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

I track when I spot or kill my first mosquito of the season. Last year it was March 10. This year it was March 24. The previous years it had been moving up, but we had a pretty cold and prolonged winter this year. Glad they had been at bay a little longer, and that they aren’t all that prevalent now.

October 10th, 2007 by Marc Opperman

I’m officially a guide for the city’s Wildlands Conservation program, and I couldn’t be happier about it. My first hike leading a group is Sunday at 2 pm. I am co-leading it with two people who are really good with plants, so I don’t have to feel too out of my depth.

My knowledge, I’ve discovered, is very generalized. I don’t know a lot of plants, birds, insects or even geological fact. But I’m enthusiastic, and hopefully that’ll convey and inspire. There’s a part of me that figures I won’t know what I’m comfortable with in terms of interpreting until I’ve completed a few hikes. And I’m sure I’ll have some embarrassing moments of either being upstaged by a member of the group who knows far more, or who just wants to be heard even if they don’t know much. I have something akin to nervous butterflies… stage-fright… and it’s only Tuesday.

I’m sure I’ll do well, and there are two other people there who can pick up where I trail off. That’s the way the program is designed… the onus for speaking, interpreting and safety isn’t all on one person.

bcp, city of austin, guide, preserves, wildlands