Widely regarded

It has been months since I posted any wide shots.  I have my reasons.  The unusually generous amounts of spring rains led everything to first bolt an extra foot in height and then fall over. (Are you quite as tired of hearing about "all the rain" yet as you were previously tired of hearing about the lack of it?).

It was all very pretty while it was upright, and for the most part everything continued to be functional while it was flopped over.  Pollinators still had access to blossoms, seed was set.  It all worked for the plants, it just didn't look like much.

Paths here, the ones that are chronically in need of weeding, became entirely overrun.  The To-Prune list was short enough - it read "frickin' everything". Only so many hours in the day, only so many mosquito bites I'll host at a time. But I'm at a happy place for the moment and things are back to what passes for normal.  Caution to the winds...let's take a look at some of what's going on out back.

These wide shots never proffer the depth a first hand view provides, but I enjoy seeing other folk's gardens taken more as on the whole, so here goes with a few of the bigger picture(s).  I'll list most of the plants but not by scientific names.  I'm not trying to catalog, just give the general idea.  If you see something you wonder about, please ask.

This first shot is when I'd gotten about seventy-five percent of the clean up completed. I thought I could stomach posting at that point but once I got a good look I balked.  The path running behind the beds was still the seven inch tall equivalent of a rain forest in some spots.

The darkened soil in the front center bed, to the left of the bottle tree and basil in the planter, is a space where there are passalong purple coneflower plants newly placed in a semi-circle around some H. Duelberg salvia and a couple of re-emerged tropical milkweed plants.  To the left of that bench, under the bottle brush tree, are now two mist-flower plants, one white (a passalong) and a second mist flower, a blue, from the sale table at my favorite nursery.  Oregano runs rampant to the far right with parsley and Mexican tarragon on the left.  The black planter behind the bench is filled with thyme.

The paths are nearly all cleared in this shot.  Several planters have been relocated and a few have been elevated to give them more visual impact.  The additional height also holds them up above the constant ground-cover warfare I inevitably encourage.


This strawberry pot has been moved and is taking a shot at becoming a succulent garden.  It's still an investment waiting to pay off, it will take weeks for the succulents to fill out (fill in?) their spaces. I'm hoping this will prove a hospitable warm weather home for the planter and I appreciate that it provides some needed balance for the Blue Guy.  During winter months the planter will be moved to the greenhouse.

That blue Buddha sits atop the broken ceramic post from a bird bath.  The blue post found a second life providing a pedestal so Buddha can ride implacably above the four-o-clocks, columbine, Aztec grass, and whatever else is hiding in there under the Althea tree.


Moving left, behind the bird feeder bed that corner now features cannas, tropical salvia, horse herb, dayflower and an elevated terra cotta planter filled with what I believe to be the dwarf form of sansevieria trifasciata.  There's a flailing grocery store miniature rose in there as well, given one last shot at recovery.

Under the bird feeder, a second strawberry pot, this one in its second year, sits between a potted Makrut lime on the left and some chives on the right.  They help disguise the white base of the pole, a baffle to keep squirrels off.  

What's hard to appreciate at this distance is the goldeneye growing up to the right of the volunteer Meyer lemon tree mid-bed, and the row of blanketflower, now gone to seed on the far right.  There's also purple prairie verbena, wood sorrel, daisies, wire grass, tropical salvia, tradescantia pallida, various rain lilies, coneflowers, a day lily, some heart leaf skullcap and a large rosemary planted in this bed. Once I get every plant established in every bed, hopefully a large (beautiful) pattern will emerge.

This gives you a slightly better glimpse.  That is the bottom half of the bird feeder bed (top left) and the entirety of the bottle tree bed (bottom right).

You can imagine how the cone flowers are going to shine around the blue salvia.  I also have a producing jalapeño plant, mint, garlic chives and basil growing in this area.  Maybe I don't point it out often, but these beds are all for kitchen use as well as wildlife.  There are struggling blackfoot daisy plants, a crag lily, parsley and recently transplanted skullcap (scutellaria suffrutescens) all working things out while the liriope holds court in the corner. Once everything takes it will be splendid, I think.

This is it, an amateur's ongoing attempt to replace lawn with garden beds, captured for the moment, warts and all.

The Death Star is back, the rains have retreated, and there is no longer any play given towards the needs of transplants or new starts.   The active work of installing a better planted mixture of native plants and culinary herbs stops until cooler weather returns.  I hope you've enjoyed taking a look at the layout here.   I certainly look forward to featuring closer shots of these areas as the plantings (and my plans) progress.  Happy summer ya'll!

Blame that sky

It was another morning sky playing around with colors like this that had me upstairs on the balcony for starters.

"While I am up here", I thought, "I might as well take some wide shots.  Just in case." "For the meme!".

So I did.  Then I went out front and took more wide shots there. Like so.

These wide views don't allow much appreciation of new plants recently placed (due to scale) but next year! Next year I'll be happy to point out new blooms in the mix.

 Just to be evenhanded.

Last winter's freeze damage has been erased for the most part.  When it gets a little further into the season I'll feel free to take out a few of what were potentially "replacement" agaves.  That should create more interesting negative spaces in these curbside beds.

Not much new going on anywhere at the moment.  Fall's major blooms are behind us now.  The flurry of transplanting and seeding that characterized September and early October has been replaced by the institution of support services in the form of hand watering and weeding as needed.  Speaking of weeding....

One of the results of editing wide shots was a renewed resolve on my part to get out and weed more.  I have no excuse not to at the moment.  The path and bed weeds are all taking full advantage of my laziness.  Raking those pecan leaves off the front curb and putting them in the compost would be doubly beneficial.

Yup. As October closes out and plants begin to go dormant, these wide shots remind me it is time to do a little less appreciating and a little more maintenance.

The bed to the left of the "bench triangle" is filling in very nicely with new plantings and self seeded wildflowers.  Basil and jalapeno are nearly over, and my attention will turn to the bed on the right hand side where oregano and purpleheart plant masses will be reduced.

Looking at the shot to follow, my attention was drawn to a pretty bold takeover maneuver being attempted by the bristly mallow on the day lily.  "What day lily?" you'd be excused for asking. It is there, over to the right of the miniature rose, completely surrounded by mallow.

Problem solved.  Temporarily at least.  I'm monitoring how assertive the mallow continues to be when it gets colder. Wait, monitoring sounds like lab coats and clipboards.  I'm just keeping an eye on things, trimming runners and pulling out seedlings as needed.  Mallow seedlings come out easily so I'm feeling brave.

While I'm temporarily using a narrowed frame, let's hear it for passalong plants, and natives to boot.  Tina of My Gardener Says is the source for these welcomed natives.  (Thank you, Tina!) Hopefully as time goes by, I'll have my own extras to share.   Out front? Yarrow!

In this instance passalong plants are acting as a "favorites" cognate.  As in, "my favorite kind of beer is cold and free, not necessarily in that order".  Out back? Salvia lyrata sorry, Heartleaf Skullcap!

Now that can read "my favorite kind of plants are passalongs and natives, not necessarily in that order".

Shared plants are part of the repertoire in nearly every bed.  Pavonia! More skullcap!  Maybe a goldeneye?!

We'll see how much sun this spot gets as the oaks continue to grow overhead.  It looked to be a great dappled light spot this year, but these plants were just put into play and next year?  Remains to be seen.  That's part of what keeps gardening from getting boring, yes?

I have passalongs from family, friends, even local interest sites.  I look at those plants and am appreciative for all of it, for all of them.  But I digress.

Here we go, back to the wideness for one last shot.  Bidding a fond farewell to The Hub's Plethora of Potted Plumeria.

They are last legging it, nearly done for the season, and before too long will be taken out of their pots to overwinter.  But not as long as they still sport even one flower.  The Hub won't consider touching them until then.  Plumeria consider it time to go dormant when nighttime temperatures begin to fall into the 50's.  The predicted low last night? 42.

And there you have it.  This post, digression and all, is my end of October - beginning of November contribution to Heather at Xericstyle's monthly wide shot meme.  Hope you'll join in and share your very own wide views of the places you care for.

Widely wonderful

Just a few shots of the front beds for this monthly Wide Shot cycle, hosted by Heather at Xeric Style.

Keeping with our original shoestring budgetary practices, I bought a few four inch pots to supplement the planting beds out front, but I also put out wildflower seed and welcomed passalong plants to help fill in the wide open spaces that used to be nothing more than an expanse of boring lawn and ground covers.

The front curb on the uphill side is holding up pretty well.  There are a few blooms here and there but most of those are in the dappled shade behind the agaves and beyond.  There are bluebonnet seedlings emerging across this area, and I am going to put out more Indian blanket seed in the coming days.

The curb on the down hill side is putting on more of a Fall display.  Turk's cap, lantana, salvia greggii, beauty bush and Mexican honeysuckle on the left side of the second tier of plantings have been supplemented by two small desert ruellia (a woodier less invasive cousin that appeals to local pollinators and so might be an advantage over the native in this case.) and two small salvia leucantha, (another near neighbor that is a well adapted non-native and benefits local pollinators).   By next fall, these new additions should be providing a significant color boost and provide further diversity here.

Here's a closer look showing off that second tier of plantings with a little more specificity.  Waves of rosemary hold a steep slope in place, so that behind them a variety of native plantings can flourish even though the layer of soil here is very thin.

Peeking behind the second tier, down what used to be a well trodden deer path.  Working from the far side we've been putting in plants as barriers to through traffic.  So far, so good.  We are about three quarters of the way finished.

You can see the salvia leucantha closing the gap at about the mid point.  It will hopefully stretch out and further fill in over the coming seasons.   In that wide area just behind the inland sea oats?  Next Spring we'll put in a sumac, or perhaps a persimmon.  Or more datura.  Or more leucantha.  Or datura and leucantha and a sumac!  At least I've got options.  I'll decide when the time comes.

That is that for September here at austin agrodolce.  Short and sweet.  We are thoroughly enjoying Autumn here in Central Texas, and wherever you are? We hope your Fall is filled with promise.

Plans for TransPlantation

The hostessed monthly wide shot meme seems to be missing in action at the moment. Regardless, I'm posting wide shots because I find the discipline of taking in my spaces as a whole on a monthly basis to be very useful, especially when it comes to planning.  And oh boy, do I have plans!

Fall is "get to work" time in Central Texas gardening circles.  New plants dug in and seed spread are able to take advantage of gentler temperatures.  If the weather stays within usual bounds, seasonal rains will water newbies in, helping them get roots established in preparation for the little bit of winter cold and whole lot of summer heat to come.  It can be an exciting time, an opportunity to make changes, and I have lots in mind.

The changes I want to implement reflect my desire to more directly support local pollinators. I'd begun the work last year, putting several native flowering plants out front.  Unfortunately I hadn't taken into consideration how close the overgrowing live oak branches already were to completely shading out those front spaces.  Those trees aren't going anywhere so the solution will have to lie elsewhere.

I realized I need to turn my attention more towards my back garden spaces.  In this overhead view it is apparent I've let well adapted non-native plants take over a lot of my sunniest spaces here.  I intend to address that with a series of substitutions, transplanting out and passing along non-native plants that have become a little too successful where they are.  I'll work to open space for new native plants and have plans to spread seed for others.

Looking out from a flat footed perspective I readily admit I see nothing "wrong" with these back garden spaces as things currently stand.  The problem is more that they no longer accurately reflect my philosophy or priorities.

Take this bed for example.  It is currently dominated by a volunteer Meyer Lemon, rosemary, a bit of verbena and various mostly non-native transplants thrown in there over the past 2 seasons.

I've been delighted to have a self-seeded native "weed", Bristly mallow, (Modiola caroliniana) establish itself along the front left rock edging underneath the bird feeder.  I like its scalloped leaves and the tiny orange flowers it sports in April.  Between my pruning and the birds' attention I feel optimistic I can keep the mallow corralled to this and other areas where I'd like it to function as a ground cover.

The non-native Jewels of Opar (Talinum paniculatum) with their deep taproots are going to be moved to less hospitable spaces.  The ox-eye daisy mounds (Leucanthemum vulgare) and the garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) will be passed along and/or relocated.  A straggly orange daylily will be transplanted into more sun in another bed where it will hopefully partner well with coneflower and wine cup.

The Mexican feathergrass (Nassella tenuissima) might get moved back a bit, but stays in the bed.  There is a small coneflower trying to survive in there, and I hope to get it a little breathing room.  The large throwback orange cosmos in the corner is coming out.  I'll keep trying to dig out recurrent ruellia (whoo boy - I know what puts the "rue" in ruellia!) and a bit of liriope on the other side of the feeder pole rock pile stays put.   I'm not sure what will go in the opened spaces yet but I know I want to use natives.

Looking from the far back, I visualize changes for the rest of these beds as well, but realize I can only get so much done in one growing cycle.  For the next few weeks my focus will be on replanting the sunnier beds closer to the house. These shadier areas will get whatever leftover energy I can muster as cooler weather kicks in.

I'll continue to dig out ruellia, (so much ruellia!) and other pushy plants I originally welcomed that no longer deserve as much space as they've taken.  I have multiplying clumps of variegated liriope I hope to organize into more of an edging effect, some aloe to thin out... Oh, there's plenty of work to do!

As my parting shot, a fond look at the one corner I'm essentially ignoring for the moment where the Hub's plethora of potted plumeria are in full bloom. August is their time to really shine, and our entire family appreciates the way their fragrance dances around on late summer breezes.

And that's officially it for Summer 2014 here at Austin Agrodolce.  It has been a delightful season really, with unexpected rains and not too many triple digit days.  Now, as the weeks of waiting out the heat wind all the way down, I want to state it plainly here in part to hold myself accountable:I intend to rededicate my energies towards using a wider variety of native pollinator friendly plants.

Regular reader, occasional visitor or first time drop in- it is always an honor to have you come along for the ride. I hope you'll stick around to see what comes next!

Widely weeded!

I am absolutely thrilled to post photos of the main garden paths this month.  I want order! I want clear views! And now (for the moment) I have them because the paths that take you into and around the garden beds proper?  They are by golly weeded. At long (LONG) last!  Here's the overhead:

A closer view looking from the northernmost bench.  I never noticed it before but from this angle the view reminds me of the prow of a ship.  A weeded ship.

Batting last for the back views?  A look at CandyLand, where "Gold dust" acuba japonica, Spathiphyllum and bromeliad blooms all brighten the shade.

Heading out front, a glimpse from the top of the drive towards the street.

Monarda citriodora (Lemon beebalm), Ratibida columnifera (Mexican hat) and Ratibida peduncularis (Prairie coneflower) have all gone to seed.  Their sere stems look a bit untidy but I am leaving them unpruned. The birds can have their fill and hopefully knock enough seed to the ground to assure a new crop next year.  My blue "cheater pot" with pink and white vinca provides a pop of color while verything else is biding its time, just coasting through these, the hottest weeks of the year.  We are all, plants and planters alike, looking forward to Fall!

Here is the back of the front view looking towards the street from the other side of the drive:

Tropical sage all along the driveway is just beginning to bloom.  It was knocked down pretty hard by the cold last winter and has been slower than usual coming back.  I'm happy to have it finally reasserting itself and look forward to the cheerful plumes of pink flowers that are on their way.  The view is much better when this slope is in bloom but even without flowers I think this looks much more interesting than lawn.  

And that's it for this month's wide shots.  Thanks as always to Heather of Xericstyle for hosting the meme each month.  If you'd like to be part of the fun, simply post your own wide shots (weeded or not!) and link back to her wide shot post (when it appears) in the comments section.  Hope to see you there.

Now, I'm off with a cup of coffee to sit on my garden benches and enjoy the fruits of my weeding labors.  Have a lovely August, all!   

Widely weedy

Whew! Some months wrap up quickly, don't they?  Whoosh go the days and here we are at the end of June already, time for another wide shot exercise graciously hosted by Heather at Xericstyle.

I'm indulging myself a bit and limiting shots to the back beds this month.  The front is fairly static at the moment and I have this fantasy that if I continue to expose the very weedy paths out back it will keep me extra motivated.  I despair I'll never get completely on top of the weed situation here. If I continue laboring for an hour or more in the early mornings before the sun gets high along with the temperatures, I hope to knock the weeds down to the bare minimum.  And I can live with that.

At the moment the overhead shot shows the paths to be pretty awful in spots. The beds (and path!) have been cleared of primrose, the daisies are finishing up and the purple coneflowers are just beginning to bloom.  Pepper plants are setting fruit, and basil and thyme are flourishing.  Most (but not all) of the isolated green bits in the beds are bluebonnet babies and they get to stay.

I toyed with the idea of allowing succulents to grow in the front of that triangular bed behind the bench but the weeds showed up in force instead. That triangle will have to be cleared back down to the gravel mulch soon.

Here's that back bed to the right. The four-o-clocks are up with tropical sage filling in underneath.  The althea "tree" is loaded with buds and is finally sporting a first bloom.  Aztec grass can just be seen to the far left by the rock edging.  I'm hoping to get that established all along the border eventually for contrast. Here and there in every bed, purple heart plants and Jewels of Opar are providing much appreciated pops of chartreuse and purple amongst the deeper greens.

The flat footed view.  There is a new solar lantern hanging above the bench providing another blue accent.  The crepe myrtles to the right (like the ones all around town) are putting on an especially riotous display of blooms this year. Everything is reflecting the overall vigor that regular rains and slightly cooler temperatures encourage.

A look from the far side of the path up through the three central beds.  Ooof. I'd be a lot happier with this shot if the path to the left was a clear as the path to the right.  I console myself with the (probably nonsensical) idea that as the weeds get a little taller they are that much easier to dig out.

Blah blah more weedy path, blah blah blah.  I love the little purple ball shaped blooms of Liriope on the right. I'm thrilled to have coneflowers showing up after being overrun by Primrose and daisies both. I'm even content to allow that bully Ruellia to have a bit of a go underneath the Senna to the right as ruellia seems immune to grasshopper munching and is offering up flowers at the moment.  I'll have another run at digging those aggressive monsters out after the path work is complete.  I won't get all the roots out though and they'll be back again next year, but for the moment?  All sweetness and light.

Coneflowers!  Sorry - couldn't help myself.  Every year I see these blooming in other better managed spaces for weeks before mine get going and I panic a little and think this, THIS is the year I let things go too far and waited too long to clear air space for my well beloved coneflowers.  But these lovely ladies are tough customers as many Texas natives tend to be, and as soon as I give them a little head room and access to sunlight they are back in business.  So pardon my exuberance but, Yay!  Coneflowers!!

Looking the other direction we have what I think of as the birdhouse and bench corner set up for the season. Impossible to tell at this distance but the Yellow Gold lantana is blooming up a storm, the morning glory and roses are all doing their part while the plumeria plants tease with leaves and more leaves.

Sadly, there is no floral joy to report in Plumeriaville as of yet. The leaves are nice but c'mon guys.  We all know it is your flowers we are after.  Cooperate! Please?

To finish, a not-quite-so-wide shot of the waterfall beds and planters.  Nothing much native going on over here but I like having a splash of tropical color to balance the unbroken green of our plethora of potted plumeria dominating the view across the pool.

And there you have it.  Some whining, a few victories, and a lot of work left to do.  Thanks again to Heather at Xericstyle for hosting the monthly wide shot meme.  It'll be back to closely cropped shots again tomorrow. Trowels crossed by the end of next month I'll be back to display some well cleared pathways with my head held high.    

A Tide of Wide

Posting today as part of Heather at Xericstyle's monthly Wide Shot Meme for June.  Most garden blogging features close up shots of plants at their shiniest with few posts giving the viewer much of an idea of any space in its entirety.  Heather is encouraging us to show it all in one glance, taking a look at what is working (or not) and how the view changes from month to month.

[Why yes, reader, so kind of you to notice, I am on time this month.  Oh, well golly, yes again.  That is twice in a row!  Super organized?  Me?  Pish tosh!]

Where were we...oh yes...beginning with wide shots of the back.  I'll go with what to me is the reveal that makes my palms sweat a bit - the overhead view.

I look at this and immediately focus on how the path barely exists as entity separate from the beds and how every single one of those beds is in sore need of further hours of weeding and thinning out.  This could very easily be the establishing shot for some reality television "Garden Rescue" type show.  I didn't want to include this shot this month but decided to precisely because of my reluctance.  This is what I call keeping it real, folks.

So here I sat, reverting to old bad habits where I look at my garden and view it too narrowly as All Work Yet To Be Done. That approach simply doesn't do justice to garden or gardener.

These spaces are meant to be enjoyed.  Always looking at my beds as only work-to-do is a bit like my child coming in with a 97 on a test and me just asking what question they missed.  (Not that anything like that ever happened at our house, my children are terrible liars. Never listen to them.)

On multiple occasions when I went out intending to weed the paths, the primrose were still in bloom and had bees busily working each blossom.  I told the bees I'd be back later after they'd finished, and well, they simply haven't finished yet.  These aren't solely my garden beds and I try not to forget that.

Next up?

Side shot from another angle.  One of my non-weeding projects is unveiled, a branch and blue bottle edging/hose guard I installed to protect the plants in that bed by the walk.

There has been a longstanding need to protect this bed from the hose and I bravely worked for weeks to supply the necessary bottles elements.  You're welcome, garden! 

Back to our wide views.  This is the view flat footed. You can see how happy everything is after getting a three inch soaking and to have apparently forgotten it is living in Central Texas.  Love those late May rains - even the mostly spent by now bluebonnets are optimistically hanging out a few last flowers.

A return glimpse of the back corner.  The Grandpa Ott morning glory is taking off and the Plethora of Potted Plumeria are leafing out nicely.  The Hub got these potted up earlier than the year before and we're keeping fingers crossed for more numerous flowers to admire from the safety of the cool water alongside.

A look at the front curb on the upper side of the drive.  The agave are continuing to recover from a combination of antlering and freezing weather. Both took a toll on their previously pristine spikes.  Monarda, mealy blue sage, lavender and society garlic are the eye-catchers of the moment, though I'll admit a fondness for the wooly exuberance of rosemary after two good soaking rains last month.

Speaking of rosemary in exuberance - the downhill slope features waves of it, punctuated by spaces where I'm working to establish blooming native perennials.  This strip was consistently blocked by construction trucks for two years as home renovations were in progress across the street.  This is the first summer since completion and I'll use the time and access to prune, purge, and plan. New plantings will be seeded or set in this coming Fall.

You can see sprengeri fern (Asparagus densiflorus) cascading off the upper beds.  This had been planted before we moved in.  Birds and falling berries have redistributed it widely.  I don't mind a bit.  It is a tough plant the deer won't touch, the birds love the bright red berries and the light green color lasts throughout the hottest days of summer.

Speaking of which...  This is a wide shot I can lose myself in.  Beautiful Texas skies at the end of May, not yet dominated by the soon-to-appear Summertime Death Star.  It climbed into the high 80's this afternoon, a reminder it won't be long until we are all drooping from the heat. But just for now?  It is all sweetness, this light!

Take a walk on the wide side

I'm on time for Heather at Xericstyle's Wide Shot this month (note to self: Once! Don't let it go to your head!).  In getting these shots I experienced a series of little shocks.  Not any the earth moved, change my outlook on life stuff, but I did garner insight on the way I view my garden spaces, which to my mind explains a lot about how they've ended up looking.  More on that in a moment.

First up?  To ease the nerves I feel at exposing myself so mercilessly with these wide shots I'm going to start out with two cheater close-ups of a couple of recent victories here.

I've transplanted this little sumac tree twice now.  The first time I moved it out from under a large yaupon and stuck it into one of my favorite blue pots as part of the triad design rules (1 thriller, 1 filler, 1 spiller).  The sumac was my thriller, and thrilled I was when it took to its new home.  The second transplant came when I rather rudely yanked it, root bound, back out of the pot.  I planted it out front and was thrilled a second time to see it survived the winter.  If I can keep the deer from browsing it to pieces, (the reason for the ugly mini-fencing) I think this will be its forever happy place.

Also?  I have several irises I brought with me when we moved back "home" to Austin.  They have been shifted around our lot multiple times over the years, always in search of the right spot, each transplant restarting the "two years in place before I'll bloom" clock.

I've been envious of the iris shots on everybody else's blogs lately so I hope you'll pardon me for intruding on the wide shot meme space just long enough to do this.  Ta da!  Iris!! (I do jazz hands when I read that aloud - you feel free to join me or sit silently shaking your head.  Your call.)

OK - back to bidness.  The wide shots.

A followup shot of the curb beds up the hill from the drive.  Bluebonnets are setting seed and the damianita is taking center stage.  Lavender is blooming but you have to lean over to see it.

The view out front all the way down the hill.  Except for right around the mailbox and up in the walled beds this used to be a swath of St. Augustine.  No matter what I've got going here now or how it looks, I count it as a total victory that there is no more lawn.  No. More. Lawn!

Wide shot of the back bed, flat footed.  Meyer lemon trees in the white pots on either side of the bench releafed to our relief, as they were damaged by the cold despite our wrappings.  Fingers crossed they'll set fruit again.

And now the aerial view - an overhead of that same back bed.  Bluebonnets here are setting seed, the primroses as well though they still have blooms. Daisies are up, joined by our first yellow coneflowers.  Four-o-clocks are re-emerging, as are garlic chives and jewels of Opar.

Looking the other direction, a first glimpse of the Hub's recently re-established plethora of potted plumeria.  This has become an annual project for him and though I don't love the early views, the flowers to come will well reward the wait.

Finally, just for grins, a shot looking up the path I almost always regard from the opposite direction.  Reaching up above the blooms please note the bottle tree in the background juxtaposed with a staked bottle brush tree in the foreground.  This is my first attempt at a garden pun and it never fails to bring a smile to my face.

Which brings me back to the insight I gained after forcing myself to go wide with the views this month.  I very rarely look at my garden spaces in toto. The labor of maintaining a garden can be daunting, especially when factoring in a limit to my outdoor access.

Rather than allow myself to be overwhelmed, I've developed the habit of focusing on one small pocket of space at a time, broken away from all the others.  It results in a "to-do" list that is, well, "doable".  The danger enters when I employ every glance at the garden spaces solely to assess work to be done.  In my case, what begins as coping mechanism can easily morph into a character flaw.  I now must consciously refuse to allow the beauty in these beds to be reduced, in my viewing, to a job site.

So a sincere "thank you Heather!" goes out for hosting the wide-shot meme.  It allowed me a broader look at not only my garden spaces, but also at how I approach them.  I resolve here and now to (try! try to!) spend at least as much time lost in admiration of the "work" that goes on in nature without my intervention as I spend time lost in planning what comes next.  This next month I'll attempt something new to me - gardening as both a journey and a destination.