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It’s not quite pruning time in the garden yet again, but it was pruning time in our house this week! We waited until after the Daddy-Daughter Ball, and then we cut Kallie’s hair. We donated 11 inches to Locks of Love where they make wigs for children who’ve lost their hair due to various diseases.
She loves it, and while I was briefly traumatized, (I walked into the salon with a little girl and walked out with a big girl), it’s so stinkin’ cute that I’m thrilled. And no tangles. And it looks perfect from the minute she wakes up in the morning. Yeah.

NEW BLOG!

We have a new Austin blog, and I hope you’ll go check it out. It’s Austin Urban Gardener and looks great. Hope to see you there.

Anyone recognize these faces from our visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center last weekend during the Spring Fling?

I went back this week for the members preview of their annual Wildflower Days plant sale and picked up a few things for my garden. The lines are long (but move) and the parking is about a mile away, but it’s for a great cause and I love to go and see all the native plants in one place with throngs of people supporting the cause. Makes me smile.

I got some Blackfoot Daisy (Melampodium leucanthum), Four Nerve Daisy (Tetraneuris scaposa), Drummond Phlox (Phlox drummondii), and a Wild Onion (Allium canadense) — to add to the new wildflower bed to REPEL the deer!
So, now they just need to be planted! But, I am so proud to report that instead of planting them today, I actually WEEDED the vegetable garden. (This is my least favorite thing to do in the garden.) But since they are fresh, new beds, it’s easy and I know if I can keep on top of it I will be some much happier come Summer. Next I need to put some more newspaper down and mulch around the plants as the soil is warm enough now for everything.
These plants, ordered from catalogs, also need to be planted. They include toad lilies, Spiderwort, Crinum lilies and a few other unusual things.

Unfortunately, I am STILL waiting on my RUSH daylily order of a month ago, because they apparently don’t think I should be planting yet. I got an opportunity to email and request early shipping, but haven’t heard a word back from them since I did that 2 weeks ago. I think I am going to cancel the whole order and just try to find the plants locally. I met someone at the Zilker Garden Fest who was from Lockhart and grew and sold daylilies, but didn’t get a card. I ordered 8 different varieties, though, so now I will have to go on the hunt. Suggestions, anyone?

Here is the last little trickle of photos from the Garden Bloggers Spring Fling.

These photos were taken at the David/Peese garden that we toured on Saturday in the glorious Texas sunshine.

The garden was so rich and full of amazing sights, it’s actually quite difficult to describe in words. Which is why they say a picture is worth a thousand words. So, enjoy these pictures and I’ll let them speak for themselves.

We had big storms blow through here last night, with heavy rain and frightening winds waking me at 2:30 a.m. I spent the rest of the night 1/2 awake, worried that my tropical hanging baskets were being pelted and that the tall plumerias and the lime tree would have toppled over and be rolling around the patio. Luckily, it’s just wet and cool outside and the plants all survived. I think the tropicals are wondering where in the world that cold weather came from, but they should be fine. It’s supposed to clear up by noon and heat right up to 88 degrees this afternoon.

As the Spring Fling participants can now officially attest (with a cold dip to the 50s and hail Friday morning that schizophrenically morphed into upper 70s the same day), if you don’t like the weather in Texas, just wait a minute — it’ll change!

After our lovely tour of the Wildflower Center, we headed to lunch and sat silently as Tom Spencer inspired us with his insight about the sanctuary of our gardens and the bonds we all share.

Then we trekked over to the Natural Gardener for some eye candy that included amazing plants and garden do-dads, and an amazing vegetable garden, herb garden, labyrinth, butterfly garden, chickens and donkeys. I know the Flingers who drove were happy to be able to squirrel away something in their cars and those who flew were wondering just what would get confiscated if they tried to sneak something home in their luggage!

This is the beautiful herb garden.

Sorrel and a lovely yellow poppy.

Spineless cactus.

Then we sped over to the David/Peese garden paradise which truly is indescribable.

A little posing for the shutterbug!
Bloggers scatter to find beautiful garden treasures.
For people who write so much, we sure were good at talking this weekend.
A stunning red maple understory tree.

An amazing water feature — we all agreed we could have sat and looked at this all day.

See the goldfish looking back at us?

This is the long shot down the steps to that particular water feature.

Looking up the steps from the water feature.

Top of the steps and the back of the house.

Don’t ask me what happened with my centering and justifying, I’m just glad I got the photos and the commentary on my blog.

I hope this helped you feel like you were here. We thought of you – and wish you could have joined us. Maybe next time! We were all in agreement when it was over that we’d love to make it an annual event. What do you think? Are you up for an annual Garden Bloggers Retreat somewhere?

Oh, what fun! The Spring Fling, by all accounts, exceeded our wildest expectations.

It was a beautiful day – cool in the morning – for Austin, at least – at 49F, and then it warmed up to 80F. So our guests got a good taste of the range of Austin weather. For those who were here on Friday morning, some experienced a fast-moving cold front that brought with it wind and rain and hail, a 20 degree cool-down, and then blew out of here a few hours later as quickly as it came in.

We started on Saturday at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center with a docent tour to learn about Lady Bird and her efforts to beautify our country, and to get a great overview of our unique Texas native plants. Here, Flingers are checking out the water plants in the pond at the entrance to the center.
Our docent tells everyone about this spineless cactus native to Texas. For a lovely tour of her own garden, check out Pam’s post of a small private tour she gave some folks on Friday as an early event.
The bright Texas sun starts to show itself as bloggers listen.
Looking at the natural spring at the entrance to the center.
The spring, surrounded by native grasses.
From this tower vantage point, you can see wildflowers blooming all over the central Texas Hill Country.
Blogger perusing the grounds.
A blooming yucca stands at attention for us!
More plant inspections. We were a tough crowd for a tour guide – we couldn’t stop visiting with each other and everyone had detailed questions and answers about all the plants.
Tiny baby grapes cover the arbor along the pathway.
An acacia tree waves it’s golden branches at us.
A cactus with little babies.
A stunningly beautiful field of poppies had us all in awe.

Ok – that’s the first sneak peek of the day — I have in-laws here visiting from Indiana and since I bailed on them Friday and Saturday for “flinging,” my posts will be in fits and starts today.

But I wanted to give you a little taste, and I’ll try to be back later in the day for more show and tell, because there is so much to share with you.