May 1, 2014

Express Yourself + Pond from Swimming Pool

Like the paint and furniture we pick inside, gardens are snapshots of ourselves. I like bold surprises, so am thrilled that Amaryllis ‘San Antonio Rose’ joined the bulb parade this week.

I wish I were indeed bold enough to paint my house the color of passalong Byzantine gladiolus.

I was surprised when this winecup turned out white. I didn’t plan this scene with pink evening primrose, but I sure appreciate it.

My latest find is a little picture in a pot: ‘Little Pickles’ (Othonna capensis), a succulent from South Africa. I mixed decomposed granite into loose potting soil for a container that won’t need much water this summer. Grower Tom Peace confirms cold hardiness to 0°.

Every fall, I get emails asking about the vibrant coral pink flowers trailing over fences and climbing skyward on any available host: Queen’s wreath/Coral vine (Antigonon leptopus).

This week, Daphne explains how to grow this perennial vine (though usually winter dormant) for traffic-stopping flowers in late summer through fall. It’s a traffic jam for bees and butterflies, too.

And I positively adore this little frame at Paco’s Tacos.

Native plants express themselves to attract pollinators, like Baptisia bracteata that Kimberly Wieberg spotted near Houston. I hit up Houston award-winning author and blogger Cherie Colburn for the ID.

Indoors, we accent that furniture and paint with strategic houseplants. This week, John Dromgoole shows how to propagate your favorites.

And check this out!  That pencil actually rooted. We didn’t get a good shot, so Brandi Blaisdell at The Natural Gardener took this for us.

To excite our imagination with garden art, Chris Smartt from Sol’stice Garden Expressions in Dripping Springs joins Tom this week.

At Sol’stice, his mom Irene Anderson runs the nursery, selecting mostly locally grown plants that defy drought and deer.

She also selects gorgeous hand-made jewelry and other accents to express your “ensemble” and your home. Chris presents garden art from renowned designers, along with his custom crafted bird baths, fountains, sculptures, gates, tables and fire pits, to name a few!

He shows us how to power up a view.

And how his kids’ discarded CDs inspired a trip back to the shop.

The trick to garden art, he tells us, is selective placement to enchant.

Chris designed this fire pit.

He crafted this charming totem from recycled finds.

He reminds us that the super trick with recycled finds is to give them credence with a place and personality of their own. One object can be clutter; a scene enchants.

Oh, about art on trees: this week Daphne answers Nancy Smith’s great question, “Can we put a nail into a tree?” Find out why Daphne says it’s perfectly fine on a mature tree.

On tour, Irene Anderson got fed up with the maintenance-hog swimming pool that came with her house in Wimberley. She even told husband John McMillan that she wanted to flat out move to get away from it.

Instead, her son Chris Smartt and business partner at Sol’stice Garden Expressions had an idea: turn it into a native habitat pond!

John’s daughter Sarah McMillan and husband Clinton Robertson, biologists for the Texas Parks and Wildlife River Studies program, guided its self-sustaining design.

Chris and his kids gently caught native fish for the natural ecology.

After they covered the concrete surround with rocks, Irene tucked in low-water plants.

Tucked against native plants for wildlife, Chris added subtle, yet never-dormant art handmade art.

This mushroom is acid-stained concrete with bits of recycled glass.

Here’s another mounted on cedar.

Take the whole tour now!

Thanks for stopping by! See you next week for hot popping summer color. Linda

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