Thinking about clutter makes me think
about spaces...today I am tired of the indoors and ready to write
about the outdoors instead.
I have a large corner lot with lots of
space in my backyard. Theoretically I could garden up a storm, but I
do live in Texas and have been through multiple “hottest summers on
record” in the last six years. I am thoroughly in awe of Texan
gardeners who keep up beautiful gardens. We have pests, diseases,
freezes, and 100-degree+ days, not to mention the fascist yet
necessary watering restrictions. So I have the large yard with some
nice old trees, but the ornamental plants are not what I would have
in the garden of my dreams. It's not like I haven't tried to
personalize the spaces—the afternoon summer sun has killed probably
three lavenders, a verbena, an Indian paintbrush, and possibly more.
I'm not sure how these same plants survive and blossom in other
yards. I call mine a “hot backyard” and for the most part have
put my gardening dreams on hold until I move somewhere else.
What do thrive are Turks caps, which
are okay, but they seem like a 1970s plant. (They were there when I
moved in.) I did put in some survivors--Copper Canyon daisies (very
fragrant), Lantana, rosemary, another yellow daisy-type,
prickly-pear, and then a plant that said Jerusalem Sage but came out
having purple flowers instead of yellow. It's very fragrant
and aggressive. Hope it's not an invasive on the no-no list. Despite
these few survivors, I have decided it's too much time and heartbreak
over dead plants to make over my yard space, at least on my own. I
have felt comforted by hearing the folks on Central Texas Gardener
say that folks have taken serious hits to their gardens the last few
years. While I see others with tidier, livelier gardens, it's
difficult to find the plants that survive and thrive in this drought.
Though I sound pretty fatalistic about
my yard, I actually love gardening under different conditions. In
Colorado we had a 90-day growing season and I obsessed over planting
my summer flower garden, sometimes from seed. It was a short show, but
I easily had stand-out beautiful beds each year, sometimes featuring
a row of tall sunflowers in the back. Texas is a whole other
world and I haven't quite adapted or found the energy to fight for a
great garden here. Perhaps if my space were smaller and more
manageable, I could focus my energy on keeping a limited number of
plants alive and well.
I will say that I've never lived in a
state with such enthusiastic gardeners. I mean, our local PBS station
has a weekly regional gardening show mentioned earlier, Central
Texas Gardener. I've never seen that type of local program
anywhere else. We also have a master gardeners' program, a garden
society, seminars, etc. Here people are serious about their gardens,
which is thoroughly impressive given all the problems year-round. I salute you, Texas gardeners.
Maybe your backyards have more shade, but clearly you are skilled and
working hard to keep things looking so good.
Despite the brutal afternoon sun, I hope to get back to gardening sometime soon. Nature is so healing, and it's all the more fun to be a designer and watch things pop up over a few weeks. When or how I'll get back to it, I don't know, but a garden is a serious must-have in my ideal outdoor space. Because I agree with what my mother says--plants are healing for the soul.
