Summer Sun and Wide Open Spaces

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.