Zanthan Gardens
Week by Week in the Garden: Week 48: 11/26 - 12/2

December 3rd, 2006
Week 48: 11/26 - 12/2

2006-12-02. The leaves of one banana froze but not its pups or the plant next to it. I won’t manage to get the banana leaves through winter so I didn’t bother to cover them. I did try a new method of wrapping the leaves around the trunks as extra protection.

Dateline: 2006
After being set into a flurry of precautionary activity all week by dire predictions of freezing temperatures in the mid-20s, I watched the thermometer drop to 31 for three hours from 4AM to 7AM Friday (12/1). That was it. Our first freeze of this winter. I know all you to the northeast of us weren’t so lucky. The frost-tender cosmos are still flowering. The hardier Fatsia japonica had a mixed reaction: its top-most leaves look like cooked spinach but the rest of it, including tiny new sprouts along the trunks, look fine. The tall four o’clocks crumpled but the short ones are untouched. Our second hard freeze is forecast for tonight but this false alarm has lulled me into complacency.

I did bring the potted plants in, the lemon, the aloes, and some cuttings I’m trying to root. I spent 5 hours cleaning out the unheated room along the back porch that room we idealistically refer to sometimes as the garden room or the library. For the last year it has been the staging area for the various components of the kitchen remodel and filled with drywall, flooring, a sink and dishwasher yet to be installed and the current home of our refrigerator. I was pleasantly surprised to find a room under all that mess.

On Sunday (12/3) I harvested our first cilantro of the season because AJM was making chicken tortilla soup. I also made a small salad of lettuce thinnings. The lettuce came up thickly; I don’t remember having any luck with it before and was overly enthusiastic with my seeding. I had to pick my tomatoes when they were green. I planted this tomato the first week in late September that high temperatures dropped out of the 100s because highs above 90F and lows above 70F inhibit fruit set. But the tomatoes didn’t have time to ripen. Some years our fall season is longer and I’ve gotten plenty of tomatoes. Judging Austin’s growing season by its last and first frost dates is a bit misleading.


Dateline: 2004

2004-12-02. Butterfly on Fatsia japonica which is blooming again this year.

Dateline: 2003
December began with the first freeze of the year. These last two days have been clear and cold. AJM and I brought the potted plants indoors, but I forgot to cover the papaya seedling and it got nipped. So did the Brugmansia and the bananas. Otherwise not much damage. I’m looking forward to clearing out the garden for the season. I’m tired of the overgrown look.

For the first time ever the Fatsia japonica is blooming. It’s a fan of the 20 extra inches of rain we’ve had so far this year. The blooms are attracting, butterflies, moths, wasps, and flies. I’ve never seen so many flies attracted to a plant.

I ate the last persimmon today. The roses are blooming. In addition to flowers, ‘New Dawn’ is producing a nice crop of rose hips. I wish the leaves would hurry up and fall so that the roses could get some sunlight before it gets too cold for them to bloom. ‘Penelope’ and ‘Prosperity’ are doing well this year.

Oh, and a lone bluebonnet began blooming on November 18th confused by the rain and wet weather. The downpours over Thanksgiving washed out a lot of seedling bluebonnets. And I haven’t seen any larkspur, yet. But it germinates when the days are warm and the nights are cold, so maybe I’ll get some soon.

I tend to like roses with a warm apricot glow like ‘Gruss an Auchen’. But, the cool delicate pink of ‘Souvenir de St. Anne’s’ is also a favorite. [2006-12-02. Both of the roses have since died.]

Dateline: 2002
After coming close to a freeze last week, the weather’s warmed up again. I’m still trying to replant various Narcissus bulbs which I divided last spring, after their leaves had died down.

The Brugmansia, Dolichos lablab, and Pandorea ricasoliana continue to be in full bloom.

Several of the roses are blooming. ‘Blush Noisette’ is the most prolific. Both ‘Madame Joseph Schwartz‘ and the lemon-scented ‘Ducher‘ are blooming well for the first time, with large blossoms. [2006-12-02. Both of the roses have died in 2006. Last month I replaced 'Ducher' but planted it on the opposite side of the yard.]‘Souvenir de St. Anne’s’ and ‘Penelope’ have produce a bud here and there. The cold weather tends to deepen the color of many of these roses.

Dateline: 1985
Austin had its first really chill night last night. It got down to the 20s. Today it is cold and crisp and beautiful. It’s the same kind of cold as a snow cold. I don’t know why–maybe because the sun is shining. It doesn’t get in your bones the same way as other kinds of cold. A snow cold always invoigorates me. I love this kind of cold. We should be Christmas shopping.

by M Sinclair Stevens in Austin, Texas