Zanthan Gardens
Weblog of a Central Austin Garden

I didn’t spend much time in the garden in July. We had enough rain during the first couple of weeks that I didn’t need to spend every morning watering. Then we were away on vacation. Although the garden looked like a jungle before we left, I was unprepared for the explosion of green that greeted us on our return. Other than immediately mowing the lawns, I avoided going into the garden all last week.

Like many of life’s overwhelming tasks, weeding is best tackled a bit at a time, but with consistent effort. I figured that the yard has done allright without me for over a month, so rather than be distracted by the massive amount of work to be done, yesterday I started weeding just one bed.

I worked at it an hour and then quit. Today I did the same on the bed adjoining. A wonderful feeling of accomplishment comes of controlling the weeds in two small spaces. Tomorrow I’ll do another.

In a typical summer, the six weeks following Independence Day is season special to the south that I call “the Dead of Summer”. Until autumn rains sweep up from the Gulf (beginning the last week of August when we’re lucky) our gardens are at their bleakest. Temperatures top 100 degrees. Rain is nil. Although the 100 degree days average ten a summer, in 1991 we had 40. And rains never came. Ditto 1990.
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The drumstick onions take forever to unfurl. I’m always disappointed in the beginning and then end up being won over by their odd charms.

From the catalog description: Deep pink-reddish flowers. Height 32 inches. Late spring flowering. Plant 6 inches deep and 3 inches apart.

Zanthan Gardens History

1998-11-24
Planted the ornamental drumstick onions that I purchased from Dutch Gardens.

1998-12-01
Sprouted. (About 1 week).

1998-12-13
Rapidly attained a height of 10 to 12 inches with dark, straight, narrow leaves. They have a much neater habit than the A. neapolitanum and for that reason, I prefer them in the meadow. However, they weren’t supposed to bloom until late summer or fall. I was hoping they would replace the larkspur, But they are up before the larkspur and I might have to pull any larkspur I planted there so that it doesn’t compete and overshadow them.

1999-05-05
First flowers. On stems 30 to 36 inches tall. They tease for a long time in bud, then lose a papery case around the flowers and turn a lovely reddish-purple from the top down. They are very strange-looking and I like them.

2002-06-13
This year the first flowers began well after all the spring annuals had faded. Supplemental watering has lengthened the bloom period and resulted in larger flower heads.

2002-10-29
Dig up one clump that was weedy and divide and replant it. The leaves are about 8 inches long and the roots are well-established, but they didn’t seem to mind the transplanting very much.

Just as I’m beginning to take garden planning more seriously, just as I’m installing more hardscaping and thinking about garden bones, just as I go in search of a shrubbery, I pick up this little book which says, more or less, “Forget design. It’s about the flowers.”

This book is not so much about gardening as it is about the game of lists. If your garden was a blank slate, if you could plant anything you wanted to grow (but only if you grew it from seed), what would you plant?

I’m not sure I can even come up with a 100 plants to grow from seed at this point in my gardening career. I’m not very good at raising things from seed. But, I’ll have a go at making a list of my own. Why don’t you add a comment and tell me what you would grow.
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Any gardener with a small garden learns to borrow visual elements in the landscape beyond the garden’s borders. When I look up from my desk, the path through the meadow leads my eye to the trunk of a huge live oak tree in the yard behind mine, and to the screen of mixed green shrubbery beyond. In front of the chainlink fence, I’ve planted a mix of flowering shrubs that disguises the boundaray rather than a hedge that would call attention to it. This creates an illusion that the back yard is twice as deep as it is. The neighbor has a old stucco outbuilding that complements the scene.
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Photo Gallery Rainlilies

In Austin, it’s just not a Memorial Day weekend without some severe weather. Having been cheated out of the last two predicted chances for rain, I didn’t even look at the forecast. Then at 1:11 AM, I was awakened by pouring rain and thunder. It rained for a good twenty minutes, resulting in more than an inch of rain. I got up, just to go outside and smell it.

This morning, the rain barrel is full and the entire yard looks fresh again. The rain sifts through the sand of the new paths and makes them even and clean. All the mulch I spread yesterday is also evenly sifted over the beds. The smell of the damp earth is intoxicating. Best of all, there is a chance for more rain this afternoon.

Sadly, ‘Sneezy’ bloomed in my garden only once and then disappeared. Experiences like this persuade me that I’d be better off just forgetting the garden and buying cut flowers instead.

Dateline: 2002
The bearded irises have really begun blooming this week, beginning with ‘Altruist’ on April 8th, then ‘Champagne Elegance’ on April 9th, and ‘Incantation’ today.

Whenever an iris opens, I fall in love with it, forsaking all others.

Zanthan Gardens History

Monday March 19, 2000
Among my Schreiner’s order this year, one ‘Altruist’ ($7.50).

2001-04-11. Second to bloom in this row. It is not very blue, but more lavender. It is more flouncy and more open than “Mystic’s Muse’, matching the description from Schreiner’s quoted above. I brought them both to work today and their colors complement.

2002
2002-04-08.
First flower of 2002 on ‘Altruist’ and first flower this year of all the bought irises.

2002-04-22.
Altruist has produced some spectacular stalks, each with many flowers. As for the note above, it only seemed less heavy because it was not fully open.

2002-06-02
One of the Altruist rhizomes had rot. Dug up five rhizomes and soaked them in a mild bleach solution, then replanted them in the front square. The one that had rot was one that already bloomed, so it should probably be thrown out. It was small and didn’t have any babies. One other was very small and three were good sized and will probably bloom next year.

Thursday April 10, 2003
First flower of 2003.

Monday April 5, 2004
First Flower. Iris ‘Atruist’ is also the first flower of all the bought irises.

Tuesday August 28, 2018
Schreiner’s no longer carries this iris.

A native of China, Indian hawthorn Rhaphiolepis Indica is ubiquitous in traditional suburban landscapes and commercial landscapes here in Austin. Why? Because it is a tough, evergreen shrub that can be used in a hedge. It doesn’t wilt in the summer; its glossy leaves always seem fresh and cool. In late spring, it is covered with small, pale pink flowers. After a frost, some leaves turn a bright orange or red, but like live oaks, the old leaves remain until the new leaves push them out.
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