The Squirrel Saga continues.  Saturday afternoon, I was sitting on the couch with my son, analyzing a new costume piece I was sewing for him.  Suddenly, I heard a loud crash right behind me which nearly caused me to hit the ceiling!  Having a sneaky suspicion, I was right (don't ask me how I knew, I just knew)...the squirrel had jumped onto the window screen behind the couch.  This is no easy feat.  It meant he had to leap from the deck, pretending to be Superman, and hopefully grab onto the window screen, which is two stories above the ground.  

Neither my son now I could believe this audacious squirrel!  He turned around and looked right at us through the window! He knew no fear!

Then, with the agility of Superman, he leapt back onto the deck and tried to get into our back door!

He looked at us right through the door.  Daringly, he once again leapt onto the window screen.  I forget how it all came to an end, but he finally left. I told my husband about it later and he couldn't believe it.  He asked to see my pictures.  I'm glad I had proof!  The next morning he told me he thought he knew why the squirrel was acting so strange.  Apparently my husband had moved a pile of acorns he had seen the squirrel bring into the yard.  He thought the earlier action of the squirrel laying out on the deck railing was his way of guarding his acorns.  Furthermore, my husband surmised, the attack at the window screen was his bold warning that we were to leave his territory alone!  Supporting the crazy squirrel, I told my husband to leave that squirrel's acorns in the yard. It's such a little thing for him to keep acorns there. It's his winter stockpile, which is important to him.  My husband laughingly agreed. Hopefully, this is the end of the Squirrel Saga.

     My husband looked out our kitchen window this morning and called me to see our squirrel.

He might be enjoying all the new trees my husband recently planted. We purchased eight at Lowes for less than we would have for one at any of the other nearby nurseries. He planted cherry, dogwood, crabapple, two maples and three cypress. Perhaps he's merely enjoying all the autumn color coming into profusion. My husband thinks he's contemplating the perfect spot for the hoard of acorns he usually brings into the yard. 

Aren't they gorgeous?  

      Another problem caught during inspection was that the gate had no latch.  My husband fixed that. I'd like to get one of the ball and chain weights from Colonial Williamsburg. What are those called? Isn't it neat I have a picket fence like CW?  My son thinks we should paint the fence white. I don't want to be repainting it all the time, especially with an HOA to please.  The rustic look works for me. However I've teased "Tom Sawyer" he can get the white wash out and get started. He replies this should be a group project! (He has no idea how funny he is!)  My goal is to ultimately build beds along the fence line. I'd like to plant my seeds from Monticello gardens there.  I'd like to even try bluebonnets! I think it's too late for seeds. I've decided to use the time to research which plants grow here and what the bloom time is. (I got a great book on Mid-Atlantic gardening at Montpelier, to get me started.) So far there is always something blooming in Virginia, though not as many now as there had been.  While I was at Montpelier with a friend I kept saying, "Virginia smells sooooo good!"  I tell my husband and kids this every time we go to Colonial Williamsburg too!  

 Here is a close up of the fuschia that is hanging under our deck.

     We got to visit my next door neighbor's bluebirds today!  He has a special birdhouse for them. It's built to simulate the bluebird's favorite home, an abandoned hole in the tree that had been pecked out by a woodpecker. The hole has to be small and a certain dimension. Inside the platform is a certain depth below the hole.  Our neighbor opened the front panel of the birdhouse and we got to see the hungry cuties.

   Daddy bluebird watched from the playscape in our backyard. 

     As we walked back to the house, I noticed that one of my peonies is opened!  Pink!  My favorite color!  The rest are still buds.  Actually, this one is not fully opened yet. 

While MIL was visiting, we decided to spend some time at Brackenridge Park.  While there, I wanted to go to the Japanese Tea Garden.  I used to love to go here while I was growing up.  Sadly, when I brought my dc here about 8 years ago, the gardens were dead, dry and destroyed.  I was heartbroken.  Then a few months ago I found out that the gardens had been renovated and opened!  We had to go!

In the 1800's, this was the site of a rock quarry and cement company.  Here are the old kilns.  

And here's the top...

After the rock quarry relocated, the site was transformed into a lovely Japanese Tea Garden.  The garden was taken care of by a Japanese family until WWII when they were sent to an interment camp.  The name was changed to the Chinese Sunken Garden and a Chinese family became the caretakers.  In the 1990's, the garden's name was restored to the Japanese Tea Garden in a special ceremony, honoring family members of the original caretakers.  I could not find either the old Chinese entrance I remembered as a child or the new Japanese entrance that was added in the 1980's.  Since it's only recently been renovated, it will become more lush and full over the years, and koi will multiply prodigiously. However, the gardens have been beautifully restored.  Enjoy.

To celebrate my 200th blog entry, I thought I'd share a peak into my garden.  Enjoy!

Although the world seemed to be caught up in Earth Day the other day, I didn't give it much thought.  I guess I try to be a good steward of my environment every day, so I don't do anything different on Earth Day.  I am thankful that my city has a curb side recycling program which has recently expanded to be easier and include more recyclable materials.  I do other things, like reusing old clothing for rags. Better used clothing gets donated to charity.  I send unused things to the thrift store for a small price which I set and earn back.  When we purchased our house in 2000, it apparently met some green standards which saved us some money but I don't remember all the details.  I do remember that it was built with Hardiplank which is made from cement, has a 50 year guarentee; it's quite durable!  This is probably the best product on our house.  However, being a gardener, I can't imagine being more green, than going literally green with plants!

To go green with plants, one needs to select the ones best suited for their area.  Around here that means Xeriscaping.  That usually conjures images of cactus and stones.  It doesn't have to.  I took pictures of my garden yesterday to show where it's at now and to show what is "green" about all the green!  And they are all green, despite the heat (over 100 degrees in the summer, sometimes for weeks), despite the sun (almost daily), and despite the droughts (which we are in now...only 3" of rain since New Year's and not much since last September.)  In other words, Xeriscaping can be very green! 

I have antique roses (peach) which are called such because they have withstood the test of time. They were found neglected on the sides of the road or on deserted properites, flourishing with blooms.  Salvia greggii (red) is quite drought tolerant.  After a few months it gets scraggly looking so I cut it back and it comes right back again.  Summer phlox is so drought tolerant, that all of mine are transplants from my mom's garden in the middle of the summer, and then future divisions spread throughout my gardens over the years.  When they are completely spent in the autumn I cut them back and they pop back in the winter.  My phlox is not yet blooming, it is still growing, in the front. 

My herb garden.  I have chocolate mint, orange mint, regular mint, lavendar, lemon basil, lime basil, French thyme, rosemary and more.  These are Mediterranean plants that have endured dry growing conditions from ancient times.  It's also green to save gas from driving to the grocery store, buying plastics full of herbs from off the shelf and saves money!  As an added bonus, they add more flavor to cooking than dried herbs!  Also see all that stone!  Those are all the stones I have dug out of the property (dh was in Korea for a year when we bought the house; he hopped on the plane a few hours after we signed the papers and got the key!  We had just enough time to drive to our first house, he carried me over the threshhold, then we picked up the kids at my mom's and drove him to the airport.)  Anyway, dry creek beds are part of the Xeriscape scenery around here and I didn't have to pay a penny to haul them in.  I chose to put it here, because that is where the dripline from our 2 story roof is.  We had a lot of rain when we first moved in and there had been a lot of erosion going on.  That is no longer a problem!  

One of the bushy green plants is a Sky Plant which grows prodigiously every year!  It gets purple flowers in the summer and turns to yellow berries in the autumn. The hummingbirds and butterflies love this plant. Well, they love all of the flowers.  The pink flowers are more antique roses. My vegetable garden is in a row at the bottom of the hill.  This area gets a lot of sunlight.  When we first moved here, I had this hill and I knew it would be  unsafe to mow. So I took the extra bricks from our house construction that I found in the garage and laid it around the perimeter of the yard.  There are now railroad timbers at the bottom of the hill to hold the dirt in.  The beauty of this is that it allows for raised bed gardening.  This allows one to easily amend the soil (around here it is heavy clay filled with all those rocks (that you saw in the previous picture).  Then I layer with mulch (more on that later) to conserve water.  You might even be able to notice some black hoses in the gardens.  These are drip hoses.  Merely watering by hand is not as efficient as drip irrigation. With drip irrigation, you can allow lots of water to slowly settle deeply into the ground, where you want the roots to grow to obtain moisture. These deep roots will survive drought.  Shallow roots from light hand watering results in plants that beg daily for water in the summer.  They can become more easily diseased also.  In addition, having one's own garden saves gas, less packaging purchased at the store, saves money and tastes better!  I have tomatoes, peppers, eggplant (kids can't imagine what I'll do with that), onions, yellow squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash and sugar pumpkins.  Maybe even cucumber but I forget.  

Mexican Heather likes sun and shade, and looks quite fernlike when full grown. In the autumn I just cut them back and they come back every spring.   

Bougainvillea is a favorite of mine for containers.  These are extremely heat and drought tolerant!  That way I don't have to water my pots as often! 

Blue Plumbago has taken over my garden!  (As many other plants have that I have had to tame!  I now have a sprained arm!)  Those roots are really deep (as many other of these plants.)  These and many other of my plants can get over 5 feet high if I let them!  My mom can't get over how big my plants get.

Skullcap is another wonderful plant that is drought tolerant and spreads, making an attractive border and garden filler.  The more flowers, the less room for weeds! 

Lemon Thyme I love to put between the cracks of my stepping stones.  Everyone tries to avoid walking on them but I tell them that is why I put it there!  Step on them...and enjoy the delicious lemon scent that wafts through the air!  This is some thyme that has endured drought and winter!  I set some aside in a garden for cooking purposes! 

Our mulch pile from 2005!  The children helped me haul that around the yard.  After about a week of labor, we headed for SeaWorld to swim!  Mulch is incredibly essential to a "green" garden, to help it stay green.  It retains necessary moisture in the soil and an added bonus, inhibits weed growth.  Before I never had enough mulch, and I spent all my time weeding, never getting caught up.  I had so much mulch, I laid about 3-5"  throughout the gardens.  We tend to take 1-2 week summer vacations during the peak of summer heat and drought.  My parents check on things while we are gone and they were stunned at how well most of my plants did with very little water. There would be only a plant or two (that was not yet well established) that needed water (and the container plants).  My mom gardens too but wanted to know my secret.  Drip hoses and mulch.  I don't think she's invested in the drip hoses, but she had to get down on her hands and knees to see how thick the mulch was.  She couldn't believe it. That's a lot of mulch and it is still going strong.  It is starting to thin out in places and it is still quite thick in others.  One of ny necessary garden chores is to redistribute the mulch and replenish.  Mom might have discouraged me from doing this at all, but now that she's seen the results, I notice a lot more mulch in her gardens!  ;)   

 Of course it would be even "greener" to make one's own mulch.  I would love that. But with our tiny property, there really isn't a place to do it.  I would love to buy one of these handy dandy gadgets.  I haven't convinced my dh yet.  I would like to use it behind the shed, but there are already 5 garbage cans back there...3 of our old ones and 2 of the humongo new ones provided for automated recycling and garbage pick up.  We are left with those 3 oldgarbage cans that the city has not provided us an option to "greenly" get rid of.  We have no more use for them and I wonder if dh could hack them down to put in the humongo recycling container.  Then maybe we'd have room for a compact easy to use handy dandy mulcher! 

 Lady Bird's recent passing caused my family to recall sweet memories of almost a year ago.  Last year, during 4th of July week, we took a family field trip to one of my favorite places...the Lyndon B Johnson National Historical Park http://www.nps.gov/lyjo/ in Stonewall, TX.  It's a full and wonderful day of touring all the wonderful places of his growing up years in the beautiful Texas hillcountry. 

We usually start the day in Johnson City, to tour LBJs Boyhood Home.  It's a lovely white home with green shutters in a tiny town.  Here, we learn the good stuff in LBJs life, including his mother's insistance on putting her stamp of education in her children's lives.  She used to teach them listening, oratory and debate skills, even including any neighborhood children who happen to be nearby.  She used a picture in the parlor to teach the warning of vanity.  I think I like her!  Eventually he attended the college where I graduated!  In college, I even lived on the street that bore his name!  

After this tour, we walk to his grandparent's settlement.  When I was little, we got to ride on a buckboard pulled by mules!  His grandparent's and great uncle were in the longhorn business.  While the men would be away at cattle drives, the women and children would sometimes have to hide under their dogtrot cabin during Indian raids.  Fortunately, it's more peaceful now, and we like to look for longhorn behind the wooden fence!

Then we drive to Stonewall, TX, less than 30 minutes away.  This is the location of the LBJ National Historical Park.  Here we get a bus tour.  This bus has 2 cars, hooked up like a train.  They give you commentary on the microphone, as they drive the tourists across the Pedernales River.  One of the first stops is the one room school house LBJ attended.  Next stop we get out of the bus to walk under huge Live Oak to his dog trot birthplace.  Then we walk back to the buses....but before boarding we are allowed some time to view the family cemetary where LBJ is buried.  Nestled above the Pedernales, under great Live Oaks, the place is peaceful. Last summer when we were there, the river was tranquilling spilling along and cattle from the LBJ Ranch were laying around enjoying the soft breeze.  We even sighted some deer.

Then back into the bus and we arrive at the actual ranch where LBJ and Lady Bird have lived.  This was a family ranch that LBJ loved visiting as a kid and finally came into ownership when his uncle (I think) passed away.  The house on the ranch came to be known as the Texas White House...for obvious reasons!  =)  In fact, when the bus tour starts, across the river from the house, you see the guard shacks of the Secret Service...of course they aren't as busy anymore.  We always have to stay in the bus when we get to the house, because it was still a private residence, home to Lady Bird.  Never did we ever see a person on the grounds...until last summer!  

A lady came out of the house and was waving to the bus...coming to the bus, and got into the bus!  Our chagrin was that we were in the back car of the bus, so had to listen to Linda Robb (LBJ's daughter) over the microphone...which wasn't working well that day. After a few minutes with them, she came to see us in our bus!!!  Linda asked all about us and where we were from, paying most attention to the kids.  She said she lived in VA and her mother wanted her to come to visit everymonth.  Lots of cousins would come in to visit.  They had just gotten out of the front yard swimming pool.  And while she was talking, her mother came out in a wheel chair, pushed by a nurse.  Lady Bird had a big smile on her face and waved and waved!  Linda said Lady Bird was thankful for every visitor to the ranch and wanted to greet each one personally, but couldn't.  So she always pushed Linda out of the door to be sure to talk to the visitors and wish them well. 

When I started this blog, I never dreamed I'd do a tribute to Lady Bird.  I have always admired who she was and her work.  Of course she is synonymous with preserving wildflowers.  Down the road another 15 minutes or so is a Wildflower Seed Farm. https://www.wildseedfarms.com/welcome/index.html  It's not affiliated by her...but I'm sure it was influenced by her.  Locally, she started a wildflower center in Austin that I would like to link here. www.wildflower.org   

My love of the Texas hillcountry...how much of that was influenced by LBJ?  My love of flowers...how much of that was influenced by Lady Bird?  Hmmmmmm........          

Gardens thrill my soul.  My senses awaken, my soul is refreshed, my mood calms down...and if given time for quiet ponder, I've enjoyed the sound of buzzing bees while collecting pollen, the delightful croak of shy Mr. Toad, the exuberant flutter a hummingbird near my face thanking me for scrumptious flowers, and the gentle touch of the butterfly who settles on my shoulder.  I've been known to walk into the house with my hair showered in lavender crepe myrtle blossoms and my clothes covered in blue plumbago blooms.  Picture a rustic wrought iron bistro set with floral cusions and gingham pillows under a crepe myrtle dripping in blooms.  I've set out some tea.  Come and sit with me while I catch you up on the latest of the happenings in my family.  Welcome to my garden.