2013 - February MATTIE'S GARDEN DAY

February can be a great month for a garden project, but Mattie's project day dawned with temperatures near freezing. Maybe we would eat breakfast verrry slowly until the day warmed up!
DivaAnnie was already at Mattie's house when Sophia & I arrived, and Karla, Sugar, Mindy & Buffy soon appeared.

The dining room looked beautiful.


Bowls of berries and fruit waiting on the counter for us.

Mattie had made broccoli quiche and she'd also baked a new, streamlined version of a classic sour cream coffee cake. It was still crunchy with nuts, but instead of sour cream, the new version uses Greek yogurt.

By 11am the air was pleasant and we went out to the garden.
Mattie's front yard had a mix of sun & shade. Mattie had added stone edging herself, block by heavy block, and on previous project days we Divas had helped her make beds and borders. The slope and sun were ideal for Salvia guaranitica, Salvia coccinea, Salvia 'Black and Blue", for milkweeds, roses, iris, lantana, Gaura lindheimeri, Silver ponyfoot, blue mistflower, Purple heart, Mexican Mint marigold, Gaillardia, and more - a vibrant mix of native and adapted plants that has settled in to make the front garden an appealing place.
It looked wonderful in fall 2012!

But the back yard was not appealing yet - large trees made it too shady for flowers or regular grass, and the established shrubs were in the wrong place. When the bare ground wasn't muddy it was dusty - some choice! The space was not large and it had no 'flow". Mattie wanted the center opened up, requested that a long border be made along the fence and she had ordered a special St Augustine that has been bred for shady areas. The pallets had been delivered and were ready for us to put down.

A previous owner had planted a Rose of Sharon. It had become a very tall, very wide, very twiggy shrub that blocked the whole middle of the yard, halfway between the patio and the fence, visually making the garden feel smaller and physically preventing natural movement through the space.

The flowers on Rose of Sharon make it a sentimental favorite, but its form is not great and it is leafless for half the year. It could be good in a mixed border with other kinds of shrubs, closer to the edges of the yard, but wasn't working as a specimen plant or a focal point. A few Divas took on the task of removing it. First the multiple trunks were chopped back with branches saved to root. It took another 1/2 hour to wrestle the root out. The stump was set aside in case someone could use it.

While the Rose of Sharon was reduced, other Divas used the hose to lay out the shape of the long border.

The majority of Divas of the Dirt projects are done under canine supervision - Barbie makes sure the line is laid properly

The border would sweep from the far left end near a Monterey-Spanish oak, all the way across the back fence to the opposite corner, then turn and head up toward the gate. Once the shape was settled, the discussions on plant placement began.

With so little lawn to remove, it wasn't long before the tiller was mixing in compost - oops! The Divas soon realized this project would need more materials than Mattie had planned on using. Mattie and Sugar decided to make a nursery run for supplies. Mattie also realized that she wanted more Aspidistra/Cast Iron plant. Should she buy some?

Sophia had a better idea - a trade! Sophia needed something dense and twiggy near her back fence and her established beds of Aspidistra can supply many divisions. Sophia & Annie hauled the Rose of Sharon stump off to Sophia's house, returning with freshly dug clumps of Cast Iron plants for Mattie's new borders along with divisions of Mexican honeysuckle.

Soon the tiller was mixing in more compost, the garden carts and wagons were filled with squares of grass for the back and some Divas turned out to be very good at laying out the pieces with speed and precision.

Mattie had new plants ready for the long border along with other plants she'd kept in containers for long months. The new plan meant that some shrubs that were planted last year would need a reshuffle and we wanted to redo the entire right corner.

The border soon held Philadelphus inodorus/American mockorange, Burford Holly, a Fig tree, Indian Hawthorn, the Mexican honeysuckle and more. 

The center turned green, the aspidistra earned a bed around a tree, mulch was added around all the new plants and things were moving along well by 4 pm - time for a late lunch!

Mattie had baked corn bread for us and made a wonderful acorn squash casserole with red peppers and feta cheese.

She'd used a coworkers recipe for beef stew - delicious!

For dessert, Mattie turned to her favorite Panache Cookbook and baked a Berry Apple Oat Crisp that was just sweet enough.

Even when a day in February is mild, it is still February! We had to move fast, clean up, snap a few more photos, get in more plants and spread more mulch because that sun would soon be down. The corner was just about done.

Aspidistra, dwarf black mondo grass and giant lirope added spiky character to the beds nearer the house.

Darkness stopped us from finishing the borders but the center was terrific! The view from the patio was no longer blocked by bare-twigged shrubs and instead of dusty bare dirt Mattie would see a serene sweep of green. With a bit of luck, we'd get some rain and the semi-shade would keep the need for watering down to a minimum.

We left for home and during the next few days Mattie finished the planting, kept sifting rocks out of the soil and completed the cleanup, and also sent us a sweet thank you note.

FEBRUARY 2009 - MATTIE'S GARDEN DAY

Austin set a heat record the day before our first project of the year - ninety degrees in February! It was a relief when we Divas of the Dirt woke up to cooler weather on Saturday. Heat would not be our foe, but the fierce wind never let up the whole day. Mattie presented a perfect breakfast - berry bowls, English muffins and two broccoli-cheese quiches (one cheddar & one Swiss). Here's Diva-Annie admiring the pretty table. We had a lot of catching up to do on what had happened since our January planning brunch - neither conversation nor meal could be rushed. The Divas thought it might be fun to use this blog to record our projects instead of waiting a whole year to put them on the website. So this experimental post tells of current events, using photos taken by both Mindy & your correspondent, Glinda.


The day was still chilly and even more windy when we went out to see the supplies and new plants Mattie had bought and discuss how to best help Mattie with her wish list. We noticed a fine looking Loropetalum/Chinese Witch Hazel, ferns, Texas Sage, Lantanas, Viburnums, small trees, shrubby Germander and some flowers that were new to us. Mattie's neighborhood has deer - that would be a deciding factor in plant placement for this project. The deer sometimes roam in front but the back is protected with a privacy fence. Some parts of the yard get partial shade and the soil is usually dry even when we're not in drought.



What we hoped to accomplish:
#1, replace a dead holly in front of the house with another shrub. It was decided to replace the holly with a native Southern Wax Myrtle

#2, In the back we'd replace some shrubs and add new evergreens to make a screen in the back left corner. The large Crepe myrtle added height, but it's deciduous - no good as a screen once the leaves fall. Some of the plants used here were a second Wax Myrtle, two 'Spring Bouquet' Viburnum and a Xylosma . A pair of young Barbados cherries could be moved from the border to a bed near the back of the house. Our dry spring meant the planting holes would be dug then watered and allowed to "set" before the new plants went in.

#3, make a new quarter-round bed where drive met street. The grass doesn't do well here and Mattie wants waterwise plants. A small Cenizo/Texas sage wouldn't look like much at first but with time will be a large, silvery green shrub.

#4, make a new bed in the blank far end of the front yard. This is another place where lawn is unhappy! A senna tree and a second Cenizo would work here along with some experimental plants. With luck that senna will become a beautiful tree.

#5, fiddle around with some blocks to make a raised bed and decide the location of a future path at the far end of the house back. We decided to prune an existing ligustrum to arch over the projected path and to plant a loropetalum on the opposite side. The Loropetalum/Chinese Witch Hazel would contrast its feathery beauty with the solidity of three small existing boxwoods.


The Divas got to work in different parts of the yard, naturally moving to whatever area needed help. Since the drive bed was the part of the yard that Mattie saw every time she left or returned, it had to be a priority. Buffy raked and Mindy used her special diamond shaped, sharp hoe to clear the spot for the drive bed. Divas worked on the dead holly, adjusted the layout and dug holes for the back shrub border and cut up dead branches for yard waste pickup. Sophia went to pick up a borrowed tiller and another Diva-delegation went shopping for even more mulch & different composts... in spite of the chilly wind blowing dust and debris in our faces, we were on a roll!


Finishing task #1 was fast and straightforward - soon the new Wax Myrtle had been composted, planted, watered in and mulched.

#2, planting holes in the shrub border were watered and left to mellow.

# 3 went much faster than anticipated once the borrowed electric tiller was started up.

#4, we laid out the edges for this proposed bed with a garden hose, but we didn't start turf removal. If we ran out of time, this border was the expendable project.

#5, the old Ligustrum was pruned into a tree shape above the path, the Loropetalum planting was in progress and the arranging of the concrete pavers was begun by the time lunch was announced.


Oh, my - Mattie has set the bar very high for 2009! Karla and Mattie had made glowing, healthy bowls of Carrot, Apple & Ginger Soup with Cheese Crisps (find this wonderful Whole Foods recipe here). The delectable Crab Cakes nestled on baby spinach also came from Whole Foods - did you know that Whole Foods started here in Austin? Mattie's lean old dog Bianca limped in and out of the room a few times, then went back to her pillow by the fireplace. By the time we'd moved through Sherbet to Lemon Bars with a perfect crust we Divas were looking for pillows, too. It was hard to get up and go back out into the dusty wind. But we did it... we got everything done! One by one the shrubs were settled into the back border.


Soon the drive bed had been planted and watered. The many small rocks that turned up everywhere we dug were collected and used to line the front bed. Some medium-sized rocks were set in as accents. With the hose as guide, the Divas edged the Boomerang Bed - its shape appeared as the grass disappeared. Large rocks took time and effort to remove - they were saved for use when the bed was done - eventually framing the small Senna tree Mattie is placing. Founding Diva Sugar stopped by to say hello - we're always glad to see her and this time Sugar not only cracked us up with amusing stories, she and DivaAnnie foiled a jailbreak. Delicate, elderly, limping Bianca slid out the open gate while mulch was being carried in, and suddenly dropped a decade in dog-years. With a look of determination she headed down the sidewalk for parts unknown, gaining a one block headstart before the humans caught on she was gone. DivaAnnie set out after her on foot while Sugar drove in pursuit, confusing the escape artist by slowly turning and stopping the car as a barricade across the sidewalk. DivaAnnie is a Dog Whisperer, and Bianca was soon safe at home getting attention. We moved around from one part of the garden and enjoyed seeing the changes. The shrubs were small, but with a little imagination one could see that the layered green screen in the back garden will look great in a few years. In the front yard the new Boomerang Bed framed the lot and looked pretty cool. Mattie hopes this Lion's Tail/Leonotis menthofolia will keep blooming in cheerful orange.

By 5:30PM, we'd used all the mulch, added final touches and gathered our tools. As we said goodbye Mattie handed each of us a pretty rain gauge on a stand, filled with water to act like a vase for a stalk of Alstroemeria . It would be fine memento of this long and satisfactory day.