Herself’s Houston Garden

I picked this up a year ago May at Smith and Hawkins. It is a fast grower and sold often as a hanging plant. It grew, and it grew and was too large to bring inside come winter so I left it to fend for itself. It survived the winter.

Then on the garden club garden tour I saw one potted up and growing up a trellis. How cool thought I. So I cut a branch off the monstrosity and planted it near the front door. As you can see it’s already growing strong a couple of months later. It also found the garage wall and has started its climb. I’m hoping it’ll cover a good portion of the wall before long.

I’ve had this in full sun and just afternoon sun. It’s thrived in both locations. I’ve totally ignored it in the winter and forgot to water it, still it grew.

It will survive a mild Houston winter, it did not survive the several hard frosts we had last winter.

It is rumored to flower, I’ve yet to see one. Flowers will open only at night, for one night, and are very fragrant.

It is an epiphytic plant, you can grow it in soil or in orchid bark, use which ever pleases you. In its natural habitat it grows on trees with aerial roots. I haven’t tried that yet.

It can be trained up something or allowed to hang down something, which ever pleases you.

Propagation is easy, cut off about 4″ of a branch and stick in in some dirt.

So far I’ve not had a single problem with this plant. It’s a great climber for a cactus garden.

December 2007 Desert Garden

desert garden Oct 1, 2009

2nd low water garden created 2009

Xeriscaping is the smart planting of gardens using low water plants so no watering beyond rainfall is needed. This conserves water. Happy plants need less fertilizers, pesticides saving you money and the enviroment from toxins. The process of xeriscaping consists of: planning your garden; plan small useful turf areas; use low water plants; amend the soil with nutrients; mulch to keep water in the ground longer, irrigate responsibly; and maintain the garden so the police don’t come take you away.

Xeros in Greek means dry so Xeriscaping is dry + landscape.

One of the easiest things to do in your yard is group together plants that have similar water needs. Put your cacti in a sunny dry area, put your bog gardens in a lower shadier area. Gardening like all hobbies has ‘in’ things and this year’s in thing is ‘pocket gardens’. This is a nice way to do pocket gardening. Florida has laws to prevent HOA from interfering when home owners xeriscape or use native plants. Texas and the Houston area do not.

Plants for Dry Sunny areas
Aloe
Yucca
African Spear

Plants for Dry Shady areas
Chinese Indigo (Indigofera decora )
Snake plant ( Sanservieria trifasciata )
Variegated shell ginger ( Alpine zerumbet )
American Beauty ( Callicarpa americana )
Witch hazel ( Hamamelis virginiana )
Oak leaf Hydrangea ( Hydrangea quercifolia )
Rusty Blackhaw ( Viburnum rufidulum )
Maple leaf Viburnum ( Viburnum aceifolium )
Mountain Sage ( Salvia regla )
Turk’s Cap ( Malvaviscu drummondii )
Beebalm ( Monarda fistulosa )
Coralberry ( Symphoricarpos orbiculatus )
Scarlet Sage ( Salvia coccinea )
Late Purple Aster ( Aster patens )
Fragrant Phlox ( Phlox pilosa )
Pidgeonberry ( Rivina humils )
Cedar Sage ( Salvia roemeriana )
Blue-eyed grass ( Sisyrichium sp. )
Arrowwood Viburnum ( Viburnum dentatum )
Rough leafed dogwood ( Cornus drummondii )

This month’s Lone Star Gardener put out by the Texas Garden Clubs had a couple of interesting over lapping articles. One was on ‘pocket gardens’. I found little to no information on line about pocket gardens so I guess we’ll have to start.

A pocket garden is a small growing area that usually has a theme or a purpose. There are butterfly pocket gardens, guerrilla pocket gardens, mail box pocket gardens &c. A butterfly pocket garden might have a tall feeding plant for butterflies and smaller host plants around it all wedged into some small corner of your yard. A mail box pocket garden might be a few flowers and a flowering shrub to brighten up your mail box area. What a great idea for all our tiny lots we now live on.

I’ve already been doing that a bit; I’ve a rose pocket garden, a fern pocket garden, a wetland pocket garden, an herb pocket garden and a vegetable pocket garden. I just didn’t call them pocket gardens.

Guerrilla pocket gardens are gardens set up on public property to brighten an spot. Some are planted in the dark of night by flashlight to surprise the natives in the morning, some are done during daylight to enlist the community to help care for the garden. Signs are usually left saying something like ‘This garden brought to you by YourTown Guerrilla Garden Club — please water me”. I noticed Houston does not yet have a group. Right now it seems more popular in Europe and the North East. Maybe this post will catch a few eyes and that will change?

More information:
Guerrilla Gardening
Make: Guerrilla flowerboxes
Conscious Urbanism: Guerrilla Gardening