Before and After the Plant Sale

After I gave the FloraFest lecture at the University of Texas at El Paso two Friday nights ago, they put me up at the campus hotel. That way I would spend part of Saturday helping with their annual plant sale.

And that I did, most of the day.

I didn’t answer many specific design questions, nor did anyone ask about that 1 plant to buy. You know, a plant that needs no water, flowers all year, won’t attract bees, is evergreen, and has nothing to do with anything else they have. Instead, most people asked me about their entire front or back yard as a coherent space – that’s a first.

My kind of people. I must have advised on and sold 4 gardens, plus various plants.

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I didn’t buy 1 plant. My own landscape plan must come first.

I know, “boo, boo”! I’m setting a good example. And try keeping container plants alive in a shady spot with our wind and single digit humidity, plus some rear-record warmth on top of all that.

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Before showing up, I took a quick look at an in-progress hospital renovation I designed just blocks away. Many plantings are just months old, and we’re awaiting the sculpture tree installation from Seattle’s Koryn Rolstad.

I didn’t ID materials and plants, but you can always ask.

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After the sale, I enjoyed perfect weather walking UTEP’s Chihuahuan Desert Gardens, adjacent to the Centennial Museum.

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Instead of driving home to start unpacking, it was more enjoyable to first check on the growth of Ten Eyck Landscape Architects’ Centennial Plaza.

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All kinds of impromptu and ceremonial activities go on here, where it was once a wasteland of asphalt, vehicles, and lawn on 2:1 slopes. I’ve happened upon quinceanera, wedding and graduation photography, Frisbee throwing, and of course studying, but never dance practice.

Work it!

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Back to hardscape and planting design…

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I’ve had a very busy 3 months involving a move, speaking engagements, travel, and trying to keep up with working out and just living some.

I’ll start posting on my latest travel in pieces, including the Garden Blogger’s Fling in Austin. Though these last few months gave me far more to post about than possible.

Only my need to get settled and design my own garden exceeds my ideas to post!

On-Air: Landscaping West Texas

I was interviewed on landscape concepts for West Texas by Tom Michael, on Marfa Public Radio, KRTS 93.5 FM. My interview was a week before that segment of West Texas Talk was broadcast on 6/24/2015.

You can listen – here.

From about 15:40 in the interview, I was able to make a point often missed, crucial to any primer on xeriscape or native plants –

Select materials and plants native or adapted to your ecoregion, but design those materials for the architecture of the space.

above – linear planter and wall, linear but informal hedge of Opuntia ellisiana; below – linear space, naturalistic rock mulch, random Echinocereus spp.

Thankfully, many Texans are notably proud of place and native plants. That could help elevate genuine, ecoregional gardens into our mainstream.

 

yellow chairs for impact, green cactus hedge, existing trees, and that high desert sky

almost dreamy – a large-lot oasis of conifers (Deodar Cedar), tan grasses, a trio of parkway palmillas, and green lawn

adapted mulberry out of harm’s way, native Desert Candle massing, sun and shadow

One thing I missed: if our natural areas’ landscapes looked as incongruous as some xeriscape designs, few would want to visit state and national parks, open spaces, and the like. That’s another interview or post!

Though I did relate one natural landscape outside Marfa as possibly informing a prominent one near the middle of town.

 

the inspiration?

Chamberlain Building…inspired?

yet abstracted or adapted into the rectilinear, uniform site?

Desert Candle / Dasylirion leiophyllum in mass, a single Torrey Yucca / Yucca torreyi. One is old nature, and the other is contemporary manmade. More on the building and works inside – here.

Rules For Garden Stalking

Some scenes from a quick errands and meal run, before the drive home. When the nearest Trader Joes and Elephant Bar are now 260 miles away, it’s a job that must be done.

Almost forgot to post these, from 12/2013!

spiky plants galore for dead-of-winter interest

Hesperaloe funifera in pots look great…may get interesting when they send up their 12’+ bloom stalks

a big thumbs up to Yucca rostrata and Chrysactinia mexicana

And a thumbs down to yet more Festuca ovina glauca used in hot, dry and exposed medians in a desert town. Really?

Thompson Broom / Baccharis x Starns adds needed winter interest to all the paving

Then, things got interesting, finishing my last photos.

I was handed this by an attentive security person

Respect, crime prevention, and winter-green shrubs must all relate in the heads of those who do hostile acquisitions, and so on. And too much necktie wearing just might stop oxygen flow to the head!

There wasn’t a problem until the main shopping area. And the young security man was very polite, which made it all better.

I asked him about all the people who take photos of they and their friends here, or at other shopping centers. He smiled, and said “you just figured out how to be fine taking photos here!” Just bring a friend, a future reference!

#8 does sound like me

some take being proprietary a bit far, for what’s easily visible

the last of Quercus buckleyi fall color; it should be safe to take this while stopped at a red light…I hope! (knock knock…)

But not a problem. After all, I know who was doing the portion of planting design working here, for well over a decade before :-)

Onward, as it’s 14 months later, spring, and everything is starting to flower and leaf out.