A Central Texas May Garden Tour

good morning Cindy here and today we are going to take a May Garden tour of my front yard and backyard I thought the first thing we'd look at is this beautiful hibiscus this is a double flowering hibiscus so it's really got a nice double of like oh my goodness there's probably 10 15 petals per one flower and I I like to keep the tags I keep them in my garden truck this is Cecilia so this is a red showy double hibiscus so to keep this beautiful hibiscus in full bloom all the way through the summer I give it a high nitrogen so this one is from um a local nursery and it's the granular um and it is the tropical so the tropical and the first number is 15 so it's a 15 nitrogen so hibiscus like anywhere between 15 and 10 on the nitrogen level and that keeps them blooming and and looking great now there was a time early on where my buds began to be attacked by aphids or something and so you need to get your trusty neem oil and I really like this um Captain Jack's neem oil and you just spray all of the buds before they blossom and that seemed to handle it and I don't have any more problems if that doesn't work then you may have to go with something a little more harsh uh you can also try just spraying it with the um the water you can turn the water on really hard and spray those things away I'm also sitting here by a beautiful fox tail and this has really finally started taking off and why it's what I've been doing is I have been putting in a tablespoon of and salt in my big watering can so this is a two gallon so I would put two gallons two tablespoons of the Epson salt which is also just magnesium it's another word for magnesium and it has really made a difference this has just doubled in size in the last month so I'm very excited we really have a hard time keeping our fox tail alive in the harsh Winters we've been having now last year we had a mild Winter thank goodness and but I did I have started keeping my fox tail in pots and that way I can be assured that I uh keep it around from year to year let's keep going so everything is looking great I'm GNA get the handheld camera and give you a tour of what is going on out here it is just glorious right now so let's take a look so as you can tell by getting better back and taking a a panoramic view I like a Cottage Garden feel so I put everything in and see what grows so here we have I do love Salvia I have all kinds of salvas here in the yard this is the Henry duberg Salvia doing great I chopped it pretty hard when it first started growing and that sent a message to thicken up the bottom I really wanted these stems to be able to hold up the flowers as this the summer comes upon us and so I think I did that and it looks like it's much thicker now and I've got a lot of aelas so everything you see back here all the way around this is aelia and it is my favorite Evergreen Foundation plant and it comes in so many different colorations of the leaves so this one is is just a a plain green some it's kind of a little light green right now and then this one is a Twist of lime and once if if I give this a good shearing it's really more of this kind of chartreuse color and um you do have to cut them back because they they can get a little woolly but I I have kept these in control I keep them at the level I want them to be I want them to be about 3 feet tall and I come in twice a year and hack them down if they start getting a little taller than that and it works out great for both of us here we have cone flow look at the cone flow it is just popping up everywhere lots of buds I just love cone flower and this comes back every year everything you see in my garden comes back every year on its own that's pretty much the only thing I like to plant anymore and then Shasta daisies this is the Becky variety unless we have an especially cold winter this stays Evergreen and it just um has been spreading and getting a little bit um Fuller and you know kind of going out of bounds a little bit and that's okay with me but I do plan to kind of take some of this in the back and put it in other places in my yard but look how pretty they are I just love these and then auga is the ground cover here and it is doing great this is the chocolate chip variety so it has kind of a brown tint going on and this is a sedum and I have decided I'm moving this Sedum because the auga is starting to to be a bully and take over so I think I'm going to like the look of the auga and I'm going to put this Sedum in another spot I have several other places I'm going to do that and now this is the um creeping flocks so there's two kinds of flocks there's a tall one and this is the low one and if you remember in the spring the auga and the Sedum and the creeping flocks were covered with pink and purple flowers it was just gorgeous and now this will stay ever green for the rest of the year and then I have some more salvas this was something I had in a pot and I just stuck them over here for a while the more this is Henry dulberg Salvia and the um my container pots are looking great I gave them a real snip I took off all of the Dead blooms a deadheaded that and um it's already starting to show new buds so in another week it'll be covered with the pretty yellow flowers again and it's got dianthus in there and it has lobilia the lobilia has kind of been um snuffed out by the dianthus but if you get over on this one I put the dianthus on the sides and I put the lobilia in the front and that seemed to work out better so the liilia is still hanging in there and the dianthus is is doing great so I'm going to remember that for next year and I have a nice Bonia here and I have some Ferns and a hanging basket of super Tunas so let's keep going here is a Henry dillberg Salvia I chopped it and uh it is not yet putting out its purple flowers but it will soon but there's some right there and I have another Shasta Daisy on the left and then my favorite Salvia of all time if you don't have one of these you've got to get one this is Mystic spires and I purchased another one and I planted it down the end of this section of the garden and this is Lantana I have couple of lantanas in this big flower bed and this is agapanthus and um this one will Bloom later on in the summer and I have some new aelas I've planted here I'm just kind of repeating that and I'm still trying to decide what to put here but right now this is a placeholder this is the Mexican Bush Sage if I get closer you can see how wonderful these blossoms are it's got these little um trumpet designs and the hummingbirds just go mad for this this in the butterflies and look at this Lantana this is a pink one I think this is called Carousel and I have some new things this is May night this is a low growing Salvia sundrops another low growing sh um flowering plant this sundrops is really nice and drought tolerant and I'm not sure if it's going to like it here because the sundrops really wants to have low water and we'll see if it starts looking uh distressed I'll have to pull this out and put this in a different location I do have drip system here and it might end up with too much water and there is my other Mystic spires hope it gets uh takes root and looks as wonderful as the one on the other end the other one I've had for about 5 years this one I've had for a few months okay let's go check out the front so the holes are starting to finally leap you know the first year they sleep the second year they creep and the third year they leap finally they're starting to get some growth on them and I'm so so thrilled because this electric box is not fun to look at so that's going to be great this variety of Holly is the Nelly Stevens it's a really great tough plant that's a wonderful yopon Holly you cannot go wrong with these these come in just this size that can get up to six feet well that's probably 5 feet tall six feet tall and they also make a dwarf yopon these are the heartiest of all of the Evergreens but the problem with them is they are so slow so I prefer the ailia because they're a little quicker to grow but you know it's up to up to you what what you need in your yard and then looking across the front this is the part that of my garden that is facing the street and this part does not receive any irrigation and so what I put out here has to make it with just whatever rainwater and if I feel kind and I want to bring you know give it a little water so I love putting the yakas out here this is the red red yucka with these great Bloom stocks look how pretty and these do this all the way through the year aren't they gorgeous and they're just as tough as Nails you can clip these off as soon as they stop blooming but you never want to prune the base and moving on we have the purple trailing Lantana I have about four of these going all the way down the walkway and they don't require much water at all and then the buganvilla I do water this like crazy when the temperatures really get hot it loves the heat it loves the Sun but it does not love the drought so you do have to hand water this if you're going to have a buganvilla and then another tough as Nails plant is this is the Texas sage and this is the gray the gray leaf sage and they also make it in a in a dark green so this is just so pretty and it will be covered with pink flowers anytime now because it's it tells you when you've had a rain or you're about to have a rain so that's a lot of fun I do clip mine across the top because I don't want it to get Too Tall because I want you be able to be able to see the house and another Bugan via and those Bugan via by the way are in pots and then I put rocks around it to make it look like they're naturally growing out of the ground I have tried planting them in the ground before but they can't survive freezing temperatures so that didn't work out but so now I just take them inside during the winter time so these are two years old and here it is May 15th and I already have big gorgeous Boo and Vias so it it's definitely worth it to put it in the um garage over the winter so as we approach the backyard I was going to show you these are my cherry Laurels now if you're looking for a wonderful Evergreen this grows colum so tall and they will pretty soon they will come together and this will make a a complete screen and I have more on the left side of the house and um I can't wait for them to completely come together and then we will have a lot more privacy back there but this is Cherry Laurel and they they will get quite High uh probably 10 feet or more here in this Rocky garden and they're very happy here the one thing I would suggest though is you um when you plant them make sure that you um add one of those those bars that they stick in the ground and tie the tree to to keep them upright and sturdy um and don't take those bars off until they're about two or three years old um I'm going to use this fence to help these but the reason I'm telling you this is I had see I'm going to tie this tree to this fence during if we have another one of those ice storms where the trees were covered with ice the ones I had in the front yard just completely bent over and cracked and that was very sad so these I'm going to be able to tie to this fence but if you wanted to have these you would maybe keep that that right behind the tree so it's not visible keep it tied and uh that way in case we have any more of those horrific ice storms you won't lose your cherry Laurels like I did I did I did have one survive and uh I'm I'm so happy that one made it but I I love these so much we're trying again but we have a backup plan okay as we enter the backyard just quickly we'll go we'll run through I wanted to show you how pretty the dayes are looking they are in full bloom right now these are um I don't even know exactly what they are I call them the tiger lies or ditch Liles they're just so pretty they have a yellow Center if you know the name of these let me know and I have more down down here we have Stella de Oro right here she's this is a shorter variety this is brand new I just put those in and you continue on down I have little business which is a really pretty one and more of the orange ones and I've in I've put these in with skull cap the skull cap is a fantastic low growing um flowering shrub and it is perennial it comes back every year and it stays low so it's just a wonderful compliment to the day lily so I would highly recommend skull cap and every year you're going to chop it down give it a nice haircut and it will stay nice and thick if it starts looking a little bit leggy and while we're back here the Russian sage is starting to bloom you've got to give Russian sage a lot of space because it will really spread out and then this is thalis so this goes dormant and you chop it down to the ground in the winter and now it's already almost 3 feet tall and it will be covered with yellow blossoms all the way through fall and I transplanted some of those salvas the Henry dolberg salvas over here and they're doing great and over here have another walkway and this is a new Garden so everything is a little scraggly and not sure and before we look at that I still have blue bonnets can you believe it because we've had such a nice rainy um spring and this is a a pretty well- drained rocky area they're so happy it's amazing but in here I have Rock Rose I have Turks cap that hasn't bloomed yet and I have some of the Fall Aster back there there's a Lantana and I'm really looking forward to seeing this come together and and mature everything is really young I have a via Greg eyes back there some NEPA or cat mint and here is a a new one this is Mexican Honeysuckle and this is going to have orange flowers on it more Salvia gregy and there's some more rock rows this is what the fall Aster will have all over it very soon and we have a lot of lopy and then this is was quite a surprise this is sunflowers and some zenas and they have just volunteered themselves here and they're is taller than I am so I'm gonna have a wonderful little stand of sunflowers I just love it when Nature surprises you with things actually I planted them last year but I didn't I wasn't sure if they'd come back but they sure did and then this little garden bed here I have three large shrubs growing in here so this is thalis this is yellow flowers and this is um Salvia this is the duberg Henry duberg and I just chopped this because it was getting leggy and falling over already and then this is another thalis which gives the yellow has the yellow flowers on it so that's always pretty let's run over here and look at the Roses so I did a video recently about my roses stopped blooming and look at these I I gave him a little Dead Heading I gave him some fertilizer and everywhere that you see these red um leaves I have new buds coming up covered let me get back so you can see how many red leaves there are every that means that there's new growth new buds coming out so had I fertilized on time I never would have had this time where there were no roses so I've learned my lesson on that and here's another one that's um doing great getting a lot of new blossoms on this one and this is my Belinda's dream and so this one is a is a very New Rose so it's but it's had some of the most gorgeous blooms okay so let's keep going here is a new project I've started for myself can you see that there is a lot of Blank Space here let me get back this is the flower bed across the back of the house and I at one time a week ago this was completely covered with Berkeley sge and I decided that it was becoming too invasive and it just wasn't the look I was going for so I came in my husband helped me and we pulled out 13 Berkeley sge and we moved them and I'll show you where we moved them and now I get to make a video very soon on what we're going to put here and I just can't wait to share with you the flowering perennial shrubs that I'm going to put all in here what is still here though is boxwood Foundation plants this is the Japanese variety and then I have Drift Roses all across there and one trailing Lantana purple trailing lantina so we have a lot of work to do and continue Wing over there's my amarillis and um I have a little dog fence here if you have an area that the dogs are trampling too much and killing your grass if you just fence it for a while and keep the dogs from running through it and put a little bit of compost or Dow dirt or something in the area it won't be long and you'll get the new grass you just have to keep the dogs off of it for a while this is plumbago and it um was Chopped all the way to the ground after the winter kind of scented into dormy and now it's about 2 feet tall and it's going to be covered with the most beautiful blue flowers there's more boxwood and more Driftwood I mean Driftwood drift roses and then this is Denim and Lace this is the cousin to Russian sage and this year I think it's finally going to put out some blooms it's been a really um it's really been slow to put out any blooms but look here you see these are kind of flopping over definitely should have chopped this a month ago boy just I just can't get to it all and then here is some more of the Cherry Laurels screening out the neighbors and the street view so there you have it this is where I do my potting and keep all my pots can't wait for these to grow up and hide the ugly over here every Gardener has an ugly SP ugly spot I think and we have zoa grass back here too and it's looking great we did some terracing right here we had a pretty big slope and we were losing all our grass and soil every time it rained so we put these Timbers in and raised raised the area where I'm standing quite a bit and it's it's really done a great job keeping our grass nice and green and healthy and here are my Creek is looking is here and I have Yaro look at this Yaro it is a plant that is gray anytime you have a plant that has gray leaves that tells you that it is a plant that wants to be kept fairly dry and it wants good drainage so if you overwater this it will die on you but this is a perfect little spot everything back here doesn't I don't water too much you can see the drip irrigation is showing it which isn't very tidy and then I have a lot more of the skull cap and this stay Garden I have doesn't really care doesn't get much water so it's a nice plant uh to be with the Yaro and we have some Pur Lane here and a little rocky crevice here this area of the garden is looking pretty nice I have some plumeria in pots I keep I bring those into the garage in the winter time I have lambier this is the Helen von Stein Lamere which is the larger Leaf I have and this is a shady area so everything in this spot needs to be in the shade so this is legia or leopard plant and Turks cap now the Turks cap can handle more sun um I also have a river Fern here and there's one kind of over here here and as we continue walking down the path I show you where I put the Berkeley s so it's been in the ground a less than a week and we've had some nice rain and it has helped tremendously keep these guys alive and of course I've also handw watered so now in this when this Berkeley sge wants to spread and be invasive that's just fine it can just go anywhere it wants into the grass we call this the wild area it's just not something you want to plant in a garden where you want other flowering perennials and then this is another little garden I have more of the dayes back here aelia and an Oakleaf hydrangea that is just as happy as can be and as I if I very slowly pan around I wanted to show you American Beauty Berry isn't that pretty and very shortly this American Beauty Berry will be covered with the most beautiful pinkish purple berries and the birds just love it and then this Vine growing across this back chain link fence is Claus this is wild Claus and I highly recommend getting some Claus it kind of dies back in the winter and and Browns out and that it's very quick to come back and then all across the Back Fence I have red tip fenia and it's another great Evergreen watch your fenia carefully if if you do start seeing some red spots black spots you may have to um treat it with some herbicides so um that would be another video to talk about on what you do if you if your faenas get that terrible Fatina disease so far we don't have it in my area but I know in Austin they have that it has really wiped out a lot of faenas but this is a wonderful screen from the uh area back behind us where they're building new homes so I'm able was able to get nice and close to a beautiful butterfly that that's a queen the monarchs aren't here yet but as I pan back you can see I have a beautiful pollinator Garden this is Greg's Mist flow and it is it spreads like crazy which is what I allowed it to do I just created this big Mound and we planted this in it and it just has done exactly what I wanted it to do it's filled in all the way across here I would say this is about a 20 foot by 10 foot garden bed in kind of an oval shape and it has just been such a pleasure to have this um I only see one butterfly here right this minute but normally there are 10 butterflies here we're about to have some rain so I think they know that this is a butterfly bush and I need to dead head this the more you dead head your butterfly bush the more flowers you'll get and this is gar let me go over here and look at this one instead there's two big gar back here and the butterflies just love it they also call it whirling butterfly look how pretty these are don't those look like little butterflies and they do kind of of whirl around and I think this one may have um needed a little drink of water and it all of its blooms fell off so if you've got a pollinator Garden you've got to put in some milkweed and this is the antalope native not very pretty but it's it's only been in this Garden for about three weeks so it'll be interesting to see but it it'll grow up bigger and when the monarchs get here they will will use that as the host for their larvae so they they will eat nectar from all the plants but they only lay their eggs on this host plant so you if you want to help butterflies plant some milkweed and as we go along here I was going to show you this is what I do with a lot of my Limestone that I when I dig holes I just use it around the edge of garden beds but look who's finally decided to make an entrance it's pride of Barbados it is already May 15th and it's just started to show up but that's the way the pride of Barbados do they're one of the latest ones and that's okay you need you need plants to show up at all different types times of the year well that is the end of my video thank you so much for watching today I hope that you guys will get out there and try something plant some day lies it's the easiest thing they they take care of themselves you plant them once and you're done and they come back every year put in a pollinator Garden that Gregs MF flower it just grows on its own and you get tons of tons of wonderful butterflies so there's it gardening is a lot of fun and I am trying everything comment below and let me know if there there's something you're doing in your garden that you'd like to share with all of us how are how is your garden doing here in May this has been the one of the best rainiest Mays we've had in a long time here in Central Texas so I hope that you are enjoying this time uh the heat will be upon us very soon so just keep remembering these days where the weather was in the 70s and the 80s and we had all this nice rain okay well thank you so much have a wonderful day and get outside in your garden it's beautiful out here

Channel: The Rocky Hill Gardener

Views: 4,818

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Id: hYQ_wyuifk8

Length: 33min 50sec (2030 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2024