Half Measures? What Are Those?

blackbrush acacia

Two minutes ago I finished the list of all the native plants I plan to add to our garden--mostly this year. There are 121 ornamental trees, shrubs, grasses, perennials, groundcovers, annuals, and biennials--and that's before I add in the fruit trees, dye plants, bog plants, and favorite non-native species for bees and butterflies. Tomorrow I am going to start searching to see which of these plants are available commercially. The last time I looked for many of them was in 1998, right after we built our first house here in Austin. At that time, many of them weren't available. I am more optimistic about my chances of finding them this time because I am not just looking for plants, I am looking for seeds, and Native Seed Search and other companies like it are a great resource for native plant seeds. The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center Annual Native Plant Sale is also coming up in April and I hope to find many desirable plants there.

Today wasn't about plants, however. I finally oiled my great wheel and assembled it, and I unpacked all of my fleece from Wisconsin in preparation for my Master Spinner homework. Little by little I am working through projects I have going--some of which I started many years ago. Back to plants for a moment, today I went through my Master Gardener handouts and notes, and I sorted and organized them into my main Master gardener binder for easy reference. I did the Master Gardener program in 2002. It took me 15 years to sort the notes. But that's not as bad as it seems as we moved to Atlanta not long after I finished the program and was too busy building a life there to finish it up. But now I'm back gardening in Austin and it was the most natural thing in the world to organize those old materials.

As is usual these days, I am now exhausted and must head to bed. Good night fellow gardeners!