SIMPLE HAPPY: LESS IS MORE

My hubby has a new project -- reworking the bed beside our fire pit. Between the deer, drought, distance from the house, and solid rock it sits on, nothing much we have planted so far has thrived, other than the surrounding grasses and weeds that keep trying to creep in. Since I am not fond of digging holes with pick-axes or dragging hundred-foot-hoses around, I've been doing my best to ignore this bed. Fortunately, my hubby doesn't seem to mind either.  Nor does he mind wrestling with huge, heavy plants with dagger-like barbs. Therefore, he's the perfect man to design and install agave/yucca beds, which is what he is doing here.  They are fairly deer resistant, and once established, they shouldn't need much water at all.

Yesterday he woke up wanting to drive out to The Natural Gardener -- probably the largest, best-stocked nursery in Austin -- to look for a few more plants.  I decided to tag along, even though it was a frosty 30 degrees out at the time.  We expected the place to be deserted.  I mean, who buys plants in January, right?  Boy, were we surprised to find there wasn't a single parking spot left in their lot at 10:00 a.m.! A fellow in a bright orange vest leaned in our window to tell us that they were hosting some kind of fruit tree lecture that everyone and his dog had shown up for, and he directed us to the street that runs along the back edge of their ginormous property.  We drove along the entire length of it without finding any spaces, then another day-glo-vested fellow waved us towards a church parking lot up on a hill across another busy road.  That's when John said something along the lines of "Forget This!"

As luck would have it, we got a bit turned around trying to find our way back out to the main road (this nursery is very remote), and ended up taking "the scenic route" out via Barton Creek.  That's how we ended up stumbling upon lovely little Barton Springs Nursery, a place we had visited once years ago, then sort of forgot about.

Image from bartonspringsnursery.net

We were able to park right at the front entrance, pretty much had the place to ourselves, and John found plenty to spend his money on, including this...

Yucca gloriosa variegated -- interesting, twisty blades with beautiful coral streaks

and this...

Bronze Dykia -- a cute curly one with a lovely lavender tinge.

and this.

A nice evergreen ground cover, Dwarf Pink Myoporum,  that should fill in around the larger, sculptural plants and help to keep the invading grasses at bay.

Oh happy day!  So you see, it's true -- bigger is not always better!