Xeriscape - Drought-Adaptive Horticulture
The Gone Native Drought Adaptive Garden
Scenes from August, 2006
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This female great-tailed grackle is sunbasking. It remained in a trance for several minutes, standing in this peculiar position.
The leaves of mesquite and yucca make for interesting abstract designs.
Metal art has long been a popular art form on the Llano Estacado.
This metal art comes from Mexico.
This piece came from Sante Fe, New Mexico.
A water snail picked a waterlily leaf for its death bed for some unknown reason.
A honeybee came to one of the ponds for a drink, but accidentally caught its wing in the mud which flipped it over. After a minute of struggle, it righted itself and got its drink.
A dove came to drink, and left behind a molted feather.
Muddauber wasps constantly come to the pond for its construction materials.
This muddauber gathered a mudball every two minutes for thirty minutes.
The waterlilies in the pond escaped their pots and over half of the pond is now filled with new plants.
Despite the presence of the photographer, a roadrunner came to get a drink, and stayed within 15 feet for over ten minutes.
The roadrunner was completely aware of the photographer, but other than keeping a wary eye on his unmoving form, the roadrunner went about his business.
On a still morning, the reflection of the waterlily was an added benefit.
Texas sage blooms after every rain and it has become a tradition at Gone Native to carefully stand close to the shrubs and try to smell its faint scent.
Desert willow normally has pink blossoms, but a white variety is also sold on the market. On a rainy morning the blossoms glowed in the dim light.
Notice the yellow lines (bee runways) on the inside of the white desert willow blossom. Bees are able to see ultraviolet and often see features on blooms that humans cannot.
Some sort of aquatic larval insect burrows into the mud of the pond, and when the pond is low, the insect becomes busy.
The spaces between the flagstones at the firepit have tubetongue and wild zinnia. In the background is Texas sage, and the Afghan pines create a scene reminescent of the mountains of the southwestern U.S.
Heimia is native to the Rio Grande valley. If fermented, tea from the leaves causes auditory hallucinations - Indian shamans used the plant in diagnosing their patients.
The blossoms of Pride of Barbados bird of paradise are spectacular.
Evidently this butterfly found it tasty! When the this blossom first opened, it was all red, not the normal red and yellow.
A queen butterfly landed on a vitex bloom spike, and in closeup appeared quite bizarre.
When the water recedes in the pond, colorful designs of dead leaves appear.
Ceratostigmata plumbagoensis is not a true plumbago, but is hardy, unlike the true plumbago. The dark blossoms adorn the foot tall ground cover from June until frost, and then the leaves turn a dark orange for a month after the first frost.
In the reclaimed grassland, the dried stalks of basketflowers form attractive candelabras in a summer sunset.
The fresh blue berries of Eastern Red Cedar glow in the light of dawn. Beyond are blueish leaves of Arizona Cypress and to the right is the contorted figure of a young jujube.
A buddha head lies nestled under an Osage orange tree adorned with Boston ivy.
Two species of prickly pear have hybridized in the Gone Native pasture, and one of the new forms has a plethora of red spines tipped with more normal yellow, and other spines, normally white, appear blue in the light of dawn.
For a few days after a rain heavy dew forms - notice the droplets on the fruit (tuna) of the prickly pear. The tunas make wonderfully jelly (if enough pectin is used.)
A hummingbird buried its head in a desert willow blossom to reach the nectar.
August is hummingbird migration time. This rufous hummingbird lurked in the desert willow and drove away all other visitors. Calliope, ruby throated, and broad-tailed come every year, and once a broadbilled came.
In the two hundred trees of the arboretum, dozens of mourning doves nest. This young one had not learned to fear humans yet, and walked at the foot of the photographer.
In August the jujubes begin to turn dark red. When ripe, the fruit taste somewhat like a date. It was introduced to Mexico and the southwest by Chinese railroad workers, and became a passalong plant brought to West Texas by the settlers of the 1880s. Unfortunately, it sends up suckers, so one tree becomes a grove over time.
Salvia grahamii and several other species of salvia are now taxonomically known as different subspecies of salvia microphylla. Each mountain range in northern Mexico and the American southwest has a different form. Graham's sage has dark (almost black) bloom stalk tips.
In the foreground is Mimosa dysocarpa - when the blossom opens it is pink and fades to white. Each year the stems die to the ground with frost, but then will shoot up to 10 feet tall during the summer. The stems are covered with tiny spines.
Pride of Barbados bird of paradise, when in full bloom, is one of the most spectacular plants to use in a southwestern landscape.
Every year at Gone Native, at least one Giant Swallowtail hangs around for a month or more. It becomes a neighbor that we look for on our walks around the garden. Like almost every butterfly, it nectars on lantanas, including Texas gold.
Acacia schottii forms a huge mound ten feet across and ten feet tall - and looks like a giant fern. In the spring it has white ball shaped blossoms, and later dark brown beans. In areas where temperatures rarely reach below 20 degrees F it will form a tree thirty feet tall, but this one died to the ground several times in the 1980s in subzero temperatures.
Leucophyllum blossoms are attracted even when they fall to the ground.
During a misting rain, evergreen sumac and pinyon leaves became adorned with jewel-like raindrops.
After August rains, widow's tears appear in the pasture. Gardeners often do not appreciate its presence in the garden, but the blossoms go well with yucca leaves.
After the pasture greened up with the rains, a few old white stalks of sand dropseed remained.
The silver in the foreground is doveweed (croton). Beyond are the blue leaves of Agave americana under young soapberry trees, and a Texas red oak provides the background.
Giant red yucca is a different species than the more commonly used red yucca. In the low light of a rainy morning, its green seedpods stood out. The red is Pride of Barbados bird of paradise.
A green species of Agave caught yellow mesquite beans when they fell from an adjoining tree.
In the shade structure garlic chives have spread to form a ground cover under a young burr oak and a Hill Country elbowbush. Beyond is a huge Fortunata climbing rose that blooms in the spring.