Breaking news!

I was going to post another look at something i learned in Austin, but instead, I have some very exciting, breaking news to report - It's not hot anymore!

(oh.. "not hot" in this context means it's not 100+ deg F anymore. It was still 93 deg F yesterday. So, i have to keep remembering that it's still too hot to plant anything, but not too hot to weed anymore)

I don't think i've ever been this excited about getting to do weeding before! So instead of showing more Austin pictures, I'm following Gerhard's lead with Weekend Wrap Up, and showing some pictures of my garden that caught my eye this weekend.

tunas are starting to ripen!

I think that opuntia is the one that Danger Garden sent me a very long time ago... It likes the hill side.

This next one is a different type (Burbank Spineless, I think) - it has fewer but larger tunas that are more orange-y:

The tunas are definitely not spineless...

 Here with my hand for scale - these things are big!

and from what i remember, they don't have very many seeds

This next picture is several projects-in-work that i'm excited about:

mostly water plants

And i found another hesperaloe funifera, which will get planted as soon as it's not actually hot anymore...

Up on the hillside, the new gravel path is working out nicely:

even as the plants continue to grow over it

The plants are also recovering from their spring cutback to cover the wooden steps up the hillside - I really like the way the overgrown look works here:

and such as change from the way the hillside used to be!

This plant is calliandra californica - which i've tried to plant at least 10 times, only to have it die. Except for this seeding, which I didn't plant:

i'm hoping it will eventually grow into a bush?

Meanwhile, one of this summer's experiments is working fairly well - these succulent pots. And it seems to be a little bit of a color echo with the pot, plant and wall!

almost like i learned something in Austin...

The "yellow gold" Lantana came back! It took until mid July before it re

that makes it the second lantana ever to return in my garden

Agave 'Snow Glow' is continuing to grow, and trying it's best to catch the light and glow:

A for effort, i think

 While nearby, 'Blue Glow' sits showing off how it's done:

still my favorite - maybe i need another one?

 And last is Mangave 'Tooth Fairy' - still living next to Agave 'Crazy Horse'. It's wet here because there were sprinklers that needed fixing...

still one of my favorites - but no offsets yet?

Looking at the forecast, we should be set for low 90's most of the week. I know that we can get more hot weather (must. not. plant. plants. yet.) but I'll take this if we can get it. Maybe i'll have all those weeds pulled before new plants start showing up!