{"id":26,"date":"2011-01-08T04:34:10","date_gmt":"2011-01-08T10:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/?p=26"},"modified":"2012-10-02T17:11:07","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T22:11:07","slug":"adventures-of-a-new-texas-wildlife-gardener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/?p=26","title":{"rendered":"Adventures of a new Texas Wildlife Gardener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I live on a 4.5 lot north of Austin Texas.\u00a0 When I first moved here in November, 2010 \u00a0it was just mowed field with several large mature Live Oaks.. Every Ashe Juniper (Mountain Cedar)\u00a0 and other native shrub and tree had been removed from the lot. Consequently there is evidence of significant erosion on the front side of this lot since no tree or shrub roots are left to hold the soil from washing away in strong downpours. Luckily the lot still had 4 Redbud trees which were evident here in early spring as they started to bud out and were very much welcomed by the bees. I noticed that the bees would come out of their homes during warm days in winter to visit my blooming lemon tree, that I had set out during warmer sunny days in winter. I am glad they pollinated the tree and spared me the task.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After spending December and January researching native and adapted plants and also trying to focus on water wise plants for the area, we started building a 50 foot by 10 foot south facing front garden at the end of February.\u00a0 It is a raised garden as the soil here is mostly shallow clay and limestone rock.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_27\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/P1300028.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27\" class=\"size-large wp-image-27\" title=\"Future place for the first front garden\" src=\"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/P1300028-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/P1300028-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/P1300028-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/P1300028-400x300.jpg 400w, http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/P1300028.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-27\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Future place for the first front garden<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mceTemp\">\n<p>This is about the time I\u00a0 also put up two Eastern Bluebird nest boxes about 100 feet apart on opposite sides of my land, facing east after seeing 4 of them visiting my birdbath every afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>I purchased over 40 shrubs and perennials including: Salvia Greggi, Wooly Butterly Bush, Dalea frutiescens, Flame Acanthus, Rosemary, Texas Sage, Turks Cap, Thryallis, Black Eyed Susan, Calylophus, Coreopsis, Blackfoot Daisy, Copper Canyon Daisy, Gaura, Firebush, Esperanza, Bicolor Iris, Texas Lantana, Lamb&#8217;s ear, Echinacea, Jerusalem Sage, Henry Duelberg Sage, Cherry Sage, Mexican Bush Sage, Rock Rose, Russian Sage, Pink Skullcap, Society Garlic, Texas Betony, Prickly Pear Cactus, Red Yucca, Softleaf Yucca, Inland sea oats, Coral honeysuckle, Plumbago.<\/p>\n<p>I also planted 20 trees all around the yard including: Dessert Willow, Mexican Buckeye, Texas Laurel, Honey Mesquite, and Eve&#8217;s Necklace.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_35\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/DSCN06601.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35\" class=\" wp-image-35 \" title=\"Garden in progress\" src=\"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/DSCN06601-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/DSCN06601-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/DSCN06601-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/DSCN06601-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-35\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Garden in progress<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I live on a 4.5 lot north of Austin Texas.\u00a0 When I first moved here in November, 2010 \u00a0it was just mowed field with several large mature Live Oaks.. Every Ashe Juniper (Mountain Cedar)\u00a0 and other native shrub and tree &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/?p=26\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1246,"href":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/1246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sun-dancing.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}