Happy New Year to the Trees! xo

This year for Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the New Year for Trees, I was asked to help out on a project at the Jewish Community Center (J.C.C.) here in San Antonio.  Many Jewish children plant trees for this holiday, this year at the Block and Dreeben School for Young Children we planted a palm tree and a garden for wildlife and butterflies for the children to enjoy.  It was a wonderful project and the ceremony was lovely.  I am thankful I got to be a part of it.  We had to plant “friends” for the trees of course!  So thank you to nature loving director of the school, Alissa Levey Baugh,  the project expanded from planting a tree to a native and well-adapted garden full of texture and color.  This project, as all gardens, will continue to expand and evolve this year creating a little slice of garden goodness for the little ones.Here are volunteers Nicole and Frank, who have beautiful and sweet little ones attending the school, working HARD breaking up and amending this well-trampled soil!  Go guys go!  (sorry about the dark picture y’all!) We have a garden, yay!  Look at the Mediterranean fan palm (Chamaerops humilis) waving at us!  Hello beautiful!  Lets take a closer look-see…Here you can see the fan palm in the background with mass planted Bat-Face Cuphea (Cuphea llavea) surrounding it.  The kids are going to love those cute little purple fuzzy bat faces!Another great plant the kids are sure to enjoy is irresistibly touchable lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina) – it mingles well with the rocks and a little spreading sedum plant. Quintessential Texas native plant, Yellow-Bells (Tecoma stans ), will create a gorgeous color-spot at the tip of the garden.  At it’s feet, Texas bluebonnets of course!  The children also danced in some sunflower seeds in the lower portion of the garden as part of the ceremony to add a whimsical element to this garden.  A 6 foot tall sunflower forest will be pretty neat here!  I wanted to choose plants the kids would love, that were touchable, and also would make them in awe of it all (giant sunflowers).I also planted up a little xeric planter as a pleasing barrier so that the kids don’t cut this corner trampling the garden – Fingers crossed!  In the planter, foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyersii‘), native red-yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora)  which I will eventually move into the garden when it gets too large for this arrangement, and Texas native Stemodia lanata that will trail silver water falls over the side of the pot.

I will continue to post pictures as this little garden grows up…I hope y’all enjoyed as much as I did.

Happy Birthday Trees/Plants! xo

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