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Diana C. Kirby

About Diana C. Kirby

Diana Kirby is a lifelong gardener and longtime Austinite, who loves the Central Texas climate for the almost year-round opportunities it offers for active gardening and seasonal splendor. Known as an impassioned and successful gardener, Diana began by helping friends design and implement their landscapes. Soon, she was contracted as a professional designer by a popular local landscaping installation firm, where she designed landscapes for residential and commercial clients for several years. In 2007, her new passion blossomed with the launch of her own firm, Diana’s Designs. ... Diana is a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, the Garden Writers Association of America, and she writes a monthly gardening column for the Austin American-Statesman. Diana teaches the Landscape Design classes for several county Texas Agrilife Extension Service Master Gardener certification programs and speaks about gardening and design for garden centers and other groups. Learn more about presentation topics, availability and speaking fees.

Spring cleaning…

Ok, so it’s not Spring, but with evening temps at 59 and daytime highs at 85, it feels like Spring.  

So my DH and I worked on the ugly side of gardening this weekend – storage of all the “stuff” required to garden.  My DH moved things around so that my garden storage cabinet (a 20-year old dresser from my son’s room) was actually accessible and we cleaned it out and I put lots of things away – soil, compost, gloves, trowels, pruners, you name it…lots of my tools found a home.
This is where they were, out in the open and messy.  My goal is to move all of this into a cabinet and clear this space.
Buckets and piles and wagonloads of stuff…STUFF everywhere!  And it seems to multiply, kind of like paperclips…
Or, maybe it’s just me…
I’m just not gonna go there.  But, the greenhouse comes tomorrow and some things will need to be in there, so I’m hoping I can clean it up and spread it out and make it all look a little better for a little while.  (I’m a binge and purge kind of garage cleaner!)
By |2016-04-14T02:45:06-05:00November 3rd, 2008|Blog, cleaning, garage, Sharing Nature's Garden, tools|0 Comments
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Seed starting survey …

Mmmhuuuwaaaaaa!

This is my seed skeleton!  No, seriously, this is the sizable stack of seed sachets, some opened, some closed, but all … well … old.
So, thus my subsequent question…how long do seeds keep?  I’ve done trial and error before, and since I am inherently seed-challenged, I’d rather improve my odds by using only those MOST likely to actually sprout.  
** Share your expertise with me, my blogging friends — should I toss or keep my seeds?

** Is there a difference in the staying power of wildflower, vegetable or flower seeds?
Isn’t this cute?  I give inspirational credit to Frances of Faire Garden, Annie of The Transplantable Rose  and Carol of May Dreams Gardens for all their little garden fairy references.
So, I took my 5-year old by the hand on Saturday and we went into the woods to collect little rocks to build a fairy house in our garden.  This is our little house, complete with rock door.  We’ll keep adding to it as we’re inspired.  Guess we should name it, too…
And, here, she is — speaking of the Fairy House-builder!  Going haunting as a puppy with her Daddy, who was a mailman with torn pants!  Their costumes were so easy to make and I loved that she didn’t want to be anyone or thing that was commercial or required a crown!

I leave you with one final Fall image — this beautiful, lush mum that I bought for decoration for our neighborhood Halloween Potluck for 45 at our house Friday night.
By |2017-11-29T23:27:51-06:00November 2nd, 2008|Blog, Halloween, mums, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden|16 Comments
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Mmmmmm…’maters!


Yumm-O as Rachel Ray would say!  Tomatoes are a’comin’ on the vine.  These cooler evening temps helped the blooms set and now they are growing like mad, hoping to beat the first frost.  Here that’s normally not until early December, but we’ve had unseasonably cold temps at night this week – into the 40s at my house, so they’d better grow quickly!
They are pretty tasty — not quite as sweet as last year’s but we are enjoying them.

See that little clump of green near the middle of the photo?  That is the LAST of the Malabar spinach — my DH and I cut off all the vines threatening to take over our garden and our house.  We fed them to the appreciative deer and they will get that last clump tonight for dinner.  Then it will be done!  Whew!  
By |2016-04-14T02:45:06-05:00October 29th, 2008|Blog, deer, malabar spinach, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomatoes|0 Comments
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I am NOT in charge!

See that pretty little yellow bloom? That’s a Mexican Mint Marigold. Just started blooming yesterday.

It’s pretty and the next photo shows you that it will soon be full of bright blooms.

BUT. (There’s always a but, isn’t there?) I planted these 3 little plants last summer when we put in this bed. The purpose of the bed was to provide a place for lots of colorful vines to cover the fence. This picture below is what it looked like last September — everything behaving according to PLAN. See the beautiful orange Mexican Flame Vine behind the little Marigolds? Nice, isn’t it?

Well, this is how it looks now. NO Flame vine, spindly leftover morning glories. All thanks to the thirsty, overgrown, block the sprinkler Marigolds who have hogged the bed.

So, after they bloom – OUT they come, to be replaced in the Spring by something much lower and slower growing so that the Flame Vine – which is still there, but just 6 leaves at the base of the plant – can reach up to the sky along the fence. I don’t know WHERE they are going, mind you, but they ARE going. I will have things according to plan, I will, I will!

And here are some signs of our cool 55 degree night last night. The Plumeria is not happy about those cool, damp temps — see the yellowing leaves inside there?


It’s a desperate cry for the Greenhouse to get here soon!

12 days ’til Greenhouse Day!

By |2016-04-14T02:45:06-05:00October 23rd, 2008|Blog, greenhouse, Mexican Flamevine, Mexican Mint Marigold, plumeria, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments
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Fall harvest … ripe and ready

This is the tale of the tomatoes that just wouldn’t die.

This Spring, it got into the 100’s not long after the tomato plants went into the ground.  Much too hot at night for blooms to set.  
I tried some of that bloom set spray and I got some tomatoes, but a pretty meager crop.  A tomato here, a tomato there.  Sometimes a few tomatoes – enough for a fresh tomato salad.  But they were random.  Not very sweet, some were mealy…just not much to blog home about.
After our 40+ days of 100+ degrees, the tomato plants were crispy and crinkl-y and ugly.  For some reason, I cleaned them up, plucked off all the dead, brown leaves and tried to cheer them up for the coming Fall.
Now we’ve had some cool nights and some 85 degree days.  The plants are 8-10 feet tall – leggy on the bottom but lush and full of fruit on the top.  And they taste pretty good.  Not our best, but tasty.  All of a sudden, I am having cravings for turkey, cheese and tomato sandwiches — my favorite.  And we’re having slices on a plate with kosher salt, or with cottage cheese.  
It’s almost like the beginning of Summer!
By |2017-11-29T23:27:51-06:00October 21st, 2008|Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomaotes|0 Comments
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Escape in the garden

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