Diana C. Kirby, Author at Diana's Designs Austin

When Mother Nature gives you rain…

Today it was 47 with 25 mph winds and raining. It was the kind of day that makes you want to stay inside and curl up with a good book.

And while I didn’t do that, I did do some computer clean-up work in the office all day. And when I picked up Kallie from Kindergarten, she had a plan for our evening:

Chicken Pot Pie for dinner
Hot Chocolate after dinner
Curling up in my chair with me with the fireplace going

Sounded like a good plan to me, so that’s just what we did tonight!

This picture is a series of window clings she has on her window — it’s bright and cheerful and I thought it would perk me, and this post, up on a grey day.

Wednesday promises to be garden-worthy again — whoo hoo!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:47:52-05:00March 3rd, 2008|Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, Uncategorized|8 Comments

A-n-t-i-c-i-p-a-t-i-o-n………….

No, I’m not writing about ketchup. The most exciting thing, after the long wait of winter, is finally seeing mini green shoots and sprouts, peeking out from mulch and dead leaves.

I’m all aquiver with the anticipation of plants yet to come, so I thought I’d share my eagerness with you. (Unfortunately, they just plain don’t photograph as well as blooms and full-grown plants!)

Ok, this isn’t really a test, but if you don’t scroll all the way to the bottom of the pictures, you can guess what’s peeking out, looking for Spring! Tell me how many you get right!

‘Victoria Blue’ Mealy Cup blue sage (Salvia farinacea)

Un-identified lilies — I’ll post about these later when they
are blooming, because I need help to name them.
They are my red mystery lilies that aren’t Oxbloods.

‘Gold Star’ Esperanza (Tecoma Stans)
Appropriately, Esperanza means “hope” in Spanish.

‘Trailing lavender’ lantana (Lantana montevidensis)

An unidentified wildflower in the ditch on our dog-walk!

‘New Gold’ yellow lantana (Lantana camara)

‘Black and Blue’ Salvia (Salvia guaranitica)

Coreopsis of some sort, I think!

Did you guess any of them? (I know – a few baby leaves isn’t much to go on! And I can’t even name them all and I planted them ; )

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:47:52-05:00March 3rd, 2008|Blog, coreopsis, esperanza, Lantana, lilies, sage, salvia, Sharing Nature's Garden, Wildflowers|11 Comments

Ok, I cannot remember whose blog it was on (I have a terrible memory – please forgive me — and tell me who it was!), but a few weeks ago I commented on a post about Valentine Garden Geeks. And while I didn’t fit the bill there, I do now!

I celebrated my birthday this week and I wanted to share with you some of my lovely garden-related gifts. You might guess that my five-year-old daughter — the girliest of girls imaginable — picked out the fluorescent pink bird feeder for me (with her Dad’s help.)

They both picked out these terrific little snippers – perfect for deadheading and small plant pruning. I can’t wait to try them out!
And my DH, who always uses knee pads, got me these to ease the bending.

My Mom and Dad got me this little garden fella — he’s a hand carved bird feeder. A tad heavy for the branches we have to hang him on, so he either needs a special mount or we may just leave him leaning against the tree on the ground. He’s kinda cute there!

And here is my “big” birthday gift. Many of you have already met Artemis, who now graces the front of a fedgling new garden bed. Mom and Dad also gave me a huge ferm to put in her head, but she has a tiny little head and it didn’t fit. So, the coral/salmon geraniums will stay there for now. They brighten up that end of the path, anyway, don’t you think?

I’d say this plethora of garden goodies makes me a Garden Geek…don’t you agree?!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:55-06:00March 2nd, 2008|Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Mountain Laurels have arrived!

I teased you with a Texas mystery tree in my last post. Well, these are native Texas Mountain Laurels – just starting to bloom. Mine are about 4 feet tall. The two full-tree photos are from more established trees in our neighborhood, and they are well protected – by the house – thus they are in full bloom a little earlier than some others.

On the food network, Emeril says he wishes we had “smell-avision.” Well, I wish we had scent-blogs! The floral scent of these lovely trees is so heady and beautiful, I wish I could share it with you. For now, these photos will have to do!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:55-06:00February 28th, 2008|Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, Texas Mountain Laurel|9 Comments

The good, the bad and the ugly…

Well, this is definitely the good! This photo was taken last August — it was Kallie’s first day of Kindergarten. You can see the soft morning light and the wonderfully green Mexican Flame Vine, Morning Glories, Mexican Mint Marigold, Purple Coneflower, and Lantana.

Here’s what the fence looks like right now. Everything is brown and dead. I see no signs of life in this bed yet. I’m hopeful that the flamevine will be perennial and come back, along with the coneflower an the lantana. I sprinkled some of the dead seedheads around the existing dead coneflower to help Mother Nature a little bit 😉

Guess you can tell from this post that I wasn’t in the yard today. A cold, blowing 20 mph wind and 58 degree high kept me indoors – drawing on a landscape plan in the morning and sitting at the automotive shop getting a new tire for 2 hours in the afternoon. (I feel lucky that I found the leak (a screw) and didn’t get stuck somewhere.)

Tomorrow, I’ll have some pretty pictures of Texas native tree for you – can you guess what what it might be?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:47:53-05:00February 26th, 2008|Blog, Mexican Flamevine, Mexican Mint Marigold, Morning Glory, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

This is no joke!

I cleared my calendar today in anticipation of 84 degrees and a full day of planting. It turned out to be 92 – unbelievable!

So, here’s what happened in my gardens today. I went to the nursery early this morning and bought every thing they had in stock that was deer-resistant and then scurried home like a little ant to begin my planting. I WAS the ant today.

I planted about 35 plants – and got most of the new bed in place, dirt spread, rocks removed and leaves scooped out. I will certainly add more, and some things with different blooming seasons like some wildflowers and some cutting flowers, but for now, this is a good start.

In the new bed, I planted:

3 Blackfoot daisy
1 Flame Acanthus – Anisacanthus wrighti
3 Damianita – Chryactinia Mexicana
3 Delphinium – bellamosum
1 Mexican Oregano – Poliomentha
5 Indian Paint Brush – Castilleja
9 Rosemary Shimmering Stars – rosmarinus prostratus
5 Society garlic
1 Crepe Myrtle tree that I propagated last summer

Elsewhere, I planted:

1 Nicotiana – pink
4 Snapdragons
1 Cherry Laurel

I started to post a picture of the horrible dirt and rock that I had to dig and crack through to plant these things. I added several inches of garden soil, but the natural dirt was nothing but rock, caliche and black clay so hard that it was just like clumps of rock. Ugh! I hope this amendment will be enough to help the plants grow. Many of them are tough by nature, and deer and drought resistant, so maybe they will feel right at home in my rocks!

Other people were working at my house today, too. The fence is finished! YEAH. The gate was built and hung and it’s lovely. Well, maybe not lovely, but functional and it makes me smile. And it WILL be lovely, after I’ve added some doo-dads and thing-a-ma-jiggies.

My back hurts and I’m the “good” tired. I’m off to bed. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to be 63 for the high, after a front blows through tonight. 30 degrees difference in 1 day — crazy Texas weather. I’ll be working inside!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:47:53-05:00February 25th, 2008|Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, statue bed, temperature, vegetable garden, Wildflowers|0 Comments

Diana C. Kirby

About Diana C. Kirby

When Mother Nature gives you rain…

A-n-t-i-c-i-p-a-t-i-o-n………….

Garden Geek Celebration

Mountain Laurels have arrived!

The good, the bad and the ugly…

This is no joke!

Escape in the garden