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

This ain’t no mellow yellow!

Ok.

Admit it.

You’ve been waiting with bated breath to see the first Daffodil of pseudo-Spring here in Austin!

And here she is.

I think she’s a “Yellow Fortune”, but then again, she could be a “Dutch Master.”

In any case, she’s pretty and a single spot of color on this gray and rainy winter day.

I enjoyed my one warm day in the garden this week and got a lot done, but now it’s back to reality.

Thunderstorms are forecast for today and tomorrow night we are expecting a low of 28 – pretty cold for us.

And then highs in the 40s for the weekend.

Not gardening weather, but definitely good for the garden. We need the rain as we are still down from the past year’s drought.

Luckily, I can peek out and see my little daffodil from the breakfast room window to perk me up!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:36-05:00January 28th, 2010|Blog, daffodils, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Wildflower Wednesday

Our blogging friend Gail, over at Clay and Limestone, has invited us to post our wildflower photos on this fourth Wednesday of the month.

When I first saw her post, I thought, “wildflowers…now?”

Well, no, not now, but soon! And that’s her point. Watching them creep along until they burst forth with beautiful color, dotting our landscape.

The one most easily identified right now in my garden is, of course, the bluebonnet. So, here are a few — first, what I am seeing scattered about today…
And what I hope to see when Spring has officially arrived!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:35-06:00January 27th, 2010|Blog, blue bonnets, Sharing Nature's Garden, wildflower weds|0 Comments

My little pretties are popping up…

Oh, the pretty ladies of Spring are putting on their finery to come to the party.

I’ve been all excited about the little green stalks of Narcissus peeking up out of the mulch in various garden beds.

So you can imagine how worked up I got when I realized today, that I actually have things in bloom!

Several Grape Hyacinths are blooming and have clearly naturalized with lots of little friends popping up right behind them.

I forgot I’d planted them, but when I searched previous posts, I found them here: http://bit.ly/8aqGGs

I realized that they came in an indoor pot with daffodils that I put in the ground when they were done blooming indoors!

How fun.

Love those little surprises.

Strolling through the mostly brown and dormant garden, seeing the little splashes of color just cheers me up.

One clump of Daffodils — the “Yellow Fortune” that I planted last year (yes, in January!), is already about to bloom.

Should be another day or two. And in 2008 it was February before the first Daffodil bloomed. Go figure.
And while crouched down looking at the Daffodils in amazement, I saw — beautiful buds all over my Japanese Quince, just waiting to pop open and show off their luscious salmon colored petals.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:36-05:00January 25th, 2010|Blog, daffodils, hyacinths, quince, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring|0 Comments

Planting a little hope…

A few sunny days this week inspired me to get out into the garden.

I can’t prune yet (for fear of promoting new growth) because we could easily have more freezing weather before the 2nd week in March, our last average freeze.

And I don’t want to pick up all those oak leaves covering the dead plants either, because they are providing a little winter cover. (It’s supposed be down to 36 tonight.)

But I can put in some cool weather annuals in pots and planters to bring some color into my mostly-brown landscape. So I went to the Natural Gardener on Friday and bought some little pretties to scatter about and bring some cheer. I put these three colorful annuals in the pots by the front door.

I also cleaned out and planted one of my window boxes with some very perky Spring colors.
And then I planted all the bulbs I bought last fall.

I know, I know.

In Central Texas, most bulbs are supposed to be planted right after Thanksgiving.

But with traveling for Thanksgiving, preparing for the holidays, two birthdays, party for 160, and traveling for Christmas, bulb planting just wasn’t on my list!

I know – I’m a slacker~! Frankly, I shut off the gardening part of my brain the first of November. It’s tough sometimes, but I just can’t juggle all that at once.

If you were reading through here last January, you’ve read about me doing this before! And since those bulbs came up just fine, I’ve decided I will just plant them on my own time line and hope.
So, now I am ready to welcome back gardening with open arms.
I planted about 60 bulbs this week – most of them daffodils. (I love them, AND the deer don’t — the perfect combination for outside the fence.) But I still covered them up because the deer love to check out the turned earth and the compost and stomp around new plants, whether they eat them or not.

I planted:

Odorous Plenus “Double Campernelle” — which is supposed to be an early blooming heirloom Narcissus dating back to the 1600s and very fragrant.

Tete-a-tete — a shorter Daffodil that I tucked in among some other perennials.

Jonquil “Simplex” — a standard 10-12″ daffodil that I scattered about in several places.

Yellow grape Muscari “Golden Fragrance” — a variety very different from the traditional grapy muscari, known for its scent, which is said to smell a bit like a mix of gardenia and banana.

Fritillaria michailovskyi — a 6″ tall Turkish wildflower with 1-5 purple=edged and yellow hanging bell flowers per stem. They looked so exotic and beautiful in the catalog, I just had to have a bag of them. I put these right outside the breakfast room window, where I will see them the most.

Cross your fingers for me!

Bulbs planted in previous years are popping up all over the beds, much to my delight. If I had to pick one favorite moment in time in the garden, it would be watching the daffodils open in the spring.

What’s your favorite moment in time in the garden?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:36-05:00January 24th, 2010|Blog, bulbs, daffodils, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Revitalizing Rain

After our recent slow, soaking rain, I heard my plants in the garden give a collective sigh of relief.

Then the sun came out and several sad little specimens started lifting their frazzled foliage upward – reaching for the warmth radiating once again onto their little world.

Many things are very dormant. Some: dead-dormant. And most of the plants, while salvageable, are still sad. But the Aralia, above, once bowed over and brown, perked up again and was very pleased to be sporting some ravishing raindrops.
The teensy Bluebonnet plants are all still alive and beginning to grow again.
Many daffodil bulbs are popping up around various beds.
My Hellebores are a little worse for the wear, but they do have some fresh, new leaves. I can’t wait for the first blooms. Three of my 4 plants are new from last year and have never bloomed for me so I’m eager to see what they look like.
These darling little Hyacinths were a totally surprise when I happened upon them today. Forgot I’d planted them!
Who knows who this guy is! But he’s on the fast-track up.

This Autumn Joy Sedum survived all the cold – 18 and lower, without anything more than a few yellow leaves. And it’s blooming. Wow.
Then you turn around, and on the other hand…

Need I say more? Sigh…

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:36-05:00January 20th, 2010|aralia, Blog, blue bonnets, daffodils, freeze, Hellebore, hyacinths, sedum, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Letting my fingers and my imagination do the walking…

It’s thawed here, and today was a beautiful, and warmer-than-normal Texas winter day.

While waiting for the cloudy and cool morning to burn off, I sipped hot tea (with a slice of my Eureka variegated lemon in it) and devoured seed catalogs.

I had several different catalogs that came in the mail and then I went searching for the websites of some of my other favorite sources, like Botanical Interests, Burpee, and Tomato Bob.

Several orders for veggies, cutting flowers and perennials are now processing away across the country.

When the sun came out I was itching to plant things. And even though I have seed packets I could have used, I didn’t have seed starter mix, or a plan!

(Being German, I gotta have a plan, don’t ya know?!!)

So for tomorrow, I have a plan: Meet garden blogging buddy at garden center, let myself buy 1 or 2 (only) plants, and get some seed starter mix and innoculant and whatever other seeds they might have that I didn’t already buy!

When the other packages arrive in the mail, I’ll draw a plan for the cutting garden and the veggie garden. Then I can start sowing seeds in little pots in the greenhouse where I can keep them nice and toasty warm.

And this year, I swear I will NOT jump the gun and plant them outside at the earliest possible moment. Instead, I will err on the side of CAUTION, and plant them a safe amount of time after the last danger of frost has passed.

Nope, no more playing around trying to fool Mother Nature for me. After the last year we’ve had, it’s clear to me that she isn’t messing around!

How about you? Ready to cry “uncle” to Mother Nature?

P.S. You might have to hold me to that “not jumping the gun” thing!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:35-06:00January 18th, 2010|Blog, greenhouse, plans, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Diana C. Kirby

About Diana C. Kirby

This ain’t no mellow yellow!

Wildflower Wednesday

My little pretties are popping up…

Planting a little hope…

Revitalizing Rain

Letting my fingers and my imagination do the walking…

Escape in the garden