One of my creative friends gave me this canister with a message bean in it for Christmas.
Cute, I thought. I’d seen them in garden catalogs and wondered, “how do they get the word imprinted on the bean?”
I followed the directions (highly unusual, for me!) and lo and behold, it sprouted!
It’s grow quite big, almost 4 inches tall and the imprinted part is close to 2 inches wide.
And it really makes me smile, every day.
They say it’s the simple things … and they’re right!
Thanks, Steph!
Some things are just … DEAD.
They might come back, mind you. But for now, they are D-E-A-D!
The gingers always die and come back, but not with these frigid temps. Guess we will have to cross our fingers. The Esperanza behind them sometimes don’t make it back, even in just a cool year, so I expect to lose some of them. But I have to say, the Ginger smells amazing outside – something about the freeze and thaw that is working on their roots and the best smell is wafting up from them. Interesting, you’d think a freeze would generate no smell. That was one of my complaints about living in Minnesota for a few years – grey, no-smells of outdoors winters.
The onion tops cratered — wonder if the 1015s in the ground will still form. I pulled a test one and they are only about the thickness of a double-wide green onion so far. I’ll cross my toes!
The big ol’ 8-ft tall Duranta Erecta succumbed last night. May not get that tall next year. It never froze back or went dorman last fall, so it might take it awhile to get that big again. I’ll cross my arms!
Same with the giant Cassias. The Candlestick trees grew for 2 years straight and never stopped. I suspect they will top out at 6 feet next year, instead of 12 feet! I’ll cross my legs!
Guess it’s gonna be a “short” Spring! (And I don’t think I have anything left to cross)
Welcome back and Happy New Year!
I’ve been AWOL for the holiday-travel-birthday-holiday-travel-holiday-birthday season. (Technically, the last birthday isn’t over. Our 7-year old daughter and 12 little friends will be tumbling and eating pizza and cookie cake at the gymnastics center tomorrow afternoon!) But tonight is close enough!
I have so missed blogging. And I miss visiting other blogs, too. But I have to swear off entirely or I will get sucked into the vortex. (You know the vortex, don’tcha?!)
Sometimes life interferes with gardening and blogging, but boy I feel it. I miss the creative outlet and communing with nature and my blogging buds. I’ve been itching to garden, too, but our deep freeze is making that unlikely — this week, at least!
So I walked through the garden before last night’s 24F freeze to see what I could see.
I know you will NOT believe this, but this is a Winecup that is STILL blooming from last Spring on the Rock Path! We have had frosts and light freezes already, and yet it still survives!
These are Daffodil bulbs peeking up to see what’s going on out here.
This is the very sad Agave desmettiana variegata. It did NOT fare as well through the light frosts of earlier Fall. In fact, it looks like mush. And last night did it in. Chalk one up to a lesson learned. I did not know it was so tender. All the other new Agaves in the garden this year seem to be weathering the storms ok.
This is my salmon and pink Acapulco Agastache – dead on top, but already bursting with new foliage from the base thanks to some recent sunny 50F days.
This Aralia is officially dead now. Totally wilter – I wonder if it will come back? Do you know?
This is the giant bowl of radishes, lettuce and Swiss Chard that I picked before the freeze. We ate the chard tonight with some bacon and balsamic vinegar and had radishes to eat by themselves. I pulled a 1015 onion and they are nowhere near forming bulbs. Think they are gonna bite the dust. Strawberries seem ok so far.
If they’re right (the mysterious “they”), tonight will be the true test if it gets down to 19F. (But then again, they said it might not get above freezing all day today, and I hit 39 and very sunny late afternoon here, so go figure!)
Be warm. Wherever you are, I’m sure it’s cold tonight!
We had big fun out in the snow today. The guys pulled my daughter and son around in a giant sled behind the gator up and down the hill on the farm. It was better than an e-ticket ride at Disney!
I’ve been sadly absent from blogging for a while, busy with holiday and party prep.
Now, we’re back in Indiana, where last night’s snowfall painted a magical picture for us. It’s truly like a live holiday card here. Thanks to my DH for his early-morning photo journey.
Once the kids go out and make snow angels and a snowman, it will change from the peaceful scene to a lively, cheerful panorama of glee.
Happy Holidays!
I was delighted to read comments on my blog this afternoon and see that my friend Amy, a newer member of the Austin Bloggers group, has generously shared a blog award with me.
Thanks, Amy, of Go Away, I’m Gardening, for this little pre-Thanksgiving gift. I have to admit sometimes I am still surprised that there are people out there reading my blog at all! I love this garden community that transcends time and space and climate.
I must now pass this award on to other blogs who I think deserve such an award along with these instructions. Post the award on your blog along with the name of the person who passed it on to you and link to their blog. Choose blogs you think are great and pass it on to them.
So, my first passalong of the award goes to Robin, of Getting Grounded. Her blog is always interesting and beautiful and full of new ideas and plants that I haven’t tried yet in my shady spaces.
And my second passalong, goes to Janet, the Queen of Seaford, who has a Virginia garden blog, but has roots like mine in Texas and Germany. And she has digging dogs, so there’s that link, too. I love her sometimes tropical plantings, and always learn something new when I go to her blog.
There were so many blogs I could have chosen; I love reading them all, frankly, but that would have made my post WAY too long!
We’re in Indiana enjoying the holidays with family, so I send you Happy Thanksgiving wishes along with this photo of Nana’s Homemade Oyster Dressing before it went in the oven…yummm
Did I mention that I brought a plastic container with ripe tomatoes from Texas to Indiana in my suitcase yesterday? Boy are they good! And since tomato season here is long gone, they are a welcome treat!