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Barely in time bloom day!

The blooms were all out there, waiting for their photo session…each of them thinking, pick me, pick me!

And there were so many of them from which to choose, each one eager to join in Carol of May Dreams Gardens‘ Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

But it’s June here in Central Texas, and if I brought all the pretty girls to the dance I would have had to spend all day posting, instead of squeezing in quickly right under the wire tonight like I am!
So I decided today to only invite the newest or most interesting blooms. (Shhh – don’t tell them, but if you want to see the rest you can just look at June 1999!)

So, I lead with my White Echinacea, which just started blooming. I love its structure — it’s less formal-looking that the standard pink, rather ecclectic, don’t you think?

And no one can hold a candle to the Moy Grande Hibiscus. She bloomed on the 14th, but I’m sneaking her in anyway. This was her first bloom of the year. But there are many more to come soon.
To give you a sense of scale, the whole Hibiscus plant is 5 feet tall, so you can see how enormous this bloom really is.
The two Plumerias are happy as can be out on the back porch. And the Dessert Willow on the ground below them has just started to bloom, as well.
This little vignette by the cutting garden is so delicate-looking. The Crape Myrtle just started blooming, the Katy Road Rose is on bloom #2 and the Lambs Ears blooms are just finishing and peeking in from the bottom of the photo.
I think instead of Autumn Joy, this Sedum is Year-round Joy!
My new plantings in the giant pots by the pool are getting lush. In here I have Sapphire Showers Duranta, Silver Pony Foot, Bandana Cherry Lantana and Sharskin Agave. I know this will require pruning, but I was so enamored with the idea of these plants together that I decided I was willing to work at it. (Remind me of this in August, will you?!) P.S. See the dog tails in the background? Thought I’d throw in a hidden picture game along with the blooms!
This is the right side of the pool, with the lovely new Pindo Palm, flanked my Esperanza and white Datura.
The is the left side of the pool, with the other Pindo, a cluster of Echinacea, Taro Elephant Ears that are so relieved to have some shade so they will thrive this year, and in the foreground, some Tropicana Cannas (otherwise known as caterpillar food.)
The Plumeria blooms up close and personal. Wish you could smell their lemony goodness!
My replacement Bottle Brush tree seems to be thriving and is showing it with lots of wispy, yet spiky blooms.
Below the Bottle Brush, the cluster of Mai Nacht Salvia are looking particularly blue — and that’s a good thing!

Happy Garden Bloggers Blue-m Day. (I know, I know — it’s late & I’m punchy. But it’s only 10:330 p.m. CST, so it’s still bloom day and I made it!)

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:26-06:00June 15th, 2010|Blog, Bottle Brush tree, Coneflower, echinacea, GBBD, Moy Grande hibiscus, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

I’m tired of sharing, ok?

I’m just sayin’.

I like butterflies and moths as much as the next guy. I have planted a garden full of butterfly, bird and bee-friendly plants.
And now I am paying the price! The top photo used to a be a beautiful purple Datura, blooming just a few nights ago. Then one morning, Poof!

All gone.

Then there are the tomato hornworms that are making a stalk-y mess of my tomatoes. I am picking them off daily and just moving them elsewhere now.
All my veggies are under attack, as are many perennials throughout the garden. These are radishes being eaten alive.
My parsley is devoid of foliage, but full of swallowtail caterpillars and their remnants.
Someone likes the ruhbarb, too, though I haven’t harvested any for ME yet!
And the swiss chard must also be tasty to the caterpillars because it is full of holes, too.
Out in the rest of the garden, the cannas and the variegated shell ginger are being assaulted. I pruned some mangled canna leaves and found fuzzy white moth caterpillars on them — but I couldn’t determine which moths they will become. I relocated them and their leaves to the woods, too. Boy did those little buggers move fast! They knew I had a hold of their leaves and they were running for their lives, but I let them be…just somewhere ELSE!

I didn’t take pictures of the Moy Grande Hibiscus with little holes all over it from beetles or the Missouri Violets, Coneflowers and Silver Ponyfoot being eaten by the little baby bucks.

Sharing schmaring!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:30-05:00June 13th, 2010|Blog, caterpillars, moths, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomato horn worm|0 Comments

Too much of a good thing!

This week we were blessed with three quenching inches of rain. It came with a vengeance, bringing with it clashes of thunder and bolts of lightning too intense to ignore, even at 3 a.m.

Living in perpetual drought (Okay- I exaggerate just a smidge, but not much!), we welcomed the storm and the resulting drink. But today, I saw the flip side of all that rain at once. Just like our tomato skins will split with too much surprise moisture, my first crop of plums burst at the seams from the rain.

Let me tell you, though — it was like nectar of the Gods when I ate the rest of it! It’s a little small and a little too tart yet, but I LOVE that I have plums. I thought this was an ornamental tree until Dakota (the dog) ate her first fallen plums a few weeks ago.

Then I had to cut back the monstrous overgrowth of Wine Cups that have obliterated the rock pathway and begun taking over the lawn. All that rain just fed the monster!
So, THEN, I had to go through the beds and get some cutting flowers for make a lovely posey for the kitchen.
That makes me happy. Who said you can have too much of a good thing?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:31-05:00June 11th, 2010|Blog, cut flowers, cutting garden, Mexican Plum, posey, Sharing Nature's Garden, winecup|0 Comments

Come on over to critter country again!

I could have filmed a nature documentary here today.

First, my three friendly new deer visitors came looking for a late lunch and I gave them some water. This spring we have a Mama doe and two yearling bucks visiting regularly.

I went in the garage to get another saucer for some corn. Just as I was reaching for a tray, a Carolina wren flew out of the shelf, not more than a few inches from my hand!

I screamed (not uncommon for me here in critter-land), and realized she had just flown out of a nest right above my hand.

The wrens have been in and out of the garage lately, so I’ve been keeping it 1/2 closed, thinking I had deterred them before they started a nest.

HA!

(Remember, I am NOT in charge!)

There it was — a sweet little nest inside a blue and white pot, with 7 tiny speckled eggs in it.

I waited a while and checked again, and found the Mama burrowed deep down in the nest, covering her eggs and guarding them with her life.
It you look carefully, you can see her head at the bottom. I was trying not to disturb her too much, but I did get a better shot on my second try.
She’s really giving me the evil eye here!

I high-tailed it out of there, but not before putting a saucer with birdseed and water close by her when she has to be in the garage and can’t get out.

I’m going to leave the doors open when I am home, opened the windows for air, and will leave the doors cracked when I can, trying to make sure she is IN and not OUT, when the doors have to be closed for a long time.

I thought about slowly moving it outside the garage, a few feet at a time, but there are two very predatory cats next door, so I couldn’t get them to a safe enough height.
Here are our little deer friends. This little buck is quite plucky – he gets really close to me and once even acted like he was coming to me. He’s clearly young!

This is their Mama, who’s always with them and keeping an eye out while they much. They have eaten on a few of my smaller or newly blooming plants, normally left alone. I think they are really hungry and too young to have a very sophisticated palate yet. Oh, heck, who knows why!

Oh, yes, and while I was taking pictures of the birds and moved on to the deer, a Texas horny toad lizard shot out between my feet!

I should be charging rent! Or filming for some reality show!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:31-05:00June 8th, 2010|baby birds, Blog, bucks, deer, doe, eggs, Sharing Nature's Garden, wrens|0 Comments

Hoeing for hornworms

Holy Cow.

Imagine my horror when I inspected the garden today after returning from our 4 day trip to Indiana and found a tomato horn worm.

No, wait, not one.

But two.

No, wait, not two, but FOUR!

The horror.

So I got my thick gloves and my child’s hoe.

I picked them off one by one and hoed them to death.

(Did you know that their blood is green ooze, kinda like anti-freeze?)

Ewwwwwww…

Then I covered their carcasses with mulch in the garden path and gave them a proper burial.

It’s too hot now to follow up with BT, but you can bet I will be out there first thing in the morning to spray and make sure I got all the little buggers.

It took me a long time to find those four, and I am certain there are more that I simply can’t see. They blend in much too well. They are the epitome of camouflage.

Ahh … the tomato wars begin.

So far, the odds are still good.

Diana – 1, Hornworms – 0.

Are you prepared to do battle in the tomato wars of 2010? Who are your worst garden enemies?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:31-05:00June 7th, 2010|Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomato horn worm, tomatoes|0 Comments

Touring the neighbor’s garden

Yesterday brought me a delightful garden treat. We’re visiting family in Indiana, and one of the neighbors down the road is an avid gardener, and works at a local nursery. He was kind enough to offer me a private tour last year (See Hoods Gardens) , and yesterday I got a tour of his personal garden just down the road.
This is farm country — rows and rows of cornfields and soybeans as far as the eye can see. But going to Ed’s house was like going to a garden paradise. Because we are far, far away from my Zone 8b-9 home, it was fascinating to see all the different plants he can grow here in Indiana in Zone 5.
Ed has a wonderful collection of chickens and roosters, too, and I got to meet most of them while I was there. They seemed curious about having a visitor, but they didn’t get too close, as they were much too busy pecking for bugs.
I fell in love with this iris, as it is the same colors that my Ocelot at home was supposed to be and wasn’t. Most of his irises were done blooming, but I did get to see a few stragglers. Not sure of the name of this one, he’s dubbed it his ‘hound dog iris!’
Now I can’t remember the name of this, but it sure looks like something in the salvia family to me.
His gardens surround an amazing and historic farm house, complete with big porch and unique architectural touches. And his gardens are also little vignettes with interesting focal points to draw the eye, like this old metal spoked wheel next to a pot of succulents.
A few day lilies and Easter lilies were still happily blooming, adding splashes of color to the garden.
And imagine my delight to see this old stock trough filled with Amaranth, Cleomes and a few other plants.
Not sure of the botanical name of this bright patch of yellow, Ed likes to call them butter cups.
And this old garden was also full of Valerian, which is a hardy perennial here with pink or white flowers. It self-seeds freely and used to be used a a perfume in the sixteenth century and is still used to make a potion to aid in sleeping.

These sweet, ripe cherries called to me and I had a taste of them as we passed under this cherry tree, heavy with fruit.
And I can’t think of anything more appropriate to adorn the side of this wonderful farmhouse than this giant snowball bush, full of vintage blooms harkening to times past.