cross vine

Beautiful blooms for the first day of spring!

Happy First Day of Spring!

Since I’ve just posted about the few flowering things in my new garden, I decided to get some fresh air and walk around my cul de sac to see what my neighbors have blooming in their yards.

I used to grow tangerine crossvine in my previous garden.  It’s lining the fence across the street, so I get to enjoy a whole swatch of it every time I look out front or work in my garden.

I’m a sucker for irises and my neighbor has a field of these wonderful, dark purple ones.

I think these are Indian Hawthorne blooms. In a more established  neighborhood, I’m seeing a different plant palette.

As always – I love the reliable evergreen bi-color iris.  Great structure in any landscape.

It’s an adventure creating a brand new garden.

Every little step is a lesson.

And, it’s fun getting to experience new neighborhood gardens as we walk with the bubbies every day.

Happy Spring!

Garden resolutions 2013

I’ve long given up New Year’s Resolutions — but I do make some to-do lists.  If I call them to-do lists, I seem to get around to them better!

This year I have a long garden to-do list.  Perhaps committing it to eternal, world-wide view on my blog will help me check things off my list!

So, here goes:

 1.  Plant more trees outside the back fence in front of scrubby cedars.  I love this smoke tree and planted one for a client this fall, wishing all the while that I had one to enjoy. 

 2.  Have an a corner arbor build to showcase my tangerine cross vine and my wisteria.  The cross vine winds along the fence and then climbs  20 feet up into a tree where I can’t see it.  The wisteria spends most of its time hanging out on the opposite side of the fence — hiding from me — to be closer to the morning sun.  A tall arbor would give them both plenty of room to keep growing — growing where I can enjoy them!

 3.  Replace the pride of Barbados that I lost over the last two winters.  I love the explosion of color these trees bring in the late summer and I’ve missed mine.  I vow to find some great hot spots for them to thrive.

4.  I will buy more bigger starter plants this year.  I’ve bemoaned the fact that my newer plants struggled to come back from harsh winters and scalding summers.  Some years they even came back smaller than when I planted them!  When I can, I want to invest in more established plants.

 5.  With too much on my plate, blogging and scrapbooking have waited in the wings too much this year.  I love those creative outlets and want to give myself more opportunities for gathering inspiration from them.

 6.  Divide, divide, divide.  I have irises, bi-color irises and lilies that really need dividing.  In fact, they needed dividing this fall.  This will be the year of dividing, replanting and sharing.

 7.  Prune, prune, prune.  My cottage garden, cutting garden and hot southwest garden all suffered from overgrown-itis this year.  Yes, the plants were all beautiful, but I know that pruned properly they would have complemented each other and showcased their individual characteristics better.

 8.  This year I will plant my bulbs before January … oh, wait … that means today!  Yikes – better go find them and get to planting!

 9.  I WILL make homemade pesto from my basil “trees” this year.  I say that every year when my basil gets out of hand — I mean stunning — but this year I really mean it.

10.  And last, well, there never is a last, but I plan to dig up most of this and rebuild the dry creek with moss rock and other, larger stones.  The recycled glass will come out and I will raise up the bed to help plants thrive there.  With very little soil and a berm to avoid soil on the fence, the plants don’t get enough water and the soil just isn’t deep enough.  The solution — protect the fence from rotting by putting hardy board against it and rock in the front to add good soil.

That’s the list — for now.  As with everything in gardening – it’s organic and will change a thousand times over the next year.  But it’s a good start and I feel good about making decisions to tackle some of my current and perpetual problems.

Guess we’ll see where I end up this time next year.

What’s on your garden resolution list for 2013?

Searching for garden delights…

This is a breath-taking spring display.

I love the combination of lavender and coral. This Crossvine is intertwined with the Wisteria as they meet by the corner of the fence.

Sadly, I don’t get to see this view.

I was admiring the Crossvine this week, and bemoaning the fact that the freeze had taken my Wisteria. But wait, isn’t that one solitary Wisteria bud I see?

Hmmmm–I see a blur of lavender through the crack in the wooden fence. Hmmmm…something is fishy here.

I trek out of the back yard and into the wild area outside of out fence (which no one can see, by the way).

What did I find? This. This amazing display of color and texture and wild beauty growing with abandon outside of my watchful eyes!
Short view as I got closer.
And what I see from the front corner of the fence if I walk off the property.
This is my view from the house and inside the back fence. It’s quite lovely, the Crossvine all by itself. And most of it is high — at least 20 feet into the nearby oak tree — which means I don’t really readily see it unless I crane my neck up.
I’m glad that at least the Crossvine has decided to stick around and bloom for me.
Even if this is all I can see of the elusive Wisteria!

Bowl full o’ berries…

They tried to hide from me in the garden, but I saw them peeking out from under all that foliage and all those little white flowers!
See them there, being sneaky? But I’m smarter than they are, plus, my mouth was watering looking at those juicy, ripe berries. They’re going to be breakfast tomorrow.
Look at this beautiful variegated leaf on the base of the Eureka lemon tree. It makes me so happy to see the pink tinge on that cream and green leaf. It may be a long road back, but it’s coming right along. I’m going to fertilize it this week, too, to give it a little extra help.
This beauty is on the Carefree Beauty Rose bush – Katy Road. There are buds and blooms all over it.
This profusion of trumpets is my Crossvine that grows on the back fence…
…and way up into the neighboring oak tree! The fence is 6 ft tall, so you can tell how high those vines have climbed.

Vines of all kinds …

The cooler nights are starting to affect the vines, so I thought I’d get a few more pictures before they fade away for the season.

I need to go harvest those Coneflower seeds just to the right of this morning glory.
Can you tell I love blue and purple vines?
This mandavilla is so happy here. Too bad it won’t come back after winter.
These scraggly guys are behind the fence.
This Cypress Vine will have to be cut back with a machete when it dies for the winter!

This Tangerine Beauty Crossvine is so not supposed to be blooming now! It’s an early Spring bloomer. I think it’s blooming because it’s just so happy that the heat has finally abated and we’ve gotten a little rare rain.
This Purple Hyacinth Bean vine is loving the rain – it’s been a sindly stalk all summer and now it’s bursting with blooms and beans.

What’s your favorite vine?

Sweet things to come …

Wow. My Wisteria is gearing up for a big bloom up on the back fence. This is the most advanced of the blooms, coming onto the fuzzy buds that cover the branches today.

She’s intermingling with the Crossvine on the other side of the back fence. This is the first open bloom on that side, and there are thousands of little buds just waiting … waiting for RAIN.

Which we did NOT get today.
In spite of being promised rain. (well, technically not promised, but I foolishly hung my hat on the 30% chance in the forecast. I guess I only hear what I want to hear!)
This Euryops Daisy is very happy with our spring-like weather, and has burst into bloom.
And here are all the big plants in their new, albeit temporary, corner of the patio. I still have about 1/2 of the smaller plants inside the greenhouse and am bringing those out a few at a time.
And now the forecast for next week includes a 37-degree night.
Aargghhh!
But I also know if I had left everyone in the greenhouse the forecast would have been for 91 degrees like it was last week.
[I know, I’m NOT in charge!]
Go to Top