Sharing Nature's Garden Archives | Page 109 of 124

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

Well, we HAVE had snow here in winter…

Monday, February 25, 2008

Don’t fall out of your chair! It isn’t snowing here today. In fact, it was 92 today!!!!! But looking at all the beautiful northern snows and ice covered plants, it reminded me that we HAVE had snow here, and it’s just a beautiful when we get it here. It turns everything into a magical winter wonderland. I thought you’d enjoy seeing these — they were the winter of 2003-2004.

And this is my little munchkin’s first look at it! She doesn’t seem too sure, does she?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:47:53-05:00February 24th, 2008|Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, snow|0 Comments

Don’t chew, I surrender!

I surrender. Sigh. After planting lots of little eye candy last week, I got up and went outside to survey Saturday morning. Lo and behold, several of my plants were strewn about the driveway and the beds. Clearly, someone, or several someones, came through for a tasting sampler and found some of them unpalatable! If they didn’t like them, I wishe they’d at least figure that out first, or put them back!

I was able to shove most of those back into their holes and water them. Unfortunately, there were also quite a few plants that were obviously tasty, because they were munched on. They ate all the blooms of Kallie’s Cyclamen, and munched on shrubs and annuals. I know the deer tolerance for most of the perennials and shrubs, but there are just too many annuals to keep track of. And, let’s face it, when I’m standing in the nursery oogling some cute new plant, I know I’m not going to rush home to look it up and come back to buy it. I want it NOW!

So after the deer had a nice salad from my beds Friday night, Saturday morning I went out with strips of laundry dryer sheets to tie around the plants I was most worried about. (They are very scent-sensitive and I’ve some success with it in the past to keep the deer out of the bird feeders.)

Mostly eaten.

Spared — and now with a dryer sheet scarf!
Munched on — sporting a lovely new scarf.

Here are a few bulbs from the experimental ones I planted last month! They are actually coming up now – I can’t believe it. I think these are daffodils or irises. I guess they will surprise me, or I can go back and search my posts.
These are two amaryllis that were eaten last year and managed to survive to grow another season. I guess I’d better chicken wire them until they’ve bloomed!
Here’s another little daffodil that sprouted up and surprised me — I thought these were hyacinths when they first peeked up!
Here is my new vegetable bed — the little one on the left. I just thought I’d squeeze one more in there.
These are the two cleaned-up beds — new garden soil inside and with weed block and thick mulch in the pathways instead of the zoysia grass that kept invading the gardens. Between that and the new metal edging, I’m hoping to keep most of the grass at bay. I swear, last summer it looked like a LAWN in my veggie gardens at one point! Cross your fingers for me.

The gate has been promised tomorrow. And it’s supposed to be 84f — unbelieveable. I’m postponing my teacher conference meeting until Tuesday when the cold front comes through and we drop to 63f 😉

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:55-06:00February 24th, 2008|amaryllis, Blog, bulbs, daffodils, deer, Sharing Nature's Garden, vegetable garden|0 Comments

Sago seeds

Posted Friday, February 22, 2008

Meet my “Big Guy.” This is my biggest Sago palm, cycas revoluta. He’s a beautiful specimen, and he’s got lots of pups (which I’m happy to share if you are willing to brave getting them OUT!) My Dad had a long battle with him one day when he didn’t want to give up any pups, but I’m glad to say that Dad won and the Sago was none the worse for the wear.

My neighbor has several Sagos, but she has both male and female specimens. And a week ago, she gave me 4 seeds from her female plant. (The cluster of seeds is an amazing sight if you haven’t ever seen it. I’ll try to get over there and get a picture for you.)

So, I soaked them for several days, and today I removed the outer shell of the seed to prepare them for planting. I’m thrilled that they floated in the water, which is the sign that the seeds have been pollinated and will grow. The outer shell was remarkably thick, but relatively easy to remove with some gloves (the shell is a nasty orange substance that will stain your hands) and my thumbnail.
Now they will sit in a cool damp place to dry out and then I will rehydrate them (seems odd to me, but that’s what you’re supposed to do.) And then they are planted – sideways of all things. not with the point up or down, but on its side.

I have a big new bed into which two of these babies are going to go soon, along with a variegated agave that another neighbor passed along to me. This is the bed behind our iron fence that doesn’t really get watered. I have pots close by that I drag the hose out to water daily, so I can give them a drink periodically, but they will prefer it on the dry side. I’ll be adding some other native grasses and xeric plants to the bed as well.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:47:53-05:00February 21st, 2008|Blog, Sago, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

A little Sunshine in my garden

We had a mixed bag of weather today – humid and damp and misty this morning, then that broke and the sun came out and then a cold front blew in and blew right back out again, leaving sunshine and warmth for the rest of the afternoon. As I was cleaning up the back patio and pruning some, I was struck by how many yellows I have in my garden. So I thought I’d take you on a tip-toe through the yellows today. This is a Gerbera daisy left from last year’s basket of mixed color.

Mickaela Euonymus

Daffodils – -again!

This is a Duranta stem with some yellow berries on it — hard to see because it’s in the garage still until we pass the early March last possible freeze point. I’m not moving that baby twice — she’s heavy.