Sharing Nature's Garden Archives | Page 37 of 124

Mother’s Day Flowers – in and out of the garden

Happy Mother’s Day.

It’s been a great Mother’s Day weekend for me.

First, my son graduated from college yesterday with two degrees and we spent the afternoon and evening celebrating with lots of family and friends in our garden.

Then today, my daughter presented me with her hand-painted poster of hand-painted Texas wildflowers, all created with meticulous detail.

How wonderful that the garden is the gathering place and inspiration for sharing love in our family.

I feel very blessed.

Can you name the wildflowers and 2 cutting flowers in the painting above? Let’s see how many you can identify!

Hope your Mother’s Day was as special as mine.

Have a wonderful week.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:17-06:00May 13th, 2012|Blog, Coneflower, daisies, Graduation, Mother's Day, quadricolor agave, Sharing Nature's Garden, Wildflowers|0 Comments

Loving my lush Central Texas garden

My garden is reaping the fruits of Mother Nature’s labor. Our wonderful spring rains have reinvigorated the gardens here in Central Texas, especially mine.

Lush isn’t a word I typically use to describe my garden. Hardy, drought tolerant, hot…those are the terms that come to mind most often.

But after this morning’s rain, I took a walk to look at all the lush hues of green in my garden.

I hope this means that the deer have plenty to eat elsewhere — I’d like to enjoy all this juicy foliage for a while.

Before the sun gets blistering, it’s nice to enjoy this mottled shade.

Columbines, fatsia, ferns, hellebores and Greg’s mistflower are happy with all the rain.

And I found a beautiful Hummingbird moth enjoying my larkspur in the cutting garden.

What’s lush in your garden right now?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:36-05:00May 9th, 2012|Blog, hummingbird moth, rain, shades of green, Sharing Nature's Garden|2 Comments

Purple plumes peeking out in the spring garden

As the temperatures creep up to early summertime highs here in Central Texas , irises, salvias and other purple plumes are putting on a pageant in my garden.

Maybe I like the purple and blue hues so much in my garden because they seem to cool off our scorching heat.

At least they give the impression that it’s cooler in the garden.

And because blue hues on the color wheel make things seem to recede, they also make my garden seem bigger.

One of my very favorites is Indigo Spires. It’s tall, deep purple blooms sway in the breeze and make a real statement.

Luckily for me, the salvias I’m collecting are safe from our hungry, grazing deer.

This catmint was a new addition to my garden last spring and it’s been a great performer. It easily survived last summer and stayed evergreen all winter. No cats here in my garden, but I’d recommend this a a hardy Central Texas perennial.

Mealy blue sage — which grows wild in the fields in Texas — seems very happy in my front garden and is spreading every year.
My pass-along irises, Amethyst Flame, from Pam of Digging, are still blooming and going strong after weeks.

Little pink and purple pretties are mixed into this whimsical windowbox arrangement.

My larkspur — from seeds passed along several years ago from Zanthan Gardens — are just beginning to bloom. I love that feathery foliage.

These tradescantia, or spiderwort, are finally spreading a little in the back bed. I hear they can be invasive, but there’s plenty of room for them, so I keep enouraging them to grow more!
The rock path in the back has 4 or 5 different purple blooms intermingling among the Oklahoma flagstone, decomposed granite and river rock. Homestead verbena, 2 kinds of winecup and more all make great neighbors.

This is the easement beside our neighbor’s property – filled with wild native prairie verbena. It’s not in my garden, but I can see it from my garden … kinda like you can see Russia…oh, nevermind!

While I lost some of the salvia ‘May night,’ the ones that survived last summer are going strong and attracting lots of bees.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:37-05:00April 5th, 2012|amethyst flame iris, Blog, homestead verbena, indigo spires, iris, larkspur, mealy blue sage, Prairie Verbena, purple salvia, Sharing Nature's Garden, spiderwort, window box, winecup|0 Comments

Ocelot Iris wowing me in the spring garden…

This ocelot iris just opened and it’s living up to it’s advertising. It’s a tall beared iris and I planted it in the front bed in September of ’08. It’s only bloomed twice. Those years, its bloom was a very faded creamy yellow and a dusty mauve — no where near the vibrant colors I fell in love with when I ordered them from Spring Hill. And I even complained about it on my blog here.

But this must have been the year. Maybe it was the drought. Maybe it was the rains. Maybe it was the mild winter.

Whatever it was, I’m happy. She’s a beautiful vision of ruffled loveliness.

Ahhh, spring! Do you have irises blooming in your garden now?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:17-06:00March 22nd, 2012|Blog, bulbs, iris, Ocelot iris, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Beautiful spring blooms and bulbs brighten the garden…

Isn’t she lovely? Isn’t she wonderful?

My bletilla striata, also known as ground orchids, burst into bloom suddenly this weekend and I almost missed them. I love their exotic form and stunning color.

These little blooms are jonquilla “baby moon” and are less than an inch in diameter. About 8 inches tall, they are miniatures in every way. Their stems are like long, thin, round blades of grass. They bloom last of all my daffodils, but they are my favorites because of their delicate form.

Although I’m saddened to mark the loss of some of my cilantro, thanks to the early and unseasonably warm temperatures, I do think the blooms are sweet.

This is an oops bulb. It must have come in a bag of daffodil bulbs that I ordered, because that’s what’s blooming all around her. But I love the swirling red, white and pink color combination.

These tulips were intentionally planted. My neighbor brought me bulbs back from her trip to the Netherlands in February and I promptly put them in the ground. They were up in no time, much to my surprise. Because I’m not willing to dig up tulip bulbs and replant them every year (which we have to do in our hot climate because we don’t have enough chilling hours), I don’t have tulips in my garden. But I might have to dig these up for sentimental reasons. They have special meaning for me — they were a gift from a dear friend, and I lived in the Netherlands for four years when I was a young girl.

The bright lime green of these daylily leaves make a pretty contrast against this purple salvia — sadly it didn’t come with a good tag when I planted it, so I have no idea which of the 200+ salvias it is. I just know it’s colorful and hardy.

This is hellebore ‘winter wren‘. It and ‘Phoebe‘ are both blooming. They were sad when the weather first warmed up and I thought the summer heat had zapped them. Then all of a sudden they had a growth spurt and put on a show.

The bluebonnets are bringing great color to my cutting garden (although I never cut them!). They also spread their seeds all over Kallie’s play scape. Those plants are a few weeks slower growing than these, so I hope to have fun pictures of them soon. They clearly love that pea gravel.

My Japanese Maple was miserable last summer, but is happy with this wet, temperate spring.

Are any of these beautiful blooms putting on a show in your garden yet this spring?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:17-06:00March 20th, 2012|Bletilla Striata, Blog, bluebonnet, cilantro, daffodils, Hellebore, japanese maple, purple salvia, purples. salvia, salvia, Sharing Nature's Garden, tulips, winter's wren hellebore|0 Comments

Cauliflower harvest makes delicious dinner…

The winter vegetable garden came bearing gifts yesterday.

I ventured out into the rain to harvest our first cauliflower.

It was big and beautiful in the garden — and it had been calling to me for several days.

With a nice roast, mashed potatoes and roasted beets waiting as accompaniment, I brought it in.

Of course, we took a few pictures of it first.

I cut it up and put it on a baking sheet with some olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Then I sprinkled a little shredded Parmesan cheese on it and topped that with some bits of garlic from the garlic press. After 30 minutes at 425 it was a nutty, cheesy, crunchy batch of yumminess.

Jeff checked online and learned that the beautiful leaves that I cut off of the cauliflower are also edible like greens. I cut and cleaned them and set them aside. Tomorrow I’ll steam them and toss them with some bacon, onion and sea salt … maybe a little balsamic vinegar, too.

There are three more heads of cauliflower growing in the garden, but they have a few more weeks to go so we have something to look forward to.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:17-06:00March 10th, 2012|Blog, cauliflower, drought, rain, Sharing Nature's Garden, vegetable garden, vegetables|0 Comments

Sharing Nature’s Garden

Mother’s Day Flowers – in and out of the garden

Loving my lush Central Texas garden

Purple plumes peeking out in the spring garden

Ocelot Iris wowing me in the spring garden…

Beautiful spring blooms and bulbs brighten the garden…

Cauliflower harvest makes delicious dinner…

Escape in the garden