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Sharing Nature’s Garden

Revitalizing Rain

After our recent slow, soaking rain, I heard my plants in the garden give a collective sigh of relief.

Then the sun came out and several sad little specimens started lifting their frazzled foliage upward – reaching for the warmth radiating once again onto their little world.

Many things are very dormant. Some: dead-dormant. And most of the plants, while salvageable, are still sad. But the Aralia, above, once bowed over and brown, perked up again and was very pleased to be sporting some ravishing raindrops.
The teensy Bluebonnet plants are all still alive and beginning to grow again.
Many daffodil bulbs are popping up around various beds.
My Hellebores are a little worse for the wear, but they do have some fresh, new leaves. I can’t wait for the first blooms. Three of my 4 plants are new from last year and have never bloomed for me so I’m eager to see what they look like.
These darling little Hyacinths were a totally surprise when I happened upon them today. Forgot I’d planted them!
Who knows who this guy is! But he’s on the fast-track up.

This Autumn Joy Sedum survived all the cold – 18 and lower, without anything more than a few yellow leaves. And it’s blooming. Wow.
Then you turn around, and on the other hand…

Need I say more? Sigh…

By |2016-04-14T02:42:36-05:00January 20th, 2010|aralia, Blog, blue bonnets, daffodils, freeze, Hellebore, hyacinths, sedum, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments
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Letting my fingers and my imagination do the walking…

It’s thawed here, and today was a beautiful, and warmer-than-normal Texas winter day.

While waiting for the cloudy and cool morning to burn off, I sipped hot tea (with a slice of my Eureka variegated lemon in it) and devoured seed catalogs.

I had several different catalogs that came in the mail and then I went searching for the websites of some of my other favorite sources, like Botanical Interests, Burpee, and Tomato Bob.

Several orders for veggies, cutting flowers and perennials are now processing away across the country.

When the sun came out I was itching to plant things. And even though I have seed packets I could have used, I didn’t have seed starter mix, or a plan!

(Being German, I gotta have a plan, don’t ya know?!!)

So for tomorrow, I have a plan: Meet garden blogging buddy at garden center, let myself buy 1 or 2 (only) plants, and get some seed starter mix and innoculant and whatever other seeds they might have that I didn’t already buy!

When the other packages arrive in the mail, I’ll draw a plan for the cutting garden and the veggie garden. Then I can start sowing seeds in little pots in the greenhouse where I can keep them nice and toasty warm.

And this year, I swear I will NOT jump the gun and plant them outside at the earliest possible moment. Instead, I will err on the side of CAUTION, and plant them a safe amount of time after the last danger of frost has passed.

Nope, no more playing around trying to fool Mother Nature for me. After the last year we’ve had, it’s clear to me that she isn’t messing around!

How about you? Ready to cry “uncle” to Mother Nature?

P.S. You might have to hold me to that “not jumping the gun” thing!

By |2017-11-29T23:27:35-06:00January 18th, 2010|Blog, greenhouse, plans, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments
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Hope…

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!

By |2016-04-14T02:42:37-05:00January 13th, 2010|Blog, message bean, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments
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I see Dead things!

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)

By |2016-04-14T02:42:37-05:00January 9th, 2010|Blog, Cassia, duranta, esperanza, freeze, ginger, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments
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Plants in a time of freeze…

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!

By |2017-11-29T23:27:35-06:00January 8th, 2010|aralia, Blog, freeze, frost agave agastache, Sharing Nature's Garden, swiss chard, winecup|0 Comments
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