Sharing Nature's Garden Archives | Page 74 of 124

The dog days of summer …

I was wandering around this morning, feeling remiss for not having posted for a while, and looking for things of interest in the garden.

But since it was 104 yesterday and we’re months into our summer, I had a hard time finding anything new to write about. And then I saw Tanner sprawled out in the sun and it hit me … July 3rd or no, in Austin, Texas, it’s the “Dog Days of Summer” already.

According to Wikipedia, the term “Dog Days” was used by the Greeks and the Romans (who called these days caniculares dies) after Sirius, the “Dog Star,” Latin. The dog days of summer originally were the days when Sirius rose just before or at the same time as sunrise, which is no longer true, because of the precession of the equinoxes.

Here’s the icky part: The ancients sacrificed a brown dog (look out Tanner!) at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.

Dog days were popularly thought to be an evil time “when the seas boiled, wine turned sour , dogs grew mad and all creatures became languid, causing man to burn fevers, hysterics and phrensies” according to Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813.

I don’t think my wine is sour and I’m not sure if the seas are boiling, but I will definitely be on the lookout for mad dogs and hysterics at my house!

But, I can see how the oppressive heat could make you believe in all those things, don’t you?

Here are a few bright spots in the oppressive heat … Esperanza.

Desert Rose

Duranta

Coneflowers

Pride of Barbados

The mixed pot by the front door with Mexican Heather, Rudbeckia, Hibiscus, Zinnias, Potato Vine and Snapdragons.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:33-05:00July 3rd, 2009|104, Blog, Coneflower, desert rose, dog days, esperanza, heat, rudbeckia, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

“It’s raining, it’s pouring…”

Well, let’s not get carried away, shall we?

But it IS raining. A slow, steady, very light rain. And has been for a few hours. .05 I think. That may not seem like much, but it’s manna from heaven for us here.

And while there was no old man snoring here, I did close my eyes for a few minutes after taking Kallie to art camp and the sound of the rain on the roof lulled me into a quickie nap!

Just had to show you my beautiful Anniversary bouquet from my sweetie. Isn’t it awesome? AND he came home from the grocery store with several bunches of flowers, too. Wow.
And these are the formerly-beautiful Sedums — Autumn Joy — that WERE going in the back bed. That is until I left them outside the garage in my “holding area” where my precious little deer decided they were another treat I’d put out for her along with the birdseed! Ooops! I think they will survive and I’ll plant them anyway — but INSIDE the fence!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:33-05:00June 30th, 2009|anniversary, Blog, rain, sedum, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Crispy, tender and slinky…

Well, the Death Star continues its relentless torture of people, pets and plants in Austin, Texas.

CRISPY

It hit 106 today and that’s 16 days out of the last 17 that we registered more than 100 degrees. Sheesh! And it’s still June. I guess we are in for a repeat of last year, so I’m gonna hang onto my hat and my sunscreen and put on my big-girl panties and deal with it. (don’t hold me to that!)

See my poor Toad Lilies — I was amazed that they even came up, but I think it’s just too much to hope that they will actually grow, or, heaven forbid, bloom. Many things in the garden are getting crispy. And I pulled out all of the snap dragons from the fall — they were all dead and gone.

This is sad, though — this is my first Heuchera, and I was hoping it got enough shade to protect it. I sure hope it wasn’t my fault, watering when it was too warm out and burning the leaves….

This Kangaroo Paw hails from Australia and was supposed to love drought conditions. Apparently not!

Patches of grass come an go in between watering. I’m trying to keep it to the bare minimum, but it’s not easy. We have irrigation, but I’ve taken to spot sprinkling a few bad places where there must be some huge slab of rock underneath.

Tender

Here is my sweet little friend of the season. Emmy and Lulu have moved on and this little girl has come calling almost daily. I have lots of fresh water out every day – 5 birdbaths and one giant deer water bowl — and I know she’s hungry. When I was worrying about her last week, my dear husband went and bought a protein block for deer at the local feed store. In this 3-year drought, I hate to see them starve to death.

Slinky

Sunday morning my DH took this picture of one of our smaller garden friends who thought he might like to read the papers in the driveway! My sweetie said, I’m going to take his picture for you to post on your blog!

What a great husband, huh? And today is our wedding anniversary. I’m such a lucky gal, he loves me and he loves my garden and my garden friends. What more could you ask for?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:42-06:00June 29th, 2009|106, Blog, deer, drought, Sharing Nature's Garden, snake, weather|0 Comments

107

107.

Yep. That’s the temperature today in Austin.

107.

That’s all I’m sayin’.

What else is there to say?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:33-05:00June 25th, 2009|107, Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, temperature|0 Comments

Things that haven’t fried yet

With the 100+ degrees we’ve had for the last week and 100+ days forecast for the next week, things are going to start frying here, even though I have an outrageous water bill. Lots of the tomatoes are ripening right now, along with a few other things.

I picked:

tomatoes
okra
strawberries
leeks
Genovese and Black Opal Basil
green beans

The basil is in two vases in the kitchen and permeates the whole house — hey — free air freshener! Since there isn’t enough okra for a side dish, I’m going to try to pickle them — refrigerator-pickle style so I don’t have to mess with canning. Cross your fingers!

I’m thinking of making tomato jam or marmelade — any suggestions? And I am not sure these green beans are worth cooking. They seem very faded and not very green again. The last ones I made were tough and chewy. It may just be too darn hot for them to grow tasty any more.

And the leeks are going to be in a potato leek soup. I’ll eat it all by myself if I have to! You’ve gotta cook fresh stuff when it’s fresh. I’ll try to stretch it — cooking them Wednesday to eat with my DH for dinner on Friday. Yumm-o!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:33-05:00June 22nd, 2009|Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, Uncategorized|0 Comments

They’re as big as her head!

We have this saying in our house … we describe things, like large pieces of food, by saying:

“It’s as big as your head!”

Like, that eggplant is as big as your head!

But today, it was true.

The amazing Hibiscus I’ve been posting about proudly displayed 7 blooms. 7 Gigantic blooms. (We think it is a Moy Grande, named after the San Antonio man named Moy who found it.)

I know it’s hard to get a frame of reference, so I dragged my 6-year old out there this morning, in her night gown, and made her pose for me.

(Can you tell how excited she is to be out there performing this favor for me early in the morning!)

And, as you can clearly see, the blooms are, in fact, as big as her head!

Stunning, they are. And happy in the hot sun.

Good thing, because we are going to get more of it next week…sigh. I’m tired of summer already and it isn’t even summer yet!!! (Just kidding — that was only a little smidge of pseudo-whining. The reall whining will come later!)

Wishing you blooms as big as your head!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:33-05:00June 21st, 2009|Blog, hibiscus, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Sharing Nature’s Garden

The dog days of summer …

“It’s raining, it’s pouring…”

Crispy, tender and slinky…

107

Things that haven’t fried yet

They’re as big as her head!

Escape in the garden