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Spring garden projects…

It’s spring. Well, okay, it’s not quite spring yet, but it’s spring here in Central Texas for all intents and purposes.

It’s time to start the vegetable garden, to amend the soil, to pull lots and lots of weeds. And, it’s time to start planning those garden projects that have been nagging at me all winter.

Let’s be clear, every single bed has a project of some sort. There are holes to fill where the drought decimated plants we thought were indestructible. There are holes to fill where the 3-day below freezing cold snap the winter before killed things or stunted them so much they were never the same last summer.

There are a lot of holes to fill.

But this is an entire area that need revisiting. In the bed above, I actually started out with a plan and a vision of a tall, beautiful bottle brush tree with it’s deep red, wispy blooms set against the strong, structural contrast of a smooth blue agave with deep purple ‘May Night’ salvia scattered all around.

The best laid plans…

Three winters ago, I lost the first bottle brush tree and agave to an abnormally cold freeze. I’d planted the tree in the fall and wondered if it hadn’t had enough time to get established before the cold. So I replanted — another agave and a bigger tree — and I planted them in late spring.

Then we had another unusual cold snap and I lost the second tree. And the deer messed with many of my little salvias.

Early last summer, the bottle brush began to come back from the roots. After a few months I had a nice shrub…the same size as the agave. Not exactly the contrast I’d envisioned. In the meantime, a few irises I’d plopped in there began to grow and spread. And I hated the bottle brush shrub, but I didn’t want to kill it – it offends my gardening sensibilities to kill a plant with that much will to live.

A few weeks ago I pruned the bottle brush back into tree form. Multi-trunked, but still pretty and growing like crazy. The agave looks bad after one or two light freezes this winter, and it needs pruning. It’s also been taken over by the irises. (They are stunning right now) But they don’t go next to the agave – the form is too similar, their colors don’t work together…I could go on and on.

Further up the bed toward the house I originally had a dwarf crape myrtle in deep burgundy. It was literally cut in half by my guys on a pruning #fail. Some transplanted loropetalums didn’t survive there and there is one pathetic knock-out rose left hiding there.

This will be my first spring project. The bottle brush? Gonna keep pruning – it stays. The agave? I’ll prune it and think about it. The irises? They will move when the time is right. May night? Nah – something tougher will take their place. Some grasses might find their way there. I’m still hooked on the burgundy, deep purple, silvery gray color combo. Indigo spires would be delightful, but that’s a very windy spot and at their height, I fear they’d be whipped around like crazy there. But I know what I want there, so it will come together if I take my time.

I might even treat myself like one of my clients and draw out a plan.

Or not…

Stay tuned.

Two more beds to go…but I’ll save them for another day.

What’s your first garden project for this spring?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:19-06:00March 7th, 2012|Agave, agaves, Blog, Bottle Brush tree, knock-out roses, landscape project, May night salvia, planning, projects, salvia, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring|0 Comments

Early bloomers are putting on a show in the spring garden

Even though it’s only March, it’s already spring here in Central Texas.

After our exceptionally mild winter and welcome rains, the early bloomers are already hard at work in my garden.

In addition to the daffodils I included in my last post, many of the other perennials are already flowering.

This loropetalum is bursting with hot pink fringe-like blooms.

It’s the one I’ve pruned to become a small tree.

These pretty little blooms below called to me at the Natural Gardener last week.

And as soon as I started typing, the name flew out of my head! I’m sure you know just what they are – they aren’t mums, they might be gaillardia.

The wisteria is starting to bloom. Like last year, there is some growth on the back side of the fence, but there are plenty of buds for me to enjoy inside the fence.
I love looking at the Mexican plum tree buds against the pretty blue sky.
The stone wall makes a nice backdrop for the trailing lavender lantana behind the pool.
The hellebores would have preferred a colder winter, but some of them are giving me some blooms — this is ‘winter’s wren.’
The strawberries are blooming their ever-loving heads off! Soon we will be able to eat more than one ripe one at a time. I long for the day when we get a small bowl full.
My absolute favorite low-grower is ‘homestead’ verbena. That bright purple color is just stunning.
All of my blackfoot daisies are back again from last year. You just can’t beat these little guys for drought tolerance.
The alyssum is mounding up all over along the rock path already.

‘May night’ salvia can do great in the garden here, but my luck with them has been hit and miss. I love their low-growing form, but they are hard to get established.
Kallie’s window box is full of little pretties that I got last weekend at the Natural Gardener.
After some slacking last year, many of my irises are showing off for the first time. I don’t know the name of the purple or the white iris, though I believe the white one may be a pass along from Pam of Digging or Annie of The Transplantable Rose.

As always, Fletcher wanted to know what I was doing in the garden with that camera around my neck, so he had to come check out the salvia, too! I’m sure he thought there must be something edible in there!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:19-06:00March 4th, 2012|alyssum, blackfoot daisies, Blog, Fletcher, Hellebore, iris, irises, Lantana, loropetalum, May night salvia, Mexican Plum, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring, spring bloomers, strawberries, verbena, winter's wren hellebore, wisteria|0 Comments

Spring bulbs are starting to bloom…

Ah…the promise of spring.

When renewal is in the air and the garden begins to awaken from a long winter’s nap. Well, not really this year. It was more like a quick cat nap.

I love it when the early spring bulbs start coming up and making buds. The daffodils, the muscari, the irises … they are are all putting on their finery.

These are the true harbingers of spring.

And they are some of my favorite favorites in the garden. (I really have too many favorites to count.)

I’m especially fond of the daffodils – there are up to 200 different species of them. I just have a handful of the different varieties, but it’s so much fun to see how unique they can be.

Japanese quince is another reliable plant that signals the arrival of spring. I think of it as an nice old historic plant – you often find very large ones in the gardens of older homes in central Austin. I imagine them being lovingly planted decades ago and being cared for by successive families over the years.

Mine is still small, but those delicate salmony-rose blooms are sure to bring a smile to my face every time I pass by.
These sweet little peeks are traditional muscari (grape hyacinths) that came home from the grocery store with me in a mixed bulb pot and then found their way into the garden to bloom another day. And bloom they do. This will be their third year to perk up the mulch on a drab day.
These are very special little specimens — muscari golden fragrance. Unlike most muscari, these are not the tell-tale purple, but rather a soft yellow and they have a wonderful scent. They are very low to the ground – about 5 inches high – so I literally have to get down on the ground to get a whiff of them. But it’s worth it!
Are you enjoying any early season bloomers in your garden yet?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:02-05:00January 27th, 2012|Blog, bulbs, daffodils, hyacinth bulbs, hyacinths, japanese quince, Muscari, quince, scented blooms, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring|0 Comments

Babies in the nest!

Mrs. Titmouse has been seen sneaking into this lovely birdhouse town home for a while. But I couldn’t tell if she was just going to dinner and going back to sit on her eggs, or if there were babies in there. I tried to peer in there when she was gone, but it’s quite dark in there and the babies are a long way down since it’s a two-story!
Then yesterday when she flew to the nest, I heard the magical, musical “chiro, chirp, chirp” of babies when she landed on the doorstep. This morning I perched in the woods to try to get a picture of her going in the nest. She was onto me though. She landed up in the tree above me and cackled at me – fussing loudly about my intrusion.
But I stood very still and waiting until she felt more at ease, and sure enough, she ventured down. She perched on the hook first, before she slipped into the nest to bring breakfast tacos (ok, that may be a stretch!) to her babies.

It has to be a good day after that, doesn’t it?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-09-14T17:25:23-05:00April 13th, 2011|baby birds, bird house, Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring|0 Comments

Spring really is here.

After a record-setting high of 93 last week and then a low last night of 41, we’re officially on the roller coaster.

Central Texas is covered in Live Oak neon green dust and our budding beds are littered with dead oak leaves and pollen.

The winds are gale force and the rain is non-existent. Lake Travis is down 8 feet already.

But it’s time to start cleaning and clearing and planting in the garden.

The to-do list seems endless. However, like most things, it’s best just to pick one small task and start.

So, today I checked off one of many items on my spring clean-up garden to-do list.

Thrillers, spillers and fillers have taken up residence in the two giant pots on the front porch and I must say they are quite happy there. (Well, let’s say I am happy with them there.)

I usually fill these pots with an explosion of hot annual color, but I was tempted by these Cordyline a shopping trip to some new nurseries last week. And then the Diamond Frost Euphorbia jumped into my wagon (the deer ate them in my beds last year, but pots on the porch will be *should be* safe). They were soon joined by the Asparagus Fern and the lovely Coleus.

What’s on your spring garden to-do list? Any thrillers, spillers and fillers in your future?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:08-05:00April 5th, 2011|Asparagus Fern, Blog, coleus, Cordyline, Diamond Frost Euphorbia, filler, pots, Sharing Nature's Garden, spiller, spring, thriller|0 Comments

The promise of things to come in the garden…

As gardeners, we think of the spring as a time of renewal.

Plants awaken from their long winter’s nap and begin the process of growing again.

But fall is also a time of renewal.

Here in Texas, our hot summer perennials are refreshed by ever-so-slightly cooler temperatures and a little bit of rain. Many of them begin a new bloom cycle until the first frost appears.

Fall bloomers, like fall Asters and Oxblood lilies also thrive.

And, our most precious Bluebonnets, the state flower and our February/March pride and joy, begin to grow delicate green foliage.

My Night-blooming Cereus is also experiencing a revival. This bud showed up 3 days ago and I’ve been checking it each night to see if I can capture it’s beautiful flower. The last time it bloomed in the spring, I actually missed 3 blooms at once because I forgot to check it one night. (There is little more disappointing as a gardener than missing such an infrequent bloom, only to find a limp little goose-neck looking spent bloom drooping down.)
These variegated dwarf Satusuma oranges are growing rounder and rounder and turning a little more orange than yellow. I can’t wait to taste them! (But it will still be a few months before our traditional citrus harvest here in Central Texas.)
And more Lycoris Radiata buds are forming in my flower beds. Some are hidden by other plants, and I have to push foliage aside to get a sneak peek at many of them.
I can only get a partial shot of this one, but isn’t she pretty?