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Prep for spring garden with this winter to-do list…

Getting more organized rests somewhere in the middle of my lengthy list of New Year’s resolutions. It includes staying on top of my regular gardening chores and getting ahead of each gardening season before it’s upon me.

With spring around the corner, the first step is taking stock of the garden and setting some goals. This is when I put pencil to paper and get tough on my landscape, thinking about both tasks and major projects.

In addition to tackling major items, there are also many simple chores to be done. Here are a few of the things you can do now so you’re ready when it’s time to start planting.

Winter to-do list

Clean out your pots and containers. It’s important to start fresh when you pot up new plants. Old pottery can contain salt deposits or diseases borne by last season’s plants. Physically remove old dirt or debris with a scrub brush. If you can, submerge the pots in a solution of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water. If the pots are too big for that, pour the water all around them. Then be sure to rinse them well and dry them in the sun.

Take stock of your garden tools. Rusty, dirty, dull, or broken tools need to be prepared for the hard work you’ll demand of them when the weather warms up. First, scrub your tools with soapy water and dry them well. You can use steel wool or a wire brush to remove rust. Then smooth out old wooden handles with a little elbow grease and some sandpaper. Sharpen your clean equipment with a metal file, smoothing out nicks or jagged edges. Finally, apply a little lubricating oil to the metal blade and wooden handles and rub it in well so it isn’t slippery. And if your pruners have seen better days, consider buying a new pair. Nothing makes garden work easier than a shiny new pair of pruners.

Check your irrigation system.Whether you have a sprinkler system or you’ve set up your own drip hose system, give it a good inspection, looking for leaks, clogs and areas not receiving adequate coverage. Making sure everything is in good working order will save time and money later, preventing you from having to dig up dead or dying new plants in the spring.

Amend your soil. Does clay or limestone make digging impossible in your garden? Did the scorching summer heat turn the soil in your beds rock-hard? Use this time to amend the soil in your beds. A good soil blend, with some form of compost, granite sand and gypsum can help to lighten up our poor soil. There are many good independent local sources for soil – both in bulk and bagged – that work well in Central Texas.

Clean your birdhouses. In March, make sure your birdhouses are ready for their new inhabitants. If the house is vacant, open the roof or the back door to the house and empty out the nest. Wipe down the box with a bleach solution like that used for cleaning your pots. Then hang it back up with a welcome sign for a new brood of baby birds.

While winter is a slower season in the garden, it doesn’t last long here in Central Texas. The time for putting your feet up and perusing seed catalogs is quickly coming to an end.

Make sure you’re ready when the garden calls again. What’s on your to-do list?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:38:54-05:00February 3rd, 2015|bird house, Blog, pots, prep, Sharing Nature's Garden, to do, tools, winter chores|0 Comments

Garden resolutions 2013

I’ve long given up New Year’s Resolutions — but I do make some to-do lists. If I call them to-do lists, I seem to get around to them better!

This year I have a long garden to-do list. Perhaps committing it to eternal, world-wide view on my blog will help me check things off my list!

So, here goes:

1. Plant more trees outside the back fence in front of scrubby cedars. I love this smoke tree and planted one for a client this fall, wishing all the while that I had one to enjoy.

2. Have an a corner arbor build to showcase my tangerine cross vine and my wisteria. The cross vine winds along the fence and then climbs 20 feet up into a tree where I can’t see it. The wisteria spends most of its time hanging out on the opposite side of the fence — hiding from me — to be closer to the morning sun. A tall arbor would give them both plenty of room to keep growing — growing where I can enjoy them!

3. Replace the pride of Barbados that I lost over the last two winters. I love the explosion of color these trees bring in the late summer and I’ve missed mine. I vow to find some great hot spots for them to thrive.

4. I will buy more bigger starter plants this year. I’ve bemoaned the fact that my newer plants struggled to come back from harsh winters and scalding summers. Some years they even came back smaller than when I planted them! When I can, I want to invest in more established plants.

5. With too much on my plate, blogging and scrapbooking have waited in the wings too much this year. I love those creative outlets and want to give myself more opportunities for gathering inspiration from them.

6. Divide, divide, divide. I have irises, bi-color irises and lilies that really need dividing. In fact, they needed dividing this fall. This will be the year of dividing, replanting and sharing.

7. Prune, prune, prune. My cottage garden, cutting garden and hot southwest garden all suffered from overgrown-itis this year. Yes, the plants were all beautiful, but I know that pruned properly they would have complemented each other and showcased their individual characteristics better.

8. This year I will plant my bulbs before January … oh, wait … that means today! Yikes – better go find them and get to planting!

9. I WILL make homemade pesto from my basil “trees” this year. I say that every year when my basil gets out of hand — I mean stunning — but this year I really mean it.

10. And last, well, there never is a last, but I plan to dig up most of this and rebuild the dry creek with moss rock and other, larger stones. The recycled glass will come out and I will raise up the bed to help plants thrive there. With very little soil and a berm to avoid soil on the fence, the plants don’t get enough water and the soil just isn’t deep enough. The solution — protect the fence from rotting by putting hardy board against it and rock in the front to add good soil.

That’s the list — for now. As with everything in gardening – it’s organic and will change a thousand times over the next year. But it’s a good start and I feel good about making decisions to tackle some of my current and perpetual problems.

Guess we’ll see where I end up this time next year.

What’s on your garden resolution list for 2013?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:15-06:00December 30th, 2012|2013, basil, Blog, blogging, bulbs, cross vine, dividing, dry creek, pesto, planning, Pride of Barbados, projects, pruning, resolutions, scrapbooking, Sharing Nature's Garden, smoke tree, to do, trees, wisteria|0 Comments

Long shots … and the list!

Ok. This is IT. Time to make the Fall “TO DO” list for the garden. Lots of things to do — and this year I am going to try to move more plants to better spots. I know some of you do this all the time (Pam!) with success, so I’ve been inspired by your work and am going to try it. I have some holes to make and some holes to fill and a new bed to carve out.

(And then there is the WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDing…the ENDLESS weeeeeeding!)

So I’ve taken some long shots of the garden areas so you get some perspective, and I’m gonna make my list right here before God and my fellow garden bloggers!

Here goes:

This is the bed by the front mailbox. I planned it and my son planted it for me sumemr before last . However, it’s gotten very overgrown because I was overzealous in my planning (I didn’t really make an official scaled landscape plan…that would have made too much sense!). So, some of the center plants – namely the Gold Lantana, are going to come out when they go dormant so there is more space in there. A few more plants – a salvia or a guara – may need to go as well.

This is the bed I dug up and planted last Fall. The right side is just peachy. The left side, $%*#^*s!

These little plants never took off and the deer munch on them and I think they are just too small in scale anyway. They were variegated expensive little specialty mega-nursery specimens from the BOX and I’ve learned my lesson! Maybe I will move them to the back when I pull out the giant viburnum. So, now I am thinking about some small evergreen shrubs here in the back for foundation plantings and some perennials in the front. Mexican oregano is topping my list right now for the front area. I did put the Cuphea there yesterday and somebody nibbled on one.
(Put chicken wire on shopping list!)

This end of the driveway bed struggles. It gets sun, but not enough to make the Lantana planted there happy. So, I need a sun-part-shade solution here. And deer proof. I’m thinking…I’m thinking…

I need a new crop of shade plants for the left side here and a few fillers on the right. Dappled light here and this is the deer path, so no hostas or toad lilies or such. The ferns are happy there, though, so I might just go looking for some other varieties to make it a fully ferned bed.
Now to the back yard. Here’s Dakota, helping us with our tour! This is the back left corner, where I let a landscaper talk me into some viburnum because I’d run out of ideas after planning most of the back yard. (Serves me right!) I HATE them. They are like big meatballs and they are boring. BUT, the dogs run a path into that corner to check out the deer beyond the fence, so I have to incorporate that into my planning. Smaller shrubs – maybe loropetalum for some nice color, and a river rock path into the corner so that it looks planned instead of just dog-bare! And some more perennials in a row on the front for summer color. I should look for thing the deer DO eat, since this bed is safe and there are so many things I can’t plant out front!
Here’s the close-up view — see the dog path? That isn’t going away!

And this is my new bed. I had guys dig it out early in the Spring and with the early heat I never got to it. So it need some cleaning up and some edging and I have Agaves and Sagos and things to go in it. And some Aloe pups from Pam at Digging, too. Don’t you love that big pot? It’s from Miguel’s imports on Burnet Rd.
And the rock path needs more plants as well. But it is filling in very nicely and I am tickled.
Did I mention that I am not tickled about the grass that’s coming up in the path? THAT is on the top of my list. (oh – and that’s my foot in the picture!)
And, then a greenhouse is going in that bare corner across from the veggie garden. We had one at the last house and when we moved and our daughter was 8 months old, a greenhouse was something I so didn’t have time for. But now she’s started Kindergarten and I am pining for one, so I’ve put it on my list.

So, who’s already taking bets I can’t get even 1/2 of this done? Anyone want the viburnum? They’re perfectly fine, and healthy, just not what I want there. Oh – and I have to divide GIANT Bi-color iris and would be oh-so-happy to share.

Whew. I’m tired already!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:52-06:00September 18th, 2008|Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, to do|0 Comments

to do

Prep for spring garden with this winter to-do list…

Garden resolutions 2013

Long shots … and the list!

Escape in the garden