Winter Clean Up in the Garden

 It's been wet and cold for seemingly forever, but just recently we had a couple of nice days over the weekend, so I felt compelled to get outside in the garden and get started on some clean up.

I've been avoided pulling out the dead zinnias in the island beds, hoping that they would provide seed for the local birds.  But the birds don't seem to venture into the middle of the garden much, so the dead zinnias were just an eyesore.

I got them out of one bed, shaking them out and scattering seed as I did.  I also collected some seed, and have a bunch more in the other bed, so if anyone is interested in some orange Zinnia Profusion seed, let me know and I can send some :-)   

Haven't started on the other bed yet.  It has more problems than just dead zinnias.  It's overrun with bermuda grass which will be a pain to pull out.  However, while I was morosely poking around in it, I discovered a pleasant surprise....

... underneath last year's daylily leaves, new daylilies starting to peek out of the ground!

There are quite a lot of them, so I think that, although late summer is the best time to divide them, I'm going to divide them up this spring and move the extras to the newer of the two island beds.

I didn't take proper care of the compost bin last year, so while I was able to get some good compost out of it, most of it hadn't actually composted.  

I pulled a bunch of dry leaves and branches out for my husband to run through our new chipper/shredder and then I will layer that with some leftover potting soil, wet it down and add some compost starter and see if I can take better care of it this year.  

The small amount of compost I was able to use, I put on the small vegetable bed and dug it in.  Next weekend, weather permitting, I'll go ahead and buy some bags of composted cow manure, or something similar, and add to both veggie beds.

Then we'll have to turn our attention to a drainage problem we have noticed.  More about that in another post.



Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Rebirth in the Garden

Back in December, in my post Requiem for a Garden, I lamented that my garden had been damaged by the recent freezing nights and had gone from green to brown, seemingly overnight.

I wondered if it I should leave everything be, or pull it out of the ground.  Among the suggestions was one from Cindy, that if things were black and mushy, to cut them back to healthy green stem. 

New Year's weekend the weather was so glorious it made me forget all about the drought-ridden dog days of summer in Texas. I couldn't wait to get out there and get started on my garden clean up! 


These are the kind of days that I'm happy to garden in Texas.  I savored the winter sunshine on my back (and the fact that I wasn't sweating) and the quietness around me.  All I heard were birds, the snip, snip of my secateurs, and the occasional small plane going overhead from nearby Hooks Airport.

Back to the task at hand, looking around the front garden it was immediately apparent that the milkweed fit right into the "mushy black" category.

But what a pleasant surprise I had as I set about trimming them back....

 ... they are already putting out lots of fresh green leaves!  There should be lots of plants ready for the Monarch butterflies when they come through.


I found similar sights as I trimmed back the lantana...

 ... and the garden mums..

 I even have some flowers in the garden (not counting the pansies which have been blooming faithfully since before Thanksgiving as always)

This Gazania, or Treasure Flower, kept firm and green, while others around it turned to mush and has flowered repeatedly through the winter. I really haven't paid much attention to it before, but it really is a "Treasure" to have in the garden.

Lastly, this garden mum, which I trimmed back a little while ago, already has blooms on it.  I seem to have an orange theme going on in the front garden which is totally accidental!

Anyway, I'm posting this a week after I took these photos and it's lovely outside again now.  I'm getting that itch to garden again -- and there are some more black and mushy things out there awaiting my attention.


I'm going to head outside now and I'll sit and catch up on my blog reading later on this evening.


Happy Gardening everyone!
 

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

A Gardener's Christmas Present

This year, for Christmas, my husband got me a tractor scoot from Gardener's Supply Company. It wasn't a random choice on his part -- he asked what I wanted and I told him!

Today I got a chance to try it out and I love it!

It features a tractor style seat, which swivels, pneumatic tires, an area underneath the seat to hold tools etc and a basket on the front which you can put a bucket in to hold mulch, plants, trash/weeds etc.

I've been having knee problems this year, which has made gardening somewhat difficult, but this little tractor scoot really helps me out, as you can see below.

Today's task was cutting back all the tropical milkweed which had frozen back. I was able to trim it back to healthy green stems about 8 inches tall and it's already putting out new leaf buds.

I also did some weeding and mulching.  There were several zillion milkweed seedlings in this bed, along with the crepe myrtle and the established milkweed.  I don't have room for them all so most of them got dug in and mulched over.

If they manage to come back up, I'll take that as a sign I was meant to have more milkweed.

Tomorrow, after we take our Christmas lights down, I'll work in the front flowerbed. It needs some serious tidying up!

I wish you all a safe and Happy New Year.  I'll see you in 2012, when I'll be out in the garden again!

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.