Winter Work Day in the Garden

I think I have mentioned I'm between jobs (still) at the moment, so yesterday I took advantage of the beautiful weather and tackled an eyesore in the garden that has been bugging me for years.

This section of bare wall at the end of the garden is UGLY!!!  I've wanted to do something about it since we moved in, but since there were originally three pine trees outside the wall, the whole area was so chock full of roots it was impossible to dig.

Obviously, the trees are no longer there (thanks to the developer not taking care to protect the trees in the neighborhood while putting in walls, utilities etc) so I decided that the time had come to tackle the issue.

Up until now, the area has been home to a selection of containers (more or less empty at present), but I wanted to add an evergreen that would (a) HIDE THE WALL and (b) offer some habitat to the birds who visit.

I found what I was looking for in this Hollywood Juniper.

According to the tag, it's a fast grower and will fill out to 30' tall and 10 feet wide.

Getting it in the ground was a bit of a battle. In addition to the tree roots that I knew were there, there's a hard layer of clay about a foot underground.  We broke it up as best we could using the auger that my husband uses to aerate the lawn and filled it in with good soil before planting.  Looking at this photo of it in place, I can see that when it's mature it should fill the area nicely, hiding that ugly wall and offering us some privacy if the field across the street behind the wall gets built on, as I'm sure it will.

Today I refreshed the containers with some cool weather color - white and purple alyssum and some snapdragons, and arranged them around the birdbath.

I also added some alyssum, dianthus, stock and salvia greggi to one of the island beds (the other one will have to wait).  

After all that I took a well earned break on the patio, and look who paid a visit...

These are Cedar Waxwings and I have never seen them before!  I've added them to my "Life List" now.  Amazing to think I might have missed them - I just happened to look up and there they were.  I wonder if they will stop by and be counted at the weekend, during the Great BackYard Bird Count.

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

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day and Foliage Follow-Up, February 2010

On the 15th of each month, Carol at May Dreams Gardens hosts Garden Blogger's Bloom Day. I wasn't going to post anything this month because the only things I have blooming are the same pansies and allysum that I had blooming in January. 

But the Matrix® Purple pansy is just looking so lovely I had to show it off, even if I'm a day late  :-)

Pansies really are the plants that keep on giving.  They've been blooming non-stop for weeks and our recent hard freezes haven't fazed them one bit. This is one of several I have around the live oak saplings in the front garden and I highly recommend them for winter color in the garden.

And in the back garden -- signs of life!  New buds on the Golden Euonymus,  Euonymus japonicus 'Aureo-marginatus', so this will be my official entry for Foliage Follow-Up, hosted by Pam at Digging.

I'm very pleased with how this little shrub is doing.  It's planted in the corner by the bird bath, along with a couple of others. it's still small, but it has to compete with the roots of the pine tree on the other side of the garden wall, as I noticed when I was planting it. 

That it's putting out healthy looking buds now gives me hope that it will win the battle with the pine roots :-)

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

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - A Light at the End of the Tunnel

OK - I'm about all done with winter. I've had enough.

Of course, down here in Texas, we don't get it as bad as the rest of the country. But this year saw a record-setting early snow and several nights of hard freeze which played havoc with our gardens which usually only have to deal with mild winters.

I was checking my "to-do" list for the garden in January, and one of the items was "Plant cool season color, such as pansies, allysum, petunias and snapdragons.

I'm happy to say, I'm one step ahead of the game :-)  I already have pansies in the ground and I'm happy to say, they weathered the freeze pretty well. I don't remember exactly when I planted them -- I think, just before Thanksgiving, but I can't be sure.

(Note to self: USE that new garden journal this year and make note of when you plant things!) 

This little gem has bloomed consistently, with more reliability than the post office (Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night... you know the rest...) since before Christmas.

This is Matrix© Yellow Blotch pansy and I literally planted it and a few others like it and forgot them, as it were.

They're mulched, as you can see, but I didn't cover them during the freeze.  They did fine after the first night of sub-zero temps, but were looking a little ragged after the second night but they seem to have perked up a bit since then.  (Yes, I know we're lucky, we only had a couple of nights below zero)

I'm off work today (also due to the freeze in a round about way -- a broken water main was being worked on and we had no water so it seemed as good an excuse as any to take a personal day) and after getting my hair cut I wandered in to WalMart where they were moving the Christmas stuff out and starting to get some gardening stuff in.

They had a few bedding plants in already and when I saw they had Allysum at $1 each, I splurged and got six! (I know, last of the big spenders, that's me)

This one is still in it's pot, but, even though it was drizzling a bit this morning, I got them all planted and watered in.  They're such sweet little plants, with a lovely scent, I hope they do well.

They certainly brightened a dreary day and reminded me that spring is, indeed, just around the corner and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I recently found out about Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens, where garden bloggers post photos of blooms in their gardens on the 15th of each month. 

I know this is a day early, but I'll be at work tomorrow, so this is going to be my first official entry in the Garden Blogger's Bloom Day !