A Spring Day in the Garden

It's days like this that make me thankful that I live in Texas. While many areas are getting heavy rain/sleet/snowfall, we are experiencing the most glorious spring day.  The temperatures are a little chilly (for here, at least) but the sun is shining and I was compelled to head out into the garden and snap some photos.

In the side garden we have beans coming up and getting ready to start climbing the tower.  In the corners of the bed I planted Fennel, for any swallowtail butterflies that might want to lay eggs :-)

The cucumber and tomato plants are coming along nicely too, while the garlic chives, that have been in that spot for years, are definitely outgrowing their boundary.

I love the view looking across the back of the garden from east to west. I sort of wish this was the view we got from the house/patio, but perhaps it's just the fact that I don't see it on a daily basis that makes it special.

Here's a view from the front of the island beds.

In the back border, under the Southern Wax Myrtle, the white veined pipevine, is growing nicely and I hope ready to host some Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars this year. 

That's all from me today -- I'm getting ready to fly to London this evening to visit my parents for a week.  I hope you all have a good week.

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

Christmas Wishes from My Garden to Yours

 Yesterday we were blessed with perfect weather - sunny skies, gentle breeze, temperature in the 60's somewhere I think. Having been sick in bed all last weekend, I was eager to get out in the fresh air and get my hands dirty.


I thought about cleaning up the frost damaged plants in the front garden, but with nets of Christmas lights draped everywhere, there was a high risk of me cutting the wrong thing with the secateurs, so I concentrated in the back garden.


The "Tropi-Cannas" that I had in containers in the corner got frost-bitten, so I trimmed them back, taking care not to damage the new shoots that are already coming through, and relocated the containers further along the wall.


In their place, I picked up a couple of small "living Christmas trees" -- Chamaecyparis lawsoniana Elwoodii - False Cypress.  They were the last two left, they were pretty beat up and their pots were split, but they were only $4, so I snatched them up and took them home.


I repotted them and arranged them in front of the trellis where the cannas had been, along with some poinsettias I bought around Thanksgiving. It creates a nice little splash of color in an otherwise drab back garden.

Further along the back wall, the dwarf Burford Holly is getting in the Christmas spirit too, with bursts of bright red berries.

Finally getting started with the actual clean up, I turned to the Homestead Verbena. This was gifted to me in the spring by Ursula, who I have mentioned before -- I think I owe half of my garden to her generosity.  

I guess the keyword here is Location, Location, Location.  Ursula gave me two of these.  I planted one on the other side of the garden, where it withered and died.  This one... well you can see what this one did...

This started off in a 4 inch pot, now it's five feet across.  I had to hack it back, it was taking over the lawn! I can't wait till it blooms in the spring! I stuck some of the cuttings I had taken in to a flat with potting soil in it and put it in my mini greenhouse on the patio.  If they make it great, if they don't -- I have more!

Further along the same fence,  the Fennel that got eaten down to nubs by the swallowtail caterpillars has rebounded and looks lovely tucked in the back of the bed.  The recent freeze didn't faze it a bit, so hopefully it will still be around when the swallowtail butterflies show up in the spring.

Just in front of it, the Hot Trumpets salvia is still doing well and it's surrounded by babies, where it seeded freely this year.

I was tempted to "weed" this bed, but then decided just to pluck out the obvious bird seed sprouts and leave the rest till spring when I can pot up and relocate some of these babies.

I probably won't have a chance to blog again before Christmas, so in case I don't, I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and Holiday season.  

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

Silver Bells

First of all, I must apologize that I haven't been able to keep up with commenting very well in the past couple of weeks.  The next two weeks won't be good either.  The World Equestrian Games starts on Saturday and the website I work on for my second job is gearing up for coverage of that. So the next two weeks promise to be exciting, but hectic.  If you're interested, you can see our coverage here: www.equisearch.com

Anyway, on to my post...

The first two photos below were taken a week or so back and I just never got around to posting them, so I thought I'd do that today. They were taken early in the morning, after the sprinklers had run.  I went out to feed the birds and noticed the water droplets catching the morning sun, so I had to grab my camera.

You may or may not recognize the plant in the first photo -- it's the fennel that got eaten down to stumps a few weeks ago by the swallowtail caterpillars.  It's been coming back nicely and looked lovely covered in the sparkling 'silver bells" (click on the photo for the full size view)

Doesn't the Rose of Sharon look beautiful?

Finally, I happened to spot this little Phillipine Lily blooming in the front border on a different day from the photos above. What's so extraordinary about it is that it bloomed a full month after the two Phillipine lilies I have in the back garden.  I have no idea why -- I transplanted them all at the same time.  Still, it was a very pleasant surprise and although it's not covered in water droplets here, it's a silver bell in its own right :-) Thanks Ursula, for the beautiful lilies!

Have a great weekend everyone, perhaps I will see you at the Kleb Woods Hummingbird Festival on Saturday.  I'm going to try and fit that in my busy work schedule for the weekend.
 

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