Container Gardening in the Texas Heat

There are times I question the sanity of trying to garden in the Houston area.  This weekend was one of them.  After all, Texas is known for it's hot and humid summers and this weekend has been a doozy.  Who in their right mind would decide to spend the day outside? 

Why, me of course! I decided I was sick of looking at the empty containers around the birdbath and decided the area needed a boost of color for the summer.

And because plants don't voluntarily leap into pots and bury themselves all nice and deep in delicious potting soil, I had to do it for them.

But first, a trip to the nursery.  I headed out to  Plants for All Seasons on Hwy 249, determined not to let their wonderful collection of fairy garden accessories waylay me again!

I made it home with several choices for my containers, in addition to a Hamelia patens I've been wanting to add to the island bed.

My plant list included Evolution salvias in blue and white, as well as a Victoria Blue and a Forest Fire salvia (red), and a red Penta, Confetti for a patriotic Red, White and Blue theme in the containers.  

I also got some trailing purple lantana, purple Persian Shield, Little Lucky lantana "Lemon Creme", Little Luck Lantana "Hot Pink", along with a chartreuse sweet potato vine to go in the half barrel.

One thing in my favor, the patio is in shade for most of the day, and we have ceiling fans.  But really, when it's 94+ degrees out there, with high humidity,  it's still hot and sticky.  I kept a towel nearby to mop my sweating brow and drank at least a gallon of ice tea.

When you see photos of Southern ladies showing off their lush gardens, how is it that they always look cool, calm and collected? Perhaps it's the Mint Juleps they always seem to be sipping -- maybe I should try those... 

I'm always bright red in the face, hair plastered to my head with sweat.  Not a pretty sight.  I dread working out in the front garden in case a neighbor stops by for a chat.  I do not look my best when I'm working in the garden!

Anyway, I got the containers planted and arranged them around the birdbath and I'm quite pleased with the effect. They should look lovely when they fill out.

I felt bad about ripping all of the Babylon White verbena out of the barrel, but it had been blooming constantly since last summer, kept going all winter and finally fizzled a month or so ago.  I pulled off some of the greener parts with roots attached and stuck them in the ground in the raised bed and the rest went on the back of the brush pile.

I think the barrel will look nice with the mix of purples, yellows and greens and the lantana and sweet potato vine can trail as much as they want to in that location.

After planting, I gave everything a good water and left it to settle in. 

Unfortunately, as often happens when I exert myself outside in the heat, I ended up with a raging headache and spent the rest of the day lying on the bed with the ceiling fan blowing on me, trying to feel human again.

I can't wait till fall gets here!!  Roll on fall!

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

Fall is In the Air

Got an email from my dad on the other side of the Atlantic this week, pointing out that it had been two weeks since I updated my blog and that my readership (presumably he meant him) was waiting.

So, dad, wait no more!  It's officially fall and while we're still officially in a drought (I heard it would take 30 inches of rain to get us out of drought conditions) it did get a bit cooler last weekend.  Rather than the 100 + temperatures we were having, there were a few days when the temp didn't get over 90. I spent last Saturday afternoon lounging in the hammock - BLISS!!

The hummingbirds have gone south, although there may still be a straggler or two.  I've left a feeder out, plus there are still lots of blooms in the garden for them, such as the Dallas Red Lantana above and the Tropical Milkweed below.

Speaking of the milkweed -- this photo and the one below were taken about 10 days ago.  Looking around the garden as the sun went down today, I see they are all loaded down with seedpods.  I'm going to collect some seed tomorrow, if they haven't all blown away on the wind.  So if anyone would like some free milkweed seeds, let me know and I'll save you some.

With all the milkweed around, I was rather surprised to see this Monarch on the Southern Wax Myrtle.

I'm keeping a look out on the Milkweed for caterpillars, but haven't seen any yet.

 Oh My Sweet Potato!

 In the bed beside the garage, the sweet potato vines have really taken over this summer! Believe it or not, there are some holly bushes and Indian Hawthorn in this bed.  You can't really see them for all the sweet potato vine.  Only the dark one has blooms, apparently.  I noticed the same thing last year.

 Our pine tree behind the house doesn't look so great in this photo, but it looks better in person.  And believe me it looks a whole lot better than the hundreds of trees around town that have succumbed to the drought.

It's very depressing driving along and seeing whole forests of dead trees.  I'm surprised the county aren't being more proactive about taking some of them down, especially considering the devastating fire in Bastrop County was said to have been started by a tree falling on a power line.

We can only hope that disaster isn't repeated.  And we can pray for rain.
 

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

"Wild Life Gardening" Goes a Bit Too Far

As soon as I saw the pansies in flats at the local garden center, I knew I had to get some.

After all, the ones I had planted last year lasted from Thanksgiving until well into spring.

I purchased the same ones that did so well last year - Matrix Yellow Splotch and Matrix Purple - and spent a pleasant morning a few weekends ago putting them in the ground around the young live oak trees in the front garden, and also a couple in the border by the dining room window in the back garden.

I planted them, watered them in and left them to it.  (In my garden, if a plant can't make it on its own, it doesn't belong!)

Then I got busy, as always seems to happen and it was a couple of weeks before i looked at them again. When I did, what I saw saddened me.

A couple of the pansies had been pulled out of the ground and were dried up and dead or dying.

Those that were still in the ground had all the blooms neatly nibbled off.

Who could have done such a dastardly deed?

Um.. it could have been this guy...

... seen here in the vacant lot on the west side of our house.

Here's a longer view, showing our fence... perhaps we should take the Welcome sign off the gate...

Seriously though, I love having deer around and I hope the pansies come back and bloom through the winter and spring. After all, they managed it last year, and presumably we had deer then too. Hopefully in a few weeks, they'll all be looking like the one below, which is blooming, unmolested, in the back garden.

In other garden news...

The Toad Lily that hosted the family of Carolina Wrens this summer, is now blooming. I'm especially happy about this since it suffered some serious water deprevation in the heat of the summer when the nest was in place and I couldn't water it.

Here's another one -- thanks for these Ursula!

I'm rather taken with the way that the sweet potato vine, growing rampantly in the front bed by the garage, is now showing some seasonal color. 

I'm not sure if this can be left over the winter, or if I need to cut it back, pull it out or whatever.  I'm sure I'll do what I always do - leave it to fend for itself :-)

I hope readers in the U.S. have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday this week.  For the rest of you, have a great week :-) See you on the flip side

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

Battle of the Ruby-Throats

Just the other day I commented on Ursula's blog on Houston Grows that I hadn't seem hummingbirds fighting in my garden.  I saw one at the feeder most days, but I hadn't witnessed any territorial battles.

Well, it turns out I'm just not usually there at the right time.  I'm home today, after an early doctor appointment for which I ended up taking the entire day off work.

I love not having to work during the week.  If I could retire tomorrow I would, but unfortunately I'll probably be working till I'm 90!

Anyway, since it was relatively cool this morning, I went out and did a bit of weeding and as I did, I got buzzed.  At first I thought it was just one hummingbird, but then I realized there were two and they were zipping around the garden one chasing the other.

I went into the house to get my camera and managed to snap some blurry photos.  Please excuse the poor quality.  The action was pretty fast paced and I was standing indoors, about 15 or 20 feet away from them.

Look closely at the following pics and see if you can see them...

Double clicking on the photos will bring up a larger sized version.

 

 

Can you see them?  Both in the top half of the photo, above the feeder.  One on the left apparently sitting in the tree and one flying on the right.

I put the camera down then, and of course, when I did, they called a truce for a moment and both of them took a sip before flying up and perching in the pine tree.

Another thing I got around to doing was repotting some plants thatI have been meaning to repot for ages. I was careful not to disturb them too much, they basically slid out of one pot and into another, slightly larger one and I filled in around them with organic potting mix.

First is the Hamelia patens I bought a couple of weeks ago, although you can't actually see it's new container in this photo...

And the other is a hydrangea that Ursula passed along...

This hydrangea seems to like this spot on the patio, out of the direct sunlight, and has been putting out some new leaves. Hopefully next year I'll see some more growth and possibly even blooms.  My dad just sent me photos of his hydrangeas that he's growing in his garden in England and they are huge!

Now that the wren family has left the nest, I took the opportunity to give the plant that hosted them a good watering, trimmed off some leaves that had brown edges and removed the nest.  I've never seen a wren's nest before and was quite impressed with their work.

 

I got a couple of these Homestead Verbena from Ursula but this is the only one that is thriving.  I love the purple color.

Along the fence in the side yard -- the best five bucks I ever spent was on this evergreen (I think it's a cypress of some type).  I got on sale in Walmart and it was the most puny thing when I put it in the ground.  it's doing nicely now, and I wish I had got more of them.

In the bed by the garage, milkweed by the dozen and a couple of very enthusiastic sweet potato vines!

Oh well, back to work tomorrow. Things are about to get busier in my second job as well, so I hope I can continue to find time for gardening and blogging. 

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