Spring has Sprung!

Ooops!  How time flies!  I can't believe I didn't post anything at all in February!  Although, truth be told, all I would have had to show you would have been weeds!

Since I was out of commission so much last year, with my surgeries and recuperations, the weeds really got the upper hand in the island beds (and the back lawn, come to think of it).

I've been making a concerted effort to get them back under control again, at least in the island beds, before we go ahead and add some more soil amendments and mulch.  One thing I love about my new job -- I'm home by 5:15, so even now I can get outside and spend a little time weeding when I get home from work.  Unlike my old job where I didn't get home until 7 pm because of the awful commute.

So now I'm beginning to see some signs of spring, I thought I'd show you some photos, but before I get to those, here are some photos of our winged visitors.

I love this photo of a pair of Mourning Doves.  At least, I assume they are a pair.  They hung out by the feeders and bird bath for a couple of hours together, whereas usually, there's a flock of them.

Here's another spring visitor -- a female Red-Winged Blackbird, if I'm not mistaken.  Amazingly, there weren't any males around the afternoon I took this.

I haven't seen any bluebirds taking interest in the new nesting box I bought especially for them after I had one pecking at the bedroom window a few weeks ago. 

But could something be showing an interest in nesting in this shelf?

Hard to tell whether the leaves just got blown in there by the wind, or whether someone is making a nest.  I'll have to check it out tomorrow and see if there's any progress on it.

And finally - the signs of spring I mentioned!  The Turk's Cap, that I had given a drastic hair cut, is sprouting like crazy.  I need to get after the ant hill in the bed, and also the millet or whatever it is that is sprouting all through that area (I put bird seed out on the wall right above it)

I even have some color in the garden, courtesy of several dianthus that weren't fazed by our December freezes.

I believe these seedlings are Cleome.  They're coming up in the general area of where I had Cleome growing last year, so I hope that's what they are.

And in this area of the island bed I've got some Cosmos that self-seeded from last year and elsewhere are some Achillea that self-seeded from underneath the Vitex tree.

In addition, I'm seeing signs of life in most of the Lantana, but alas, not the Milkweed.  I may have to make a trip to Plants for All Seasons and see if they have any on Saturday.

This last photo is of another little winged visitor I spotted on the dianthus.  I have no idea what variety of butterfly this is and haven't been able to ID it.  If anyone knows, please let me know.


So, for now my main tasks are of the clean up variety.  I've still got a lot of weeding to do in one of the island beds and the veggie bed.  Then we can add some soil amendments and mulch.  (It's amazing how the level of the soil has dropped since we first built the beds.)  But I'm determined to get ahead of the weeds this year, so keeping up with them isn't such a chore in the heat of summer.

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

Dirt Makes me Happy!

 Image by amoceptum

I came across a post on Facebook the other day which linked to an article explaining how microbes in the soil have been found to have a similar effect on the brain as antidepressants like Prozac, but without the side effects and chemical dependency potential.

You can read the article here:
http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/antidepressant-microbes-soil.htm

Yesterday I decided to test out the theory and headed out to the garden, to get up close and personal with the soil in our island beds.

OK - actually I was getting up close and personal with weeds and encroaching Bermuda grass, but it was very therapeutic and it really did put a smile on my face. I spent a pleasant afternoon pottering around, getting my hands dirty, listening to the birds all around, and smiling.

The weather yesterday was perfect for gardening -- the temperature was brisk but it was sunny and the humidity was very low. 
 I was working on the newest of our two island beds and didn't get finished yesterday.  The plan was to finish up today but it started storming during the night and has been raining steadily all day.  The garden is completely sodden, even flooded in one area (that's that drainage issue I mentioned before)

The island bed will have to wait until next weekend, but in the meantime, at least it does look like I accomplished something.

 


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.

New Year's Clean Up

We were blessed with absolutely gorgeous weather this weekend so I made the most of it and spent time outside, planting daffodil bulbs and doing some general clean up.

I haven't grown daffodils in 20-something years, when I stuck some in the ground at the first house I lived in when I moved to Texas. Those did.. okay... and that's about all you could say, so I just didn't bother again.  But I've always like daffodils, they're such sunny, happy flowers, so when I saw some supposedly especially for warm climate gardens in WalMart, of all places, I grabbed a couple of bags of bulbs.

We'll see how they do and I can take solace in the fact that, at $5 for 12 bulbs, at least I didn't spend a fortune if they fizzle. 

I planted them in the relatively new bed I created in September, as well as in around the trees in the front garden.

As I was planting them, I was able to use some of my very own Black Gold -- compost!!

Since I only started composting in October, I was thrilled to find I actually had some usable compost!


After I planted the bulbs, I got on with some clean up -- which involved trimming back the dead sweet potato vine, as well as several other plants that had died back in the freeze.

It was exciting to see signs of new growth already...

At the base of most of the milkweed, there was a flush of new green leaves. Most of them I just trimmed back to make the front look tidy, but a couple I had to pull out because they were growing in inconvenient places.

Underneath the seemingly dead chrysanthemums was healthy new growth waiting to be uncovered.

Behind the utility boxes, the hollyhock that I had to cut back to the ground last summer because of rust seems to have made it through the winter frosts with no problem.

I didn't think these were perennials and wasn't expecting it to come back at all after it bloomed its second year.  Does anyone know if it will bloom again this year or will I have to wait till next year to see it bloom again?

And finally, this chrysanthemum was blooming, even underneath all it's dead stalks from last year.  I took this photo as I was part-way through trimming it back, I was so amazed to see flowers!

Several times throughout the morning, I found myself smiling at the thought of, "Where else would I be planting and weeding on New Year's weekend with the sun on my back and a glass of ice tea in my hand?  Only in Texas!"


Happy New Year everyone.





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