Nutsedge is Driving Me Nuts!

Soon after we moved in here and I started planting in the beds and pottering about in the garden, I started noticing a grass like plant that kept popping up everywhere.  I would pull it out and it would just come back.  It has become the bane of my existence.  If I don't diligently keep after it, it completely takes over, as it has done here, in the front border, among the milkweeds.

A little investigation quickly identified it as "nutsedge."

From Texas Cooperative Extension:

Nutsedge, often called nutgrass, is really not a true grass, but instead a member of the sedge family. Its proper name is nutsedge or for you Latin lovers, Cyperus esculentus. It is closer 'kin to Papyrus (used to make the ancient writing paper of Egypt) or the ornamental Umbrella sedges, than to St. Augustine or bermudagrass. This African native plant has thrived and spread throughout the New World. Because of its ability to thrive and persist, most gardeners and farmers would agree that to know it is to hate it.

When a nutsedge shoot reaches the surface it forms a basal bulb, from which grow roots and thin, wiry underground stems with new tubers at their ends. In one year, the outward growth from one tuber has the potential to produce 1,900 new plants and 7,000 new tubers. Now you can see why it's so tough to control! If there is any good news it's that individual tubers do not last longer than 3 years (thanks a lot, right?).

For read the entire article visit:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/docs/mpp_w_art_nutsedge.pdf

It appears that the only way to control nutsedge is to use chemical pesticides such as Round Up and since I have pledged to keep my garden chemical-free, it appears that I am doomed to pull these bloody annoying little things out of the ground by hand or hoe forever.

I'd be interested to hear from other gardeners who have problems with nutsedge (you know how the saying goes: Misery loves company!)  Or perhaps there's another weed that is the bane of your existence?

Let me know in the comments.

And now, lest you think my garden has completely gone to ruin, here's a shot of the self-seeded zinnia "Profusion" living up to its name in the island bed.

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

Daylilies ..mainstay of the island bed

I didn't think it was possible, but the weather has been even more hot and humid since my last post.  So much so that other than fill the bird bath and water the container plants around it, I've spent very little time in the garden.

I have, however, taken a few minutes here and there to get some photos of the summer garden.  

I love the way the afternoon sun catches this Crepe Myrtle as it sets.  I also like the fact that, now the Crepe Myrtle is growing up, it's not so susceptible to the ugly black fungus it kept getting for the first couple of years. I'm not sure if they all develop a resistance as they grown and get older, but I'm thankful that this one has.

And now here follow some photos of the Daylilies which are blooming prolifically in the island bed. 

  
As I've mentioned before, I don't know which varieties they are, I just enjoy them for their beauty.

Some of them produce single blooms, some produce great clusters of blooms.  I think these photos are of the same plant, taken a few days apart.  The one below was taken today. There are still more buds to open :-)

Sorry this post is rather brief.  It's been a long hard week at work.  Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday.  I promise to catch up on my blog reading over the weekend - at least I know it will be too hot to spend much time in the garden!!

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

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.

After the Rain

This morning, since today is a Sunday, I treated myself to a lie-in, well as much of a lie-in as the cats would allow.  

As it happened, I got up at seven, fed the cats and read for a while, before rejoining my sleeping hubby for an extended snooze until we were awakened by thunder outside.

We lay there listening to the rain, and thinking how much the garden would be enjoying it.  After breakfast, and after the rain had stopped, I headed outside with my camera.

As the clouds moved off, I checked out the garden and found the flowers, such as this daylily, covered in glistening raindrops.

I've seen a few Monarchs in the garden in recent weeks, and today I spotted a caterpillar, his chosen leaf had protected him well from the rain.    Interestingly, last week I took a photo of a chrysalis on the fence and the next day when I went to check on it, there was no sign of it.  I hope this caterpillar has better luck.

The Savannah holly looked particularly photogenic with its coat of silver raindrops. The sun was just in the right place to catch them and the whole bush looked like it had been dusted with fairy dust.
 

No, that's not a real toad on the roof of the toad house, but I can tell you that there was a very happy frog in the vicinity somewhere.  I couldn't see him, but I could certainly hear him!  He was quite the loud one!  I'm sure he appreciated the rain too.
 

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

The Garden in May - Then and Now

After showing you a photograph of the Rose of Sharon soon after it had been planted in my last post, I thought I'd show some more "Then and Now" photos of the garden.

The "Then" photos were all taken in May and June 2009.  The "Now" photos have been taken in the past couple of weeks.

THEN:
The first photo shows the border we built using stones the builder had left over from accenting the front of the house.  My husband was glad to have them out of the garage, not so glad he was the one that had to move them!

I would have liked to have made the border deeper, but we had to work around underground utilities and sprinkler heads.

NOW:
Views along the back of the garden today show how the garden has filled in. The Vitex has grown like gangbusters, as have the Southern Wax Myrtle and the Rose of Sharon.  You can also see "Junior", the young pine tree we had put in to replace the mature pine we lost.

THEN: 
The builder put a few holly bushes around the utility boxes, but eventually all but one of them died.  The vast expanse of lawn made the garden nice and green, but not much to offer for the birds and butterflies.

NOW:
To disguise the utility boxes, I got a couple of lattice panels from Lowes and believe it or not, I managed to cram in a butterfly bush and a small crepe myrtle behind the utility boxes.  (Probably not the wisest choice, but the butterflies enjoy it :-)

Here's a close up view of the utility box corner.  Not sure if you can see in this photo, perhaps in the enlarged version, but I've been using the area as a convenient place for a brush pile, which has made it a favorite spot for the birds too :-) 

We also got rid of some of the vast expanse of lawn by putting in an island bed.  It's a bit of a hodge-podge, with no real planting plan, just things stuck in the ground as and when I think about it.  I had planned to organize it this year, but it didn't happen.  Maybe next spring....

In the meantime, I'm happy that the daylilies are finally blooming (they did nothing last year) and the Profusion zinnia has self-seeded.

The character of the bed will likely change as the peach tree and the river birch grow, but I think they will both provide dappled shade, so plants should still enjoy  sharing the bed with them.

THEN:
When we moved in, the most striking thing about the property was that it was surrounded by trees.  That's really where the "Green and Serene" in the name of my blog came from.  Of course, we knew it couldn't last, but we enjoyed it while we could.

NOW:
Now we have houses either side and those trees are gone, but our new neighbors have planted a small tree in their back yard, so perhaps together we can rebuild the habitat :-)

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

The Travelling Shrub

Our garden here at this house is not the first garden I have created from scratch.

Back in 2003, I moved out my apartment in the city and into a house in a small town north of the city.

One of my greatest joys then, as now, was creating a garden, literally from scratch. Whereas our house here at least had sod and a few bushes, the back yard in my previous house was literally a patch of dirt.

Over the five years I lived there, with the help of my parents, who visited from England, and my neighbors, I laid out a lawn and wide borders full of flowering shrubs and other plants, as well as a shady patio for a pleasant place to sit and enjoy it.

The subject of today's post, "The Traveling Shrub" was one of the most successful shrubs in that garden. It was given to my by one of my neighbors and was no more than a stick when I first got it.

They told me it was a Rose of Sharon, something that, being from England, I was unfamiliar with.

At first, I stuck it in a container of potting soil, to let it take root which it happily did. Once I noticed it was putting out new leaves, I deemed it ready to go in the garden and put it in the bed on the back side of the house, close to the patio.

The arrow in the photo below shows it, about 8 inches tall, in its new home.

   

A month or so later, it was 3 feet tall and filling out.

It wasn't long at all before it was covered in buds and starting to bloom.

It was glorious all summer long, a magnet for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

When Eric and I got married and decided a bigger house would be more suitable for the two of us, I was quite upset at having to leave behind this garden. 

But then I remembered how the Rose of Sharon had come to me and wondered if it could make the move to our new house.

I took several cuttings and potted them up, nurturing them until we started laying out borders in our new garden.

I planted three altogether.  The one below, indicated by the arrow, went into the middle of the back border. It would eventually be flanked by a Southern Wax Myrtle and a Flame Acanthus.  I also planted one in the border on the left of the garden and one along the fence on the right side of the garden.  Out of the three of them, the one in the back border is doing best.

It wasn't long before it was as tall as the wall and blooming profusely :-)

More seasoned gardeners than I will probably notice that the Rose of Sharon and the Southern Wax Myrtle in the photo above are too close together.  Now, three years later, they're sort of merged into one large shrub, but they both seem to be doing well.

So if the occasion ever comes that I have to move again (not that we are planning on it), I know I'll be able to take at least some of my garden with me :-)

Or perhaps I could share cuttings with my neighbors, if any of them were gardeners.

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

May is Garden for Wildlife Month

Since our backyard received official certification as a Wildlife Habitat from the National Wildlife Federation in 2011, one of the most rewarding aspects of gardening for me is to sit and watch birds and other wildlife enjoying the habitat we have created.

I didn't know until recently that May is Garden for Wildlife Month. Whether you're a gardening novice with a small balcony or gardening veteran with a few acres, you can provide for local wildlife by creating a Certified Wildlife Habitat®.

And as a special offer for May only, the NWF will plant a tree in your honor for habitats certified during May.

In honor of Garden for Wildlife Month, I thought I'd share some wildlife photos I took in the garden recently.

When we first moved in here, we were surrounded by trees and we had resident fox squirrels that visited daily.  One by one, all the surrounding trees have gone and until recently, so had the squirrels.

Suddenly, the squirrels are back! I'm not sure where they are living, as we are a block or more from the nearest mature tree now, and there's nothing but empty yards in between. But twice in the past week I've seen one helping itself to the bird seed on the fence and wall.

I look forward to seeing squirrels scamper up and down "Junior"s trunk in a few years.

Blue Jays also became more scarce as the habitat around us was lost and houses were built either side.  They now nest in the hedgerow across the road behind our wall (seen in the background of the photo above) and they are daily visitors to our garden and our feeders.

We get so many Northern Mockingbirds around our neighborhood, and the air is filled with their song at the moment.  So much so that I decided to call my home office/art studio "Mockingbird Studio." I can actually sit indoors at my computer, working on artwork or whatever else I'm doing, and be serenaded by a mockingbird sitting on the roof, or in the tree in the front garden.

 As I was sitting on the patio today, I heard a slightly different sound and when I looked up I saw a mother mockingbird feeding suet to her young.  The sound I was hearing was the young one telling mom to hurry up with the suet!

One thing I especially like about the garden now is that the birds don't just flock to the feeders.  I get a kick out of watching them hopping about in the border, through the flower beds and across the lawn.  They do a decent job of picking up seed that has blown off the fence, or out of the feeders and it's nice to see them acting naturally, as they would out "in the wild". (Can you see Mrs. Cardinal in the photo above?)

Back on the 29th April, I showed a photo of our first hummingbird of the year.  I swear we didn't see hummingbirds until August in previous years but for the past week or so, we've had a pair of them zipping about the garden.

Here's the male...

And here's the female...

They keep coming and going in and out of the Southern Wax Myrtle (on the right in the above photo).  Wouldn't it just be too awesome if they nested in there this year?

I saw a young male hummingbird last year.  It would be wonderful to see some baby hummers this year!

If you would like more information about Gardening for Wildlife, visit the National Wildlife Federation website.

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