Monday, February 21, 2011

Weekend Gardening

I don’t want to jinx us and say that spring is here, but it sure was an awesome “spring-like” weekend. What a difference a week makes. It was just last weekend when we were down in the 20s and two weeks ago the city practically closed down because of the threat of ice.

Ah, but that’s all in the past. This weekend, the peach tree is blooming.

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The blueberries are almost blooming.IMG_2040

The vegetable beds are cleaned up and planted another round of broccoli and spinach.IMG_2043

The “to be planted” pots have been pulled out from the corner of the back porch, so they can start to get a little more sunlight.IMG_2037

The first of two fountains is running again.IMG_2046

The new beds are just about ready to be filled with dirt next weekend.IMG_2038

And…the arbor is out of it’s box and in its new home. Yay! I’ve accomplished one of this years goals! IMG_2039

Speaking of my 2011 goals. Here’s a status update:

1. I volunteered my garden for the local garden tour. It will be on May 7th as long as they get enough volunteer gardens. Now on to the other goals, so that I can be ready for the tour.

2. The first two rain barrels have been ordered and are shipping out tomorrow. Can’t wait to see how they work.

3. Finish building the new beds…almost there.

4. Redesigning the front gardens. Not even close to starting that. Although, I have been dismantling them by moving their edging to the backyard to finish up #3.

5. Stop excessively buying plants. I haven’t truly been tested on this one yet. I do have a lot of fruit trees waiting to be planted, but that’s part of #6.

6. Add more fruit trees. I bought a 3 in 1 plum and a Tropic Snow peach at the fruit tree sale. The peach is in the ground, but I still haven’t planted the plum. The 4 blueberry bushes I bought are potted up and already blooming. I am also adding 4 new citrus trees, but it is still a little too early to put those in the ground.

7. The arbor is done!

I am very happy with the progress so far. And with the weather warming up, it is sure to be a busy few months.

Fundraising Sale at Green Bank

On another note, there will be a fundraising tree sale on February 26th at Green Bank. You may have seen some information about this sale if you read some of the other Houston area blogs. I find this sale interesting for a couple of reasons. First, is that the beneficiaries of the sale are high school environmental clubs that have banned together to form Green Team America. They do service projects both in their local communities and as a group. Their projects include tree plantings and swapping incandescent bulbs for CFLs, among others.

Secondly, one of the sponsors of the sale, Apache Petroleum, has insisted on only having native trees at the sale. The original list of trees that I saw from them included Chinese Pistache (an invasive species from China) and Crepe Myrtles (which grow abundantly in Houston, but are native to China). They told me these would be removed from the sale. I’ve since noticed Vitex on their list, this tree is native to Southern Europe and western Asia.

If you don’t know a lot about native vs non-native plants, it is something worth considering when you are landscaping your yard. I am not a purist, but I do think that you will have better luck gardening the more native species you plant and you will attract more native wildlife.

Before going to the sale, you might want to check out the Texas Tree Selector website from the Texas Forest Service, it contains both native and non-native species. Experts from the forest service will be at the sale to answer questions.

4 comments:

  1. You've gotten a lot done! I'm thinking of coming to Houston for the garden tour. Keep me updated about it.

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  2. It's looking good in your garden! I'm working hard to get mine back in shape.

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  3. Woohoo for progress...I hope I am as good at sticking to my "to-do" list this year too :-)

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  4. How busy you have been. I can't wait to see it all'in the flesh'.

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