Houston Garden Girl

Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

2011-12-02T12:27:00.000-06:00

My husband and I have been talking about taking a trip to Austin for awhile now. Both of us briefly went to college there, before we knew each other, and we haven’t spent any significant amount of time there since. I strategically planned our trip for the weekend of the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center fall plant sale in October. I have given the front yard flowerbeds a complete overhaul and my intention is to plant primarily natives in the new and improved beds. The only downside to my plan was that he is not a gardener, so my time to spend wandering around and taking pictures was limited.

This was my first trip to the Wildflower Center. The entire center covers almost 300 acres, but the display gardens are all pretty close to the main entrance. There are also trails representing different ecosystems, but I didn’t have a chance to explore those.

Here are some shots of the gardens from the top of the tower

I went directly to the plant sale after we arrived at the Wildflower Center. I already had a list of plants that I was looking for. After I scored my loot, I took a leisurely stroll through some of the gardens. I was on the look out for appealing shady scenes. After all, my small front yard is almost entirely shaded by three 30 year old live oaks.

Here are some of my inspiration photos.

This is our native red turk’s cap, blooming in the shade of an oak tree.

The fall blooming asters were electrifying the shade in every part of the gardens.

In the above photo, there is more of the red turk’s cap and something new that caught my attention…

Inland Sea Oats. After seeing these, I had to take another trip back through the plant sale to pick up some of these for the new front yard beds.

This is what I came home with:

For the front gardens:
Malpighia glabra, Barbados Cherry
Salvia Regla, Red Mountain Sage
Chasmanthium latifolium, Inland Sea Oats
Conoclinum coelestinum, Blue Mist Flower
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, Fall Aster
Callirhoe involucrata, Winecup
Salvia arizonica, Arizona Sage
Chile Pequin

And for other parts of my garden:
Monarda Lindheimeri, Lindheimer’s Bee Balm
Monarda fistulosa, Wild Bergamot (I haven’t had much luck with Monarda since I moved back to Texas, so maybe these natives will succeed)
Sphaeralcea incana, Gray Globemallow
Passiflora incarnata, Maypop
Passiflora foetida, Scarlet Fruit Passionflower
Flame acanthus
Mexican Red Hat
Salvia gregii, Red Autumn Sage
Erythrina herbacea, Coralbean

Even though these are all Texas natives, Texas is a big state, which means these plants aren’t guaranteed to do well in Houston. So, this is my own little SW Houston experiment. Some might be too invasive, some may not be quite right for Houston, but that’s why gardening is so much fun! I can’t wait until next summer to see how these plants will handle the whims of Houston weather.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-30T10:05:00.000-06:00

Forcing Bulbs by Accident

2011-11-25T10:33:00.000-06:00

Forcing bulbs is so easy, you don’t even have to plan on doing it…

Another one of my annual plant sale traditions is the Houston Garden Club’s infamous Bulb and Plant Mart in October. I planned so far ahead, that I pre-ordered bulbs in August. They have a great selection of amaryllis, I bought a couple more varieties this year, despite the fact that I already have 5 different kinds and I’m not sure where in the garden these will end up. The two newbies this year are Pasadena and White Peacock.

A couple of weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. I went into my home office and decided to do some yoga to relax, hoping that it would help me get back to sleep. In the middle of my yoga session, as I moved into a standing forward bend, I noticed it. Peeping from a brown paper shopping bag. The light green leaves. Oh no! My amaryllis bulbs were starting to grow!

There went my concentration, all I could think about was getting those bulbs into pots. Pasadena was much farther ahead of White Peacock. Now, I have 7 beautiful Pasadena blossoms, all because I left the bulb in a brown paper shopping bag for a month.

So, you see folks, anyone can force bulbs indoors in the winter.

November Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2011-11-21T09:50:00.001-06:00

I love Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Lately, life has been so hectic, bloom day is the only excuse I have to spend some time roaming around my garden to see what it’s up to. Despite the fact that my bloom day post is late, my pictures are from the actual bloom day .

Finally, the first blooms of pink firespike. This was a new one this year, I’m glad to see the pink blooms as we head into fall. (Yes, I said fall. It is Texas after all)

OK, these aren’t blooms, but I think they are interesting. These are the fruit of a white turn’s cap.

Here’s one I have been wanting to post on a bloom day for quite awhile and this month it actually cooperated. It is iochroma cyanea.

Two of my new rose bushes are blooming. Hopefully they will stay happy in their new home.

Le Vesuve

White Heritage

And finally….the pink brugmansia that I received as a cutting is blooming. (thanks Elida). It had a tough time making it through last winter, but it has been persistent. Hopefully, it will make it through another weird weather year in Houston.

Thanks for checking out my November blooms. For more bloom day posts go to May Dreams Gardens.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-09T08:46:00.000-06:00

Musical Notes Clerodendrum

Roses, Take Two

2011-11-06T22:32:00.001-06:00

My first trip to the Antique Rose Emporium was this past April. It is a great place to visit. I purchased 4 roses and planted them around the first of May. (here’s the May post about ARE)

Now, to recap…I planted four new rose bushes at the beginning of the hottest and driest summer in recorded history in a freshly built raised bed.

Within a couple of months I had a lovely flower bed with four dead rose bushes. I also created and planted several other large flowerbeds this spring and the watering was just too much for me to keep up with. Most everything survived, but my poor roses.

So, I have a new strategy…fall planting. Mike Shoup owner of the Antique Rose Emporium recently mentioned this in an article he wrote for Neil Sperry’s magazine.

“Newly established plants (those planted this spring) showed a lot of mortality. It was just too difficult to get enough subsoil moisture to carry the plants into the hot summer. The lesson here is to plant in the fall to establish a good root system.”

I went back to ARE on Saturday and purchased 3 more roses. This time I bought Le Vesuve and Maggie (same as last time) and White Heritage. I decided to forego Cecile Brunner for White Heritage which has larger blooms and is white, which will give my bed a little more color variety. I replaced my Belinda’s Dream a few weeks ago with one from Buchanan’s. Now, it’s a matter of occasional watering and hopefully summer 2012 will be more forgiving.

This weekend also happened to be the Fall Rose Festival at ARE. I wanted to make it up there early enough to hear Felder Rushing speak, but no such luck. I have had too much going on lately which has left me catching up on my sleep every weekend and my alarm clock just wasn’t loud enough to get me out of bed.

However, I did catch a little Shakespeare. The Rose Festival included Shakespeare in the Gardens, presented by Brenham H.S. theatre students.

I took a quick stroll around the grounds. The number of butterflies was amazing.

I also noticed the yellow brick road, which I guess I missed during my last trip.

I couldn’t stay as long as I would have liked, so I will definitely have to make another trip out there some time.

September Hummingbirds

2011-10-23T01:30:00.001-05:00

Here are a few of the pictures of hummingbirds that I took last month in my backyard. I think they have all headed south now, I haven’t seen any for at least a week.

October Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2011-10-18T07:53:00.002-05:00

I am astounded by the blooms in my garden this month. After the hottest and driest summer in history, all it took was about 3” of rain last week and some cool weather for most of my plants to make a rebound.

Podranea ricasoliana, Pink Trumpet Vine

Hardy Blue Aster
A trade from my native plant gardener/neighbor. Thanks Noreen!

Zinnia 'Profusion Doublefire'

Blackfoot Daisy (Another one from Noreen!) and Salvia coccinea

Turnera alternifolia
Reseeds every year!

Gomphrena

Gregg's Mistflower
The butterflies love this one!

Cassia Alata
Another reseeder. This year I transplanted the
seedlings to several different beds.

I need to locate the tag from this one. I picked it up at Buchanan’s in the spring.
Anyone know what it is?

Other plants in bloom this month are: Diamond Frost euphorbia, purple porterweed, pentas, duranta, lipstick salvia, Calliandra emarginata, chenille plant, batface cuphea, shrimp plant, black & blue salvia, bottlebrush tree, fall obedient plant, gaura, mexican bush sage, yellow cestrum, knockout roses, salvia vanhoutii, vinca, Orthosiphon laevigatum (Pink Surprise bush), butterfly weed, plumbago, Pavonia peruviana, Pavonia lasiopetala (Texas Rock Rose), Hamelia patens (Hummingbird bush), Convolvulus ‘Blue Daze’, Melochia tomentosa (Pyramid Bush).

Check out May Dreams Gardens for more Garden Bloggers Bloom Days.

Macro Monday

2011-10-10T07:55:00.000-05:00

I’m so happy to see the butterflies coming through town. This has been such as harsh year for them and for us gardeners. This monarch is feasting on Gregg’s Mistflower, you can even see pollen all over its wings.

Check out Lisa’s Chaos for more Macro Monday pictures.

Update from my garden

2011-09-05T14:58:00.001-05:00

Thankfully, we finally have a break from the 100 degree days. I’m not sure how much longer our plants could have taken that. Still no rain in my neck of the woods. It has been hit or miss all summer. My parents, on the northeast side of town, have gotten about twice as much as we have on the southwest, although that’s not saying much since I’ve only gotten about 3” this year.

Over the last couple of weekends I have given all of my backyard beds a boost with a mixture of diluted liquid seaweed, molasses, and fish emulsion. The seaweed is supposed to help them with the drought. There’s a long list of benefits of using these organic supplements in the garden and this is the year our plants need all the help they can get.

I’ve noticed two of my citrus trees, the ones in full sun, have yellowing leaves and some of the fruit has yellow on the side that is exposed to the sun. I think they are getting sunburned (but if you have another theory, please let me know). I’ve read that when the fruit gets sunburned it will eventually ruin the fruit. My mandarin is still on the small side, so I went ahead and picked the burned ones. That will let the tree put more energy into its root system anyway, which is not a bad thing.

The summer heat has been unreal, even for those of us who have lived here most of our lives. My husband and I decided we couldn’t take it anymore, so we looked at a high temperature map and found the coolest places in the country we could escape to, our choices were Seattle, Portland, OR and Portland, ME. We lucked into a good deal on plane tickets to Portland, OR and off we went. We were there while Irene was striking the east coast. We were worried for friends and family there, but we were grateful that we chose the west coast instead of the east coast for our vacation.

Portland is called the City of Roses and is home to the International Rose Test Garden and Japanese Garden in a 40 acre city park called Washington Park as well as the Portland Chinese Garden in Chinatown. I had a jacket on most of the time we were there, it was awesome. To see more pictures from my trip go to my online photo album.

The local plant sales will be getting into full swing later this month and will continue into October. The Houston Garden Club’s Bulb & Plant Mart, master gardeners plant sales, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center plant sale to name a few. Check out my event calendar for more details.

Garden Art of Seattle

2011-08-25T03:59:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love garden art. I have little things tucked in here and there all around my garden and I‘m always on the look-out for more.

Throughout the Seattle Fling there was an abundance of garden art, but there were a few stand-outs when I look back over my pictures: Michelle & Christopher Epping’s, Lorene Edwards Forkner’s, and Dragonfly Farms.

The Epping’s garden took 3rd place in the 2007 Pacific Northwest Gardens Competition, and it is easy to see why. Besides a well laid out garden, there are nooks and crannies to explore highlighted with interesting pieces of garden art.

The colors of the flowers echo the colors of the lanterns, or is it the other way around?

Concrete statuaries can be found in abundance in their garden.

Lorene Edwards Forkner’s garden is also her test bed for her writing. She has written a new book entitled Handmade Garden Projects: Step-by-Step Instructions for Creative Garden Features, Containers, Lighting & More. Many of the items featured in the book are created and tested right here in her backyard.

These boxes are a great idea to add more interest to an otherwise boring fence.

Remember nail punch!? We used to do nail punch projects in Girl Scouts.

Sometimes seemingly unrelated objects can be combined to create an attractive vignette.

This terrarium is a light fixture from an old warehouse.

Now for the finale of Lorene’s garden. The travel trailer. I have never seen anything like this in a garden, I love it! I had to take pictures so that one day when I decide to get a travel trailer for my garden I have pictures to prove to my husband that it can be done.

Now, on to Dragonfly Farms.

Aren’t these fun!? I should have taken a picture of the back of these metal heads so that we could see how they are elevated above the pie plates.

Here’s a great idea for a new use of an old bench at Dragonfly Farms

Someone finally thought of something to do with all those
random dishes you can buy at resale shops.

These gardeners have given me a few ideas for new projects in my garden, hopefully they have given you a few too. We are almost to the end of my Seattle Fling highlights. Only one more place to go, Bloedel Reserve.

Pathways of Seattle

2011-08-21T14:31:00.003-05:00

Over the course of the Seattle Fling I quickly noticed that pathways were an emerging theme. Whether the garden was large or small, without exception, there were cleverly designed pathways that added to a sense of majesty and mystery about each garden.

Dragonfly Farms

This path at Dragonfly Farms has given me some inspiration for my own garden. The plants will be different, but I hope the feeling created will be the same.

Suzette & Jim Birrell’s

Shelagh Tucker’s

Even around the back of the greenhouse, Shelagh has added a lovely pathway with as much attention to color and design as the more public areas of her garden.

Dunn Gardens

Michelle & Christopher Epping’s

Denise Lane’s

The smaller gardens probably benefitted the most from the enclosed and winding pathways. Kate Farley’s garden was one of the smallest ones we visited, but it seemed just as big as the others. Every winding path led to an interesting garden feature.

Kate Farley’s

I hope these photos inspire you to add a pathway somewhere in your garden. Don’t just garden around the edges!

August Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2011-08-15T00:18:00.001-05:00

As I started writing this post I thought I would look back to see what was happening on August 2010’s Bloom Day. Some of the same plants are blooming this year as were blooming last year at this time. However, at this time last year we were just starting to experience the unbearable heat. This year, temperatures in the 100s started in June, rainfall is at an all-time low, and my water bills are at an all-time high.

Most of Galveston County, just south of Houston, is under Stage 3 water restrictions. That means no outdoor watering. The City of Houston is still under voluntary water restrictions, but I fear rationing is in our future. The official rainfall at my garden is about 2 1/2” for this year. It’s tough on our plants considering we live in a sub-tropical environment that is accustomed to receiving 54” of annual rainfall.

But, enough bad news, let’s see what’s blooming this hot, dry day.

Calliandra emarginata

Pentas

Firecracker plant and more pentas

Cassia alata aka Candlestick

Rose of Sharon

Turnera alternifolia

Whitfieldia elongata

Other plants blooming are: Gregg’s mist flower, pyramid bush, vinca, duranta, crepe mrytles, knockouts, bottlebrush tree, pride of barbados, crocosmia, variegated gaura, Texas rock rose, hamelia patens, white turk’s cap, peruvian pavonia, and rudbeckia.

Check out more Garden Bloggers Bloom Days at May Dreams Gardens.

My First Dragonfruit

2011-08-11T23:15:00.001-05:00

I bought a dragonfruit plant from Buchanan’s last summer (or maybe it was the summer of 2009). It was on sale (I’m always a sucker for a sale) and looked like it would be fun to try. However, it is still in the same pot I brought it home in and it is rather neglected.

When I returned from Oman in mid-June, I noticed that it had bloomed while I was gone. The bloom looks very similar to what I have referred to as a night-blooming cereus in a previous Macro Monday post. It would seem that the two are related. I’ve been keeping an eye on the fruit as it has been forming. Over the last few weeks I’ve been wondering how I would know when to pick it.

Yesterday I came home and squeezed it. It was a little soft, so I picked it immediately. I was afraid that I had waited too long to pick it, but based on a little internet research, it seems that I picked it at about the right time.

The tag on the pot said red dragonfruit, but did that mean red on the outside or the inside? There are two red-skinned types, one that is white on the inside and the other that is red. There is also a yellow-skinned variety.

It turns out that mine is a red-skinned and red-fleshed variety. The flavor was very mild, almost non-existent. But, it was fun to eat. Quite an experience.

Now, I think I need to find a white-fleshed one to keep the red-fleshed one company.

Sheds of Seattle

2011-08-11T01:27:00.001-05:00

I have shed envy. I was very impressed with the sheds of the Seattle gardeners. I almost hate to call them sheds, that hardly seems to do them justice. Every gardener needs a place to start seeds, transplant seedlings, hang shovels, rakes, and hoes, a place to dry herbs and garlic. All of my tools are along the walls of our garage, squeezed into any available space. It’s just not right. Woe is me, I need a shed.

The Birrell’s bright blue shed is a focal point of their backyard. The bright colors cheer up any day. To call this structure a shed is an understatement. Just look at the space they have inside to work on projects! Another benefit of a garden building is the rainwater harvesting potential.

Shelagh Tucker has a roomy greenhouse with cold frames along one edge to get her and her plants through the Seattle winters.

The Eppings’ shed looks like a cute little cottage. It is tucked into the back corner of their garden and blends in with their landscape quite nicely while serving as a great area for some of their container plantings.

Kate Farley’s garden workshop is a large room at the back of her garage. You actually don’t even notice it behind all of her plants. I just love that wood burning stove.

Even if you don’t have the space for a room-sized shed, you can have a cute little area for all your garden stuff. Check out Lorene Edwards Forkner’s play area on the side of her house.

Again, thanks for following along with my theme oriented posts of the 2011 Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling. Stay tuned for more.

Succulents of Seattle

2011-08-08T23:37:00.000-05:00

I don’t grow many succulents, nor do I know the names of them when I see them. I have a few hens and chicks left that my Grandma gave me almost 10 years ago, but they haven’t thrived as much as a couple of others varieties I have.

Here in Houston, I would not recommend planting them in the ground. Despite the fact that we are in a severe drought, it will rain again one day. I have a feeling that after one of our legendary downpours that our ground stays too wet for most succulents. Mine are all in pots with well-draining soil and almost never get hand-watered. So, for those of you who can’t keep a plant alive to save your life, maybe succulents are for you.

I was surprised to see how many people are growing succulents in Seattle, I envisioned it being too wet of a place for them. However, they seemed to be doing very well both in the ground and in containers. Here are some of my favorites.

This looks like a re-purposed birdbath to me, The soil is hilled, most likely to help with drainage.

photo taken at Dragonfly Farms

A wheelbarrow full o’succulents at Dragonfly Farms

I love the color combo of this one. I think this is sedum.
photo taken at Dragonfly Farms

Here, bottles and sempervivum (at least that’s what I think it is, remember I am no expert) are used as edging. Now, this just might provide enough drainage to work well in Houston.

Another wheel barrow o’succulents at Dragonfly Farms

Here are a few more great container ideas for succulents.

Suzette & Jim Birrell's Garden

The above two photos are from Denise Lane’s garden.

Lorene Edward Forkner's Garden

I hope these pictures give you some good ideas about what you can do with succulents in your own garden.

Macro Monday

2011-08-08T00:31:00.001-05:00

These are some of the macro shots I took at Lorene Edwards Forkner’s garden in Seattle. She was one of our Seattle Fling Organizers and is an author of several gardening books.

Visit Lisa’s Chaos for more Macro Monday pictures.

The 2011 Garden Bloggers Fling

2011-08-03T07:26:00.000-05:00

This year’s Garden Bloggers Fling spanned four fun-filled days travelling around the Seattle area being overwhelmed with beauty at every turn. There were gorgeous gardens with an array of colorful containers, surprising succulents, pleasing pathways, and splendid sheds (yes, I did get out the thesaurus for that one).

Over the course of 4 days we visited 6 private gardens, 5 public gardens (including Bloedel Reserve which will get one entire post to itself), 2 nurseries (Ravenna Gardens and Dragonfly Farms), and 1 farmer’s market. We were also fortunate enough to experience a photography class from Seattle’s own, David Perry.

The weather was amazing. We had 3 days without clouds, which might be a record for Seattle, and the warmest temperatures this year. My fellow Texans, when I say warm in Seattle, I mean it got up to 80 degrees. It did not go above 80, it was like heaven. On our last day, we were able to experience true Seattle weather-clouds and a light rain, but I am not complaining-I hadn’t seen rain for months!

The sunny weather definitely affected the photography. I didn’t get the much-needed photography tip I needed until the last day, so many of my pictures are too bright. However, the pictures of Bloedel on an overcast day are amazing. I took a little over 1000 pictures, so it has taken me awhile to sort through all of them. Be sure to check out my Facebook page for a look at some of the pictures that will not be posted on the blog.

Here’s a taste of the private gardens we toured.

Suzette and Jim Birrell’s garden had the most amazing bright blue shed and a variety of perennial and vegetable beds. Their bedroom is a wall of windows overlooking their well-tended garden.

Shelagh Tucker is a transplant from England. She has a wonderful blend of English and Northwest gardening styles in her gardens. Her front yard drought-resistant garden was inspired by Beth Chatto’s book, Drought Resistant Planting.

Michelle and Christopher Epping designed their dream home with the French Riviera in mind. Their amazing view of Seattle also means they garden on a steep slope, but that hasn’t stopped them from creating an oasis outside their doorstep.

Denise Lane’s garden is almost an acre. Her property is filled with winding paths that open onto breathtaking garden vignettes.

Lorene Edwards Forkner is one of our lovely hosts. Her garden is filled with great garden art, most of which is featured in her cool new book, Handmade Garden Projects.

Kate Farley has created a wonderful garden hideaway at her house. In fact, you can’t even see her house. Her yard is filled with winding paths that make the almost 1/4 acre lot feel much bigger.

Thanks for looking at a sample of what I saw in Seattle.

While us Zone 8 gardeners in Houston do have some plants in common with the Zone 7 gardeners of Seattle, I’ve decided not to focus on the plants. Instead, I noticed several themes emerge as I visited each garden. My upcoming posts will be focused on those gardening themes (there was a hint in the first paragraph, did you catch it?), with a bonus final post about Bloedel Reserve.

Macro Monday–Coming in for a landing

2011-08-01T13:44:00.000-05:00

I caught this guy in mid-air while I was visiting Dragonfly Farms Nursery in Washington State.

Visit Lisa’s Chaos for more Macro Monday pictures.

Look out Seattle!

2011-07-23T10:28:00.000-05:00

Garden Bloggers are on the loose, with cameras in hand! It’s that time of year again for the annual Garden Bloggers Fling. Garden Bloggers from around the United States (plus Canada and England this year) are hosted by a group of local bloggers for a few days of garden blissfulness. Seattle is the host of the 4th annual fling. The first Fling was hosted by Pam at Digging and her fellow Austin bloggers. The 2009 Fling was in Chicago and the 2010 Fling was in Buffalo. The Buffalo Fling (aka Buffa10) was my first Fling, I had only been blogging a few months when I attended, it was a great way to get introduced to this microcosm of the blogging world. You can see my posts from Buffalo here.

The home of Suzette and Jim Birrell

The home of Shelagh Tucker

Dunn Gardens

This year’s Seattle Fling hosts are Debra Prinzing, Lorene Edwards Forkner, and Marty Wingate. They put in a ton of work and have done an amazing job at planning this years Fling. Stay tuned for more stories and pictures from the 2011 Seattle Fling.

July Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2011-07-22T23:09:00.002-05:00

Sorry, folks, I can’t believe I’ve been such a slacker, but sometimes the rest of life just gets in the way of the blog life. I was in San Diego last week for a conference, over the weekend I visited the San Diego Botanic Gardens and the Meditation Gardens at the Self Realization Fellowship, both in Encinitas. Now, I am in Seattle at the 2011 Garden Bloggers Fling taking tons of pictures and enjoying the cool weather.

So, this is what was blooming in my garden on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

chenille plant

pride of barbados

'Heaven's Gate' coreopsis

pentas

lisianthus
My cutting garden experiment-still alive in this heat.

hamelia patens, Mexican Firebush

black-eyed susan

Other flowers blooming include: heliotrope, calibrachoa, plumeria, hot lips salvia, blackfoot daisy, Convolvulus ‘Blue Daze’, pavonia peruviana and pavonia lasiopetala, batface cuphea, white turks cap, iochroma, gregg’s mist flower, and calliandra.

Thanks to May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

Independence Day

2011-07-04T15:27:00.002-05:00

Happy Fourth of July!

Time to use the Rain Barrels

2011-07-03T23:28:00.001-05:00

Just my luck, the year of the most severe drought in state history is the year I decide to install rain barrels. It’s hard to save rain, if it never rains.

I bought two 300 gallon rain barrels back in March to put next to the gazebo. I had the gutters redirected into the barrels around the first of April. Then, they sat there empty for almost two months. The 1 1/2” of rain we had a little over a week ago equaled about 200 gallons of rain in the barrels. Yippee! I can finally test these babies out.

All that was left to do was attach some hoses to the barrels so I could start using that precious water. This is where the experiment begins. I have heard that people have had a hard time getting enough water pressure from their rain barrel for soaker hoses to work. But, I think many of those people have 55 gallon barrels.

I have a large garden to cover so I put a 2-way splitter on the faucet so that I could attach multiple hoses. Before attaching the soaker hose to the splitter, I removed the little disk inside the end of it. The disk is used to reduce pressure, but reducing pressure was the last thing I wanted to do. Next, I put a rubber gasket in place of the pressure reducer to keep the water from leaking. Initially, I just wanted to see if this would work. I uncoiled my soaker hose across the yard so that I could watch the water come out. After turning the faucet on there was a delay until the soaker hose started weeping, but it did and the water made it clear to the end of the hose. Success!

The next test was to see if I had enough pressure to connect two 75’ hoses together. That’s the max recommended to join together under normal conditions (using water from the house faucet). It took a little bit longer this time, but the water did make it to the end of the second hose.

These gardens are only a few months old and don’t have many established plants so it was much easier to lay the soaker hose than if the plants were full grown. My next chore is to bury the hoses under the mulch. I think watering is more efficient with a buried soaker hose plus it looks much nicer. I have 3 other beds with soaker hoses and no one even knows they’re there.

Now, if we could just get some more rain.

Bottlebrush Blooms

2011-06-30T20:57:00.002-05:00

My bottlebrush tree is blooming again. I’m not sure what triggers it, but it blooms on and off all year long. I don’t know exactly what species it is, it was one of the first plants I planted after we moved in about 7 years ago. I bought it at Houston Garden Center, you hardly ever know exactly what you’re getting from there.

A few months ago my Dad was looking at it and was asking me how the flowers actually developed. I had never paid that much attention to it before. So, I decided to photograph the flowers at different stages.

Here it is just forming

Getting ready to open

Opening

The red filaments are the stamens, the pollen is on the tip of each one

Now you can see the actual petals

A Visitor’s Perspective

2011-06-23T21:56:00.001-05:00

I almost never post wide shots of my yard when I am posting pictures on my blog. For some reason, they just don’t look very good to me. I think it’s because the pictures just don’t seem to do it justice.

On the day of the garden tour last month, my mother-in-law took pictures of my gardens. So here it is, a visitor’s perspective:

This is the first garden you see when you enter the backyard from the driveway. The lady head watches contently from her corner here. There was a magnificent yellow angel trumpet in this bed a few years ago, but the last two winters did it in. Now, I am trying to get a Jatropha integerrima to take hold.

This next garden is one of several island beds. There used to be two old Bradford pears here, I’m trying to get two queen palms to take their place. The candlestick plants are in the middle of this picture (in front of the white obelisk), they actually came up from the roots this year. They also had some babies just in case they didn’t make it through the colder months.

On to the next island bed, which my husband affectionately refers to as the peanut bed. This one gets full sun and is filled with salvias, TX rock rose, artemesia ‘powis castle’, ageratum, and a few others.

Here, our oldest puppy, Rusty is enjoying his new found water bowl. The gazebo is a great place to hang out year-round, especially when the mosquitoes are out. One good thing about the low rainfall this year is that it has kept the mosquito population under control. Speaking of rain, that’s the rain garden in the background, it has been very dry this year. Luckily, we just got about an inch and a half of badly needed rain.

Now, looking out from the gazebo. In the foreground is the new rose bed and in the background are the veggie beds, fruit trees, and my stockpile of leaves.

I guess the wide shots of the gardens don’t look too bad after all.

June Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2011-06-15T23:21:00.000-05:00

Wow, it is hot.

And it is dry.

My garden has had 1” of rain in 2011…not normal for Houston, a city with an annual average of 54” of rain. During the first 6 days of June, we broke our high temperature record four times and reached the highest temperature ever recorded in June: 105°.

I was out of town for about 3 weeks. My non-gardening husband was put in charge of the watering. Against all odds, he managed to keep everything alive while I was gone.

So, let’s take a look at what’s blooming.

Abutilon 'Bella Red'

lamb's ear

I think these are what some people refer to as ditch lilies.
Not a very pretty name for such a nice flower.

a lone coneflower (white swan)

purple porterweed

crinum

peruvian pavonia

white turk's cap

‘Dark and Handsome’ daylily-again this month

Other flowers blooming are desert rose, Dancing Lady Ginger ‘Pristina Pink’, plumeria, Meiwa Seedless kumquat, pentas, firecracker plant Russelia equisetiformis, bottlebrush, chenille plant, lipstick & hotlips salvias, white yarrow, Texas rock rose, gomphrena, Miss Lingard phlox, and batface cuphea.

Thanks for stopping by for bloom day. Visit May Dreams Gardens for more bloom days from around the world.

Survey Says…Oman!

2011-06-14T11:00:00.001-05:00

In my last blog post I was sitting in the Frankfurt airport waiting for my plane back to Houston. I posted some pictures of my trip and posed the question-Where in the world is Houston Garden Girl?”. The answer is: Oman.

I was on a business trip. I left Houston on May 23rd and spent about 4 days in Germany visiting a potential vendor, then spent the weekend in Heidelberg with my niece, and the last 2 weeks of my trip in Muscat with a short jaunt to our field operations. I work for a US petroleum company and have had the benefit of travelling to our offices in Ecuador, Colombia, and Argentina. This was my first business trip to the Middle East, overall I have to say that it went very well.

I know many of us in the US have a picture in our mind of what we think the Middle East is like. (I say that as if every country there is the same, even though it isn’t) We think desert. And, while that is true, there are also a few surprises to be found. (Take a look at the last blog post, I was definitely surprised by some of the plants I saw growing there)

The city of Muscat is on the water and is just as humid, actually it may be more humid than Houston, and it is definitely hotter. The picture below is the view from my hotel.

It seemed very bright there when I went outside, I wonder if it is because the majority of the buildings are white?

On one of my days off, a co-worker took me to the nearby village of Nakhal. Despite the 105 degree temperatures (it was a cool day), we managed to do a lot of sight-seeing. We visited the fort, pictured below.

We took his Dad’s 4-wheel drive vehicle out to the wadis. Wadis are basically ephemeral rivers. They are wide, dry river beds, typically only having water after it rains.

We hiked for awhile along the wadi, until it was time to go back home for lunch.

Speaking of lunch…it happens to be date season there. I had never eaten a fresh date before, they were delicious.

There were date palms all over the city and the countryside. I think for the most part, the city palms are owned and maintained by the government, but the palms in the countryside (which look to me like a date palm forest) are actually owned by individuals who care for their plot of trees.

That’s all about Oman for now. I will be going back in a few months, wonder what will be in season then?

Where in the world is Houston Garden Girl?

2011-06-09T02:04:00.020-05:00

Apologies for the lack of posts over the past 3 weeks or so. I have been out of the country. Actually, I am at an airport right now waiting on my connecting flight to get back to Houston. My poor hubby has been left with the watering duties while I've been gone during some of the hottest days Houston has ever seen in June.

So, can you guess where I've been?

A hedge of pride of barbados

Date Trees everywhere

Plumeria

Oleander and Bougainvillea

There's a beach

And some interesting flowering trees that I've never seen before...

Hmm... where could I be?

Macro Monday

2011-05-23T09:35:00.003-05:00

Gomphrena 'Fireworks'

You can find more Macro Monday’s on Lisa’s Chaos.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-18T11:39:00.000-05:00

May Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2011-05-16T01:10:00.001-05:00

We had the best weather ever for the middle of May this past weekend. Highs in the mid-80s, lows in the low 60s, this is unheard of in Houston. All weekend long I just kept saying how great the weather was and how freaked out I was by how great the weather was. I spent almost the entire weekend outdoors. This may have been a once in a lifetime opportunity to enjoy Houston weather, cool and without mosquitos in the middle of May, it’s just so weird, it freaks me out writing about it.

Enough about the weather, let’s talk flowers. There are tons of flowers in bloom this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

‘Patrcia’ daylily

‘Dark and Handsome’ daylily

Sparkler cleome

nierembergia

Diamond Frost (Euphorbia graminea)

portulaca

Iochroma cyanea

(Saururus cernuus) Lizard Tail

Other plants blooming are desert rose, torenia, pentas, calibrachoa, hot lips and lipstick salvias, firecracker plant, ice plant, knockouts, red & pink salvia coccinea, butterfly bush (budleia), TX rock rose (pavonia), salvia Indigo Spires, angelonia, purple porterweed, yarrow, gomphrena, butterfly weed, white topped sedge, spiderwort, clerodendrum bungei, white turk’s cap, black & blue salvia, batface salvia, chinese indigo (Indigofera kirilowii), gulf coast penstemon.

Just getting started are the chenille plant, Blue Mist flower (ageratum) and mexican bush sage.

Thanks for stopping by. You should wander on over to May Dreams Gardens for more Garden Blogger Bloom Days.

Westbury Garden Tour

2011-05-10T20:20:00.001-05:00

Satruday’s garden tour in my neighborhood was a huge success. We had our largest turnout since the inception of the tour about 6 years ago. The weather was nice and the lack of rain causing our drought significantly limited the mosquito population.

Every garden was give a name. There was the Prairie Wildflower Project, The Lost Forest, Ka-Chink Ka-Chink, Kawilga and Friends, Shade Expectations, and my Garden of Delight.

The naming of my garden was up in the air between My Wet, Dry, Vegetable, Fruit, Rose, Natural Organic Garden or Westbury's Own All Natural, 100% Organic Vegetable, Fruit, and Flower Garden of Delight. But those were both too long for the sign.

There was definitely a pattern to what people were asking about at my garden.

There were many questions about the Desert Rose which is in the genus adenium, but I’m not sure which species this one is. One person asked me if it was related to a plumeria. A little bit of internet research reveals that they are in the same family, one called Apocynaceae. They are also in the same family as oleanders and mandavillas which are also common in our area.

I purchased this one about five years ago, it was much smaller then. I don’t water it much and I’ve never fertilized it. It gets taken into the garage for the winter and isn’t given any water (similar to a plumeria). It’s best grown in a pot considering how wet our ground can be at certain times of the year.

I also got a lot of questions about the lisianthus in the back corner of the yard. These are an experiment. I first saw these at the farmer’s market being sold as cut flowers. They have a long vase life, but I’m not sure if they’ll survive our summer heat.

Then there’s the clerodendrum bungei aka cashmere bouquet or mexican hydrangea. This one comes with a warning, it can be very invasive. I have mine planted in part sun and it gets very little supplemental water, maybe that’s why it hasn’t become invasive in my yard.

Aah, the rain barrels. Yes, they look great don’t they? Too bad we haven’t had any rain since they were installed a couple of months ago. I bought them from plastic-mart.com.

This little grass in the rain garden was mis-identified. I’m not sure why I had it in my head that is was an iris cristata, other than the fact that the iris cristata was next to it. It is actually a white topped sedge. My apologies to everyone who asked me what it was and was given the wrong name.

For more information on the rain garden visit the My Plants page or the original Rain Garden article.

The tomato wall. I have had great luck with my tomatoes, but this year, things are getting a little out of hand. In February, I planted 6 tomato plants in this 4’x8’ bed. Now, they have formed a wall of tomato plants and are packed with fruit. Each year I add compost and cow manure to my veggie beds, plus this year I sprinkled on some cottonseed meal.

This is my bottle bush. It will stay a bush until I find the perfect bottle tree. The bottles are from a variety of places, but my latest one was acquired from Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill in Las Vegas. The food was delicious, and the water was served in blue bottles. The waitress was kind enough to snag one for me.

From what I have read, the bottle tree has evolved out of what was originally a tradition in Africa of hanging shiny objects or glass around your house to keep the evil sprits away. Felder Rushing has written a more detailed article on the history of bottle trees that’s worth a read.

This salvia gained a lot of attention. Many people complained that their salvia’s never get that tall. Well folks, it all depends on the variety. I’m not sure which one this is, but my guesses include indigo spires, mystic spires or blue queen. It is fairly easy to propagate from cuttings or by root divisions.

The yarrow was also lookin’ good. My original clump of this came from Hazel, the Westbury Garden Club president. Now, I have three large clumps and I always have some to give away to others who also like the look.

Many people noticed the birdbaths, but this one in particular drew their attention. My sister made this one for me about 6 or 7 years ago. It is made from glass bowls and vases glued together.

Our garden tour was four hours long, during that time close to 150 people wandered through the yard. I had a great time talking to everyone about my garden. It is an experience I highly recommend.

You absolutely must go to the Antique Rose Emporium

2011-04-26T03:14:00.000-05:00

The first weekend in April is the renowned Antique Weekend in Round Top and the surrounding towns. My mom and I ventured out there as a last minute weekend getaway. My big find was this old piece of fence. It serves two purposes in the garden, decoration and a barrier to my dogs running through this bed chasing after squirrels.

On our way back to Houston, I thought we could swing by the Antique Rose Emporium since it was on our way home, well more or less on our way home. I’ve heard about the Antique Rose Emporium for years, but I had no idea what was in store when we headed down the country roads to get there after days of shopping in Round Top and Warrenton.

The GPS took us on the scenic route, which was ok with us since we weren’t in a hurry and it was bluebonnet season after all.

Upon arriving at the Emporium, it was obvious that it is more than a nursery. It is a destination. Even if you have no intentions of gardening in your lifetime, this is a beautiful place to take a leisurely stroll along the garden paths.

We spent the first hour or so of our visit just wandering around the gardens.

We were also lucky enough to be there during their first Fragrance Festival which I will talk about more in a future post.

The rose is Queen of Bourbon

Columbines

Dianthus with an unknown purple flower

The poppies were planted in abundance in many of the front gardens.

I LOVE this bottle tree!

The final resting place

Now, you know I did not go home empty handed. My mom gave me the great idea of starting a rose garden and I knew just the place for it. I had my list of fragrant roses that I liked from the Fragrance Festival so we started rose shopping. The staff at the Emporium are extremely knowledgeable, turns out that many of the ones on my list smelled great, but did not have the growth habit I was looking for.

Below are the 4 roses I purchased. The photos are all from the Antique Rose Emporium.

Cecile Brunner

Maggie

Le Vesuve

And the popular Earthkind rose, Belinda’s Dream.

April Garden Bloggers Bloom…Day

2011-04-25T01:28:00.001-05:00

Life reached the height of busyness this month. Fun travel, work travel, allergies, and gardening have been all consuming. Now, back to a little blogging. Here is what was blooming in my garden on the official Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (the 15th of every month).

volunteer petunias from last year's grocery store hanging basket

meyer lemon

nierembergia

Australian Violet

Tradescantia ‘Osprey’, Spiderwort

dwarf Bulbine latifolia

Magnolia 'Little Jane'

adenium

ice plant

yarrow

Other flowers blooming include the knockouts, amaryllis, bottlebrush, hot lips salvia, lipstick salvia, salvia coccinea, TX rock rose, blue queen salvia, diamond frost euphorbia, and yellow cestrum,.

Visit May Dreams Gardens for more Garden Blogger Bloom Days.
This month marks the one year anniversary of Houston Garden Girl. Check out my first Garden Blogger Bloom Day post.

The Amaryllis Trail

2011-04-11T11:53:00.001-05:00

Amaryllis are great bulbs for the Houston area. We can plant them outdoors and leave them in the ground year-round. Even the ones you buy around Christmas can be planted outdoors in the spring. Plant them in full sun with their necks above ground.

started blooming on March 16

from the clearance table at Wal-Mart Jan 2010

started blooming on March 28

a gift from my mother-in-law, 2007

started blooming on March 30

2008 Plant & Bulb Mart

started blooming on April 1st

2008 Plant and Bulb Mart

started blooming on April 4th

from the clearance table at Wal-Mart Jan 2010

last ones to bloom-April 10

pass-alongs from my Mom

Everything’s Bigger in Texas including Tomato Cages

2011-04-07T01:38:00.001-05:00

You really should have planted your tomatoes over a month ago if you live in the Houston area. But if you didn’t, then buy the biggest tomato plants you can find.

Did you know that you can plant a tomato deeper than it is in its original pot? Take the lower leaves off of the tomato and plant it deep. The main stem will grow roots and will create a stronger plant.

Everyone has their own prescription for growing good tomatoes. I grow tomatoes in a raised bed and amend my soil every year with Black Cow Cow Manure and Natures Way Compost (or my own if I have enough). That’s about all I do and I have more than enough tomato production. Last year I added some cottonseed meal about halfway through the summer and it was the first time I had plants make it to the fall and produce (could have been a fluke, but it was fun).

Now, on to the discussion about tomato cages. I have found that my vegetable gardens produce better, the older they are. The first couple of years did not produce as many tomatoes or as tall of plants as later years. So, if your beds are like mine, you can get away with the largest of the cheap cages at the big box stores in the beginning. But, as your beds get more fertile over time, you will need a Texas-size tomato cage.

First, let’s look at what tomato cages are not.

These are the small conical shape cages. In my opinion these are not good for much. I have a few that I picked up along the street before heavy trash day that I use as a barrier to my dogs stepping on newly planted flowers.

These are the small-medium sized ones. Still not big enough, not to mention the insane color. I have used a size a little bit bigger than these for pepper plants. They work pretty good even though my plants tend to get tall and start to droop down the outside and all over their neighbors.

These are labeled as a “tomato trellis”. I bought some of these several years ago, again for peppers, they work ok, but I like the larger conical ones better. Most of mine have fallen apart by now.

Now, on to what a tomato cage is…Sturdy and Tall

I really like these cages that I bought from gardeners.com. (This is not a paid endorsement). I have both the Tomato Towers and the regular Tomato Cages. I prefer the regular tomato cages because they are taller when you stack them on top of each other (about 64” vs. 56” for the shorter ones). I have mine attached to each other with twist ties. Another advantage of these cages is that they are collapsible (if that is important to you)

This picture was taken about 3 years ago. I am 5’ 7” to give you a sense of scale. The middle tomato plant is a sweet million and is probably a foot taller than the tomato cage.

I was at a local garden supply store and found this interesting cage. I thought it was similar to the “Texas Tomato Cage” I had read about, so I thought I would give it a try. Since then, I have realized that it is not similar and not that great. It is collapsible, but is really hard to balance all the rings and get it in the ground by yourself. I only use it as a last resort now. I don’t have any experience with the true Texas Tomato Cage, but they have good reviews online.

My newest cages are courtesy of the local community garden. They bought several 100’ rolls of galvanized 5’ tall fence material with 6”x6” openings and were kind enough to let me purchase 24’ of it. I do wish it was a little bit taller, but that is just me being greedy. You will need bolt cutters for this project. Each of these cages are 6’ of fencing. Fold the cage material into a cylinder and bend the cut ends over the other side. Then cut off the bottom ring to create the stakes to hold it in the ground.

Another option is to use fencing material from the big box store. My Dad did this, his cages are 10 years old and have withstood hurricane force winds. They do rust, just consider it a little extra iron for your soil.

Besides the two online stores I mentioned, I have seen nice tomato cages at Wabash as well. I think I may have also spotted some when I was picking up my compost at Nature’s Way Resources last month. Make sure you give either place a call before you make the trip to be sure they have some in stock.

Open Days on Knollwood and South Boulevard

2011-04-06T12:24:00.000-05:00

This is my last post of the Houston Open Days tour. I hope this warms some of you northern gardeners up a bit.

The Knollwood Street gardens were quite impressive with large sweeps of lush green lawn surrounded by layered plantings and a large number of container grown citrus trees.
They referred to this shaded area as a “bosque of hornbeams”. The garden is patterned after one the owners saw in France, but I wonder why they referred to it this way. I know that bosque is Spanish for forest, but there must be more to it than that. I googled it, and I did find a hornbeam bosque in London. Hmm, does anyone know if there is more to this reference than a simple translation?

Parties at this house must be fantastic.
The view from the back porch, I bet in the summer it’s enough to trick you into believing it is a cool day outside.

The final garden of the day was South Boulevard. These gardens had a more formal feel about them than some of the others. The grounds had four separate buildings with gardens intertwined between them.

I love the purple and white combo in this group of containers.

The path leads to a building for entertaining. It has a big dining table and couches around a big screen tv. That’s a Chinese Fringe tree near the building.

Mock Orange growing on a fence

The requisite azaleas

That’s all for my recap of the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Garden Tour in Houston. Stay tuned for future Houston Garden Tours. The Quail Valley Tour is April 30th and the Westbury (my neighborhood) and Sugarland Garden Tour are on May 7th.

Bluebonnets on Westcott

2011-03-31T15:40:00.002-05:00

I went to Wabash Antiques & Feed Store yesterday. On my way I spotted these medians filled with bluebonnets, the Texas state flower. Usually, views like these are seen west of Houston and closer to Austin, but I got my bluebonnet fix right here in the city.

I ran into my friend Diana while I was at Wabash. She will be selling fruit trees for Urban Harvest this Saturday at the East Side Farmer’s Market. It’s not too late to plant your fruit trees.

Open Days Garden Tour-Del Monte Drive

2011-03-30T11:52:00.001-05:00

The house on Del Monte Drive is only two years old, although the oak trees don’t lead you to that conclusion.

The old house was torn down, but the oak trees were preserved.

We entered the gardens on Del Monte Drive through a side yard. The fence was built to accommodate the gentle giants.

The Nun’s Orchids were in full bloom.

So was the Chinese Fringe Tree.

The container plantings are artfully arranged.

Here’s a view of the side yard from the street.

And a close-up. The garden includes azaleas, viburnum, and camellias and the path is lined with monkey grass and shade tolerant annuals.

This is a nice look for a garden under oak trees. I’m always on the look-out for ideas for my front yard landscape which includes three live oaks and is due for a make-over.

Other Open Days 2011 Gardens:
Open Days-McLaren Garden

March Madness end in sight

2011-03-29T21:28:00.001-05:00

I’ve been slacking on my blogging duties in favor of actual gardening. Crazy, I know!

Well, 10 yards of dirt, 4 yards of mulch, 2 yards of compost, and 50 plants later, my big spring gardening madness is almost complete.
The massive amount of new beds that I put in this year easily swallowed up my backlog of plants still in their little black pots.

From previous plant sales I planted buttonbush, strawberry bush Euonymus americanus, Blue Emu Eremophila, Chinese Ground Orchid Bletilla striata, Miss Lingard Phlox, Purple Smoke Baptista, Musical Notes Clerodendrum, Fried Egg Tree Gordonia axilarus, Pyramid Bush Melochia tomentosa, Jatropha integerrima, Pavonia peruviensis, hinkley columbine, red cestrum, night blooming white cestrum, and variegated abutilon.

I went to March Mart on Friday (another awesome vacation day spent at a plant sale). My purchases included the following: white variegated brugmansia, magenta firespike, Yellow Bird of Paradise Caesalpinia gilliesii, lemon verbena, almond verbena, sensitive fern, Red Buckeye Aesculus pavia, Two winged silverbell Halesia diptera var. magniflora, Winecup Callirhoe involucrata, butterfly weed, Brunfelsia americana, Pavonia lasiopetala, calibrachoa, & Scutellaria “Purple Fountain’ and ‘Red Fountain’.

I am mainly listing these for my own records, but hopefully you will see these on upcoming Garden Blogger Bloom Day posts.

Here are some wide shots of the gardens right now:

I still have a few things to take care of, like cleaning up that big mess of a compost pile.

Finishing that last flowerbed that popped up out of nowhere.

And I have a few more plants to plant, including 3 citrus and a fig tree that really need to be in the ground now. Then it’s on to 2011 Garden Plan #5 – Stop buying plants that will not be planted right away. Although, there is the upcoming HMNS Butterfly Center Plant Sale…

And, just a reminder, check out my event calendar for local gardening events.

Houston’s Open Days–McLaren Garden

2011-03-28T00:42:00.001-05:00

On Saturday, I attended Houston’s Open Days garden tour held by the Garden Conservancy with Pat from Commonweeder and her family. The proceeds from this garden tour go to Peckerwood Gardens which is a place I definitely want to go visit sometime.

I went to six of the gardens on the tour, but the first one I visited was by far the best. It was the best because it was hosted by the homeowners, who are also the creators of the garden and it has a very naturalistic style. They were there to answer questions about their garden and also had a table showing a pictorial history of the garden.

They grow many native plants and pass-along plants given to them by friends and family. Their garden is also whimsically decorated with bird houses, old garden tools, and all types of other items repurposed as garden art.

They built the garden shed (below) as a gift to each other. And their potting area is one to be envied. It holds “the nursery”, spots for some experiments, and extra dirt and pots.

They have four fig trees on the property. This one in particular caught my attention. It’s what you might call an informal espalier (or probably more technically correct, a fan espalier). Something to try with my little fig.

For more pictures of the McLaren garden, check out the 2008 American Begonia Society garden tour.

I also want to give a big thanks to Pat, Henry, and Kate for touring with me and for the extremely enjoyable lunch. Until Seattle, Pat!

March Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2011-03-19T04:31:00.001-05:00

I’m a little late for bloom day, but better late than never. We are full on into spring here in Houston and some days even feel a little bit like summer (yikes!).

I bought this amaryllis around January of last year on the clearance table at Walmart. It’s still in its original little pot.

These snapdragons were planted last fall, and are now blooming up a storm.

This ground orchid still needs to find its place in the yard, but for now it’s blooming in its pot just fine.

I bought this scilla peruviana at last years Bulb & Plant Mart. Aren’t they exotic looking?

Other plants blooming are ice plant, yellow cestrum, salvia greggii ‘lipstick’, & knock-out roses.

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check out other Garden Bloggers Bloom Days at May Dreams Gardens.

March Madness

2011-03-06T21:08:00.002-06:00

I’m not talking about basketball! I’m talking about the mad dash outdoors to garden, the long list of gardening projects, the careful scheduling required to attend all of the plant sales and local gardening talks, the craze that hits us when the temperatures warm up and it is time to garden.

The past two weekends have been about getting the beds ready for the growing season. I’ve been cutting back all the dead branches and raking the leaves out of the beds.

I finally finished that process today and then sprinkled cottonseed meal on everything. Cottonseed meal is an organic fertilizer that can be used on pretty much anything.

Next weekend I’ll top dress everything with compost and mulch.

In between cleaning up the beds, with the help of my husband and a friend of his, we finished the newly constructed beds. They moved 10 yards of soil for me!

Just in time for the plant sales! she says, followed by an evil laugh

Ignore the hole on the left, just a
little sprinkler repair needed....

The rain barrels that I ordered a few weeks ago came in. I spent part of Saturday getting their cinder block pads created. Now, I just need to call the gutter guys to have the downspouts rerouted into the barrels.

I can’t wait to have 600 gallons worth of fresh rain water!

No time to chat. I’ve got to start planning how I’m going to fill up those huge new beds. Next Saturday is the first day of the Houston Arboretum’s Native Plant Sale, maybe I’ll see you there.
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Weekend Gardening

2011-02-21T23:16:00.001-06:00

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.

The blueberries are almost blooming.

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

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.

The first of two fountains is running again.

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

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

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.

February Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2011-02-15T17:08:00.003-06:00

This will be my dreariest post since I started participating in Bloom Day last April. Since January’s bloom day, we have had about 8 days of freezing temperatures, that my folks is not enjoyed by a semi-tropical garden (in technically not a semi-tropical city).

This petunia along with about 50 other potted plants hid out on my back porch with some Christmas lights during the freeze.

Of course, the peach tree needs some chill hours in order to fruit, so it is quite happy. It has been in the ground for less than a year, so despite the flowers, I will not be letting it set fruit this year.

There may not be many flowers in the garden right now, but there is much work to be done to prepare for spring vegetable plantings, fruit tree planting, bed building, and the list goes on and on. So, here’s looking forward to March!!

To see more Garden Blogger Bloom Days, check out May Dreams Gardens.

Birds of the Week

2011-02-14T00:06:00.000-06:00

I’m not much of a bird watcher. I always have bird feeders out, but I don’t know what I’m feeding other than blue jays, doves, cardinals, a bunch of little brown birds, and hummingbirds when they’re in season. I’m much better at identifying plants than identifying birds, but this year the goldfinches have caught my eye.

I’ve put out thistle for them before, but the only time I’ve had much luck is when I buy it from Wild Birds Unlimited. I actually made the trip out to the west side of town to buy bird seed and the goldfinches have paid me back by spending a lot of time at the thistle feeder.

The folks at Wild Birds Unlimited told me the way to know if your thistle (niger) is fresh (which is the only way the goldfinches like it) is to put a little between two sides of a folded paper towel. If there is a little oil on the paper towel, then it is fresh.

They have also been eating from my regular feeder which has Wild Birds Unlimited No-Mess blend.

I added another thistle feeder for them today. Hopefully they will find it tomorrow.

Here’s are some of my other visitors from this week.

Blue Jay

little brown birds :)

doves

more little brown birds :)

perhaps a House Finch? eating safflower

I know I mentioned Wild Birds Unlimited a lot in this post. That’s just because my birds really like their seed. I am not being compensated in any way for mentioning them.

Also, it may not have escaped your attention that my last two posts have been about wildlife and not about gardening. Well, what can I say? I’ve been taking it easy lately and it has been really cold outside. (when I say cold, keep in mind that I am from Texas)

However, this weekend was beautiful. I cleaned out the vegetable beds to get them ready for spring planting. I pruned the 3 in 1 peach tree, which is a whole other story. I also planted my new Tropic Snow peach tree and attempted to dig up an oleander to make room for my new 3 in 1 plum. But, there was a small matter of a nearby gas line that made me think twice, so that is to be continued after the gas man comes and marks the line.

Have a great week everyone!

Nest building

2011-02-07T00:03:00.000-06:00

It’s curious the things you see while daydreaming out the window. My banana trees all have brown leaves strewn about them, especially after this past week’s strange freezing event in Houston. And, I’m guessing this squirrel is building himself (or herself) a nest.

Cool, this stuff should make a great nest.

My babies are going to love this stuff.

Hey, give me my nest material!

Almost got it.

Well, I thought I had it. What's going on here?

Err, Come on! Let go! (worth clicking on this one to see his stance)

Finally got it. Well, part of it. I'll be back for you!

I think I watched this guy for about 10 minutes.

Report from the 2011 Urban Harvest Fruit Tree Sale

2011-01-17T00:30:00.001-06:00

The Urban Harvest fruit tree sale has become a bit of a tradition for my Dad and I. Last year’s freezing cold Urban Harvest sale was the only one we’ve missed in the past 4 or 5 years, and that was by design. It was way too cold to stand in line for an hour to buy fruit trees.

Instead, we waited about a month and went to the master gardeners sale in Pasadena. That was a great sale too, there we were able to buy some awesome tomato and pepper plants as well as fruit trees. But, this year we are back to the tradition. We showed up at the UH football stadium at 7:30am for the sale that started at 9am. The early birds at the front of the line got there at 7am.

This was the first year the sale was at University of Houston, and it was a great venue. Urban Harvest published a map of the sale on the website, which allowed us to combine our shopping lists and map out our route ahead of time. For Dad, an Acres Home pear to go with his Tennousi, a Red Baron Peach, and Emerald and Windsor blueberries. My list was long this year, Ice Cream Banana, Brightwell, Tifblue, Gulf Coast, and Jewel blueberries, Meiwa Seedless Kumquat, N33 Navel Orange, and a 3-1 plum. Here was our plan of attack (click any of the images to enlarge):

I waffled back and forth about buying a jujube, but finally decided against it. I read about it sending suckers out, sometimes 30’ away from the tree. They say to plant it somewhere you can mow around, but I don’t have anywhere in my yard that still has that much grass. Please leave a comment here if you have any jujube advice for me, I think it would be fun to grow.

The line continued to get longer as we eagerly awaited the opening of the sale.

A few other pre-sale pictures:

Tree Questions Answered Here

Picture of Dr. Bob Randall taking a picture of the crowd

Once the gate opened, we executed our plan perfectly, we were in the line to pay and out the door by 9:30. We headed to our cars to load up our purchases when I noticed that some people had not yet been allowed in the gate! I couldn’t believe it, there were about 30 people still waiting to get in.

Here are some pictures I took of the sale after our cars were loaded and the line to get in the gate was non-existent.

Awesome volunteers wore the yellow flags

the check-out line

Oh yeah, we've got trees!

My Dad and I are both in training for the Houston Half-Marathon in a few weeks and Saturday mornings are usually our long runs. So, we left our cars in the UH parking lot and went for an 8 mile run. I think it was around 11:30 when we returned, out of curiosity we walked over to the sale to see how many trees were left. My bet is that this is the first year that there was still a good selection of trees that late in the morning. This new venue provided more room for trees and people and was, I’m sure, the biggest sale ever.

If you missed this sale, check my event calendar for more fruit tree sales in the upcoming month.

January Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2011-01-16T15:22:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was the official bloom day, but I was busy buying fruit trees and getting one of my last long runs in before the Houston half-marathon in a couple of weeks. The fruit tree sale was a big success, but more on that in another post.

We’ve had several nights of freezing temperatures in the past week, so I didn’t expect to find many blooms, but these plants never cease to surprise me. Let’s see what’s blooming in my southwest Houston yard right now…

Rudbeckia

calibrachoa

This calibrachoa is in one of my hanging baskets that usually hangs on the fence, but it’s been moved to the back porch for the winter.

Candy Corn Vine

iceplant

shrimp plant

bottlebrush

clover

These pentas are a big surprise, they don’t usually make it through winter, but they are actually blooming right now, very weird.

Thanks for stopping by for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, visit May Dreams Gardens for more January blooms around the world.

Fruit Tree Series #3 Bare root vs Container and High Density Orchards

2011-01-13T23:55:00.005-06:00

This will be my last post before Saturday’s Urban Harvest sale, but I will post fruit tree related information throughout the year.

You will find that the trees you buy at the fruit tree sales in town will either be bare root or container grown. There are different ways to handle each of these.

Bare root
Make sure to get your bare root trees put in damp hay and bags before you leave the sale. There is always a group of volunteers happy to do this for you. This is important because you do not want the roots to dry out or to be exposed to too much light. Bare root trees should be planted as soon as possible.

Before you plant the bare root tree, inspect the roots. Prune any damaged roots. Make sure you use clean, sharp pruners.

When planting your tree, make sure the graft is above the soil. The graft is the place the rootstock and the trunk were put together. It is sometimes knobby, or somehow a little different looking. Pictured on the right are the grafts of two varieties grafted on to one rootstock. You can also see a picture of a bare root, grafted tree here.

Now, it’s time to prune the tree. In most cases you will want to prune it to about 2 feet tall. However, if you want to try high density growing, you might want to prune it to around 15”. (more info on High Density below) You should also prune the side shoots to 1/2 to 2/3 of their current length. Lastly, don’t forget to give it some water.

There it is, the cliff notes of bare root trees. Make sure you talk to the volunteers at the sale about specific care requirements for the trees you are buying and do some reading about pruning techniques

Container
Container plants can also be planted now, with the exception of citrus and other tropicals. DO NOT PLANT the tropical trees you are buying now in the ground just yet. You will need to protect your tree from the cold, especially freezing temperatures. You can plant it after all freeze/frost danger has passed (usually sometime in March).

I made the mistake a few years ago of leaving my newly purchased (and expensive) mango tree on the driveway then going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. When we returned, all I had was a dead mango tree.

On another note, I wanted to mention the special care a young avocado needs. I don’t have an avocado tree, but I have heard from several sources that the bark of an avocado tree, when it is still green, is susceptible to sun scald. The green bark should be protected, one possibility of protection is a diluted mixture of paint with water.

High Density Home Orchards
Since I did mention High Density growing, here is some more information on it. The idea is that today’s city dwellers do not have the space for large fruit trees, nor do we have the need for 700 oranges of one variety. High density growing allows you to plant many varieties in a small space, such as 4 trees in a 4’x4’ area and heavily relying on pruning. High density growing also encourages espalier, hedgerows, and multiple varieties grafted on one rootball. Angela Chandler is a local expert that teaches classes on this topic. Her next class is January 23rd at Arbor Gate.

This is a really interesting way of growing a huge variety of fruit in a small area. I’m no expert on this, so here are a few links I found
Dave Wilson Nursery
More from Dave Wilson
Santa Clara Master Gardeners
Angela Chandler

More general resources for fruit tree information:
Fruit & Nut Resources from A&M (thanks for this link Kim @ Houston Homebody)
Fruits of Warm Climates by Julia Morton, free online book
Growing Fruits and Nuts in the South by William Adams and Thomas Leroy

Finally, I want to leave you with an inspirational video. Clayton Bell lives in northwest Houston. On New Year’s day he posted a video of his backyard orchard, quite impressive.

Fruit Tree Series #2 Pre-Sale Talk
Fruit Tree Series #1

Fruit Tree Series #2 Pre-Sale Talk

2011-01-13T00:03:00.006-06:00

I went to the Urban Harvest fruit tree presentation last Saturday where they talk about the trees they will have for sale this coming Saturday, January 15th. Almost all of the sales have similar pre-sale presentations. I encourage you to go to one of these presentations if you are planning on going to their sale. Check out Kathy Huber’s article on Houston Grows for dates and times of plant sales and talks.

The presentations usually include detailed descriptions of the trees and their unique needs or characteristics along with a tantalizing first hand account describing how the fruit tastes. You can pick up a lot of great tips from these presentations, not just about which trees to buy, but also about how to grow them.

This post will concentrate on some of the information I given about tree characteristics, I’ll talk more about care in another post.

Apples
Dorsett and Anna are the only varieties that will reliably set fruit in all parts of Houston. If you live on the north side of town you can probably get away with a few other varieties, but know your chill hours. (refer to my last post for more on chill hours)

Blueberries have shallow root systems and need acid soil. I think both of these characteristics make them good candidates for containers. Nature’s Way sells blueberry soil or you can use a mixture of 70% peat moss and 30% washed sand. You will need at least two blueberry varieties for pollination (but 3 is better). There are many success stories about growing blueberries in pots. That’s is what I will be doing this spring.

This year Urban Harvest will be selling Southern High Bush blueberries. These set fruit at a different time of year than the Rabbiteye blueberries. Rabbiteye blueberries have been proven winners in our area, it sounds to me like the Southern High Bush are still in an experimental stage. I’m not sure that they have been proven to do well in the Houston area, so these are for those of you who are a little more daring.

Figs are very easy to grow and tend to taste better when grown in full sun. They are so easy to grow, I grew mine and my Dad’s from cuttings given to me by another gardener. You should harvest in the morning before the birds get to them. Celeste is the sweetest, South Carolina Lemon does have a slight lemon flavor, and LSU Gold has a very upright growth habit.

Jujube
Jujube’s are extremely drought tolerant and will tolerate occasional floods, they are very upright, and need to be mowed around to keep the suckers under control (on a separate site, I read that they should also not be planted near a foundation for the same reason). When jujubes are dried they taste like dates. Mmm, sounds yummy.

Here’s an interesting jujube article from Texas Gardener.

Peach
The 5-1 Peach will be Mid-Pride, May Pride, Eva’s Pride, Florida Prince, & Desert Gold

Plums
The Gulf Plums being offered this year are patented by the University of Florida and they are hard to come by. The Gulf plums all need another Gulf plum for pollination, so buy two to get fruit.
They are offering a 3-1 plum, some of the possible varieties are Beauty, Mariposa, Golden Nectar, and Santa Rosa. The growers will often graft 5 or 6 varieties onto the same rootstock, but only some will survive, that’s why there are sometimes 3-1, 4-1, or 5-1 offered. There will be several combinations offered at the sale. Take note that Santa Rosa is only good if you live on the North or West side of town.

Pomegranates are very cold hardy, have few to no pests, are deciduous (beautiful as a hedge), you can juice them with a citrus juicer, and they usually ripen in August or September.

Now, on to the citrus. Most citrus will not need cold protection once established, with the exception of limes. I put the caveat “once established” in there, because people have a tendency to buy citrus at a plant sale then run home and plant it in the ground in January. Then we have a freeze in February and they wonder why their citrus is dead. Do not plant your new citrus tree (or any other tropical tree) in the ground until all danger of a freeze has past (probably sometime in March). When buying multiple citrus trees consider when they will ripen and spread it out over the season. Both Marrs and Navel N33 will ripen early.

Good fruit trees for containers include pomegranates, apples, blueberries, blackberries, lemon, lime, kumquats, & tangerine. For the more exotic go for dragonfruit, lychee, grumichama, starfruit, or sugar apple. Stay tuned for more information on container gardening in an upcoming post.

Have I peaked your interest in fruit tree gardening yet? There is something for everyone when it comes to fruit trees, and there is nothing better than eating fresh homegrown fruit from your yard (whether large or small) or from your patio or balcony.

Additional Fruit Tree articles: Fruit Tree Series #1 and Fruit Tree Series #3

Fruit Tree Series #1

2011-01-11T00:49:00.021-06:00

It’s that time of year again, fruit tree sale time! The time to consider buying a fruit tree for your yard. Yes, we can grow an extensive variety of fruit in and around the Houston area.

What kind of fruit?, you ask. Well, just about every part of the Houston area can grow the following: apples, avocado, banana, blackberries, blueberries, cherries (and cherry look-a-likes), figs, grapes, grapefruit, jujubes, kumquats, lemons, limes, limequats, mandarins, nectarines, oranges, peaches, pears, persimmons, plums, pomegranates, satsumas, tangelo, tangerines. But, the devil is in the details.

Here are some highlights of what you should think about when buying a fruit tree at any of the local fruit tree sales or local nurseries. If you are new to gardening, be very wary of buying fruit trees or berries at the local big box stores, many of those varieties will not produce fruit in our climate.

CHILL HOURS
Depending on what part of town you live in will determine how successful you will be at growing specific varieties of all of these fruits. If you live on the north side of town you will have more chill hours than folks on the south side of town (for example). Chill hours are the average number of hours temperatures in your area are between 32 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Chill hours are important to pay attention to when choosing your tree!

Here are some estimated chill hours (Source: Urban Harvest)
300 hours or less: Gulf and Bay Beach Areas, Hobby Area, Inner City/Southern Houston
400-600 hours: Harris County (other than above), Interior of Coastal counties, & Ft. Bend County
600-900 hours: Counties north of Harris and South of Austin (including College Station, Conroe & Huntsville)

You need the right number of chill hours so that you have successful fruiting, but they are also an important consideration for tropical trees. The more chill hours you have the more likely it is that you will have to protect trees such as mango, avocado, limes and bananas. It’s not impossible for you to grow these, but it may take more effort because they will need winter protection. So, think about how much time you are willing to devote to your trees.

SUN
Making sure the trees get enough sunlight is another consideration. Most of the trees need full sun, be sure to read the sunlight requirements for each variety before choosing one for your yard.

SPACE
So, you don’t think you have room for a fruit tree in your tiny yard? No problem. You have some options.

Get a dwarf variety
Prune it to the size that you need it to be
Grow it in a container
Get one of the 2 in 1, 3 in 1, or 4 in 1 trees so you can have multiple varieties of fruit on one tree. These trees have one rootball/one trunk and multiple varieties of a single type of fruit (such as apple or peach) grafted onto them. Don’t worry, there is no freaky science going on here. These are not genetically modified, nothing to worry about. (pictured to the right is a 3 in 1 Peach)

Another option is to attend one of Angela Chandler’s High Density Orchard Management for Backyard Gardener’s classes. There is one on January 12th at UH and one at Arbor Gate on January 23rd.

Pruning This is another area to pay attention to, especially if you don’t have extra time to learn about pruning your trees or to actually prune them. If you want the least amount of pruning, get a citrus tree (these also happen to be one of the only trees that will do ok in part sun). Here’s a nice pruning article in Texas Gardener

Pollination Most of the varieties sold at the local fruit tree sales are self-fruiting. Meaning, they do not need another tree nearby for pollination. But, make sure you read the descriptions to make sure. New this year at the sales are true cherries called Minnie Royal and Royal Lee. You MUST get one of each if you actually want to have any cherries, which I am sure you do since you bought a cherry tree! Other varieties that need pollinators are pears, muscadines, some plums, & blueberries.

Fruit Tree Sales There are many fruit tree sales around town benefiting local garden organizations. Although, all of them are popular, the Urban Harvest fruit tree sale is the biggest one and gets the season kicked off on January 15th. Folks come to this sale from all over the metro area and Urban Harvest will be selling trees for all the local climatic zones. Don’t worry if you miss this one, there are others. Try to make it to one that is closest to you. They are likely to have trees that will be most suitable for your area. If you remain on the fence about getting a fruit tree and all the sales have passed, many local nurseries such as Buchanan’s, Wabash, and Arbor Gate carry some of the same trees that will be sold at the fruit tree sales. view Upcoming Fruit Tree Sales (Urban Harvest and Master Gardener)

For more information, visit the following links:
Urban Harvest
Apples and Pears article in the Houston Chronicle
Peaches and Plums article in the Houston Chronicle
Jujube article in Texas Gardener
Fall Berries in Texas Gardener
Banana article in Texas Gardener
Figs article in Texas Gardener

Book Recommendations: Every vegetable and fruit tree gardener in Houston should have this book: Year Round Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers for Metro Houston by former Urban Harvest director Bob Randall. I also like All About Citrus and Subtropical Fruits for general information and nice pictures.

My final recommendation: Everyone should have at least one citrus tree in their yard. Citrus trees are one of the easier trees to grow and are a great tree for beginners. They don’t need much attention (in fact I know of several that get no attention and have the most amazing fruit you’ve ever tasted), no skilled pruning required, and they are one of the few fruit trees that can take part shade.

Stay tuned for more posts this week about fruit trees!

Fruit Tree Series #2

Everything’s Coming Up Roses

2011-01-07T22:51:00.001-06:00

The roses are loving this cool weather.

After I titled this post Everything’s Coming up Roses, I thought I would actually see where that came from. I bet a lot of you already know, but for those who don’t, take a look at this. She’s not talking about flowers!

"You'll be swell, you'll be great. Gonna have the whole world on a plate.
Starting here, starting now. Honey, everything's coming up roses."

2011 Garden Plans

2011-01-06T08:06:00.002-06:00

This is my first New Year as a garden blogger. It seems an appropriate time and place for a brain dump of all the garden projects I have swirling around in my head. I probably won’t get all of these done this year, but it’s a good list of the things I want to do in the garden. I’ll check in at the end of 2011 and review what was accomplished.

In no particular order:

Volunteer my garden to be on the neighborhood garden tour. Our neighborhood started a backyard garden tour in 2005. I have been a docent for about 3 of the tours and it is about time my garden joins the party.
Install a rain water collection system. I’ve found two different sources for rain barrels, so now I just have to decide on which ones I will use. Here are the two companies I will likely use: Texas Metal Cisterns and Plastic-Mart.
Finish building the new beds that I started a few months ago. I figure I will need about 10 yards of dirt to complete these beds plus I still have to get all the edging level and get some of the winter weeds out.
Redesign the front gardens with 80% or more native plants. Ok, this will be a challenge. I suffer from plant impulse buyer syndrome. It is really difficult for me to make a plan before I start buying plants, but we’ll see how it goes. I have bought a few books to help me out with this, Texas Wildscapes: Gardening for Wildlife, Gardening with Native Plants of the South, and Native Texas Plants: Landscaping Region by Region. (a note about these links-I just signed up for an Amazon associates plan, so I do get a little something from Amazon if you buy these books after clicking the link, just so you know)
Stop buying plants that I do not intend to plant right away. OK, this one will be more difficult than #4. I currently have a ton of bulbs from the October Bulb & Plant Mart as well as around 20 potted plants from the fall plant sales that have still not been put in the ground. This is really problematic during the summer when I am out of town for business or vacation. Luckily my mother-in-law really likes me and is willing to toil in the heat to keep my plants alive while I am not around. But, this needs to stop. I can do this, I’m sure I can, at least I think I can, maybe.
Add more fruit trees, including planting the lemon and fig that I already have.

Backstory
First, the story behind the lemon tree…My dad bought a Meyer Lemon about 4 or 5 years ago and there were actually 3 trees in the same pot. He gave me one and it has been in a pot ever since. While his tree is about 8’ tall and last year produced hundreds of lemons, mine is about two feet tall and has produced 3 lemons since I’ve had it. Poor lemon tree has suffered my neglect long enough, it will go in the ground in the spring, I declare it will be done!

and the story behind the fig tree…(actually not so different from the lemon tree story) I was given cuttings from what is either a LSU Gold or Conadria fig. I successfully rooted two of them. I gave my dad one and I have the other. His tree is about 6 foot tall and produced some tasty figs this year. Mine is one foot tall and has not produced. (I’m starting to get a little depressed at this point)

I know there are a couple of problems with #6. I have already alluded to the fact that I have too many plants in pots and that I (almost) habitually buy plants then take forever to get them in the ground. But, this time will be different, I swear.

I’m signed up for next week’s Urban Harvest class entitled High Density Home Orchard Management. Exciting! The first part of the description is “This system enables the urban gardener to quadruple the variety of fruit they can grow without buying a single square foot of land.” Nice, that’s what I want to do, quadruple the variety of fruit in my yard. I will be hitting the Urban Harvest Fruit Tree Sale hard this year, hopefully it won’t be as cold as last year’s.
Install the arbor I bought last summer. I got a great deal on this at Lowe’s, but I wasn’t ready to put it up, I’m still not. I need to get those new beds finished first and get all those fruit tress planted. This project probably won’t happen until the summer.

So, that’s it. My gardening to do list for this year. Wish me luck!

Garden Update

2010-12-30T21:30:00.002-06:00

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a whirlwind every year. The garden is often left to fend for itself. Too much shopping, decorating and partying to be done to leave much time to play in the dirt. Today, I took a tour of the yard, surveying the gardens after the 5” of rain we got yesterday. One thing to mention is that I was wearing a t-shirt and I got a couple of mosquito bites while on my tour.
The cool-season weeds are starting their march forward into the yard and gardens. This is their time of year, they love the cool, wet weather (although today was warm, the high was 76 degrees F with 94% humidity).
Looks like the tomato plants finally succumbed to the cold weather we had earlier this week. I’m grateful for how long they lasted, they were my first successful crop of fall tomatoes.
I harvested more uju kitsus today. I’m up to 32 so far with about as many still on the tree. This was the first fruit tree I planted, it’s so exciting to be able to harvest citrus from your backyard.
The most striking thing I noticed while wandering around was how green the grass is. It is rather startling to see it this green, I mean, it’s December!

The garlic and onions I planted last month are doing well. Although, only about half of the onions survived, it was too dry and I didn’t keep them well-watered. Next up are plantings of lettuce, spinach, radishes, more onions if I can find them, & carrots.
And, we had another hawk sighting. Our second in the last few months and our second in the 7 years we have lived in this house. I think this one is a Cooper’s Hawk.

It is exciting to see these large birds from our living room window, but a little sad that nature is playing out in my backyard, as the hawks (so I hear) are often looking for lunch at backyard birdfeeders.Click here to see our other Cooper's Hawk sighting.

Yard of the Month

2010-12-24T20:21:00.001-06:00

I don’t garden in my front yard. I mean there are the required foundation plantings, but I really don’t do much in the front. You won’t find one picture of a plant from the front of my house in this blog. The front yard is in the shade of three live oaks, the sprinklers take care of the watering and the plants just handle the rest. Another drawback is that I can’t let the dogs hang out and garden with me in the front yard without constantly keeping an eye out for cats or people walking by. I do have intentions of spiffing up the front, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

So, why am I talking about yard of the month? Well, this time of year people in my neighborhood win yard of the month with their Christmas decorations. When I was a kid we slowly grew our yard decorations until it was just plain crazy. We didn’t have any neighbors, so no one really saw all our hard work, but us. We had a great time creating a bigger and better display every year. So, this is how the madness began.

My husband and I bought our first house when we lived in Colorado, but we never spent the holidays there so I never put up many decorations. After we moved back home to Houston, is when the madness resurfaced. The light show has been growing at our new house for the past 7 years.

And this year, for the first time ever, we won yard of the month!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

December Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2010-12-15T23:27:00.009-06:00

It is starting to look like Fall here, citrus are turning orange, leaves are covering the ground and it’s kinda cool outside.

The pentas are still growing strong. I really like this variety, it’s tall and lanky instead of short and bushy and it has done very well in my garden this year.

This grouping has been blooming almost all year. It is a cuphea ‘David verity’ in the very back, in the middle is a shrimp plant, and in the foreground is chenille plant (Acalypha hispida).

The pink trumpet vine (Podranea ricasoliana) looks great against the clear blue sky.

This salvia pops up all over the garden, but it’s a long bloomer and the bees and butterflies like it.

This cuphea been blooming most of the year. It is probably either
cuphea ‘Starfire Pink’ or cuphea ‘Twinkle Pink’.

I love the delicate blooms of the Diamond Frost euphorbia. It almost didn’t make it through the hot and dry summer, but it’s happy now.

A few roses still blooming. The knockouts have a few blooms too.

Iochroma cyaneum is showing some signs of frost damage, but the blooms are lookin’ good.

Fruit from the uju kitsu aka a sweet lemon is ready to be picked.

The duranta is still going strong. It has flowers for the bees and berries for the birds.

These black-eyed susans made a comeback (along with the nut sedge).

To all the northern gardeners, I hope you enjoy my pictures without snow covered plants. Look at it this way, you get to have a gardening off season, a time to rest, a time to contemplate the spring or for you workaholics a time to work on the inside of your house.

Visit May Dreams Gardens to see more Garden Blogger’s Bloom Days.

2010 Vegetable Garden Winners

2010-12-07T00:26:00.001-06:00

The winners are:

Sweet Millions (tomato)
Lemon Boy (tomato)
Big Bomb (pepper)
Orlando (eggplant)

I planted all of these plants in February and March of this year. They were given one application of cottonseed meal in the middle of summer, but that’s it as far as fertilizer (and no pesticides were used!). They all put on a great show in the spring, survived a Houston summer, and produced into the fall and winter.

Tomato plants in Houston will often get as tall as the cage you have around them. Both the Lemon Boy and Sweet Millions grew up and over the 5 foot cages they are in. In mid-summer after the other tomato plants died, these still had some green leaves and were producing new stalks from the base, so I cut them back to about one foot tall and let them keep growing.

My favorite is Sweet Millions, pictured on the left after I cut it back and it again grew up and over its cage. I’ve picked about 200 Sweet Millions in the past week. Yes, folks that’s right in December!

The first Lemon Boy of the fall crop was picked a couple of days ago. There are a few more starting to blush, but tonight's low is expected to be 35, so they probably won’t hang in there much longer.Why can’t we get one of those weird Houston December warm fronts? I really could use some fresh tomatoes…

I bought the Big Bomb peppers in hopes of recreating an awesome tapas dish I had in Auckland, NZ last year. It was basically peppers stuffed with cheese, but it was really good.

While this one was the right size and shape it was way hotter than the ones in New Zealand. Too hot for me, but my husband loved them. He dried them in the food dehydrator and pulverized them in the coffee grinder. Now he has hot pepper powder for the year.

The Orlando eggplant is amazing. It has been producing heavily all year long. It is about 4 foot tall and almost as wide. Many online sources say you can pick the fruit when it is a small as 2”, but I picked mine anywhere from 5”-8”.

On a side note, I also planted an eggplant variety called Turkish Orange. I have to say, that I was not very impressed. It was growing next to the one in the picture above, but was eventually overshadowed, so I pulled it up. It may be because I didn’t know what to do with the little orange tomato looking eggplants, but I probably won’t try them again.

In the foreground of the above picture is broccoli. My Saturday harvest included broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant…all at the same time!

‘Tis the season for Citrus

2010-11-30T23:44:00.003-06:00

Tonight I went to the Urban Harvest Growing Citrus in Houston class taught by Bob Randall himself. For those of you not in the know, Bob Randall is the author of Year Round Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers for Metro Houston, he is also the recently retired director of Urban Harvest, and as far as I am concerned the foremost expert on fruit and vegetable growing in this fine city.

I signed up for the entire Backyard Orchard Series, I wasn’t particularly interested in growing more citrus, but this class was part of the deal so I thought I would go and listen.

I currently have 8 fruit trees in my backyard, 3 of which are citrus (uju kitsu, meyer lemon & satsuma ‘dobashi beni’). I was really thinking that I couldn’t fit many more fruit trees into my landscape, but I got a few good ideas tonight. (Not to mention Dr. Bob doesn’t live that far from me and he says he has over 100 varieties of fruit in his backyard.)

What changed my mind…

Kumquats. These are relatively small trees that don’t take up as much space as most citrus. I don’t care for many seeds in fruit and I noticed Urban Harvest is selling a couple of seedless varieties at the fruit tree sale in January.
Citrus don’t have to have full sun! They are actually understory trees. Wow, this opens up all kinds of possibilities. I have several available places that get part-sun.
He also mentioned a good idea about planting them against the south or southwest side of your house. Most of my fruit trees are planted on the south side of my house in full sun. But, the southwest side, now that’s a thought. I just happen to be putting in a new flowerbed there, a citrus tree would make a nice ornamental planting.

On a related note, did you know that citrus comes true from seed almost 100% of the time. That means that if you find a fruit you like, just plant the seed and the fruit from that tree will likely be exactly what you expect. But, if you do this, don’t let the seed dry out. Just eat your fruit then immediately plant your seed.

Speaking of citrus, one of my uju kitsus fell to the ground a few weeks ago. I’ve been saving it on the countertop while it continues to ripen. Tonight, I had the first uju kitsu of the season. You’re probably saying to yourself, what is an uju kitsu!? Well, they are difficult to describe, they are like a really mild orange with a hint of lemon.

The Urban Harvest Fruit Tree sale is January 15th at Univ. of Houston. Check out the list of what they will have for sale. If you’re busy that day, don’t worry there are other fruit tree sales around town in the spring. Keep an eye on my event calendar for more fruit tree sale information.

And don’t miss the Citrus Tasting event on Saturday, Dec 4, you can sign up for it on the Urban Harvest website.

Wordless Wednesday-Rough Life

2010-11-24T08:16:00.002-06:00

Red Admiral

Epic Fail

2010-11-22T23:22:00.004-06:00

I have (actually had is a better word) three squash plants this fall. A yellow squash, a zucchini (Black Beauty), and a white bush scallop aka pattypan. They were all doing great, nice big dark green leaves, deep yellow flowers, and the pattypan produced an abundance of fruit.

Then, around the first of October, it hit.

Powdery Mildew

I ignored it for a week or so. Maybe the stuff will just disappear…

Hmm, it is still there.

Time to research this. I am almost exclusively an organic gardener and I have successfully grown squash before (but that was in Colorado, where I didn’t seem to have these kinds of problems). So, I (lightly) researched organic treatments for powdery mildew.

I stumbled upon this blog post about using a milk and water mixture to treat powdery mildew. Note: One of the keys to this method is faithfully applying this mixture on a weekly basis. That should have been a red flag.

Fast forward 6 weeks:

Failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. (wikipedia)

That sounds about right.

Criteria for Failure (wikipedia)
A situation considered to be a failure by one might be considered a success by another. Similarly, the degree of success or failure in a situation may be differently viewed by distinct observers or participants, such that a situation that one considers to be a failure, another might consider to be a success, a qualified success or a neutral situation.

No doubt the powdery mildew considers this a success, not a failure. DH might also consider this a success since we were being overrun with pattypans. I however, consider this a failure.

Types of Failure (wikipedia)
   1. Failure to anticipate-check
   2. Failure to perceive-check
   3. Failure to carry out a task- check

So, that’s my sad tale of powdery mildew this year. Although, that’s not to say that I won’t test this organic approach again. Just because it didn’t work this time doesn’t mean it is ineffective or does it?? Have any of you tried this before? Do you have a recommended organic solution to powdery mildew? I would love to hear about it.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day from Big Bend

2010-11-19T10:51:00.000-06:00

I’ve spent the past week in Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Park. I wanted to post this on Monday, but Wi-Fi was hard to come by out there.

For those of you who have not heard of Big Bend, it is along the Texas/Mexico border along the big bend in the Rio Grande. It takes awhile for most people to get there, it really isn't close to anything, but it's an interesting place to visit. I'll post a few pictures from my trip in the next few days.

This is what was blooming there on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

Desert Marigold Baileya multiradiata

Wooly Paperflower Psilostrophe tagetina

Tree Tobacco Nicotiana glauca

Yellow Stingbush Eucnide bartonioides

possibly Centaury Centaurium calycosum

Thanks to May Dreams Garden for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-11-10T02:05:00.000-06:00

Playing around with a new IPad app I downloaded today, it’s called ColorSplash.

Garden Walk Buffalo

Jardin Botanico de Quito

If you like these pictures, let me know, but please don’t steal ‘em. If you would like to redistribute photography from this blog, email Houston Garden Girl.

Hawk Sighting

2010-11-03T01:57:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, my husband captured this picture from our living room. I’ve never seen a hawk in our neighborhood, either because I haven’t been looking or they are uncommon in the middle of Houston (not sure which). I used the Backyard Bird Finder from National Geographic to try to identify it. I think it is a young hawk. Possibly a Red-Shouldered Hawk or Cooper’s Hawk. I’m not a bird expert, so if someone knows what bird this is, please let me know.

Mercer Plant Swap

2010-10-24T00:40:00.001-05:00

I prepared for the swap on Friday night, digging up plants & taking cuttings, part of the time wearing my headlamp since it is getting dark earlier. I loaded the car with plants, extra plastic pots, chips for the potluck, and a chair. Saturday started with an early morning 7-mile run as part of my half-marathon training. After a quick wardrobe change, I was on my way north to Mercer Arboretum. There must have been around 30 swappers there plus friends, children, and spouses.

There is a lingo to the plant swap and there is definitely etiquette. There are what we call pre-trades, these are trades you set up ahead of time with other people, usually through email or message boards. Pre-trades are always kept under your table so everyone knows they are not available. There’s also the orphan pile. It’s usually started toward the end of the swapping. It’s a pile where you put the plants you don’t want to take home with you and it’s a free for all for anyone who wants a few more plants.

There’s great camaraderie at a plant swap and you can always find a new plant that you’ve never heard of, but will grow in your area. Over the years, I’ve come home with several new plants from the swap. Many of them have shown up on a Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Some that I can think of are firespike, pinecone ginger, rock rose, angel trumpet, hibiscus, salvia coccinea, daylilies, clerodendrum bungei, variegated duranta, gold edge duranta, crocosmia, & mexican turk’s cap.

When my garden was smaller I always came home with more plants than I brought, but this year the goal was to come home with less. I decided to do all of my trades as pre-trades this year. Anything else that I brought with me was anyone’s for the asking. I brought home a great selection, some plants that I already have, but want more of as I work on my garden expansion project and a few that are new to me. Some are cuttings, while others are already in pots. I’m sure you’ll see a few of these show up in future GBBD posts.

A big thanks to our swap organizer and support crew! They did a great job as usual!

Mystery Hibiscus

2010-10-20T10:51:00.001-05:00

On occasion, I have been known to go to the local plant swaps. There’s usually one at Mercer and one in Clear Lake every Spring and Fall. The plant swaps usually have a table of freebies, especially at the end of the swap when everyone wants to get rid of the plants they brought, but didn’t trade. I think it was Spring 2009, when I found this hibiscus cutting sitting on the freebie table. I thought, what the heck, I’ll try to root it and whatever flower color it is, will be a surprise. Well, it rooted, but I didn’t plant it in the ground until this year. Yesterday, I was looking out the window and noticed a bright color where nothing has been blooming lately…it was that hibiscus.

Bed Building

2010-10-19T08:27:00.000-05:00

I woke up Saturday morning with a flurry of ideas for the yard. I must have been dreaming about expanding the gardens.

The onslaught of plant sales this past month has caused an explosion of plants on the driveway (my current nursery). These are plants without a home. I recently read Carol’s GBBD post on May Dreams Gardens, she mentioned a nursery bed. Now, that’s what I need. A temporary bed to plant all my impulse buys in until I find a home for them. (note to the reader: another solution would be to stop buying plants on impulse, but what would be the fun in that? :))

Besides a nursery bed, I want to expand a couple of existing beds, mulch around the trees, make a curve around the corner, increase the angle here and there, oh yeah I still need a place for that fig tree and the lemon tree, and I need to water. Uggh, I’m tired just writing about it.

Here’s the start of the plan, repositioning the edging for the expanded garden and mulching around one of the pecans.

I created the circle at a 5’ radius around the tree by using a hand rake.

Then, I put newspaper on the grass. The newspaper will kill the grass and act as a weed barrier for awhile.

Wet the newspaper thoroughly then put the mulch on top. It’s just that easy. I used eight 2 cu ft bags of mulch for a 10’ diameter circle.

Ta da…

Next will be filling in the area on the left of the tree (in the last picture) with dirt for the expanded flowerbed. I’ll also transplant the shorter plants at the edge of the old border to the new border. And, lest I forget, train the dogs to stay out of this new bed. I’m sure they are wondering why their part of the yard keeps shrinking. Poor puppies.

Gratuitous puppy picture

October Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2010-10-16T19:00:00.003-05:00

Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day to all!

It has finally cooled off in Houston although we haven’t had rain for about a month. Once the first cool front hit I thought to myself, finally I’m done with the watering chores. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Us humans are loving the cool, dry weather, but the plants are suffering without the rain.

Despite the dry weather, and probably because of the cool weather, there are still many plants blooming in the garden. Let’s see which ones…

Desert Rock Rose

Blue Queen Saliva & Gomphrena

I'm actually leaning towards this being Indigo Spires Salvia instead of Blue Queen. Does anyone have an expert opinion?

Ageratum

I almost thinned all of the blue mist flower out earlier this year. It was just taking up space and had only a couple of disappointing blooms. Luckily, I was busy with other things so it remained in the garden. Over the last 3 or 4 weeks it has exploded in blooms. So happy I kept it.

Candlestick Plant (cassia alata)

I love the candlestick plant. I had one last year near the compost pile, but it didn't survive the winter. These two came up in the vegetable garden, they were a gift from the compost that I spread there in the spring.

Pink Trumpet Vine (podranea ricasoliana)

Iochroma cyaneum

Pink Surprise Bush

Salvia vanhouttei

The salvia vanhouttei has unique maroon blooms, I bought this one at one of the local plant sales last year.

Other plants blooming are: torenia, penta, hot lips salvia, mexican bush sage, gaura, chenille plant, batface cuphea, salvia coccinea, white turks cap, duranta erecta, yellow cestrum, knock-out roses, scented jasmine, angelonia, purple porterweed, & hamelia.

Visit May Dreams Gardens for more Garden Bloggers Bloom Days.

Thursday Gardening

2010-10-08T00:52:00.001-05:00

So, you’re taking a vacation day on Thursday? Don’t most people take a Friday or Monday off? Yeah, yeah, but most people are not fanatical about plant sales.

Thursday was the first day of the Houston Garden Club’s annual Bulb & Plant Mart. This is one of the biggest plant sales of the year! I arrived about 30 minutes after they opened and it was a mad house. There were gardeners and wagons everywhere.

This year I pre-ordered my bulbs. They were already bagged and paid for when I arrived-roman hyacinth, scilla peruviana, anemones, freesia, and crinum americanum. The crinum americanum is already in it’s new home in the rain garden along with a couple iris japonica and freesia laxa that I picked up inside the bulb house.

My wagon filled up quickly with various perennials destined for unknown locations around my yard. As I was scoping out the plants, Cindy from MKOK appeared. Wow, we haven’t seen each other since Buffa10! We chatted quickly then we were back to the hunt.

I noticed the checkout line growing longer as I circled the tree section of the sale. I thought if I just made a few more passes around all the booths the line would get shorter. Well, the line actually doubled while I was killing time. An hour or so later, I was wheeling my little red wagon full of plants towards my car. Luckily, the time passed quickly, I was in line behind Diana Liga one of the Permaculture instructors for Urban Harvest, aspiring market gardener, & chicken wrangler. We are both vegetarian gardeners with software developer husbands, what are the odds!?

The sale continues through Saturday. Check their website for the schedule and catalog of plants.

Macro Monday - Coreopsis

2010-09-27T14:13:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Lisa's Chaos for hosting Macro Monday!

Today’s Wildlife Sightings

2010-09-24T22:46:00.000-05:00

I went for a stroll around the garden this afternoon. I haven’t made it out there during daylight hours all week. I knew there would be some mutant okra to cut and probably some eggplant and peppers too. After the harvesting was done, I took a walk to see what I could see and a theme emerged. I saw a huge grasshopper, my long lost friend the zipper spider, several anoles, a dragonfly, some butterflies, and bees. Here are their portraits…

I’ve been reading about MCOK’s zipper spider named Cassandra over the past few weeks. I don’t want my girl to feel left out, so I’d better give her a name too. I think I’ll call her Lucy. I first posted a picture of Lucy on a Macro Monday several weeks ago. I hadn’t read much about her kind yet and I called her a he. Until recently, she’s been hanging out by some ditch lilies and an overgrown salvia. But, I cut the salvia back without realizing I was impacting her web. She found this new location, which I think is better than the old one. Today she had 3 meals all wrapped up and saved for later.

This meal has a few little flies trying to steal a bite.

I’ve been gardening in this yard for 7 years, but last year was the first time I saw any anoles in my yard. I grew up in a small town northeast of Houston and we had anoles ALL over the place (we just called them lizards). I can remember seeing some of them without tails, my dad said that was their defense. When something tried to catch them by the tail, their tail would snap off and they would grow another one.

I can’t believe the clarity of this dragonfly picture. This is one worth clicking on to see all of the detail.

September Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2010-09-15T23:24:00.002-05:00

Well, here it is again, that time of the month when all the garden bloggers head out to the garden to document what’s goin’ on out there. Most of us are lucky to have made it through August without having a heat stroke. Really, how much can be blooming in Houston after the hottest recorded August in history!?

Well, I have been surprised every month this summer by what is blooming in my yard and this month is no exception.

I’ve been impressed by these torenia. They have been blooming for months in the dry shade of a water oak.

Torenia and Persian Shield

There is a magnolia growing in the middle of this clump of salvia. I fertilized the tree with cottonseed meal last month. The salvia is reaping the rewards.

I cut back this blue queen salvia a few weeks ago, it was getting leggy, it has bounced back and is already blooming again. The TX Rock Rose aka Pavonia lasiopetala has been blooming for months as well.

Blue Queen Salvia, TX Rock Rose,
and Artemesia Powis Castle

It took this blue porterweed all year to rebound from the winter. It has popped up in various areas of the garden and is making its blooming debut.

Virginia Spiderwort (tradescantia osprey) is one of the new additions this year in the gazebo garden. For one reason or another a couple of stalks have broken off. I stuck them in the ground and paid no attention to them. They are growing happily. I’ve never seen a plant root so easily.
This is a passalong ginger I received at one of the Houston area plant swaps. What a nice surprise it was when it started blooming this year.
I bought this shrimp plant last year at Buchanan’s, I thought it was a goner, but it has taken off this year. I love the blooms. I think it is justicia brandegeana.
I have posted pictures of the bottlebrush blooms before, but this is the first time I’ve noticed the little yellow tips on the blooms. Reminds me of fireworks.
I have Convolvulus ‘Blue Daze’ plants in several areas of the yard, it has been ho-hum all summer, but has gone into full bloom over the past week.
The other plants blooming are: roses, penta, rose of sharon, turnera, angelonia, gaura, batface cuphea, gomphrena, obedient plant, crepe myrtle, turk’s cap, duranta, hamelia, yellow cestrum, & cannas.

Thanks for stopping by my September Bloom Day, visit May Dreams Gardens for more September Garden Bloggers’ bloom days.

Macro Monday

2010-09-13T11:34:00.002-05:00

This is a shot I took one night of my night blooming cereus. I was holding a flashlight in my hand and trying to get a good angle, I'm sure I looked ridiculous. The bloom wasn't fully opened that night, but I forgot to go out the next night to take a look at it, then it was gone.

Thanks to Lisa's Chaos for hosting Macro Monday!

Keeping tabs on Houston's garden scene

2010-09-07T22:15:00.000-05:00

I've been debating whether or not I want to keep a calendar of events on my blog or not. On one hand, I think it will require a lot of upkeep. But, on the other hand, it is nice to have all the events I am (and hopefully others like me are) interested in, listed chronologically in one place. The only site I have run across something similar is HoustonGrows Your Gardening News, but it is listed in the order posted, not in a calendar format. The Houston Chronicle also has a calendar format, but it doesn't appear that many event organizers are using it. If anyone knows of another calendar of Houston gardening events, please let me know. But, in the meantime I will try my best to keep my Houston Area Events page up to date. Please email me other events to put on the calendar. I am also toying with the idea of a Facebook page where I can post events. Keep in mind, I am trying to keep the amount of work I have to put into this at a minimum. So, what do you think? A page on my blog, a facebook page (you can see my testing if you do a Facebook search for Houston Garden Girl), or forget it, this is just too much work. Let me know your thoughts.

As always, thanks for stopping by.
Houston Garden Girl

Invasive Species

2010-09-02T00:58:00.001-05:00

I stumbled across this video on Plano Prairie Garden. I’m dedicated to getting the word out about this problem. You’ll notice that this species has invaded my garden, as shown in my last Wordless Wednesday post. You must educate yourself before it’s too late.

Planning a Fall Garden @ Urban Harvest

2010-08-29T12:06:00.001-05:00

Last week I attended one of Urban Harvest’s classes called Planning a Fall Garden. The instructors were my neighbors, Gary Edmondson and Ray Sher. I think they have been on the Westbury Garden Tour just about every year. They have turned their entire yard into a fruit and vegetable garden with some flowers thrown in for good measure. Ray sells his city grown produce on Saturdays at the Urban Harvest Eastside Market. He is also the mastermind behind the new Westbury Community Garden.

I’ve actually already planted my fall garden, so why go to a class on planning a fall garden? Well, you never know what you might learn. This class was great for both novice and more experienced gardeners.

Here are the top ten things I learned:

Do not use bark mulch as a mulch for your vegetable gardens, it may contain natural growth inhibitors and it can rob the soil of nitrogen. You should always use partially decomposed material as mulch. They recommended alfalfa hay or compost.
Cottonseed meal is a good fertilizer for just about anything.
You can use tree leaves as a mulch for fruit trees but not veggies.
They recommended a digging knife, expensive, but worth it.
Save your seeds in the refrigerator in a sealed container with a little rice or powdered milk to absorb any moisture.
If you have old seed, a good way to test if it will germinate is to put it in a damp paper towel. Keep the paper towel damp, after a couple of days start checking daily if the seeds have germinated.
Put soft phosphate or bone meal in the planting hole of onions and tomatoes.
Plant leaks in a trench and slowly cover them as they grow.
Put garlic in the refrigerator for 2 months before planting. For Houston, plant garlic in mid-October and harvest in May.
There are two kinds of arugula. The one I am familiar with is spicy and has an oak leaf shape and is referred to as wild. The other (Astro is one variety) is less spicy, has a more rounded leaf, and has shorter time to harvest.

If you are new to fruit and vegetable gardening in Houston, I highly recommend Dr. Bob Randall’s book, Year Round Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers for Metro Houston.

Monthly Garden Bouquet-August

2010-08-28T17:51:00.001-05:00

I saw this meme on Tropical Texana, it is hosted by Ramblings from a Desert Garden. I love to have cut flowers in the house, but I always have the feeling that the flowers in the garden should stay there for me to enjoy while I’m in the garden.

But, no longer! It’s fun to walk around the garden to find what you have that will create a nice bouquet.

In my first bouquet, there is duranta (small purple flowers), a pass-along pinecone ginger, persian shield (purple leaves) and two different elephant ears (in the background).

I started the bouquet off with the pinecone ginger because it is in a far away garden in my yard and would not be enjoyed much from there, then I walked around adding things to the vase that were looking nice that day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-18T23:09:00.001-05:00

Macro Monday

2010-08-16T10:57:00.001-05:00

I was roaming around the yard this morning after watering my vegetable seeds and noticed a few flowers blooming today, that were not in bloom yesterday. As I was taking photos, I thought to myself, I need a meme for Macro Monday. After a quick search, I found Lisa’s Chaos, she is the host of Macro Monday.

Clerodendrum bungei

Obedient Plant

If you enlarge this picture, you’ll see white specs on the bee, I guess he’s covered in pollen.

Penta

Argiope aurantia

This zipper spider has been chillin’ out here for a few days. Hope he’s catching something.