Garden Bloggers Fling and a Book Giveaway

It’s that time of year again, time to fling. Garden Bloggers Fling that is. This year we are heading to Asheville, North Carolina. The home of the Biltmore House, surrounded by National Forests, and filled with a bunch of cool funky stuff.

My first Fling was in Buffalo, NY. I had only been blogging for a couple of months and really had no idea what I was getting into. Who knew bloggers were such a fun and friendly group of people to hang out with? We were treated like royalty by the local press and all of a sudden a ton of people were reading my brand new baby blog. Here are my posts from that Fling, it was called Buffa10.

Last year we flung up to Seattle. Where us southern bloggers had a respite from the heat. I saw some familiar faces from Buffalo along with a lot of new garden bloggers joining us. Our time in Seattle was jam-pack with garden goodness. Check it out.

One of the Seattle Fling organizers, Lorene Edwards Forkner released a book last year called Handmade Garden Projects. You can see some great examples of her projects on many of last years blog posts: Houston Garden Girl, Commonweeder, Bonney Lassie, and Rock Rose.

Here’s a few more pictures from her backyard to wet your appetite.

 

 

Timber Press is having a promotion right now and has provided me with one copy of Lorene’s book to give away. Leave a comment by May 26th to enter the drawing to receive a free copy.

As you can see, many talented garden bloggers are involved every year in Flinging. Keep up with all of us and our travels around Asheville by visiting the Fling blog.

The 2011 Garden Bloggers Fling

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.

Westbury Garden Tour

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.

Open Days on Knollwood and South Boulevard

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.

Open Days Garden Tour-Del Monte Drive

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

Houston’s Open Days–McLaren Garden

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!

2011 Garden Plans

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:

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
3. 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.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. 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)
   
   
5. 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.
   
   
6. 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.
   
   
7. 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!