Can You Dig It?
Favourite Gardening Blogs & feeds (40)
Country & Rural Garden News (13)Newspapers (6)Other Gardening News (A-J) (29)Other Gardening News (K-Z) (30)Good Intentions Make Good Mulch So I'm starting off 2009 with a few personal gardening resolutions that have been posted for all to see over at Dave's Garden. Some are ambitious (like not killing any more orchids), while others are just plain necessary (like being more active at the Plano Community Garden)... Found this little fella lounging on my blue rue this morning, even though the plant is small and still in a nursery container. I moved it under my patio rocking chair when the weather suddenly turned windy and chilly... Easy to Grow? Let's Hope So... I am trying a new bulb company this year, Easy to Grow Bulbs. They come highly recommended by Garden Watchdog reviewers. My order is supposed to arrive Wednesday. I'm taking Friday off to celebrate my 46th birthday by playing in the dirt... Plants Are Smarter Than We Are Calgary man gets a year for growing opium poppies I just ordered some seeds of Papaver Somniferum, but not for umm...."high tea" purposes. I just think they're pretty, and a big challenge to grow here in Texas... Well, Ike is headed this way this weekend, probably in the form of a Tropical Storm. My particular area is expected to get 2-4" of rain and some pretty good sustained winds, but nothing terribly major, although the soil is already a little swampy from recent rains... I like the glow of my backyard gardens in late summer. The white flowers of the autumn clematis on the back fence really sparkle, and in the morning light, the swaying brooms on the Zebra Grass catch the sun in a lovely manner... It's inevitable that DFW will see some much-needed rain from Hurricane Gustav in a couple of days. As I write this, my beloved New Orleans seems to be hanging in there, and that's great news. Speaking of weather, I really wonder what kind of winter we're going to have here in North Central Texas... ... Notes to Self is a new section that serves as more of a to do list for myself than anything. You see, while I'm good at lecturing other gardeners about keeping lists, it's not something I do consistently... Ok, back again after a trip to England and a bout of sheer blog laziness. I took almost as many photos of plants as I did relatives while visiting family across the Big Pond. Here are some of the more interesting/appealing ones (of plants, not relatives): These Giant Gunnera are pretty common creekside sites around the southwest part of England, where we spent part of our trip... Can I Regrow My Memory from Seed? ... Garden Blogger's Bloom Day: June Yey, I made it this month! The daylilies, as is usual this time of year, are cranking. Really nice to have that consistent splash of color in the front yard. The glads are about done, but gosh they're pretty... June has definitely brought summer to North Central Texas, along with lots of wind. The last week has seen my crank-out patio awning tucked safely away due to continuous gustiness. The wind doesn't seem to stop me from cooking steaks on the charcoal grill, however, albiet cautiously... I hope this finds all of my fellow gardeners well and in full enjoyment of the summer weather. In an unconscious overcompensation for an abundance of purple flowers being featured in my garden for the past few years, I've apparently shifted into a yellow phase, as evidenced below... A few more Louisiana irises to drool over. Black Gamecock (with Scabiosa) Easter Tide Hush Money Our Dorothy Sinfonietta ... Yes my gardening friends, it's time for the annual Louisiana Iris parade! The first two shown here didn't bloom for me last year, so I'm doubly tickled by their presence. Byron Bay Red Echo Billy Festivals Acadian Fiesta Gal Frank Chowning More on the way... The mallards in our neighborhood have been pretty friendly lately. A trio of males seems to especially like our yard. Since we've been enjoying the HBO series of "John Adams" so much in our household, I was inspired to name them Adams, Jefferson and Franklin... We had a REALLY late freeze a couple of nights ago. Four nights before that...tornadoes. Very scary, but we were lucky. Didn't even lose power at our house. Many people lost much more, although the tornadoes that hit Dallas didn't register any higher than F1s... GBBD was yesterday, but I wanted to join in anyhow. The daffodil and saucer magnolia blooms have already peaked, so I won't embarass myself with pics of their sad appearance; however, other plants - like the ranunculus asiaticus, Spanish lavender and euphorbia shown above - are just gettin' started... Next weekend, all of my little veggie seedlings will graduate to the garden. The varieties I had to restart have come along well. Even though I usually avoid annuals like the plague (I always think of the Plant Delights t-shirt: "Friends don't let friends buy annuals"), I did start some annual flower seeds, including Calendula 'Oktoberfest' and Gentian Sage 'Cambridge Blue'... I knew there were open pockets deep inside my compost bin, but I guess they were a little bigger and more cave-like than I thought... After opening one of the ground-level sidedoors of the bin and scraping out some finished compost, I noticed several odd, white shapes deep in the hole... Ok, so, by Northern U.S. standards, it was a fairly pathetic dusting of snow that "crippled" the DFW metroplex last night. The snowfall was very pretty to watch as it came down, though. I was worried about my lettuce sprouts in a container on the patio, but they seem to have bounced right back after the snow melted today... Okay, back on track after another extended lull. I must say, after a year of experiencing some personal stresses and tragedies, it's good to have the gardening bug back again. And man, I've got it back in a big way... Good gosh, has it really been over two months since I posted here? Apparently so. The Year of Weird Weather continues in North Central Texas. Flowers are still in bloom, and leaves remain on many of the trees...
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