A Very Sunny Weekend

The article on the main page of today's local paper was about the difficulty of predicting this year's winter season due to a late El Nino. This weekend is warmer than normal, - 90degrees in mid-October is odd - and appears to be a trend of what forcasters are predicting this winter will be. Personally, I don't mind the warmer winter forecast as long as it is accompanied by lots of rain. However, West Texas could use a cold, wet winter to kill bugs and help with next spring's crops. In terms of the drought scale, we have moved from last year's D4 rating (exceptional) to a D3 rating (extreme) thanks to the almost 11 inches of rain this year versus the 3 inches last year. Fingers crossed we'll get another 2-3 inches before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, last weekend was a little cooler and I was able to put in a good 6 hours in the yard on Sunday. First thing up was finishing off the bird feeder. Since the pole would not stand upright I placed cement blocks around the base, filled the centers with potting soil and relocated some yellow ice plant from another section of the yard. This should look pretty in the spring all cover with flowers and trailing over the cement sides. Penny the Pill gave her stamp of approval by walking all through the small planter and then bending over for a drink from the bird bath, which sadly cannot stay on its heavy cement base because somehow the strong winds keep flipping this heavy top off the base. So bizarre, really, but the birds do seem to enjoy climbing in and bathing in it.

Next up was removing the decayed base of the previous bird house from the top of the pole. Discovered the thin platform on the pole to attach a bird house is thoroughly rusted too. The hard water and winds do take their toll on everything here.

Managed to temporarily rig up the new birdhouse to the platform and will later buy a new pole. The bird house is a little too small in scale but works fine for now.

The expanded side bed that I planted this summer by the front gate is doing very well. The Cleveland Pear tree seems to be doing just fine and I can't wait for the shade and privacy it will provide in the future. The shades of pink and purple planted around it really have brightened up a dull area. I was thrilled to find an apricot Mullin this summer and it's sent up two rounds of tall stalks of flowers. The flower, in the center of the picture, looks pink but it's really a soft peach in person. Hoping this will survive our winter and come back next year with more stalks of delicate flowers. Other plants I tucked around it include pink geraniums, The Fairy Rose, pink gladiolas, pink caladiums, and purple salvia.

Speaking of pinks, the Veronicas are in full bloom thanks to the cool spells we've had over the last month. They're blooming better than in the spring amazingly enough. One should have spiked flower shapes in a cottage garden and Veronicas are excellent for this purpose. Just planted a red one under the pear tree and looking forward to seeing what those spikes look like.

October is a good time to visit local nurseries and scour for bargain plants. Scored two of the Flame Acathus or Hummingbird Bush plants for the price of one originally. I'd been looking for these for the past two years. The one pictured below is three years old and covered with red flowers that humminbirds and bees like. Beside it is a ruella that I planted at the same time that has grown almost four feet tall and is loaded with purple flowers. I'd like to plant more of these elsewhere in the garden next year.

The Angelonia that I got on clearance this spring looked pretty pathetic up until about two weeks ago when suddenly blossoms started to appear. The rain and cooler weather seemed to have done the trick. These are so pretty when planted en mass and when the three trees I've planted this spring fill in I'll tuck more of these into the beds.

And speaking of clearance plants, I bought this one at Sutherlands, which strangely enough at times has a really good selection of perennials from time to time. The tag said this was a delphium. I hope it is because it's doubled in size and has yet to produce any type of flower. Hoping I didn't inadvertently buy some invasive weed by accident.

The Perfect Bench

When I began the garden I knew I needed seating areas to kick back and enjoy the view. After all, gardening is a heck of a lot of work. You really do need to take time to smell the roses, especially after you've spent the day being stuck by their thorns, lugging over pitchers of water with diluted rose food, and dodging waving stalks that reach out and try to grab you as you walk by. Heck, you might even need a sangria or two after all that.

I've been on the look out for the "perfect" seating area for the strolling garden for quite some time. The main problem with the back yard is that it is hot as blazes when the sun is shining up high. There are very few spots that get some shade in the late afternoon. Whatever bought needed to fit in these areas and blend well with the cottage-styled gardens. Some cheap temporary patio furniture was purchased the first year... which then flew across the yard several times due to the spring winds, taking out a few plants like bowling pins. Plastic or lightweight furniture was definately out of the question.

 In the second summer I bought a very heavy patio table, matching heavy metal chairs and a bright colorful tropical umbrella. Such a cute set. Then the spring winds kicked up and the umbrella bounced around like mad. I still use the set but the umbrella has to stay in the garage and be brought out on days when the wind is not blowing hard.

I have finally found the perfect bench for the strolling garden. World Market had a great sale on the outdoor furniture and this white bench fits well among the roses, irises, and daylilies.

The only thing missing in this picture is me!  The winds this past week have pretty much prevented much appreciation of the bench. I did get to sit on it for a little bit Thursday afternoon during a lull in the wind. Seriously this spring has been yo-yoing like crazy. While other parts of the county are getting hammered with rain and tornados, we're getting hammered with a serious drought, constant strong winds and wildfires.

 The garden fairy agrees the bench is perfect. This little statue was a gift from a cousin and enjoyed reigning over the garden until a neighbor's cat knocked it over while stalking poor birds and broke her head. A little bit of super glue and a new location and the fairy is happily back to peaking out under a rose bush, in this case Iceberg. And the cat gets the sprinkler treatement whenever he gets caught in the backyard.

 Naturally she's reading a book on flowers, she is a garden fairy after all.

And this is the view from the bench looking towards the house. Once the daylilies, yarrow and lilies bloom the view will be even more colorful. Two of the asiatic lilies [the orange spots in this photo] did bloom this week. They were planted 6 weeks ago and are really short.

 A closeup of one of the irises trying to hold its head up in the wind. Love the color combination.

My lovely yellow iris. I forgot I had one and have been mentioning I wanted one to friends, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it blooming this weekend. Had to hold onto the stalk to block the wind in order to shoot the photo.

The temperatures have dropped 30 degrees in two days and there's a possible freeze tomorrow morning [oh joy]. Hopefully by the time we get to the middle of next week the temperatures will be back up, the wind way down, and I will be enjoying this view from my new bench with a nice cold drink in hand. Now that would be perfect!

Another Blustery Day

The two big work deadlines for next week haven't left much time to work in the garden. The winds and 90s degree weather hasn't helped either. It's not yet June and we've already had several days in the 90s. Course, none of that has stopped me from plotting my next garden schemes, reading about gardening or hitting the nurseries last weekend for plants. I do have to get on the ball and put more time into the garden though, before it becomes so hot that I can't work in the yard after noon.

Here are some images of what my strolling garden looked like in spring, about a six weeks ago before the roses and irises burst alive with the bulk of their blossoms. The garden is going on three years old now. There was no landscaping when I moved in, except for the bermuda grass the builder had put down two weeks before I moved in. I HATE that grass. It creeps, crawls and leaps everywhere, particularly in my flower beds. Someday I hope to have all the grass removed [except maybe for a very small plot] and replaced with either gravel or a hardscape of some kind. But I digress... annoyance over the grass can do that!

This is looking south. The grass along the right edge by the fence will hopefully be gone by this summer to expand the bed. Then only the grass walkway through the arched arbor will remain. The plan is to have this walkway end at the back bed and to the left of that stepping stones would lead me out to the main grassy area to the left. The Dutch irises had just started going to town around this time.

This view is taken from that grassy walkway looking east. The winds ripped the pretty bird house off the top of the pole so that's something that will need to be replaced. The stone bird bath in the background sits in a small circular bed which will be a herb wheel.

The three-legged, metal rose arbor is still standing... though it's already starting to rust. Have no idea what I'm going to do if and when the thing falls apart. The roses, Climbing America, are going strong. One bush is already over six feet tall and had over 100 blossoms on it when it started blooming.This rose really lives up to its claim to be a vigorous grower. The bush in the foreground is a Bird of Paradise bush that is starting to bloom this month. The bees and hummingbirds love it.

This is the beds in the southeast corner of the yard. It was the first one I dug up and looking back I probably would have put the arbor at an angle in front of the bed but oh well. That's gardening. It's ever changing and I think that's a big reason why people garden. There's always something new. Plants expand, produce "babies" and/or die which requires the purchase of new plants. It's a living canvas which you can make as monochromatic or vivid as you, the gardener, want.

A third matching arbor is sitting in the garage, waiting to be erected. Just have to expand one of the beds to put it in, which would require me to dig out more of the Bermuda grass. Did I mention I HATE the grass?

It's already May... and I'm already behind!

After coming across several great gardening blogs I was inspired to do my own. One of the joys of gardening is that there is always change... a new volunteer pops up in an unexpected place, a flower I can't remember planting appears, or the daylilies make a break for it across the lawn. There is always something new to behold and new ground that needs to be cut out to expand the beds.
     This is also a problem if you're a gardener. I tend to forget where I planted what bulbs and which plants are where until late spring when everything seems to come up at once. I began photographing parts of the garden in an attempt to record where things were, particularly the 500 bulbs I've planted, but flipping through the images on the camera didn't provide the "garden diary" I hoped it would. I'm hoping this blog will help with that. I want to record what has been planted and the growth of my strolling garden over the years.