TEXAS STAR

This picture was taken last year, it is not quite in bloom as yet. Like many of my flowers, it got set back considerably by our late frost. But it recovered, and I am sure by July there will be blossoms.

SUMMER APPROACHES

We had a troubling spring what with a very late frost. Things were in bud, so I lost many of my early flowers. And the leaves on many of my tender trees got crisped. It was a bit aggravating since I wait all winter for the first buds of May. My garden is my main entertainment, that and the wild life that lives in the garden. We are going to have a very dry and hot summer the weathermen are predicting. The local water company is speaking of rationing water to one day a week. That would be a bit devastating for my garden, because there are plants that just would not survive. I am in the process of purchasing mulch and I am going to mulch heavily in case they do as predicted. If I should lose my garden I might just understand what depression feels like.

LATE SPRING FREEZE

I want to make note of the cold snap we had last night.....it is the 7th of April, almost Easter, and we had cold down to 25 degrees last night. It is supposed to be that cold again tonight also. I lost leaves on the Japanese Maples, the butterfly bush totally wilted down, and the chrysanthemums also.....some of the Azaleas, depending on their location lost many of their blossoms. And the Hydrangea is going to have to put out new growth. I haven't taken a look over the whole garden, so I am sure I will see other things that have frozen.

SPRING HYACINTHS 2006

My posts are not very chronologically correct. They jump around a bit. This is from early this spring. These are wonderful bulbs because they come back every year. Hyacinths......

BY THE WALKWAY

SIX YEARS OF GROWING

The pine tree that you see off to the left....had to be cut down because it died. But I took all of the pieces and used them as border for my flower beds, so in essence the tree is still here.

These are two different views of the same part of my back yard. One is from the first year that I lived here, and the other is from this afternoon. What a difference six years and a lot of manure can make. huh!

CREPE MYRTLE

Under the Crepe Myrtle bush. I have a row of different colors of Crepe Myrtle along the little creek. When I moved here there was a natural grade to the back yard. Everything including all the top soil ran down hill. We are a little lower than the house next door and the way they graded their yard, all of their run off water comes around the side of my house and was digging a very deep trench under my back porch. So I made a creek. This took the better part of two years of digging and landscaping to get this the way that I wanted it....But now when it rains, the water from next door now runs down a little creek complete with a couple bridged. The first year everytime it rained I had to go out and pull the leaves away so that the water could run. But now the creek is wide and deep enough to even handle the leaves.

ALTHEA

It was a glorious rainy morning. So I grabbed my camera and went out to get some pictures while there was still water clinging to the leaves. This is a picture of an Althea bush, they come in many shades of pink and purple. I believe they are a member of the hibiscus family, I know one thing, the Japanese beetles love them. I was outside everyday doing beetle control so I would have some blooms.

RAIN ON THE LILY

For the life of me, I can't remember the name of these lilies. This is one of the reasons that I began blogging, as a tool to remind me of things I will otherwise forget. I was calling them Peruvian, but they are not. If anyone knows what their name is, please feel free to let me know.

DAYLILY

Most of my daylilies have already bloomed and are gone. But this one decided to bloom again. I wish I had started blogging when I planted my daylilies, so that I could have made a notation of the names. Each color has its own name.

GAZING BALL

RETAINING WALLS

To hold the soil and create
flower beds I have made running walls with cement blocks. These walls crisscross cross the back yard and are now full of flowers. I no longer have my top soil rolling downhill every time it rains.

PATHES

My yard is on a slope, so to hold the soil and to make it easier to navigate I have built paths our of landscape timbers, rocks and pea gravel. This one is under the back porch.

GARDEN ANGEL

PHLOX

INTO THE WOODS

IMPATIENCE

The first year that I lived here, I planted several different colors of Impatience. Since that time I had not had to plant any new seedlings. They have managed to scatter enough seed so that every spring I have more new plants than I can possibly use. I just let them come up where ever they want, and I don't pull any out unless I want to move some to a new location. This is just one small section. They cover the entire walkway which extends upward to the porch a good 15 feet or more.

GARDEN TRAIL

My garden is on a sloping yard. So I have used natural landscaping to try and hold the soil as well as create an interesting walkway. Most of the rocks used came from my own back yard. I have used some commercial landscaping materials, because as many rocks as there are here, there still isn't enough for the amount of landscaping that I have done. This is just one path, thre are many.

SUMMER IN THE GARDEN

It is now the middle of July, the the backyard has a totally different look than it did in early spring.

Many of the plants you see are volunteers. They reseeded themselves when last years flower head dried. The purple are the old fashioned variety of Phlox. They stand three feet tall and stay in bloom for the better part of the summer. They come in white, lavenders, pinks and shades of purple. I have several different colors, but this deep pinkish purple seems to reseed best.

The Zinia's are summer color. They are annuals and will not live over till next season, but as with the Phlox, they have thousands of seeds that I can save for next year.

EARLY SPRING IN THE GARDEN

The garden looks so different before the trees have leaves. This is from this spring, about the first of April, 2006.

CREEPING PHLOX

Phlox come in many shades of pink/purple. These are the hottest ones that I have in my garden. They seem to love the climate here, and they grow bigger and more lush each year. They love the pea gravel, and little plants start from the seed that falls among the stones. I no longer have to buy new plants, I just move the seedlings around where ever I want.

MY GRANDMOTHER

My one regret is that my Grandmother isn't alive today to share my garden. She passed away at the age of 99 in about 1979.

She never bought a flower, everything was raised from seed. And she never had the proper sunlight, nor the money for the amount of fertilizer that was needed to raise showcase flowers. I remember when I was about 13, she moved out of our home and into a home of her own for the first time. She was so thrilled because for once she had a place of her own to raise flowers.

There was a driveway that led into the garage, and since Grandma didn't have a car, she decided in between the cement drive lanes was a perfect place for flowers. So my first job as a dirt relocater began. She had me dig up all the grass from inside that area, and take it back to the bare earth. This driveway was a good 30 or 40 feet long and the area in the middle was the width of a car. This was no small job for a girl who weighted about 90 pounds dripping wet, and stood just about 4 feet 10 inches. But I got it done. She immediately planted flowers in that area. Grandma was so proud of her flowers. I enjoyed them, as a child of 13 does. It was much later in my life, when I realized that my love of flowers and gardening was becoming obsessive. But what better obsession could a person have?

I don't have any really deep belief in religion, but I do however believe in a higher power. I am hoping that Grandma is looking down and smiling at my garden.

HUMMINGBIRD IN FLIGHT

Rare footage of a hummingbird in flight. You don't see the wings, do you? He has them, they are just moving so fast they didn't photograph.

GARDEN TIP: Buying Plants

Garden Tip of the Day: the smaller the plant the better. I always shake my head at people who go into a garden shop and buy the biggest plant they can find. The chances of the roots being bound are so much greater in a larger plant. And when they go into shock they just sit there and don't grow. Often after they die, and you pull them out of the hole, you will see that no new roots have grown at all. If you must buy a huge plant, break up the root ball and give the plant a chance. Then drench the plant in a mild solution of vitamin B. It will help the plant recover from shock. I do most of my planting during rain storms. Plants love it if they can have a few days without hot sun to get established.

TEXAS STAR

A TEXAS STAR Hibiscus. Freezes to the ground each year, and successfully grows to the height of about six to eight feet. The flowers are on the ends of each stalk, so to keep flowering it has to keep growing. By the end of summer it is very tall and spindley.