Bearded Irises March 30, 2013

It is iris time.  The irises are loaded with buds.  I moved a lot of my Beardeds last year to a sunnier bed.  They look really healthy, and hopefully I will get a good show this year.

Day at the Farm March 29, 2013

Good Friday at the farm and then to the lake for Saturday and Easter Sunday.

• I spent most of the day on Friday pulling weeds, wandering around, and looking at my gardens.  It was really a special day.  So pleasant.
• My neighbor gave me a clump of cannas that she was digging up.  The flowery are a pale, buttery yellow.  I planted them in the Wave Garden.  She also gave me a Four Nerve Daisy which I am very excited about.  Good front of the border flowers. 
• Watered everywhere with my rain water and watering can.  I watered lots and lots of plants. 
• Sprayed the roses and hollyhocks with fungicide.
• Sprayed herbicide in various places until the sprayer gave out.  
• Puttered around in the Vegetable Garden.  We had a freeze last week.  All the leaves on my tomatoes froze back, but the plants are still alive.  They are set back a bit, but they will recover.
• Went to dinner at the Brazos Belle on Friday evening.

Autumn Sage March 30, 2013

I didn't cut back these two sages, so they are blooming right now.  The ones I cut back are all green right now, no flowers yet.  These plants are deer resistant.  Their foliage is very fragrant.  They will stay green all winter unless it is a very harsh winter.  If you lay a branch down on the ground and weight it down with a brick or a rock, it will root.  Then you can dig it up and  you have a new plant.  This spring I planted 3 new ones that I grew off the mother plants.

Mll Franziska Kreuger March 30, 2013

I didn't cut back this rose in February, so it is in full bloom right now.  I cut back most of the other roses in my gardens.  This rose is a pink and yellow blend.  Very pretty.  One of my best blooming roses.

A Weekend at the Farm March 23 - 24, 2013

It was a very laid back weekend.  Most of the leaves are shredded, and I have no mulch or soil.  So I spent the entire weekend just wandering around, pulling weeds, and day dreaming.  Well, almost.  I did a few things:

• I soaked some Hyacinth Bean seeds and Moonflower seeds in water.  Sowed the Hyacinth beans in the Vegetable Garden.  They aren't edible.  But they are pretty.  Sowed the Moonflower seeds under the arbor in the Long Border.
• Sowed a few more Cucumber seeds under the arbor in the Vegetable Garden.
• Turned the soil over in the Long Border where it was particularly weedy.  Covered it with the last of my mulch and some shredded leaves.
• Turned the soil over in the Orchard in a few weedy spots and covered it with shredded leaves.
• Staked the tomatoes.

The Columbine is blooming.  So pretty.  The passion vine is loaded with buds.  The roses all look so good!  Healthy and full, no buds yet - it's a little early  There are tiny little plums on the plum trees.  The Ox Eye daisies are in bud.  The Vegetable Garden looks healthy.  The blackberry vines are covered in flowers.  The Sweetspire is in bud.  The bearded irises are sending up flower stalks.  The Mexican Buckeyes are about to bloom.  It's an awesome and awe inspiring thing to see.  Spring.  Rebirth.  Second chances.  Hope.

Excelsior Spanish Bluebells March 24, 2013

The bluebells are beginning to bloom. They emerge in the winter, bloom in early spring, and they go dormant and disappear by early summer.

Columbine March 24, 2013

In the photograph above, the George Tabor azaleas, the white Aztec Nicotiana, and the purple Columbine are all blooming.

Scenes from the Weekend March 23, 2013

Here is my husband in one of his most common positions - pulling weeds.

Above and below - the first poppies of the season - one of them is a single and one of them is a double.

This is the first Ox Eye daisy of the season.  I just love daisies.  They are so cheerful.

California Poppies in the Rose Garden March 23, 2013

These poppies are growing around a dead oak tree.  We aren't cutting the tree down because there is no place for it to fall that won't wreck some of my roses.  I planted some Cup and Saucer vine seeds around this tree last weekend.  I'm trying to distract the eye from the eye sore.

African Hostas March 17, 2013

The African Hostas are beginning to emerge.  They have the cutest little spotted leaves.  They flower just as the leaves are beginning to emerge.  The flowers are insignificant, these bulbs are mostly admired for their foliage.  No matter how deep I plant the bulbs, they always work themselved to the surface.  They seem to want to rest on top of the ground with only their roots in the earth.  Unusual.

I have about 75 clusters of these hostas growing in a bed at the top of the Boardwalk.  Next year I will separate and divide the clumps.  These bulbs multiply on top of eachother, not next to eachother.  So they become a jumbled pile of bulbs if they aren't divided.  There is lots of space between each clump, so I will just plant them in the same bed.  They make a pretty picture when the leaves have fully emerged.

Yard Art

My husband made this hand cart for me.  It is for no other purpose than to sit in the yard. I'll put a big vase of yellow wildflowers in it when we have our Crawfish Boil in April.

Wisteria March 17, 2013

This is the first pretty decent year with my wisteria.  One of my two wisteria vines is blooming really well, the other one has nary a bloom on it, not sure why.  It really is gorgeous.  I had visions of having a lovely lunch under the arbor with the scent of wisteria floating on the air.  But the bees are INSANE all over it.  The buzzing roar is somewhat disconcerting, frankly.  It doesn't make for a relaxing lunch.  In my personal bee hive's defense, it is not honey bees that are swarming it, it is gigantic solid black bees. 

California Poppies March 17, 2013

This might be the most obnoxious-colored flower in the plant kingdom.  So, naturally I love it.  It doesn't blend in with anything.  You want to plant it, but where?  It doesn't "go" with anything.  Oddballs:  you're welcome in my garden.