Evolution a Flower Bed

When I build a bed I don't always fill it up right away with plants.  I want to decide what will work.  I use mostly plants that I already have, I just dig some up from other beds where they have spread and transfer them to the new bed.  But I always add something I have never grown.  This bed is just coming out of dormancy after the winter, so it looks a little bare right now.  In the front are Excelsior Spanish Bluebells.  Just behind that are purple Columbine plants that I transferred from paths where they randomly seed.  On the right are old fashioned purple bearded irises that I rescued from an old house.  In the middle (you can't see it because it has not leafed out, and it is small) is a double pink Althea that my neighbor rooted and gave to me.  They get very big, like a small tree or large shrub.  That is my centerpiece plant in this bed, but it will be several years before it is impressive.  To the left, just coming out of dormancy, are my Philippine Violets.  This is a ground cover plant that likes shade, and has little purple and while flowers throughout most of the summer.  I also have a perennial wild flower of some sort that sprang up on its own.  It blooms purple flowers, and it is very pretty.  It is just peeking out of the earth now after the long winter.  At the far end are Chicherees and Paperwhites.  It took several years to fill this bed.  It goes through several periods of beauty - the paper whites bloom first while it is still winter.  The bearded irises bloom in the very early spring.  Then the Bluebells.  The columbines bloom after that.  The wild flowers bloom next, and finally the althea blooms in the middle of summer. 

Crushed Granite Progress March 29, 2014

 No trouble at all!

Purple Columbine March 29, 2014

I have made a lot of effort over the past several years moving columbine seedlings from the paths where they spring up (unwanted) to other flower beds.  I have this pretty little columbine growing everywhere.  And now it is in bloom all over the place - in the shady parts of the Star Garden, in the Infinity Garden, the Shade Garden, and in the back yard. It has a very compact growth habit, very neat in appearance as opposed to, say the Hinckley Columbine which is a Texas native.  I love the Hinckley too, but they grow very differently.  My Hinckleys are not blooming yet, but they are in bud.  Columbines are beautiful flowers.

Red Buckeye March 29, 2014

 I planted this tree in December 2008.  I really like the shape of the leaves.  It blooms in the spring.  The flowers are tubular and very attractive to butterflies.  This tree has a tap root, so it is very drought tolerant.  But when the summer gets really hot - August time frame - Red Buckeyes drop their leaves.  It's a survival mechanism to help the tree make it through the driest part of the summer.  Basically it is bare branches 6 months of the year, a great tree for this area, but not for the front yard in a subdivision.

Weekend at the Farm March 22 - 23, 2014

Saturday was really pretty, Sunday was cold and gray.

• I went to the herb sale in Round Top on Saturday morning.  I bought some treasures:  4 horehound plants, 3 pineapple sage, 4 lambs ears, 3 Dittany of Crete, 5 absinthe wormwood - this is the real wormwood that absinthe is made from, previously I have only grown ornamental wormwood. 2 Roundleaf Rose Scented Geraniums, 2 Rose Scented Thyme, 1 Hyssop Tea Zuta Levana, 4 rosemary plants, and 4 Lion's Tail.  Everything went into the Medicine garden except the Lion's Tail which is an orange flowering perennial.
• Saturday and Sunday I spread some granite in the Star Garden.
• Saturday afternoon our new neighbors came driving up pulling Bert behind them in the Cub Cadet.  It stalled out when he was driving down the road while inviting the neighbors to the Crawfish Boil.  So we spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening with them.  Since they are about to build out here they were interested in our place.  We drove them around the property on all the trails and showed them the gardens, etc.  Fun people!
• I noticed that some of my Rudbeckia Maxima had seeded along the fence in the Vegetable Garden.  I love that plant, so I was very excited about that.  I transplanted four clumps of it to the Star Garden.
• I planted 7 tomato plants in the Vegetable Garden, most of them heirloom varieties:  2 Beefmaster, 1 Lemon Boy, 1 Better Boy, 1 Pineapple, 1 Mountain Pride, and 1 Rutgers Select. Interplanted with Genovese Basil, also planted 3 Genovese in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
• Last week I seeded the newly cleared area in front of the house with Little Bluestem.  I do not see any of it sprouting.  Last weekend I also spread some TexOk Buffalo grass in the back yard.  No sprouting yet either.
• Spread some seed in the Star Garden and the bed I made in the Rose Garden:  Baby's Breath, Bee Balm, Scarlet Flax, and Laura Bush Petunias.
• Planted a Constance Elliot Passion Vine in the same spot I try to grow a vine every year.  Can't seem to keep anything alive in that spot.  I have a goat wire arbor there, and it really needs something growing over it because it looks pretty ugly just sitting there bare.
• Lettuce from the garden for salad Saturday night.
• I found a group of bulbs sprouting by one of my arbors - I had completely forgotten that I moved some pineapple lilies that were being eaten by voles.  I love surprises like that. 
• Watered here and there.
• Cut away dead vegetation in the Shade Garden.  And I cut away the dead Indigo Spires salvia.  It is coming up from the roots.

Forsythia March 22. 2014

 About the only thing blooming now is the forsythia.  The early blooming bearded irises didn't bloom at all due the late, hard freeze we had several weeks ago.  And the Spanish Bluebells didn't bloom either which totally surprised me, I assume it was due to the hard freeze as well, but I had no idea they were that particular about the cold weather.

Progress on Laying Crushed Granite in the Paths

 There are still a lot of paths left to cover, but I'm pretty happy with my progress.  I want to use up the whole pile of rock before the Crawfish boil.  And I want to finish several weeks before the party so I can focus on other activities during those last two weekends such as cooking, cleaning, and weeding!