The Mysterious Watering Can...

The weirdest thing happened last night. This watering can showed up on my front porch! I have been looking around for the 'perfect' watering can for the last week or two. None were just right.

The only person who knew of this hunt was my dear daughter (to my knowledge) because I drug her along on many of the excursions. I was closing down the house for the night and checking on things in the front yard. There it was, sitting on my front porch. There was no note, and though it's in excellent condition, doesn't even appear to be new. It holds two gallons of water. That waters LOTS of plants. I've checked with my gardening buddies and nobody knows anything about it. So I'll just enjoy my mysterious little (BIG!) gift!

My screened porch!

Yeah!!! My screened porch is finally completed! I have wanted one for as long as I can remember. It may not look like much, but it has changed how I feel about the backyard. Now, if I could have my druthers, it would be overlooking a pond, lake or stream with no neighbors nearby, but alas, my suburban backyard will have to do... My sweet friend, Nancy, has always told me that she loves to get up and go out back in wee hours of the morning (before everyone gets up and ruins it!). I now know what she means! Even if only for a few minutes, I go out there with a cup of tea and enjoy the sounds and scents. It IS different in the morning, even if I'm not a morning person! The next phase is to put a simple arbor in front of the porch to semi protect the grill and cover it with Sweet Autumn Clematis.

Spring has SPRUNG!

Spring has arrived in Dallas in it's full glory. It's drop dead beautiful here right now, but don't blink because it'll be 100 degrees before we know it! It's been a trying month, what with losing my job (first time in 27 years!) and health issues I've been trying to ignore. How many time have I heard, "When God closes a door, He opens a window" during this time?? When I've gotten over the shock of it all, it really has been a wonderful time to enjoy my garden. Everything is blooming and it's hard not to sense God's presence all around me. The contractor even showed up to finish my screened porch the day after I got canned. That will be another post... This rose bush looks wonderful, especially since it got butchered to the ground by the fence guys last fall. The Carolina Jasmine has just finished blooming-it was glorious. I thought the Trumpet Vine was a goner, but I've got more than I know what to do with. My butterfly weed is beautiful. Oh, I brought one plant of mint with me last year from the old house and I have now been overtaken. I fear I will have to dig it up and throw it away, but that feels like murder to me!! :) For anyone who might be reading, does anyone have a Fig Tree? I saw one at the nursery the other day and it was just beautiful. I think I might want one. Are than any down sides to these trees?

Overheard in an Orchard...

Said the robin to the sparrow, "I should really like to know...

Why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so?!"

Said the sparrow to the robin, "Friend, I think it must be,

that they have no Heavenly Father, such as cares for you and me!"

Elizabeth Cheney

Blizzard!

Okay, so it's not EXACTLY a blizzard. It's more like a light dusting of snow. This I know for sure, it's WHITE! That's preferable to clear and the ice of weeks past. It was 17 degrees this morning; more that a girl with thin blood can tolerate. Katie heated the car for a solid 10 minutes so I could drive the carpool this morning without complaining all the way. The good news about Dallas is all you have to do is wait and things will change. It's supposed to be 50 degrees this afternoon and the upper 60's in a coouple of days. I'll keep singing "Spring is Coming" to the tune of "Just Keep Swimming"!!!

February "Bloom Day" 2 days early!

I received this amaryllis as a Christmas gift from a sweet friend. I think I planted it a week or so before Christmas. I have patiently watered (and talked to) it ever since. I was rewarded with the above bloom last week. I had to giggle when I read Mr. Brownthumb's blog the same topic. It stayed vibrant and beautiful for a week or so and now it's withering. But man, do those leaves look great! I guess I'll plant this puppy in my garden in a few weeks (when the threat of a freeze is over). I have learned from this experience that patience in not MY virtue.

To Plan or Not To Plan...

I've read with interest over the past week or the virtues of having a garden plan and the question, "Do REAL gardeners PLAN?". I tried to photograph the professional garden plan done for my backyard last fall, but was unsuccessful. So I snagged this copy from BH&G. Here's the link in case you want to plan yours.

http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/bhg/story/data/planagardenhome_03022002.xml

The reason I write about this is that the beautiful, well done, professional, expensive plan has left me cold and uninspired. I think I could get a little more excited had I done the plan, but I'm really not sold on this "planning" concept. I think I fall into the spontaneous, seredipitous group. To me, the thrill is in the hunt. Of course I consider the zone, light and water requirements, but when those area fall into line, most plants are fair game.

I will never have a formal garden thinking like this, I know, and that's okay with me. I think I could do the garden plan thing if I could add plants to the plan as I obtain them.

So, I ask you wonderful gardeners in blogland, do you plan and then get plants according to that plan or not?

Hollyhocks

What a beautiful day it is today! The sun is shining and a lot of things that were impacted in Great Ice Storm of 2007 are on the rebound. Yep, the ice did come, but it really wasn't a storm. We've had lots of rain this month...over 5 1/2 inches in just over 2 weeks. Last year at this time we just has a trace. Since we're still in a drought, this is a good thing and I'll refrain from griping about all the mud and dirty floors. :) I brought several of these hollyhocks over from the other house. This thing is huge!!! At the other house, it died down to the ground in the winter. Tells you a lot about microclimates, huh? That's a big wagon wheel behind it. The hollyhock was all droopy and looked like it was a goner 3 days ago. When it perked back up, it made my heart sing...Spring is Coming!!!

Your Favorite Garden Tools?

Your Favorite Tools?

If you were limited to only a few of your "tried & true" garden tools, what would they be? They say we only wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. I'm thinking this is true with all of our gardening tools, as well. What will the "well dressed" gardener be gardening with this Spring?

A Tree Question...

A Tree Question


I have a question for all you gardeners out there. As I have lamented in previous posts, I am in a new home with NADA in the back yard! Not one tree!!! It''s a shallow, but fairly wide back yard. The houses are on top of each other! I am looking for a multi trunked tree with character to plant in the corner in the back yard. I have a crape myrtle in front yard that's pretty, but I'm wondering if there's something else out there that I can't think of... several trunks, character, color, somewhat fast growing, but doesn't have to get huge.

Am I A Gardener???

Am I A Gardener???

These are questions brought up on the May Garden blog. I garden, therefore I am...

So, what makes a gardener? I think that a gardener someone who likes to grow something (anything) in the dirt.

Do you consider yourself a gardener? Yup!

How did you decide you were a gardener? Whenever I get near a garden center (or plants at the grocery store, for that matter!), my heart beats a little faster and I start imagining where "that plant" could find a new home in my landscape!

When is the first time you referred to yourself as a gardener? I can't remember...I've always thought of myself that way.

Where and how did you learn to be a gardener? Two people were instrumental in my garden rearing. As a very young girl, my grandpa used to let me help him in his vegetable garden. It was a honor and something he took very seriously. Aunt Doris was a huge encouragement in my young adult years. What a gracious lady!

Has anyone ever introduced you to someone else as a gardener? Always! My friend, Lynn, says, "This is my friend, the one who gardens"! :)

When someone tells you they are a gardener, what image of them does it bring to mind? Somebody like me!

What do you expect of them? I expect to hear about their newest acquisition or the latest hunt they're on...or maybe their last gardening trial.

Can a gardener live where there is no place to plant anything, and still remain a gardener? Absolutely! Gardening is a frame of mind! Is there room for a clay pot and some dirt???

What about horticulturalists? Are they a subset of “gardeners” or a whole different group? I think that the gardener is a subset to the horticulturalist. They're the "Big Kahuna"!!

Potting Shed

After reading the "Garden Shed Hall of Fame", I was inspired to blog for the first time since November! Christmas is over and the gardening catalogs are arriving. Here in Dallas, we are bracing for the Ice Storm of the Century (grin) that isn't materializing and I am immersed in my catalogs. Wish I could've brought along my old potting shed, but I couldn't, so I guess I'll start planning my new one. This spring, I hope to get the patio screened in and a good start on the backyard. I hope to plant a multi trunked crepe myrtle and some plants I couldn't bring to the new house with me. I hope to snag another Bridal Wreath Bush (my old one is in the first photo) and a couple of Forsythia. I have a couple of wonderful gardening friends who I know will help me whip this yard in shape. C'mom Spring...you can do it!!!

Help! Anyone know what this is? It looks like some kind of phlox, that is the leaves do, but the flower almost looks like a goldenrod! I remember getting some Wedding Phlox from Spring Hill this spring, but they were in pathetic shape and nothing came up as far as I knew. Now, these puppies just sprouted up in the last few weeks! The pics were taken at sundown and not very good, but does anyone have any ideas?

It is so beautiful today. I really feel it....fall IS coming!!! I've been reading other blogs and feeling cheated because it's been almost 100 degrees for the past couple of days. Woke up this morning and left for church and it was distinctly cool with a wonderful breeze.. The birds were chirping and life just felt good! I found the above garden stone at Fredricksburg Herb Farm. That is the coolest place. Wish I could be there right now! But not to be...off to make a pineapple cheese ball, instead. :)

Red Geraniums
by Martha Haskell Clark

Life did not bring me silken gowns,

Nor jewels for my hair,

Nor signs of gabled foreign towns

In distant countries fair,

But I can glimpse,

beyond my pane,

a green and friendly hill,

And red geraniums aflame upon my window sill

The brambled cares of everyday,

The tiny humdrum things,

May bind my feet when they would stray,

But still my heart had wings

While red geraniums are bloomed

against my window glass,

And low above my green-sweet hill

the gypsy wind-clouds pass.

And if my dreamings n'er come true,

The brightest and the best,

But leave me lone my journey through,

I'll set my heart at rest,

And thank God for home-sweet things,

a green and friendly hill,

And red geraniums aflame

upon my window sill.

My 4 O'Clocks

I just love this plant. It's a special little gift the birds deposited in the creek behind the house. My sweet neighbor,Nancy, came and said, "Look what I found!!" Now we each have a pretty bush of 4 O'Clocks! I'm a little worried when I do redo the beds, none will come up next year. Ididn't get to the seeds fast enough, but certainly some hit the ground.

Gosh, this pretty! Not exactly my garden but I sure did like visiting! I just wanted something pretty to post today!! :) I got my backyard garden plan back this week. I thought I would be so excited, but I guess it felt like if I looked and my new home and somebody else decorated the entire thing. I'm thinking I'll let them dig all the new beds and dig out the many stumps, and I will choose what goes in it, piece by piece. It sure is a pretty plan, but it need my touch, I think, even if it's not so professional!!

Rainy Days & Mondays.....

don't get me down at all!!!! After chatting with a garden friend complaining about too much rain, I asked them to send some my way! It rained for about 10 minutes... I thanked them and later we had a gullywasher for several hours. Boy, did we need that. I hope it rains all night long!

I got a chance to visit my old garden yesterday. It was bittersweet. Everything looked lush and healthy.. maybe even a little wild. Here are grandma's irises. I do hope the few I took along to the new house will survive. That garden took almost 15 years...I need to be patient; we've only been here 5 months!

I'm mourning my old potting shed today. I didn't realize how attached I was to it! I just liked it being in the backyard, even if it was too hot to go in... My new yard just isn't situated for this kind of shed. Since the yard is shallow, I'm afraid it would look out of proportion. I'm toying with the idea of a "gardening arbor". It would be breezy and open. The landscape planner doesn't think it's a good idea, but it's my yard and I happen to LIKE my idea! Maybe I could put a potting table across the back with shelves underneath cover by a curtain of all weather fabric. I would like to see one of these in action and see how they work!