Rain!

We've had almost 4.5" of rain since Wednesday. Can I tell you how happy that makes me? We've been so dry this winter and had begun to be in drought conditions. We had rain most of Wednesday, the light, gently kind that really soaks into the ground and waters it deeply. Today, we picked up almost another inch of the glorious wet stuff. Again, it was the nice, gentle kind of rain. Hopefully, this is just the beginning on the spring rains in Texas.

This was my rain gauge yesterday morning. (Happy, happy, joy, joy!)



We've finally warmed up to 39º, a big improvement over the 38º we've had for most of the day! LOL I'm happy with the rain, but not so happy with the temps. I drug in all my tender plants that are waiting to be planted and all my winter sown jugs. They probably would've been okay, but some have sprouted and I didn't want to chance the young sprouts.

After the rain ended, I went and checked out the flower beds. The pincushion flower (scabiosa) I planted last fall has bloomed. It's a very delicate pink and very cute!



The pink Texas salvia that survived the winter put out its first blooms, too!



Here's a different view, but not as easy to see the blooms.



My Autumn Joy sedum is taking off again! It's already bigger this year than it was last year. This is really easy to grow, too. You just take a piece and stick it in the ground and it grows.



Lastly, the first buds on my poppies!!




This afternoon, my husband and I planted 8 more jugs of seeds. This time, I planted:

a Butterfly/Hummingbird mix
Sunset Coneflowers
Purple Coneflowers
Butterfly Weed (orange)
Drummond Phlox (old seed, so I doubt any will germinate)
Dill
White Rock Rose
and something else that I can't remember

I'm hoping that this planting is as successful as the first one!! Next year, I'm going to buy seeds in the fall and plant early January.

An Evening Stoll through My Garden

The past week, we've had awesome temps, so things are really starting to green up (including the weeds) and I've been itching to get outside and get some dirt on my hands. I'm also gearing up for the spring plant swap. Hope to be able to get some great things as well as give several things away.

The Texas Gold Columbines are really taking off. Starting in February, they start putting out lots of new, green growth in preparation for their annual profusion of blooms. Found my first buds almost ready to pop today! Sorry for the blurry pic, but I was so excited to find the buds!



Among the leaves of covering among the columbines, Pigeonberry is starting to show its leaves.



As always, the Four Nerve Daisies are strutting their stuff.



The daylilies have really leafed out! They look so mature this year, like real clumps! LOL



The poppies are growing. Can't wait for these to set buds and bloom. I threw these out late fall last year. Not even sure how big they get or when they bloom, so it'll be interesting with them. Sometimes the best gardening is trial & error.



This Hummingbird Sage (aka Texas Sage, aka Salvia coccinea) survived the winter and has buds on it. They're about to pop!



This is a very prolific bloomer and seeder, so I got TONS of seeds leftover from last year's harvest. If you're interested, I'm happy to share.

Lastly, my winter sowing project has been a hit! At the beginning of February, I started about 13 milk jugs of seeds outside. I wrote about it on my gardening blog if you want the blow-by-blow description. Out of the 13, only about 4 or 5 don't have anything peeking out yet. I'm most excited about the one pink skullcap seedling I saw today. Here's a peek into a few of the jugs today.

I think these are one of the salvias I planted. These will definitely need to be thinned!



This is a low growing mix from Wildseed Farm. I have no idea what's sprouted in there! LOL



Here's the container of Gaillardia, better known as Blanket Flower.

My Winter Sowing Project

Starting seeds for your gardens is a lot cheaper than buying seedlings or more mature plants. However, starting seeds indoors is a pain in the patootie. You have to provide consistent water, light, heat, and hope that the gnats and spider mites don't take up residence in your soil and on your seedlings. Mold starts growing on the soil, which kills the seeds. Last fall, at the plant swap I attended, a couple of the ladies were talking about winter sowing. It sounded simple enough, so I decided to give it a go.

In winter sowing, you start your seeds after the winter solstice in the dead of winter. You leave your seeds in milk jugs (or whatever type of container you choose) outside, so that the natural life cycle of sowing seeds in your climate is mimicked. You can fill your entire landscape with plants you've winter sown. Winter sowing allows your seeds to start growing earlier, thus producing flowers earlier. For some perennials that normally don't bloom until their second growing season, you'll often get them the first season if you winter sow.

I chose to use milk jugs, rinsed of course. I asked my husband to drill some drain holes in the bottom and some air holes in the top of the jugs. Then we cut the jug on three of the four sides so that I could fill with dirt and seeds. I used old metal blinds, cut, to label the plants. If you use a plain #2 pencil to write on the blinds, it won't fade and you'll know what seeds you have in the spring.

Here's how I did it.

Step One: Drill drain holes in the bottom of your milk jug.



Mark used his drill and drilled 7 or 8 small holes in the bottoms.

Step Two: Drill vent holes in the top of the jug to allow in air and water. Discard the lids.





Steps Three & Four: Draw a cutting line about 1/4" below the bottom of the jug's handle. Cut it three-fourths of the way around the jug. Fill with about 3" of potting soil.






Step Five: Water the soil and sow your seeds. Cover with about 1/4" of soil and tamp down. Insert label on the INSIDE of the jug. If you label on the outside, use a paint pen as everything else will fade and you'll be stuck with a bunch of unknown seedlings.

Step Six: Tape the sides closed. I used duct tape and cut it into small strips. I placed one strip on each corner and one or two pieces on each side.

Step Seven: Water and place on the east side of your home or yard. This allows the jugs to get morning sun and afternoon shade. When things start heating up, you don't want the seeds to fry. Make sure you place them in the open so they can get any rain that falls. If you put them under the eaves of your house, they'll not get any rain. If you're in a drought like we are, you'll have to water them about once a week.

Step Eight: Wait and watch!!

I started these a week ago, and I noticed some seeds sprouting when I checked on them today!! Oh joy!

Things are Waking Up!!

It doesn't seem like we've had much winter this year, which is a bummer as the cold weather is needed for some seeds, but it also helps kill off some of the pests. We've also had a dry winter which will affect the amount of wildflowers we have bloom later on the spring.

Things are beginning to pop up around here, though, which is always so exciting. I didn't do much to my beds before the cold weather set in, so it'll be interesting to see what survived the winter. I haven't taken any pics recently, but here are some from late January.

The poppies are starting to come up.



My dormant daylilies are starting to pop up with nice adult-looking leaves.







Out in the front flower bed, the Autumn Joy Sedum is starting to show its little rosettes of new growth.



The Four-Nerve Daisy has been strutting its stuff all winter long!!



The Columbines are putting off lots of new growth and greening up.



The plants I left outside over the winter, crammed up against our sunroom wall, have all survived and are now putting out new growth.



Lastly, almost all of the small plants I overwintered in my sunroom have survived!

Columbine seedlings. Some have been destroyed by spider mites. :(


My frostweed is coming back!! I'm really excited about this!


Various small seedlings and plants leftover from last year's fall round up.

Something for the Birds

And the squirrels!! The Possum-haw Holly is decked out in all its finery for winter. The bright red berries attract the blue jays and the squirrels. The berries will provide nourishment for the beasts throughout the winter.

Here it was about a month ago. The berries were still a bit green.



Here it was yesterday in the bright sunshine.



Possum-Haw Holly is a native Texas plant. It can be a shrub or small tree. It's great for winter interest, requires little to no care once established. This one is planted in a bad location (came with the house when we moved in) so we do have to trim it a couple of times a year.

My Big Plans Petered Out

Or, maybe I should say I petered out! I had big plans out in the garden today. It was a perfect gardening day. There was a light breeze, the temps weren't dreadfully cold or hot, and there was lots of bright sunshine. I was going to weed, put down fresh compost, throw out some seeds, then top off with new mulch. The only thing that got accomplished was going to buy mulch, ten...yes, TEN (10) bags of mulch. I also got some pics of what's going on in my flower bed right now. The cool weather has really put a stop to most of my bloomers. So, let's talk mulch.

This is such a beautiful picture. Not only because of the bags of mulch, but because it's in the bed of my truck. My truck that's been out of commission for about 2 months because I thought it was the battery that needed to be replaced. My husband, the mechanic, said it was the fuel something or other. Two months later, turns out it was the battery. Need I say more?!?

I digress.



Mulch is essential in every garden. The two most important functions of mulch are water retention and weed control. A proper layer of mulch, approximately 4", helps the soil retain water, thus cutting down on the amount of water you need to use to keep your plants flourishing. Less water usage equals a lower water bill during those hot summer months. If you live in an area prone to drought and have water rationing, mulching will help your plants stay healthy when you can't water. My favorite kind of mulch to use is a native Texas shredded red cedar mulch. The finely shredded cedar smells GREAT when you take it out of the bag, deters pests, and doesn't usually float away in the rain. The neighbor's cats, however, love to dig in it! LOL

This is what we use in our beds, Texas Native Cedar Mulch from Austin Wood Recycling in Cedar Park, TX. We get it at our local Lowe's. It costs us $3.08/bag. We buy the busted bags for $1 each. What a bargain! I don't like the chunkier mulch as it's a pain in the patootie to use and the bigger chunks float. I used it my first year in a small bed in the back and decided never again! I was sweeping mulch off the patio all the time. Also, you want to avoid the fake-looking colored mulch. It might look pretty, but it's full of chemical coloring. Chemicals are not good for plants and the soil. If I wasn't using shredded cedar, I'd use native hardwood tree mulch, but that's more attractive to nasty bugs, and my goal is to keep the bug population out of my garden. I hate bugs. I'll take bees, birds, hummers, butterflies, anoles, lizards, and ladybugs, though. They're all good bugs to have in the garden. :o)



You can see in the following picture how finely it's shredded. If we had smell computers, you'd be able to smell the wonderful aroma. Too bad we're not that advanced.




Weeds are every gardener's nemesis. I wish we didn't have to deal with weeds. I hate weeds, but they exist. I keep waiting for the weed eradicating fairy to arrive at my house, but I think she got lost along the way. This year, the weeds have been especially bad in my front bed. I think it's because the compost I put in this past spring wasn't really ready and hadn't heated long enough and decomposed properly. I was in a hurry and was still dealing with my back problem.

My plan before the dead of winter sets in is to try to pull the weeds by hand or to dig them out. Then, I'm going to apply some horticultural cornmeal which acts as an anti-fungal and pre-emergent weed killer. On top of that, I'm going to put a layer of newspaper with little slits or cut out areas in which I'll put the various seeds I'm going to sow now for next year. Then, I'll top with some compost from the compost pile and a nice thick layer of mulch. I doubt I'll need all 10 bags. I need to add some to a long narrow bed along the garage and a small bed in the back.

I'll let you know in the spring if my plan worked. I don't want a repeat of this next spring, weeds encroaching upon my Autumn Joy Sedum.



Lastly, there is one other type of mulch we use. It's in ready supply and free. We have a small bed in the front of our house that gets total shade from a huge oak tree. It also gets lots of acorns from said tree, but that's another story for another time, maybe this winter when it's absolutely dead in the garden. Once again, I digress.

So, in this little bed, I have native columbine, pigeonberry, and some daylilies. When we moved in, there was nothing planted in this bed. It was covered in a thick layer of leaves, since the house had been vacant for over a year and the yard had been neglected. When we planted last spring, we dug out all the leaves and hauled them to the compost pile in the backyard. It took us about 4 trips to the compost pile to get all the leaves. We ammended the soil with cottonseed hulls, mushroom compost, and compost from our compost pile, planted our new plants, then put down our cedar mulch. The first good spring rain came, and our mulch washed down the driveway! We decided to put the leaves back in the bed as mulch until we get gutters and a downspout to redirect the rain from the roof. They've worked extremely well and they don't float away.

Here's a pic I took this afternoon of the leaves with some ripe pigeonberries.



Here's what the Columbine bed looks like in early spring when the Columbines are at their growth peak.



Until next time, happy gardening!

Plant Swap! (AKA "Free Plants")

This afternoon, my husband and I drove over to Arlington to participate in the North Central Texas Plant Swap hosted by the Texas Gardeners group on the Dave's Garden website. What an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon! The weather was absolutely perfect, not too hot and not too cool, a light breeze, and lots of sunshine. There were about 50 of us, give or take a few, and TONS of plants to be traded and given away. Almost all of the plants were from individual's gardens, either from volunteers, dividing clumps, rooting cuttings, or plants people didn't want any longer.

Here's what I took:





I had some Rock Rose (pavonia), Ruellia "Katie's Pink", a couple of Shasta Daisy "Becky", and May Night Salvia. Yesterday, I dug up several starts of Pigeonberry that I discovered out by the compost pile and took those along as well.

This is what I came home with:

I don't know what half of these things are, but thankfully they're all labeled!



More plants.



My husband scored a tomato plant with little flowers on it as well as some seed starting trays.



Here's a picture of the trade tables. Every member was assigned a spot at the tables and it was marked with each person's board name. Plants brought for pre-arranged trades were put under the table at each person's place. Extras were put on top of the tables.





I am already making plans for the spring swap!! Now all I have to do is get all this stuff planted before the first freeze!