An Obsessive/Compulsive plant collector

That dreadful plant- Butterfly vine.....

2011-05-05T19:15:00.009-05:00

Ancient one has complained about the honeysuckle vine that plagues her garden. I countered with my very worst problem, the Butterfly Vine.

My MIL innocently gave me a start of this vine. It lives on my fence and offers marvelous privacy; nothing can see through it, nothing can go through it. Birds blissfully build their nests in it, knowing they are safe from cats, as it is not sturdy enough for the cats to climb on.

It does not freeze, stays green all year long. When it blooms, it is a lovely yellow blanket, and it blooms for a long time. I have never seen a seedling, so I suspect the seeds are sterile, BUT....it roots very easily, anywhere it touches the ground.

I have found vines as long as 40' long, and would not doubt they grow much longer. This is a tough vine.

The seed pods are a real novelty. They are a lime green butterfly, and it is very exciting to see all those butterflies on the fence.

The lime green butterflies dry to a golden brown butterfly and will stay in that form for years. They do not break down and fall apart. They can be painted with acrylic craft paint, glued to a stick and used as a decoration for a pot plant, or worn in your hair as an adornment. If you look at the first photo, you can see a really good dry seed pod.
This is one of those plants- you like it, you hate it.

Honeysuckle does at least have a lovely fragrance. Butterfly vine does not smell good.

We are harvesting! Nom, nom, nom!

2011-04-27T17:33:00.004-05:00

This is that squash I was talking about. I have cooked it, and already given our first mess of squash away. I am activily seeking persons willing to take some squash. I am harvesting a half dozen squashes a day. The funny looking thing in the middle of the bed is 'Flamingo Fred', one of the birds Bobby makes.

You get out and work a little, you have to set awhile. Bobby made this bench for me from an old iron bed. It is comfortable when the cushion on it, I am protecting the cushion at this time, as we have a 4 legged thief in the neighborhood.

The cucumbers are full of small fruit, I am picking enough every day for salads and to satisfy my cucumber desires. I love cucumbers, and it is one crop that I seldom have enough to give freely. I will share the cucumbers, although grudgingly sometimes.

The broccoli is done, Bobby has pulled it by now and replaced it with 3 pepper plants and a bumch of butterbeans. I can taste them already!

One of the birds is in the broccoli plants here. That is Buttercrunch lettuce in front of the broccoli, and tomatoes to the left of him.

This is 'He Who Waters'. It seems that he always has a watering hose in his hands.

Our tomato plants are huge, and they are loaded with tomatoes! I am painting golf balls, tennis balls and ping pong balls bright red, so we can hang them in the tomato plants. We need to get this done this week. The birds peck on a golf ball a couple of times, and they will pretty much leave the ripe tomatoes alone.

Tomorrow, or the next day, the zinnias will bloom. What a picture that will be!

Cucumbers!

2011-04-11T21:05:00.007-05:00

We have cucumbers on the vines! They are about 2" long now, we should have some in a salad this weekend, unless I eat them all before they make it into the house.

We will have tomatoes by the end of April. We have lots of nice tomatoes on the vines, and a ton of blooms. I grow only indeterminate vines, as I will have more than enough to eat, preserve, and share from them. I don't look forward to having all my produce come in at once, so I have to do something with 3 bushels of fruit at once. Lazy me.....

Some of the tomatoes from the generic sales are Brandywines and some are Large Red Cherry, (one of my favorites!), so I am very pleased with that deal. No cardboard tomatoes so far.

I am going to be in trouble with the squash. I planted lots of seeds, with the idea that I could share some plants with friends, but I had no takers, and now the plants are too large to transplant, so I am going to be sneaking around in the dark, putting squash on people's porches. I will probably get dog-bit...

I will be giving zuchinni away too, but I should not have any problem with eggplant. I only have one eggplant plant. That will be plenty for us.

My Dad planted a whole pack of eggplant seeds one year. He was going crazy with all that eggplant, LOL. He said people were avoiding him...he finally put it on the side of the road with a sign that read "FREE! PLEASE HELP YOURSELF!"

We planted okra last Saturday, along with purple hull peas. I am racking my brain, trying to figure out what to plant after the lettuce and broccoli are done. My mind goes blank when I realize that it is going to be May already, and I really don't have any ideas. Maybe some yard long beans, or maybe I will broadcast a cutting garden and grow flowers.

Slow me down, please.....

2011-03-19T12:00:00.005-05:00

We now have squash and zuchinni growing in the garden! Everything planted to date is doing very well, I am encouraged. The spinach, Swiss chard, cucumbers, et al have true leaves now, and I am feeding them with a weak 'tea'. They love it!

I planted 5 packs of zinnia seeds in front of the pole beans growing on the trellis, and behind the 1015y onions. There was just enough room there to create an island of bright colors.

The birdhouse gourd seeds that we planted last week are up already and Bobby says you can see them growing! That is a scary thought!

I also planted some Armenian cucumbers. I have not grown them before, and I hope they are as interesting to look at as the pictures in the catalogs, and I am interested in their flavor. I cannot imagine a cucumber that tastes like anything other than the regular cucumbers....

We set out the hyacinth bean plants that Bobby has grown in 4" pots. They will fill the fence line and give us some desirable privacy. They are pretty to grow too. I have a cazillion seeds, and I would be very happy to share, if anyone wants some of them. I certainly cannot use all these seeds, and I hate for them to go to waste. It is a pretty vine, dark green leaves on top, with purple on the underside of the leaf. They bloom in the early fall and put on the most BEAUTIFUL, SHINY, PURPLE seed bean you ever saw. I love the beans as much as the flower! Anyway.....PLMK.

Progress......

2011-03-05T09:18:00.003-06:00

Raining today. It is supposed to rain most of the day, with wind gusts up to 35 mph. We NEED the rain, not the wind, tho.

Long white radishes are up. Buttercrunch, romaine, loose leaf, Red Sails- lettuce is up. Spinach is up. Cucumbers are peeking out. 'Bright Lights' Swiss chard is up and looking very bright, with it's stems of red, orange, pink, yellow, and pale green.

Harvesting cabbage, cauliflowers, and broccoli when it quits raining.

Bobby planted his pepper plants, and something promptly ate one off at the soil level. It is gone, he is outraged! Not funny, but I get so tickled at him. He thinks that just because it is HIS, it is safe from the normal chances we all take when we assign something to the ground. LOL

I have lilies up in the flower beds, and my chaste trees are budding. Lots of things that I thought were dead for sure are putting on leaves. Some things that are in pots survived- I think that surprises me more than anything.

Copper Canyon Daisy is BEAUTIFUL! Not blooming yet, but all leafed out. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow has buds. It is going to be a spectacular Spring!

Name unknown, unknown variety....

2011-03-02T07:10:00.003-06:00

We were in our local WalMart last night, looking at their seedlings. Bobby wants to buy peppers now, as they are already plants, and he doesn't have to wait for warm weather for them to germinate.....

Anyway, there was this huge cart full of beautiful tomato plants, marked 'tomato'. No variety, no common name, just 'tomato'. Generic tomatoes, for the non-discriminating gardener. They were very cheap.

I bought 3 and I can't wait to find out what kind of tomatoes they are. I just hope they are not those that remind me of eating cardboard.

And we did find pepper plants. Cowhorn, cayenne, jalapeno, giant jalapeno, serano. Still looking for the 'Ghost' pepper........

2011-02-26T21:07:00.002-06:00

"No, wait!" I said, "don't till there, I think ...."

Too late. He had already tilled up the asparagus bed. The lovely, tender shoots were gone. Of course, he had to weed eat the bed first. THEN he tilled it up!

It looks great, tho. All fluffy soil....

I am going tomorrow afternoon to do some trading with a friend. She has some different varieties of tomato plants, and I am going to trade some of mine for some of hers.

Planted seeds of spinach and mustard today.

It was supposed to rain every day this past week. We have not seen a drop of rain yet.

A good thing, we hauled a whole truckload of weeds to the dump this afternoon.

Planting, planting, planting!

2011-02-21T18:52:00.003-06:00

I am planting! Vegetables, flowers, shrubs!

Mostly veggies right now, with a few flower seeds, and I have relocated some shrubs that have looked bad for awhile. Actually, EVERYTHING has looked bad for a long while! I cannot stand it any longer.

We have cabbages and cauliflower, and broccoli, peas, and onions. That is all the winter stuff that I will eat, and I have decided that I don't have enough time to take care of things we won't eat.

In a couple of weeks, I will set tomatoes in the ground, with lettuces, and beans. In about 3 weeks I will plant squash, cucumbers and zuchinni. In a month, or 6 weeks, I will plant peppers and okra. That is all I am going to grow. I love to eat all of that stuff.

AND...zinnias! I am going to put zinnia seeds in at mid-March. They are my favorites!

I am still doing 'pottree', as the guy from Louisianna says. He is a fabulous potter, so he can say it any way he wants to say it.

I took a 4 day workshop back in January, and had a ball. Learned to throw BIG pots, in 3 pieces, sculpted the ugliest lady you ever saw, and learned Raku! from the 'Pottree' guy. And I learned that I love handbuildings! I am having a great time.

It felt so good to have my hands in the dirt again.

2010-11-07T14:02:00.005-06:00

Well, I am still here. I come here to read all your posts, and check on everybody, but I seldom find enough time to actually post anything.

I started taking a couple of classes at the college last winter; Ceramics I quickly turned into Summer Ceramics, and then Ceramics II. I have been seduced by the clay, captured into the bondage of needing to do that every day! I have become a pottery junkie.

This is the first big coil pot I made. Big is great in pottery!

Bobby is an enabler, too. He has donated a nice portion of his shop to set up a studio for me. We have purchased a kiln, have a couple of pottery wheels, and he is busy building a slab roller and an extruder for me, AND a Raku kiln. He is really fascinated with that Raku firing. I have so many tools already, and he is busy making more, making more. Talk about obsessive compulsive!

I call this the 'Fox Pot', but have been accused of making a 'rat pot', an 'armadillo pot' and the latest, a 'chupacabra pot'. No, that is a fox, in my mind, LOL.

His tail is a spout, but what such a big pot needs a spout for is beyond me. My inspiration for this pot was a picture of a pre-Columbian pot, c. 100-500 BC. It turns out the the pot in the picture was a little tea pot, and only 5" tall! My 'Fox Pot' is about 20" tall. He has been pit fired since these pictures were taken, and is black and terracotta now. He is also being exhibited in an Art Show right now, along with my porcelain bird's nest.

I am also taking a Spanish language class, and I really enjoy that. I always wanted to learn to speak Spanish, but couldn't seem to grasp what was going on with it. Now I have a Spanish friend who helps me, and I get to speak the language daily.

Of course, my garden has suffered terribly. We have just finished getting the winter garden planted, so I feel a bit better about it, but my flower beds need an army of gardener's attention. I would hire someone to help me, but right this minute, I don't have time to do it myself. I am looking forward to Christmas vacation, to have some time to catch up on stuff.

AND....I have been watching what I eat, and have lost 25 lbs. so far! I am thrilled, thrilled! Still some to go, but I have it in my head now, and I can do anything once I get my head on straight.

Thank you so much for thinking of me. You made my day!

An afternoon very frustrating....

2010-08-08T17:33:00.002-05:00

I have not been here for awhile. Too hot to be in the garden just now, I am longing for the cooler days of autumn.

I have just finished an afternoon of computer training for my husband. He is a very bright and intelligent man who just turns to jelly in front of a computer. "It makes me feel stupid..." he says. I have quit telling him that it does that to everyone.

I just look at him.

This computer is a new HP laptop with Vista in it. He is using an Excel spreadsheet. This is work related, and he is EXTREMELY protective of the formula set into the spreadsheet. He keeps telling me how I can mess it all up if I hit the 'wrong thing'.... Really? I just look at him.

Sooooo...I am supposed to teach him all I know about the computer, but I should not even LOOK like I was going to touch his computer....???? He says "Why are you looking at me like that?"...

Finally, we got through two email exercises with attachments successfully. He wants to do that again. Amazing how enthusiastic he gets when something goes right. Amazing how he has just told me that I am a less than adequate teacher.

Amazing that I have not made equally complimentary remarks.

And when we are done, (because thankfully, the computer ran our of juice and shut down), he says that I am a better teacher than he is a student. I suspect he wants clean sheets, clean clothes and food next week. He has to say that.

I am not forgetting his snide remarks. I have a very long memory.

He has had a computer for years. He has a new computer that he got last Christmas. Why has he waited until now to learn something about it?

GRRRRR!!!

AND.....he insists on typing in all caps. I have gently explained that it is tacky, and people will think he is yelling at them. He says he doesn't know how to type....excuses, excuses.

I am going to throw some clay.

Does anyone doubt for a minute why I love 'throwing clay'?

My garden is weedy. I am frustrated by the fact that it is over 100 degrees every day, and was 81 degrees at 6:30 am- this morning. I can't work in that kind of heat, so I just water and water, and it will be o.k. until it cools off.

I hope your garden is flourishing.

Yes, there are herbs in the garden!

2010-05-22T16:28:00.003-05:00

Nell Jean at Secrets of a Seedscatterer has a neat poll about herbs we grow in our gardens. Reading the post, the poll and the comments had me chuckling, thinking about some of the herbs I have grown.

Someone asked if dill counts as a herb. Most certainly it does, and there are many varieties. As a matter of fact, most plants will qualify as herbs, although we don't think of them as such. Roses are considered herbs, but I'm not gonna cook my chicken with the leaves.....

Some herbs are such thugs, I have to seriously consider how I can grow them before I will plant them. Oregano is one, as is mint of any kind. Lemon balm is another. I often plant herbs in big containers, and watch how they grow for a couple of years before I will plant them in the garden.

Mexican marigold mint isn't really a mint. We call it Texas tarragon. It will layer, but I don't have seedlings everywhere.

Cilantro is grown in my garden for flavoring the Mexican food I like to cook. I let it flower, because I love the pretty white flowers that look like lace waving in the breeze. It is a cool weather herb, and goes to seed quickly as the weather warms. We gather the seeds and save them as comino, or coriander. I grind them with a mortar and pestal to use in my carne guisada. Que rico!

We have garlic, common small garlic, and the Elephant garlic. (Garlic is a manly crop, as are the hot peppers, so the Man grows them.) Chives with delicate onion flavor, and the garlic chives, with the decidedly more robust garlic/onion flavor are both easy to grow.

Rosemary loves our hot sun, as does basil, and tansy. I tuck the thyme under another plant for protection. Sage is the same. Nothing is as good as poultry cooked with fresh sage and thyme...
or fish cooked with rosemary.

Comfrey is used as a medicinal plant here. It is great as a poultice; mash the leaves and apply to minor injuries. ( See a doctor for major injuries...) I don't think people eat comfrey, but it has lovely little pink flowers and big leaves. AND...comfrey is one of those plants that "Once you have it, you always have it.".....like crape myrtles.

Yarrow, wormwood, and horehound are ornamentals here. I grow them in my garden for the foliage. We can grow the common white yarrow, and the horehound grows wild. The wormwood has a pretty grey/green foliage. They are all thugs, and I have to pull them all about every other year. It doesn't matter one whit to them, they are back with abandon very quickly!

Parsley, curly and flat grows well here. My plants are huge, waiting for the butterflies to come eat them. The fennel too, is awaiting the butterflies. It is 4' tall now and beautiful. I wonder how long it will last if we ever get any butterflies...

The lemon grass is growing so fast now that we can almost watch it grow.

Alas, I cannot grow lavender. It does not appreciate our heat and/or humidity.

But I can grow lemon verbena, and I love it! I speak for large groups quite often, and the lemon verbena is fantastic for calming jittery nerves. I break a piece with a couple of leaves, and keep it in my pocket. The fragrance is very pleasing, and a couple of sniffs just calms me right down. Everybody knows who the speaker is; She is the one sniffing the lemon verbena!

Look at what is blooming.......

2010-04-17T16:02:00.005-05:00

I passed this again this morning, and just had to turn around to get a picture. I have been wanting to post it for you to see for a couple of weeks, and I know it will be gone soon. I love this time of year.

This is what is blooming for us.
Our wildflowers are fantastic this year. We just got back from a road trip to Dallas, and the wildflowers were just gorgeous.

to my eyes, thrilling.....

2010-03-20T10:05:00.004-05:00

We are going to have some nasty, cold weather blow in very soon. Like, in about 15 minutes, the temperature is going to drop from a balmy 63 degrees to about 45 degrees real quick, and we expect a freeze tonight. Hopefully, this will be the last freeze of the year.

So, in advance of all that, I was out trying to take care of some of my new tender foliage that I am so proud of, and I found this.
Tucked in among many weedy things is this little clump of Dianthus. They have been here for at least 3 years, and they just flourish. I will tend to this area this weekend, after the weather clears.

It is here. The cold, the wind, the rain. Yuk.

But I do have this patch of dianthus. It doesn't take much for me.

Signs of Spring

2010-03-11T07:54:00.004-06:00

I have seen many signs of Spring here lately.

I saw Mr. Robin RedBreast. He is so fat he can't fly. I worry that a cat might get him.

I see new foliage, decorating stems that I thought were dead, and that have yet to be cut back.

I saw the first shorts of the season, and a halter top as well. It was
76 degrees F after all! I was NOT wearing either, by the way.

I see tractors in the field, planting that corn. I think most of the farmers
are done with the planting.

I saw crop dusters working already! That's always exciting!

I see all the students out of school for Spring Break, including ME! WhoopEE!

I see roses blooming, but that is about all. I am very fearful that my
gardens took a major hit this winter. It could well be "Time to Shop"!

I see tomatoes and marigolds in the vegetable garden; also peas, onions,
cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, cilantro, dill, oregano, mints,
Laura Bush petunia (although they are not blooming yet), and volunteer
pepper plants.

We are having lovely weather; pleasantly warm during the day, but a
little cold at night. Actually, it has been downright cold at night, but
that will change, and I am asleep then, so I don't care a lot. However,
cuttings don't root very well until the night temps are consistently
above 70 degrees.

We have seed racks full of wonderful packets of seeds, the packages being
small works of art. We have plants in the nurseries, and the nursery keepers
are looking forward to having a good year.

Life is good.

Starting to whine.....

2010-02-11T08:47:00.005-06:00

It is raining at my house. It has been raining since midnight, and will continue to rain all day, all night tonight, and most of tomorrow. Ordinarily, I would not mind the rain, but it is also February, and that means it is also COLD! I hate cold! My feet hurt, they are so cold.....

It seems it is either Feast or Famine for us. This past summer, we were without rain for about 5 months, maybe longer. Crops died in the fields, the cattle were being fed hay brought in from North Texas. We had green grass in our yard, but we have St. Augustine, and it can go awhile without rain. We were running sprinklers every day for awhile, every other day at least, but only in the vegetable garden or the flowerbeds; never the grass. It was a terrible drought.

.

It finally started to rain around the first of September. I know we were happy! We had nice rain, an abundance of rain. Plenty of rain, lots and lots of rain! The ground is soaked, the farmers are ready to plant, but the fields are so wet they can't get in them! We are not complaining, because I would almost bet that that is what caused the drought....

However.....it is raining again. This is our little river, the Lavaca. Normally, it is a small river, peaceful, nice to tube, or canoe on. Good fishing in this river, good place for a picnic.

It is about 4 times it's normal size now, out of it's banks and about to cut off traffic. We have seen it where the road was completely covered over, and the water was running pretty fast. I swear, catfish were swimming across the road!

As soon as it warms up a little, the banks of this swollen river will be covered up with people with fishing poles.

These last two pictures were taken from the bridge.

I just want my feet to warm up.

Not complaining, tho.

Gardening in the Dead of Winter.....

2010-02-02T19:35:00.004-06:00

This time of year, propagating violets is a good thing to do to keep yourself in practice, and to make a bunch of new and good plants for your window sill.

Propagating violets is so easy and so rewarding! Anyone can do it, with minimal equipment and almost no effort. Violets are usually easy to find now, as they are a romantic little flower and Valentines day is right around the corner. Also, many box stores stock them as people like to grow them inside the house. I have very few plants in my house, because I worry about the silly cat eating them, but I do keep violets. The cat will just have to learn not to eat the violets.

Supplies needed include a healthy violet plant.
1 Styrofoam cup, and 1 plastic disposable cup (as shown)
a wooden skewer, or a sharpened pencil
about 1/3 cup perlite
about 1/3 cup vermiculite.
Rooting hormone powder
Distilled water, if you have 'city' water.

With the wooden skewer, poke 4 holes in the side of the Styrofoam cup, close to the bottom. Site them opposite each other. Then poke a row of holes about 1 1/2" up from the bottom, about 1/2" apart.

The bottom holes are to allow the rooting medium in the cup to pull water into the cup. The top row of holes is for drainage. If the water gets that high, it should be able to drain out.

Pour the vermiculite into the Styrofoam cup. Pour the perlite on top of the vermiculite. Do not mix them together. Place the Styrofoam cup inside the plastic cup (as shown), and add water up to (but not above) the top row of holes. Cut a leaf from the mother plant, including as much stem as possible. Dip the stem in rooting hormone, tap off the excess, and stick into the perlite in the cup.
Set the cup on a sunny window sill, but not where it will get direct sun on it. Bright light is needed here, not hot light. I use a window on the SE side of my house. Just remember to keep the plant watered.

After 6-8 weeks, you will see little leaves like this coming up through the perlite. I usually let them grow out a bit before I transplant them into their very own violet pot.

It is amazing how many different violets there are. Smooth leaves, curly leaves, flowers of all colors. Try this, it is fun.

Propagating bulbs is the MOST fun!

2010-01-23T11:39:00.014-06:00

I love to propagate plants, and when I learned how to propagate bulbs, I just thought there was nothing more I could learn that would make me so happy. I was wrong, of course, for I find every day that there is always something else to learn. So maybe you will enjoy learning about taking a bulb and turning it into lots of bulbs, too!

There are different types of bulbs, and the main difference in propagating them is how you cut them. Please bear in mind that we are talking about bulbs; not corms, as in gladiolus or crocosmia, and not tubers, as in cannas or 4 o'clocks. We will be working with a daffodil bulb, which is built like an onion, and a lily bulb, which is built kind of like an artichoke, although the artichoke is not a bulb at all, but a fruit.

Don't let me get off on that path.....

Both types of bulbs have, at the bottom of the bulb, a 'basal plate'. This is what joins all the parts together and where the roots emerge from the bulb. The basal plate is how we get baby bulbs.

Propagating lily bulbs is done by 'scaling'. Daffodil type bulbs are propagated by 'chipping'.

This is what you will need:
Bulbs
a sharp knife
paper plates- Please note that this is a paper paper plate, and not a foam plate.
wettable sulfur powder
liquid fungicide, mixed according to bottle directions.
Clorox wipes- for wiping your hands, the daffodil bulb, and your knife, if you are cutting more than one bulb.
Ziplock bags
damp perlite and/or vermiculite
a label, so you can identify your bulbs later.

Working with lily scales
This is a lily bulb. Lily bulbs look rather unkempt, messy even, but they are easy to work with.
The first thing I do is cut off the roots. If you were going to put this bulb in the ground, you would be careful of those roots, but they are not needed or desirable in this application. I like the little paring knife, but you could use a scissor if you prefer.
Cut the roots close, but don't cut into the basal plate. Discard any damaged or soft parts of the bulb.Use the tip of your knife to lift a scale to start. Very carefully, pull the scales from the bulb, being sure that you get a part of the basal plate with each scale.

From this small bulb, we will have 15 new bulbs. Each scale will produce one baby.

Pour a small amount of the sulfur powder into a dish, and dredge the scales in the powder.

Pack the scales into a ziplock bag of vermiculite. I have found that vermiculite works best for the scales. Store them in a warm, humid, dark place until you realize they have the little bulbs. Most lilies take 6-8 weeks to multiply.

Chipping the daffodil bulb
I love daffodil bulbs; nice big fat ones, like come from Brent and Becky's bulbs. They are so pretty!
Start by peeling the bulb. Cut off the top, but these bulbs usually don't have a root mass, so you don't have any to trim. Do not cut off the bottom of the bulb!I use the clorox wipes to wipe down the bulb, to ward off the yukky stuff that can get on the bulbs when they are missing their protective cover.
Set the bulb flat on the bottom, and cut all the way through it.Then cut each half in half again.and again, until you can't half them any more.You will have slices, like this. We are getting 12 new plants from this one bulb. You can see the basal plate attached to each little slice of bulb.Dip each slice into a solution of the fungicide, which is mixed according to the directions on the bottle. Don't dry them off.
Just pop them into a ziplock bag of perlite.

Store the daffodil as you do the lily.
You will check on your precious packages often, if you are like me, and one day, you will see black stuff on them. Do not worry about this. Do not throw them away! They are fine, and will continue to develop even with black stuff on them.

If you live in a climate where you have to dig your lily bulbs in the fall, you can just pop off a couple of scales before you store them for the winter. Put them in some vermiculite to grow babies, while you store the rest of the bulb for the winter.

When you have baby bulbs, you can pot them up in pots, or you can put them in the ground. Baby bulbs that are put in the ground grow faster, but you also risk damage from varmits.

Most bulbs will put up foliage the first year, and will bloom in the third year.

Most of all, Have Fun with this project!

Yes, that secretive old Tiger Lily....

2010-01-02T21:37:00.005-06:00

Here I am again, remarking after a post that Nell Jean has posted. She spoke of the secret life of Lily bulbs, and indeed, I too think they have a secret life.
This is the tiger lily, and it is a good example of a lily with secrets. When you grow tiger lilies, you will notice little black bulb looking things at the intersections of leaf and stem. These are in truth little bubiles- baby bulbs, or seeds, of the tiger lily. They will fall off eventually, and will lay on top of the ground. If you leave them there, they will make little roots, which will furrow into the ground and which will pull that baby bulb underground. They will go deeper and deeper, until finally they reach the depth that tiger lilies like to grow, and THEN they will start to develop into a bulb that is large enough to bloom. How do they know when they are deep enough? This picture I found on the internet, remember my resolution to document every flower in my garden? Next year, it will be my picture. Find this picture here-
www.ontariodaylily.on.ca/Photo/WhiteGarden/pa.

Anyway, Nell Jean suggested that the next propagation post could be about bulbs, so that is what it will be. Now, let me see if I can remember where I put the pictures of chipping and scaling bulbs......

Speaking of crinums.....

2009-12-29T10:21:00.008-06:00

Nell Jean was, speaking of crinums, that is. I have some that are somewhat different.

Except this one, which is what I think her first picture is, "Mrs. James Hendry" This is the most elegant blooms and a very clean plant. I desperately need to divide mine,( when it warms up.)

This crinum (below) was another 'find' from the brush site. My Husband picked it up when someone discarded it, several of them actually. He brought them home and potted them up, and there they stayed, ugly looking plants. One day I looked out there, and they were blooming like crazy! I was fascinated, as I had never seen a bloom like this. Our guru, Miss Frances called it a 'Ribbon lily', and that is indeed what it looks like; a pile of ribbons. We have a white one as well, but no pictures of it. The white one also came from the brush site, at a different time.

This crinum has the biggest bulb, the size of a gallon bucket, really.

I also have this 'Ellen Bosanquet'. She is one of my favorites. I got her from Chris, of The Southern Bulb Company, when he came down to give a seminar for us a couple of years ago. She is just beautiful!
This is Chris' picture, from his blog, Unique Bulbs for Warm Climates. There is so much information there, check it out!

A resolution for the coming year is to document every plant variety in my garden. I have a new camera, I think I can keep that resolution.

Gardening for EVERYBODY!

2009-12-27T19:00:00.004-06:00

I am hearing so many say they cannot garden now. If you live in the frozen North, in zone 4, 5, and 6, and 3 and 2 as well, you CAN be gardening now, and planning in a hands-on way for Spring. Getting a head start on it.....

I want to send you to a place that deals with sowing seeds- sowing them now, I mean. The people at this place just cannot wait for the Winter Solstice! That is the signal to begin planting seeds, of all sorts, in all sorts of containers, and stick them outside to be frozen, snowed on, iced over, and abused in such a cold manner, you would not expect any of them to live. But they do, and the following Spring, they have so many new plants for their gardens! I thought you might be interested in this manner of plant propagation.

It is called "Winter Sowing", and is based on the premise that all seeds know when to germinate. If a plant reseeds naturally, it would go through all the cold, snowy, freezing weather naturally, and still survive to grow the following year. So, they give their seeds the same treatment they would get 'in the wild' so to speak, and they are very successful.

I have planted in winter here, but with us, we have such a mild winter that the seeds usually germinate right quick, then we have to protect them because the next freeze is going to take them out. Bummer. I want to do Winter Sowing! Oh, Wait! That would mean it was cold, possibly snowing.....that's not for me, never mind.....

Be sure to read the FAQ. There is so much information there, you will be set to go!

For example, this is one of the FAQ pages:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hunk-O-Seedlings.....whazzat?

What IS "Hunk-o-Seedlings"?
It's how to transplant your seedlings when they've grown very close together.
You can sow as many seeds as you want into a flat, that's up to you....if you don't like thinning seedlings then sow lightly, otherwise you can sow heavily. I am heavy handed when sowing seeds and I always sow plenty. I just thin the seedlings as I transplant them, often I just take a flat and pry off a "hunk-o-seedlings" and divide it into small clusters and plant those as is. When they grow larger I'll thin them out if needed. Mother Nature is very helpful with this too....she'll bop off the weakest seedlings in the cluster so only the very strongest do survive....so thinning is rarely ever neccesary.
OR...if you really-Really-REALLY want to divide those little seedlings into individuals before you transplant them:
To separate any close seedlings just simply take out a cluster of them from the flat, not a big hunk, maybe a piece of soil an inch or two across, and then carefully work the soil loose from the roots to separate them out. To me the action is very similar to butterflying a piece of meat....I just carefully work the roots apart repeatedly opening and halving the soil hunk (this is not something I do when I am hurried or have "anxious" mangling fingers) and I do very little, if any, damage to the roots.
Trudi
PS....I really personally prefer the hunk-o-seedlings method best. With Winter Sowing you WILL have a gazillion seedlings so planting them out "en masse" will save time, energy, and sanity.

Entered by Trudi_d

FAQ Page

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trudi d is the person who came up with the Winter Sowing idea, and she will cheerfully answer questions, and will be so thrilled you are wanting to WS- as they call it. Click to see her webpage, WinteSown.org.

Go, Read, and maybe you can quench your gardening thirst. More than anything, have fun!

Time to garden again!

2009-12-26T23:04:00.003-06:00

Next week, we celebrate the coming of a New Year. After that, what happens? It will be time to garden again! Whoopee!

Oh, calm myself!

I love to propagate plants. Whether I do it with seeds, (favorite!) or cuttings (also favorite!) there are always little tricks to learn, to improve, to pass along. I would like to pass along some of my 'tricks' for propagating new plants, and everyone can use these, no matter where you are in the world.

Let us start with propagating by cuttings.

I make a little propagation chamber that is so easy, and so reliable for me that I love to share this idea.

That said....

This is what you will need.
A plastic shoebox, with a lid. They come in various sizes, any will do. A deeper box, filled to the same depth, is great for things like angel's trumpets or roses.

Soil less potting mix, half peat/ half perlite, or whatever is your favorite medium. This needs to be damp when you put it in the box.

A little clay pot, with the drain hole plugged with caulking or silicone. If this is a new pot, scrub it with some steel wool to be sure it doesn't have a sealer on it. You want the water to seep through it.
Rooting hormone powder or liquid, or salix solution from the willow tree.

Plant material, snippers. This plant is Plectranthus (a tall swedish ivy) and a Joseph's Coat, 'Red Thread'. This box has been used before, many times. The little succulents in it are rooted, they just need moving to a pot.

You can see here, I hope, that I fill the clay pot to the top with rain water, well water, or distilled water. I just don't use our tap water, too much chlorine and a ph that is out of sight.

I pour a little of the hormone powder out on a paper plate or a piece of paper, so that I don't contaminate the whole package of powder. And these little 'snippers' are the best for taking this kind of cuttings.

This is about right on the amount of hormone to use. I try to get 2 nodes per cutting, if I can. Knock off the excess. It is better to have a little too little than to have too much.
Then, with your finger, or a pencil, or stick, SOMETHING, poke a hole in the potting mix and insert your cutting. Pull the potting mix up around the cutting good and snug.

When your box is full, and I always like to pretty much fill the box, just put the lid on it, and set it in the shade. You don't ever put this box in the sun. You wind up with boiled cuttings.

Check the cuttings every few days, and refill the reservoire as needed. Don't let it dry out.

If you happen to get the medium too wet, just prop the lid open with a pencil for a little while.

This is a very good method of propagation, lots of fun, and it doesn't take a lot of room. You can leave the box sitting in the laundry room, or under the bed. Cuttings don't need light to root.

I posted this on the Plant Propagation forum at Garden Web 4 years ago, and it is still running. It just kept on keeping on.

Tom, at Seventh Street Cottage makes a fantastic cloning machine, and he has excellent results with it. Look there for his directions, or ask him about it.

Have fun with this. If at first you don't succeed, try it again. Try it with dozens of cuttings, or several cuttings of several types of plants. It won't take you long to get the hang of it, and learn what the different plants need to root.

By the time Spring is here, and you can get in the garden, you can have dozens of new plants to put out, with very little effort or expense. And if there isn't much in your garden to cut right now, take a walk through Lowes or Home Depot garden department. I pick up a lot of plants this time of year for a dollar or two, that will provide several nice cuttings.

Next time, let's make a cute little rose rooter...... Or, maybe I could explain how I make sure every seed I plant germinates.....or, we could root violets, or graft tomatoes. Oh, Wait! We can do bulbs! Did you ever cut up a bulb and wind up with a cazillion baby bulbs? Fun!

What does this tell you?

2009-12-22T20:10:00.001-06:00

Well, I know I have been remiss in my attention to my Blotanical friends, but we are nearing the end of our remodeling job. I am spackling a few nail holes, and have a few nails to set, then finish our painting, clean up the floor, an we can call this done! I am so happy, it is really nice.

So, I have not had time to pick and post, and message many people, and I miss that.

But I got this in an email this morning, and I thought it would be a great way to get to know people. I love to read these things, because they don't say the expected things. If you would like, please copy, and post on your blog, then let us know you have posted your answers.

These are MY answers. I am sure they will differ from a lot of people, but will coincide with many too.

38 ODD Things about you! Cut and paste into your blog and FILL IT OUT! Then publish it for all the world to get to know you!

1. Do you like bleu cheese? Yes

2. Have you ever been bitten by a dog? No.

3. Do you own a Gun? Yes, lots!

4. Favorite Kool Aid: green

5. Do you get nervous before a doctor appointment? Sometimes

6. What do you think of hot dogs? Not for me.

7. Do you give money or other things to panhandlers? Seldom

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee, cold water

9. Can you do push ups? yes, in much the same way as a walrus does push ups.

10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? watch

11. What is your favorite hobby? Gardening, quilting

12. Do you have A. D. D.? No...what?

13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? yes

14. Middle name: Lee

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: don't want to go to WW tonight, need to spackle more holes in wall, need to buy dog food.

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? water, coffee, tea

17. Current worry: need to get this house finished.

18. Current hate right now: ???
19. Favorite place to be? in my stained glass shop

20. How did you bring in the New Year? stayed home

21. Where would you like to go? Vegas

22. Name people who will complete this: Corky, Peggy

23. Do you own slippers? Yes, floor mops

24. What color shirt are you wearing? RED.

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? No, I like high thread cotton, or linen.

26. Can you whistle? Yes, .

27. Where are you now? Home

28. Would you be a pirate? No, I hate the water.

29. What do you sing in the shower? nothing

30. What is your favorite girl's name? Sheila

31. Favorite boy's name? John, or Michael, or Brian, or David, or Steven, or.....

32. What's in your pocket right now? some money, a little

33. Thing that made you laugh today? e-mails

34. What vehicle do you drive? Suburban

35. Worst injury you've ever had? hurt feelings

36. Do you love where you Live? not really, except I do love TEXAS!

37. How many TV's do you have in your house? five

38. Do you have any tattoos? No, and I never will!
=================================================================

I can't wait to see your answers!

This Book is Terrific!

2009-12-18T07:56:00.005-06:00

Rain Gardening in the South: Ecologically Designed Gardens for Drought, Deluge, & Everything in Between by Helen Kraus and Anne Spafford.

I was invited to review this book* after I posted about being such a fan of Rain Gardens here. I received a copy of the book in the mail, and have had my nose in it at every opportunity since then! This is a terrific book!

This is an excellent resource, and not just for the novice. Written in clear simple language, it is easy to understand. Beautifully illustrated, both with pictures and drawings. If you didn't want a rain garden when you started this book, you definitely want one when you finish it!

This book is devoted to solving problems for the gardener. They start at the beginning, and take you step by step through the how, what, and why of building a rain garden, and continue with pages of suggestions for what to plant in your garden, (either sun or shade) and include valuable information on troubleshooting, and maintenance of your garden. They also discuss other methods of conserving our most precious resource, rain water.

If you are looking for a nice gift for a friend, or a great addition to your own library of gardening books, I would wholeheartedly recommend Rain Gardening in the South!

Published by Eno Publishers
www.enopublishers.org
Hillsborough, NC 27278

144 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9820771-0-8.
Suggested retail price $19.95.

*This is my opinion. I was not paid for endorsing this book, and had I not fallen in love with it, I would not have written a review of it.~janie

RED...my favorite!

2009-12-17T22:22:00.004-06:00

I bought this amaryllis bulb at WalMart. It turned out so pretty. It pleases me, even though it is a common amaryllis. I would like to have a whole bed full of these flowers, especially at this time of year.

This Beautiful Agave....

2009-12-11T22:11:00.012-06:00

I love cacti and succulents, and I am crazy about agave. I have many, different all, and some are prettier than others. I have this one, that is so intriguing to me, and I don't even know it's name.
This agave is planted in our Native Plant Garden. It has a kind of unusual history, in that my husband found this agave at our local dump. Our county maintains a brush site for residents, where we can haul tree limbs, and other garden refuse. They grind it for mulch, and we have mountains of it, a lot of which is now wonderful compost! I digress...

One day, a couple of years ago, we took a trailer load of limbs and stuff to the dump. We always wander around, looking at what has been unloaded before we got there, because we have found some very nice plants there. People don't know what they have sometimes, and they throw it away. This agave, and three others had been thrown away. We gathered them all, potted them up when we got home, and set them in the hoop house.

Last year, we donated this agave to the Native Plant Garden. It has more than doubled in size since being planted in the ground, and it is really pretty. The markings on this agave are such that I have never seen another agave like it. The agave next to it (behind it, in this picture) is
also a blue agave, but has no markings, and even has a smooth leaf edge.

The most spectacular difference is the marking of this agave. I think it is beautiful. We have harvested 4 pups from this agave already, and I can't wait to harvest more.

OH, NO! IT'S SNOWING!

2009-12-04T08:06:00.008-06:00

It is SNOWING at my house! For those of you who live in the frozen tundra north of I10, this probably seems like no big deal. But for US, who live in South Texas, where the banana trees are unfurling new foliage, and hibiscus are blooming with abandon, and it will be 65 degrees tomorrow at 11:00am, this is a BIG DEAL! BIG flakes are falling, it is sticking to the roads, I am in the house for the duration; I HATE SNOW! Look at my poor plants, all bent over, drooping from the cold! All these other peoples are just tickled that they can play in snow, and all I can think of is -60F and 7' of snow!
It is even sticking in my neighbors yard, and their yard was flooded yesterday! And it wasn't supposed to start this until this afternoon. We will have to tunnel out, if this keeps up. Quit snickering, I can hear you.....Rosey, quit that!

Update to follow! Probably more whining too. Sorry, I need to cover the beautiful blooms of the bromiliads. Bummer.This is my fairy duster, laying down because it is cold. Yesterday it was just beautiful, and lots of buds on it. I wonder what this will do to it.

An email I received today.....

2009-12-01T14:27:00.004-06:00

I got this email today, and I about choked when I saw it. I was laughing hysterically, my Daughter thought I was sobbing and was really alarmed.

BTW, I apologize for being tardy responding to comments and messages, and awards. We are laying floors at my house (the whole house), and my laborer will quit, I am afraid if I lay out on the computer. I do sneak in a few looks every once in awhile.....

This is the email.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read the story before you look at the picture.

Well, there is good news and bad news about my Christmas decorations this year

Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down. First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by. Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.

Kind of feel like I gave in to the man by taking him down but my neighbor did confirm several near miss accidents on the busy street next to my house. I think I made him too real this time

So it was fun while it lasted

Doing it the old-fashioned way…

2009-11-28T07:51:00.000-06:00

I was talking to a friend in a flurry of email messages the other evening, and of course, the state of our economy and our country came up. She is a city girl, and lives in an apartment, but she has a little rooftop vegetable garden. We don't have a lot of acreage here, but we do have enough to have a nice little vegetable garden.

I have been thinking that perhaps I should be growing heirloom varieties, so that I could save those seeds with assurance that we could eat what we produced with them. Some of those hybrids produce produce that isn't very tasty. Anyway, I remember my Mother and Dad talking about the Great Depression, and how they were actually hungry. At least, if you garden, you should be able to stave off starvation.

In my research about heirloom varieties of vegetables and flowers, I was surprised to find that many of the seeds we buy on the seed racks are heirloom varieties. According to the heirloom seed companies, a variety is an heirloom if it was developed before 1940 and is open pollinated. It will reproduce itself.

This is a few of the varieties I have found so far.

Beans- Kentucky Wonder pole, Asparagus beans (yard long beans), Scarlet Runner Beans.
Tomatoes- Beefsteak, Roma, Rutgers, Brandywine
Lettuce- Black Seeded Simpson, Parris Island Cos (Romaine)
Okra-Clemson Spineless, Emerald
Squash- Early Prolific Straight neck
Zucchini-Black Beauty, Gray
Swiss chard- Bright Lights (who knew?!)

I was surprised by these, but relieved too. Glad to know they are easily found, and of course, there are dozens of others. These are just a few that I have found.

Plants for a Beautiful Rain Garden!

2009-11-22T20:53:00.013-06:00

Several have asked for information about which plants are suitable for a rain garden. I am in zone 9a, very hot and humid in summer, quite mild in winter. (I say that, but you just watch us have a record-breaking cold winter this year!)
This is our Native Plant Garden with the rain garden when it was very new. It has grown so much, and the rain garden is about full of plants now.

This is the list of plants that are in our garden. Bear in mind that ours is a garden of natives.

Plants in our
Native Plant / Rain Garden
(common names)
buffalo grass, bald cypress tree
redbud tree, Texas mountain laurel
agave, agarita
heartleaf hibiscus, blackfoot daisy
blackeyed susan, butterfly weed
Mexican hats, sunflower
esperanza, Indian blanket
fairy duster, Turk's cap
verbena, Texas sage
coral bean, coral berry
Barbados cherry, buttonwood
purple coneflower, Gregg's mist
salvia Greggii, salvia coccinea
cross vine, Texas clematis
equisetum, spider lily
lantana, pickerel weed
Joe Pye weed, yaupon
hairy wedelia, rock rose
coral honeysuckle, flame acanthus

Were we not bound by the confines of using plants that are native to Texas, we could use a lot of other plants, like some species lilies and roses. These would be used on the perimeter, and not in the rain garden proper, but that is o.k. You will want pretties in the whole garden.

Now, for those of you who live in different parts of the country, I myself do not know all that you can grow that I cannot. But somebody knows all about you. The Brooklyn Botanical Garden has a site that has a lot of information about plants for rain gardens. Check this out.

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topi cs/design/2004sp_raingardens.html

Also, the North Carolina Extension service has a good list too, and they explain the difference in planting in the rain garden, as opposed to planting around the rain garden. This is their site;

http://www.lowimpactdevelopment.org/raingarden_design/downloads/BMPPlants4RainGardensNC.pdf

I hope this will help you. Play around with it. You can always Google 'plants for a rain garden' and come up with a lot of information.

This is the garden now.
The red bloom in the right corner is a coral bean.It is absolutely gorgeous! AND, it will grow to tree proportions. We won't let it get that big, but we could. The equisetum (horsetail) escapes it's boundaries, and that Texas sage is on the verge of blooming. It is called the 'Barometer plant', because it always signals rain. I love when it blooms.

Look, Noelle, we don't chop our Texas Sage into cupcakes!

Assessing the damage

2009-11-20T14:02:00.005-06:00

We live in zone 9a, and have very mild winters. Winter is usually 3 days, not consecutive. Just 3 days total.

It fools you sometimes, and really does get cold. It is the nastiest, wettest, coldest cold when it is cold here; it just goes right through you. But it doesn't last long. The next day, it will be back up in the 60s or 70s, with a bright sun in the sky. We garden year 'round.

The killing weather for us is our hot, HOT summers. August in South Texas can be brutal. We lose more plants in summer than we do in winter.

My husband starts to talk about turning the AC on in April. I resist, usually until about July. Nights are pleasant with a fan, and sleep is comfortable. When it gets too hot at night for tomatoes to set fruit, I relent and turn the AC on. He has never understood this.

So, last April, I told him, "When we turn the AC on, I won't go out to work anymore." And when we turned the AC on in June, I didn’t go out anymore.

This summer was really brutal, because we had a drought. No rain for about 5 months, it was awful! I would go out to pull hoses, or turn the water off or on, but I didn’t spend much time out there weeding, grooming, or anything else. Even with us watering, we lost some things. Many trees are down, due to the drought, and some of them are big trees.
We didn’t lose any trees, but my favorite salvia (seen above) bit the dust. I was very sad to lose this. It is called Bog Salvia, blue and white salvia...it likes wet feet. I had a swath of it about 15' long x 3' wide. It was soooo pretty. I will have to find some more. The big leaves behind it are 'root beer plant' or 'spice plant'. It is a thug. It is healthy, of course.

I lost my ‘lycoris radiata’, and a prized blood lily. The blood lily, here, was put
in the ground 3 years ago. It was wonderful seeing it come back every year, and put up more and more of those blooms. I will have to find
another. I was very worried about the yellow spiders, but they seem to be fine. No blooms, but there is always next year.

I also lost crocosmia, and I was very
surprised about that. I had these
planted in several places, I will have
to check around to see if
there are some left for next year.
I love them.

Things that did well in the drought included all the natives. Esperanza was especially drought hardy. The ornamental grasses did well, and although we didn't see as many wildflowers, they did not die. They sprang back to life as soon as the first sprinkle hit the ground.

I am sure there are other things that I lost that I don't know about yet. I am just thankful that it isn't worse.

We were out pulling weeds last weekend. My Darling was helping me, (like it isn't his garden, too), and he was just amazed at how I had neglected my duties in the summer.

"We are NEVER turning the AC back on!" he announced. I have been giggling over that for days now.

The Gardener's Guide to Life

2009-11-19T11:37:00.005-06:00

I have had this for many years, framed and hanging in my kitchen. I think these are good thoughts to remember as I live my life. I don't know who wrote it, but if anyone knows, will you please share with us?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You get to choose how you welcome each day. If you choose to approach each day with an “I can’t wait to go outside to see the garden” instead of “I have to pull weeds again” attitude, your life will be a lot happier.

Sometimes, in order to create something beautiful, you have to get dirty. The best things in life come with a fair share of dirt.

The grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence. It’s greener where you water it most. So instead of wanting what others have, make what you have better.

A garden has plants that provide beauty, as well as those that provide sustenance. It is the same in life. Not everyone or everything has to do it all. That includes you.

A plant that grows best in the sun won’t thrive in the shade. This is true, no matter how much water or fertilizer you give it. It is the same with people. Focus on your true talents, and don’t think you have to be something you are not.

Sometimes what makes a garden grow can smell pretty awful. It is important to remember that we all get our nourishment in different ways. What helps one person grow and bloom may not work for another.

A garden needs extra care in times of stress. The same is true in life. When the world around you is difficult, take care to nurture your relationships with everyone, including yourself.

Gardening requires sharp tools and a big heart. Make sure your sharpest tool is your mind, and cultivate your life and garden with your heart.

Things in nature can’t be forced. If you plant a seed before the ground is ready, it will shrivel and die. The same is true in life. Plant happy seeds when the time is right, and allow them to grow at their own pace.

When looking at your garden, focus on what needs to be straightened or trimmed or pulled. Just as often, you need to step back and see the garden as a whole, appreciating the beauty and ignoring the imperfections. Allow the beauty to make you happy.

Things in life almost never turn out as you planned. It is a waste of time to be angry at the squirrel for planting a pecan tree in the rose bed. Instead, look forward to seeing life’s little surprises.

A garden is for sharing. Let the birds, the bees and your neighbors enjoy it. When you keep it all for yourself, you lose out on the joy that comes from sharing.

Admire other people’s gardens, but don’t love yours any less. What you have is special in it’s own way and admired by someone else as well.

Weed or flower? It’s in the eye of the beholder. So, before you yank another weed from your garden or your life, be sure it doesn’t have something to offer that you might have overlooked.

Gardening and life are both more fun when shared with others. The extra bonus is that you can always learn something new, and you can share your knowledge.

You have to prune away the old growth to make room for the new. So it is with ideas too. Let go of whatever is holding you back, and you can find yourself blooming in ways you never thought possible.

Remember that some friends are annual; they pop into your life and give it a quick burst of color. Others are perennial; they come back year after year, and you can always count on them. There’s room in your life for both.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Building a Rain Garden the right way!

2009-11-17T11:14:00.003-06:00

It sounds like a bit of a rant.

Well it is. Not being mean, and trying to not be rude, but I feel that I need to do this.

I saw a post about building a rain garden. Someone used a magazine article, which actually was a good article, and they did attribute and thank the magazine for letting them use their info and picture. But they inserted their words into the article, and gave advice that was incorrect, IMHO.

I am a Certified Rain Water Harvesting Specialist in Texas, having had training that is available above and beyond normal training through the Master Gardener program. Rainwater harvesting is a big deal down here, especially with the droughts we have experienced lately.

It may well be that you can do this and this and that, and install all sorts of extra rocks, gravel, soil, and whatever else. But it certainly isn't necessary, nor even desirable. Common sense is common sense.

The purpose of a Rain Garden is to manage storm water that rushes off impervious surfaces; the roof of your house, sheds, or even the road or a sidewalk. The water rushes to the storm drains, into streams, rivers and lakes, and carries many pollutants and chemicals with it, AND our precious water is gone too! What the Rain Garden does is trap the water and allow it to seep through the soil, cleansing the water and allowing it to percolate back to the aqua systems.

The Rain Garden is NOT a treatment for the wet spot in your yard! To put it there defeats the purpose of the Rain Garden; If the area doesn't drain well, it isn't going to do a bit better just because you planted a garden there. It doesn't drain for a reason; clay soil comes to mind, or heavy equipment could have been stored or parked there for a long time. Building a rain garden is work, and there are much simpler fixes for that wet spot than putting in a rain garden. Fix that low spot, either by filling or by installing drains! A Rain Garden installed in that 'wet spot' in your yard could easily become a fantastic breeding ground for mosquitoes.

A Rain Garden is a man made depression in the ground. We have clay soil here, so this rain garden is pretty shallow. The garden is 10' wide x 52' long x 12" deep. But that size and that depth, creates a garden that handles the water off this building and drains in 24 hours. If we had sandy soil that drained faster, we would have dug it out to at least 18", but not ever much deeper.You can get a good idea of the layout of our rain garden. The garden should be at least 10' away from the building. That is important. The water comes off the building very fast, down the downspouts (2 of them), and runs the 'river'. That's what the kids call it. We didn't use anything except some landscape fabric to keep our rocks and gravel from disappearing into the soil in the river bed, and we didn't dig the river bed out. We did build embankments of a few inches and really pounded them solid, so they wouldn't wash away. Lay the fabric and the rocks and gravel. The water runs under the little bridge. We dug out under the bridge so that water would fall fast enough to not be dammed at the bridge. The garden basin is dug to 12", and the soil taken from the basin is used to build a berm on the outside edge. This berm will help to hold the water, so it can trickle through the ground below. Pile soil around the basin, and whack it with the back of a shovel, then stomp it until it is very solid. You want it really compacted.
We mulched the rain garden with hardwood mulch, and planted many of the plants that grow wild in our ditches and pastures. We planted buffalo grass on our berm, but you don't have to. You can use that area to plant flowers, ornamental grass and small shrubs and trees. We are now removing patches of grass to plant flowers; drifts of black eyed Susan, coneflowers, Blackfoot daisy, native clematis, rock rose.....

A word about mulch; Do use hardwood mulch, so it won't float away, and it won't deteriorate quickly. Don't use pine, you will just wind up with a mess.

We set out to put in a Native Plant Garden, and were confronted with this rain water, rushing from the downspouts, and eroding the ground at the building; thus the Rain Garden was incorporated. This garden has grown a LOT! Kids are always in here, they love that bridge. We have birds and butterflies galore. We had so many butterflies last year that a woman was seen 'stealing' our caterpillars! Grrrrr.....

A Rain Garden doesn't have to be this size or shape, and you don't have to plant natives in it. You can plant anything you want, just be sure that what you do plant doesn't mind having wet feet every once in awhile.

Choosing veggies, for newbies....

2009-11-15T18:32:00.001-06:00

LeSan of BlueGate Gardens said in response to my vegetable post. "I don't grow veggies on purpose. The birds have planted a few pumpkins, which I enjoyed very much. A neighbor gave me a truck load of tomato plants that got blight and turned to black mush. I do buy ornamental cabbages every winter for the splash of color, but have to keep them on the porch, or they end up like the tomatoes."

Well, I thought about that. She didn't say she didn't like to grow veggies, just that they didn't fare well in her garden for some reason. So, I thought, there is always a remedy. For every problem, there is a solution.

One of the secrets to successfully growing vegetables is variety selection. All those little letters behind the name of the tomato mean something. They indicate that the variety is resistant to blight, or wilt, or whatever. The more letters, the more resistant. This applies to all vegetables, but we will use tomatoes as an example.

For instance, "Celebrity" tomatoes, while not my favorite tomato plant, makes a very good crop of tomatoes, AND it is resistant to almost all diseases that affect tomatoes. You would see these letters behind the name.

This from Totally Tomatoes (where I buy a lot of seeds!)

00175 - Celebrity Hybrid Tomato

(VFFNTASt) This AAS Award Winner established a new standard for main-crop hybrids requiring multiple disease resistance. Highly adaptable from Canada to the South. Medium sized, globe-shaped fruits are crack-resistant and average 7 oz. Semi-determinate. Maturity is 70 days.

This what the letters mean.
V- Verticillium Wilt
F- Fusarium Wilt*
N- Nematodes
T- Tobacco Mosaic Virus
A- Alternaria Stem Canker
St- Stemphylium Gray Leaf Spot
TSWV- Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus
(The FF in the letters behind the Celebrity name indicate that it is resistant to F- Race 1&2. If it said FFF, it would mean F-Race 1,2& 3.)

This will give you everything you need to know about the plant and the fruit. Semi-determinate means that they don't produce all their fruit at once, but will not go on forever, producing tomatoes as they go. Indeterminate vines will produce until the night temperatures get too warm, (actually, 'warm' is HOT!) then they will not set fruit any longer.

Another thing to consider, especially if you are a novice vegetable grower; Don't make your whole crop heirloom varieties. The heirlooms have wonderful fruit characteristics, but almost no resistance to disease. (You could graft them, but that is another post; later on that.) Choose hybrids along with heirlooms, if you must have heirloom plants.

So, at least in the beginning, pick the hybrids that have the letters behind the name, and pay attention to the days to maturity. If you have a short growing season, don't pick a variety that takes a long time to produce fruit.

AND, if you live where it doesn't get to be 90 degrees all night long, your indeterminate tomatoes may last until frost. I never thought of that before, but I would say it could definitely be a contributing factor.....

May I suggest to some of you that "Champion" tomatoes are the best, most fantastic tomatoes that I have ever grown. These indeterminate vines have been known to produce 72lbs of fruit per plant!

Have I bored you to tears yet? Sorry, my soapbox. LOL

LUV those vegetables!

2009-11-13T14:53:00.005-06:00

I am back in the vegetable garden! I love to grow vegetables! So much so, that I took a 2 day specialist class with the Master Gardeners on growing vegetables back in August.

They put these classes on, and a MG can sign up to take them, with consent of his/her Extension Agent. I have a year to get in 12 hours of volunteer service, teaching about growing vegetables. I have taken several specialists classes by now.

I planted 18 more cabbages yesterday , and 12 broccoli plants. The broccoli is replacement, as the first dozen I planted didn't do very well. I pulled them out and started over. I planted 6 'Green Magic', and 6 'Packman', and they are all for my husband. I would never eat broccoli! Not in a million years, not even raw. YUK. But, I do love to see it grow.

The cabbages.....

I already have cabbages growing. I don't know what the varieties are, 'Early' something, is one. Six of the cabbages planted yesterday are red cabbages. We will not eat all this cabbage. I will not make sauerkraut. I like to make stuffed cabbage for New Year celebration, and steam some, stir fry some. And, of course, I like it raw, in slaw.

Most of my cabbage I give away. I give it to my kids, friends, family, neighbors, and finally, I give it to the cook at our county jail. I don't think it an odd choice of beneficiaries, the jail, as many of those incarcerated are trustees who help the Master Gardeners with the hard physical labor of our projects. Some of them are there for menial infractions, but because they have no money, they have to stay in jail...I am not a bleeding heart, I just think they should have good things to eat too.

Those are not weeds in this bed, They are onions.

I love to grow Swiss chard, too. Not because I am going to eat it, but because it is sooooo beautiful! I grow 'Bright Lights', and how can anyone resist all those beautiful red, pink, yellow, orange, lime green, and white stalks?

I planted dill, onions, petunias, lobelia, garlic, radishes, lettuce, lettuce, lettuce, peas, and Asian vegetables. Also, parsley, both the curley and the flat leaf.

This, I have to show you. I have started some seeds of this plant anew, as I would like to grow it again this year. It is cardoon, a relative of artichoke.

This was 12' across! We called it dinosaur food! It was just gorgeous when it was only foliage, but when it put on purple thistle looking flowers, it was spectacular! (That in the next bed was artichokes, and the tall plant being RED hollyhocks. They were over 10' tall, and looked like a Christmas tree!)
We still have tomatoes and peppers, and beans. Herbs are beginning to pick up, with the cooler weather. And, the Laura Bush petunias are up. I always grow flowers with my veggies. It makes the veggies want to be more beautiful. Competition is a good thing.

Honor the Veteran......

2009-11-11T06:59:00.004-06:00

Today is Veterans Day for us in the USA. It is a time for somber reflection for me, and a time of joyous remembrance, too.

My family has been soldiers since forever, I guess. We have Grandfathers of some Greatness buried in the Confederate Soldier Cemetary in Austin, Texas, and we have Grandfathers who fought in the Texas Revolution. They came from Tennessee and Georgia to Texas.......

This is something I posted for Memorial Day, 2008. I would love for more people to read it, so I am posting it here again, in hopes that it will interest you.

~ ~ ~

Remembering Mama and Daddy.....

This is Mama and Daddy, holding me and my sister, Debbie. This picture was taken in/about spring, 1947. I am the cute chubby one in Daddy's arms.

My Dad was a military man, which is what made me think to post this today. He spent 12 years in the U.S. Army, then switched over and stayed 14 more years in the Air Force. Daddy retired from the military at the ripe old age of 42, and spent the next 33 years as a fishing guide on the Texas coast. He fished the bays, as opposed to the Gulf. He loved to fish.

We lived all over the world. My brother was born in the Philippine Islands. The 'Baby' of the family talked with a British accent for a full year after we returned from England. Today, we are thankful for the experience.

My Mama was as military as Daddy was. She was the perfect wife for him; dutifully packing up the household and dragging her brood across country or national borders. It was all the same to her. We loved it, thrived on it, and missed it when the moving was done. Life wasn't always easy- I believe this picture was taken during the 'chicken house' period. Mama said that for awhile, housing was so scarce, they lived in a chicken coop.

That must have been tough.

Of course, we were never completely sure of the truthfulness of some of these stories. Daddy told us once that he was flat-footed because a tank had run over his feet during the war. We believed him, and told that story all over school, then found out in our adult years that he was just funnin' us. LOL

I remember when we went to England, we rode to New York City on the Greyhound bus. It took us 3 days on that bus. There was a lady riding most of the way with us who was going to Washington DC, and she had big briefcases full of papers with her. The Supreme Court had agreed to hear a case that she had brought before it, and she was going for the hearing. Today, I would love to know what case it was, and what the resolution was.

I remember Daddy today, and am humbled by his service to our country. He did not lose his life in battle, but laid his life on the line for us anyway. He got to Europe on D-Day, and walked to Germany. He said the most scared he ever was during the war was when the radio operator made an error and directed their own air support back on them. Daddy didn't talk about the wars much, until his last days.

Only if he would be ill and run a fever did he ever talk about the war. Then, he would rave. I never understood why that was so, just that it was. During the last few months before he died, he would tell stories about the war and about his family to my sister- the one Mama is holding in the picture. She was the 'Keeper of the Stories'. I was relegated to doing his manicures and cutting his hair. He seldom trusted me to give him a shave tho. LOL

Daddy served in Korea as well. I remember the morning he came home like it was yesterday. Shortly after his return, he went TDY to Matagorda Island, home of a Radar Bombing Squadron. He was in Heaven there, for Matagorda Island, 12 miles off the Texas coast, was a fishing/hunting paradise for VIPs, both in the military and in politics. The RBS squadron was not as important as the fishing/hunting. They called it "Special Services", and that was Daddy's job; Special Services was code for fishing.

We learned at an early age that 'loose lips sink ships', and we did not talk about what Daddy 'did'. I remember one time, he was gone for several days. Only after it was all said and done did we learn that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been meeting on the Island. That was a very big deal.

We tried to get his records once, because we wanted to find out more about his life when he was stationed at Fort Sam Houston. He was in the Cavalry there, and worked with the mules. He always told us that he had caught dandruff from those mules, and that was why he lost his hair. We were scared to go close to a mule for years, lest we get the same dandruff!

If we had his records, we could have found out where he worked, what barracks he lived in, and things like that. But because of his security clearance, his records were sealed. We will be long gone before they are available.

Daddy died in 1991, followed by Mama in 1992. They are buried in the little cemetery at his beloved Port O'Connor, Texas. Mama used to fuss that she didn't want to be buried there. She said that when a storm came, that cemetery would be under 20 feet of water, and so it would. But when Daddy died, she could not bring herself to bury him anywhere else, even knowing that she would be right there with him, if/when a 'big one' comes in.

I salute all those veterans who have served to protect our freedoms; Those of the past, those of the present, and those of the future. I am thankful for Them.

~ ~ ~

Today, our Sons and Daughters have joined the ranks of the Veterans. Our Grandsons, Granddaughters, nephews and nieces, and the children of friends and neighbors are the soldiers. I am thankful for them, and very, very proud of them!

The Hoop House....

2009-11-09T04:30:00.001-06:00

We are recycling people. So much of what we do starts with parts and pieces of other things.

The hoop house is no exception.

My Husband built this marvelous hoop house for me. Unfortunatly, I can't get a better picture of it for you, as we have disassembled it now, and given it to a friend to use at her house. We needed the room for the expansion of the SHOP (more about that later)....
This hoop house started very modestly as two (2) junked trampolines. Bobby took them apart, and cut the legs off each section. He put two arcs together to form a main rib of the house.

The two trampolines provided 4 main ribs. We used inexpensive PVC that is used for sprinkler systems for the additional ribs. The whole thing is held together with long (21') pipe that is actually the top rail of a chain link fence. They come in various lengths. Bolt it all together with carriage bolts, and use lengths of treated wood at the bottom. Also, we used some pieces of rebar to secure the bottom of the hoop and keep it from blowing away. I think he drilled holes in the trampoline frame, then hammered the rebar through at an angle and into the ground.

The hoop house is 22'L x 18'W x 11' in height.

A purchased shade cloth for summer, or greenhouse grade plastic in winter, this hoop house is wonderful for propagation or storing plants. It saved many plants from the summer sun, and from the harm of freezing in winter.

AND..... it kept those trampolines out of the landfill, and it was cheap to do.

Cheap can be real good.

I've been honored with the Honest Scrap Award again.....

2009-11-08T10:53:00.010-06:00

Twice! I hope that vrtlarica at Moj Vert and Wendy at Greenish Thumb will both forgive my tardiness in attending to this. You have all read the Honest Scrap Awards. I love to read them. I learn something good about someone, every time they start telling things about themselves. Most really make me chuckle at how alike we all are. It is that little ornery streak in everybody that keeps us interesting. How interesting would we be if we were all puritanical and perfect?

The rules are;

1. Praise the Honest Scrap Award.
2. Name some others as winners of the Award.
3. Tell 10 true things about yourself.

O.K. so lets see if I know 10 honest things about me. I've done this before already; there may not be a whole lot left!

1. I love to buy shoes. No, I mean, I LOVE SHOES! I bet I have over 100 pair, stuck back in odd places, where they are not too obivious. I am always giving shoes away. I wear a size 71/2, so if you or anyone else needs shoes, please contact me. Also, I need counseling on this, so if you know the magic words to make me stop buying shoes, I would appreciate hearing them!

2. I have only been to Starbucks once, back in May, when we went to Conference in Marshall, Texas. The guy waiting on us talked a foreign language, I could not understand all that 'mocalattahalflite' whatever, so I just ordered a cup of regular coffee. Big mistake! I got some of the strongest, really nasty tasting coffee! I meant like Folgers, you know? REGULAR coffee!

3. My husband is really proud of me. Right now, he is proud of me for going to Weight Watchers. (I need to lose weight, I want to lose weight, it is just hard to ignore good food. Back to what I was thinking about...) A couple of weeks ago, I was shopping and dropped him off at the Eagles Lodge so he could visit with all those birds, and enjoy a Lite Beer from Miller while I shopped. When I came to pick him up, I made a little side trip to the powder room and some woman followed me. "I just wanted to tell you that I am so proud of you for going to Weight Watchers!" she said. I don't even know this woman. WHAT the hell has he TOLD all these people I am wondering! My friend Linda, who is whatever a girl Eagle is called, told me he is just proud of me, is all. LOLlol. He is such a sweetie.

4. I am having the greatest time watching my kids raise their children. I always have to stiffle a snicker, try to keep it from becoming a full blown GUFFAW, when they bemoan something their children have done. My daughter looked at me with such a look of suspicion the other day as I was trying to NOT giggle over her tale of the younger daughter showing such 'dis-respect'. I remember it like it was yesterday, she doesn't have to tell me! Kids are always going to be kids.

5. I love office supplies, (much the same way that I love shoes...hummm.) I seldom shop that I don't bring home some pens, or notebooks, folders, hanging files, reams of paper, reams of colored paper, calendars, a new stapler, hole puncher, rulers, scissors.......I just LOVE OFFICE SUPPLIES! I could spend hours in an office supply store! Some of my best friends are clerks in office supply stores!

6. I was out of high school for 17 years before I went to college. It was a good thing I waited. By the time I went, my mind was made up about just about everything. I was primed to learn.

7. I have never suffered a broken bone- yet. Not saying it couldn't happen, and for that I pray for protection, but hasn't happened yet. Also, I have never had the mumps, nor chickenpox. Knocking on wood, here,

8. I have been privileged to live all over the world. Daddy was a soldier, and we got to go with him. It was a great life for us, but I was always the 'outsider'. I still am, having lived here only 11 years, but it is o.k. I have learned that sometimes, it is advantageous to be an outsider. Nobody asks you to take sides, if you are an outsider. LOL

9. I have a greenhouse, and I love to putter around in there. We built it of windows from an old church school. It has no heater, but it does have an exhaust fan and a chandelier. I had another, a hoop house, but we took it down and gave it to my friend Pat, so she can putter around too. Click on Pat, to see a picture of her explaining to us just how she injured her knee doing the YYYY-Mc-AAA dance!

10. I don't think I have a favorite plant, but I am very drawn to cacti, succulents, desert plants, and native plants. I have a big blue agave that has the most beautiful markings. I am not sure it is normal to be so enthralled with markings on the agave plant, as most people (I have noticed) don't pay the slightest bit of attention to them. Why do they have such a profound effect on me?

The last thing I am supposed to do is name people to write their own truths. I would like to invite some of our new Blotanist to join in here, and tell us about yourselves. We would love to hear from you and about you.

This a pretty friendly group of folks. Don't be a-scared, as my grandson used to say.

It makes me dizzy....

2009-11-07T13:01:00.007-06:00

Did you notice? I have changed my blog. Not all of my blog, it will still be the same blog it was when it had a cream colored background. I just wanted to spiffy it up a bit, so it would look the best it could, but I am not always certain what looks best, so I got out a colorwheel. First, I tried using this one. It turned out to be pretty complicated, so I got out another.

This one is complicated too, and I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it. So I tried again.

And again, and again.

Each colorwheel offered a n new set of choices, and each got more complicated than the last.

How would I use this?
These would seem to be pretty straightforward, but they are really more complicated than I can handle. Simple!
I need simple!

Not this, although it is very pretty...

And not this one, WHAT does that one mean, anyway?

And I am not sure what Pearl, Hot, and Ultra are supposed to do for me either.
I finally gave up on color wheel charts, after I found this one, and I couldn't use it. This one is the Aggie Color Wheel Chart, and it should be easy. Is it me, or is it the color wheels?

So, after all this, I just went to clicking on buttons, changing this and that color, until I came up with what you see. I may leave it awhile, but don't be surprised if you come back and it has a cream colored background again.

A Gardener's Blessing

2009-11-05T13:00:00.003-06:00

May the bunnies never nibble on your young and tender shoots.
May your transplants settle in and put down hardy roots.

May your weeds come out real easy and your lawn be fungus free;
May you never put your back out, or inhale a bumblebee.

May your roses never stab you, or your hoses spring a leak, and
may everyone come calling when your garden's at it's peak.

May you never grow too weary as you toil for hours and hours, and
may you never be too busy to stop and smell the flowers.
--author unknown

Wishing the Blessings of a garden for everyone

A basic guide for a herb garden....

2009-11-04T17:11:00.009-06:00

I am going through my seeds, preparing to plant in the herb garden. I am not an herbalist, I just like to grow and use herbs. I mostly just cook with them, but there are a couple of herbs that are good for other things. I digress.....

I got to thinking about which herbs are the easiest to grow, and the most practical to have on hand. Lots of people think you have to buy the plant to have the plant, but in most cases this is not true. Herbs can be grown from seed very easily. The trick is to have patience; Herbs generally take longer to germinate.

This is a pretty basic list of herbs to grow for culinary use. I am going to list in number of plants, since most people will not grow from seed. In mild climates, this plan can be used now, for those of you with winter, you might want to refer to it in spring.

Chives, 3-4 plants. They don't take much room, and they multiply. Garlic chives are also wonderful, good to chop and sprinkle on fish or baked potatoes.

Bay- 1 plant. This is a must have. Also, this is a tree. It is very aromatic, bring it in the house for the winter if you have harsh winters.

Dill- 4-6 plants. You can do succession planting with dill, so that you have seeds when you need them and foliage when called for. Also, it will reseed fabulously!

Thyme, 4 plants. You can use English thyme, or common thyme. There is also lemon thyme, but it is not as practical as the common.

Fennel, 2 plants. One plant for you, one plant for the butterflies.

Tarragon, 4 plants. Be sure it is French Tarragon. Russian Tarragon has little flavor or aroma.
And if you are in Texas, well, Texas Tarragon isn't the same thing.

Oregano, Greek, 2 plants. This will spread nicely. You will use it for everything.

Mint, 2 plants. One good Spearmint, one good Peppermint. Grow them in pots, to keep them from taking your garden for their own.

Parsley, 4-6 plants or more. Curly variety and flat parsley. You will use a lot, and the butterflies will eat you out of parsley.

Rosemary, 1 0r 2 plants. If you live where Rosemary is not hardy, grow it as an annual.

Sage, 2 plants. Any variety is good.
Winter Savory, 2 or 3 plants. Very good in Italian cooking.

All of these will grow through our winters. They like it cool, and many will disappear when it gets hot.

There are a few other things you might like to add to your herb garden.
Garlic. You can plant garlic, it will grow and multiply. There are many varieties of garlic, and it is all good.

Onion. Multiplying, bunching, or green onions. A bucket full of multiplying onions planted in the herb garden is a wonderful asset. These are especially fun for children to grow.
Cilantro, a pack of seeds. Depending on how you cook, cilantro can be very valuable in the herb garden. It is especially used in Mexican cuisine. Another name associated with cilantro is corriander. The seeds of cilantro are known as comino, a necessity in preparing carne guisada. Cilantro is the plant with the little white flowers in my picture. It reseeds nicely.

In summer, I grow Basil. Lots of basil, from seed. It germinates very easily and quickly.

These next two are not for culinary use.

Comfry, you will only need one. This plant will multiply, and grow a large clump. It is used to make a poultice by pounding a few leaves, wrapping them in cheesecloth or such, and applying it to scrapes, scratches, cuts, and bruises. It is a very, very excellent aid in the garden, if you are clumsy like I am.

Also, I love lemon verbena in my herb garden too, but I don't know that it has any culinary uses. I use it when I am to teach a class or speak at a seminar. I get very nervous, and I cut a few leaves to keep in my pocket. Bruise a leaf and take a big whiff of the aroma. It smells delicious, and it is very calming, for some reason.

The last thing I favor in the herb garden is flowers. Calendula, snapdragons, and nasturtiums, as well as Laura Bush petunia are favorites of mine.

Enjoy!

Dixie and the sticky trap.....

2009-11-04T14:03:00.004-06:00

Everybody knows we have a boxer dog. Her name is Dixie. We are crazy about Dixie, and sometimes crazy because of Dixie.....

Dixie is a very unique animal. We got her as a kind of rescue; her owner's husband didn't like her and was going to do something really mean to her, so we took her. She had lived in a pen with a 6'wooden fence around it for at least 2 years. Nobody to talk to, nobody to play with. She was kind of neurotic.

Nobody was even home when I went and picked her up. I just walked in and put a leash on her and walked her to my truck. She sat on the seat so quiet, watching all the scenes passing by as we drove the 30+ miles home. When we got home, she wouldn't come in the house, she was afraid. But our dogs always live in the house so Bobby picked her up and set her up on the bed with him. He petted her and talked to her, and she had really acclimated herself to sleeping on my side of the bed by the time he quit talking. The dog had figured it out! These people were pushovers!

And we are.

Life with Dixie is......different. I am not sure if it is just the breed, as Bobby says that 'Boxers are like that', or if it has to do with her unfortunate life, but she is a challenge. She is ALWAYS into something, so life with Dixie is never boring!

One day, while I was at my desk paying bills, a mouse came out to check that I was doing it right. After all the EEEKKKing and squealing, I realized that my Darling didn't take it as serious as I did. So, I went and purchased one of those sticky board traps for mice, the ones that smell like peanut butter.

For those who are upset now about the poor mouse, let me assure you that no mouse was harmed, or even trapped.

I was careful about setting this thing out. I chose a space where the mouse had been, up high, where nothing was there to interfere with it, and where I would not set my coffee cup on it.

Dixie must have watched me put it there, because as I was cooking supper, that Dixie stealth-ed up on my chair, on to the desk, and snatched that sticky trap! She took off with it, straight to where Bobby was watching TV in the bedroom! How she managed to carry it without getting it stuck to all her parts is beyond me, but she did. Did I mention that Dixie loves peanut butter?

So, she snuggled up on the bed with her prize, having her back to Bobby, of course. She must have known instinctively that the sticky part was bad news for boxer dogs, so she flipped it over. On the sheet. About that time, Bob realized she had something and started an investigation, so she stepped on it.

So, now it is stuck to the sheet. Old Bob is in a panic, she has done this right under his nose, so he roars into the kitchen, and starts to beller about did I have a sticky thing that Dixie could have gotten?.........Yeah, on the top shelf of my desk, I used to have one.

Why I had to pull it off the sheet, I have no idea. Part of my frugal nature, I suppose, that refuses to allow me to throw away a perfectly good sheet! I soon learned the folly of THAT!

I wound up with that sticky stuff on my hands. I am trying to finish cooking supper at the same time I am trying to get this stuff off my hands......Where is Bob? Watching TV in the bedroom, of course!

Just let me tell you, I learned that the damned sheet is not important, once it has sticky mouse trap stuff on it. It is never going to come out. I threw it away.

Also, I learned ice does help. Then use baby oil, cold cream, cooking oil, salt, soap, lemon juice, and when all that fails, get a butter knife and a piece of fresh ice. Harden the sticky stuff as much as it will harden with the ice, and scrape it off with the butter knife. Somebody told me that WD40 could take it off.....

Life's lessons are hard. Now I know how the mouse feels. He should stay out of my house.

I got mail!

2009-11-03T07:50:00.004-06:00

A good friend sent this bumper sticker to me in the mail.
It makes us sound very hardy, and I was once, but don't believe it now! If it is a very small and very venomous snake, I could whack it with a shovel, maybe. I would usually run screaming for help. I am a sissy about snakes. DH has had to dispatch some Cotton-mouth water moccasins, as they are very poisonous and aggressive, and they get in the pond, but we usually leave the snakes alone.

Where are YOU planted?

2009-11-02T19:43:00.006-06:00

I participated in a blog-a-rama type thing once, and someone asked where in the world was everybody. We were to post about where we live, and link back to the original poster so everybody could read what everybody had to say.

I enjoyed it very much, and I was thinking that since we are such a global community, and everybody is so unique, it might be a good thing for us to do. It has not been done since I have been here, I know, so.....I will go first. Here goes.
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Just a bit of Texas history.....

TEXANA, TEXAS. In 1832 Dr. Francis F. Wells and his sister-in-law, Pamelia McNutt Porter, founded a community in south central Jackson County that later developed into Texana. The village was originally named Santa Anna after Antonio López de Santa Anna, at the time a popular Mexican liberal, soldier, and politician. In 1835, however, after Santa Anna had proven himself an enemy of republican government, the residents of the settlement changed the name to Texana. During the Texas Revolution of 1835-36, Texana served as a port of entry and training camp for many volunteers from the United States. Dr. Jack Shackelford's company of Alabama Red Rovers camped around Texana for about two weeks before joining James W. Fannin's command at Goliad. In the spring of 1836 the citizens of Texana joined the Runaway Scrape. "Uncle" Jeff Parson, a slave during the Runaway Scrape, told how the "old town of Texana was abandoned, not an individual was left on Jackson County soil, all were in flight-where they were going no one knew."
After the battle of San Jacinto, when republic officials organized the surrounding area into Jackson County, Texana-one of the oldest American settlements-served as county seat. In the summer of 1836 the Army of the Republic of Texas established Camp Independence on acreage belonging to Sylvanus Hatch about four or five miles from Texana. The next year Camp Independence was the site of the famous duel between Felix Huston and Albert Sidney Johnston. That year also saw a public sale of town lots that encouraged settlement. In 1840 Texana incorporated as a municipality. By 1880 the town had acquired regular steamboat service, mail and stage routes, a booming business section, and its own newspaper, the Clarion. As late as 1882 Texana was a thriving port with as many as twenty ships docking each week. In 1883, however, the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway bypassed the settlement, precipitating a sharp decline. Shortly thereafter county voters elected to make Edna the county seat, and by 1884 Texana was a virtual ghost town.

From "Handbook of Texas Online- Texana, TX"

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/TT/hvt22.html

Actually, what happened is that the town of Texana refused to allow the railroad a depot in town, so the railroad established a town of their own. It is called Edna, Texas, and survives as our County Seat today.

And now, they built a lake over Texana, and called it Lake Texana. I thought that bit of our history interesting.

These are my ideas about where we live, and the place we now call home.

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Where in the world am I?

Why, I'm in Texas! The only place for me!

We are in Jackson County, Texas, with Edna being the County Seat, and a hub of activity. We are in the Gulf Coast area, about 90 miles north of Corpus Christi, 100 miles south of Houston, and we can't go much farther east. We are in zone 9a, about 35 miles from Victoria, Texas. This is "Texas Revolution country", and Jackson County was one of the original 23 counties formed in Texas. On this map, we are between Refugio and Palacios, at that spot where the bay nips into land the farthest.Refugio is pronounced Re-fure-e-o, by the way.

We garden year 'round. I am growing veggies right now- cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, onions... even tomatoes and peppers still.....Brussels sprouts.....(I hate eating these vegetables, if they are cooked, but I love to watch them grow). I have lots of flower seedlings; Poppy, snapdragon, calendula, sweet peas, viola, pansy, and dianthus are all starting to peek out of the ground. Things are still leafed out, as our foliage usually falls around Thanksgiving. My confederate roses are in full bloom, and they are just gorgeous. Hibiscus are also blooming, as are my roses, and lots of other flowers.

We have nasty black gumbo for soil, but we can grow anything in it. It is among the most fertile of soils, just doesn't have much air in it. Slick when it is wet. Hard like a brick when it is dry. I figure I am going to use some of it to throw some bowls one of these days. Our primary problem with our soil is that it is very alkaline. That is hard to fix.

I have been a Texas Master Gardener for about 11 years. We have a fairly active group, and I have served as secretary, vice president, and president. Now, I am resting. There is always some project or another going on. We put in a nice Native Plant garden, with a Rain garden incorporated into it, in partnership with the 4-H kids. It was fun, planting this, and I am very proud of it.

This is a very rural environment. Even in town, it is 'country'. We don't live in Edna, but in a small community about 10 miles away, if you take the back roads. We do have a post office, where we live, but no mail delivery. We have to go to the post office to collect our mail. It is o.k.

In Edna, we have a WalMart, an HEB grocery store, several florist, Mexican restaurants, Pizza Hut, Chinese restaurant, LOTS of attorneys, about 5 banks, and goodness knows how many churches! Maybe 8 churches? or more. We have a hospital and 3 nursing homes in the county, I think. A lot of doctors (Specialists) come in on a regular basis from Victoria or Houston, or wherever. Beauty shops and barbers, furniture stores, jewelers and dentists. We have it all.

Important to me, we have a good hardware/lumber yard that will usually give the big BOX stores a run for their money. I love to buy lumber, and hardware, paint, glue, whatever......

We are actually almost on the bay, but the way things are laid out, we have to go around about 17 miles to get to the salt water to fish or whatever. That is fine with me. We also have hurricanes around here, too, sometimes, and we keep an eye on the sky and an ear to the weather report during storm season. I have a list of everything to pack up, and it gets updated, even in the winter.

Lots of ranching, and farming here, so we have good feed stores. Most of the kids do 4-H and/or FFA, and most raise an animal for the fair.

We have lots of cows, rodeos and real cowboys, and country music dances on Saturday night.

Our county is very generous to us gardeners. They maintain a brush site, where we can haul all kinds of refuse from the garden, and they grind it up for mulch, which eventually turns into compost that they will load for us, free of charge. We also have a cotton gin close to where I live, (a few blocks) where I can get all the cotton gin trash that my little heart desires. It has been composting there for years, and is BEE-ut-i-ful!

This is a good place to live. I invite y'all to visit, when you can.

~Janie

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I hope you have enjoyed reading about where I live, and I hope you will share with us your thoughts about where you live. Maybe name it in a similar manner, so we know you are participating. I am looking forward to learning more about everybody.

A favorite of mine.....

2009-11-01T15:51:00.003-06:00

I have several Angels Trumpets, but this is my favorite. It is called 'Shredded Hankie', (botanical not on the tip of my tongue, but I can look at my records). It blooms at the same time as all the other Brugs, but this one just has a really unusual blossom.

The form, I mean.

It looks like a wadded up kleenex, I swear it does. It never opens more than shown in this picture. I just love it!

I haven't cut it yet, but will in the next few days.

You mean it is winter?

2009-11-01T14:15:00.004-06:00

Everybody is shutting down, covering the gardens, mulching and mulching to protect the roots of their plants. My garden is still going strong, here in zone 9a.

We garden pretty much year around. Well, o.k., in summer we garden from the picture window. It is way too hot to spend much time outside in the summertime, but Autumn and Spring are fantastic, and Winter is also very good, as we don't often have a really hard freeze. We grow a
lot of vegetables here in the winter.

I usually have cuttings of everything I love in my garden rooting in the greenhouse over winter. Some things need to be stuck in summer, while it is hot, like hibiscus, so I do that and let them grow out over winter. Then put them in the ground or a nice big pot in the Spring.

I still have a lot that is flourishing in my garden. This little pretty is called Brazilian Buttons, and it blooms year around. It spreads, but it is so cute that I don't mind at all. It can be propagated by cuttings or seeds, and I usually have some of both on the shelf in the greenhouse in winter. Just in case.....

This plant is one that is very unusual, and I am kind of stingy about it. I have had nursery people want cuttings, but I am not generous about it. It is a firespike, but as you can see, this one is pink. HOT PINK! The only firespikes sold here are RED, which I love too, but they are common. I might be wrong to not want to see my precious pink firespike everywhere...But I do love to see it in my garden. And....I do share lavishly with my friends. Another plus about the firespike is that it blooms in deep shade. How great is that?

The firespike will freeze, but comes back reliably from the roots.

This is one of the many hibiscus in the garden. The colors range from pinks (many shades), red, orange, yellow, peach/salmon, white, and maroon. The forms range from huge and exotic, to double/ruffled, and this simple single. Foliage ranges from green-green, to blue-green, to maroon. I love all hibiscus, and the work done by breeders in recent years is astonishing.

This is also a hibiscus, an exotic. The blooms, when open will be at least 8" across, and the colors are blended. Just beautiful.

How could I possibly get along without coleus? NOT! There are many varieties of coleus, but my very favorite is 'Duck's Foot', unfortunately not shown here. This coleus is called 'Stained Glass' I think. The green one is a Kong coleus.

Esperanza is a given in my garden. I must have it. Even in our drought this summer, Esperanza never missed a beat. She bloomed, she swayed in the breezes, she got fancier and fancier, as the drought got worse. She did everything but Cha-Cha in my yard, and she was beautiful all over the county! I love her

Another staple for me is Bulbine. In Florida, they call her Bulbinella, I have been told. She blooms in orange or yellow, and she blooms just about all year, too. The orange is hardier than the yellow, but the yellow is more elegant.

In the front garden this Cat's Whiskers is going nuts. It love the cool weather of fall. It will also freeze back should we have a hard freeze, but will usually come back the following year. You may have to wait on it, as it likes for the ground to warm up a bit before it peeks out.

And this shot is of the back yard. On the other side of those cannas is our pond. It gets defoliated in winter, because so much back there is really tropical. But it does come back, and it does surprise me when it does sometimes.

So now I have put these here on November 1, what will I have to post on November 15?

Shrimp plant, roses, canna, jatropha, Christmas bells, clock vine, blue sky vine, shell pea vine, plumbago, yucca, aloe vera, ruellia, firebush, lantana and veggies. Lots of veggies!

At least, that's the plan.

Belle...

2009-10-26T21:31:00.004-05:00

We are people who include animals as members of our family. We had our old cat, "Fluffy" for forever. She was 20 years old when she died on May 15th.

A few weeks later as we were visiting yard sales, my husband mentioned he wanted another cat. The very next yard sale advertised they had kittens! The lady hollered and called the kitties, but they didn't come out. It turned out her little girl was hiding them in a box under the table that served as the check out counter. My husband snatched this cute little kitten and we left, with the cat.

We named her Belle. It was the perfect name for this kitty.

She was a big help, right from the start. She found the perfect place to catch a nap and be close to what was going on at the same time was my keyboard! She sure had long legs. This kitten, by the way, was born the same day that Fluffy died. She acts a lot like Fluffy.....maybe that is the way all cats act. Fluffy liked the sprinkler, this one likes the shower. I don't know.....
Belle has settled in nicely. Her favorite place is wherever I am. We are nuts about each other. My husband too. Both of us, silly about this cat.One of her very most favorite things to do is play with the Dixie the dog. Dixie will chase her down the hallway, Belle will stand up on her hind legs and bat Dixie around a bit. Then run, then bat. What fun! Except when they do it in the middle of the night..... She doesn't seem to be the slightest bit afraid of Dixie.
Oh, yes, this is Dixie. She looks mean, but she is just a little judgmental. She has to be muzzled at the vet's office, but only while I am there. She has never tried to bite anybody, but she makes believers out of everybody. If I leave her, she loves them all. She is only trying to protect me. She scares the daylights out of most people, but anyone can come in if I'm not home.
Well, what make me think about all this tonight is that Belle went in for surgery today! We got this kitty fixed up, and I am hoping for 20 good years with her too. I would take a picture of her, but she has scowled at me already.....she must be tired.

.........but beautiful still

2009-10-26T14:17:00.002-05:00

Somebody threw her away. We found her. Her wings were broken off and her head was broken from her body and broken into several pieces. They took her to the dump.

We found most of her, but not the wings, which she doesn't need anyway. We never did find her left hand, but we figure if Venus Di Milo can be beautiful with no arms, our angel is still beautiful with one hand.

Bobby put her back together, and she is destined to live in the ruins garden. She is sunning herself in the front garden now, but will be moved in due time.

She is well over 4 feet tall, and I consider her a treasure. She can live in our garden forever.

pots, pots, pots, POTS.....

2009-10-25T13:41:00.020-05:00

I read a blog by Persephone in Bloom about the pots she decorated because she didn't like the plain old black plastic pots. I got some good ideas from her, and thought maybe someone would like to see some of our ideas.

I, like Persephone In Bloom, like to change things from the ordinary to things that I like to plant in. I like reusing things, rather than putting them in the landfill.

Those ugly black pots can be dressed up, changed to be unusual pots.
This is a 3 gallon black pot that something else came in. I took a can of Great Stuff- that expanding insulation that comes in a can, and (after washing and drying the pot) sprayed it on the pot from bottom to top. A spray around the lip of the pot tops it off and makes it look finished. Let it set up, dry, then paint it with spray enamel. This pot is about 3 years old, it has been repainted a couple of times, but it will last for goodness knows how long. And I think it looks a LOT better than a plain black plastic pot! An extra benefit is that the insulation keeps the plant roots cooler.

We like to make other things useful for planting too. These were tires from four wheelers, small aircraft, and some were the spare tires that come with a new car now days. My Darling cuts them with a jig saw, both sides of the blade ground to smooth edge, then turns them inside out. I paint them with plain, exterior paint that I now purchase by the gallon. They will last forever, and they are really great for growing a couple of tomatoes, or as in this picture, lettuce. You can grow anything in them, they are particularly good in the vegetable garden.

This pot is a particular favorite of ours. It began as a papa san chair, like this. Actually that is THE papa san chair.....
So, what we did was keep the sitting part of the chair, and sent the base of it to the vegetable garden to be a planter for herbs (that is another story). We covered the seat with chicken wire, then stuffed it with long cut spagnum peat moss; add some potting soil, plant with Macho ferns, and it was ready to hang.

YES, this is a hanging basket! We hung it in the pecan tree out front, using chains that support it around the bottom of the pot too. It is on a chain that is about 20' long, and it hangs close to the ground. We don't want it to fall on anybody. My Darling likes to sit on the porch while he has a cool Lite Beer from Miller, watching it sway in the breezes.

Every body used to have old chairs around to set on, but they are hard to find anymore. That is because everybody is planting their chairs.

Gardening, made easy, or "How to Mark Your Plants".....

2009-10-22T06:57:00.008-05:00

I am a kind of lazy gardener. I am always looking for a simpler way to do things. In this vein, I have, over the years, learned a few things that make my gardening efforts much easier.

I thought to post this because I was going to advise a few on a comment on Dung Hoe's blog concerning THE way to mark your plants, and not have it washed off, faded off, or (possibly) raked up and discarded. But then I thought that maybe more people would see it in a post of it's own, so here I am. Some might not know some of the other tips, too. I hope you can use at least some of these tips.

I took a Plant Propagation Specialist training course a few years ago. The man who taught the class was Mr. Tom LeRoy, the Extension agent for Montgomery County, Texas. Mr. LeRoy does not allow unmarked plants on his place, and any plant that he finds not marked go into the garbage; no exceptions, no retrieving it, regardless of the rarity, value, or the source of the plant. He espouses that a plant that you don't know the name of is of no value.

To this end, we learned to mark our plants! We use mini blinds, cut to convenient lengths, with a slanted cut on one end and a hole punched into the other end.

We use a plain, #2 lead pencil to mark our markers. Nothing fancy, nothing expensive. I don't know how many people have refused to learn this, as it doesn't require any effort, so may not seem to be worth a lot. BUT, the pencil marks the mini blind marker very well, and also marks most other materials we would use in the garden. It will not fade over the years, will not wash off, cannot be rubbed off, but you can erase it and reuse the marker. Attach the marker to the plant, using a small piece of soft pantyhose, or a cable tie, run through the hole punched in the end of the marker.

Cable ties are very valuable in the garden, by the way. They come in many sizes and many colors. Their main drawback is that most cannot be reused. They are so inexpensive, however, that it usually doesn't matter.

If you use a cable tie, attach the label to the plant loosely, to give the plant room to grow. The PVC cable tie isn't going to rot or otherwise deteriorate in the weather, at lease not for a long, long time.

PVC is a real boon to gardeners. Not natural, I know, but the beauty of it in the garden is that it lasts, and it will serve you for many years.

Plastic baby bottles are perfect for measuring 'stuff' in the garden. Dedicate one for herbicide, one for fungicide, one for insecticide, one for fertilizer, and LABEL THEM AS SUCH! Be sure to put a big X on them. The baby bottles are clearly marked in oz. on the side of the bottle. They are cheap, and I find them at yard sales. Very, very cheap. You cannot have too many.

Instead of bending over to plant seeds, use a length of PVC pipe, cut about waist height, as a planting tool. Drop the seeds down the pipe to the ground, to land exactly where you wanted them . No backache with this method!

Use punctured plastic water bottles as water reservoirs for large planters.

Empty detergent bottles make handy watering cans. Wash well, drill small holes in the cap, and a small hole at the top of the handle. Nice to have one for each grand child, or if you have small children, they love to have their own watering can.

Two liter bottles are perfect for propagation, whether winter sowing seeds or taking cuttings. They let you see the root development without guessing. Just cut one in half, leaving the top half the larger of the two. Poke a couple of drainage holes around the bottom (on the sides of the bottle), and plant in the bottom half. Put the top half on like a little greenhouse, and set it in the shade, to allow your cuttings to root, or your seeds to germinate. Works great!

And while I have propagating on my mind, when using ziploc sandwich baggies as tents over 4" pots (when rooting starts or cuts), turn the baggies inside out and the pressed-in seam will keep the tent ballooned open.

And about planting seeds; I use a salt or sugar shaker to plant fine seeds such as poppies. Mix seeds and dry sand, and shake the mixture where you want them. You can use sugar in place of the sand, but you have to plant the seeds right away. No clumps of seedlings with this method. Larger seeds like larkspur can be planted in the same way, using a cheese shaker, like what you see in a pizza restaurant.

I guess this is enough to remember for today, class. Come back to see the next post concerning gardening made easier. I know things about twine and super glue that will just thrill you!

Oh, yes, one last thing. Aspercreme is the first thing that goes into my gardening bucket or bag. It is great for rough dry hands - and tired feet. You will be glad you tried it!

a good resource.....

2009-10-21T07:49:00.005-05:00

I thought you all might be interested in this site.

http://www.gardenguides.com/local/

It is a site where you can go to check on all the nurseries in a state, city, or community. I used it for a recent trip across Texas- and I got to see nurseries that I would not have known existed otherwise.

Open the site.
click on your state.
click on your city or town.

Nursery/landscapers are listed first, then all the plant nurseries in the area, along with maps showing the locations of the nurseries. It has been remarkably accurate for me.
Enjoy!

Wandering this morning in my garden.....

2009-10-20T13:14:00.003-05:00

My favorite time of the year. This morning I found this confederate rose blooming. It is so happy! This one is a sport, came from a seed thrown by my pink blooming CR. That one blooms huge, round, delicious pink blooms, which turn crimson.

This one blooms white, as many seedlings do, then changes to a dark pink in about a day.

I love it. They are not long lived, but they are so easily propagated from cuttings, that it doesn't matter a lot. They will grow into a smallish ornamental tree. This one is like a sapling.

Honest! This is NOT my fault.........

2009-10-19T08:29:00.007-05:00

LeSan, over at BlueGate Garden, gave me this award.

That girl has a mean streak.

I am to tell you 10 true things about myself, and pass the challenge on to others (several, not sure how many, I will have to check on that). I am not sure that there are 10 true things about me that I care to discuss.

1. I have 6 kids, my Darling has one, and between us, we have 2 girls. It seems like you need more than 2 girls, just to keep the heirlooms in the family. You know, give them to the boys, they are probably going to let the DIL get them and be lost to our family forever. Seven kids in one house, all related, will either make you, or break you. You be the judge.

2. I didn't garden in my youth, but I feel I have made up for it lately. I only started to garden to supplement our food allotment, way back when we were newlyweds. Wow, when I think of all the money I have saved.......

3. I am a pack rat, and to compound the problem, I married a pack rat. I should have paid attention to the Chinese calendar thingie that said "Stay away from pack rats!" We have pathways in the garden, 'trails' in the house, and we say just about every day..."We need to get rid of some of this stuff!"

4. LeSan saved a person's life once. I did too. I delivered a little baby for my neighbor. Three pounds, one ounce she weighed. Well, maybe I didn't save her life, she was going to get here anyway.....

5. I am a Texas Master Gardener, have been for 11 years. I don't know why or how it has kept me interested for that long, but it has. I think it has to do with my 'Quest for Knowledge' drive. If I get interested in something, I am going to learn all I can about it. I guess I have not learned all I need to know yet. I know enough now to be dangerous.....

6. My daughter used to come to me when she was a teenager, and say, "Mom, I need to talk to you". I would cringe and say to myself, "Not today...Lets talk tomorrow" My Daughter was a very truthful little girl, I never knew what she was going to tell me! Like once, she wanted me to talk to her friend, Susan. "Because Susan is going to get in trouble! She is sneaking out of the house at night, meeting Matt"....... just made my head swirl around and around. I always worried that I was a bad mama, for not welcoming her 'talks' more.....

7. I have my whole yard planned. My Darling doesn't know this, he thinks the yard is finished. It might be finished in .....well, probably not in my lifetime. My Darling mutters under his breath that his next wife is not going to be a gardener. He doesn't know I have heard him......

8. I like cats, but I love dogs. We have so far been lucky that our dogs have reached old age. This year, we lost our 15 year old Blue Heeler/ Lab cross pair, Bart and Lisa Simpson. They were siblings, and I can confidently tell you that you really don't want 2 pups from the same litter. I loved these two, but I need to take someone with me if I ever go to look at puppies again. Now, we have a Boxer, and a cat. The Boxer is about 5 years old, and the cat, 5 months old. This cat was born the same day our old (20 years old) cat died. Just a bit of coincidental trivia there....

9. I love to read. I have my nose in a book all the time. I have been stuck on John Grisham for the longest time now, but I think I am about out of books by him. I love to read true murder/crime stories. I read a lot of gardening books too, and my favorites are the AHS books and propagation books. My Darling has no idea that some of these books were expensive.

10. I always said that you couldn't give me a computer. I didn't have one, didn't want one. Then, I got elected Secretary of our Master Gardener Association, and I needed a computer. So, My Darling said to go ahead and get one.....He was confident I would only want to use it to do the minutes of our meetings. NOW, I have two desktops, and a laptop. Darling has a desktop, which I have to maintain, which is difficult. He is not allowed on my computers, as his taste in sites and mine differ substantially.

O.K. that is mine. Now, let's see.....

I would like to hear from....

Catherine @ A Gardener in Progress

Esther @ Esther's Boring Garden Blog

Debra @ Aunt Debbi's Garden

Sue Swift @ The Balcony Garden

Grace Peterson @ Gardening With Grace

Debra Howard @ Behind My Garden Gate

Amy @ Go Away- I'm Gardening!

Nell Jean @ Secrets of a Seed Scatterer

Well, none of them live very close to me. I do hope all who read this will go over and visit every one of these blogs. They are diverse, very interesting, charming, and I learn something every time I venture 'over there'.

And lastly, (is that a word?) don't forget to visit LeSan over at BlueGate Gardens. Just don't forget about that mean streak.....

Old Post revisited.....

2009-10-17T09:06:00.005-05:00

I posted about this rose a couple of years ago. I love this rose so much that I thought I would bring it to the world's attention again. I think everyone needs this rose.

Her name is 'Aimee Vibert'.

rosa 'Aimee Vibert'

I have this rose. I love this rose!

I first saw it in my absentee neighbors yard, and I coveted it from first sight. It grows under a big old hackberry tree there, with never a bit of care, watered only with rainfall, and never fed.

I decided I would have a cutting when the appropriate time came. Actually, the appropriate time would be whenever I had time, but I was on a dead run all the time, and just didn't get over there to 'borrow' a cutting.

Then one day, it was gone. I was horrified!

As it happened, the neighbor had 'pruned' the rose.
In August.
He cut it to the ground.

I looked around for the cuttings, as I knew they were somewhere. I found them on the 'burn pile'. (Those things designated as needing to be disposed of made up the 'burn pile'.) The rose had been cut for at least 3 days, so I didn't have much hope for the survival of any stuck cuttings, but felt I should try anyway.

So, I drug a nice cane home and cut it up and stuck it all. I had 7 nice cuttings.

I got 7 rooted cuttings.

This is the toughest rose, so hardy in heat and cold. It responds to the slightest kindness with beautiful blankets of delicate blooms. Starting with the palest of pink, it actually blooms white in big clusters, and the fragrance is amazing! In my garden, this rose blooms off and on for the whole of spring, summer and autumn. I have never had to spray it for any disease!

I would urge everyone to try this rose in their garden. It is a winner!

More information about this rose can be found here.

Enjoy!

And a GREAT time was had by all.......

2009-10-17T00:03:00.014-05:00

I am a Master Gardener, in Jackson County, Texas, working under the Extension Service of Texas A&M University. Our big fund raisers are (no surprise, here!) Plant Sales! We have 2 of them a year, and raise enough money to allow us to do the projects we agree to do, give a scholarship to a local kid going off to college, and fund our Educational programs. We have a great time doing these plant sales, and of course, we all buy a lot of plants, too.

Our Fall Sale was September 19, and it was a fantastic success! My hat is off to all the MGs who worked so hard on this sale.

This was taken as we were setting up the plants the day prior to the sale. We had a lot of exotic tropicals in this sale.

Below is what it looked like when we opened the doors.This is a large auditorium, a very large room, and it was FULL of plants! That picture of a pretty flower there is the label on a Hawaiian Sunset Vine. Gorgeous!
It kind of looked like a jungle in there.

We sold out by noon.

Click to enlarge the pics.

Hey! Those are pretty cool!....

2009-10-16T09:51:00.003-05:00

My friend MaryJane send me an email detailing their plans to visit Washington DC, leaving today.

She said they are going for the 'Solar Decathlon'. I had no idea what that was, but I followed the link she provided.

MaryJane's Adored One is a Home Builder, and builds spectacular homes. He is some kind of high muckymuck with the National Home Builder's Association. He will be presenting the 'People's Choice' Award at the Solar Decathlon on Saturday, put on by the Department of Energy in DC.

Follow the link, scroll down and you can vote on the house of your choice. I personally LOVE the steel shutters on the LA house! Also, I liked the Rice University house.

Not trying to influence you.....

These are really cool houses.

http://www.solardecathlon.org/virtual_tours/#app=f692&325d-selectedIndex=1&95a0-selectedIndex=0

"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!"...

2009-10-15T09:21:00.007-05:00

.....said the Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. And that is how I feel sometimes.

Let's see....
We did go to Gonzales, and we did meet Jolana! It was as though we had been together all our lives, even the three 'strangers' that I took with me. Jolana said she never felt that any of them were strangers; I love it when the chemistry works!
This is us; "The Girls". We have so much fun, and get into more 'stuff'', always looking to have a good time. It was very hot that day, and my hair is plastered to my head. Cute, huh?
I think Jolana is one of those people who always look pretty. She is pretty on the inside, and it just shines through. THIS is Jolana and Peggy. It turns out that Jolana's husband is Peggy's cousin, although they didn't know it before they met, and Jolana's married surname is the same as Peggy's maiden name. That is the reason Peggy was so interested in going to meet Jolana.

We had a great time. Lunch with Debbie and Jerry at the "Mr. Taco" Mexican restaurant, , purchasing plants, and more plants. We all left there loaded down, very satisfied with our day, and thinking of ways we could meet again in the future.

About 'Blotanical'

2009-10-10T22:03:00.007-05:00

Wow! When I said I had joined ‘Blotanical’, I didn’t realize that I had entered a whole different world!

There is so much to learn! I am amazed by the blogs, the photography, the knowledgeable gardeners, and most of all, by the friendly welcomes I have received.

On September 29th, I said on my blog, “Also, I have joined 'Blotanical', but I am reading the FACS before I rush in and make a supreme fool of myself. I have had several nice comments from people who saw I had joined, and I appreciate them very much.”

To those who are not familiar with 'Blotanical', I am not sure how to describe it. Let me put it this way; I have found dozens and dozens of interesting and informative blogs that are aimed at sharing a love of gardening, and reaching out to other gardeners. It is amazing!

For those who reached out to welcome me, I have been searching out each of you to say 'thank you'. If I have not found you yet, I am still working on it.

I have found several blogs that I would like to name a favorite, and I am hoping to figure out how to do that soon. I have a little note pad by my keyboard that is filling up with notes about places and subjects and it is filling up fast!

I am not a teacher by profession, but I love to share what knowledge I have accumulated over the years. In that effort, I am always looking for more knowledge, trying to learn more, in order to share more! I think I have struck gold in joining Blotanical! There is so much to learn here!

For some who may come by to visit my blog who don’t know about Blotanical, click for a glimpse of what it is all about! Better yet, come join us; You will love it, too!

Looking forward.....

2009-09-29T19:42:00.003-05:00

to an adventure tomorrow!

I am going to the wholesale nursery in Gonzales. What kind of adventure is that? I do that fairly often. But this time, I am going to get to meet JolanaWeb!

Jolana is the soul of Gardening in Texas on Garden Web. She was there when I signed up way back when (about 2003 or 2004), and she knows everything! She knows about plants and dogs, and rotten neighbors, and husbands who don't garden.....

Jolana is a hoot!

So, I am very excited to meet her. She is going to meet me in Gonzales and we will go to the nursery together. I have met 3 other people in person who I first met on the Internet, and so far, they have all proven me to be an excellent judge of character. I think most gardeners are upstanding peoples.

Be sure, I will come back with pictures!

Also, I have joined 'Blotanical', but I am reading the FACS before I rush in and make a supreme fool of myself. I have had several nice comments from people who saw I had joined, and I appreciate them very much.

Since the MG plant sale is over, this MG is on sabbatical for awhile, and I am busy in the garden while the weather is glorious. I get to this computer early in the morning, and in the evening, as a rule. I am looking forward to being able to work on my blog and look at bulb catalogs for a change!

I thought of Ancient One

2009-09-13T10:45:00.003-05:00

I saw this on the 'I Can Has Cheezburger' site, and I immediately thought of Ancient One's goats.
.

I doubt that Ann has a liquor cabinet, but just in case.....

RAIN! Heavenly rain.....

2009-09-12T09:26:00.006-05:00

We are getting rain! Today is the 5th day in a row that it has rained on my garden.

Everything loves it! So far, we have had about 5.5" of rain, and the flowers, shrubs, trees, weeds.....(yes, weeds, weeds, weeds) love it!

I will be pulling them out on my hands and knees next week!

Probably have lots of 'skeeters' too. It only takes them 4 days to populate the world after a nice rain.

I will say " Thank you, Lord" for the rain. We can always do something about the 'skeeters'!

An example of Bobby's work.....

2009-09-12T09:20:00.003-05:00

My husband is a wonderful artist. He doesn't get to do it for a living yet, but plans to use his skills when he 'retires'.

He made this bird to donate to the Master Gardener plant sale a couple of years ago, along with the metal basket behind the bird. I think this bird is just too wonderful!

What character he has! The bird, that is......well, Bobby too.

mememememememememeeeee

2009-09-05T21:55:00.003-05:00

Nell, the Seed Scatterer, was gracious to bestow a meme on me. I am not really sure what a meme is, but I am grateful for the honor, anyway.

She said I was to tell 7 things about myself. I am not sure there is that much to tell about me.

But, I will try.

1. I am very proud of my family. Not just my contempory family- husband who makes me very proud, children, siblings- they all make me proud. I am talking about the ones who are gone, the ones who got us here, and taught us that this life and this country are worth the extra care it takes to keep it for us.

2. When I get interested in something, I want to learn everything I can about it. But I get bored with things sometimes too, and I will put them down and not pick it back up for a long, long time, sometimes years.

3. I have a dog who loves me completely. My cat is learning from the dog, and now follows me around the house, a bare 2 steps behind me. All. Day. Long. My dog talks to me. She speaks in sentences sometimes. I swear she does. She is a boxer, you know how they are.

4. I love, love, love to teach! I am not a teacher, but I like to teach other people about plants and propagation, rain water harvesting, and such.

5. I have 2 sisters. We are as different as we could possibly be. The most baby sister is a Real Nurse. Actually, she is a Boss of Nurses. My middle little sister is TOO- The Organized One. That woman is so organized it makes my head hurt. Me? I am terribly dis-organized, and only seem to know what I am doing. I don't, really. Usually.

6. My Dear Husband is a real artist. He works in metal and/or wood for the most part. He does some wonderful things. If I just say..."I wish we had....", he will soon figure out how to make it.

7. One of my most favorite things to do is to share plants, especially seeds. I have sent hyacinth bean vine seeds all over the country and Canada. I still have a lot to share, along with a ton of other seeds. I have many more than I need, and I don't want all that beauty to go to waste!

NOW, I am to pass the Meme onto 7 other peoples. I am not sure I know 7 to pass it to, but I will do my best.

Ann, at Ancient One's Place has been a favorite blog to go to for a long time. She and her husband keep these goats that are a great source of amusement. She has wonderful pictures to look at too, although they are not always garden pictures.

Donald, at Donald's Texas Garden, posts the most beautiful pictures of his flowers. He always has something different happening.

Sheryl Smith- Rodgers, at Window on a Texas Wildscape is a writer who's gardens have been certified by Texas Parks and Wildlife as a Texas Wildscape.

Mr. BrownThumb always has so much of interest going on! I have learned a lot from him!

Raquel at Perennial Garden Lover is the daughter of an Internet friend, Capricious in Cleveland. Both are fantastic gardeners, but the Mama has discovered Facebook, and we may not see her gardens for awhile.

Lorilee, over at Cackleberry Cottage has a lot of neat things to read about on her blog.

My last candidate for this Meme is Sarge Charlie. He has entertained me for a long while now, and I wish him good health and good fortune. He tells it like it is.

Now I just have to go tell all these folks that I have passed the meme on to them.....

And I have no idea how to link this back to Nell.....I can probably figure it out.

2009-09-01T21:35:00.003-05:00

Look at this sweetie. Her name is Mylie Kastle, and she is our new grand baby girl. She is Bobby's first grandbaby that he didn't get from my side. He is just grinning and grinning.

A wall of esperanza.....

2009-08-31T11:27:00.006-05:00

A friend was telling me about her plans to grow a wall of esperanza next year, and I immediately thought of this site. This is the Native Plant Garden put in by our Master Gardener group a while back. It has grown and grown, and today is very pretty.

I love to see a young mother with her children sitting in this bench while she reads to them. The library is located in this building, and it just seems right to me.

This is a busy place, this little garden. Children love the little bridge, everybody loves the bench, and we have so many butterflies in this garden that lots of people come just to look at them.

The Master Gardeners will be out there on Thursday, pulling weeds, digging out grass, and planting seeds.

I love this little garden. It does my heart good to see it thrive.

Wandering from blog to blog.....

2009-08-24T22:51:00.005-05:00

I was looking at Donald's Texas Garden, and I have decided I need some miniature crepe myrtles like he shows in his flowerbeds. They look wonderful, and I could use them to fill some of 'those spots'. I have developed a deep dislike for bare spots in my garden.

Check it out, under the plumerias. and the sea oats.

Grafting those old tomatoes,,,

2009-08-23T08:53:00.004-05:00

I took a vegetable growing specialist training course through the Master Gardeners at the beginning of August, and one thing we learned is how to graft tomatoes! I couldn't believe this, but it is true.

The reasoning behind this is the heirloom movement. The old heirloom varieties have such wonderful flavor and excellent fruit(flavor-wise, size-wise, texture-wise) and they produce an abundant harvest PROVIDED disease doesn't get them. They have very little if any resistance to any disease or virus. So, commercial growers are now grafting the heirloom tops onto the roots of the more modern varieties. We grafted Brandywine tops onto Celebrity roots, which is resistant to almost all diseases of tomatoes. It is easy to do.

You have to have a little grafting clip like these, which I have ordered from Johnny's Selected Seeds. They come in a couple of sizes, and there are also clips for stems of squash and other thicker stemmed plants. You cut the top off the heirloom tomato, pinch the clip and slide it over the stem. Then cut the root stock, pinch the clip again and slide it over the stem, pushing the two stems together until they meet firmly.

Keep your plant watered, and IN THE SHADE. It takes about two weeks for the graft to grow.

Click here to check out the clips more thoroughly.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/subcategory.aspx?category=292&subcategory=649

a whirlwind trip to town.....

2009-08-22T20:45:00.005-05:00

We went to town today.
Bobby needed stuff for the roof, and I needed paint for my house. The INside of my house.

We went to check prices on flooring at the discount lumber place, then made the obligatory stop at Sears tool department. We couldn't possibly go to town without stopping to look/purchase a tool or two from Sears.

Then, on to Lowes. I wagged Bobby all over the store, showing him the flooring I have decided on, and the Bosch dishwasher I want. He wouldn't let me purchase the flooring today, as I am not finished painting, but that is o.k. It is something they keep all the time, so I know they will have it.

We picked up the roofing stuff he needed. Then he wagged me all over the tool department. This man has a 'thang' for tools!

We went to WalMart for my paint. I am using the Kilz paint- mixed like any paint, but it is sealer/stain-blocker/color all in one, and is wonderful! It is guaranteed to cover in one coat, and BY GOLLY! it does!

That doesn't matter though. I will never get finished painting, I don't think.....LOL

From WalMart, we went to Verizon, where I got a new cell phone. I had a cell phone, and it was fine, but Bobby thought I needed one that takes pictures.....
Then we went back to Lowes, and I went in for just a second to purchase some chemicals for our pond. Bobby stayed out in the Suburban, and when I came out, he had the hood up and the whole area smelled like something was burning! It was! My AC compressor burned up. AND IT WAS HOT AS HELL TODAY!

Soooooo. We went on to the obligatory trip to Harbor Freight, to pick up a tool for pulling a vaccumn, and got some other thingie for checking the compressor deal. Bobby assured me he NEEDED these. Who am I to argue? He is going to fix my AC, he NEEDS tools!

A stop at the Auto Parts House, as Bobby calls it, and I am the proud owner of a new compressor, drier, and orfice, along with 64 oz of coolant, and 16 oz of oil. We only need 11 oz of oil, but it is packaged in 8 oz containers, so we will have a few oz left over. I wonder what you do with the excess oil?

Let's see. Sometime during the day, we went and ate fried catfish, and it was real good. Also, we went there because it was just down from the Tractor Supply, where we were also, because Bobby NEEDED bolts, and bacon flavored treats for the dog.

I love a day like today. It was all good and fun, except for the AC going out, and that can be fixed. Bobby doesn't go to town all that often, so he makes the most of it when he does go.

He worked on the AC until dark, then cleaned up and he has a good cooking show on right now. He is alternating between the 'fixin' up cars' shows and the cooking shows tonight. This is much better than watching surgery live and in color. We are sharing a warm cantaloupe, seasoned with cracked black pepper. I may do a little organizing in my office tonight.

It rained on my garden last night.

Life is good.

I was just minding my own business...

2009-08-17T17:22:00.005-05:00

I pulled into the WalMart parking lot in Edna, Texas the other evening, and was flabbergasted at what I saw . There was a big rig pulling a trailer loaded with some de-lectable auto types. I am an old car nut, anyway, so I was quickly out of my vehicle, snapping pictures as fast as I could.

. The man in the picture walked over to me and I asked where they came from, and where they were going and he told me the middle one was his.

"My name is Porch" he said, "and that's a Porsche." He said he found it in Florida.

I asked where the Rolls was going and he advised it was going to California. My only concern was that it should be covered; flying debris or a rock could injure that pretty paint job or shatter that windshield. I wonder what a replacment windshield for a vintage Rolls Royce costs?

Click to get a better look.

Too sad, it hurts my heart.

2009-08-15T13:47:00.005-05:00

I mentioned our drought in my last post. It is very disheartening to see my beautiful Texas look like this. The pastures, if not irrigated are all like this.

This is a different pasture. Click on a picture to get a really good look.
We did get about 2" of rain a couple of days ago. We need a lot more, but it kept me from having to water for a day.

One thing is good, the cows are still in pretty good shape. I have seen them much worse, and not such a bad drought then, too. I think many ranchers have sold off lots of cattle. Hay is being trucked in from the DFW area, as they have had rain, and the hay is very good.

I forgot to mention that these pastures are in a river bottom! Usually the bottoms keep a little green!

We are praying for rain.

What's with this blog?

2009-07-17T07:05:00.005-05:00

I usually garden in my blog. I mean, it is a means of recording what is going on in my garden, what is blooming, what I am planting., etc. etc,. etc.

But I am not in my garden right now. It is so hot.....

I know, terrible excuse.

BUT.....

It is and has been over 100 degrees every day for weeks. Heat indices are 108-110 average and this is by 9:30. By 8:00am, it is like a blast furnace, with no breeze. Stifling...

On top of that, we are in the worst area for drought in the country. My yard is green, because I am watering, but if we start rationing, it could be different. I am just trying to keep things alive at this point.

Things are about to get better though. I am soon to be in the garden again- wait! make that the greenhouse. I am going to start seeds in pots for the vegetable garden; tomatoes and peppers mostly, but maybe a few other things too. It will be a great leap of faith, but I know we will get rain soon.

And I am going to sow my seeds of poppy, larkspur, calendula, viola, and snapdragons. Even if I have to water, cooler weather will help a lot.

Looking forward to cooler weather!

Better run through the jungle....

2009-07-16T11:01:00.007-05:00

While in Wimberly, we shopped. Of course...with my sisters, Aunt, cousin, and SIL, who are ALL Shoppers of the First Magnitude......, that is always on the agenda! They hold "Show and Tell" at the end of each shopping day, and they are very proficient at shopping for anything and everything!

I am not one to just shop; I need a reason, or a desire to own something, and many categories of "shopping stuff" just are not interesting to me. Instead, I wander around while they are shopping. I love to watch people; people are most interesting.

Every once in a while, I find something so unexpected that I am just tickled, and I want to record it. So it is with what I am calling "the jungle of Wimberly, Texas".

I just kind of walked up on these critters. I found them by accident, for I sure wasn't expecting this! I was so surprised......What fun!

The Battle of the Big Cats

Sabre-toothed Tiger

It is not a large space. Maybe 30' x 50', and tucked in behind the street front buildings. I am surprised I found it.

Would these be crocodiles or alligators?

These prehistoric fantastic animals are made of wood and metal. I asked about who made them, and was told that a rather elderly gentleman makes them, but that these are probably the last he will make, as he is now ill. What a shame.

When you look at these animals, (at least it applies to me), you can see movement in them. They are just amazing, and so fun to look at.

Famous Texas Jackalopes

Our Texas State flag provides the background for the giraffe and the mastodon. Who would think of the two of them together in the same setting?

These last two pictures include a trellis of rough wood, bark on, that provides support for a

Lady Banks rose. I do love this trellis. The rose is appropriate for this setting, as it is a

thornless rose. It is a shame that it blooms only in early spring.

Click on any picture to enlarge.

Enjoy!

Here then there...

2009-07-11T09:17:00.010-05:00

Texas Hill Country, from the deck...
I spent so much time on the road this spring, but it was so much fun!

After the trip to Marshall, my sisters, Aunt, and cousin took our annual "girls get-away'. This year it was Wimberly, Texas. I want to go back to Wimberly!

We rented a house that sits on top of a hill, on 12 acres, so it is pretty much away from it all.

The house was beautiful, fully furnished, and easy to find. It came equipped with everything from a blender to a hot tub! We loved it!

Wimberly in in the Texas Hill Country, and it is quite rugged, by our standards. Lots of rocks, (and our landowners gave us permission to bring some home with us, so I did), lots of cedar trees. Lots of hills. Lots of wildlife. Not so many people

I was amazed, astonished by the native plants! So many of the plants we buy in the nurseries today grow wild in the Texas Hill country, and that is where Dr. Jerry Parsons, Greg Grant, and so many others started the work on putting them on the market. AND we are thankful that they did! This is where many of our Texas SuperStars came from!

I saw esperanza, hairy wedelia, salvia- so many salvias- agave, rock rose, agarita, Texas sage; ALL growing wild! My sisters were starting to worry about me, because I was just delirious- thrilled no end!

This the front of the house. Landscaping is easy in the Hill Country...

This blue agave was growing by the front entrance. The landowners let us dig pups from this plant. It was more than 6 feet tall, and very beautiful

We had visitors. I was on the phone on Friday evening, when Cousin started hollering about the 'varmit' -lemming was the only name she could think of, and we knew lemmings don't live here. We couldn't see it at first, and it was just standing there, looking at us.

A Grey Fox. He was very pretty, and very savvy. He stood there for the longest time, then finally went back and laid on a big rock about 50' away.

I finally figured out that people feed

him from this deck, so I got some ham slices

from the fridge and threw them down.

He was there like a shot to get them .

The first he ate immediately, the second

he took somewhere. He came back a little later for the third.

This last picture says it all about wildlife here. The stockade is not to keep livestock in. This is the landowner's vegetable garden!

Capitalism at it's best!

2009-07-03T19:50:00.003-05:00

On our way home from Marshall, we found a marvelous example of the capitalistic spirit that built our country. Birdhouse Sellers!

On the side of the road was a place where they had birdhouses on tables out by the road. Each birdhouse was priced, and we were directed to put the money for payment into a box attached to the fence.

The sellers had faith that you would not run off with the birdhouses, I think or maybe they knew what we all know. A sign asked that we not steal the birdhouses, and warned that "Jesus is watching!" Don't I know it!

Security was taken care of by these most capable fellas. Both did their jobs well, woofing for awhile, then retreating to the shade to watch us silently.

Sonja did buy a nice big birdhouse, and it was only $20.00. Having been on the building end of many birdhouses, I thought that was a very good price.

I'm here.......

2009-07-03T18:49:00.008-05:00

.....and I have not been having too good a time to post. It just seemed like I couldn't get here from where I was.

When we went to Marshall back when it was cool, we saw a lot of interesting things on the way up and and on the way back.

Going up, we traveled Highway 59, which goes from the southern most parts of Texas all the way North to Texarkana, and from there I know not where it goes, but I am sure it does go on....

We stopped at "Ralph and Kacoos" resturant in Lufkin, Texas. It is a really nice place, and if you get the chance, I would urge you to try it! I want to go back!

(Check it out.. http://www.ralphandkacoos.com/locations/lufkin)

Anyway, we somehow missed our Hwy 59 when we left there and traveled on Hwy 69 for many miles before we realized it! We wound up at Hearn, Texas and cut across the countryside to get back to our origional route. On this roundabout route, we saw a lot of stuff that we were meant to see, I do believe.

BWI, wholesale supplier of garden supplies has a big operation there, and the country is covered with greenhouses! We drove for miles looking at greenhouses on either side of the road! This excited and interested us, I guarantee that!

When we approached Tatum, Texas, (which sets in the intersection of 4 Texas counties) we whizzed by this:

We were so excited we had to turn around to get a better look! It was absolutely amazing, and a little bitty man was running the whole thing!

It was just off the side of the road. We stayed and watched it work for the longest time. It amazes me at the things that amuse us.

An abunance of roses....

2009-05-06T21:14:00.011-05:00

Cooper Nursery in Marshall, Texas has this large rose bed at the entrance to the nursery. All the roses are Austin roses, and just gorgeous! I was surprised at the lack of fragrance. I thought Austin roses were very fragrant.Anyway, the roses are in full bloom!

There were roses of all colors in this bed. I seem to have gotten basically the same color in these pics, but I know there are others. I got in a hurry to get these posted. lol

This last picture was just amazing! All these buds, can you imagine what this is going to look like when it blooms?!!!

Pictures I have promised...

2009-05-05T08:40:00.011-05:00

I wanted to show some pictures from our trip, especially this one! These are actually the same tree.

This is a different tree, on the other side of the door at the Golden Corral in Marshall, Texas. These are both Japanese Maples. I was apoplectic! Such beautiful foliage, and they chopped them into these tight, miserable forms. GRRRRrrrrr!
I told you we went to Cooper Nursery in Marshall, too. This is the bougainvillia tree we saw there. I didn't realize what it was until I saw the blooms on the top.

I wish Bobby would let me have a bougainvillia, I would have a tree such as this.This is a great plant nursery. They have a very pretty little garden close to the entrance to the nursery which is dedicated to the memory of their son. It is just lovely.

It includes a nice water garden, as well as many plants we would have to struggle to grow here.

I really wanted to pull just a few of these yellow LA iris! I don't have any yellow ones anymore...

One more pic I wanted to show, for it shows an application for sedums. I love this sedum, and I have quite a lot of it, but it is all in pots. Look at what they did with it!

This is the same walkway, with our motly crew discussing the beautiful sedum, probably. We were all impressed with this nursery.
I have to go out and get busy. I am planting some of my sedum in the ground today. Maybe just a little at first....

I still have pictures to post. Next: the Austin roses!

Last post was getting stinky....

2009-04-28T13:12:00.002-05:00

Well, the truth is that I was gone for many of the days since my last post.

I am having a terrible problem with my new computer. It has Vista on it, and I really do like it, but I get confused by it at the same time. I have 2 digital cameras, both Kodak EasyShares, and I have not been able to transfer my pictures from either camera to the computer. I have loaded the software in the computer, but I have been told that my 6.0 software may not be compatible with Vista, so I am going to check that out this afternoon. I have AT LEAST 200 great pictures to share!

We went to Marshall, Texas, way up in East Texas. East Texas is a place in Texas. I don't know if it is the same in other states, but here we are very regional. East Texas, West Texas, The Panhandle, The Valley, Down on the Coast, Central Texas.....

So, we went to East Texas, and had a great time. You would not believe how beautifully green it is there! Just every shade of green you can imagine! They didn't seem to have the wildflowers we have further South, but I am wondering if the ground is too cool still. They still have gorgeous pansy beds there.

We went to a fantastic plant nursery there. I think the name of it was Coopers, and it was close to Marshall Pottery- which we visited also. Marshall Pottery has been making pots for over 100 years, and I bought my share on this trip. Nice big azalea pots, but not plain at all. Bee-UTE- full! Anyway, this plant nursery had a bougainvillia 'tree' in the middle of one of their greenhouses! I was impressed.

I was also impressed (although not favorable) with the landscape maintenance people at the Golden Corral in Marshall, Texas. They had many motor-driven tools. Hedge clippers, weed whackers, etc., etc. They whacked everything, right before our eyes. They used their tools to chop one lovely Japanese maple into a boxwood square shape, and another into a tight mushroom shape. I was apopletic! Complaining bitterly to whoever would listen, and snapping pics as fast as I could. I had never seen as many Japanese maples in one place as East Texas, and they were selling small ones for $250.00 EACH. The ones that were butchered were NOT little.

I have written a letter to the owner/manager of the GC. For what it's worth, just so they know.....

I am going to work on my cameras.....
I want you to see these pictures.....

Derned Skunk!

2009-04-09T07:21:00.002-05:00

So... I walked Bobby out to his truck this morning, and I wandered through my garden before coming back into the house. This is always a favorite time for me in the garden. Imagine my horror at being met by a skunk! He (the skunk) was just outside of the border, on the grass between the flowerbed and the street. Bobby had already gone to work.....Grrr...lol

So, I called the Sheriff, and a Deputy came out to dispatch the skunk. I will never get used to seeing the Sheriff in a pick-up truck, but it was a good thing he had the truck. He shot the skunk with a big gun that was LOUD and deadly.

The skunk was 'acting funny'. He/she would be real still, and I thought it was a small skunk at first. But then he unfurled himself, and he was big! That thing had a tail about 2' long, at least!

The deputy shot it, then rode around about 15 minutes to let everything calm down before he came back and picked it up. It was good he had the truck, as it could have been difficult to carry the stinky skunk in the trunk of a car. He took it away to Animal Control, to let them do whatever they have to do with it.

I am not for the sensless killing of animals, but here in Texas, the skunk is a prime carrier of rabies, along with coyotes. I am not going to mess with a skunk that is not acting normally.

Bobby is going to have to get our hot wire back up, as dogs have been running amuck lately, and now we have a skunk! He needs to get that done today! lol

That kind of put me off my schedule for this morning. I have planned to plant zinnia and cosmos in the area where the skunk was last, and I have several amaryllis that I wanted to put in the ground in that area too. Maybe I can work in the vegetable garden...

I do have some young cardoon plants to transplant out there. That might be a good job for me this morning......

Back home....finally

2009-03-29T21:39:00.004-05:00

I have been absent from my blog for quite a while. It seemed that there was not enough hours in the day, the weeks to get everything done.

I have taught a propagation class for the Master Gardeners. It would be easy if all you had to do was stand in front of the class and tell them about propagation. But it isn't like that. This is a hands on' class, and they did everything from makeing propagation chambers, to stick leaf cuttings (violets and sansaveria), make a rooting bottle (roses), rooting hibiscus in a plastic bag, dibbling seedlings (squash), cutting begonia leaves (Rex begonia), germinating fern spores, learning about seed dormancy, and learning about various rooting mediums and using various rooting hormones. All this takes place in 3 hours. It is a fun class, and the trainees are always very happy with the whole thing.

Some of the other MGs brought cuttings to the class, and we were very fortunate that we hadbeautiful pentas and Belinda's Dream roses at the courthouse that needed cutting back still. We saved the pentas just for this occasion. LOL We also had Philappine violets, several types of hibiscus, ice plant, and rope hoya to propagate. Several MGs acted as helpers- (we call them "Plant Chicks") - as did our agent. He likes doing things like that.

This was Plant Propagation for the trainees, and also a propagation seminar for the general public. I don't know how many we had at this seminar, but we had a room full. They also did hands on, but the seminar was only 2 hours for the public, so they didn't get to do several things that the class did. It was a lot of fun, also a lot of work, and I am glad I did it, and that it is over.

Now, get us through the plant sale on April 18, and I am done and can skate.

We had a workshop today to make troughs (hypertufa) to sell at our plant sale. We will plant them with herbs, some with succulents and sedums, and maybe find a few unusual things to put in a couple. This too, is a fun project. We made 20 troughs, and I think we will be able to sell them all.

Something else we are going to work on next week is a scarecrow workshop. We got to thinking about things we could do for the garden, and the idea of scarecrows came up, seeing as how everybody is growing veggies this year. You NEED a scarecrow in a vegetable garden. Don't you?

Several of our artists are painting small tiles to use as plant markers. I found them several months ago at Lowes, very, very cheap on the 90% off table, and thought they would make wonderful plant markers. Sooo.....

In the middle of all this, I got a new computer. It took me a week to set it up the way I wanted it, and I still have a lot to do. Plus, it has Vista on it, and that is a whole different deal! But I really do like it, and I love the big screen!

I am working in my garden, weeding and mulching like crazy. I want it all heavily mulched before the weeds make a claim on my little patch of ground. I have such beautiful things blooming!!! Salvias, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, african daisy, Blackfoot daisy, roses, plumbago, esperanza, mandevilla, shrimp plants, snapdragons, petunia, petunia, petunia...Laura Bush petunias, too...Aloe vera is blooming, as is gaura, society garlic, cleradendron 'Butterfly Blue', and Byzantine gladiolus.

We are going to run that little short fence all 'round the front of the garden to the taller trellis thingis, then pick it up past that, and run it to the end of the property. We really do like that little fence.

We got all the planting done in the back yard, plus we dug out a whole bunch of clumping bamboo. I was tired of it, as it gets too tall and gets to shading everything, then I just want to whack it down, and it starts to looking ugly. Better to just dig it out. I have some fig trees on the back fence, and some new hibiscus planted back there, and I have 2 wax myrtles to put in back there. The wax myrtles smell so good!

Bobby weed wacked the Mexican petunia that was trying to take over the cacti garden, and I am cleaning it out, bit by bit.

My friend Peggy gave me the prettiest flower. It has orange blooms, and is an amaryllis of sorts. It is called 'clivia', and is just beautiful! The picture is a clivia. Ain't it purty?

Too many day lilies?

2009-03-06T09:58:00.003-06:00

If you just have tooooooo many daylily buds, you could always do this with the excess.

http://talesfromtexana.blogspot.com/

Why can't we figure out how to do this with weedy things? I think we need research on this.

WOW! I am impressed!

2009-03-04T12:29:00.005-06:00

I was out planting tomatoes and peppers this morning. I had a few pots that had plants in them, but some look dead; of frost, maybe? (Could not possibly have been from neglect!) Anyway, this one pot has signs of life in it, and a tag.

Strophanthus Preussii

So I came in and googled that image. This is it!I don't remember where I got it, and I sure can't imagine why it was out in the vegetable garden. It has the common name of 'Tassel vine', or 'poison arrow vine'. I am going to check and see if Caldwell Nursery carries this plant. If it dies now, I need to get another one. LOL (now that I know about it.)

I planted 12 peppers, of various varieties, and 16 tomatoes of various varieties. I have 3 more varieties of tomatoes to plant, but they are not quite ready to transplant. Past that, I have to put in squash, cucumbers, zucchini, and last, beans. It is a bit cool still, and the pecan trees have not started swelling buds, so I am going to wait a little while for those. They will all be seeds planted, so the soil needs to be a little warmer.

I am so tickled with that vine!

Ah yam tard!

2009-02-28T20:32:00.005-06:00

We went 90-to-nothin' today!

I wonder what that means. Does anybody know?

We cleaned the vegetable garden today. We worked in the front garden today, and we worked in the water garden today. I am tired, and my hands hurt. I have opened that Aspercream I bought, because someone said I should have it in my gardening bag. We will see if it does help.

We pulled the 'old' broccoli today. Well, I didn't- I just went outside to see what Bobby was tilling, and he was tilling where the 'old' broccoli used to be. He pulled the mustard, too, which was going to seed and had pretty little yellow flowers.

I finally got a few potatoes planted. It is late, I know, but they were cut, and I couldn't cook them at this point, so I went ahead and planted them. We put in a bunch of Texas 1015 onions and a bunch of Texas Sweet white onions in too.

We weeded the tire beds - a whole row of tires that Bobby cut for me about 4 or 5 years ago. He cut them and turned them inside out, to make cute little planters. I have grown tomatoes in them since the beginning, but I am thinking I will put something else in them this year. Cosmos, maybe.....

I cut the roses back in the vegetable garden too. I know, I am late....

I had several tires that were not in use as yet, and we set them up and filled them with soil. Soil, cow manure (sterilized, in the bag, .93 each bag, from WM), and we added peat moss to some. I transplanted 'Buttercrunch' lettuce into two of them, planted white radishes in one, red radishes in another. I planted mesclun mix in one, and lettuce blend in another. In the greenhouse, I have squash seeds in 6 packs, as well as zucchini. I planted these in a bit of planting zeal, but mostly because I wanted to plant something. They will be ready to plant outside in a week or two. The beds are ready when they are. I just have to find a place to grow my cucumbers.

I have pretty little 'Bells of Ireland' growing in the vegetable garden. I planted them there one year, and they come up every year now. I love that.

The herb bed is so pretty right now. I have rosemary there, and fennel. Dill, cilantro which is gone to seed, and has sweet little white flowers, and sage are growing in harmony with oregano, mint, and 'Laura Bush' petunias. Sweet peas are going up the wire on the arbor there, and they are blooming too. It is just so pretty!

Tomorrow, we are going to re-locate Bobby's pepper beds. He says no, but I want them moved. It will be much better, and he can grow more peppers. He has to understand that he can't just keep planting those peppers just everywhere! I am going to start pulling them out of my fairy garden; and the front garden, the cacti garden, ornamental grasses and rose gardens. I like the peppers, but not EVERYWHERE!

We have an ikky job to do tomorrow. We are going to move a couple of star jasmine, and I have to cut them back to move them. I hate cutting them back! All that milky sap, it gets all over me, even though I am careful and wear gloves. Plus, I don't want that stuff in my pond. Bobby got me some new koi for my birthday, and I don't think they would do very well with that sap in the pond. The jasmine is growing on the shade house, and I am not thrilled with the effect. They are kind of unkempt looking. I am going to plant a 'Peggy Martin' rose there, instead. It is pretty, blooms almost all year, and has no thorns! The jasmine won't go to waste. I have someone to take it.

The list of things to do is never-ending. I have 3 pygmy date palms to put in the back yard, and a fish tail palm to plant too. I have 5 hibiscus ready to plant back there, but all this entails preparation. I have to move what is there before I can put these things in. These are pygmy date palms. Aren't they pretty?

I have Iceland poppies almost ready to bloom! I have foliage on the 'Laura Bush' rose, and new foliage on most of the roses I cut back last week. I have two 'Hua' hibiscus to plant in the front garden, and many verbena, penta, lysmachia, creeping Jenny, and scented geraniums to plant. I have two mandevilla, RED ones! to plant, but one of them got hurt somehow. It split kind of down the middle. I taped it, but I need to get out the grafting tape to really fix it right. I will do that first thing in the morning. I think it will be o.k.

Bobby is already asleep. He worked hard today, too.

Today, We Worked!

2009-02-21T18:54:00.004-06:00

This was the assigned task today. I had decided I wanted a little short fence across the bed by the driveway. It had a huge moraea iris in that front corner that was about five feet across. It took Bobby and I about an hour to dig it out, but we managed. Bobby measured the length, and set the post locations, then we went to town to pick up the cedar boards and some nails. We started on this about 10:30am, and we finished it about 1:00pm. We got it done in about two and a half hours. I thought we did good!

I trimmed, cut back, stuck cuttings, dug plants out of the way, replanted things I dug up. I divided and planted, and I am going to have such drifts of stuff! Tomorrow I am planting a row of society garlic (purple/lavender blooms) and coreopsis(brilliant yellow blooms)- alternating from one to the other. I can just see it, in my mind's eye. I would do a row of one, then a row of the other, but I think they would not fit together the way I want if I did that.

If you read the last post, you saw the picture of the plumbago x firebush that I wanted in my yard. Well, that is what I planted in the spot at the end of the bed, where the iris was growing. I have put gaura 'Whirling Butterflies' in this bed, and cleradendron 'Butterfly Blue'. 'True Gold' lantana and Brazilian buttons were already here. Other plants that I added today are shasta daisies, and I planted Euryops (yellow bush daisy) and yellow bulbine behind the fence too. That is where I want to put the society garlic and coreopsis, at the end of the bulbine, but before you get to the yellow bush daisy.
This is Euryops.

If you look past the fence, you can see where we are working on a watering system, and where I have bags of pine needles to mulch. You can't see it right now, but that whole area is just full of plants. By May, it should be very pretty!

In my mind, I know it will be.

Now, if I can get Bobby to dig out the other iris tomorrow, and maybe he will dig that rootbeer plant out too, before it has a chance to spread any more. Look where the black bag is, that is the pine needles. Behind it is a large green plant...

That is the iris. This one is not as big as the one we dug out, so maybe he won't mind too much...

A Glorious Day!

2009-02-20T07:33:00.004-06:00

I have this Pride of Barbados on my mind today. Can you imagine this in your garden? I certainly can 'see' it in mine!

Today is a beautiful day! Is it just that at my age, all days are beautiful? Anyway, today, the sun is blessing us, and I have plans for gardening- planting, weeding, mulching, and planning. I am ambidextrous too, I can do all these things at once! Or, is that called multi-tasking?

I have Brazilian buttons blooming. In the greenhouse, I have a gardenia blooming. The Chicken rose is blooming. That pale yellow lantana is blooming. Periwinkles left from last summer are happy they survived and are showing off with rose colored blooms. S. coccinea has begun the new year with scarlet punctuation marks here and there, and the 'Black & Blue' salvia is blooming too. Moraea iris are blooming, some creamy yellow with maroon eyes, some white with blue and yellow centers. Plumbago is calling for my attention, waving blue hands in the winds.

I have seen esperanza that are covered with bright yellow blossoms, although they are not in my garden. Just breathtaking, so beautiful, especially this time of year.

In my vegetable garden, the little transplanted 'Butter Crunch' lettuce is making little rosettes that start the lettuce head that will be my salad. I love to watch plants develop. like they are showing me they know what to do now.

Alas, some things are blooming in the vegetable garden too. Mustard is maturing and waving their little yellow flowers on tall stalks now. Some of my salad greens, the mesclun mix, are going to seed too. One in particular, smells so wonderful, and I don't know it's name!

Sweet peas are a wall of pastel colors now. I saved seeds of pastels in years past because I wanted those, and when I planted them, they bloomed all colors, dark and light. Last year, I just saved all the seeds, and planted them in October. I have not seen one dark bloom on all those sweet peas! Not my planning.....

'Laura Bush' petunias are starting to bloom too. Little Laura reseeded beautifully last year, and I have a LOT of LB petunias. I am going to move some of them later today, so that I can get them started in other parts of my gardens. It would seem to me that they would be a wonderful ground cover. They bloom a long time. I wonder why I didn't think of that before?

I have some plant combos that I want to try. I am going to plant blue plumbago with firebush. I saw this picture, and I am thrilled with the idea of having this in my yard. I think it is just gorgeous!
I have talked about my trailing lantanas, both purple and white, planted as one plant. They will grow to look like one bush, and it is stunning. Plus, they have the charming habit of blooming when nothing much is blooming, in cold weather!

I want to plant more Pride of Barbados, the orange/yellow/red variety. There is a yellow variety as well, but it is kind of dull and mousy looking. The orange Pride of Barbados can be seen a long way off!

Happy Gardening, today, everybody!

I thought this was interesting...

2009-02-09T14:43:00.004-06:00

I was talking to a friend in a flurry of email messages the other evening, and of course, the state of our economy and our country came up. She is a city girl, and lives in an apartment, but she has a little rooftop vegetable garden. We don't have a lot of acreage here, but we do have enough to have a nice little vegetable garden.

I have been thinking that perhaps I should be growing heirloom varieties, so that I could save those seeds with assurance that we could eat what we produced with them. Some of those hybrids produce produce that isn't very tasty. Anyway, I remember my Mother and Dad talking about the Great Depression, and how they were actually hungry. At least, if you garden, you should be able to stave off starvation.

In my research about heirloom varieties of vegetables and flowers, I was surprised to find that many of the seeds we buy on the seed racks are heirloom varieties. According to the heirloom seed companies, a variety is an heirloom if it was developed before 1940 and is open pollinated. It will reproduce itself.

This is a few of the varieties I have found so far.

Beans- Kentucky Wonder pole, Asparagus beans (yard long beans), Scarlet Runner Beans.
Tomatoes- Beefsteak, Roma, Rutgers, Brandywine
Lettuce- Black Seeded Simpson, Parris Island Cos (Romaine)
Okra-Clemson Spineless, Emerald
Squash- Early Prolific Straight neck
Zucchini-Black Beauty, Gray
Swiss chard- Bright Lights (who knew?!!)

I was surprised by these, but relieved too. Glad to know they are easily found, and of course, there are dozens of others. These are just a few that I have found.

WOW! Today was a beautiful day!

2009-02-07T19:08:00.002-06:00

My darling husband has a new project. He has aquired not just one, but three motorcycles to work on! Hurray! More stuff for our yard! But, on the other hand, if it makes him happy, it makes me happy.

I am working in my gardens and beginning to see progress! I planted lilies today, and Gayfeather corms. I planted tall RED snapdragons, and dianthus. I moved some daylilies, and I have several that need dividing, and some that need to be planted. I will get to them. I planted seeds of rose campion, coneflower, standing cypress, nicotiania, agastache, cleome, and verbena bonariensis. Tomorrow I am planting Blackberry lily and castor beans 'Carmencita', AND nicotiana 'Lime Green'.

AND I planted crowns of asparagus, given to me by my friend Linda. She explained how to plant them, and I followed her instructions to the letter. I have 6 crowns, which, for someone who has never eaten asparagus in her life, is plenty. I will see how they grow and survive in our summers, and maybe plant more next year.

SWEET PEAS ARE BLOOMING! Not a wonderful picture, but they are wonderful to smell when I am working in the garden.

You can see my peas on the fence behind the sweet peas. That is where I go to graze on new peas. Nothing better!

Exotic Star amaryllis....

2009-01-27T21:36:00.004-06:00

I have one! I am just beside myself!

I have never seen an amaryllis that looks like this!

I got it at our seminar on Gingers. Our speaker is also an amaryllis expert, and she brought this to show. She agreed to sell it to me when I asked if it was for sale. Often they will bring plants for sale. I was surprised when she did sell it to me! I will never sell it!

I will share however, when it makes baby bulbs or seeds. She said it does make good seeds.

It was late when I got in, and I couldn't wait to post it, so I borrowed the picture. I will post some of my own as soon as I can take some.

Weeds....

2009-01-26T06:31:00.002-06:00

I have these weeds in my flowerbeds, that are tall and awful looking. I am going to have to measure them in terms of 'bales', as that is the only way you can bundle them. So far, I have pulled 3-4 square bales of long weeds.

When I get to the little weeds, I measure them in 'bushels'. I haven't pull many small weeds yet, but I will. I am sure!

Being a gardener. . . . .

2009-01-21T17:24:00.003-06:00

This is the rose, "Laura Bush".

Being a gardener, I am having 'blossom withdrawal' lately. I have been to several towns around us, looking for bedding plants, or something with a bloom on it, to put in my yard, and 'tide me over', until things start to bloom here.

I have been unable to find anything, until today!

I looked for an "Easy Living" rose, with no success. I finally found an orange rose, "Laura Bush", and it is a beauty!

Also, I purchased four 6-packs of Dusty Miller. I always have loved it, with the velvet grey/green leaves. I didn't know for years that it would bloom, but it does! It is a biennial, and waits to bloom in it's second year, a pretty little yellow bloom. Mine are not blooming, but I am satisfied with the foliage.

I found tall RED snapdragons in bud, and white alyssum, blooming! I couldn't resist, I have them living in my flowerbeds now!I am going to have RED and white for Valentines day!

I was so happy to be in my own flowerbeds. I have one more day to work at the Extension office, getting our award nominations sent off, then I am going to be a homebody. I am going to stay home and take care of MY gardens.

I have made a lot of progress already. Progress is good.

Doin' things different this year....

2009-01-13T18:39:00.004-06:00

As some of you know, I am a Master Gardener, here in Jackson County, Texas. This past year, I served as President of our Association, and it was my privilege to do so. Last December 15th, I handed the reins of power (chuckle, chuckle) off to my VP, Mary Nell. I did so gladly, because our association does need the enthusiastic new Master Gardeners to lead us, and keep us from becoming static and bored. All our new officers are new Master Gardeners, certified only a year ago, at most.

So, now,what to do? How do I fill my time? I had over 428 hours last year, what will I do now?

LOL!

I am the Web Master for us, that is what! I started working on our website last year, and this year, that is all I am going to be responsible for. You can see it at www.jcmga.com

I am proud of it, and I am always happy to have suggestions of how I can improve it. We have a wonderful assortment of personalities in our Master Gardener group. They have been great about sharing pics with me, and alerting me to things they are doing.

Oh, yes, and I will be writing a monthly Master Gardener type column for the local newspaper.

My yard is pitiful. It will take lots of TLC to restore it to it's former magnificence. We will get there. It will just take some time.

Something else I learned today...

2009-01-07T16:57:00.005-06:00

One billion seconds is approximately 31 years.

One TRILLION seconds is approximately 31,710 years. Thirty One Thousand, Seven Hundred Ten YEARS!

Now think of that in terms of money. If one second is equal to one penny, how much would you have to spend per day to fritter away a trillion dollars?

Just amazing.

That girl is just full of information!

2009-01-07T15:43:00.001-06:00

My friend Linda from Rockport sent me an email today. She was/is advertising the Rose/Herb Society program that is coming for January on the bay laurel.

Anyway, she included this tidbit to add to my general knowledge.

Did you know.....
In times past, ladies in the Orient made dye from the skin of the eggplant. They then used that dye to color their teeth grey. Back then, grey teeth were considered stylish, and as you might expect, eggplant farmers were very popular with the ladies.

UGH!

And she included the big UGH!

Did I really need to know all that? Sounds ukky to me, but I did learn something I didn't know.

I didn't know they grew eggplant in the Orient, either.