Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

GBBD was yesterday, but I wanted to join in anyhow.



The daffodil and saucer magnolia blooms have already peaked, so I won't embarass myself with pics of their sad appearance; however, other plants - like the ranunculus asiaticus, Spanish lavender and euphorbia shown above - are just gettin' started.


Oh, and the dandelions are of course flowering like crazy. My tortoise can't eat all the ones I pluck and bring in to him.

Ready to Graduate

Next weekend, all of my little veggie seedlings will graduate to the garden. The varieties I had to restart have come along well.

Even though I usually avoid annuals like the plague (I always think of the Plant Delights t-shirt: "Friends don't let friends buy annuals"), I did start some annual flower seeds, including Calendula 'Oktoberfest' and Gentian Sage 'Cambridge Blue'.

The tomatoes are ready for planting too. This year, I'm trying a couple of hybrids for hotter climates: Orange King and Sun Leaper, plus returning to some old favorites: Early Girl, Black Pearl, and Red Lightning.

Fit for a Toad

I knew there were open pockets deep inside my compost bin, but I guess they were a little bigger and more cave-like than I thought...

After opening one of the ground-level sidedoors of the bin and scraping out some finished compost, I noticed several odd, white shapes deep in the hole. Sticking my shovel inside and knocking it around produced several of these gorgeous, portbello-sized mushrooms.

They sure looked tasty, but I wouldn't dare take that risk. So back into the bin they went.

The weather forecast finally allowed me to plant the four heirloom roses that have been languishing in containers in my sunroom all winter. They started leafing out weeks ago (I know, I know...not good), so I had to keep them inside until temperatures improved. Hopefully we'll be done with this snow stuff until next year.

The four roses, ordered from Heirloom Roses, were:

Midnight Blue

Julia's Rose

Remember Me

Scentimental

Kinda Purty

Ok, so, by Northern U.S. standards, it was a fairly pathetic dusting of snow that "crippled" the DFW metroplex last night. The snowfall was very pretty to watch as it came down, though.

I was worried about my lettuce sprouts in a container on the patio, but they seem to have bounced right back after the snow melted today.

Back On Track

Okay, back on track after another extended lull.

I must say, after a year of experiencing some personal stresses and tragedies, it's good to have the gardening bug back again. And man, I've got it back in a big way.

I'm writing for Dave's Garden on a regular basis, have adopted a second plot in our local community garden and have been planting in, and starting seeds for, my own garden at a crazy pace.

That last venture hasn't been so successful, unfortunately. While Mother Nature treated us to an unusually mild winter this year in North Central Texas (I don't think we ever got below 25°, which is uncommon), I did manage to misfire on the timing of planting some broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage sprouts.

After starting and nurturing them from seed in early February, my beautiful, robust little transplants went in the ground at the community garden last Saturday. I carefully mulched around them, and covered them with hoops and frost cloth. Monday came and brought with it 40mph winds and freezing temperatures - a double whammy that both blew off the frost cloth and froze my babies to the ground.

So, time to start again. I'll be a bit behind, but will graciously and politely ask Mother Nature for spring weather on the cool side. Let's see if she listens.