Tiptoe Through My Tulips

Ok, it's time to fire up the ukelele and warble like Tiny Tim...

Could It Be...?

Here's a not-so-bold statement: Spring has arrived here in North Texas.

Our usual last freeze date is around March 15, and the forecast for the next ten days has nighttime lows nowhere near 40°, let alone 32°.

Am I gloating? Yeah, a little.

It's been a weird winter, the strangest one I can remember since coming here in 1989, actually. Every time I am with a bunch of other gardeners, the topic of our unusual winter always surfaces, mostly because we're not sure how our plants will react.

Several plants in my landscape did not go completely dormant, despite the single-digit temperatures we briefly saw in mid-December. I wonder how they'll be when the sweltering summer comes. This is a common comment from others too, regarding their own gardens.

In other news, I'm happy to report that my name was one of only 12 drawn in the recent Plano Community Garden plot lottery. (The plan is to eventually get up to 80 plots, but they're starting with a dozen for now.) I would have been terribly disappointed if I hadn't been selected, not so much because I've devoted several volunteer hours to the project already (in pouring rain and mud, at times...that's me in the green Target wellies below), but I just really, really want a plot to grow veggies in. Vegetable gardening is probably my favorite kind of gardening, and our current yard just has no space for such an endeavor.



The food we grow is being donated to a local shelter, which makes it even more rewarding. I am looking forward to spending many an evening tending to my new little rectangle of land.



My gardening engagements are starting to stack on top of one another, however. I'm supposed to be helping out at the Heard Museum Native Plant Sale on April 8, but now the Community Garden is tentatively planning to have the opening ceremony (complete with an appearance by the Mayor) on the same day. So, you know...being only one of a dozen folks to have a plot, I feel I should be there.

Besides, I can probably reschedule my hours for the Plant Sale. In fact, (and yes, this is self-serving and evil...), if I work the members-only pre-sale on Friday, I could get my hands on some yummy plants before the crowd descends...mwahahahaha!

Spend Your Saturday Out in the Mud...

...and you too can be semi-famous!

Dutch Gardens Photo Contest Winners Announced

There are some breathtaking photos of stunning gardens out there. It's amazing what beauty and work people put into their gardens.

If you're looking for garden layout ideas, flower color combos, etc., browsing through the entire gallery of pics is also helpful.

click here to view the winners and other photos

Behold the Power of Poop

CNN.com - Behold the power of poop

Continuing with the poop discussion...

The issue of composting pet poop has long been debated. Ideally, you are not supposed to do it, as most homeowners' compost piles do not reach a temperature high enough to sufficiently destroy the pathogens which might exist in pet feces. I have done it, but made sure to only use the resulting compost on non-food crops.

I also have one of these thingees, but with two big, poop-productive dogs, it filled up too quickly and decomposed poop too slowly.

Now, unfortunately, I just bag it up and put it in the trash each week.

Hopefully, San Fran will come up with something innovative and successful, and will pass it along to other cities.

Forget About Fox Urine...

...tiger poo is apparently going to be the way to go, so to speak, in repelling garden predators.

CNN.com story

February 2006 Bloomers

We're supposed to get down to 22° Saturday night. I sure hope not, although we really had it coming. Lots of my outdoor plants seem to think it's March or April...

Days of Wine and Roses

Just placed this order with Amity Roses, a company with a great selection and an excellent reputation.

Neptune
Ebb Tide
Honey Dijon
Double Delight
Tequila Sunrise

As for the wine part referred to in this post's title, husband and I attended a wine tasting Friday night. My favorite - a cabernet called Poppy Hill - was not just tasty, but also featured a lovely label:

Keep the Drool to a Minimum

I received an email today that Iris City Gardens has updated their online catalog for 2006. The company is introducing several new Louisiana iris varieties on behalf of some growers in Australia, which sounds kind of weird geographically, I guess, but there are breeders of this gorgeous plant all over the world.

While I won't pay $35 for a single plant of anything (but maybe an orchid), some of these new rarities are truly breathtaking.

If you do decide to shop from them, Iris City Gardens has an excellent rating over at Gardenwatchdog. I've not dealt with them directly, but am planning on ordering a few things from them soon.

"Into Each Life...

...a little rain must fall." Is that how the saying goes?

Well, we had a little rain fall yesterday. It sprinkled on and off all day, actually, making for a soggy and dreary day that was perfect for watching football. (Go Steelers!)

My backyard 75-gallon rainbarrel that accidentally leaked all of its contents a couple of weeks ago is now full again. It is amazing to consider the amount of water just coming off of one residential roof.

I started some seeds on Saturday - mostly tomatoes and delphiniums.

In other news, my gardening calendar is already filling up with engagements. This Thursday is the first Dallas Organic Garden Club meeting of the new year. I'd like to become active in this group outside of just the meetings, if time allows.

On Saturday, I'll be helping construct a shed and compost bin with some other folks for the *new* Plano Community Garden. I am SO stoked about this whole project. It will be incredibly fun to have my own little strip of land to grow stuff on! (All the food is donated to the local Food Bank, which makes it doubly cool and feel-goody.) This will be the first of many Saturdays helping with this project, I'm sure.

Saturday February 4, reknowned organic gardener Malcolm Beck will be speaking at a local event. I've volunteered to work the Master Gardener booth at that.

Finally, one of my favorite events of the year on a personal level, the Heard Museum Spring Native Plant Sale, is just around the corner. I've signed up for morning helper duty on Saturday April 8 for that too...being sure to leave a little time to shop for plants first, of course! Hopefully I won't have to break up any fights; although I've never witnessed it myself, I hear some shoppers can get ugly at these things due to the limited availability of some plants, as well as the carts they provide for hauling.

R.I.P. Kenny

I received some sad news this morning. One of my Master Gardener intern classmates died of a heart attack yesterday.

While I never asked Kenny directly what condition he was ill with, it was obvious he was a sick man. I would guess he had skin cancer; he did tell me that steroid treatments were what had turned the skin on his arms purple. It appeared that he had had at least one skin graft on the top of his head.

Anyway, Kenny had contracted pneumonia around Christmas and was in the hospital. He had just returned home the other day, apparently, and wrote his MG mentor that he was looking forward to being well enough to join the rest of us in the upcoming Spring projects. Friday morning, he had a heart attack.

I'm glad I sat next to Kenny for a few of our classes. We had a lot of fun talking about our enthusiasm for spiders, especially. He was a sweet, gentle man.

Meeting the Gardener Guy

Well, I'm thinking seriously about heading down to Arlington for the House & Organic Gardening Show this weekend. Not only do I feel it's sort of my "duty" to keep up with what's going on in the industry, but...I like Paul James, The Gardener Guy. He's sort of a guilty pleasure, and I'll be the first to admit he's a total goofball. Most of his methods are spot-on, however, and I'm glad he's promoting organic methods (although he doesn't like to use the "o" word, apparently).

Anyway, it's sort of a long way to drive (about 40 miles), and I hate navigating around Dallas without knowing where I'm going, but I really need to get out more.

Stoned on Bluestone

I looove Bluestone Perennials. They are easily the nicest, most professional people to deal with as far as online and mail order nurseries go. Just read their Garden Watchdog reviews if ya don't believe me.

That being said, here's what my latest order from them included:

CLEMATIS Crystal Fountain
DAPHNE burk. CAROL MACKIE
EUPHORBIA Tasmanian Tiger
HEUCHERA RASPBERRY ICE
HEUCHERA Snow Angel
RUDBECKIA hirta Prairie Sun
ECHINOPS ruthenicus PLATINUM BLUE
EUPHORBIA dulcis Chameleon

Notes on the above:
I wasn't a clematis fan. But...when we moved into our new house, there were three different ones on the back fence. Slowly, they've convinced me that I love them and should have more. The 'Crystal Foundation' cultivar is being touted EVERYWHERE this season but you probably won't find it cheaper anywhere than at Bluestone. Take my word for it...

I have the 'opposite' Daphne from Carol Mackie, the Briggs Moonlight. Something has chewed the leaves off, but I think it'll be ok. I like the Carol Mackie too, though it's not as spectacularly colored. Again, don't pay Wayside or White Flower Farms prices for this cultivar. Wayside wants $50 for a gallon-size Carol Mackie; I paid $7 at Bluestone for what will probably be a smaller plant, but gosh...

My heucheras currently look awful, but I insist on ordering more...

I think the rabbits are dining on what little growth is showing on my Echinops, so I'm ordering more of those too...

Is Euphorbia dulcis Chameleon the same as what Big Dipper Farm is selling as Euphorbia x martinii 'Rudolph'? They look sort of the same...

Speaking of euphorbia as well as much-advertised newish cultivars, everybody seems to have the lovely variegated euphorbia 'Tasmanian Tiger' this year. Again, Bluestone has it on sale now for around $11, while it's somewhat more expensive elsewhere.

Eat Bread & Get a Free OG Sub

Time to start making some "sammitches", as my friend's little boy likes to say.

Roman Meal will give you a free 1-year subscription to either Organic Gardening, Organic Style, or Prevention magazine with six proofs of purchase from any of their bread products. The promotion runs through all of 2006. Click here for more details.

At Least the Aliens Were Organic...

By far, my favorite blockbuster movie from last summer was "War of the Worlds".

I've always loved sci-fi, and the cheezy 1953 version was one of my faves. This year's Steven Spielberg interpretation was absolutely terrifying, especially the tripod machines with their slow, giraffe-like gait and cold, whirring noises.

Unlike the old 50s film, the infamous Red Weed was revived from the original H.G. Wells story for the new movie. As the admittedly gorey story goes, the aliens use human blood to fertilize their native weed, which grows voraciously across the land and chokes out everything in its path. The aliens do this in an apparent effort to make Earth mimic their own planet that has since been stripped its resources. However, the triumphant ending comes when the weed and the aliens both eventually succumb to our planet's bacteria and viruses, as neither has adequate internal defense mechanisms to fight them.

My theory? They just over-fertilized. Heck, you know how too much nitrogen can burn things...

Fantastic Plants

Let's hope they're fantastic, anyway. I got a hankering to buy a couple of dwarf-ish conifers and came upon their site. (They have an outstanding rating with Garden Watchdog too.)

The two worn-out mophead hydrangeas by the back patio look awful and have very few signs of new growth on them, so I'm replacing them with two lacecap types. The poor mopheads are probably as old as the house; after 25 years, they deserve to be buried in the dignity of the compost pile, I think.

I also broke down and got another Japanese Maple. The ones I have are usually fried by August even in the shade, and this one is supposed to be more sun-tolerant. We'll see.

Here's what I ordered with links to each item. Everything is scheduled to arrive Friday, just in time for a long weekend of planting in what is supposed to be mild (upper 60s to upper 70s) and sunny weather(!)

Sherwood Frost Arborvitae
Thuja occidentalis 'Yellow Ribbon'
Acer palmatum 'Matsugae'
Hydrangea macrophylia 'Lanarth White'
Hydrangea macrophylia 'Tricolor'

...And I Mean This in a Very Anti-Bill O'Reilly Sort of Way...

2006 Seed Spreadsheet

Good intentions abound. :)

2006 seed spreadsheet (so far)

All Dead, All Dead*

* "All Dead, All Dead" is the title of a strange little Brian May-penned Queen song from way back, for those who care...

Well, hopefully the garden isn't all dead. It certainly looks terrible, though, and I'm curious about what will rebound, come springtime, from our recent overnight freeze that apparently reached around 6°.

My biggest concern is for the two Red Sensation (or maybe Purple Tower) Cordylines. The one at the front of the house is now flat. The one in back, which gets the benefit of being next to the fence, is still upright, but looks burnt. I'm not sure why I was convinced these semi-tropicals would survive single-digit temps...

Most of the perennials look terrible. Why am I saddened and surprised at this? After all, it's their job to die every year. The freeze we had was just so...abrupt. I guess I'm having a hard time saying goodbye to my little friends for the season.

Everybody, altogether: "Awwwwwww...."

So, what still looks decent? Well, the columbines are absolutely pristine. So are the prickly pear cactus and the agaves. My lavender looks more beautiful than ever (the Goodwin Creek is actually blooming), and even the Spanish variety is perfect, though I thought they were fairly tender.

The irises looked bad for a day, but quickly rebounded. All of the stuff I protected with row covers -- the lettuce, and heucheras, lady's mantle and ferns in containers -- are just fine.

I am a little worried about the plants that I had just put out in Front Yard Garden Project. Obviously, they were probably in a bit of transplant shock to begin with, and then got smacked down with a freeze. Here's hoping they come back in the spring.

We are supposed to hit 22° early next week, so I guess I'll be dragging the frost cloth out again. Sheesh, what happened to our supposedly milder-than-usual winter?!? The days just before Christmas are supposed to be pretty decent, though, so I should just quit whining and appreciate the fact that I can get outside and work at all.

Twelve

Twelve. It's going to be 12° tomorrow night. We're getting freezing rain now.

*sigh*...what Hardiness Zone am I in again?

I've done what I can protection-wise, bringing some stuff inside, grouping other outdoor container plants together and covering with sheets, etc. and pulling mulch and leaves around stuff in the ground, but honestly, I don't think a lot will happen. We were at 80° on Saturday; the soil must still be pretty warm.

I do expect to lose my small lettuce crop by the driveway, but eh. That's ok. If the rabbits didn't want it (they chewed all the cauliflower and broccoli sprouts to the ground but left the lettuce) then it probably ain't too good.

The Front Yard Garden Project got 95% done on Saturday too, so everything out there is nicely nestled in a 3" layer of cedar mulch. I'm trying not to fret.