Ninety-Freakin'-Seven!

Yes, it's 97° here today, with a "feels like" temp of 102°. Lovely, eh?

This is quite unusual, even for Texas, actually. May and June are routinely our most comfortable and enjoyable months until Fall comes.

Yeah, tell that to my poor plants. I rushed out yesterday morning to put mulch on all the flower beds and got about 80% done before I had to come inside. Just too darn hot.

On the plus side, I had my first swim in our "new" pool today. First one I've had since we moved in, anyways. Still a bit on the chilly side (surprisingly), but it felt mighty good.

In flower news, I've been taking advantage of some of the online nurseries' end of season sales. Wayside Gardens, in particular, had some great prices on summer flowering bulbs like Cannas, gladiolas, and callas. I even got a large (and I mean LARGE) arisaema bulb for only $3.95.

Gardeners, be sure to sign up for various newsletters and other alerts from these online retailers in order to take advantage of what rock bottom prices they may be offering this time of year.

Greener Choices

I just ran across a great new website put together by Consumer Reports - it's called Greener Choices, and it's a fantastic, free resource for shoppers to find more environmentally-friendly products.

Just recently launched on Earth Day of this year, the Greener Choices site also has a lot of information about how to recycle phones & appliances, economical automobile choices and what the auto industry is doing (or not doing) about fuel alternatives, and more.

Where No Iris Has Gone Before...

I've written and posted a new Organic Gardening article over at Suite101.com...click here to check it out.

After a 1.5" downpour last night, things are looking lovely around my garden.

Behold, the 'Starship Enterprise' iris which just bloomed. The loveliest iris I've ever seen in person, I must say.




Also, my chives are beginning to flower with their pretty pink/purple blooms:



And, last but not least, the first of probably very many Round French zucchinis to emerge:

More Photos from My Garden

A Wild Yellow Ladyslipper Orchid I recently bought from www.wildorchidcompany.com



Iris 'Stellar Lights'



Iris 'Earl of Essex'



Daylily (bought bareroot from Wal-Mart!)



Tiarella 'Crowfeather'



Mom (bottom left) and baby (top center) ladybugs doing cleanup duty of some aphids



Clematis (Jackmanii...? Not sure, as this was here before we moved in. Beautiful, yes?)

Say No to Arctic Drilling

Contact your state's representatives and voice your disapproval over the shady, dangerous, inaccurate and unnecessary drilling effort into the Arctic Refuge:

http://www.nrdc.org/

Call Bayer on 4/21!

I just received this notice from the NRDC - please spread the word.

Although it is most famous for making and selling aspirin, the chemical giant Bayer also sells the highly toxic pesticide lindane, even though the chemical has been banned in more than 35 countries around the world. Please join a national call-in day to urge Bayer to stop selling this dangerous pesticide.

== What to do ==
Join a national call-in day to Bayer's Crop Sciences North American headquarters tomorrow, Thursday, April 21st, from 9am - 5pm eastern time. The call-in number is:
1-919-549-2828
where you can leave a message for Wayne Carlson, the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs (please note, this is not a toll-free call).

Please tell Mr. Carlson that you are calling to urge Bayer to stop selling lindane. You might also mention that:
-- lindane is an old, dangerous and unnecessary pesticide;
-- lindane has been banned in more than 35 countries, including Germany, Japan and Brazil;
-- any of your own reasons why you think Bayer should stop selling lindane (see below for more information about this toxic chemical).

== More about lindane ==
Lindane is an old, dangerous pesticide that targets the central nervous system and can cause dizziness, nausea, vomiting, seizures and coma. The chemical builds up in our bodies, and is found in blood and breast milk in people worldwide (children are especially vulnerable to its toxic effects). Lindane is also highly toxic to wildlife, including fish, bees and birds.

More than 35 countries have already banned lindane -- but the United States isn't one of them. Bayer distributes lindane for agricultural purposes here, despite threats to our health, environment and food supply.

Please call Bayer tomorrow at 1-919-549-2828 and urge it to stop distributing lindane immediately.

Please also forward this message to others, and urge them to call Bayer tomorrow as well.

Thank you!

Go Organic for the Butterflies

If you need an additional reason to stop using toxic pesticides, here's a good one.

Cake or Compost?

Our environmentally-conscious friends over in Scotland have recruited one of my favorite entertainers, Eddie Izzard, to narrate composting advertisements to be broadcast across the U.K.

Celebrating the Wonder of Life

Yesterday, our friend Mike made a couple of small, purposeful movements. Doctors are taking this as a good sign, at least for now.

Life is truly a gift, isn't it? As I bask in this good news about my friend, I will also take a moment to once again share the beauty of life around me.

Please, everyone...don't ever forget to stop and smell the roses, ok?

A nice shady corner of my East side/front garden



Magnolia 'Jane' (if only you could smell this too...)



Flowers that will eventually find their way into my front beds



Cirrhopetalum Elizabeth Ann X putidum orchid

Brief Update

I apologize for not updating recently. If you read my regular blog, you know that I lost a close friend over this past week in a traffic accident.

Gardening is hard at the moment - it allows me too much time to think about my friend Mike, who will probably never regain consciousness and will never again be the outstanding, happy go-lucky guy that he was.

I will miss him terribly.

Seed Starting Part Deux

Happy Easter, everyone. My dear hubby and I are about to enjoy a little private champagne brunch, but I wanted to update you on the latest garden happenings, since readership is starting to pick up a bit and I haven't written for several days. (By the way, a Big Thanks to everyone who is linking to Can You Dig It? Please let me know if I can add your link to my ever-growing list.)

Last Sunday, I started the following seeds. The dryer technique described in my recent Suite101.com article caused some seeds to germinate in just one day! The Lemon cuke seedlings are already 3" high.

Seeds Started:

Cuke:
Lemon
White Wonder

Squash:
Round French
Zephyr
Luffa

Watermelon:
Festival F1

Cantaloupe:
Superstar

Peppers:
Caribbean Red
Super Heavyweight Hybrid
Purple Marconi
Gypsy
Nu-Mex Twilight Chile
Fish

Eggplant:
Rosa Bianca

Today, I planted a long narrow windowbox-type planter with Melody Hybrid Spinach seeds. Melody is supposed to be more heat tolerant than most other spinachs, and I'm all about heat tolerance down here in Zone 7b/8.

Although...it's a nasty 43° today with more rain than you can shake an umbrella at. It started around 5 a.m. Saturday morning and hasn't let up since. I'm sort of glad, though; I sprayed beneficial nematodes on the lawn late Friday afternoon and they are supposed to remain wet after that. Boy, are they ever!

I've gotten very lucky with the lawn treatments overall. Last weekend, I applied corn gluten meal just before a big rain, which worked out well. We then had a nice dry period for several days before I received the nematodes in the mail and had to apply them Friday (they don't last long in their little plastic packet).

Also on Friday, the chimney guys who had placed a screen over our caps to keep the birds out came out to the house again, as they had forgotten to mount my bat house like I asked. I don't think they were very happy about it, but hey. I had agreed to pay them an extra $20 just to nail the thing onto the chimney, which I think is a pretty easy task. Took 'em about 30 seconds. Anyway, the bat house is now in place -- facing east to get good morning sun -- and we'll see if I get any bats. (I'm sure the chimney guys thought I had plenty of "bats in the belfry" already).

For those who don't know, bats are a wonderful mosquito controller. I just think they're cool! Big thanks to my brother for giving me the bat house as a gift in the first place.

I've added a Gurney's link to the vendors along the side. (Don't worry, I'm going to be cleaning up that area soon...I know it looks like the online version of Gardening Las Vegas-style.) I got a Gurney's catalog in the mail yesterday advertising a big sale, but none of the sale prices were registering when I got on the site to buy some stuff today. Hmm. Will give them a day or two to get it together, I guess. Some great prices on plants in the sale, including Pink Pampass Grass or Butterfly Bushes for only $4.95 each.

Well, that's about it...I'm off to drink some bubbly and eat chocolate with my sweetie.

Mother Nature's A Dom

If anyone wants to paint a picture of Mother Nature, I advise they depict her in head-to-toe black leather with a whip. She can be a beautiful but cruel b*tch sometimes.

Case in point: Today is the Official Final Frost Day for my Zone (7b or 8, depending on who you ask). The temperature? A chilly 43° with the "feels like" temp at around 35°. Grrr...and Brrr. No wonder the juncos hung around.

It's not freezing yet, I realize, but I did leave my Sago palms outside today. Luckily, however, I elected not to put the baby tomato plants out. They've taken enough of a beating lately; the wind has been horrific here the past couple of days and I actually scorched one plant to death (the Pineapple tom variety, which I didn't care much for anyway) because it was so darned hot on Saturday. Hot, I said. As in 80°+.

Moving on to other, less ungrateful topics...

I have taken several pictures of the separate beds in my yard and will be creating pages for each of them. That way, we can all enjoy the progression together. :) The photos will also help me to plan what should go where; I just got Photoshop at home and am going to use it to "virtually" plot the plants in the landscape with my computer. Should work out pretty well, I think, since Photoshop allows you to create layers and move them around, etc. I use it a lot at work and just love it.

Up to this week's nasty weather, the march toward spring has been pretty spectacular. The leaves are coming out on many of the trees (including my Japanese Maples) and the daffodils are giving way to vibrant masses of tulips.

My tasks for this weekend tentatively include mowing the yard and applying beneficial nematodes and corn gluten meal (if it's ok to put them both on...I have to check), and planting some 50 dahlia tubers, as my Dutch Gardens order is supposed to arrive today.

Taking Off

I took yesterday off to play in the dirt a little. It was a clear, bright day here and I really enjoyed working in the back yard and spending the day with my doggies. (It's also nice to now have outdoor speakers so I can listen to music as I work.)

My target was the bed that flanks our brick patio and faces East. It gets just a few hours of morning sun and will make a spectacular shade plant area, I think. I yanked the landscape cloth out with relative ease, but the wild strawberries growing there were another matter. Those pesky things are nearly impossible to clear. (And so much for the effectiveness of the cloth, eh?)

Once done, I dumped some composted bark chips onto the soil and worked it in with a pitchfork, leaving deep aerating holes as I went. The soil is pretty dark clay here too. *sigh*

I couldn't resist doing a little planting in the bed - I put in a variegated Japanese Maple called 'Searles' and a Hosta 'Red October' (both from Wayside) just for kicks.

I also potted up all seven of my tomatoes into gallon pots. Now begins the daily ritual of putting them in the sunny driveway every morning and bringing them in at night until they're ready to go in the ground, probably in a couple of weeks or so.

Reading Tom Spencer's Daily Muse has inspired me to pursue Passiflora aka Passion Flower vines, too. I ordered a plant-and-seed combo off of eBay last night for a mere $7.99.

Signs of Spring

Scenes of hope and beauty from around my yard...

Various Heucheras

---

Mexican Plum tree

---

Emerging Ferns

---

Shredded Umbrella Plant

---

Magnolia 'Ann'

---

Cloudy Can Be Sunny, Sometimes

It has remained overcast and around 60° all day today...which is just about perfect for planting stuff.

And plant I did, now that several of the backyard beds are cleared of debris. I put two of my three Devil's Tongue (dracunculus vulgaris) bulbs -- already sending out a large cone on top and lots of roots below -- and a Lilac "Sensation" (Syringa vulgaris 'Sensation' ) by the driveway gate. Hopefully the nice scent of the lilac will cancel out the stench of the dracunculus, the latter of which many have compared to rotting flesh.

Maybe I should refer to this as The Vulgaris Bed, eh?

Apparently the Devil's Tongue only smells bad for a day or two. This is a new plant for me, and while I think the look of it is totally cool (and not a little erotic), I don't want anything that smells like rotting flesh right by my back door, thank you very much, although my two doggies would probably like to put it to a vote.

I also put my little cauliflower and broccoli seedlings into the ground. The soil in that bed is just fabulous, although I think I'll have a problem with Bermuda grass later on during the summer. There are earthworms everywhere...surprising since the previous owners had Chemlawn out on a regular basis.

Got to visit a very sweet lady neighbor who lives directly behind us. She too is a gardener and has offered to divide and share stuff. "I have lots of Coral Bells," she said, "do you know what those are?" I didn't tell her I wrote a gardening column or anything...no sense coming off like a smarty-pants know-it-all...especially since I ain't one in the first place.

This lady (I can't for the life of me remember her name) has a serious orchid greenhouse too. Gorgeous vandas hanging everywhere. I need to ask her for some growing tips, for sure.

The rest of the afternoon was spent ripping out more landscape cloth from the long back flower bed that runs parallel to the swimming pool. I was afraid of yanking too hard on the cloth and tumbling into the frigid water, but luckily that didn't happen. Between staying dry and only chipping one fingernail, I think I did pretty well today.

If the rain holds off tomorrow, I'll tackle the rest of the landscape cloth and the wild strawberry growing in the patio bed. Ugh.

The March Toward Spring

Well, two more weeks before our supposed final frost date. We've really had it pretty lucky here this year - only one major snowfall, and that was back at Christmas.

I'm not totally packing up the frost cloth and old bedsheets just yet, mind you. The juncos are still here, hopping around frantically on the ground below my feeders. I don't know if they're lingering because more cold weather is expected, or if they're just stuffing themselves in anticipation of a long flight up North in the near future. (Much as I love the cute little ivory-tummied darlings, I hope it's the latter.)

Conversely, the robins have seemingly never left. Prior to moving to Plano, I'd never witnessed gangs of marauding robins like I have here. They descended in huge flocks upon our dwarf yaupons one morning and, along with the more sedate Cedar Waxwings, stripped the trees clean of berries. The poor mockingbird who regularly stands guard in our back yard was beside himself. Order has since been restored, but I put a half tangerine out for Mr. Mock to munch on as a sort of consolation prize.

Speaking of the back yard, my landscaping buddy Brian came out and did a terrific job of cleaning up. The huge dead vines that hung like picture wire on our back fence are gone, along with a couple of errant, sickly yuccas and a small tree I didn't like and couldn't identify. The rose bushes in the 20' west side bed are also gone. I need to amend that soil now with something to prepare it for some 50-odd dahlia bulbs. Not sure what, though; I was going to use compost but Swan Island Dahlias warns against it. I am skeptical, as were several others on the Yahoo! Dahlia list group. Maybe I'll just use a small amount. I hate to add peat moss, as it doesn't break down in or add nutrients to the soil, but I may have to. The bed is total black clay.

My seedlings are doing well. The cole crops are ready to go out on there own, while the tomatoes will remain indoors but will graduate to one gallon pots. I don't plan on starting summer fruits and veggies for about another month, but I get so darned excited about seed starting, you just never know.

Rainwater Sucks

Actually, no...rainwater doesn't suck. But this past weekend, I sucked rainwater.

One of my two new rainbarrels was already 1/3 of the way full after steady showers on Saturday. Problem was, when I opened the hose line that extends out from the bottom, nothing happened.

"Oh," I suddenly realized with all the intelligence Paris Hilton could muster on a good day, "that's why you're supposed to put rain barrels up on cinder blocks."

So, I did the ol' siphoning trick. It worked, but yuck. Everybody keeps saying rainwater that comes off your roof, travels down the gutter and flows into your barrel is still cleaner than tap water, but I wonder.

If I start growing a third arm, would somebody please take me to the hospital and relate this little tale...? Thanks.

Glorious Days

We've had some absolutely gorgeous weather here the past couple of weekends - what I would define as near-perfect; sunny, 75°, a light breeze, no humidity. So, needless to say, I haven't had much desire to sit at the computer and type.

I haven't been totally lax, however, as garden planning seems to be a 24/7 obsession. Next Saturday, a landscaper is coming over to do some heavy work around the yard. While I am mostly a do-it-yourselfer, the stuff he's going to be doing is out of my league: removing large shrubs, hauling off rotten railroad ties, etc.

It'll be great to have it all done, because then I'll be able to build the beds and start planting! Yippee!

I spent one of the afore-mentioned gorgeous weekend days tending to the several plants overwintering in pots on the patio. Nearly all of them are showing signs of life, even some of those about which I wondered if they had life. The hostas are showing some crown emergence too.

My veggie seedlings are doing exceptionally well. The only strain that didn't germinate at all was the Black Cherry Tomato. Disappointing, but not altogether surprising, as I apparently had trouble with these seeds last year.

Since I was dead-set on having some form of cherry tomato, I ordered a packet of Juliet Hybrid from Burpee (along with a packet of Big Rainbow heirloom). If the picture means anything, the Juliet look more like the now-popular grape tomato. They are supposed to be crack-resistant, too. We'll see. I started the seeds yesterday.

I also ordered and received some of the folding tomato cages from Burpee and am very impressed with their workmanship. Four of 'em for $28 sure seems like a good deal. I know my darling husband will be happy that he doesn't have to wrestle the non-folding cages out of the attic for me again this year.

Playing Catch-Up

Wow, a bout with a bad cold really knocked me back for a couple of weeks. But, I've returned, and need to catch up with running down the few things I managed to do garden-wise when not blowing my nose.

I gave up trying to get a rainbarrel on eBay and just ended up buying the two-barrel kit from Gardener's Supply, although I probably won't link them together. The barrels have already arrived and they are fantastic - really well made, and they hold a whopping 75 gallons each. It'll be nice to have a supply of rainwater around this spring.

In addition to the seeds I recently started indoors (as detailed in my Feb. 3 Suite 101 article), I also got some veggies going outside in containers: onions, radicchio, radishes, and peas. No germination just yet. It's been chilly here, so there may not be any activity for another week.
Before I started feeling really crappy last weekend, I did manage a few miscellaneous other outdoor chores, like:

Pulling back the mulch from the irises to give them a little more sun exposure. Looks like only one bulb rotted out of the 13. I was afraid another one was going to die, but a little digging revealed some new growth - yey!

Getting the vegetable bed ready for planting by removing the nasty landscape cloth and spreading some chopped leaves over the area, which is about 25' long and only 1.5' feet wide - not your typical bed dimensions, but despite its narrowness I think it'll work, as it receives lots of sun.

I also pulled up most of the rest of the landscape cloth from the front beds - what a chore that was! The soil underneath is fabulous and full of earthworms. More chopped leaves went over top of these areas, just to add some organic nutrients for the future.

It's getting close to shipping time for spring plants! I received notification from Avant Gardens that my order will go out 4/11 - can't wait to see the beautiful Pelargonium Vancouver Centennial they're sending me!

Foaming at the Trowel

I don't know how else to say it: the local meteorologists around Dallas are either really stupid, or just plain cruel.

Their weekend forecasts are routinely, miserably off, usually in a bad way. They go from happily predicting a sunny weekend with temps in the 60s to overcompensating with proclamations of unending clouds and enduring showers. They are like the over-protective parent who paints a beautiful false picture of the world, then crumbles into apocalyptic hysterics the first time you skin your knee.

Well, maybe that's a bit drastic. Can you tell I had gardening plans for the weekend, only to have Mother Nature throw a rusty trowel in the schedule?

It's unnerving, really. I feel so...unappreciative of the fact that I live and garden in zone 7B (or 8a, depending on which map you use). I mean, after all, I've already started tomato seeds. Our last freeze date is only six weeks away. What the heck am I griping about?

I'll tell you why I'm griping. I am a gardener. I belong outside, with the sun on my neck, compost caked on my knees, and a mattock in my hand. I want to look over my shoulder and see a curious mockingbird waiting for me to unearth a tasty grub for him. I want to pull aside some mulch and find new growth on my Orange Meadowbrite Echinacae. I want to -- once again -- run out of decent gardening gloves because I've dirtied or poked out the fingers on all of the ones I have.

Most of all, I just want to be outside. Every year, winter seems harder to endure. The enticing, colorful gardening catalogs that fill my mailbox are just a cruel reminder of all the fun stuff I could be planting. Of course I realize the need for winter, for dormancy, in plants.

Maybe it'd be easier if people went dormant every winter. If we all just got fat and hibernated for a few months. Heck, I've got a headstart on that, considering the extra 7 lbs. I put on around Christmas.

What would my boss say if I announced I was taking off the next six weeks to, you know, just sort of snooze? Hmmm....

Nah. I'm sure I'd spend the time just sitting around the house, gazing out the window, wistfully wishing I could be outside gardening.