Monday, December 29th

Seed sowing day!

• Rusty tub: Swiss Chard, Monet's mesclun mix, Capitane lettuce (old seeds)
• Leeks pot: Capitane & Monet's
• Gothic arch: Lettuces
• Otto Linne: Lettuces
• 30 gal green pots: Yellow onions & lettuces
• Shirley poppies sown on east side of Carefree Beauty
  
• Drummond Phlox sown in rose bed on alley side, in rocks near driveway, in corner bed, on north side near hamelia, in sidewalk wheelbarrow, under south side Bauhinia, in back under Red Cestrum & in path
• Buttercream Poppies: along driveway side of rose bed, in fireplace wall bed, near variegated gardenia & near Marie Pavie
• Austin wildflower packet sown in easement

Planted Belladonna lilies near split rail fence between La Marne & Mutabilis

Planted Evergreen Wisteria (30 gal green pot) behind spirea on south fence. Leaves were stripped previously. EW on garage wall in back looks crappy, still very chlorotic.

There's a toadflax blooming in the rose bed and the lime tree has 3 limes!

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, December 13th-15th

Saturday: party at house tonight, no time to garden. :-(

Sunday: Worked on alley side of rose bed, repairing depravations made by marauding backhoes & concrete mixers. Pink skullcap has healthy root system and plenty of runners. Even though top growth was damaged, it should rebound. I pruned several of them and we'll see if that's a problem when we get a freeze.

Monday: Front blew through 8-8:30. Chilly 51 degrees afterwards.

Thursday, December 11th

Snow flurries from afternoon until about 9 pm last night. Weather sites report 33-35 degree lows but there was ice in all of the birdbaths this morning. Coleus in courtyard look pretty sad.

Filled bird feeders. Wonder if this weather will send goldfinches our way sooner?

Tuesday & Wednesday, December 9-10

Chico Amaryllis opened! Very cute, but colors are muted. 5 blooms on one stalk. 2nd stalk budding out.

Red Pearl continues to be a showoff.

La Paz Amaryllis has 4 blooms open on 2nd stalk. 3rd stalk way up.

Melusine has one stalk looking close to budding out. 2nd stalk about 8 inches tall.

Moonlight is maybe 2 inches tall. Very slow grower.

Papilio also growing slowly. 2 stalks up, tip of 3rd visible.

38 degrees overnight low. Wind chill reputedly in 20s. Walked Annie, didn't have to zip my jacket.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday: December 5th - 8th

Friday: Trip into town to visit MB. Stopped at Wabash and bought 1 Oenanthe/Water Celery/Flamingo Plant; 1 Carex Toffee Twist; 1 Daydream Aster (divided between me & MB).
For MB: 1 Lemon Thyme; 1 Hilltop Oregano; 1 Hopley's Purple Oregano; 1 Purple Sage; 1 Trailing Rosemary; JJUp seeds. Went to Glenwood and worked for a while, decided I needed soil & edging. Back to Wabash. No edging there, bought another thyme and ?. Scavenged concrete edging from vacant lot by Guadalajara Taqueria on Washington. Went back & finished up the bed, added Purple Columbine seeds. Drank a split of Piper to toast my girl.

Saturday: Worked outside all day. Had to water containers and some bed areas, very dry. Planted Aster Daydream by the Mary Rose and behind the pond (moved the latter on Sunday). Planted Oenanthe by pond near Persian vitex. Repotted the Agave from Nelson's; put 2 pups in separate pots. Very rootbound, most had eyes, put them in pots of their own to see what happens. Planted one gallon milkweeds between Henry Duelberg Salvias. Monarch caterpillars on both! Moved 3 coneflowers to south bed near buckeye/Rondeletia. Hung cattle panel on alley fence. Put one pot of Golden Oregano under Mutabilis, one near Mary rose.

Sunday: Went to Nelson's and bought flat of 15 Purple Columbine, plus one Sorbet mix Viola (purple/orange combo). Planted 3 Columbine under Persian vitex. Planted 8 Columbine under Texas Persimmon. Moved 3 Bear's Breeches from front (VERY DRY in Oakleaf Hydrangea bed, need to work on that); planted them under TxP & White Redbud. Want more Gulf Coast Penstemon in those spots; maybe walking/cemetery iris as well (how about some of latter for MB?). Tilo is so vigorous, no harm if yank/cut it indiscriminately.

Monday: No gardening this morning, working inside catching up on household manager duties!

December 1st through 3rd

MONDAY

Blog post at MCOK. Alleyway repairs started: cutting & pounding done. Spent afternoon outside. Planted Delphinums & Violas in fireplace bed. Pulled/pruned Salvia 'Otahal'.

TUESDAY

Walked in morning, spent afternoon in garden. Beautiful day! Spread manure in south fence bed, compost & manure in fireplace bed. Planted marjoram, golden oregano & parsley.

WEDNESDAY

Too noisy to work outside. Alley repairs continue. Tried to rain in morning, only lasted 2 minutes. VERY WINDY!!!!!!!!!

Saturday & Sunday

Saturday: Spread manure/compost/humus in beds along fence line. Planted 2 Bright Edge Yucca in corner bed. Have 5 pots of roots w/eyes separated from twins (7 clumps in one 4-1/2 in. pot!) Moved mock orange into pot, put runners in other spots along south fence near gate. Moved Louis Philippe rose between Rondeletia & Mexican Bauhinia. Moved Variegated Abutilon behind Calliandra/near bay tree. Moved Dianthera behind Spirea. Planted Clerodendron Musical Notes on south fence. Planted Marie Bracey Camellia near gate. Moved Rangoon Creeper from south fence to expanded area near alley. Earlier in week, planted Feijoa/Pineapple Guava there.

Sunday made a trip to Nelson's to use Bullfrog Bucks. Purchases:
Two gallon pots of milkweed.
3 Matrix Morpheus pansies,
5 assorted Violas,
7 Indian Paintbrush,
5 Delphinium 'Connecticut Yankee',
2 Golden Oregano,
4 qt pots Scaevola,
2 Triple Curled Parsley,
1 Porlock Thyme,
1 Hilltop Oregano,
1 Dwarf Sage,
1 Berggarten Sage,
1 Goodwin Creek Lavender,
1 Peach Sage, 1 pot Leeks,
1 unidentified Agave (variegated, wide leave).

Seeds, November 18th

Earl Grey Larkspur sown by Hermosa & Hwy 290 Pink Buttons, around Variegated Duranta, under Old Blush by teresa, aster, agastache. Behind Belinda's Dream and near small rose under south picture window. Behind Mary Rose and to one side, also near Perle D'Or , Melochia. In front of largest Aster and left of Souvenir.

Toadflax under roses in back

DBG hollyhocks sown in rose bed against fence and in corner bed (markers)

Forget-me-nots sown in Texas Persimmon bed behind pond

Hinckley's columbine in front south bed

Ruellia caroliniensis, old seeds from Zilker BG, tossed ?

EASEMENT: Clematis crispa & pink, Lavender 'Lady', Em's 2002 poppies, Al's black hollyhocks, Festuca, Abelmoschus, Shasta daisies, sunflower.

Earth Day Seems Like A Good Time ...

To post something here. Most of my blogging takes place over at From My Corner of Katy. I still haven't figured out what kind of gardening blog this one wants to be.

• I could post pictures of my favorite garden spade, a Bulldog from Great Britain, in my garden and other propitious spots. That would certainly be in keeping with the blog's title, but requires me to haul the spade around with me and increases the likelihood I'll leave it somewhere and never see it again. That would be a tragedy as it's a spade of great style and elegance: on its first night in Houston, it joined a lively group of friends at the small and charming Mia Bella, a delightful Italian restaurant in downtown Houston. It was shiny and new then ... they might not let it in the door now.
• I could post pithy garden sayings and witticisms.
  
• I could post one picture a day of something in my garden, with or without pithy garden saying or witticism.
• I could blog about gardening blogs and garden blogging.
  
• I could post examples of gardening gone wrong: "Don't Let This Happen To YOU!"
• I could use it as I originally intended, as a garden journal, a bland recitation of my activities in the garden that day.
  

Making decisions is not my strong suit. I'm going to do a Scarlett O'Hara and think about it tomorrow (or the next day). But in the meantime, here's an Echinacea that has the Earth Day spirit:

P is for Poppy ...

Specifically, Papaver somniferum, aka Oriental Poppy, Opie-m Poppy, Lettuce Leaf Poppy, Breadseed Poppy. I took my usual morning stroll around the garden on Sunday morning and found this beauty blooming out front.

Single and double pinks have reseeded themselves throughout the gardens but this red was both a surprise and a delight. The next day brought yet another surprise:

It took me a while but I THINK I remember making a late spring visit to the Antique Rose Emporium last year and purchasing these there. (It makes me feel a little better that the friend who accompanied me on that visit has no memory of doing so!) I'm very happy to have them, whatever the source!

Welcome to My Corner of Katy!

If you garden, you'll understand what I mean when I call myself a Horthead. When I first started gardening on this corner of Katy, I had no clue where it would lead me. But down the garden path I went. Almost 11 years later, what started out as a fairly typical suburban landscape is now anything but (the yard police have not always been tolerant but they appear to have thrown up their hands and resigned themselves in recent years).

There's more garden than grass to be found here on my corner lot. In my saner moments, I wonder what in the HECK possessed me to create so many planting areas ... then there are moments when the urge to expand hits me and at the end of the day, there's a little less lawn than there was at the beginning. I could argue that those fits of lawn reduction are actually an altruistic act of marital devotion. Since my spouse (to whom I refer as my executive producer) complains about having to lift the mower up and down because there are 3 separate areas of grass in the front/side yards, I'm working on eliminating one of those areas, thus sparing him the arduous effort of hauling the mower from the north 20 to the south 20. This corner bed is in between the north 40 and north 20.

I call mine a Texas cottage garden: there's nothing highly structured or formal about any of the areas. There's no grass at all in the back yard: just garden beds and paths. The picture to your right is the view as you enter the back 40 from the driveway. As you might suspect, I'm aiming for a look of controlled chaos. Wildscaping and habitat gardening are big interests, so I plant a lot of flowers for the birds, bees, and butterflies. As in traditional English cottage gardens (or my perception of them), plants are allowed to reseed themselves freely so that it's never the same from one year to the next. I like change ... although I have been told that my plants should have wheels because I move them so often. I consider it an exercise in stretching myself as a gardener.

We gardeners have a highly personal relationship with weather: here in South Central Texas, most of us both bemoan and bless the fact that we can garden year-round. Some of us develop strange one-sided relationships with the TV weather forecasters. A friend of mine falls into a funk each time her favored forecaster departs Houston for another station: mere days later, she has transferred her affections to the replacement, despite my warnings that it can only end in heartbreak. I myself have what I know to be an unreasonable animus for Dr. Neil Frank ever since Hurricane Rita didn't hit us. That's probably because I spent a good two days needlessly hauling in plants and yard art in anticipation of the havoc they could wreak when hurled about by hurricane force winds. I blame Dr. Neil for all the time I lost, both moving things in and then back out again. I refuse to watch him on the news and have been known to hurl insults if he appears during commercials. Yet I continue to read his forecast in the paper each day, because I'm a gardener and I feel the need to know what my gardens and I can expect in the days to come. This frequently results in muttered imprecations on my part and the shaking of heads on that of my family. I don't expect them to understand ... they don't garden.

At the moment, I'm unable to do much gardening myself, owing to an unexpected surgical adventure 2 weeks ago. It's difficult to stay out of the garden at this time of year, when much of it is at its peak. Blogging about the garden is a good way to keep myself inside and away from the temptation to do too much digging, pruning, planting, weeding, etc. Although I joined the blogging world back in December when I started a garden blog on the Houston Chronicle's reader blogsite, the problems some readers have had linking to that site have led me to start a second blog here on Blogger. The content will be the same on both, although I've installed Twitter here so I can keep better track of what's going on in the garden. For those who'd like to read my past posts on the other blog, here's the link: From My Corner of Katy. (This post is an amended version of my first post there.)