Tag: gardening

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.

Salad fixins to-be.

I made it home last night at 11:45, so I was able to give Monte a birthday hug before it was over, after all.

We’re having a lovely Saturday, so far.  I love being home.

I enjoyed walking around the yard this morning to see what had changed in the last week.   Just 7 days ago monte planted some rows of lettuce seed.  As you can see in the shot above, by this morning they’ve formed little green lines of lettuce seedlings.

We took a walk through the park at the end of our street this morning and ended up looking for one geocache there that has eluded us several times.  We couldn’t find it again today.  (darnit!)  When we got home I looked it up again to read recent comments from people who had found it.   It bugged me so much that we decided to go back to try to find it again.  We also checked the magnetic declination (the difference between magnetic and true north) for our area and updated the GPS.  And this time we took our bikes.   We ended up finding it… FINALLY… and then went on to look for (and found) two others in another park nearby.  Whew.  What a relief.

Now we’re plotting how to spend the rest of St Patrick’s Day.

I hope you have a great one, too!

Mystery volunteer.

I hope it's a geranium.

Last weekend we spent all afternoon in the yard, weeding flower beds, trimming shrubs, and WEEDING the poor excuse of a lawn that we are left with after last year’s drought.  Monte and I have divvied up the one bed along the fenceline that gets good sun all day.   Monte plants basil, tomatoes, thyme, chives and zinnias in his half.   In my half I plant flowers, many of which are perennials which come back every year.  I fill in with other flowers each spring.

Sometimes I get “volunteers” that grow from seeds that make their way to my flower bed one way or the other.   Two years ago, I had planted a really pretty red geranium in this same bed, but it kicked the bucket after the first year during the very cold winter we had in early 2011.  As I was weeding last weekend, I saw this little guy.  It’s actually not too little, it’s probably about 9 inches high.  I think (hope) it is a volunteer geranium.   I’m not sure though, could be a melon or veggie seedling.   Last time I had a mystery volunteer, I nurtured it until it had grown into a good size shrub.  Only to eventually find out that it was a poisonous weed called nightshade, which I quickly disposed of.

Between rain showers today, i went outside and snapped this picture, so that I could look at it as I compared it to geranium seedling images on the web, and this *could* be one.  It has the fuzzy stalks and leaves that geraniums do, too.   It has the big oval nurse leaves.  I even tore a little bit of the leaf on the left off to smell it, to see if it had that pungent smell that geraniums do.   But I couldn’t smell anything.   Maybe it’s too little?  Or maybe it’s not a geranium.

What do you think?

I’ll let you know when I find out, either way.  🙂

Basil Claus

Basil to go.

Our garden is taking a beating in this heat and drought.  Monte has already pulled up the tomato plants.  They stop putting out flowers.  But we did harvest some pretty red tomatoes off of them this year.  The basil is getting tired, too.   It dries up during the day, and in the evening it gets watered and pops back to life.

Our sprinkler system is shot, so we have been doing the manual watering thing this spring and summer – lots of hose schlepping.  We know we will be out of town for a few days this summer.  So instead of just letting the plants die, Monte is trying to use up as much as we can.   We’ll plant more when we will be here to water them well.

So, tonight Monte cut some of the nicer sprigs, put them in bottles of water and walked them around the neighborhood to give to several of our neighbors.  Hopefully they will use and enjoy it.   For the rest, a marathon pesto session is in order.   You can freeze it, if you hold off putting the cheese in.   Maybe put some in an ice cube tray or two for future use in small amounts.

Feb 20, 2011

Before and after.

I set out to weed the flower beds today to get them ready for planting.   We have a bed about 4 feet deep that runs along our fence for about 30 feet, and several other beds scattered throughout the back yard.

The image on top is what greeted me in the wasteland left over from the basil and zinnias last fall.  The image on the bottom shows the bed after weeding, rototilling and fertilizing.

I finished up right at noon.   We came in and had lunch — leftover vegetable soup that monte made last night.   I have to say this is the Best Vegetable Soup Ever.  I should have taken a picture of it last night, but I didn’t.   It’s chock full of carrots, turnips, celery, leeks and cannelloni beans — delicious.   The least I can do is post the recipe, which we once again lifted from our bon ami Jacques Pepin (recipe and video from the episode here) – Happy Cooking!

Jul 22, 2010

Red

Before buying my first house 12 years ago and having a yard and flower beds of my own, I didn’t really pay much attention to flowers, plants, grasses.  I didn’t know their names, and didn’t take the time to appreciate a really pretty and well tended garden.

Since then, I’ve really come to enjoy gardening, over the years planting many beds of my own, trying different plantings.  I’ve tried my hand at vegetable gardens as well, but they always seem to fall victim to the unbearable heat of our summers.  Native flowers and plants are much more fun to grow — they seem to thrive in this crazy weather.

A few years ago I discovered that geraniums do really well outside here and have planted several.   Unless there’s a really hard freeze, they make it through the winter just fine.

This is a shot of a geranium I planted in the bed this year — a pretty deep red.

Jul 18, 2010

Baby echinacea up close

I weeded the flower bed yesterday, and it’s much easier to see the new buds and foliage.  This is bud #2 from the purple coneflower.   I don’t know what it is about closeups that captures my interest.    This one was too hard to pass by.

Jul 16, 2010

Crown of stars

I do enjoy taking photos of the flowers in the garden.   But at the risk of posting yet-another-zinnia photo, I decided to play with the color on this shot that I took during my walk out back today.

Jul 9, 2010

After a rain

The purple coneflower that I planted a month or two ago has started to bloom.   I have tried to grow these in the past and they never took.  Maybe it’s due to the preparation of the flower bed that I did this year – compost, mulch and fertilizer.   Works wonders.

It’s been rainy today.  I got this shot this afternoon in between rain showers.   I like the water droplets on the tips of the petals.

Jun 25, 2010

Another zinnie

Another week flown by.  Got a lot accomplished, but lots more to do.

I had a bit of an inspiration-less day today.   Meetings start at 6:30 every day, and run through the early evening.    It’s refreshing when I can finally log off for the day.

Walking around outside seems to take bit of the fogginess out of my head.   I know I’ve been posting lots of flower pics, but I enjoy sharing them.  Here is another zinnia.

I really like this Canon PowerShot D10.   I’ve found it takes great close up shots.  But, not so great wide shots.   Or, it could be me.  I think it’s time I dig out the manual.  Maybe I’ll flip through that this weekend.

Tonight we are enjoying a quiet Friday night at home.   We’ve got the original “Flipper” movie queued up on the DVR.   Yes, that’s right — the 1960’s movie about the dolphin.

Oh, by the way… just 6 months from today until Christmas (!)

Jun 24, 2010

Butterfly's eye view

The lantana is booming this year.   The butterflies are all over their little bunches of flowers.   They do look mighty tasty, don’t you think?

Jun 23, 2010

Volunteer

For the last couple of years sunflowers have mysteriously appeared in the flowerbed out back.  I assume they were seeded by birds on their way back from the feeder… or maybe those pesky squirrels.   They’re a nice addition to the garden.

This one is about 4 feet tall so far and has a number of buds ready to pop.

Jun 20, 2010

Pretty blue flowers

I have work-work to do today, so Monte’s gone to the lake by himself.     For a change of scenery, every now and then I need to get up and take a walk outside.

This is a shot of some blue plumbago that I planted a year or two ago.   I like plumbago because of the pretty blue color, and how it contrasts with the orange flowers that are nearby.

Also, it’s pretty much indestructible in the Central Texas heat.

Jun 3, 2010

Zinnies

The rain has been kind to my gardens.  This is the patch of zinnias that Monte planted from seed in February/March.   They are clearly benefiting from all the time  Susanne spent during her visit in December  to weed, compost, till and prepare these flower beds.  They’re feeling the love.   Thanks Susanne… you’ll have to come back soon and see them in person.

We’ve already been cutting blooms to enjoy inside the house.   I love fresh flowers!

May 31, 2010

Climbing vine

Happy Memorial Day.   After two days on the lake it’s nice to lay low.   I had work stuff I needed to get done today, but found time to talk a walk out back and water the flowers.

This is a shot of the morning glory that I planted from seed.   I got this garden obelisk several years ago and have tried to grow a climbing, flowering plant on it several times in the past, but each time it has died.   This one seems to have legs and I like to go out in the morning to see the blooms.

I didn’t get a flag pole mounted for this year.  Hopefully I can do that before the 4th of July.  For now, though, on this Memorial Day, let me just leave you with this:

“It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.  It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate.  It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.”

– Charles M. Province, US Army