It's Starting ... Spring??

'Grand Primo' Narcissus tazetta (I think)

Is this the start of spring? It's been unseasonably mild here, a far cry from last winter, and some of the bulbs are blooming much earlier this year. I dug up these narcissus, which I think are 'Grand Primo', the first week in March last year while they were in bloom. It was part of my daffodil rescue. But they're blooming already. I really like these bulbs - very robust leaves and stems and extremely fragrant (maybe too fragrant!). Plus they're just plain pretty.

Southern grape hyacinth, Muscari neglectum

Last year the grape hyacinth were just starting to open about a week later. So they seem on track. If I were to buy more grape hyacinth bulbs, I think I'd buy some larger cultivars. These are very teeny.

'Gravetye Giant' summer snowflake, Leucojum aestivum

These 'Gravetye Giant' snowflakes are new for me this year. Last year I had the smaller summer snowflakes blooming about a month later. The smaller ones have yet to bloom so I don't know if it's a cultivar difference or not. I do like the bigger blooms on these!

Flowering quince

The flowering quince is starting to open, probably a week or so earlier than last year. I'd say it's got a good month of blooming left though.

'Peggy Clarke' flowering apricot, Prunus mume

My new baby is blooming! I planted my 'Peggy Clarke' flowering apricot last January and it's covered in blooms and bees now! I'm so glad there are some bloomers for my pollinator friends.

Are you starting to see signs of spring earlier than last year? What's blooming for you?

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2012. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day for the New Year

Improved Meyer lemon blooming indoors

What is blooming in your yard or house this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day? I have a few plants, mostly indoors, and a couple in bud outdoors. To start off, here's a couple of shots of my Meyer lemon tree. It's happily blooming away in the guest room. But I think I need to bring it outdoors for some pollinators if I want some lemons!

Improved Meyer lemon

Lemon trees need pollinators to set fruit, right?



Duba



This is my cat Duba, who was getting in my way as I tried to take the next photo (yes, he has one eye that's mostly brown and the other very light blue).

African violet

I wish I knew the name of this African violet. It never fails to bloom in winter and it continues to bloom for a long time.

'Patrick's' abutilon

I can tell our "hard" freezes haven't lasted too long because the abutilon is still blooming. The blooms are pretty small but it's still got them!

Flowering quince

The flowering quince is not quite in bloom yet. In fact, though there are many buds, it's coming out a little later than it has in the past.

'Peggy Clarke' flowering apricot (Prunus mume 'Peggy Clarke')

And last but certainly not least, one of my newer trees is getting ready to burst into bloom - 'Peggy Clarke' flowering apricot. It's loaded with buds now, and if we don't get a hard freeze, I expect to see a sensation.

Be sure to visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to see what she has in bloom along with many other folks around the world!

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2012. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

Davis Mountains and Indian Lodge

Davis Mountains, far west Texas

Happy New Year! Though it feels like spring here right now, I thought I'd reminisce about the winter we experienced over the holidays. We went to one of our favorite places - the Davis Mountains. They're in far west Texas, north of the towns of Marfa and Alpine, and northwest of Big Bend National Park.

Hiking trail in the Davis Mountains State Park

When we arrived, snow and "ice fog" had just started roll in, and it made for a less-than-ideal mini-hike, which we took immediately. Who knew that those conditions would hang around for most of our trip?

Indian Lodge lobby

We stayed at Indian Lodge, which is located in Davis Mountains State Park. The original part of the lodge (which we always stay in) was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC was established by FDR to put many young men to work, and I learned that at that time many of Texas' state parks had just been established but there was no money to build structures. So the CCC built many of the beautiful cabins found within those state parks.

Post and beam detail in lobby of Indian Lodge

For Indian Lodge, the CCC made their own adobe bricks, cut posts from the area, and built much of the furniture that is still in use today.

Ceiling in our room

The cane used on the ceilings came from Boquillos Canyon, down Big Bend way.

Indian Lodge courtyard and snow as seen through our window (and screen!)

We were there to do some hiking, see some wildlife and for me to check out the plant life. The wildlife was a bit sparse. I guess they preferred to stay warm as I did. We didn't see the usual javelinas but did see some mule deer and a few birds (canyon wren, red-naped sapsucker, mountain chickadee, towhees and phainopepla were some of the "good" ones for you birders). And we saw many plants endemic to the area.

Cholla, Cylindropuntia sp.

The cholla is a very common cactus of the area.

Berries of the madrone tree, Arbutus sp.

There was a beautiful madrone tree in the courtyard of the Lodge. Though you can't really see it here, the berries are bumpy, and if you stretch your imagination, they can be said to resemble strawberries from whence they get a common name of "strawberry tree."

Madrone bark

Madrone trees are probably more famous for their peeling bark.

Ice/snow on Emory oak

I learned from a park ranger that most of the oak trees within the park are hybrids between the Emory oak and the gray oak. Interesting (in a geeky way).

Havard agave

Havard agave (Agave havardiana) is the common agave in the area. I saw them mostly near the bottoms of hills.

Chihuahuan Desert and Davis Mountains in the background

Why do we love this area so much? Many reasons - the wide-open skies, interesting high desert flora and fauna, friendly people. It seems the Wild West past is always simmering just beneath the present there. I have much respect for those who have been able to make a living out there.

Wildfire damage

It can be a hard place to live, and there was much evidence of that from the wildfires that terrified the people and ravaged the area this past spring. That's not fall colors in the photo, it's burnt trees.

Snow near McDonald Observatory

But we'll be back. And if I can get a little time, maybe I'll do a post about Marfa, an interesting place!

Meanwhile in the garden, though the weather is balmy I know winter is here from the winter birds: dark-eyed junco, white-throated sparrow, cedar waxwing, tons of robins, and soon to arrive ... the American goldfinches!

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2012. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

Tidying Up for Fall

Gulf fritillary butterfly on Mexican mint marigold (Tagetes lucida)

It's that time of year again. Time to tidy up the garden before it goes to sleep (not that the garden really goes that dormant in the South). I love the colors this time of year, and the last of the butterflies. The butterflies seem slower, on their last wings, so to speak. And so it's time for me to start moving the potted plants to a safer area. The last few years I've moved the succulents to my storeroom and the rest of the plants to a portable pop-up greenhouse. Uh, but as you can see ...

this old greenhouse isn't exactly in shape for anything. This is how it looked after a stormy night in October. I've found these types of greenhouses really don't hold up more than a year for me (I've had two of them). I think the intensity of the sun and heat here is too much for it. And yes, you're supposed to be able to roll it back up at the end of the season and put it in a case, but we tried that one time and it was a real comedy of errors. It never would go back in the case. So this year I never got around to replacing it, which meant the plants would have to go indoors.

Readying plants for lower light levels on the patio

They say you should gradually introduce your potted plants to less light before sticking them indoors. I have rarely done that but decided to make the effort this year. The large plants - olive tree, lemon tree, bay tree and bouganvillea - are the ones I'm most concerned about (I leave these foxtail ferns out during winter, though I'll move them closer to the house and cover them when there are heavy freezes). So here I've got them under the patio roof to ready them for the house. I left them here for at least two weeks.

Olive tree in the dining room

A week after moving the olive tree indoors it started to shed leaves. I'm expecting that to happen on most of the big ones (except maybe the lemon tree). Hang in there baby - it's only a few months.

Lemon tree, geranium and miscellaneous other plants

Fortunately, we have some good south-facing windows for these plants.

A few succulents upstairs in my office (with Chobe)

Still facing south, a few of the succulents that didn't fit in my storeroom are joining me in my office for the first time.

Succulents in the storeroom

In my storeroom I put as many succulents as will fit on a shelving system in front of the window. Unfortunately the window is an old polarized one, which means it doesn't get much sunlight. So I supplement with a few grow lights from the other side. I also clean up the plants by removing the fallen leaves and detritus from them. That can be hard to do when the plant is quite thorny, like my agaves. Since I don't own a leaf blower, here's a little trick I use - I use chopsticks to remove the leaves. Or just two thin bamboo sticks. If you don't have the hang of using chopsticks, just one stick can still knock out any fallen leaves and leave you relatively scar-free.

Front side garden

Just today I realized how much I liked the fall look of my front side garden. The pink muhlys aren't so pink anymore, but the 'White Cloud' muhly is really looking good. I realized this area is mostly a summer and fall garden, but it'll still look good in the winter with the grasses, cactus and agave giving it some structure. Maybe I need to think about adding some good spring color.

'White Cloud' muhly grass and Ipomoea lobata vine above it

Here's the 'White Cloud' grass with a lovely fall-blooming (at least for me) vine. This vine, Ipomoea lobata, has lots of common names but probably my favorite is exotic love vine.

A close-up of Ipomoea lobata

Such lovely fall colors on this vine. It's an easy one to grow from seed. I'm not that competent at growing plants from seed but I can grow this one!

Mexican mint marigold and unknown wasp(?)

So it looks like the season is winding down. I will miss my connection to the various pollinators in my backyard. But other than me needing to plant a few lettuce and kale seeds and a shrub and a tree, I think at least the garden is ready.

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2011. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

Fill the Frame

My entry in the October Gardening Gone Wild Picture This contest. This is my interpretation of the theme: fill the frame. I've shown this photo before - it's of Bloedel Reserve, one of my all-time favorite places. Maybe I'm entering this photo because the place filled my heart.

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2011. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

I'm Back! And Where Did Summer Go?

Snow Sonata cosmos (and spider friend)

I simply can't believe it's been two months since I last blogged - that's ridiculous! All I can say is that I have been super busy, way more than usual. In the meantime, the hellish weather has passed (although we're still in a severe drought) and a new leaf has turned over, so to speak, in the garden. Take for instance, this one little cosmos plant. I had no luck this year getting cosmos from seed to grow. True, we had no rain but I do have a sprinkler! I planted three packages of various types of cosmos seed and got very few plants. This white one was the only survivor of its package and it never bloomed until this month. If I had been lucky with this plant, a whole bed of them would have looked sublime. And speaking of sprinklers ...

Near the white cosmos I planted some iris transplants and then set up a sprinkler to settle them in. The next day I had an explosion of different types of mushrooms. It's amazing what a little water will do!

A mushroom eruption

The squirrels are driving me crazy with their digging. The photo below shows why I can't plant bulbs right now.

pesky squirrels' damage

I have a lot of open areas in the bed I put in last fall since the plants haven't filled in yet, and the squirrels really like that. So last weekend I started making rodent proof guards for the bulbs I'm going to plant. I cut chicken coop wire into sections and fasten them on top of the soil with landscape pins. Then I cover them with mulch. It's some trouble but worth it.

Agave desmettiana bloom stalk

And here's a fall surprise - a bloom stalk on my agave. Since this photo was taken, the stalk has doubled in height. I do hope the blooms open before a hard freeze. But I guess the plant will die after blooming, and I'm OK with that since this agave has been too tender for me, and thus a hassle to protect.

Mariachi, jalapeno, and maybe some small Gypsy peppers

Fall has brought a bumper crop of peppers. Last spring I got carried away with all the pepper varieties The Natural Gardener had, and I came home with five pepper plants and not really enough space to plant them. So I crammed them all into one area and now have a strange mix of slightly hot sweet peppers and truly hot, hot peppers. The Mariachi pepper, which is supposed to be only mildly hot, causes my husband's eyes to water. If you know him, that's saying a whole lot (the man can finish a jar of ghost pepper salsa in two days all by himself).

'Tiburon' poblanos

Last weekend I picked a bunch of poblanos, roasted the whole lot and froze half of them. I find the easiest way to roast them is to throw them on the grill.

'Helvola' miniature water lilies

I'm glad I took this photo of my little pond a couple weeks ago because the water lilies are now slowly putting themselves into winter hibernation. In the stock tank pond I have a blue rush, miniature 'Helvola' water lilies that Pam of Digging gave me, and my sweet little glass floatie ball I brought back from my Seattle trip.

Lindheimer's muhly grass, Muhlenbergia lindheimeri

And at last, one of my favorite things about fall is when the grasses start to bloom. I have quite a few blooming now: 'Northwind' switchgrass, pennisetum, 'White Cloud' muhly (which I must get a photo of to show you), pink muhly, and this muhly grass commonly called Lindheimer's muhly. Here it's not quite in full bloom. It's fairly big - about 4 by 4 feet. I love it.

pink muhly

And how could I not show a photo of the pink muhly? It looks so luscious, like a frothy ice cream treat.

I hope never to be so tardy with my blog posts. See how an entire season faded away and another appeared in just these past two months?

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2011. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.