Before I get on with the flowers, got a quick question. I’ve mentioned previously that we were thinking of moving into a bigger home here in the park. We’ve decided that since it’s unlikely we’ll be getting out of this god-forsaken Valley any time soon, we might as well buy something. There are a bunch of foreclosed homes down here, so we can probably find something nice that we can still afford. So, the question becomes, am I a total garden geek for spending until 3 am this morning “daydreaming” about how I want my garden when we actually do get a house? I mean, really. I have no idea at all what kind of space I’ll have, and here I am planning a garden already. What kind of sense does that make? LOL!

Pics and more

Here’s a view from the top of the stairs.

Side-of-the-stairs from the top.
This little guy stayed still long enough to get a pic while I was out with the camera yesterday.

Butterflies love gaillardia.

Butterfly garden, beginnings…
Speaking of butterflies, here’s the humble beginnings of my butterfly garden. The pots with the pipes are cleome. As I’ve mentioned, it tends to be windy here, so I expect I’ll have to stake the cleome. The windowbox has Carpet Cosmos, which are only supposed to grow 6″ tall, and in the middle, 3 red penta. Two of the seeds have sprouted, but the babies are really small, about the size of thyme when it first sprouts. Hope they make it. The black container has just-transplanted blue salvia and some Cosmos Bright Lights seeds. The round pot has blue ageratum seeds, just planted today. The seeds are so tiny, and it was so windy, that I was afraid to try to plant them until the wind died down a bit. Also want to try zinnia, Cosmos Sonata mix, and maybe even a tithonia. Don’t tell me it won’t do well in a container; I refuse to accept that until I try! More on that as it evolves. Need more potting soil first; hoping to go get it tomorrow.

One last pic and I’m done for now.

Mums and gazania
A while ago, I posted about dividing mums and gazania. Here’s a pic of the windowbox, blooming like crazy. I swear, I cut off all the buds when I divided the mums, but they would not be denied. They wanted to bloom, so I’m letting them. I think we probably have a long enough growing season to let them bloom again in fall. Seen it happen before with my mums.

I guess that’s about all she wrote, for now. Tired after staying up too late tomorrow, so g’nite, y’all.

Pics and more

Mouseover the thumb to see the big picture.
Click for the really big pic.


The first ripe tomato this year.

First ripe tomato from my volunteer tomatoes

The Scarlet Runner beans are running, and blooming. And they are definitely scarlet!

Scarlet Runner Beans

And so are the Hestia half-runner beans.

Hestia half-runner beans

Saw today that one of my cucumber vines is flowering, but it’s only a few male flowers. Be a while, I’m sure, before I get any beans or cucumbers. Probably be another few days until I have another ripe tomato, too. The cantaloupe and Gold Bar melons I planted are starting to run, too, though just barely. And my zucchini looks a whole lot better than any I planted last year. They just stayed sickly and puny, and expired very rapidly. This year, they look like zucchini are supposed to look, growing like weeds! Now if I can just keep the squash vine borers off, I should actually get a zucchini or two. I check the leaves every day…kind of obsessive compulsive about it, even…Do not want to see those eggs anywhere near my zucchini!


The baby peppers I planted out the other day are doing fine so far. I put the two Fruit Basket sweet peppers in their baskets, and 4 jalapenos in the garden. All are hanging in there, despite the heat. Better than me, probably! I hate hot.


Anyway, on to the U(nidentified) F(lowering) O(bject). What, you thought I saw aliens? Not lately, anyway! Well, except the illegal kind; hard to live down here and not see those kind. Ok, flowers. I had a bunch of different packages of wildflower seeds, and have no idea what I planted where. Once I started clearing out the dying California Poppies, I found this guy growing in the pot. It’s a pretty little plant, stands about 2′ tall, basically a single stem with the thin leaves, until it gets to the top. As soon as it started budding out, the flower heads grew out from the central stalk. And the blooms are about the size of a half dollar, more or less. So here’s pics. If you know what this is, drop me a comment. please…and thank you!

Unidentified Flowering Object

EDIT: Thanks to the Texas Gardening forum on Gardenweb, my UFO has been identified as Helenium amarum, common name Yellow Sneezeweed. Thanks, ladies!

On to the blanketflowers. Pics and more
I found a few blanketflower seeds (I hoped) in a wildflower mix from Wildseed Farms (see link on left bottom), and threw them in the container with my Ruttya shrub I bought last spring. Obviously, I was right, since I have blooming blanketflowers. Here’s a couple pics:

Mouseover the thumb to see the big picture. Click for the really big pic.

Always loved these colors.

Like the way the blanketflower picks up the yellow of the lantana, and contrasts with the salvia.

And last, but certainly not least, my red mini-rose is blooming. The others all have buds, but not quite blooming yet.

Such a pretty little thing.

Today I turned over the part of my raised bed into which I am going to plant all my nicely growing baby hot peppers. I’ve got jalapenos (Hubby’s fav), Joe Parker Numex peppers, Ancho chiles, and an heirloom called Pasilla Bajo. The babies are filling up the yogurt cups with roots, so in another day or two, into the garden they go.

Since you’re not really supposed to plant sweet peppers too close to hot peppers, I’m planting two sweet peppers called Fruit Basket, that are bred to grow in hanging baskets. The baskets are all ready, just waiting for the babies to get big enough. They are going to hang from my tree; we’ll see how they do.

Well, that covers blanketflowers and babies; all that’s left are the weird ideas. A while ago, on GardenGirlTV, I saw a vid about a 30 minute flower garden. She used these things called “Garden Socks” into which she planted her 30-minute flower garden. If you’re curious, I found it on her resources page. Anyway, it occurred to me that I might be able to make a “sock” out of landscape fabric, and try to plant something in it. I finally figured out how to work it; am almost done with it. When it’s done, I’ll show you what I did, and if it actually works. Figured, what the heck, it could be fun to try!

Well, that’s annoying. All day I’ve been thinking about things to blog about, and now that I’m in front of the computer, can’t remember what I wanted to say. Oh, well. That’s the way it goes. Ta-ta for now…

Pics and More

Here’s a pic of all my babies so far. Not much to see, yet, but they are growing.

So, after all the rain and cloudiness, I did a baking soda spray (1 Tbsp baking soda, 1 Tbsp Murphy’s Oil Soap in a gallon of water) just to be on the safe side. I’d prefer to prevent the diseases instead of treat them. After remembering all the aphids and spider mites last year, I have also decided to try a water spray-off of everything in the garden every 3 or 4 days, just to wash off as many potential problems as possible. If I keep it up, and the weather doesn’t get too miserable, I may actually get something this year.

Planting a bunch of flower seeds, as well, mostly annuals. I saw a butterfly/bird garden plan in the garden mag I bought, and decided to see what I could do in containers. If it works, cool! If not, oh well, live and learn. Not losing much but a few seeds and some sweat equity…

Meanwhile, here are some pics of the current state of the garden.

Time to let the California Poppies go to seed, I think. Been religiously deadheading so far, but they are looking a bit the worse for wear, so I’ll let them make seed to collect, then pull them out to make room for something else.

The Laura Bush petunias, on the other hand, are doing great. Love these plants!

The beans I planted a while ago are growing nicely. The pole beans are starting to run, and the half-runners are stretching out as well.

The baby beans I planted a couple weeks after that are up and growing, too. These are bush beans. There are melons planted around the trellis thing. The bottles are buried to provide efficient watering when summer really kicks in. Which it seems to have done today…

And last, but certainly not least, the tomatoes keep on keeping on, which makes me very happy…

So that’s what I’ve been up to this week…

It’s really windy and cloudy; we’ve had rain showers all week so far. The plants didn’t want to stand still and smile, so the pics might be a bit fuzzy. Here’s what’s in bloom in my yard this month:

Mouseover the thumb to see the big picture. Click for the really big pic.
These first three containers are in my side-of-the-stairs container garden.

This container has blue sage, a Blackie sweet potato vine, and yellow lantana.

Tahoka Daisy, alyssum, and Blue Daze convolvulous.

Pink ‘N’ Blue Bachelor Buttons.

Here’s my other container garden, so far:

Pink Laura Bush petunias ( a wonderfully fragrant and forgiving plant), Red Nikki mix nicotiana, more Blue Daze, and some gazania.

White Gazania.

Yellow gazania and some mums about to bloom.

Like I said, nothing special, but it’s mine…

What else? Oh, yeah, The little pieces of herbs I planted the other day are doing well, thanks, no doubt, to the rain. I even cut off a small stem of the lavender I bought and stuck it in there, just to see what would happen. So far, it looks good. hasn’t wilted at all. I planted some common thyme seeds in there today; I hope it grows.

Here’s a pic of the “BBQ container”:

Herbs planted in a BBQ cover
Also wanted to show you how much the volunteer tomatoes have grown since the first pic I posted. Rain does some amazing things. No matter how much you water…
If you remember when I divided the mums and gazania, you’ll notice that they are looking great so far. Guess I didn’t kill them (yet!).

My, how you’ve grown.

I planted a pot of Unwin’s dwarf dahlias a while ago; planted a few seeds in each spot, not knowing how well they would germinate. I think they all came up, so I had to move 5 baby dahlias to individual pots (for now) as the container’s only big enough for three. I may use them, may try to sell them on craigslist. We’ll see.

Went out after dinner and between rain showers and got the bird netting on the beans enough, I think, to keep the birds off. Still need to do some adjusting and fine-tuning, but, for tonight, at least, I think they are okay. Would’ve finished, but it started raining again, and got dark…

I bet you know what comes next. The garden dept at Lowe’s. Yup. Almost as bad as a book store. I needed stuff to make Al’s container mix, and a little batch of gritty mix for the herbs. When all was said and done, I spent about $80.00, cuz I needed seed-starting mix, vermiculite, perlite, orchid bark mix and on and on. Then of course there was the new hose nozzle – old one died – and, oh yea, the creeping lemon thyme, Provence lavender, marjoram, and rosemary I just had to have. And the garden magazine. And the seeds. Only 3 packs, I swear…SIGH…

To make things even worse, I had to lug all that potting soil, etc, to the truck cuz the helper lady was helping a lady even older than me. So I’m trying to manhandle that cart thing in the vague direction of my truck, and I wandered off without the bag with the dog chain in it. The whole reason (so I told myself) I went in the first place. Naturally I didn’t remember until I was pulling in the driveway, so I had to turn right around and go back after it. Was still there, no problem, but…

Oh well. Once I got home, I made a small batch of gritty mix and planted the herbs. I put the marjoram, lemon thyme, and creeping thyme I already had in one of the ceramic pots Hubby got me on clearance last fall, but I also took a little piece off each to try another experiment. Hubby bought one of those cheap little charcoal grills for something or other, but I think he only used it once. The top (pretty red) was just taking up space in the laundry room, so I took off the handles and grill supports, lined it with a piece of coco fiber mat to keep the soil marginally cooler, and filled that with gritty mix, too. I put the little pieces from the other herbs in it, and will plant the common thyme seeds I bought today, maybe tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.

Once I got done with all that, it was getting dark, and I was starving. Forgot to eat lunch today, and breakfast was a long time ago. Called it quits for today, and made a left-over roasted chicken sandwich.

I know it ’s way late, but one little corner of my raised bed is close enough to the house that it gets some shade even in summer. I had a foot or so of space once I pulled out the borage, so I decided to take a chance and plant some lettuce and spinach. Between the house and the swiss chard next to it, the spot may get enough shade to let them grow, at least for a while. Some of it’s already sprouting – so far, so good. Also planted some carrots. May not do well, but all it cost to try was a few seeds.

Just a couple flowers:

Blue Larkspur

Blue Bachelor Button

Tired and gotta get up early to ride to McAllen and have breakfast with Hubby’s nephew and his wife. That’s all she wrote, for now…

I have a cookbook that used to belong to my mom’s mom; was printed in 1920-something. It’s got a lot of old-fashioned recipes, and sometimes I find just what I’m looking for. Wanted to use some navy beans and leftover ham tonight, so went recipe hunting. Finally looked in Grandma’s cookbook. Imagine my surprise when I found a baked bean recipe that had been quantity-adjusted in Grandma’s handwriting. Made me tear up a minute, then I smiled. And used the recipe…

Had to go hunting for a good cornbread recipe to go with the beans; none of the ones I have turned out especially good. Found one on About.com that sounded good. It has to be the best cornbread I have ever made. I used 2 Tablespoons of honey, and it was still very sweet. If you don’t like sweet cornbread, adjust the amount, or leave it out altogether. But it came out moist and light; not at all dry or heavy like cornbread can be.

The beans were good, too; least, I thought so…

Honey Buttermilk Cornbread

Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:

* 2 cups stone ground cornmeal
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 large eggs
* 3/4 cup buttermilk
* 3/4 cup milk
* 3 tablespoons honey
* 1/4 cup melted butter, cooled

Preparation:
Heat oven to 400°. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan or spray with nonstick baking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, milk, honey, and melted butter.

Stir the liquid mixture into the dry mixture until blended. Spread in the prepared baking pan.

Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

In garden news, yesterday the beans I planted with the repotted mums weren’t sprouting yet. Today they are starting to sprout. Got dill and cilantro sprouting, too. Probably already to hot to get much out of either, but the flowers will attract beneficials, so it’s all good. All the cukes and watermelons still looking good, so I really have to thin pretty soon.

Not much else new in the garden; just trying to keep up with the watering due to the hot wind…as usual…Supposed to get a cool front some time tonight with possible showers. Surely do hope so.

On the garden front, I’m happy to report that all the baby cukes and watermelon I planted out the other day are thriving. This is good, but it means I have to murder 6 helpless little baby plants in very short order…I hate doing that. Sigh… The mums and gazania I did that day are looking great, too. No beans sprouting yet, though.

All my annual seeds I’ve been sticking in my containers are sprouting and growing like gangbusters so far. Looking forward to purty flowers, barring any of Mother Nature’s nasty tricks.

In my side-of-the stairs container garden, still have lots of alyssum, while the convolvulus and salvia are blooming nicely, too. Sat on the stairs for a minute, and noticed what a pretty picture the blue & white made. What do you think?

Also forgot to post this pic of my baby tomato the other day. Grown since then, but you get the idea…

Golf-ball sized and growing

That’s about it for now. I’ll let you know how the rolls came out…

Then I decided I’d divide the mums (yea, I know, should’ve been done ’round about February) while I was taking advantage of the clouds. I bought two cushion mums last fall (clearance is a wonderful thing); they bloomed themselves out and grew all winter. Pretty much took over the container. Hate do do this, but to divide, you gotta massacre all those pretty mums-to-be. It actually hurt… Here’s a couple “before” pics:

And then (Guh! Feel like Norman Bates here) I took the pruners to all those buds. Still wincing. Here’s an after:

Dug out the plants; divided the yellow mum into 2 plants, but the burgundy mum seems more vigorous. Divided that one into 4 little plants. Now they look like this:

Thought about this last night when I should have been sleeping. Decided the mums would look nice in a 24″ window box with the extra gazanias I transplanted a few days ago. So here they are in the new home:

I put the other two new mums in gallon pots, then moved pots and box to a shady spot and started praying I didn’t kill anything.

Meanwhile, I put one of each back in the original pot. See, plenty of room for more plants now:

So, more it is. I planted a couple Scarlet Runner, French Filet, and KY Wonder pole beans in the back. Put a couple Hestia half-runner beans in front to (hopefully) trail nicely down the pot, then stuck in a few Medinah bush beans behind the mums. No idea if mums make good companions for beans. We shall see what we shall see.

The red Nikki Mix nicotiana is blooming. While I’m talking about annuals, I’d recommend you try the pink Laura Bush petunia (pics here) I got from Wildseed Farms. The catalog description says “Very low maintenance and forgives neglect.” and “Flowers are delightfully fragrant.” Both are true. They grew all winter with no help from me, and they smell absolutely wonderful. If I’d known they were such great flowers, I’d have planted a bunch more. You better believe I will come fall.

I think I’ve rambled on long enough for one day. TTYL…