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Blue bonnets ablaze…

It’s not a great year for wildflowers in Central Texas. Our drought has affected this year’s crop.

Roadways normally awash in a sea of beautiful bluebonnet blue are sadly green.

Some other wildflowers are popping up, but the bluebonnets are either absent or very small and scattered about in sporadic patches.

But in my backyard, there is water. A few early spring sprinklings gave my bluebonnets just enough to put on a spectacular show.

Well, spectacular for me. With a thick layer of mulch in most of my other beds, I haven’t been able to get planted bluebonnets to reseed. But when I planted them and seeded them in the unmulched soil of the cutting garden, they rewarded me with a pretty palette of blue.

I’m missing them as I drive along the roads of Austin, but I’m so glad I can walk out back and enjoy a few of them this spring.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:09-05:00March 28th, 2011|Blog, blue bonnets, bluebonnet, cutting garden, Sharing Nature's Garden, Wildflowers|0 Comments

Too much of a good thing!

This week we were blessed with three quenching inches of rain. It came with a vengeance, bringing with it clashes of thunder and bolts of lightning too intense to ignore, even at 3 a.m.

Living in perpetual drought (Okay- I exaggerate just a smidge, but not much!), we welcomed the storm and the resulting drink. But today, I saw the flip side of all that rain at once. Just like our tomato skins will split with too much surprise moisture, my first crop of plums burst at the seams from the rain.

Let me tell you, though — it was like nectar of the Gods when I ate the rest of it! It’s a little small and a little too tart yet, but I LOVE that I have plums. I thought this was an ornamental tree until Dakota (the dog) ate her first fallen plums a few weeks ago.

Then I had to cut back the monstrous overgrowth of Wine Cups that have obliterated the rock pathway and begun taking over the lawn. All that rain just fed the monster!
So, THEN, I had to go through the beds and get some cutting flowers for make a lovely posey for the kitchen.
That makes me happy. Who said you can have too much of a good thing?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:31-05:00June 11th, 2010|Blog, cut flowers, cutting garden, Mexican Plum, posey, Sharing Nature's Garden, winecup|0 Comments

Why I garden…

I was trying to think of a nice gift for the office staff where I volunteer weekly at Kallie’s school. Knowing they get more Starbucks cards and candles than they can shake a stick at, I turned to my garden.

Isn’t that why I planted a cutting garden? To bring some of the beautiful, nature of the garden inside.

So I picked as many flowers as I had time to find and made these three jelly jars to give them. I filled them with roses, daisies, larkspur, lantana, Mexican oregano, wine cup, marigolds, and cosmos.

Not being the gardening type, they were amazed that all these different flowers had come from my garden and were so appreciative of the gesture.

That really is why I garden — so I can share some of the beauty and tastiness with my friends and family. And that’s why I decided to call my blog “Sharing Nature’s Garden.”

And now, I’m sharing it with you!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:28-06:00June 4th, 2010|Blog, cutting garden, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Before and after…

…well, just before.
As I watched my segment on Central Texas Gardener, I realized just how much gardening I’ve done in 6-1/2 years! And I thought it would be interesting for those of you who watched my garden tour to see what it really looked like when I started. So, above you see stumps, weeds, brush.
Some scrawny-scrubby cedar trees dotted the yard.
And this little square of limestone just stuck on the edge of nothing was the vegetable garden… full of what 3 or 4 dying tomatoes. And isn’t that exposed pool equipment a nice addition to the ambiance?
So, I gutted it. Took out all the crap — which, by the way, was everything. Leveled it and brought in topsoil.
Because the original owners placed the house so far back on the lot and then limited the size of the usable backyard by putting the fence really far back. So, anticipating the possibility of a future greenhouse and veggie garden, I added fencing and moved the fence forward to capture more back yard.

If you want to see more of the “after” you can catch the Central Texas Gardener show with my garden in it here.

By Diana C. Kirby|2019-07-15T19:14:18-05:00March 2nd, 2010|before and after, Blog, cutting garden, greenhouse, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

What they’re there for!

So, I made a little bed for a cutting garden last fall. In it went a Carefree Beauty (Katy Road) Rose, Indigo Spires, Cosmos, Zinnias, Daisies, Bachelor’s Buttons, Larkspur, Lion’s Tail, Gladiolas, Bluebonnets, Lamb’s Ears, Lilies, Clematis, Morning Glories and a variegated Agave Americana. A few of the seeds didn’t come up, like the Daisies, but most did, in various states of growth and fullness. But in my desire to have a pretty bed, I’ve been hesitant to cut flowers!

Today, with the ominous winds whipping about and a storm forecast, I thought, I should bring a few of these in to enjoy them before they get beaten about.

So I did.

And, for my Day #4 of the 29-Day Giving Challenge, I took a bunch to a good friend. (You can click on the 29-Day link to the right to learn more about this cool movement.)

I’m so glad I brought them in for me, and so glad I shared some, too. Garden happiness indoors tonight.

By Diana C. Kirby|2019-07-15T19:14:18-05:00October 29th, 2009|Blog, cut flowers, cutting garden, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Seed sowing in the cutting garden & more veggies

Boy — sprinkling a few seeds seems so simple, doesn’t it?

Not.

But it was fun. Since the soil is nothing but nasty clay, I scraped back the mulch, scraped a little soil off and sowed the seeds, then put good, new garden soil on top and replaced the mulch.

I even had a *PLAN* — ha ha. (I almost never make one for myself — it’s the old shoemakers children have no shoes syndrome.)

So all the seeds for the cut flowers are going all around these plants.

Here’s what I planted:

Vinca – Little Pinkie

Sweet Peas — Patio Mix

Shasta Daisies –Silver Princess

Zinnias — Pinwheel Mix

Cosmos – two kinds: Bright Lights & Fordhook Mix

African Lion’s Tail

Blackberry Lily

Bachelor’s Buttons — Blue Boy

Morning Glory – Early Call Mix

And we’re getting some severe thunderstorms today and tomorrow, so they will get some good, fresh rain to get them started.

Cross your fingers!

Now on to the veggie garden.

A tomato! We have several small ones, about golf-ball sized. This one is on the first tomato that I planted successfully from seed — so he’s near and dear to my heart.

And a bell pepper.

And, since this is Texas, we always have some jalapenos growing in our garden.

I love having the makings of fresh pico de gallo (tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, limes and cilanatro) in my garden all summer long. The cilantro is hard to keep when it heats up, but I’m always trying to sneak a few plants into the shade.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:36-05:00April 17th, 2009|bell peppers, Blog, cutting garden, greenhouse bed, jalapenos, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomatoes|0 Comments

cutting garden

Blue bonnets ablaze…

Too much of a good thing!

Why I garden…

Before and after…

What they’re there for!

Seed sowing in the cutting garden & more veggies

Escape in the garden