daisy Archives | Diana's Designs Austin

Blooms abound in the spring garden

My morning walk through the garden brightened my day. My garden is still young, compared to my previous 16-year-old garden. Filling in holes where plants have been lost and adding layers over time has paid off. This spring the garden feels full and lush. Today. (Check back with me in August!)

We’ve been fortunate to have had a little bit of rain lately in our part of Austin. Because of our topography, it’s not uncommon for different parts of town to have dramatically different rainfall.

It’s been a rough couple of years. Snowpocalyse Uri in 2021, another terrible freeze in 2022 and multiple days at 110 or higher last summer.

This spring feels like the garden is coming into its own. Things are filling out and look like my vision for the space.

Jerusalem sage is one of my go-to plants. It doesn’t mind our heat and it’s evergreen and deer resistant.

Few things perk up the spring landscape like shasta daisies.

While I have a large swath of bluebonnets along my creek bed, this year I ventured out and bought a few of the cranberry-colored ones to add into the garden.

They look so interesting compared to all the blue ones.

We won’t talk about the idea that they were bred to represent A&M University, the arch rival of Austin’s University of Texas!

A fabulous border plant, purple skullcap looks great trailing over my street-side boulders. This soft, mounding perennial blooms reliably from spring through fall.

This scrappy little Damianita grows throughout the tough landscape of the Texas Hill country in the most difficult conditions. Another great border plant, it grows about 18 inches tall.

The bluebonnets are almost done. I’m just waiting for the seed pods to dry out and start to open before plucking them. In November, I will plant all of this year’s seeds, so we have an even bigger show next spring.

The ditch lilies and the coreopsis intermingle and blow in the breeze together.

Heartleaf skullcap is another of my spring favorites. The luminescence of the tiny blooms is enchanting atop the velvety-soft leaves.

Lemon mallow makes a striking statement against the nearby Henry Duelberg salvia.

It’s 90+ today, but we are all holding out hope that this summer isn’t as brutal as last. Spending as much time in the garden now as we can!

By Diana C. Kirby|2024-05-08T13:18:48-05:00May 8th, 2024|blooms, blue bonnet, blue bonnets, bluebonnet, coreopsis, cut flowers, Daimianita, daisies, daisy, day lilies, daylily, ditch lily, Garden, golden coreopsis, lily, mealy blue sage, sage, salvia, Sharing Nature's Garden, shasta daisy, skullcap, spring, spring bloomers, tall coreopsis, Uncategorized|2 Comments

Sunshine in the garden…

Unseasonably warm days in the garden have some plants like this daisy thinking that it’s already spring.

And I can see why.

The forecast for today is sunny and 70 — it doesn’t get much better than that.

Between the weather and the daisy, it’s enough to make a gardener smile.

What has you smiling today?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:03-05:00January 11th, 2012|Blog, daisy, Sharing Nature's Garden, winter|0 Comments

Fall bloomers and a few surprises…

As temperatures drop and it begins to look a little like fall here in Central Texas, new things are blooming in the garden.

There are the traditional plants, like these beautiful mums.

They disappear during the scorching hot summer, but puff up and explode with flowers when it starts to get chilly outside.

And there are the Mexican Mint Marigolds with their beautiful yellow blooms and the Fall Asters that I wrote about two posts ago, all reliable fall bloomers.
There was beautiful light when I went out with the camera this morning.
The oak in the front yard was aglow like a flaming tree with its golden leaves in the rising sunlight. We have so little fall color here because it’s just not cold enough, so we really appreciate it when we see it!
But I was surprised to find these Shasta Daisies in the cutting garden — blooming for the second time this year.
And the roses are loving this cool weather — especially my Katy Road or Carefree Beauty rose.
Another sign of fall — dead things! I’d better get out there and remove all these seeds from this dead morning glory vine or I won’t have any cutting flowers at all in the spring as they will be choked out by vine-y groundcover!
And these precious little Marigolds came from seeds and volunteers in the vegetable garden, where I plant them to keep bad bugs off the tomatoes. I simply moved them to the cutting garden where they are very happy.

Any fall surprises in your garden today?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:25-06:00November 8th, 2010|Blog, daisy, fall, marigolds, mums, Sharing Nature's Garden, shasta daisy|0 Comments

A little Sunshine in my garden

We had a mixed bag of weather today – humid and damp and misty this morning, then that broke and the sun came out and then a cold front blew in and blew right back out again, leaving sunshine and warmth for the rest of the afternoon. As I was cleaning up the back patio and pruning some, I was struck by how many yellows I have in my garden. So I thought I’d take you on a tip-toe through the yellows today. This is a Gerbera daisy left from last year’s basket of mixed color.

Mickaela Euonymus

Daffodils – -again!

This is a Duranta stem with some yellow berries on it — hard to see because it’s in the garage still until we pass the early March last possible freeze point. I’m not moving that baby twice — she’s heavy.