ice Archives | Diana's Designs Austin

Ice in the garden…

Baby, it’s cold outside…

Central Texas gardens are being slammed with ice and even snow in some parts. I feel for our northern friends who have it so much worse than we do. We’re feeling very deprived of our “normal” warmer early spring temperatures.

Iris, wisteria, and Texas Mountain laurel buds are being sabotaged. Delicate new shoots on perennials have bitten the dust. And, our evergreens will once again be slow to start their growth.

Here are a few signs that it’s really cold in my garden.

This Japanese aralia will recover, but isn’t this one of the most pitiful things you’ve seen in the garden. It’s hard to believe that it will perk back up when the temperature warms back up.

After several years, the pump on the birdbath fountain died. I replaced it a few weeks ago with one that was the same size – to fit in the reservoir – but much more powerful. It has a great bubbler. If you look carefully, you can see that the majority of the water is frozen, except for the bubbling center, announcing loudly to the bird world that the water bar is still open for business.

Luckily, both the plum tree and the loropetalum were already in full bloom when the ice hit, so I am still enjoying this sight in the back landscape.

It’s 31 degrees and raining this morning, so I guess it’s time to settle in with the seed catalogs for a little bit longer around here.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:38:53-05:00February 28th, 2015|Blog, fountain, frozen, ice, Japanese aralia, loropetalum, Mexican Plum, Sharing Nature's Garden, winter|0 Comments

Mourning the garden – post ice storm

It’s a sad day in the garden. Last night’s freezing thunderstorms decimated all of our signs of spring. All the beautiful new buds and blooms we’ve been enjoying in the warmer weather over the last few weeks are gone.

This plum tree’s tender new blooms are all toast.

This is what she looked like two days ago.

The blue bonnets will probably perk back up, but they are drooping under the weight of ice this morning.

The aralia looks miserable, but it will come back – it always does.

Even the winter-hardy quice blooms are all brown and wilted.

This ice looks very sculptural on this yucca rostrata; luckily it will be fine once it warms up.

I know we aren’t suffering like our friends up north in the real polar vortex, but it’s been a rough winter for us here, relatively speaking. And it’s a sad time for Texas gardeners. Our spring won’t just be late this year, we’ve lost most of the buds and blooms of spring for the year.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:27-05:00March 4th, 2014|Blog, freeze, freeze damage, ice, ice damage, Sharing Nature's Garden, winter, winter 2014|0 Comments

The frost and the frantic freeze frenzy…

You know you do it…

Maybe you don’t talk about it, hiding it like a bad plant in the back of your garden.

When the cold winds blow and the forecasts foretell of frigid temperatures, do you do the…

…frantic freeze frenzy?

Sssshhh…I won’t tell any one, honest.

But I’m sure I’ve seen you — lurking about at night, all covered up in dark clothing, sheets, blankets, Christmas lights and rocks in hand. Furtively darting about in a futile attempt to keep wind, rain and ice off of your precious plants.

Fingers numb and stiff, ears red and raw, you’ve braved the elements.

You truly believe that man (or woman) can win out over nature. Surely your clever plan to secure your contraption will hold and save the day (or night).

Is this you? Do you see yourself in this post? Isn’t it time to step out into the light and admit it?

You do the frantic freeze frenzy to protect your precious plants in the winter. Don’t you?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:10-05:00February 9th, 2011|Blog, cover, cover plants, frantic freeze frenzy, freeze, ice, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Icy wonderland and dead buds…

Well, we got lucky today. We missed the ice storm for the most part. Roads were pretty dry this morning, and so even though it was 28 degrees, it was safe. That’s the good part.

Now for the bad part.

I don’t mind winter. It’s just a problem here because we had summer last week. With our see-saw of temperatures – 82 on Friday and 35 yesterday — our plants get discombobulated.

And, so, many things are budding and blooming and thinking,

“Hey, this is nice — lookit that sun — shining on me. I think I will grow some tender shoot/sprouts/buds/leaves…Ahhhhhhh.”

Then the next week Mother Nature comes along with an icy winter storm and smacks them upside the head. It IS winter, after all.

Sigh. So, I think the things I covered are fine, and the perennials will all be fine, it’s just hard on them to go back and forth like that. But I know that those lemon buds are goners — and our lemon production suffered a serious set-back.

Much of the rest of the nation is snowed/iced in or without power, so we’re really lucky here to be safe and heated.

We’ll just make lemonade later in the year…

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:41-05:00January 28th, 2009|Blog, freeze, ice, lemons, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

BAD gardener, BAD, BAD gardener!

Boy – o – boy, am I ever in trouble.

Surely these are not my brand NEW Felcon pruners?

Surely I didn’t leave them outside overnight when we were surprised by a little mist coming out of the sky. Surely I learned something from my misuse of the previous pruners.
Or, maybe, NOT!

Bad gardener, bad, bad gardener.

So, this morning my first chore of the day is a date with the pruners and a brillo pad. Luckily, it worked and I begged their forgiveness as I scoured away and buffed and dried them.
So, yesterday we had mist and fog all day, not much moisture, but in our drought-stricken part of the country, we are happy for anything wet.

Drought conditions worsened significantly in the past week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor map. Seventy-one percent of the state is now in some stage of drought, up from 58.3 percent last week.

A week ago the two worst drought designations — extreme and exceptional — covered 9.1 percent of the state. This week the two categories cover 15.1 percent of the state, with a circle near San Antonio and Austin widening in all directions.

Drought conditions in Texas are so bad cattle are keeling over in parched pastures and dying. Wildlife certainly have nothing to eat.

Makes me so glad I am feeding and watering our deer.

Today’s cold front is supposed to bring us freezing rain tonight, and we have ice warnings for the morning. We’ll deal, just as long as we do get some rain.

Our temps are dropping today from the 64 degrees we have right now to 39 by noon. So I put on my garden clogs and trekked out to cover some tender things in the garden.
Little hair-like sprouts from MSS’ of Zanthan Gardens‘ Larkspur. I suspect they’d be ok, but I don’t want to take a chance.
Here are my little seedlings getting a breath of warm, moist air in the greenhouse.
Here the lettuce seedlings and the amazing strawberries are glad to be prepared for the ice. I put down some plastic first – after elevating it with some chicken wire braces – and then put down a sheet.
These are happy radishes.
And these are the two still-living tomato plants that I tried to rip out last week. Gotta save them now!

I’m sure my Northern friends are laughing at all this fuss over a little cold rain, but wait, I’ll have you laughing even more tomorrow. Austin drivers are completely incapable of driving in mere rain, much less a little ice or snow. It’s actually comic the way the whole cit shuts down as if it’s Armageddon. (Having lived in Minnesota for 4 years, I know from cold and bad driving conditions, so I have permission to shake my head at my neighbors!)

Stay warm and dry and safe.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:50-06:00January 27th, 2009|Blog, cover, drought, ice, seedlings, Sharing Nature's Garden|17 Comments

Ice sculpture…

well, sort of…icicles, for sure. I thought the ice on my fountain made a lovely sight, in spite of the bitter cold that caused it.

You know, it’s not that we Texans can’t handle the cold, it’s the 30+ degree change in the span of ONE day that makes it just a little difficult to adjust.

Last night it was 29 here at Nature’s Garden. But on Saturday it reached almost 80 degrees. Bizarre. I guess it gives us something to talk about.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:43-05:00December 22nd, 2008|Blog, fountain, ice, Sharing Nature's Garden, winter|0 Comments

ice

Ice in the garden…

Mourning the garden – post ice storm

The frost and the frantic freeze frenzy…

Icy wonderland and dead buds…

BAD gardener, BAD, BAD gardener!

Ice sculpture…

Escape in the garden