sage 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

Delicious garden kale — it’s what’s for dinner

While I was out in the garden this morning figuring out what to do about the impending freeze and miserable weather, I decided to bring in some things from the veggie garden for dinner tonight.

I covered a few things – the lettuce and the chard that I just planted.

I brought in some parsley and sage and lettuce and the whole head of red Russian kale. (Kind of liked thinking of the punitive theme for the Russian in my garden.)

Isn’t it just gorgeous? I admit, I plant this one year after year because of its colors. I looks beautiful in the garden. The red colors disappear when you cook it, though.

I sauteed a little bit of onion with a smidge of bacon drippings and then just steamed the still-wet leaves after cleaning. They cooked for about an hour on low heat with the lid closed. I seasoned them with truffle sea salt, pepper, a little poultry seasoning and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar upon serving. Delish!

Oh – and notice my pretty new ceramic olive oil bottle and spoon rest – birthday gifts from my Mom and Dad. It was all color coordinated on the stove tonight!

What are you eating out of your veggie garden right now? Any kale on the menu?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:27-05:00March 2nd, 2014|Blog, kale, lettuce, parsley, Red Russian kale, sage, Sharing Nature's Garden, vegetable garden, vegetables, veggies, winter vegetables|0 Comments

Happy Earth Day!

Oh, it’s a glorious Earth Day here in Austin. The sun finally decided to make an appearance and it’s 86 degrees.

After visiting a sick friend, I came home through a neighboring community and stopped at a local nursery. Beautiful stuff. I bought this bougainvilla for the corner of the day lily bed. I plan to train it up a small trellis so that it has some height for the corner.

And after enticing you with the beautiful blooms, here are two sad sights, but with the full promise of the future. This is a volunteer white Crape Myrtle that I dug up and replanted in a sunny spot along the fence in the woods. I lovingly trudge over there every few days to water it with a watering can. (wonder how long THAT will last?!)

And this is a mystery sage, left by the previous owner. It’s tall – 3-4 feet, and has beautiful light blue blooms. But it didn’t belong next to our front pathway. I pulled it all out 3 years ago, but it came back this spring, so I decided to try transplanting most of the shoots to a place where they can be as tall and invasive as they like. If they grow all along the fence, that’d be fine with me.
And now I’m off to mess with the chicken wire to keep out the bunnies. So, I hope you have enjoyed your Earth Day and got to spend some time in your garden or connecting with the Earth.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:45:14-05:00April 22nd, 2008|Blog, bougainvilla, Crape Myrtle, Earth Day, sage, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

A-n-t-i-c-i-p-a-t-i-o-n………….

No, I’m not writing about ketchup. The most exciting thing, after the long wait of winter, is finally seeing mini green shoots and sprouts, peeking out from mulch and dead leaves.

I’m all aquiver with the anticipation of plants yet to come, so I thought I’d share my eagerness with you. (Unfortunately, they just plain don’t photograph as well as blooms and full-grown plants!)

Ok, this isn’t really a test, but if you don’t scroll all the way to the bottom of the pictures, you can guess what’s peeking out, looking for Spring! Tell me how many you get right!

‘Victoria Blue’ Mealy Cup blue sage (Salvia farinacea)

Un-identified lilies — I’ll post about these later when they
are blooming, because I need help to name them.
They are my red mystery lilies that aren’t Oxbloods.