seeds Archives | Page 2 of 4 | Diana's Designs Austin

Presents on the doorstep…

A big box from Gardener’s Supply Company arrived on my doorstep today.

I was excited and eager to learn its contents. But not as eager, it seems, as my bubbies, who stuck their big noses right into the middle of things.

They were so disappointed that there wasn’t anything in there for them — just boring old seed heat mats. (Maybe they will grow something we can eat later, they thought!)
They were only moderately interested as I modeled my new garden clogs. Not too interesting when they are on my feet.
(But Tanner was thinking…”oooh, I can snag one of those when she leaves them outside the back door and run off with it in the yard — now that might be fun!)

Silly dogs.

But I am psyched about my goodie box today.

Seed sowing soon!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:36-05:00February 2nd, 2010|Blog, clogs, Dakota, dogs, seed heat mats, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden, Tanner|0 Comments

Letting my fingers and my imagination do the walking…

It’s thawed here, and today was a beautiful, and warmer-than-normal Texas winter day.

While waiting for the cloudy and cool morning to burn off, I sipped hot tea (with a slice of my Eureka variegated lemon in it) and devoured seed catalogs.

I had several different catalogs that came in the mail and then I went searching for the websites of some of my other favorite sources, like Botanical Interests, Burpee, and Tomato Bob.

Several orders for veggies, cutting flowers and perennials are now processing away across the country.

When the sun came out I was itching to plant things. And even though I have seed packets I could have used, I didn’t have seed starter mix, or a plan!

(Being German, I gotta have a plan, don’t ya know?!!)

So for tomorrow, I have a plan: Meet garden blogging buddy at garden center, let myself buy 1 or 2 (only) plants, and get some seed starter mix and innoculant and whatever other seeds they might have that I didn’t already buy!

When the other packages arrive in the mail, I’ll draw a plan for the cutting garden and the veggie garden. Then I can start sowing seeds in little pots in the greenhouse where I can keep them nice and toasty warm.

And this year, I swear I will NOT jump the gun and plant them outside at the earliest possible moment. Instead, I will err on the side of CAUTION, and plant them a safe amount of time after the last danger of frost has passed.

Nope, no more playing around trying to fool Mother Nature for me. After the last year we’ve had, it’s clear to me that she isn’t messing around!

How about you? Ready to cry “uncle” to Mother Nature?

P.S. You might have to hold me to that “not jumping the gun” thing!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:35-06:00January 18th, 2010|Blog, greenhouse, plans, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Going to seeds (in a handbasket!)

While trying to ignore the many crispy-fried-plants in my garden, I started looking for other things going on.

And lo and behold, many of my plants and trees are going to seed today.

I didn’t capture them all, but some of them are just so interesting to look at.

And they are as diverse as the plants from which they come.

The Pride of Barbados seed pod is thin and delicate, just like the shrub.

It almost looks like a snow pea pod, but a little longer.

The Esperanza pod is long and shiny and thin. It almost looks like it’s covered in lime-green wax.
This hideous looking pod is from the stunningly beautiful Moy Grande Hibiscus with giant hot-pink blooms that I posted about several weeks ago here.

I have hundreds of seeds coming on, so if you’d like me to send you some, please comment with your email and I’d be happy to write to you and get your info to share them. She was amazingly prolific this year, and I see that there is another bloom about to open tomorrow. She’s like the Energizer bunny!
This spiky little guy is from my white Datura, which reseeds (by the gazillion) every spring. The plant is as tough as the seed pod looks.
These fat, woody and fuzzy pods are from the Texas Mountain Laurel, which is covered in seeds right now. Sadly, they are S-L-O-W growers, and if you want to start one from seed, you’d better not be counting on any shade from it for several decades!
And this is one of my very favorite books. If you have kids or grand kids, this is a delightfully written and beautifully illustrated book about the life cycle of plants and the many different kinds of seeds. The book IDs many seeds and plants and Kallie and I just love it. Learning about the garden is just a normal part of our outdoor life, and while we talk about seeds as we see them, this book bring it all to life for kids. If you can’t read that small type, the author is Diana Hutts Aston and the illustrator is Sylvia Long. By the way – those giant pods at the top of the book cover are Mountain Laurel pods with the little red seeds inside and a little hint of Laurel heavenly-grape bloom peeking in from the top.

I highly recommend it — for kids (and adults).

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:32-05:00July 28th, 2009|Blog, books, pods, seeds, 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

Yummmmmmm~

Don’t these look yummy?

They were!

I went out to work in the garden today (it was 80 degrees), and stumbled upon a handful of these ripe, red, shiny, glorious strawberries. I left them there until Kallie came home, so she could come to the garden and be surprised. And then we ate them for our dessert tonight. I can’t even begin to describe how sweet and juicy they were. NOTHING like a grocery store strawberry. Even Kallie said so. Too bad we never have more than one little handful at a time!

But there are more coming, soon!

Sadly, one of my chores today was to cover the new daylilies in the SAFE back yard. It is safe from deer, but not safe from bunnies or dogs. sigh.

This fencing goes around the yard on 3 sides. But the back of the yard is wrought iron with wide posts – wide enough for an entire family of bunnies to come crashing through. Which I am assuming they did as they ate the lilies down to the nubs.

Here’s Mr. Burpee Big Boy tomato – growing like a …. oops, tomato!

See Mr. Radish, who popped his head up yesterday to see the sunshine?

See the lovely HOLE that Dakota dug in the back yard? I think she wanted me to plant something there and thought she’d be helpful.
Helpful, scattering little clods of clay dirt all over my rock and granite path, so that I could sweep and hand pick clods out of the granite.

So helpful!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:41-05:00January 22nd, 2009|Blog, bunnies, holes, lilies, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden, strawberries, tomatoes|0 Comments

January organizing and planning…

Taking advantage of the 75-degree sunshine today while my sick six-year-old took a nap, I snuck out to the greenhouse to inhale some fresh air.

This is day #2 stuck in the cave while she’s getting over a stomach bug that hit Saturday night. And, today, I think the cedar allergies were giving her a headache, so going outside was, well, out.

So I grabbed my gloves and seeds and some seed starting soil and my nifty label maker and off I went for a quick reprieve. I planted:

Heirloom Tomatoes (from Tomato Bob’s Heirloom Tomatoes):

Omar’s Lebanese
Eva’s Purple Ball
Hank
Black Krim

and

Green Onions
English Breakfast Radishes

And I took my handy-dandy label maker to label the pots. (It was given to me by my DH for my birthday a few years ago — he thought I was crazy when I told him that’s what I wanted.) But I love it – and use it on file folders, frozen food, you name it. It helps keep me organized.

And the notebook below (isn’t it pretty?) is my other organizing tool for the garden – while I love this blog, I need something that is on paper. Hard copy. Tactile. Something I can touch and feel and hold and write on and erase and in which I collect information. I love this notebook. I made sections for each bed and put all the plant lists in it. Then I add to it when I buy plants. (sometimes!) And this week I put tabs in for each bed so that I can find them easily. It’s great to be able to search my blog, but if I am looking for the name of a plant, which I often am, I can’t very well search for it, can I? So, this helps me keep on top of things.

I am what I call a binge and purge organizer. This includes the garden. Sometimes I have it all planned out and on paper and I keep track of things, and then at other times, my planting style is exactly what Pam at Digging described today as plop-a-plant! You have to go read her post. It made me laugh out loud.

While I was out there, the towering dead tomato plants were taunting me…look for them to show up here sometime this week!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:51-06:00January 19th, 2009|Blog, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

seeds

Presents on the doorstep…

Letting my fingers and my imagination do the walking…

Going to seeds (in a handbasket!)

Seed sowing in the cutting garden & more veggies

Yummmmmmm~

January organizing and planning…

Escape in the garden