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Oooooh – little sprouts!

Not just a repository for overwintering the myriad of pots and plants that I gathered last year in the Spring, the greenhouse is also a place to start some new plants early.

Kallie helped me plant some seeds a few weeks ago, and lo and behold, we have some basil sprouts coming up and 1 tomato plant.

I keep them on the ground down close to the heater, so their soil can stay warm, and it seems to have worked. Now I’ll have to go through all my seed packets and see what else I can sow.

I have several Heirloom tomato seed packets from Tomato Bob that I ordered online. Can’t wait to see if I can get some of them to grow and start them in the ground as nice plants by the time I can put them outside.

Wish me luck (I think you know that I am officially seed challenged!).

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:42-05:00January 18th, 2009|basil, Blog, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomatoes|0 Comments

Oh, what a beautiful day …

After months of making hors de oeuvres and preparing for birthdays and holidays and company and a whole New Year, today was the perfect day to get back into the garden.

Kallie and I spent the afternoon in the sunshine — it was 78 here — and got some work done. In between playing with dogs, bike riding, writing and painting with watercolors, she helped me plant some seeds.

I planted a row of radishes in the veggie garden, and she planted a Big Boy tomato, some Genovese Basil and some Sweet California Wonder bell peppers in little pots to go into the greenhouse for an early start. We’re crossing our fingers…

I also planted some orange ditch lilies that were a gift from Lori at The Gardener of Good and Evil.

And then I planted a fistful of Larkspur seeds that were generously given to me by MSS of Zanthan Gardens.
And I planted what I think are Crinum Lilies, given to me by one of my dear blogging friends on our adventure to Peckerwood, but now I can’t remember who shared them with me. Help – if you are my generous friend, please take pity on my poor memory and let me know and remind me what kind they are. (I have a terrible memory…it’s a wonder I can garden at all sometimes!)
All in all, a very good day!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:51-06:00January 2nd, 2009|Blog, bulbs, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden|11 Comments

Seed starting survey …

Mmmhuuuwaaaaaa!

This is my seed skeleton! No, seriously, this is the sizable stack of seed sachets, some opened, some closed, but all … well … old.

So, thus my subsequent question…how long do seeds keep? I’ve done trial and error before, and since I am inherently seed-challenged, I’d rather improve my odds by using only those MOST likely to actually sprout.

** Share your expertise with me, my blogging friends — should I toss or keep my seeds?

** Is there a difference in the staying power of wildflower, vegetable or flower seeds?

Isn’t this cute? I give inspirational credit to Frances of Faire Garden, Annie of The Transplantable Rose and Carol of May Dreams Gardens for all their little garden fairy references.

So, I took my 5-year old by the hand on Saturday and we went into the woods to collect little rocks to build a fairy house in our garden. This is our little house, complete with rock door. We’ll keep adding to it as we’re inspired. Guess we should name it, too…

And, here, she is — speaking of the Fairy House-builder! Going haunting as a puppy with her Daddy, who was a mailman with torn pants! Their costumes were so easy to make and I loved that she didn’t want to be anyone or thing that was commercial or required a crown!

I leave you with one final Fall image — this beautiful, lush mum that I bought for decoration for our neighborhood Halloween Potluck for 45 at our house Friday night.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:51-06:00November 2nd, 2008|Blog, Halloween, mums, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden|16 Comments

Seeds and berries….

Sometimes I have lots of blog fodder. Weeds, pests, diseases and drought give me lots to whine about!

But, seriously, I got today’s idea when I was reading Mr. McGregor’s Daughter’s blog a few days ago. Her post was filled with beautiful berries, a sign of Fall in the Midwest.

She suggested we all post about our berries, so, voila, here is a peek at my measly berries.

These are the berries on our lantana, after it’s done blooming for the long summer season.

There are berries galore on this Yaupon Holly Tree. If we get a little cooler weather, they will soon turn a beautiful red to entice the birds.

These are berries on my White Duranta tree.

And that’s one lone berry on my Purple Duranta. This plant is still too full of blooms to be putting out seeds yet, but in a few weeks it will be covered in these cute little golden balls.

Thanks, Mr.McGregor’s Daughter, for a nice post idea!

By Diana C. Kirby|2019-07-15T19:14:17-05:00September 20th, 2008|Blog, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

beans, beans, and a potato…

In spite of the heat that’s bearing down on us and our plants, Mother Nature has a job to do, and do it she does. They might be thirsty and hot and sweaty, but my plants continue to bloom and amazingly, have enough energy left over to make seeds for the next generation to go on.

Pretty amazing, to me.

So, here are some of the lovely seed pods that have just popped up in my garden in the last week or so.

The first is the stunningly beautiful Pride of Barbados that is one of my very favorite plants. It’s exotic and delicate and hot and colorful all at the same time. It’s hearty and fern-like and it brings a smile to my face when it finally shows its true colors late in the summer.

These are my Hyacinth Bean Vines, with their leather-y purple pods that look good enough to eat!

My prolific Coral Trumpet Vine makes these huge seed pods, but then again, this specimen is pretty darn big and woody, and I think it would take over the cabana if I let it.
This, gardening friends, is a real bean! A green bush bean in my veggie garden. I liek to call the seed pods beans and take a little license with gardening lingo, since they do look like beans!
This Esperanza or Tecoma Stans, is full of slender, little green pods – hundreds of them – waiting to drop and start life all over again deep under the mulch this winter.

Ok, THIS is your laugh for the day. I kept seeing this big, smooth pink orb poking out of the potato vine in my front pots. Thought it was a river rock from the dry bed, wondered if I’d stuck it in there for some reason when I planted the vine.

Seriously.

I thought this for weeks!

Today, as I was removing dead plants and adding a few fresh ones, it hit me like a V-8 POP on the forehead!

It’s a POTATO!!!!!!!

Duh.

Double Duh!

Sigh….I am not only not in charge, I am clearly clueless!

I never saw an actual potato on a decorative potato vine that I’d planted before.

I mean, there are some plants that are named after things that they are not, right?

Well, at least I get points for posting it out there for you all to laugh WITH me about!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:45:10-05:00August 26th, 2008|Blog, green beans, hyacinth bean vine, potato, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden, trumpet vine|0 Comments

A little bit of this, a little bit of that…

See my little pretties? I visited some local nurseries to talk about donations for the Garden Bloggers’ Spring Fling and couldn’t help myself! Heck – I was at 3 nurseries today and they were full of eye candy! I bought a beautiful Texas Scarlett Japanese Quince at one, and three roses at another. Annie at the Transplantable Rose inspired me with her pots and talk of roses. I pulled one out when we moved in here – it was in the wrong place and not doing well. And then, last year, some construction required that we pull out a huge, lovely pink climber that I was in love with. It went high into our oak trees. So, I missing some roses and I decided to remedy that!

Because I don’t have a full sun spot for them, I was somewhat limited in what I could purchase, so I am now the proud mother of an Old Blush Climbing Rose, Mrs. B.R. Cant, 1901 and a Martha Gonzales that I’m going to put in a pot like Annie’s! The other two will enjoy a nice morning to early afternoon sunny spot on the east side of the house. They are all supposed to be sun/part shade, so we’ll see if that’s accurate. I will have to take a walk to see them, but I will have them and can cut them and bring them in the house. I’m psyched!

Can you see the numbers on this thermometer here today? I think it’s skewed a little, but suffice it to say, it was warm today.
My mahonia is now in full bloom. But still enjoying the cooler weather – it gets kind of hot here for them if they get any sun and I have one that may have to be moved this year.

WOW! See my garden. All the dead stuff is gone. Including any last dead tomato bits that might have been lingering and calling to the dogs! They scaled the fence again before the garden got cleaned out and ate something — who knows what — there were only leeks and parsley in there other than dead scraps and mulch. Tomorrow I’ll show you the rest of today’s progress (it got too dark and I couldn’t take a picture), but the fence is UP! And, if they can scale this fence, then I’ll quit blogging — they’ll be in the Guiness Book of World Records and I’ll be a rich woman!

These are the leeks I pulled from the garden today. I guess I will make some leek soup and then sautee the rest. I am assuming I can just freeze them sliced up and sauteed for use in soups and stews and sauces later on. There are far too many for me to use right now! But I want all the garden beds tilled and new garden soil brought in and it’s just better if it’s empty when you do that.
Here are a few other things peeking up in my beds these days. Above are some lovely red Daylilies and below are the shoots of a black Elephant Ear.
Below are some beautiful yellow and orange cannas…well, that’s what they WILL be in a few months!
And these are a few of the shoots in my cloche inside. These are tomatoes.
I planted nasturtiums, they got so tall so fast I took them out of the cloche, and they instantly started to dry out and die. Help! They are bumping against the top of the other cloche, and turn black when they do that, but they clearly aren’t ready to be out on their own. Or, maybe I needed to get them sopping wet…Any ideas?