spring Archives | Page 2 of 5 | Diana's Designs Austin

Signs of spring in the garden…

Like all gardeners, I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring. While the calendar won’t declare it spring for some time, here in Central Texas, the signs of spring abound with the recent above-average temperatures.

These aren’t new spring plants popping up, but I love the color in the winter garden.

If you look closely, you can see the buds forming on the Mexican plum tree.

The new bark is emerging on my lacebark elm tree. Beautiful bark is a wonderful sculptural element in the garden.

The bluebonnets are growing quickly now – getting ready to put on a real show in my crushed granite path.

My loropetalum has hundreds if not thousands of teeny tiny buds, waiting to turn into pink fringe flowers.

The hellebores are starting to bloom. I have to go out and lift them up to see these delicious drooping flowers. Even though I can’t see them easily when walking down the path, the lure of these mysterious blooms makes for a fun garden game of hide and seek.

This one’s in full bloom. It’s limey-green petals camouflage this flower even more than the others. Helleborus ‘green gambler,’ is a fast grower and usually has some burgundy spotting, veining, or picotee on each bloom. The picotee is the edge that is a different color than the flower’s main color.

These are very special little specimens — muscari golden fragrance. Unlike most muscari, these are not the tell-tale purple, but rather a soft yellow and they have a wonderful scent. They are very low to the ground – about 5 inches high – so I literally have to get down on the ground to get a whiff of them. But it’s worth it!

The primrose jasmine is about to burst forth beautiful yellow blooms. This one is about 5 feet tall, so it will be brilliant when it’s covered.

These little daffodils are looking good. Soon it will be time to blow away the blanket of leaves and let the flowers shine.

The deer have been checking things out in the almost-spring garden as well. It’s ok, maybe they pushed down my newly planted bulbs since I know I probably didn’t plant them deep enough. (I don’t really worry about that, though, since they seem to come up and perform regardless of my late and lazy planting!)

My cemetery passalong irises are already blooming. I believe these came from my garden blogger buddy, who blogs here about her garden, which is filled with many kinds of iris.

The loquat tree is sporting new foliage. I love this tree and the lime-colored new growth that contrasts with the glossy, established dark-green leaves.

And, one last bloom – I bought 3 lovely glass daffodils at the nursery last week and put them next to the emerging real ones. I wonder what the growing daffodils will think when they come up to find these imposters in their garden.

What’s coming up in your garden today?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:02-06:00February 8th, 2015|Blog, bluebonnet, buds, bulbs, daffodils, garden art, green gambler hellebore, Hellebore, loropetalum, Muscari, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring, spring bloomers|0 Comments

Cottage garden entwined with beautiful edibles highlight of Houston trip

We saw lots of interesting, beautiful and creative gardens when my friend, Pam, of Digging, and I visited Houston for the Garden Conservancy’s Open Day Tour two weeks ago.

My very favorite — a cacophony of color, texture and layers so entwined that taking it all in was a project in and of itself. But a delightful one, not to be missed.

It wasn’t on the tour; it was recommended by Pam’s sister. We had high expectations for the house at 605 Peddie Street, and we weren’t disappointed. The owner, landscape consultant, Terry Gordon Smith, was hand watering the garden with a hose when he found us oohing and ahhing over his creation. He was very welcoming and proud of his garden and we enjoyed learning about the garden’s evolution and the weather and conditions in his Houston garden.

No lawn in sight, this garden is filled with evergreens, perennials, annuals, fruits, vegetables and herbs.

The bottle brush trees were pruned very high, making a dramatic statement towering over all the other plants.

Up close and personal – I almost can’t count how many plants are encapsulated in this close-up photo.

With so many plants filling the garden, the view from every angle is unique.

The delphiniums were gorgeous. I love blue in the garden and there just aren’t that many good choices for us to incorporate it into our gardens. I’ve had delphiniums, but the deer thought they were tasty!

Even the edibles make beautiful examples of perfect color combinations.

Tight shots like this make the veggies look like abstract art.

Pam’s working on some of those close ups, too.

Love the color combo of the delphiniums against the brightly colored house.

This was a delightful garden and, like the garden at 1514 Banks that I posted about, helped to give us a broader perspective of Houston gardens than just those one the tour. Our weekend was totally garden-licious. More to come soon about another cool destination nursery and restaurant combo.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:08-06:00April 13th, 2014|annuals, Blog, Bottle Brush tree, color, cottage garden, delphinium, edibles, Garden Conservancy Open Days, garden tour 2014, Houston Garden tour 2014, Peddie Street, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring, spring bloomers, vegetable garden, vines|0 Comments

Making room for spring…

It’s that time of year — the afternoon high temperature was up to 80 here yesterday. Thursday it’s supposed to be a high of 39. But at least we aren’t expecting a foot of snow like our friends up north.

But those warm, sunny afternoons make me restless. Especially when the extreme cedar pollen levels make it impossible to be outside. So, on my weekend list? Clean out some of the garden paraphernalia in the garage — including the old seed packets. I know that some were at least two years old, maybe older.

Why not, you might think, keep them and try them out? Maybe they’re still good and will germinate. And then again, maybe not. I’m just not willing to take that chance and have to start again or plant twice as many seeds to ensure some seedlings actually come up.

There they are – down in the garbage can – a plethora of vegetable and flower seeds. But don’t worry — they are going to be replaced, and soon. Saturday night I spent a nice, cozy evening trolling through veggie seeds and placed my order to get started in the greenhouse.

And that’s what spring is all about, isn’t it? A fresh start in the garden?

What will you be starting fresh with in your garden?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:12-06:00January 21st, 2014|Blog, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring|0 Comments

Plants that love cool spring evenings…

While Euryops (Euryops pectinatus), or yellow bush daisy, struggles through the dog days of summer here in Central Texas – it bursts forth with perky little blooms when nights and days are cooler here in late fall and early spring.

In this raised bed with good soil, this one is in its third year — done with sleeping and creeping and leaping into a beautiful plant. In addition to being showy right now, it’s clearly working hard to compete with the monster Franzosinii agave. And with a mature height of 4-6 feet, it will likely soon have to find a new home somewhere else in the garden where it can be the focal point.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:31-05:00March 27th, 2013|Blog, euryops, Franzosini agave, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring|0 Comments

Catalog shopping spree for the spring garden…

Thanks to cool nights by the fire, flipping the pages of glossy catalogs filled with stunning photos of the swimsuit edition versions of new plant offerings, there are exciting new additions to my garden.

Pictured here, Aralia ‘sun king,‘ Heucherella ‘gold zebra,’ Rudbeckia ‘prairie glow,’ and Eupohorbia ‘rainbow ascot.’

In light of the chilly temps, they are all still hanging out together in a tub trug – going out in the morning and coming in at night. They are jockeying for prime places in the garden — each of them whispering to me: “I’d look fabulous paired with the verbena or calylophus or salvia…or whatever!” They speak to me when they think the others aren’t listening.

I feel like they are the judges on “The Voice.” Pick me, pick me, pick me.

But I haven’t picked yet — I’m still ruminating about the best spot for each of them — determined not to just plop them somewhere willy nilly. This I do know, because of it’s color palette, the rudbeckia will be embarking on an adventure of its own — off to a very different part of the garden than the other shade or semi-shade plants. It’s going to find its own hot spot in a yellow/orange themed bed.

Have your catalog weaknesses …(oops)…orders arrived yet? Who will be joining your garden this spring?