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Tarrant County Cooperative Extension Help! Digital Flora of Texas What's natural for my zone? Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Landscape with Natives NOAA Track your weather. TurfFiles ID your grass and weeds! Plants National Database Find it. The National Arbor Day Foundation Arbor Day - Last Friday in April International EarthDay Be earth active. International Bulb Society Grow it... The Nature Conservancy Help Save the land! Treehugger Love Life Earthday Network Activism and Awareness Environmental News Network Stay informed. Garden Web For hard-core garden junkies |
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| ~ GARDEN PEEPS ~ | |
| I Recommend... | |
  An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore presents a
shocking in depth look at the environmental crisis.
 Rivers & Tides This DVD features the
beautiful work of environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy.
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:: 3.31.08 ::
IDIOCRASY: Part I
I am going to split this post into two since I have two stories to tell that are very similar, so here is Part One....
I have abused many a plant in my day (thinking of all the potted plants that never made it through my college years) so I suppose I should not be the one to cast stones, but recently two separate events of plant destruction by neighbors has left me with heart ache. These are both instances where new homeowners have made extremely destructive choices when landscaping their yards.
The first
example has to do with the damaged Agave you see here. This beautiful Octopus Agave was
once planted in the yard next door to the house where I grew up and
where my mom still lives today.
I remember when the original homeowner, his name was Bill, planted this Agave over 30 years ago. I remember how scandalous it was that our neighbor was landscaping his yard with "cactus". Back then succulents were not the common plant choices for our middle class neighborhood. Bill and his plant preferences were always a thing of curiosity, especially after his house was abandoned after he died in a tragic train accident that shocked our neighborhood. I was young when that happened and still remember it today with some sadness. Over the years different people moved into what was always referred to as "Bill's house"...they made changes to the yard, both good and bad, and eventually all the plants Bill had put in the ground were either taken away or died...except this Agave which was the last to remain until now. Driving to my mom's house the other day I noticed immediately that it was missing when I came down the road. In its place stood a freshly planted bed of seasonal pansies sparsely and evenly spaced.
It isn't really all that clear from the photo, but this Agave is large, about three feet high from the base to the top of its vertical leaf. I have it sitting in a very large pot in this photo. As you can see the plant was not removed with any kind of loving care; the stems were ripped and shredded as it was forced from the ground only to be tossed in the trash. Disgusted at the treatment of the plant my mother and I lifted it into the back of my truck and I hurriedly brought it home in hopes of trying to save it. The beautiful symmetry of the plant has been destroyed. All the leaves on one side have had to be cut back. Despite this I am still hoping that it will live, put out new leaves and eventually grow to hide some of the now missing and damaged parts.
The shear
idiocrasy of the situation is that in a few months the pansies that
replaced this Agave will all be dead because of the blazing hot Texas
summer. If I were to go to a nursery specializing in succulents and
wanted to purchase an Agave of this size and age (before it was
damaged) it would have cost me hundreds of dollars! I am thankful
to now have this one since it has a lot of sentimental value, but every
time I look at it I can't help but be sad over the tragedy and
loss it represents...and the beauty that people overlook and destroy
every
day.
Part II : coming soon
I am going to split this post into two since I have two stories to tell that are very similar, so here is Part One....
I have abused many a plant in my day (thinking of all the potted plants that never made it through my college years) so I suppose I should not be the one to cast stones, but recently two separate events of plant destruction by neighbors has left me with heart ache. These are both instances where new homeowners have made extremely destructive choices when landscaping their yards.
The first
example has to do with the damaged Agave you see here. This beautiful Octopus Agave was
once planted in the yard next door to the house where I grew up and
where my mom still lives today. I remember when the original homeowner, his name was Bill, planted this Agave over 30 years ago. I remember how scandalous it was that our neighbor was landscaping his yard with "cactus". Back then succulents were not the common plant choices for our middle class neighborhood. Bill and his plant preferences were always a thing of curiosity, especially after his house was abandoned after he died in a tragic train accident that shocked our neighborhood. I was young when that happened and still remember it today with some sadness. Over the years different people moved into what was always referred to as "Bill's house"...they made changes to the yard, both good and bad, and eventually all the plants Bill had put in the ground were either taken away or died...except this Agave which was the last to remain until now. Driving to my mom's house the other day I noticed immediately that it was missing when I came down the road. In its place stood a freshly planted bed of seasonal pansies sparsely and evenly spaced.
It isn't really all that clear from the photo, but this Agave is large, about three feet high from the base to the top of its vertical leaf. I have it sitting in a very large pot in this photo. As you can see the plant was not removed with any kind of loving care; the stems were ripped and shredded as it was forced from the ground only to be tossed in the trash. Disgusted at the treatment of the plant my mother and I lifted it into the back of my truck and I hurriedly brought it home in hopes of trying to save it. The beautiful symmetry of the plant has been destroyed. All the leaves on one side have had to be cut back. Despite this I am still hoping that it will live, put out new leaves and eventually grow to hide some of the now missing and damaged parts.
Part II : coming soon
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:: 3.07.08 :: Favorite Tool
Today I was
asked, "What is your favorite garden tool?"
Hmmm...no doubt, it is my wheelbarrow.
Hmmm...no doubt, it is my wheelbarrow.
It isn’t anything fancy; in fact it’s your standard low budget wheelbarrow that you can get at any mega store selling garden supplies. Mine is a cartoon color red with a big yellow rubber wheel and it looks like a piece of pop art sculpture out in the yard.
It’s the hardest
worker and it never complains no matter
what the load.
Without it I wouldn't get
anything done!
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:: 3.06.08 ::Yesterday & Today
I was
plodding along, getting things organized and planted early at a pretty
good pace and of course what happens? ... SNOW!
Ok honestly, I actually like the snow because we hardly ever get snow; like once a year for a few hours and then it all melts. So I'm not that upset, but I am concerned that the tomato and pepper plants I just put in the ground, which were just adjusting, are going to freak and die.
Last week some of the daily temperatures were mid to high 70's, it even shot up to over 80F a couple times and now we are back down to 30F with icy sleet and snow. Twice now I have had to go out and cover the beds with blankets. I tucked everything in good and cozy for winter's worst which finally showed up in March, two weeks before the "last frost date".
It was a good thing I bought straw early...although they gave me hay by accident and it's full of seeds! Grrrrrr. I was going to take it back but needed it when the weather turned bad so I went ahead and used it. I'm sure I will have to deal with the seeds sprouting everywhere later. Anyway I piled it around the plants using it to cover the top leaves of the cool winter veggies like cabbages and broccoli without crushing them. I also covered the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and lettuce with straw but topped them off with blankets, putting bricks on the corners to keep the wind from blowing everything around.
I think everything will be ok. I hope. Crossing fingers. We will just have to wait and see. That's the hard part now. Waiting.
Ok honestly, I actually like the snow because we hardly ever get snow; like once a year for a few hours and then it all melts. So I'm not that upset, but I am concerned that the tomato and pepper plants I just put in the ground, which were just adjusting, are going to freak and die.
Last week some of the daily temperatures were mid to high 70's, it even shot up to over 80F a couple times and now we are back down to 30F with icy sleet and snow. Twice now I have had to go out and cover the beds with blankets. I tucked everything in good and cozy for winter's worst which finally showed up in March, two weeks before the "last frost date".
It was a good thing I bought straw early...although they gave me hay by accident and it's full of seeds! Grrrrrr. I was going to take it back but needed it when the weather turned bad so I went ahead and used it. I'm sure I will have to deal with the seeds sprouting everywhere later. Anyway I piled it around the plants using it to cover the top leaves of the cool winter veggies like cabbages and broccoli without crushing them. I also covered the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and lettuce with straw but topped them off with blankets, putting bricks on the corners to keep the wind from blowing everything around.
I think everything will be ok. I hope. Crossing fingers. We will just have to wait and see. That's the hard part now. Waiting.
:: 2.24.08 ::
The new brick paths are starting to go down around the raised veggie beds and I got an early start planting the cool weather seedlings a couple weeks ago.
There are still a lot more bricks to put down and a lot more vegetables to be planted. More soon...
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. . . . . . . . Here We Go...
The new brick paths are starting to go down around the raised veggie beds and I got an early start planting the cool weather seedlings a couple weeks ago.
There are still a lot more bricks to put down and a lot more vegetables to be planted. More soon...
:: 2.22.08 ::
Mastering Topiary
I did some Master
Gardener volunteer work this week and it was a lot of fun. The Fort
Worth Botanic Gardens are getting ready to have their "Butterflies
In The Garden" exhibit and they needed some help making the
topiary butterflies that will be displayed
around the greenhouse that will hold the butterfly exhibit. So some of
the Master Gardeners, including myself, showed up to help out.
We met in one of the maintenance hoop houses and got busy. It was rainy and chilly that day and the sphagnum moss we were using was dripping wet and cold,...so were my pants and the front of my jacket before it was all over. The iron frames were already made and designed so that we could sandwich the sphagnum and soil together between the frames. Then we poked holes in them and filled them with annuals mostly pansies but there was also some alyssum and dusty miller for contrast.
The topiaries will sit in the greenhouse until March; by then they should have filled in nicely with lots of blooms. I am planning on going to the show later to take pictures of the finished products once they have been placed and mounted along the garden.
UPDATE: You can buy your own topiary form at SummerWinds Nursery. They have three different butterfly sizes...and it looks like they have a lot of other forms also. I have never bought anything from them, but this is where the Botanic Gardens ordered the forms we used and they seemed to be made well.
We met in one of the maintenance hoop houses and got busy. It was rainy and chilly that day and the sphagnum moss we were using was dripping wet and cold,...so were my pants and the front of my jacket before it was all over. The iron frames were already made and designed so that we could sandwich the sphagnum and soil together between the frames. Then we poked holes in them and filled them with annuals mostly pansies but there was also some alyssum and dusty miller for contrast.
The topiaries will sit in the greenhouse until March; by then they should have filled in nicely with lots of blooms. I am planning on going to the show later to take pictures of the finished products once they have been placed and mounted along the garden.
UPDATE: You can buy your own topiary form at SummerWinds Nursery. They have three different butterfly sizes...and it looks like they have a lot of other forms also. I have never bought anything from them, but this is where the Botanic Gardens ordered the forms we used and they seemed to be made well.
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