Author: variadm

First plant purchases of the season!

I’ve caught the spring fever bug if you’ve sneaked a peek at my Instagram. Temperatures in the North Texas area are in the low 80s for the past week. It was time for my seasonal commute to North Haven Gardens and big box stores around town.

First, off to North Haven Gardens…herbs, colorful annuals and perennials snagged:

I wanted to start some lemongrass from seed, but haven’t found any local retailers selling seed. Calloway’s Nursery in Denton had this one specimen in stock, so I figured I’d pick it up…along with a bag of expanded shale. The kitties like inspecting grassy things.

I need to shop for some catgrass seed!

I finally found some Red Rubin basil seeds at Home Depot. Couldn’t resist picking up lily bulbs and more annual/perennial color. Weekend garden project, here we come!

 

Holiday Weekend Flowerworks

Holiday Memorial Day weekend means extra time to work the garden. The man put the finishing touches on his stone layout, then we were off to purchase a rose bush (Neptune) to add to the blue/purple theme. I was then able to finalize our backyard garden and get plants into the ground.

 

The kids of course were on-hand to clown around and check out the new plantings.

Once the yard project was done, it was time to take stock of what was blooming…

New Backyard Garden

Started the new backyard garden bed this weekend. Want an upper body workout? Start by digging into wet clay…guaranteed to make you sore within the the first 10 minutes.

Then head over to the home improvement store and haul as many bags of garden soil your car trunk can carry (20 cubic ft in a Hyundai Sonata).

Empty about 42 cubic feet of garden soil, compost and landscapers mix into your new bed…and realize you still need more soil.

After all is said and done, watch your adorably cute furkids clown around in the yard.

Bloom-crazy Skullcaps

The Cherry and Violet Cloud skullcaps are announcing what spring is all about: flower power!

The Cherry (or Pink) skullcap is particularly impressive for its masses of blooms. I’m so impressed with this scutellaria. This is a second year plant and has maintained a nice, tight mounded habit since I first planted it.

The purple blooms of the Violet Cloud isn’t as plentiful as Cherry Pink, but it is still a young plant. While it seems to sprawl a bit more than the Cherry Skullcap, its purple blooms provide great color contrast with the yellows and greens in a flower garden.

I read that scutellaria can be propagated via softwood cuttings, so I’ll be taking a few samples this week to try them out.