Ye Olde Garden – Page 115

The Bug

Bitten by the gardening bug, I went ahead and dumped the rest of the unplanted allium and muscari in the last remaining flower bed, hoping that they haven’t festered too long in the confines of a cold, dark garage. Weather permitting, I will be rearranging them again tomorrow morning, since I only dug trenches and tossed them in without a single thought but to get them buried. After inspecting the other sprouting bulbs, I see that there is little art to planting a straight line of bulbs. I hope to scatter them even more.

I also find myself browsing bulb/seed e-tailers and checking the selections on Ebay. I definitely plan on featuring more daylilies in the flower beds…but some of the more exotic cultivars fetch exorbitant sums online. I’ve decided to do a bit more research in finding the style and height I want. Of course, I had to go to Home Depot this afternoon to check out their perennial bulb collection. I walked away with 2 bags of Crimson Pirate Daylilies, 2 bags of mixed Aquilegia and a 6 pack of Lollypop Asiatic lily bulbs. I have every intention of getting them into the ground this weekend. Now, watch it rain tomorrow….

Catalog days

It’s that time of year again when online and mail-order nurseries bombard the mailbox with their colorful harbingers of spring: the plant and seed catalogs. As usual, they are full of picture-perfect bouquets and irresistible plant collections, not to mention time-sensitive and money-saving offers, in an attempt to get gardeners to open their wallets. Nothing like a slew of full-color catalogs to get me started thinking about flower beds and landscaping.

This year DH and I are committed to restoring the backyard to some semblance of a grassy lawn. DH and drought had effectively killed off most of the Augustine, though some of it has eked out an existence hiding in the lea of our house and under the fence’s shadow. We hope to seed some bermuda, water restrictions permitting, this spring in order to spare ourselves from a mud-stained carpet. Three pups can track in a lot of dirt and mud, among other things.

The tulips and muscari I planted over November and December last year have sprouted, and thankfully, weekly showers have dampened the ground to sustain them. I haven’t determined if any of the alliums have burst through the ground. I hope to have some time this coming weekend to assess the flower beds.

Tulips Redux

I’m giving tulips another try. I’ve laid a wire mesh (similar to chicken coop wire) down to deter any intrepid bulb-eaters and diggers from upsetting the bed. My High Country Gardens order arrived last week, and I’m just now getting to planting them. I’ve decided on the middle rear bed to house my tulip ambitions. Twelve each of Tulipa bakeri and Tulipa humilis are sharing the bed with Eye of the Tiger Dutch irises, about 4 or 5 Muscari botryoides ‘Album’, and 3 large bulbs of Allium karativiense ‘Ivory Queen’. Flanking each end of the bed stand a white salvia greggii and a transplanted salvia microphylla Hot Lips, sparsely leafed after surviving the dry summer heat. I’ve left some room for a rosemary bush to keep the greggii company, and I plan on adding Muscari armeniacum and at least 6 Allium christophii to the mix. I’m still exploring more plants to populate this Cool-in-the-Shade White and Blue garden, especially since the current flower selection consists of early spring bloomers.

A colony of Cannas

Indestructible. Invasive. Resistance is futile. Where once there were two plants barely 2 feet high, now there exists a large colony of cannas, extending its dominion into my front flower bed. The tubers photographed this past weekend captures the aggressive nature of this plant; the root system covers about a 2′ by 3′ patch of bed, and there are no signs that it is letting up. I began dividing the roots and planting them in pots to grow babies for the new year.

Fall gardening is all work and no play

A problem I’m seeing due to having no gutters on our house is that water runoff tends to erode chunks out of your flower beds. I’m exploring the possibility of installing lava rock on top of the mulch to reduce some of the ugly pits caused by cascading rainfall.

It’s back to weeding and winterizing the beds this Saturday. The weekend forecast threatens rain, but so far there are no clouds in the sky. I have a dozen plus Iris bulbs from Brecks that need to go in the ground ASAP. I also posted an order with Hill Country Gardens for some muscari, allium and tulip bulbs, and I’m looking forward to a trip out to Covington’s Nursery in Rowlett. They have a great planning guide for the October-November gardener.

I discovered an interesting and cost-efficient way of making your own seed-starting pots out of newspapers while researching lava rock and mulching on the net. If only I were a seed-starter….