Emerging growth, purchases, transplants, and more!
Some views of the front yard beds:
What’s blooming? (Excuse some of the out of focus shots.)
Start of a new project…installing flagstone on the patio side of the house:
Tag: oregano
End of summer garden inspection
We neglected the front yard beds over the height of summer (June-August) and emerged over the Labor Day weekend to perform some maintenance. I spent a couple of weekends in September cleaning up the beds, trimming back some shrubs, and uprooting the casualties. Some plants obviously did not take too well the stretch of 100+ temperatures in August, most noticeably the young azaleas and our Waterfall Japanese Maple. At first we thought the drip line system to blame, but when we had a contractor come out to inspect our sprinkler system, he recommended that the drip system be run a minimum of 20 minutes–much more than the 5 minute run we had originally programmed. Safe to say that the plants are much happier going into Fall.
The cleanup obviously opened up some gaps in the garden beds to introduce new plantings as well.
Now if I can only muster up the energy to get some spring-flowering bulbs into the ground!
Another weekend of plant purchases
Just a quick rundown of purchases and gardening activity that occurred this weekend.
While I was out and about food shopping on Friday, I did find it interesting to discover that Whole Foods Market in Plano sold organic herbs and plants. They are the only vendor in recent memory that seems to sell organic labeled plants.
I picked up a red-leafed celosia and a dracaena at Strong’s Nursery intended for another bowl planter. This meant of course that I had to purchase more planter boxes and bowls. 
On Saturday, I made my way back to Meador Nursery in search of herbs and sedum. I didn’t find the herbs I wanted, but I did buy a tray of succulents to add to the front yard stone path: Sedum makinoi ‘Ogon’, Sedum polytrichoides ‘Chocolate Ball’, and one that was “possibly” mismarked as Sunsparkler Lime Zinger.
I found my golden sage and one more sedum lineare variegata at Four Seasons Nursery.
On Sunday, we found our way out in Allen at Puckett’s Nursery, where we picked up the first golden oregano of the season and sedum Lemon Coral.
Due to an allergy that’s persisted since last weekend’s planting, I’ve refrained from outdoor work to give my body a chance to heal. I suspect that handling certain plants and being out in the sun too long has brought on a rash that’s covered the length of my outer arms.
Wishlist plant: Thymus praecox Highland Cream thyme
Yard Crash Progress Report
We accomplished a great deal over this weekend despite the cooling weather. I took advantage of an early release on Friday afternoon to check out North Haven Gardens for tree and shade plant prospects. Takeaways included Picasso calla lily and White Star caladium bulbs, cat grass seed and a variegated milkweed by Hout Couture. I came very close to picking up a variegated hellebore (Snow Fever), cool literally and figuratively speaking, but refrained due to lack of experience.
Saturday included trips to several area nurseries and feed stores looking for unusual or uncommon plants. Farm-and-feed stores differ in that they rarely carry ornamentals and focus on vegetable/crop seeds and of course farm operations. I did find it fascinating to find 3 healthy Moruga Scorpion specimens at Dennis’ Farm Store in Denton that I was half-tempted to snap up (found variegated oregano and a Golden Girl salvia instead). And who could resist the adorably cute farm babies at D&L Farm and Home Store in Aubrey? I did finally add to my cat-friendly herb planter, discovering lemon balm at Texas Seasons in Celina.
After hitting up Four Seasons and Laguna Madre for variegated sedum and a pot of lemongrass, it was off to work digging up more clay to add depth to the path nearest the fence. Then, Sunday and Monday we spent the day setting the flagstone, removing the builder-installed plants, and installing our bird-and-butterfly friendly (mostly) perennial garden.
The end of March is coming fast, and we have yet to finish our yard crash. It doesn’t help that we are coming up with new ideas along the way…
March seedlings and the last winter heave
We’ve dipped back down into the 50s this weekend, after a short 2 weeks of pleasant spring weather. I suspect this is winter’s last gasp and we are headed into the 70s-90s for the next 3-6 weeks. We’re also seeing some rain for this weekend, which means work is suspended on the new garden bed. But at least we’ll know the seal is tight on the newly-repaired sprinkler pipes.
I sowed some Coreopsis tinctoria Roulette seeds today, brought in the Pesto Perpetuo basil and snapped up some pix of the bathroom greenhouse. The dusty miller cuttings are having a hard time, so I have covered 2 of them to see if a more controlled environment will help them thrive. The thyme and oregano cuttings are certainly doing well, putting out new growth. I’m still wary of the salvia cuttings, not sure if they are developing new roots under the surface. The alyssum have begun to sprout; I will be monitoring their progress in the coming weeks to see how well they grow. I’m anxious to get some of their pastel colors out into the gardens in time for Easter. We shall see!
