Where we are starting this year...

Hey there everyone!

Just outside the door of the back porch.

Last year I didn't get started on this blog early enough in the season to give you all an overveiw of what I was trying to do/get done for the season.  This year I have that luxury, so I'm going to start the season off by posting some "Before" photographs.  Then, we'll see what my gardening area looks like by the end of the season.

The photo to the right gives you an idea as to what we're going to start with this season.  This is the flower garden facing south from my back door and the main plan for this year is to DOUBLE the size of this flower bed in depth.  At the far end of the little flower bed here you can see a very large Juniper tree.  On the ground beneath it you'll see a rather large grouping of Spider and Hurricane Lilies that haven't bloomed for two years.  I'm going to give them one more shot.  There are still some back there in pots too, and those are going in the ground in the same area.

Next step closer to the step is the first Blue Plumbago.  Right now it's pretending to be ground cover, much to my chagrin.  I'll be tying it up here soon and trying to convert this one and the one up right by the step into actual bushes.  The job will most likely require quite a bit of pruning, but the plan originally was to have these be bushes.  I never even realized that they would just lie on the ground and spread out!

The red flowers that you see there are Dutch Impatiens.  That particular one was a volunteer that I discovered growing from seed in Dad's flowerbox.  It was all alone and dying from lack of water last summer.  It's managed to survive and continue to bloom throughout the winter.  Just beyond those, really close to the ground are 5 Easter Lilies coming up.  I don't think that they will make it to bloom this season, as they just haven't matured to the point where they need to be to bloom by Easter.  The big pot in the center is called an "Evergreen Wisteria."  Oddly enough, it's not evergreen as advertised.  It lost all of it's leaves this winter (Mind you, we never got a freeze) and sat around naked on the porch and in the house off and on until it started sprouting new leaves a couple of weeks ago.

Cactus cutting I picked out of the trash!

Beyond the Juniper tree is my Desert or Cactus Garden.  Here I have a bunch of really neat plants that I've tried to set into the ground.  I have a few photos, but not a shot of the whole area.  The cactus that I show to the left here is an unknown breed of prickly pear cactus or something along that lines.  I reluctantly admit that I found this in a pile of spring cleaning trash at the house across the street from my Dad's house.  Over the past year it's more than doubled in size, and has produced some very beautiful and interesting blossoms.  I'm wondering if it will produce fruit as well, or if these blooms will eventually become the fruit.

One of the strange cactus flowers.

Momma Blue Agave and pups

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 In addition to that, I have a wonderful Blue Agave (Century Plant) sitting right next to this, who just this spring produced four pups to keep her company.  Other plants down in this part of the yard include 3 Pride of Barbado's Bushes, a Mother of Millions plant (in the ground) and a very small Purple Datura, which is located just behind the prickly pear.  I have a few more plans for this side of the yard, including planting a new breed of Canna Lily (Cleopatra) in this area in order to keep it far enough away from the Indica Canna's to avoid involuntary cross breeding.  I'll attempt to cross breed them, but I want to do that in my own time and on my own terms.

Close up of a Pink Hawthorne bush getting ready to bloom.
Not sure what to do with it yet!

On the north side of the door, which I have no real pictures of at this time, I have an area that I've just started to amend where I'm going to plant all of the  Black Currant Datura that I grew last year.  I want  those to put on a grand display up against the fence.  Beyond that a little farther north you'll find my canna bed, which up until about a month ago were all in pots.

All of my Datura plants that need to be planted in the ground!

Well, that about sums up what's currently going on in the backyard this season.  The main goal is to double the space and find some very spectacular, showy flowers to put in there that will serve as good cut flowers.  I want to be able to cut flowers on a regular basis and take them to my Mom who's in the nursing home.  She needs pretty flowers on a regular basis to brighten up her room, and her day.

Well, that's about it for today.  I wanted you all to see some pictures and get a good look at what I have in store for work over the next few weeks.  It's good to get it all out and have a look at it all so I can solidify my plans or make needed changes to the plan.

I know it's a mess.  I AM open to suggestions!


Until next time, Happy Gardening!

First Datura of the New Year!

The first Datura of 2013!

And we're off!  As most of you who've read my garden blog in the past know, the Datura, or "Devil's Trumpet," has been one of my favorite growing endeavors since moving down to Texas.  This particular variety of Datura is called the Triple Black Currant Swirl.

When I originally purchased this plant I was looking to buy a Brugmansia, or "Angel's Trumpet," but I guess that was just not to be. Since buying  this back in 2010 I've tried desperately to purchase an actual Angel's Trumpet, but with no luck.  I've purchased plants (which also turned out to be Datura) and seeds.  The seeds never even sprouted for me, even though I followed every direction given to me regarding planting them to the letter.  It's been very disappointing.  However, this particular variety of Datura is beautiful, sweetly fragrant, and I just love it and look forward to every single bloom.

Side view of the trumpet flower.

What's the difference, you may ask?  Well, Angels Trumpet plants have huge trumpet flowers that hang facing downwards, as though the angels are blowing their trumpets from the skies.  With a Datura, or Devils Trumpet, the trumpet flowers are facing upwards, as if they were blowing toward the sky from hell.

Last spring, rather late in the season (April), I planted approx 140 Datura seeds and attempted to grow a batch to sell at a local nursery.  Of those original 140 seeds, approximately 70 grew to a repottable size.  After transplant and two repots to larger pots, I wound up with a total of 22 plants.  I managed to sell--get this--FOUR of them at a Garage Sale last August.  The local nursery that I grew them for has since closed it's doors, and I have no use for these other plants.  I'm considering actually putting them into the ground just to see how they tolerate the sandy soil of Corpus Christi.  It will be a fun experiment, and if they do take off, they will make an exceptionally big and beautiful display of purple flowers unparallelled by anyone else in the neighborhood!  I'm actually looking forward to it.  I just wish that these weren't so darned poisonous!!

Top View of the Datura flower showing the third layer.

The Datura is a relative of the Tomato Plant, as strange as that may seem, and is extremely susceptible to the attention to the horned tomato worm.  Last year, this very plant was attacked by one of them and within 4 hours half the plant was completely gone.  I killed the worm, but another one found it the next day and finished off the job.  Lucky for me, the plant made a complete comeback, but it shows the scars.  I have a lot of completely dead looking limbs on this plant, and you can actually see them in the background.

If you have any questions about Datura, or if you want seeds, please feel free to contact me by leaving a reply in the comments section.

Happy Gardening!

Things are starting to happen!

Hello All!

Today I got outside for a while and worked up a sweat cleaning up old twigs, berries and weeds from fall.  The garden areas were (and still are in some areas) FULL of that kind of stuff.  China Berry trees, while beautiful in form, have to be one of the worst garbage trees on the planet!  They have pretty flowers in the spring, but the rest of the year they are nothing but trouble!  Too much clean up!

Some things have already started happening for this year.  I planted some Daffodils into the ground in the front yard about three weeks ago, but as of yet nothing has come up.  I think that bulbs may have trouble in TX, as we don't really get a winter.  I think it's hard for them to determine what time it really is...Is it time to bloom, or just sprout?  I have lilies here that still have all their foliage on them from last year, and I'm wondering if they are going to bloom this year as well.

Of course the Bermuda Lilies (Easter Lilies) have started to come up.  I planted two bulbs last year after Easter, and I have 5 coming up this year.  I  think that they like the sandy soil, but I don't exactly know what to expect from them this year.  Will the ones that bloomed last year bloom this year?  I doubt that the babies will, but it will be fun to watch the older ones and see what happens.  Two weeks ago I planted some very nice Red and White Tulips in pots in the backyard too.  Much like other bulbs planted, they have not made an appearance at the top of the pot yet either.

A friend of Dana's (my partner) gave us some sort of plant for the garden last year.  I put it in pots and it never rebloomed, but rather just went wild with new growth.  This year it's starting to put out MASSES of flower stalks, and some of the flower stalks have little orange bells on them.  I sure wish I knew what these were.  I think that they are some form of Kolanchoe, but there are so many different varieties!  Can't wait to get some photos of these when they bloom!

A new pest type weed has come up in the garden this year.  It's the stinging nettle.  It's a small plant with a BIG bite.  If you've ever handled a "Jack in the Pulpit" plant before, then I can compare the pain from it to that.  Little else can compare.  I spent a good deal of time today trying to root that stuff out of the gardens and everywhere else I could find it, but the only way to touch the stuff without THICK gloves is to grab it by the bare root.  What a pain.  I think I got the majority up though.

Two new plants I've purchased for the Garden this year are Tall Snapdragons (best for use in cut flower arrangements) and Floribunda and Tea Roses.  One is called "Rosegold" and I cannot remember what the other is called, but it is supposed to be a deep purple rose.  I had thought that I'd bought the Peace rose, but a second look shows me that I did not.  I'm kind of glad...I like purple roses.  Another new thing that I'm going to try this year is growing roses from seed.  The nursing home where my Mother stays has a beautiful garden filled with rose bushes and tropical Hibiscus.  Yesterday I managed to snag a rose hip.  After some research I feel as though this is something that might be fun to try.  I will keep everyone posted on the progress of this.

I've also taken FOUR cuttings from the Tropical Hibiscus from the nursing home. I hate to mention this because right at this moment they look pretty bad.  I have them standing in a mix of Vermiculite, Perlite, and light seedling mixture.  Very fast draining stuff that retains a bit of moisture.  I have them covered with plastic soda bottles as well, so each is in a little greenhouse of sorts.   Wish me luck on this, but judging by the look of them today I'm not going to hold my breath.  Remember...I am an amateur, and most of the things in my garden blog here are experiments and fun things I do just for fun!

Well, I think I have you caught up for now.  I'll get to work on the camera and see if I can get that going again.  A computer crash about a month ago saw the loss of nearly all of my camera software.  Getting that stuff back is going to be a major endeavor!

That's all for now!  Happy Gardening!

Garden Fever Attacks!

Hey all...

Nothing terribly exciting here today, but rather I'm writing this looking forward to what is to come for this season!  I've got all kinds of interesting things planned for my Backyard Garden this year, and then after this year there are going to be some major changes which will result in the closing of my backyard garden...boo...hiss!  Let me assure you that even though this will be the final season of the backyard garden, it will only be the FIRST season for my new North and South facing gardens, which will be taking place of my East facing backyard garden.

Today however was such a good day, bittersweet as it was.  I was visiting my Mother today and on my way home decided to drop by one of my favorite greenhouses--Fox Nursery.  It's always been a little bit on the expensive side, but if you are looking for trees, especially BIG trees, then Fox is undoubtedly the place to go.  I was mortified when I pulled in to the parking lot today and was greeted by a gigantic "Going out of Business Sale" sign.

"Well now, THAT blows!"  I said as I walked into the door.  The cashier was there and had apparently heard me.

"Yeah...We aren't real happy about it either."  She stated in a rather grumpy tone.  "One good thing though...everything is Fifty percent  off."

"Really?"  I said, my mood changing a little bit.

And as I walked the entire nursery looking for this and that, I realized that literally EVERYTHING was half off the regular price!  Not just the plants were on sale, but about 1000 pieces of pottery, bird baths, barrels, furniture...hell, even potting medium and fertilizers were half off.  I felt like a kid in a candy store!!

In cases like this I can get  myself in a great deal of financial trouble, so I had to be very careful and choosy.  It's easy to forget that I'm on a fixed income when things are on sale like this.  I wound up buying only four things total:  A regular "Bird of Paradise" plant, a Canna Lily of an unknown variety which has an exquisite yellow with orange spatter flower, a Orchid of unknown origin (all I know is the variety is called "Fiesta") and a busted open bag of orchid potting medium that was only $2.50.  Grand total for the whole shebang was a mere $20.59.  If you know anything about buying plants at a nursery, you know that you usually can't even buy a single plant for less than $20, so I feel like I got a major STEAL!

So, this brings me to the subject.  I now have the fever for gardening, so it's time to get this show back on the road for spring.  I have some neat things in store this spring, so stay tuned to my blog here!

PS...just did a little research on the Canna, and it's a variety called "Cleopatra".  How fitting for someone like me!