So, the pond. This is from a couple of months ago. A little willow tree, a tiny sprout, went into the bog in a pot last spring. It liked the 24-7 fish water, and either wind or one of those pesky coons knocked the more-than 15 foot tree over so it hangs over the pond. Cassie and Aggie are checking it out. Anyone want a willow tree?

The light freezes we have had so far have killed the cannas and taro and are working on the umbrella grass, and I hope soon to be able to whack most of it out, and have some maneuvering room to do something about the tree. Maybe this winter I can take an ax to the umbrella grass island and get it out of there for good. I love the bog but it has become a jungle, and needs renovating.

Another lovely day, back to the garden - planting and leaf mowing come first, since the weather is changing tonight. I may not get to the bog whacking today. (oh darn.)

Hey, long time no post!

But I am finally back. What incredible weather today - I have cleaned up the veggie garden and planted the winter crops. I put garlic in at Thanksgiving, late, but it is coming up nicely. Half is from some local garlic from the farmer's market, and the other half some good hard red garlic I bought at Sam's.

It is kind of a cleanout garden this winter. I had so many old and new packets of seeds, so for most of them I mixed them all together into ziploc bags. A bag of long carrots, radishes and parsnips, one of short carrots and radishes. A bag of six kinds of chard. Another of all the lettuce based mesclun and one of the Asian green mixes. Bigger seeds that need to be more carefully spaced I left in their envelopes, but all of them were sown with abandon, since some of the seeds are old and I don't know what will come up. It will be a surprise. And if I have to thin a lot, yeah! salads! If they don't come up well, I have lots of mesclun seed still, and assorted greens.
I still have a couple of raised beds to work on, still a bit shady since the ash trees still have about half of their leaves. I will plant chard and parsley behind the daffodil bulbs, and mesclun among them. Giant red mustard and kale in the other bed. It is nice to have decorative things to eat.
The dogs do try to help, so besides the inadequate fences I am laying coated wire grids on top of the seeds I am planting to discourage digging. (Yes, Cassie, I am thinking of you!)
Next, raking some more leaves and bagging for later composting. Maybe mowing them up first, that shreds them nicely and it is easy to empty the mower bag into the paper one. Sort of. I feel good about today's gardening, though. Last winter's garden did well, so I am hoping for more yummy spinach and arugula and greens.
Enjoy the day.

So really, what has there been to say all this summer? It's hot. I watered. Repeat.

Today we break the record from the twenties - longest stretch of triple digit days, and at least 10 more days of the same. *sigh*
Twice a week I water. Since my yard has so many little bits and pieces, I do about half at a time, so once a week for the whole yard, and some spot watering of pots and such in between. It is focused on trees and foundation, and some of the grass benefits. The little pots of bog plants around the pond dry out daily, but they are also wildlife (and dog) watering stations. My frog population has been decimated by the coons which hunt in the bog at night. The dogs go in there, too, and the other night they chased a baby coon out of the bog into the pond, where it was swimming around pulling over all my floating containers (laundry baskets) of floating plants. By the time I got them in the house and went back out with my camera it was gone.

Here is Cassie finding a cool spot on the edge of the bog.

 And both of them getting a drink from a baby water lily nursery pot.

So soon I will only be watering once a week when the schedule changes. I already miss gardening classes because I don't want to miss my watering time, now it will be my only watering time. I know - automate. I like the idea but find it too hot out to work on it! This is survival time as far as I am concerned - not innovation time. Some day fall will come, and it can't be too soon for me after this summer.

Stay cool. If you can.

btw

Just to update a little from a previous post - the daffodils have just finished blooming, and the potatoes I planted in January are about a foot high. Lots of the seeds I planted before the freezes survived under row cover and germinated, but now I have tiny winter veggies where I am about ready to plant summer ones. Baby greens salads are on my menu - I can plant little summer things between and as they get bigger, harvest the greens and such. More later, back outside now!

Ah, spring!

I drove up from south Texas yesterday, and the roadsides down there are flush with banks of pink evening primrose, the first wildflowers I have seen this season. They are so pretty, and one of my favorites, but I have been pulling them out of one of my beds. The ones that come up with roots are being moved to some pots, because I do love them, but I had no idea they were SO invasive!
I have a long bed in front that parallels the curb, raised with a rock border which I dug out while working on the bed and digging in amendments. I have primarily agaves and succulents, a few other things around the edges. About a year and a half ago I transplanted 4 or 5 tiny scraggly stems of the primrose from my back bed, thinking it would be pretty to have a few wildflowers growing among the prickly pear and agaves... last spring I had a solid carpet throughout the entire bed of pink evening primrose. I let them grow and bloom, but then realized that everything that I had planted was being shaded out of existence, and regretfully pulled them up. At least what was above the ground. Because it is spring again and they are back thicker than ever.
I am not surprised, and they are still only a few inches tall, but I know what is coming. And, reluctantly but resolutely, I am pulling them up bit by bit. So far just the ones in the raised bed, leaving the ones coming up around the edges for last, since they will not be an immediate threat to my poor little plants recovering from the freeze. (Some things did OK, they did have row cover, but I lost about half of the bulbine, and my thread agave has only a green core.) I used a couple of bare patches revealed by the weeding to plant a couple of bluebonnets. The seeds I have planted have never come up, and I read that they just won't grow where they not grown before - maybe the soil needs some sort of inoculation. Perhaps the planted ones will provide that, and I will get returns next year. They will not grow so thick and tall that I will worry about the other plants - those primrose got a foot and a half tall! It is a good example of the old definition of a weed: a plant growing where you don't want it to.
Enjoy the spring!

January gardening

Well, it said in the paper that you can plant potatoes now, so that is what I just did. Two small patches for now, in the garden where I had squash last summer. I finished a little cleanup in the raised beds, and spent most of my time putting those little wire fences around the vegetable garden areas to dissuade the dogs. They can actually walk through the wider spaces, so I was also putting little bamboo stakes there, and even some closer spaced wire panels in some area. I just need to use a better fence. They are 10 month old dachshunds with digging in their blood, and all that loose black dirt just calls to them. So I am putting more wire panels flat on the ground where the plants will come up. Hmm. Maybe just some chicken wire flat on the ground, and I can just leave it until harvest - that would work for most things. lots to try.

My daffodils are starting to peek up through the ground. Should be quite a show later in the spring. There are somewhere near 200, planted closely. Last year I planted a bag of 100, and they were lovely. I had to dig them up, and last fall I separated all the side bulbs when I replanted. Since each one had at least one side bulb, often two, it will be a sea of lovely daffodils! Even this time of year there are pretty things out there, though. There are still a few deep red leaves on the pigeon berry, and the yellow shrimp plant is covered with blooms. The bulbine is blooming as well, and in the greenhouse, so is my mother-in-law tongue, and some kalanchoes.