What a difference a year makes!

Rainfall Records in Sherman, Texas. 

Last year precipitation from January 1, 2011 to June 11, 2011 registered 8.69 inches (my yard had less rain fall than Sherman last spring), this year 14.97 inches.  And we are still below average for the year and coming into the driest months of the year July and August.  

Average Annual Rainfall is 42.1 inches per year.

Last year the yard and garden struggled, this year it thrives.

The flowering plants just keep blooming and blooming.  The grass is growing and spreading.  The garden is producing.

Highlights

Summer Squash

 

 

Whiskey Barrel Planters  - David just had to have the whiskey barrels,  They are huge planters and so far doing well in the island bed.

 

 

Daisies and Texas Rock Rose – lovely contrast of color along the front of the house in the west bed.

 

The view as you drive in ---

 

Hanging Baskets and lush green lawn – the view from the hammock is lush and colorful.  I discovered water storing beads.  Several brands are available.  The beads hold the water in the pots so if you can’t water every day (or twice as day as is needed sometimes in the hot dry heat) the plants can pull the water out of the gel.

 

Marigolds, Cosmos, Hibiscus and Dahl Daisies.  The huge blooms on the Luna White Hibiscus dazzle.

 

Moonflowers which open in the evening are a lovely accent.  My sister Patricia brought me a moonflower sprout from her garden.  It is happy in it's new home and thriving with large beautiful blooms.

A gardeners work (or planing) is never done... I still want to add some contrast color among the marigolds and cosmos.  David says I need to fill in some bare spots... All in time.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter.

What do you do on a quiet rainy Sunday afternoon… update your garden journal.  So far today we've recorded 2.5 inches of rain.

Yes, I know it has been a long time since I’ve posted but we have not been idle.  I do keep my garden notebook current noting what, when and where something is planted.

We enjoyed a pleasant fall of 2011 with some much needed rain and a very mild winter.  Spring 2012 came early along with lots of garden chores.

Look at the size of that tree.  David tackled the dead tree on the south property line, the huge tree that died – two years ago- not due to the drought.  It was a huge tree and the largest limbs came crashing down in the wet heavy snows of the two previous winters.

You can just see the veggie patch in the background.

Yes, we did plant a veggie patch.  Despite the failures of the last two summers, we will give it another trial.  We decided we had to keep the rabbits at bay, so we have installed chicken wire all around.  So far the squash, cantaloupe, peppers, tomatoes and onions are doing well.  The okra, corn and beans seem to be slowly emerging.

The Master Gardener spring plant sale is in two weeks, so I might pick up a few more tomatoes and peppers.

We planted three trees, a pecan, a maple and a red oak.  It was amazing the difference in the soil in the three areas of the yard.  The red oak is in a bed of red clay, the pecan in white sand and the maple in loamy brown soil going down 4 feet.  Talk about micro climates, just in our yard.

The yard is looking good.   The flowers are blooming, reseeding and flourishing.

We created a new bed and planted double knock out roses.  Next year, I’ll add a companion border plant, probably dianthus.

The island bed is doing well.  The daffodils were a brilliant show, now the lilies are just budding out.  I planted ferns, hosta, bleeding heart and astible, all bulbs or tubors early in the spring.  So far the ferns and hosta are doing well… the other two, no sign of them, yet.  The turk’s cap is returning and the iris are blooming.

Over in the bunkhouse yard the blue bonnets are gorgeous.

I planted daylilies and for show, petunias in the terrace bed.

I'll get out in the next few weeks and take more pictures.  A picture is always worth a 1000 words.  The lawn is such a lush shade of green and the flowers are a riot of color.

Happy Gardening.

Summer 2011 Record Heat

The Summer of 2011

Record Heat and Record Drought

The vagaries of the weather defy the staunchest of gardeners.  We had just over 15 inches of rain in March and April.  We went with no measurable rain from May 15 to August 13. 

David and I were vacationing in much cooler and wetter NM and CO when the kids sent pictures of an inch of rain in the gauge.  You know it’s an event when the kids send you a picture! No rain since though.

What a lovely view... thunderclouds - we missed it.  (You can see the demarcation between where we water and where we don’t.  The green around the house is watering, the green to the left (south) is a natural green berm running through our yard keeping green due to underground seepage from the neighbor’s pond.)

Sherman, Texas recorded the most days over 100 degrees ever breaking the 1956 record and the State of Texas lack of rain broke a 1924 drought record.

The forecast image has been relentless 100 degrees plus since May, 98 will feel down right cool.

The yard struggles.  We are in survival mode.

Trees are losing leaves due to a lack of water.

We let the garden go in early July.  Even with supplemental watering it was too scorching hot to produce and the rabbits were decimating what was green.  You know it’s dry when the marigolds die.

The marigolds and zinnias held their own in the flowering beds and looked presentable for the 4^th of July.    We had a wonderful family reunion, with almost 70 folks (all mostly related) wandering the lane that busy weekend.  The hammock in a lush green oasis was a favorite for young and old.

Despite the heat we’ve continued work on the yard.  We’ve set the last of the flagstone in place to finish off the steps.  When it DOES cool off we will level them up and brush the gravel into place.

The turkeys, birds and hummingbirds have found our wildlife preserve.  They are all frequent visitors.  The birds will squawk at us if the feeders are empty.  We enjoy our mini nature preserve.  Today we have 6 hummingbirds vying for dominance over one feeder, so I moved one from under the cover of the trees out in the opening.  We sat on the porch this morning (David had a 2.5 hour conference call) and watched the birds flit and fight.

The drought tolerant stand outs are

·          The Texas Rock Rose

·          Crape Myrtles

·          Turk’s Cap

·          Flaming Acanthus

·          Portulaca  (moss rose or purslane) in baskets

·          Ice Plant in a pot

·          The asparagus fern in a pot

·          The rosemary in a pot

We were away for 2 weeks on vacation and the death toll welcomed us home so the flowering plants are pulled or cut away. Despite all the grass is surviving and the trees close to the house due to the extra water. We are looking forward to Fall and cooler days.

Plants Plants Plants -- Blooms Blooms Blooms -- Rain Rain Rain

Dahl Daisy

New additions to the flower beds from Shades of Green in far north Frisco, a wonderful stop, a locally owned nursery that really does promote well adapted or native plants for the North Texas Area.

Turks Cap and Xemenia for the Island Bed.

Yarrow, Salvia and Mexican Butterfly Weed for East, West and Terrace Bed.

Lamb’s Ear for the Terrace Bed.

Flaming Acanthus for the East Bed.

All the plants are flourishing, the quality was superb.

Blanket Flower

The winner in the garden continues to be the Blanket Flower, outstanding blooms and brilliant color.  The tiny Dahl Daisy is flourishing; the dianthus showed it’s pink early now followed by the skull cap.  The variety of salvias are thriving and multiplying. Seeds are shooting up sprouts so the marigolds and zinnias will be blooming when it is hot hot hot. 

Grayson County Master Garden Sale, a huge success.  A long day started out at 7 to help set up in a chilly 44 degree weather.  By the end of the day, jackets were shed and all but about 4 dozen plants were sold.  I purchased Aster and Obedient Plant.  I adopted some of the unsold plants at the end of the day, mint, lettuce sprouts, germander and a yucca.

I purchased a variety of tomato plants from a fellow MG who had to clean out his green house early, so he had a pre-sale.  They are all healthy and well established in the veggie bed.  Also purchased a wide variety of pepper plants from Sweetwater Farms along with “Organic Pest Fence” spray.

One small tomato is already set and growing and some peppers too.

Veggie Patch with pvc irrigation system

Working on the electric fence.

The battery operated electric fence is not working.  Were the batteries dead? No. Is there a short? No, it’s a bad unit so say not 1, not 2, but 3 engineers.  I need to find the receipt and go talk about an exchange without having to unstring all the wire and dig up the posts.  So, the “Organic Pest Fence” plus the strands of wire are keeping the pests out of the veggie patch for now.

For our 34^th anniversary the hanging basket was purchased to adorn our view and it is a lovely mix of deep pink and yellow blooms.

It has been dry but the last few weeks some much needed rain fell at Lake Texoma.  We recorded a little over 3 inches of much needed moisture.  The lake level is at 613.50’ the lowest level I remember ever, makes for a great beach and lots of long, long walks.

Items on the “To Do” List

The veggie patch needs weeding --- already! Yep. Already.

Finish the bridge to no where and lay more flagstone.

Work on the bunkhouse.

Sit on the veranda and watch the grass grow!

The Bridge

Another vision of David’s.  I just nodded my head and said “Hmmm, ok”.  He started talking about a bridge last year, he was going to build it from lumber.  Well … as luck would have it, Sam’s stocked these cutesy garden bridges.  They put them on display right after Christmas.  One weekend in February the weather was atrocious, my allergies were keeping me indoors and David was short on projects.  He had to make a run to the store for groceries, so I told him now would be a good time to get that cute bridge we saw at Sam’s.  He was reluctant but agreed.  Low and behold, he bought the second to the last bridge in stock.  Whew… glad we got it early.

 Now to finish the blocking and shoring, the backfill, add stones to the 'creek bed' and the pavestone path to the bridge.  Yes, we do actually finish projects, most of the time.

Is it the bridge that goes no where?  You’ll just have to wait and see what the future plans may hold.

The Great Wall Project

David had a vision – an ambitious vision.  I was skeptical and afraid of the amount of labor but we are almost there.

Tommy, David and SaraBeth laid out the baseline and foundation.  From there the wall went up easily.  Then the backfilling process began. 

Tommy & SaraBeth

David, Tommy and SaraBeth working hard.

Tommy is giving directions.

Today the wall is complete; the backfill is at 90%.  All that is left is to extend the backporch with flagstone and build the fence.

Spring Projects Aplenty

March Winds bring April Showers

Where are the showers, the gusty spring winds continue to blow with very little rain or moisture.
We’ve been very busy in the yard. 

Yards -- Plural

We tackled Jen’s front yard in Richardson with a plan.  She has a gorgeous red oak tree that shades her east facing house.  The original shrubs were straggly and old, so out they went last winter.

We mostly followed the plan… a plan is a guide, only a place to start.

So for her shady bed (since she had her trees trimmed last year they are now a partial shade bed) we first dug up the soil and added 2 CY of premium bedding mix.

The plant list

Compact Nandina

Red Columbine 

Dwarf Hosta

Coral Bells

Forest Pansy Redbud

The best and easiest to use web resource for finding “Earthkind” or well adapted low water use plants is

North Central Texas Smartscape

http://www.txsmartscape.com/NorthCentralTX/main.asp

We had a fun day working and planting in the yard.  Aunt Linda from Houston, Cousin Kristin, Matthew and Gabriel, Tommy and SaraBeth and of course Mom and Dad were all on hand  to slave in her yard and enjoy the pizza.

Enjoy your yard.

.