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.

.

Success and Failure

Spring has arrived along the shores of Lake Texoma.  We have been busy with many projects in the yard and garden.

Past due is the time to reflect upon the successes and failures after one year of gardening efforts.

Surprisingly the failures are few and not catastrophic.

The Fat Albert Blue Spruce Pine did not survive the summer heat and drought.  The final death stroke was when the neighbor’s kid ran it over on his go-cart.

The Lamb’s Ear drowned early in it’s short life span.  If I was a “proper” or “energetic” gardener I would pull everything out of the East and West Flower beds, till in more compost and basically start over with better soil.  However since I have more projects than time or energy, I’m going to let it be what lives in these beds stays.  There is a tad too much red clay to drain well.  Some plants are thriving so I’ll leave well enough alone.

The Barberry shrub did not survive and it had more thorns than I was comfortable working around, so it was no great loss.  I plucked it out with glee.

The Encore Azaleas in the Island Bed are struggling, the jury is still out as we’ll give them another year but it does not look promising.

Successes

Many, many.  Bragging time - really it is mostly trial and error process. 

Grass, the lushness of a lawn, Blanket Flowers, Marie Dahly Rose Bushes, Marigolds naturally reseeding and sprouting, Zinnias, Crape Myrtles, Rock Roses, Skull Cap, Texas Rock Roses, Daylillies and on on on.

Major Projects in the works:

Vegetable Garden, the plot is 30’ x 60’.  This year we’ll guard our plants with an electric fence and a liquid organic pest repellant fence.

Flagstone steps off the back porch to the east and second tier of flower bed.

Retaining wall and flagstone patio extension on the north with steps.

Fence on the north, the posts are mostly set.

Bridge and flagstone walk at the front entry.

Flower Bed Sketches and Plans

Winter Solstice

Too much time has passed since my last gardening post although a lot has happened in the yard and soon the winter solstice will be upon us. Time for merry cheer around the fireplace not out in the yard… However…

Today I have to share the survivalist. We’ve had some nipping cold temps, near freezing and the blanket flower is loving the dry cold.

Today the sun was shining, the high was 50 degrees and there was very little wind. After a long walk along the lake shore Molly and I settled on the “veranda” to enjoy the afternoon. The birds are loving the new feeder that Tommy gave me for my birthday. They were flocking around it. One at a time, two at a time, up to five at a time.

I think the big hog is a wood pecker and notice the other biggy hanging by for his turn to nip some free seed is a blue jay. The big boys were being nice today and letting the smaller birds in for their fair share too.

What a wonderful day to enjoy along the shore of the lake.