Cleaning the Garden

The first warm days have come after a particularly bitter winter( temperature as low as 16 degrees Fahrenheit in the city).  I covered many plants and brought all I could in, even my pencil plant, but suffered heavy damage to plants who seldom experience temperatures below freezing.

All my plants are outdoors once again.  The hanging baskets have suffered from feline predation while inside; the spider plants no longer have spiders.   The tricolor dracaena has a flat-top courtesy of whichever cat climbed into my office.  The office is off limits, but even with the doors closed some of my cats can squeeze between frame and door.  The house is  97.  Its entitled to have some sagging doors. The only casualty was the avocado plant that was hidden behind the sanseveria and did not get watered.  Even the ficus did well this year.

Photo by briweldon

Outside was a disaster.  My yellow jasmine (texas nomenclature) or primrose jasmine (jasminum mesnyi ) is now two-toned with a top layer of tan, dead branches over the budding green ones below.  I will trim the jasmine in a week or so when I can see which branches will flower or not.  The nandina which is at least 60 years old did just fine.  The cane is putting up shoots from the ground.  The sanseveria on the south side of the house have frozen to the ground. Those I covered on the east side have some damage, but will recover.  The cacti are just fine, but the cereus is dead. The parent cereus is alive and well in a pot.  My salvia and my "I don't know what you are" plant( purchased two years ago at a thrift shop sale and unlabeled) are fine. My herb garden is fine, but I need to plant some basil and cilantro soon.  Basil doesn't make it through winter and cilantro gives out in the heat. All together I am happy with the survival rate.

I have removed obviously dead cane and trimmed the lantana to about two inches tall..  Lantana must be cut back or it gets too leggy to be attractive.  The lantana already has green leaves showing next to the ground.  I will save the cane to use as stakes in the garden and put the lantana trimmings out for the brush and clippings pickup.

I need to start preparing the vegetable garden.  I did not plant last year because I assumed I would lose the house.  Since I am still here, I will tempt fate and put in some vegetables.  Tomatoes need to go in first to ripen before the heat comes.  A few radishes and maybe carrots might be fun.  I have some decisions to make.

The Garden in August

My garden is almost gone for this summer.  The heat of days with temperatures over 100 has killed what survived the earlier humidity.  One tomato in a giant pot survives.  Two others planted in a hanging basket are still alive, but are only now starting to grow.  I did not plant okra this year which is the reliable August crop.  The question now is whether I put in a fall garden.   If so, I must start soon.  If we get a soaking rain soon, I think I will.

I have begun cleaning the garden, but where I have not watered the ground is rock hard.  Yes, I have been adding compost, but there are still many areas that contain mainly sandy concrete that turns to quicksand when wet,

The elm in front continues to drop giant branches.  I think the tree, which is twenty feet tall, will be the last casualty of 2009's brutal summer. Should I have it trimmed back now or see what survives?

The cacti and succulent garden is doing well.  My native salvia is spreading; the prickly pear cactus has grown new pads, and the cereus has taken root.  The sanseveria that froze to the ground in the odd freeze we experienced has put up new shoots.  Even the bits of kalanchoe that fell off a pot plant have taken root.

I will soon be potting sanseveria that I have had rooting in water.  I need to add some catnip in pots, but I think I will wait until next spring.  Maybe I will  plant some rain lilies under the birdbath. Maybe.

Gardeners Are Such Fools

The heat has broken. Now, we only have days in the nineties and nights dipping near seventy. Mornings are really lovely.

Last week we had the first real rain since early spring. I got an inch and a half of the wet stuff. The garden is so much happier.

The reprieve from the August heat and lack of rain has raised my hopes for a fall garden. I am removing dead plants and preparing the ground for new plants. A friend who gardens in one the community gardens is busily cleaning out his plot. He will plant for fall soon. Gardeners are such fools.

Another friend passed two basil branches (basil picture above), well rooted in water, on to me. I planted one under the bird bath in the front yard, far from past basil failures. The other plant went into the vegetable garden in back. This time in the flower bed at the edge of the garden where the sunburned remains of forget-me-nots still litter the ground. The only plant that survived from spring is a hybrid wandering Jew. This plant has produced a beautiful rosette of leaves that seems not to mind the heat and lack of water.

I have two tomato plants to be put in the ground, and I will try the Japanese shiso again. I think I will add mint to the circle under the bird bath and more herbs in back. Once it is cooler, I will add some leafy vegetables to the garden. I want to grow some catnip near the water faucet in front, but I fear the cats would soon eliminate it.

On the east side of my house there is an extremely dry area with poor soil. Nothing has grown there all year, not even weeds. Of course, I could not stand that bare soil. Now, I have planted a variegated, thornless prickly pear, an ordinary prickly pear (right), an echeveria (below), and a volunteer plant with bright pink flowers, rescued from a neighbor who was going to mow it. My struggling kalanchoe and some rooted sanseveria leaves complete my attempt to bring life to that dead area. I will see what happens.

Gardeners are such fools.

P.S. My eggplant has set fruit.