Thu, 08 Jan 2009
Pink Skullcap
January is the time to trim your pink skullcaps. They can be really tricky to prune. Typically you should prune them after they bloom, but sometimes it is hard to tell if they are done blooming. And it is also hard to tell how to prune them. I belive that prunung off the top 2/3rds of the entire plant after each bloom cycle keeps them healthy, vigorous and beautiful. This may seem like radical surgery, but you will notice in January that new dark green growth is trying to emerge from the center of the plant, and the old growth and dead flowers need to be removed to give enough light to the new growth. If you don't trim them, the plants tend to lay flat on the ground and look very bare in the center and will only have green leaves on the tips of the branches. To prune them, I grab small groups of branches in my left hand and use my hand pruners to chop off the top 2/3rds. Then I will also remove all dead branches. Skullcaps have very brittle branches that break easily, so it is common to find broken and dead branches on them. Skullcap usually blooms in the spring and you can prune them again then. If you want the plants to get bigger you can skip the spring pruning but try not to skip the January pruning.
posted at: 17:50 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Wed, 07 Jan 2009
Happy New Year!
I made a new years’ resolution to blog more often. So, here I am. This is my favorite time of year to garden in Austin. The weather is nice (it was 75 today, sorry to those of you in the great white North), and the gardening tasks tend to be fun and easy. I have been cleaning up perennials that died back in the freezing weather we had recently. Today, Rebekah, my gardening partner every Wednesday, and I worked at our regular Wednesday place, a beautiful property in west Austin where I have worked for several years now. The landscape has matured beautifully, and I feel very proud of it. Today we cut back some Salvia farinacea ‘Indigo Spires’, also known just as ‘Indigo Spires’. I’ve mentioned this plant a few times in Growing Pleasures articles, but I wanted to go into more detail here about it.
Indigo Spires is one of my favorite plants. I cut it back either in late fall or winter, after the first freeze. It is usually easy to cut back in the winter because the tall stems that had the flowers on them start to die, and new growth comes up from the center of the plant at ground level. This divide between new growth and dying stems makes it easy to figure out where and how to prune it. Cut the dead stalks as close to ground level as you can without cutting off or damaging the new growth.
It’s normal to see black, brown or purple spots on the new leaves, particularly on the edges of the leaves, in the winter due to cold weather and wind. The new leaves grow in the winter and early spring and are very tender, and they are easily damaged during cold or windy weather. The plant doesn’t need any protection against this damage, and it should recover easily in the spring.
You can expect Indigo Spires grow about three feet tall and bloom in May or June, depending on the weather. The flowers attract many honey bees, which are wonderful in the garden, but make sure you wear gloves and use caution when working with the plants when they have bees on them.
You can also expect the plant to become very floppy and weird looking after it has been blooming for a couple weeks. The flowers get longer and longer and make the plant top heavy so the stems tend to droop a lot or lay on the ground. After the flowers have bloomed for awhile they also can start to look kind of gray in color. When they start looking this way I cut the entire plant back by ½, usually in late may or early June. This removes the ugly spent blossoms and forces the stems to branch, resulting in a much more dense, vigorous and robust plant in the summer and fall. Trim each stem back by 1/2, about ¼ inch above a pair of leaves.
Indigo Spires will bloom again in late August and September through October. During this time the plants might start to look a little ugly, wild or just worn out. This is a tricky time of the yar for perennials in Austin, and Indigo Spires is no exception. It is ok to cut off the ugly parts of the plant, but only if you want to. For example, you might just trim the spent flower heads off, or you could trim each stem back by ¼ or 1/3. But to ensure the health and long-term vigor of the plant, wait for a freeze before you do any major pruning on them.
posted at: 20:57 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Tue, 06 Jan 2009
My Advice Pays Off!
A few years ago I did a yard consultation for Trish, a mentor of my husband's in the rehtoric department at UT. I walked around with her and gave her advice about how to improve her yard to attract wildlife and how to improve the health of the trees she has. She and her family worked really hard to create a grogeous yard that recently became certified as a wildlife friendly landscape. They were even featured in the Ausitin American Statesman here: Austin Statesman .
I am so excited for them. Recently I got to see the yard myself during a party at her house. I felt so proud when Trish told me that they used my advice as a foundation for their beautification projects. The yard looks great!
posted at: 16:36 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Thu, 04 Dec 2008
Pond renovation
Yesturday Aubrey, one of my gardening buddies, and I renoavted a small pond for one of my customers. the pond was surrounded by flat stepping stones, but the stones did not cover up the ugly plastic liner that forms the base of the pond. We moved the stones so they cover the liner and we added more stones to make the overall pond area larger. We added three plants inside the pond: umbrella sedge (papyrus), hosetail rush (equisetum) and a small chartruse sedge that I can't remember the name of now. We took a big piece of limestone and placed that next to the pond and ran the pump hose through it, and made it into a little spring-like waterfall. It looks great! My back is sore from moving all those rocks, but the sound of the water falling off of the stone into the pond made it all worthwhile.
posted at: 18:05 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Wed, 26 Nov 2008
Texas Betony
There is a little native plant called Texas Betony. It is usually planted as a groundcover, but I want to tell other Austin gardeners not to treat it like a groundcover. It is in the salvia family, and should be treated more like a salvia than and groundcover. It will not get very large, and it will not cover much ground. It can grow in shady spots so I recommend it for narrow spaces between pavement or buildings, mixed in with other plants like sedges and columbines. It can't handle extreme shade but planted under a tree or on the north side of a building is appropriate. After the plant bears its salmony-red blooms, the flower stalks need to be cut back to the base of the pant so new growth can come out from the bottom, similar to other salvias like Black and Blue sage and Mexican Bush Sage. I am trimming some that have just bloomed in November. They all have healthy growth emerging from the base.
It's also important to keep leaves and other debris from piling up on top of these plants. They can get smothered and wil decline quilckly. This type of leaf build up is often the culprit when betony dies mysteriously.
posted at: 15:02 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Thu, 16 Oct 2008
Fall garden
I got some bad news last week about a friend who has cancer, so I decided to go to the garden center and get my winter veggie plants. It was rejuvenating to see all of the violas and pansies . I feel like they are old friends that I only get to see for a few months each year. I got lots of greens and brussles sprouts, and it made me feel good to look forward to eating healthier all winter. I also bought a variey of calendula called 'neon' that is new to me. Their flower buds were just about to bust open with bright colors. Then, it rained last night and the weather turned much cooler. Suddenly the whole garden is resurrected! I also hear that my friend is going to be ok.
posted at: 18:45 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Sun, 21 Sep 2008
Beware Hot Dirt!
I have a customer that I am doing a planting for. They had soil delivered to their house to put into raised beds. Another company put the soil into the beds, becaue their labor was less expensive than mine. When I arrived on the scene a few days later, the soil smelled bad like ammonia, had flies (biting ones, at that!)hovering over it and felt warm to the touch. I was dissapointed to see that this soil wasn't "finished", meaning the manuer that was mixed in with it was not decomposed enough, especially since I highly recommended the soil yard where they purchased the soil. I thought the soil would be finished enough in a few days to plant, so we waited a few days. Much to my horror, some of the plants died the day after we planted them. We planted sedums which just turned into goo. We planted a yaupon holly and it's leaves turned black the next day. Now the homeowners are struggling to get a partial refund for the soil. The soil has been in the beds for a few weeks and now it is ok to plant in it, so we haven't lost any additional plants. So, beware any soil mix that you buy that smells really bad or has flies. For the most part soil should be cooler than the air. Keep in mind that compost will always be a little hot, but soil should be cooler. I won't say the business where they bought the soil because I may have to do business with them later, and they carry certain products that I can't get anywhere else. I do know I won't by soil from them again. Plus, I have done business with them in the past with no problems.
posted at: 12:37 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Sun, 14 Sep 2008
Little Rain
Many of you may be wondering how I fared through Hurricane Gustav which ripped through Galveston and Houston on Friday. Well, nothing happened here in Austin. Lot of of people evacuating the coast came here and we are all glad to welcome them, and hopefully they will be able to return home sooner than later. We were expecting a great deal of rain all day yesturday but it never showed. But it did finally rain last night with no damage or much wind or anything. So that is good. We needed the rain very badly. The weather cooled off too, so now I can plant my fall garden with confidence. Here comes the kale!
posted at: 16:40 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Mon, 01 Sep 2008
Super Cool Bird Of Prey
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Eric and I walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner tonight and saw this awesome bird in the shopping center/office complex where the restaurant is. It was at Penn Field where Opal Divine's South location is. We saw the bird on the eastern end of the complex, for any bird watchers who live in Austin who may want to try to see it. I thought it might be a falcon but I am not sure because I read that they don't arrive in Texas until October. It was remarkably close to us! Lucky for all of us I had my camera on me! If you know what kind of bird this is please email the garden mavens via the "ask the garden mavens" page. It was the highlight of my day.
posted at: 00:09 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Sun, 24 Aug 2008
The Rain Event
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It finally rained this week. I think we probably had about three inches total at my house, but I am not sure. I need to get a rain gauge. I took a picture of some beautiful rain lilies. These little bulbs sprout and bloom a few days after it rains. When it's not raining they have grassy leaves and don't look like much. Rain lilies are cultivated but are also kind of wild and will reproduce and grow in big swaths. Some homes in central austin have huge groups of rain lilies growing in their front lawns that burst into bloom after a rain event. I know some women who own a landscaping company called Rain Lily to pay homage to an old Texas gardening favorite.
posted at: 16:09 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Sat, 16 Aug 2008
Olive Mystery
We ended up cutting off the top dead part of the olive tree to see how it will re-grow from the sprouts/suckers coming from the trunk. I put this picture on there to show you how there are tiny holes in the trunk which makes me think that borers are the culprit. I think the trunk got some cold damage last winter in a very late cold snap and this made it more susceptible to borers. It seems like the tree will be ok and maybe with some stategic pruning we can make it look beautiful. I read online about preventing borers on fruit trees and most solutions are chemical. I try to do everything organically, so I think I am going to try spraying these olive trees with oil or Bt once a month or so to try to cut them off since this is the second tree we've had with this type of damage. If anybody out there knows about this sort of thing please write to us!
posted at: 10:56 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Sun, 27 Jul 2008
Olive Trees
One of my customers has several large olive trees. The largest of the trees is suddenly loosing leaves at the top and is showing a weird swollen area on the trunk. I have started calling around to see what the trouble is, and no one seems to know for sure, but everyone agrees that the tree is a goner. I think it may be borers, tiny larvae of a certain kind of moth, but I don't know what kind. I think that the culprit is borers because there are tiny holes in the trunk where the swelling is. But I am not sure. It also has some black sooty mold growing around the swollen part. I think it may also be a fungal infection because of this but I think that might also be mold growing in the leaking sap. Anyway, it was suggested to me that we cut off the top of the tree and let it re-grow. This is a fairly common practice in Italy and Spain where olives are from. I will have to check with the homeowner about this because it will look really strange for awhile. Plus, the tree is not in the best place in that yard, there isn't really enough space for it where it is. By the way, this is the second olive tree that this household has lost this way... Mysteries!
posted at: 15:28 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Tue, 08 Jul 2008
Rain! Weevils!
We are finally getting a few good downpours here in austin, but not enough to get us out of drought status. But, all of my plants look clean and perky. I watched Central Texas Gardener this week on PBS. They talked about the agave snout weevil that is invading central texas. I have already lost several agaves and softleaf yuccas at two different customers' homes to these disgusting little creeps. The weevils carry a bacteria that kills and digests the plants so the weevil larve can eat the plants. The plants start to turn into putrid goo from the inside out. They did not recommend any organic fixes for these creatures on the show but I'll let you know if I hear of something organic.
posted at: 17:10 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Sun, 22 Jun 2008
Pepper Time!
It's about a million degerees here in Austin. Perfect weather for growing all kinds of peppers. This year I am growing a few different types, including hungarian sweet wax, hungarian hot wax and anaheim. I made the mistake of not labeling each plant. The fruits are kind of similar on all of the plants, and I am not sure which ones are hot or sweet. I think I may be in for some surprizes with my dinners this summer! Take a tip frome me- take the time to lable your veggie plants.
posted at: 18:05 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Sat, 31 May 2008
Big News
I got rear ended a little over a week ago. My back, neck and head are sore and tight, so there hasn't been much gardening for me. I'm sure some of you can relate. I am just trying to keep things watered in the record setting heat we're having. I'm getting lots of massage and acupuncture so I should be back in action soon.
posted at: 22:31 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Tue, 22 Apr 2008
Late Wildflowers
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It's starting to get hot and it's very humid. Pretty miserable- except that a new batch of wildflowers just started blooming including the white yarrow in my front yard. Just as the bluebonnets start to fade, yarrow, mexican hats and coreopsis step in to take over the show.
posted at: 16:25 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Mon, 21 Apr 2008
Gut Feeling Confirmed!
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So, my "biointensive" garden experiment went really well.
I planted greens, radishes and other smaller, fast growing early spring crops in my garden in the early spring. In mid spring I planted my tomatoes, peppers, basil and eggplants in the middle of all of the greens in areas where I harvested them. They are all happily coexisting and I really saved alot of space and got a good late-ish season harvest of greens. By the time I finish harvesting all of the greens the other plants will be big and will start shading them out. By the way, the cat in the picture is one of mine, his name is Remmy. I just sprayed the garden with fish emulsion so he was enjoying a tasty beverage of watery fish emulsion on the leaves of the plants. He's kind of gross, but I love him. However, today I found out that someone has been eating the ends of my strawberries and I suspect it is a rodent. Sounds like Remmy has been falling asleep on the job- which isn't unusual for a cat.
posted at: 18:35 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
A Garden Surprise
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There was a mystery plant in my new bed in the front of my house that appeared a week or two ago. I wasn't sure what it was but it looked desirable so I left it. Today from accross the yard this incredible bloom caught my eye. The picture does not do it justice. It is astonishingly shiny- it looks metalic. I did a crazy garden victory dance when I saw it up close. It's just a petunia, and I have no clue where it came from because I never grow petunias. Must have rode in on a plant from the nursery or something. Anyway, if any of you now what type of petunia this is please click on "contact" at the top of the page and email the garden mavens to let me know. It has unusally round leaves that are very fuzzy too. It is also much more erect than most petunias. There are more buds on it so it's getting ready to bloom more. It fits in great in my new garden bed that is full of white and purple.
posted at: 18:24 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Wed, 09 Apr 2008
Invasive Plants
Spring is well underway here in Austin. The wildflowers are putting on a good show and we had a little rain so the trees all have little bright green leaves on them. But the weeds are really going crazy. Running bamboo is taking over my backyard compost area, and most homeowners are battling stickyweed. Stickyweed is a little shade loving plant that is covered with little hairs that make it stick to your clothes. It grows a lot in spring and is dead before the summer heat sets in. We usually use a hoe and a rake to remove stickyweed, and corn gluten works well to prevent it from sprouting in the early spring. I will wait until the bamboo ends its growth spurt in May and cut it all down at one time.
posted at: 13:09 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Mon, 31 Mar 2008
'Tween Times
This March, I tried something different with my vegetable garden on the side of the house. I planted some cool weather crops early in March like carrots, beets, turnips and salag greens. It was late in the season to do that, sine mid March- early April is the time to plant summer crops like peppers, eggplants and tomatoes. But the pepper and tomato plants are so small when I first put them in, I thought I could just plant them in amongst the cool season crops and when the cool season plants are ready to harvest, the summer plants will grow into their spots. I'll let you know how it works out.
posted at: 13:32 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Mon, 25 Feb 2008
Radishes
This year in my particularly untidt winter garden I grew a few different varieties of radishes. I love butter and radish sandwiches so I always have a supply of the red roots during the winter. I grew 'cherry belle', 'white icicle' and 'french breakfast'. My garden was very weedy and infertile. The weather grew unseasonably warm recently, so some of the radishes began to bolt/flower. When radishes flower the roots can tunr woody or extremely spicy. For me, the 'french breakfast' variety was the best for competition with weeds and was slowest to bolt. It has a great flavor and looks pretty too. The other varieties did ok but this one stands out!
posted at: 13:51 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Sat, 09 Feb 2008
Intensive Planting Worked for Me
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You may have read awhile ago in my blog that this fall I hurriedly planted my fall vegetable garden in the dark one evening. I planted pole beans, broccili, cabbage, kale, radishes, turnips and collards. I did not prepare the soil at all! Well, a few lucky things happened. The beans produced really well and then I just left them and they died with the first freeze. All of the other plants did ok, depsite being planted really close together and never thinned and hardly ever watered. The leaves from an ash tree nearby fell into the veggie bed acting as a much needed mulch. What a nice surprize! And the weeds that grew are things that make a nice cover crop like clovers and ryegrass. Plus, the plants are so close together in an intensive style planting that not many weeds have room to grow anyway. I had a bad slug infestation, and they ate huge holes in the collard leaves but they left everything else alone. After awhile of seeing the collards devoured, I decided to treat the collards as a "trap crop", which means that the slugs and snails will eat them, but since the slugs and snails are so fat on collards they won't eat the other stuff. This garden is a testament to the true nature of a garden- SOMETHING will grow even if you don't look after it constantly. Today I harvested a bowl full of kale and radishes, and soon I will be harvesting broccili! MOral of the story- don't worry about the garden!
posted at: 20:00 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Sat, 12 Jan 2008
Strawberry Pot Idea
You may have read an article from me recently about planting a strawberry pot. My strawberry pot did ok, but I need to follow up with one thing: make sure all side of your pot get sun exposure. Some of my plants died because they were totally shaded on one side. But for the most part it still looks good. TOday I took some old spider plants aka airplane or mother plants, and planted them and their offspring in a smaller strawberry pot that I really love. They look great and their roots should be able to easily take hold in the pot sides. Plus they can all handle shade so I don't think I need to worry about some of them suffering from lack of sun. I recommend it!
posted at: 20:09 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Potted Garden Update
Over a year ago I blogged about my potted garden in front of my house. It was great because I put in in an area directly infront of our huge front windeow that gets hot western sun in the summer. It is also under the eaves of the house so it doesn't get any rain. Since we were renting the house I kept my favorite plants in pots. Also, a friend of mine moved overseas and left me a bunch of her houseplants. I loved the potted garden and its beauty and shade but I loathe the constant water the pots need in the summer and lately they all seem to need more fertilizer. Many of the plants are very cold sensitive and need to be moved or covered during a freeze. It is all very high maintenance. Since we bought the house I decided to dramatically dowsize the potted garden, keeping only my favorite pots and plants and either giving away or planting the others. Two citrus trees and some cacti are in the front uard with a 'free plants please take' sign on them. Truthfully, they all look horrible, but I hope someone else might like them. While moving some of the pots around today I broke one f my favorite pots into a million pieces. I was sad, but maybe I can find an even nicer one to replace it and all of the ugly plastic pots that I an getting rid of.
posted at: 20:03 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry
Front Yard Progress
Many avid GP readers will know that since September I have been in the process of overhauling my front yard. Noting too dramatic- just removing some old overgrown ugly shrubs and replacing them with perennials and other fun stuff. Well, it is starting to come together. I would post a picture but my camera has a dead battery. Maybe later. All of the plants I put in the new bed are leftovers and orphaned plants from my landscaping jobs. It is a big hodgepodge but I am pleased to say it looks good. Some of these plants have been in pots for a long time while my hubby and I were renting. Now that we bought the house it feels really good to sink them into the earth. I am also building a 'landing pad' along the street where I can stage debris for trash pick up day and so guests at our house will have a place to step onto when they get out of a car. I had plants in this area previously and it was confusing for folks getting out of cars. More info and pictures soon!
posted at: 19:52 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry