New Bed Plantings

Last weekend, Central Texas had a major cold front come in causing our temperatures to go from the high 90's down to a high of 66 on Saturday and a high of 75 on Sunday.  Perfect gardening weather.  And having just completed my new garden beds, I had a lot of planting to do!  Well, first a lot of plant shopping, and then a lot of planting.  The Natural Gardener, Round Rock Garden Center, and McIntire's Garden Center were some of the local nurseries that got plenty of business from me last weekend!  It was a very successful gardening weekend in my book - getting over 80 new plants in the beds!

Let's start the tour with the front fence bed.

Since this bed is outside the fenceline, it requires deer-resistant varieties.  I wanted to stick to mostly native, or at least drought-tolerant plants.  In the front bed, I ended up with:

• 2 Blackfoot Daisies - Melampodium leucanthum
• 1 Thryallis - Galphimia glauca
• 2 Blue Plumbago - Plumbago auriculata
• 1 Coral Honeysuckle - Lonicera sempervirens
• 3 Purple Fountain Grass 'Rubrum' - Pennisetum setaceum
• 1 Mystic Spires Blue Salvia - Salvia longispicata x farinacea
• 1 Copper Canyon Daisy - Tagetes lemmonnii
• 1 Black Knight Butterfly Bush - Buddleja davidii

I know that the purple fountaingrass are pretty cold-sensitive, so I have to treat them as annuals and not expect them to come back next year, but that won't keep me from trying.  I'll plan to give them ample mulch this fall to try to combat the below-freezing temperatures this winter.  I have a little space open yet for a couple more plants.  I'm really hoping to get some apricot globemallow in there, but couldn't find it at any of the nurseries I went to last weekend, so the spot stays open, for now.

Moving onto the center or peach tree garden beds (they surround my Florida Prince peach):

I haven't planted too much in these beds yet, as I plan to do a lot of seed-sowing of perennials or self-seeding annuals in these beds.  But, I had to get started with a few plants, so in Bed #1 (closest) I planted:

• 2 Gregg's Blue Mistflower - Conoclinium greggii
• 2 Butterfly Weed - Asclepias tuberosa
• 2 Fall Aster - Aster oblongifolius
• 1 Purple Coneflower - Echinacea purpurea

In Bed #2 I planted:

• 3 Fall Aster - Aster oblongifolius
• 2 Tropical Milkweed - Asclepias curassivica
• 4 Purple Coneflower -  Echinacea purpurea
• 1 Artic Frost Hardy Satsuma fruit tree - Citrus reticulata 'Gremoy79'

Center peach bed #3 remains open and waiting for some fall-sowing seeds.

Along the neighbor fence line bed, I haven't planted much, as I'm waiting to purchase some specific antique roses.  

So far, I've planted:

• 1 Duranta 'Sapphire Showers' - Duranta erecta
• 1 Belinda's Dream rose 
• 2 Gardenia - Rubiaceae
• 1 Garnet Sash Pomegranate

The deck bed will mainly be an herb bed, but I'll throw some flower seeds in for some pop of color.

In the herb bed, I've planted:

• 2 French Thyme - Thymus vulgaris
• 1 Lemon Balm - Melissa officinalis
• 1 Garden Sage - Salvia officinalis
• 1 Italian Parsley - Petroselinum crispum
• 1 Triple Curled Parsley - Petroselium hortensis
• 1 Bouquet Dill - Anethum graveolens
• 1 Fernleaf Dill - Anethum graveolens
• 1 Garlic Chive - Allium tuberosum
• 2 Onion Chive - Allium schoenoprasum
• 1 Peppermint - Mentha Piperita
• 1 Spearmint - Mentha Spicata
• 2 Tavor Artichoke - Cynara scolymus
• 2 Society Garlic - Tulbaghia violacea

Finally, onto the shade tree bed, which got most of the planting:

Eventually, there will be a hammock that will be tied between the two trees.  I'm looking forward to spending afternoons under the shade trees, admiring all the wonderful plants that surround me.  So far, I've planted:

• 6 Red Turk's Cap - Malvaviscus arboreus
• 3 Pam's Pink Turk's Cap - Malvaviscus x 'Pam Puryear'
• 1 Shrimp Plant - Justicia brandegeeana
• 3 'Big Blue' Lithrope - Lithrope muscari
• 3 Hostas hybrids
• 5 Pigeonberry - Rivina humilis
• 1 Purple Heart - Setcreasea pallida
• 5 Texas Gold Columbine - Aquilegia chrysantha hinkleyana
• 1 Red Columbine - Aquilegia canadensis
• 2 American Beautyberries - Callicarpa americana

That's all - for now!

More Rain and Today's Harvest

It has been about seven straight days of rain here in Central Texas, and the garden is loving it - not to mention all the wildlife around here that is enjoying the wet weather and break from the Texas heat.  It has rained so much that there is now a pond in the park behind our house!  It is actually a retention pond for instances such as this, but most of the year it is completely dry.

The wet weather has really been making the garden grow.  Today I harvested a large bunch of basil that I have growing next to my tomatoes.  I cut the basil back, but left enough of the stems so that it will grow back and I can harvest it again in a couple of weeks.  Now is time to make a little pesto to put in pastas and on chicken sandwiches. 

I also pulled one radish from the garden today.  It looked picture perfect, but wasn't the best tasting in my opinion.  It was definitely fresh enough, just too-radishy.  I think I had them in the garden a little too long, so they got overwhelmingly flavorful.  I also planted radish during the Texas summer, which is not the suggested season for them.  They prefer the cooler spring and fall months.  I think the heat made them extra potent and a bit too much for me.  I'll be planting radishes only in the spring and fall now.

I was able to plant some seeds indoors on my new grow shelves as well.  Yesterday I planted:

• Fruit/Veggies
• Eggplant - Early Long Purple (Martha Stuart Organic)
• Eggplant - Black Beauty (Ferry-Morse)
• Watermelon - Tasty Sweet (Burpee)
• Pablano Pepper (Ferry-Morse)
• Pepper - California Wonder 300 TMR (Ferry-Morse)
• Tomato - Supersweet 100 VF Hybrid (Ferry-Morse)
• Swiss Chard - Fordhook Giant (Burpee)
• Swiss Chard - Ruby Red (Burpee)
• Herbs
• Sweet Basil (Burpee)
• Spanish Cilantro (Burpee)
• Flowers
• Marigold - Best Mix (Burpee)
• Morning Glory - Tall Mix (Burpee)
• Lupine - Russell's Hybrid Mixed Colors (Ferry-Morse)
• Painted Daisy - Giant Mixed Colors (Burpee)

Note - I soaked the morning glory and lupine seeds for about 18 hours before planting to soften the hard seed shells to hasten germination.