Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!  This is my favorite garden flag for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Hope you ave a great day!

Rose Rosette Conference

Incredible turnout for Rose Rosette Management Conference at TAMU Dallas this morning.  Nearly 500 people from municipalities, landscape and horticulture industry here today. 

Rose Rosette Disease is affecting all roses in North Texas. Here is an article from the Dallas Morning News.  and another article at HGTV

 This is what Rose Rosette Disease looks like.

You can read more about it at the Collin County Rose Society website or watch this video on You Tube of the presentations.  

Fall Color

Our temperatures have been really mild lately and my front garden is blooming beautifully.  We don't have many trees that change colors but my flowers are looking good.  Here are a couple of snapshots from the morning   These are all primarily drought tolerant & native plants that have only been watered a few times ALL YEAR. They are thriving in mild temps.  I love gardening! 

Summer Gardening

Here are a few pictures taken around our garden this morning.

All of these plants are mostly drought tolerant and require very little water.  About 95% of the time I water them with water collected with our rain barrels. I can't believe everything has stayed so green during the summer.  Thanks for stopping by!

Front Flower Bed Progress

Here is my front flower bed five weeks after this post and the original picture at the bottom.  The daffodils are done blooming and I am patiently waiting for the leaves to turn brown. 


I think it's coming along nicely...  Thanks for stopping by.

Dutch Iris

These are Dutch Iris I planted in 2012 on the south side of the house. 

Somehow, I don't really remember the blooms from the last couple of years.  I know I planted more than a dozen but this is what has come up so far and I am excited. 

Bird Nest

This is our front door wreath and we've just discovered a bird is nesting.  I've heard this is good luck, I am excited! 

Front Flower Bed Project

I've had a plan to expand our front yard flower bed for several years.  Finally this year I started.  This is progress over the last four months... from January, to February, to March and finally April 1st. 

While I really wanted to dig up everything and start over, I just don't have the time or want to make the expense so I decided to just add to the existing L shaped bed.

January: I outlined the fill in shape and started looking into removing all that grass from the roots.  The weather here has been so unpredictable that the good weekends I was busy and the weekends I had time for this the weather was horrible. 

February: I hired a landscape guy to start, he came and removed all the grass for me.  I thought I could take it from there.  It was bitterly cold that day.  Later on that month, I discovered a bag with about ten different varieties of daffodils I had not planted.  So in a moment of desperation, I planted them in the bed on Feb 22 because I had no where to put them.

March: I planted a few perennials in between the bulbs and decided I really wanted a stone border.  I also trimmed back the roses in the original L flower bed, removed 2 of 7 bushes and removed a lot of the "Mondo Grass"-- that had taken over the bed-- what a pain in the backside.  I've decided not to ever plant the stuff again. 

April:  On the 1st, I had my landscape guy come back and add the stone around the edge.  We also added a half yard of compost to amend the soil.  Now it's starting to look like something.  You'll be seeing lots of progress in the coming months...

Finally Certified

If you read my blog, you know I love Natuve Texas Gardening.  In 2012, I started the Mastr Gardener process.  We did 65 hours of instruction and then another 65 hours of volunteer training.  I completed my training in the fall but our December class graduation was canceled because of a severe ice storm.  Last week was our official make up graduation event and I finally got my badge. I am so excited!!!

Hope you are gaving a great week. 

Looks like Autumn

Our region of Texas is in a severe drought.  All the recent rain has our grass green again. We haven't watered since mid August.   Looking forward to more color in the coming weeks.

Autumn at the Dallas Arboretum

Are you ready for some eye candy?  Friday I had a fun work meeting.  The location was the Dallas Arboretum (poor me).    While there I got a behind the scenes tour  and a look at the incredible Autumn display and the new Children's Adventure Garden!  I have been to the Arboretum many times but never during the fall so this was a special treat for me.

The Autumn display has more than 50,000 pumpkins, gourds and squash!  It runs through November 27.  You can visit the Dallas Arboretum website for more information. 

Here are a few pictures I took with my phone (they don't do the place justice, but you'll get the idea).

Isn't that incredible!  I'll share pictures of the Children's Adventure Garden in the next few days.  Hope you are having a great Monday!

My Spring Garden

It's begining to look alot like Spring in my garden.  Many of perrineals are on their way back and starting to bloom!  Here are a few of my favorite snapshots taken this weekend. 

Snapdragons next to the birdbath.  These are on their third year coming back...love them!

More Snapdragons, a mum on the left and Agusta Duelberg Salvia in the background.  Love this little birdhouse I have sitting on a stump.

These are my Knock Out Roses in the front of the house.  These are on their third fourth year and doing great.  Back in February I prunned them down to about 2 feet and they came back stronger than ever!

I love this garden flag with artwork from Mary Engelbreit.  "The Goal of Life: Living in Agreement with Nature".  Love that quote and Mary's artwork.

 Our little recycled metal dachshund sits on this tree stump slice I found on the side of the road about three years ago.  Husband thought I was crazy when I made him pull over to grab three (really wanted to grab them all).  We were about 200 miles away from home... 

 My attempt at "thrill, fill and spill" in a flower pot in our front porch.  Zinnias, lantana, verbina and monkey grass all in one pot.    Love my God Answers Prayers stake.

Well, that's my little mini tour for now.  I'll be posting more pictures as more things bloom.  Hope you are having a great day! 

Daffodils Mt.Pleasant, Texas

On the way home over the weekend,  we took a detour through Mt. Pleasant, Texas to stop at the Kridler Farm to look at more daffodils.

Yes, I am nuts about daffodils and since the blooming season is short I have to see as many as I can while I can.  LOL

Here are the three of us standing in the middle of Keith's "side yard".  Isn't this amazing?  So beautiful, lucious and green! 

 Keith Kridler is someone I met through the Texas Daffodil Society a few years ago.  He is an authority in the US on Daffodils and a Texas Master Gardener. I had him speak at my Daffodil seminar for the city back in January.

He has more than 1000 varieties and about a million bulbs in the ground! 

While we walked around, Keith would pick a flower and rattle off the name like it was his ABC's.  I wish I could remember all the names but these were some of the ones I was fast enough to snap a picture of.

 

It's a total of 20 acres and we only saw the front. AMAZING!!! 

Hope you are having a great week!

Dallas Blooms

Good Morning,

The Texas Daffodil Show happened over the weekend at the Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Garden.  While there I snapped a few pictures of the gorgeous gardens.

Dallas Blooms runs March 2 to April 7.  More info here. 

Snow Today

We woke up to about four inches of snow this morning.  Unfortunately it really wasn't enough to cancel or postpone start time at school or work.  We didn't even have time to play in it before sending Micaela off to school and us heading off to work.

Here are a couple snapshots of my daffodil pots.

I got this new plant stand for my birthday last week and I am so excited, I had been wanting one for a while.  Can't wait for my daffodils to bloom.  

Hope you are staying warm today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Daffodils 2013

If you have read my blog the last couple of years, you know that I am "into" growing daffodils.  It's a fairly new hobby that I started in 2010 when I started a program centered around daffodils at the city.

The week of Christmas when I was surfing the internet, I spotted some daffodils on sale at an online store and could not resist buying a few more bulbs.  I have never purchased bulbs online so we will see how this goes.  I got the bulbs last week and I finally got around to planting them yesterday because it had been really cold and wet outside.

For now our patio table is serving as kind of a plant stand. I have all of the varieties labeled with plastic spoons and spreaders that I save from fast food purchases (you know I am into reusing stuff).  The pots in the back are 10" and the pots in the second row are 8".   Be assured I will post pictures of their progress in the weeks to come.  (I tend to watch them like a hawk...lol).  Thanks for stopping by! 

Dallas Arboretum Chihuly Exhibit

My parents and aunt & unlce were in town this week.  I took them to the Dallas Arboretum Chihuly Exhibit.  It was incredible. 

 

It was a cold and overcast day but here are a few of my favorite pictures.  Average age of these folks is 75, I hope I am that active when I am thier age, here they are in front of this incredible sculpture. 

 

This is my favorite picture because it looks like it's one continuous body of water but it's not. 

 

Two of my favorite three ladies in the world, my Mom and my Tia Lala.

 

A little more about the artist: 

Artist Dale Chihuly creates free-standing sculptures, large-scale artwork installations and drawings, which have been exhibited at museums, gardens, architectural environments and galleries throughout the world. Ninety-seven exhibitions in seven countries have presented Chihuly artworks during the last decade, which have been enjoyed by more than 10 million visitors.

Master Gardener

Hallelujah!  I am done with my Master Gardener classroom training.  WooHoo!

This was a long twelve weeks of homework and quizzes but final exam and graduation was last week and I was so busy I forgot to post about it.  I am now officially an intern.  Now I have another 65 hours to do in volunteer work before I am certified but somehow that seems easier than all that classroom training! 

I have learned so much!  I am dying to get in the yard and start working.  I have so much I want to do!   I am also looking forward to sharing much of what I have learned in the green seminars I host in the community for work!   Thanks for letting me share and thanks for stopping by!

Daffodil Bag

If you read my blog, you know I am into Daffodils.  Last month I made a bag to carry all my stuff to the Texas Daffodil Show at the Dallas Arboretum.  This is the bag.

I started by purchasing the daffodil design from Embroidery Boutique more than a year ago.  (that's how long I have been thinking about making this bag).  Then I purchased about 12 different fabrics in yellow and green.  I wanted a patchwork look, my inspiration was a bag made from a jelly roll (2.5 inch strips of fabric).  I pieced all the fabrics together and made up the bag as I went along.   I top stitched the strips with a decorative stitch and alternated yellow and green thread. I appliqued a free hand circle I cut from a lid (honest) with the daffodil applique on it and then top stitched it to the bag.    I lined the inside with one of the yellow fabrics, added a ruffle at the top, a velcro closure, and long strap so I could carry it criss cross.  Ta Da.   

Thanks for stopping by! 

Butterflies & Bees in our Backyard

Went outside to pull weeds and water this morning (I took a day off from work). Discovered the Augusta Duelberg plant was covered in bees and butterflies. I quickly ran in the house to get the camera, these are a few of my snapshots. I could have taken pictures for hours, the bees and butterflies just kept posing for me...

I am enjoying my day away from the office.  Thanks for stopping by!