Good morning, gardeners! Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blog.
Schizophrenic Texas winter is happening in Dallas. Not much is green and nothing is blooming unless it is in the house.
- We went through a nasty patch of grey days, encountered freezing drizzle over New Year’s weekend with several mornings in a row of 15 degrees. More of the same this past week with little sunshine and lows varying from 20-46 degree nights/mornings.
- It rained all last Sunday afternoon/evening;
- Wednesday was a sunny 58 degrees with dense morning fog;
- Thursday morning’s low was 46 (high 62 but changed quickly when an afternoon cold front barreled in dropping temps rapidly) and strong 40mph gusty winds gave us a frigid wind chill of 20;
- A light dusting of rare snow in the western suburbs.
- Friday was a bit better with some afternoon sun.
Today’s low: 24 with wind chill at 13, high 40. Carbon copies of the weather for next week. Adding salt to the cold wound, snow is forecast in the city next Monday and Tuesday that will create a traffic nightmare. It’s just COLD — something we Texans are not used to at all. The best analogy I can think of is that I am like anolis carolinensis (green anole) — I love the sun and heat.
For those of you who are more accustomed to cold weather, imagine two weeks straight of 100 degrees without air conditioning in summer. Would you be hotter than h*ll? Then you might get an idea of how the reverse affects us creatures in Texas who are accustomed to high temps. Our houses are well insulated and have central heat/AC. Still, we’re all as cold as the proverbial well digger’s arse!
Absolutely no one is working outside. Very little sunlight. It’s depressing. Further reinforcement of my decision to depart from Chicago winters 35 years ago!
To pull myself out of this wintry blue funk, I decided to start Spring planning, and wow, there’s a lot to do. Pictures taken two days ago.
The garden has not recovered from the fence build in Nov. 2016. Iris corms that once happily bloomed on the alley side of the fence are now growing underneath it in the shade; volunteer turks cap has gone berserk in the front yard; the sweet olive tree (right side of photo) bloomed in November, not March; the aloe vera and blue agave mostly survived; the deck is a total mess with tools and pots; and virtually everything else needs to be cut back. Where to begin?
A CLEAN CANVAS
The first job will be cutting back and removing all the dead perennial plant material: penstemmon, mums, turks cap, canna lilies, flame acanthus, peonies, asters, day lilies, jewels of opar. And more than a few volunteer saplings. Then determine what improvement needs to be made to the soil.
The business stole all my free time last spring and early autumn; mulch was not put down. I try to justify this by thinking the long freeze will, at best, somehow harden the plant roots (iris and peonies at least) or eliminate some of the overgrowth and/or weeds.
Weeds are my next concern. Texas has an annual early spring blooming weed (sometimes as early as February 1) called henbit (Lamium amplexicaule — part of the mint family). It freely reseeds and also self pollinates. It LOVES my garden. Since it’s the earliest source for nectar and pollen for honeybees, I really don’t want to to weed it all out. On the other hand, it will overtake every inch of the yard if not controlled. How does one plan a controlled weed patch? One part soil, two parts water, three parts wishful thinking?
Then comes the construction project: an improved potting bench. One long length of counter height bench with one shelf above and one below; sink hooked up to the garden hose, draining to grass on other side of fence. Tall rubbermaid tool shed at narrower end.
Think I’ll use Trex decking materials for the top of bench and shelves, treated lumber for base. Need room to hold 40 years of accumulated earthenware flower pots and associated parafernalia.
Last and certainly not least: the solar panels need to be squeegee-d. All 56 of them are covered with half an inch of dust, dirt and bird doo (and soon snow). The recent rain turned most of it into mud. As a result, my solar electricity output is at it’s lowest in 12 months.
Hope springs eternal that my purse can withstand the onslaught of expenses, my body the onslaught of heavy work and all the jobs will be accomplished before the rainy Spring or the heat and humidity of June!
What’s going on in your garden and what are your plans for Spring?