One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Dear friends,

Yesterday I had great plans to spend the day in the garden planting some new daylily bulbs, dividing the comfrey, yarrow and oregano to transplant to the sides of the house where there is (HORRORS!) bare dirt from when we cut all the evil nandinas back to paint the house.

So, I walked outside and saw a literal cloud of insects hovering over one of my new pepper plants, an experiment in growing things right beside an herb bed in the backyard. Last week, I had identified the culprit--the four-lined plant bug. I saw a few of these last year, but they disappeared (I thought) so I forgot about them. They re-emerged last week on some of my salvias, the comfrey, my oregano and skullcap. I jetted them with water and thought the problem was taken care of.

NOPE! I think they just enjoyed the spring shower. Girding my loins and with the knowledge that I'd have to do something more drastic before they reached my baby Porter tomatoes (next door in the bed to the comfrey), I proceeded to demolish the little buggers. Or carpe Poecilocapsus lineatus, as the Latins say.

I got some great advice on dealing with them from my online gardenistas and Howard Garrett's website and Garden Gate magazine.

http://www.gardengatenotes.com/2010/02/09/four-lined-plant-bug/

And a pic, from Fine Gardening magazine:

Turns out, there are about a bijillion bugs similar to this. They leave brown fungal-spot like marks on leaves so you might think you have some sort of fungus going on. Look underneath the leaves and you might see the insects, quickly scurrying to hide.

Using what I had on-hand, and always the organic approach, I mixed some orange oil, molasses and dish-soap in a spray bottle and got busy. I could tell that the little darlings didn't like the spray. I just hope it either kills them to sends them packing onto the neighbor's Bermude grass lawn.

It's always something when you're trying to tend a garden. I've been doing a lot of thinking about garden size, when it's time to downsize and make things easier to maintain and enjoy. As Husband says, I've reached the tipping point. More about that later!

Go plant something! And don't forget to smell the roses. . .

bobbi c.

Happy Spring, Everyone!

Dear friends,

It might not feel like spring in some parts of the country, but rest assured that it's on the way. My irises say so. Forgive the slightly blurry photo; it's starting to rain here AGAIN.

Copyright Bobbi A. Chukran/Earthly Gardener ©2015

IMHO, nothing says "cottage garden" more than purple irises. I also have white ones, including some that an older lady in town gave me a few years back, and a few that I recently "gathered" from an old family cemetery near here. I don't think the residents will mind. :-)

Also blooming are the grape hyacinths and the coral honeysuckle.

For those of you who are into bees and gardens (well, yeah), here's a new "Nameless, Texas" short story I just posted on my writing blog--"Miss Essie and the Green-Glittered Tiara." Enjoy!

http://bit.ly/1FdzKZA

Happy blooming,

bobbi c.

New pergola, new garden bed, bloomin' crepe myrtles!

Dear friends,

I've been waiting to post pics until Mr. Husband finished our current project--a lattice-covered pergola to go over the concrete slab that was left behind when we tore down the old greenhouse that was attached to the garage.

In a previous blog post, I wrote about how we built a little fence/plant support grid at the end of it. 

We do have one large old pecan tree there, but during the late morning, it was too sunny and hot to sit out there.  Rudy loves to sit out there playing his guitar, and I needed a place to rest in the shade while gardening, so we wanted something simple that would help shade that spot.

After some head scratchin' and sketchin', he came up with this.  Here's the first "in progress" photo, with the four posts.

 One thing you can't see in the photos is the lattice that covers the top.  (I'll try to get some pics of that later.) The lattice is painted in my signature "cloud design" with mottled white, fuschia and blue.  You can barely see the ceiling fan in the center.  That was my idea to add it, and it really helps keep the skeeters away, too.  Another of my ideas was to add an electric outlet near the top so I can plug in little fairy lights, or Christmas lights.  Woohoo!

 

Today we're shopping for some interesting "thingies" to go on the top of the four posts, finials of some type.  We thought about adding solar lights, but they do require maintenance and I want something colorful.  We'll see what I can find.

 While I was outside in the searing heat, I took some random shots.  This is the view from my back porch, looking to the right.  The pergola is directly to the left of this area.  That's one of our many crepe myrtles, blooming like mad.

 

And here are the others.  It seems that former residents planted one of each color, including the illusive watermelon red.  I expect that some of the older stumps I've found were from white ones.  I love crepe myrtles.  Although they aren't Texas natives, they act like natives, and once established, don't have to be watered, and are gorgeous.  My kinda plant!  Because of all the electric lines, cable lines, metal grids in the garden, this photo always looks messy to me.  This side yard is where we grow all our veggie, for now.

But not for long!  I just added another of my "So Simple it's Stupid" garden beds underneath the pecan tree on the other side, right by the new pergola. This one will have greens and other things that love the dappled shade.  It's made of simple inexpensive cedar fence pickets (that I recycled from the former house), and large metal spikes I find at the hardware stores.  I'm slowly building up the soil in this one, and another new one on the other side.  I'm digging kitchen scraps directly into the beds.  In this heat, they break down quickly.  Then I'll top them up with compost that we've made here.  Since there is native soil under there, although hard-packed, I won't have to add any soil brought in from other places.

And there's Mister Husband, admiring his handiwork!

Happy trails, and stay cool, y'all!  It's H.O.T. out there!

bobbi c.
http://bobbichukran.com
Author, gardener, cat herder

A New Pledge of Allegiance--to the Earth

I saw this floating around various places the other day, and thought it appropriate for the blog.

"I pledge allegiance to the Earth and all the LIFE which it supports.  

One Planet, in our care, 

irreplaceable,
with sustenance and respect
for all."

Works for  me!

Go plant a tree!

Happy trails,

bobbi c.

And the walls came tumbling down....

Dear friends,

I've mentioned in my last post how my greenhouse shed, one of the reasons I wanted to buy this property, was found to have termites and the front wall had rotted because of a leaky roof.

Since then, Husband Rudy has been methodically taking the whole thing down--a little at a time.  Luckily, the weather finally cooperated and the last few days have been really nice.

In this photo, you can see some of the original antique pine ship-lap siding that we discovered underneath the vinyl.  We removed it carefully and will be using it to build another shed or small greenhouse.  The roof has been torn off, the windows and insulation removed and most of the walls are gone.  The side wall of the garage emerges, along with one of the original windows.

In general, we saved every scrap of wood that we could.  Even after that, there's still a huge pile that we have to send to the landfill.  Something I am NOT happy about.

A few days later, after some wonderful rain, the rest of it's down.  Did I mention that de-constructing a building makes a huge mess?

A large raised concrete slab is left.  There's room for potted plants, a set of patio furniture, and maybe a tiny shed.  And the ancient pecan has more room to breathe now, too.  One surprise is how much noise that little building blocked from the surrounding streets.  I have renamed Taylor as "The Noisiest Little Town in Texas".  Who knew?

It's very obvious to us, after sitting on the patio for a few minutes, that we need to get busy designing a trellis, some more fencing, and perhaps some lattice work of some kind.  I do write plays, but the last thing I want in my garden is a public theatre. :-D

 

Elsewhere, in the garden, my plants are very happy with the recent rain.  So are the snails.  Sigh.  And this one-year old garden may not be pretty in spots, but we're already growing some food and building up the formerly abused soil.

You'll notice the old awning leaning against the garden bed.  It makes some GREAT shade for tomato roots.  And the clothesline pole makes a nice, sturdy structure to attach a piece of cattle panel to--cattle panel is great for climbing beans.

It's coming together, slowly, but surely.

Happy trails!

bobbi c.

More garden inspiration...

An oldie-but-goodie from waaaay back in 2007.....

More Garden Inspiration...

A brass sundial sits on an old cedar tree stump in my former courtyard garden

The theme today is “garden as inspiration.” How does your garden inspire you? While flipping through some photos we took last year in my garden, I ran across this arty shot of my sundial. It sits on an old dead cedar stump and is one of the first things you see when you walk into my front garden gate.

Of course, being silly, I want to plant “thyme” underneath it, or perhaps “four-o-clock” flowers. It could be the beginning of a whole theme garden based on the word “time”. 

Since I'm really into storytelling, can you write a story using your garden as the setting, and "time" as the subject?  Why not try it?  Nobody's giving grades here!  LOL.

A galvanized pan sitting on a rock makes a simple, inexpensive birdbath

 I love garden ornaments, and have several. Birdbaths, sundials, gazing balls, little gargoyle guys, even a few gnomes, a “Welcome to my Garden” sign that a neighbor/friend gave me, and a great aged-looking cement rabbit with really long ears. Plants are definitely the reason for the garden, but the ornaments add to its inspiration.

How does your garden inspire you? Come on, I wanna know!

Happy trails from my Texas garden......

bobbi c.