Thursday, May 14, 2009

Lantana

So I need recommendations on how to transplant plants. More specifically what I need to do to prep for digging up the plant and then moving it to a new place in the yard. See, this is my problem:I think I can probably get through the summer having it here, but after the summer it needs to be moved to a different part of the yard.

So I guess my questions really come down to:
1. Should I move it now, or wait until after the summer?
2. What do I need to do to prep it for moving (cut back, water well, etc)?
3. And I'm also going to assume that I ought to just move it directly to where I want it to be as opposed to putting it in a pot and then transplanting it later...

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Mystery Flowers

Mystery Flower #1 has turned out to be a sunflower of some sort:
Mystery Flower #2 is a Lantana plant. It has yellow flowers, and I think it didn't get enough water before they started falling off, but I think it's the Texas variety. Also, this picture is so close up because I was trying to take photos in the wind. Stupid wind. The best part about this plant is that we don't have a Texas Lantana in our yard. I've planted the purple trailing, the red Dallas, and some white variety.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Solanaceae Garden Update

Why plant a selection of plants in your garden when you can plant everything in the same family thus guaranteeing that if you have a problem with one plant, you'll have the same problem with all the plants?

Anyhow, I went out yesterday evening and noticed that there are spider mites. I've never had spider mites before. So I will start preventative measures tomorrow morning. These preventative measures are also called "strong spray of water from underneath the leaves", thus the reason for doing it tomorrow morning instead of tonight.

Also, I noticed a few leaves that were yellowing in what is possibly a spotted fashion. It may be early blight. I'm not sure. I dealt with the problem last night by pinching off the affected leaves. I will likely prune the tomato plants tomorrow morning to increase air flow. Of course I will end with the affected plant so as to minimize the transfer to another plant via clippers. Furthermore, the savior of the garden during the hail storms has now become its worst enemy (the fence prevented the golf ball sized hail from damaging the heirloom tomato plants, but it now also serves as a windbreak thus reducing airflow).

Oddly there are still no tomato hornworms. Though I think they're coming since I saw a moth fly away from the plants last night.

The one pepper plant still has aphids.

I did get 2 cayenne peppers off the pepper plant out front. And the Thai chilies surprised me by coming back from the ground this year...If they survive the summer, I'm hoping they'll give some fall peppers.

And now the before and after pictures:

Before (about a week or so after planting...a few days after the hail, thus the craptacular looking plants in the front):



Now-ish (about 2 weeks ago...So that gives about 3 weeks between pictures. Front Row from left to right: Eggplant, BHN tomato, Corno De Toro Pepper, Roma tomato. Back Row from left to right: Rococo Pepper, Black Krim tomato, Brandywine tomato, Viva Italia tomato):


We planted the tomatoes in the "organic gardeners of Austin" style; that is, we planted them as deep as possible, of course the only one that was small enough to actually somewhat adhere to the "all but the top leaves" rule was the Krim. And it has probably had the best growth there for a while. It's definitely the most robust of the tomatoes in any case.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Bloomin' Plants


Orange Bulbine (plant graciously given by an anonymous garden blogger).












Coral Honeysuckle blooms. This was the only plant I bought at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Plant Sale. I'm guessing that since it bloomed it means it's doing well.






(next post will be about the mystery plants that finally bloomed. And the post after that will be soliciting advice for transplanting one of the mystery plants. And the one after that will be about more plants blooming...who knows...maybe that one will actually coincide with a Bloom Day for once).

(Also, this is what happens when I can't read all my normal blogs during lunch at work--my blogging suffers because I have to spend the time after I'm home reading blogs instead of writing them.)

Austin Garden Bloggers Get Together


I attended the Austin Garden Bloggers Get Together last weekend. (also, does any one find it funny that Blogger.com says that Blogger isn't a word?) I showed up late at Jill's house as I left my house a little late (what do you mean I can't make a land-speed record and make it to downtown in 5 minutes?), and so I'm sure I missed introductions and what have you. After hanging out in Jill's yard for a while, we went on a walking tour of the immediate neighborhood, and it was during this tour that I found out just how large artichoke plants are AND how large pomegranate trees can get. Discovering this kinda actually sucks because I wanted to plant a pomegranate in the front yard but it's a bit big for the place where I wanted to put it.












After our walking tour it was off to Jenny's house to see her gardens...and quite honestly, if she'd let me I'd just take out of town guests there rather than the wildflower center. And she makes it seem so easy to have a gorgeous garden. After the explanation of how everything was done (the rockscaping part), we had snacks (courtesy of everyone) and a little raffle (courtesy of Pam). Jenny's husband, David, won the first raffle and I don't remember who won the second (Vertie maybe?), And as Pam points out in the comments, MSS won one of the raffles (and actually there were three raffles--two for books, one for a magazine). After more food and conversation, Diana recommended that because the weather was starting to turn stormy that maybe the plant swap should commence. So we all trouped around the yard to the driveway. Since I didn't bring anything to swap, I pretty much stood back and only accepted seeds that were offered (I don't know why but when people want to get rid of plants, I view it as a big money commitment from them whereas seeds are more like "I have this, but I don't want it, please take it"...which of course is only funny because all the plants are dug up from yards and the plant swap is really more like saving a plant from a compost heap). Sue and I got involved with talking about work (we both work with government entities...she for the environmental side and me not so much), and when we noticed everyone else heading off to our cars, we opted to as well. That's when Jenny asked if either of us wanted the bulbine plants sitting on the driveway. Since everyone else was leaving, Sue and I split the plants and then headed for our cars. I don't remember any one presenting/talking about the orange bulbine (I do remember someone talking about the yellow bulbine which was snapped up). So, to whichever of you garden bloggers brought the orange bulbine, thanks so much! I already planted it out in the front yard, hopefully it actually does well where I planted it. (also, please tell me if I linked to anyone incorrectly!)

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Squirrels!

Yesterday evening, I took a picture of my strawberries that were going to be ready to pick today. So today, I came home right after work and went straight to the strawberries. Only to find that they had been eaten. Eaten by squirrels I assume (based off of the nice bite marks). Those stupid animals ate only the red ones.

Coming soon: pictures from the Austin Garden Bloggers' Get Together.

Rain

We've gotten about 2" at the house, probably a little less, over the last week or so. The plants are loving it. Almost as much as the lawn.