New year...new post

There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself. ~Ruth Stout

This winter has been quite mild here in North Texas.  We need moisture badly.  It misted yesterday and rained some last  night.  Morning temperature is 51°.
 

Things are happening.  Maybe it is really Spring or maybe a blip in nature's grand design.
It was 72° yesterday, overcast most of the day and little wind.

While out in the wreck of a garden, I was aware of "something"...  I have been scanning the taller bare branches of Cottonwood and Desert Willow.... 

The reason?  I had a sad demonstration that the Cedar Waxwings are a little early.  I found a waxwing dead on my patio.  No idea how it happened.  Birds fly into our windows at times when it is overcast and "bright".  

I knew this lovely creature was a scout for migrating waxwings and worried that maybe they would not return this year.

Thus the feeling of "something".  I scanned the higher branches and watched dozens of waxwings settle gracefully on them.  I did finally realize I needed my camera!

 Don't forget to
click on picture
for larger.
                                

 It feels so good to have something to want to write about.  The garden area was wrecked and washed out last Spring.  I have pondered and strolled the gravel paths I created trying to decide how to make the areas that need to go viable for wildflowers.  

 Another "happening" is daffodils.  Last Spring, I planned to move and feed the bulbs to make the
show more attractive.
That didn't happen and not a lot of bulbs are with
blossoms. 
The white multi flowered plants need food as they
have weak stems and not able to hold up the showy
heads.

There are a few year residentials that visit our feeders every year.  

 

 

Female Cardinal

White crowned sparrow and mystery bird

 I have only seen this sparrow
from a distance and never noticed
the definition of black cap.

Male house sparrow

Tufted Titmouse

Pine Siskin, Gold Finch

House Finch

Half the modern drugs could well be thrown out the window, except that the birds might eat them. ~Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962)
  




 A bird does not sing because it has an answer.  It sings because it has a song.  ~Chinese Proverb


My favorite
Birds of a feather flock together
AND CRAP UPON YOUR CAR.

 

November rain

 The trouble with weather forecasting is that it’s right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. ~Patrick Young

We are in a rain pattern for another day (day 4 to my reckoning).  My gardens are a total disaster. I stepped in one of the flower beds and nearly lost my garden boots!  A lot of suction wanted to swallow them up.  The garden soil is mostly very fine sand over a layer of red clay.  Quite an unpleasant mix.

The last I heard, this is the wettest year on record.  Oddly, the drought map still shows this area as light drought?  How much rain do we need to be declared a swamp?

I see a lot of areas of landscape and beautiful beds that are not under water.  I have to remember that I knew we were at the bottom of a hill when I started.  Back then, it had been so dry I was  moaning about things burning up.  This year things drowned in March through May and regenerated and burned up or lost all their leaves in self preservation?  I am not sure.

The Salvia Greggii bed which was the center piece when I began has gone through cycles of lovely red and pink blossoms, butterflies, hummingbirds .................................
The leaves all fell off.  mid summer. all looked dead.  I did dig out one and then decided to wait until cooler weather.  Voila' they greened up and bloomed just before rain started.  A light frost didn't bother them at all. This rain will probably finish them off.

Taken in early Summer

My plan is to move them anyway, so will wait and see.

All the rain totes and buckets and trash cans are full of water.  I cannot bear to pour the precious moisture just in case dry weather sets in,  From now on, I have to dump the water. No place to store any more.

I am in the midst of "resizing" garden area.  The first thing to go seems to be the gravel paths.  Maybe not such a good idea as water flows over, making muck and sinking places in the path underneath the gravel, thanks to ever present grub which is food for my enemy the mole.

Some things I have learned?  Sunflower seeds  WILL germinate in cool temperatures. Nights in the 30's. I had a favorite bird feeder with a cage around it to discourage larger birds.  It worked very well.  The sun took its toll as the plastic tube that holds the seeds had weakened and cracked.  I wasn't watching since the other feeders are of a more substantial plastic. That said, this one was  ¼ full of seeds when the rain started.  The seeds germinated and the expansion of seedlings and moisture caused the tube to split.  I would like to get a tube to replace the split one as the cage surround is fine.

The cage on the left

The weather forecast for the coming week looks promising for drying out.  There is an awful lot of cleaning up and redoing of flag stone path in court yard.  I had to move stones to allow water to flow faster. It worked, but now they have to go back into the path with some digging out to lower the stones for future rains.  It should have been done long before.  So, now, knee pad and gloves and I will do as much as I can. May take a while...

 The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Weather forecast for tonight: dark. ~George Carlin

Salvia Greggii surprise

Summer is over.  I, for one, am grateful.  I know there will be days when I will feel trapped inside, itching to see what is going on out there.
This year has been one of extreme wet, drought and moles.  Still, I am happy to have to wear that old hand me down  barn jacket with the big patch pockets I had added. It in itself brings back good memories of connecting with a niece who is so much like me, we have to be kin.

During the wet periods this Spring, my gardens were flooded time after time.  I lost most of my plants. Maybe not in the after math of the flooding, later when least expected.
This is the case of the Salvia Greggii bed.  It had been green and healthy looking.  Then, the leaves fell off.  I waited.  Not wanting to give up on them.  They have been the original focal point of my garden.

I waited, then a miracle, they greened up again and tried to bloom.  Then the dry heat set in and the leaves fell off. Sadly, I debated taking them all out and starting over.  I waited.

The drought hung on with months of high 90's and no rain.  I waited.
One bush looked dead for sure.  I did test branches and they all snapped off.  I dug it out.  Then, heat and sore hip kept me from doing much in the garden.

I have decided to remove a third or more of the gardens. There are 9 separate plots with a lot of gravel pathway.  I have worked at repairing mole damage and amending the garden soil.

As the weather has cooled, the shorter, more compact blue and white salvias and one butterfly weed have perked up and started putting on more leaves and flowers.

I love the blue salvis the most of anything in the garden.  They survive anything nature throws its way and even looking tired and faded in the heat of summer, I know they will show off in fall.  They have. This morning, chilly and windy, I took pictures of the deep, elegant blue flowers.  Thank you God!!

 

Back to the Salvia Greggii plants.  They are green and blooming!  I never expected this treasure.  I thought I'd just dig out the whole mess and move the mailbox/toolbox and let the whole thing go back to weeds and grass.     

 
Plans have changed.

Chinese Pistache tree

The gardener who imagines that his work can be reduced to a set of rules and formulae, followed
and applied according to special days marked on the calendar, is but preparing himself for a double
disappointment. Few things are so certain to be uncertain as the seasons and the weather; and these,
rather than a set of dates, even for a single locality, form the signs which the real gardener follows.
That is the great trouble with much book and magazine gardening. -   Frederick Frye Rockwell, Around the Year in the Garden, 1917

Back more years than I can remember, we had a wood pile.  The pile languished for years because I am very sensitive to smoke drifting into house from fireplace. Hubby wouldn't burn because  I would close myself up in the bedroom and endure until fire was out.
Thus, the wood pile ended up rotting and being host to numerous fire ant nests and mysteriously, a tree. The tree was insignificant for years.  The pile kept rotting, the ants kept nesting and the tree kept growing.
Finally, we took the wood away, and dealt with the ants and left the tree standing.  It spent numerous years hanging out, waiting for me to decide what to do with it.  It is not a bad location.  Just seems an odd place for a tree.

Years later, I have researched and find this is a desirable tree.  I had called it a "trash tree" for which I humbly apologize to the local organic gardener radio guy.
I don't care for the color of red that it turns in fall.  It has multiple colors, which does make interesting to watch.  Shades of yellow, orange, green, deep maroonish red.  I never noticed the berries until I seriously did some research.  Yep, a Pistache.

I am sure it is a "gift" from some bird years ago.  We will leave it as it is not supposed to get huge like some mistakes we have in the yard.  Worrisome huge things that we hope won't fall over til we are gone.

 

Snow on the Prarie

Snow on the Prairie

I started this post a while back.  I was reminded of it when I was returning from a visit to a friend. The highway I take has land that hasn't been developed with houses. They are scarce these days.
The fields on both sides of this highway and the major highway into Fort Worth, were full of white clouds.  I knew what they were. Bet very few of the travelers noticed or cared. Their loss. These are beautiful works of nature. 
                                                             

We were returning from a flea market in East Texas and saw field after field of white wildflowers.
Hubby pulled off the highway and let me take a few pictures.

Don't forget to click on picture for larger view.

The first thing I noticed?  Even though at a distance the flowers look white, they are actually the palest of green.  Not a true blossom to my eyes.

The name? Snow on the Prarie. Lovely name for rolling hills of white.

I can't say that I ever noticed the fields of "white" before. Now, I watch for them.  I also saw fields of white in Oklahoma last week.

Perhaps the drought has something to do with them being so prolific this year?

 "The 'Amen!' of Nature is always a flower."
-  Oliver Wendell Holmes.   

 "The nature of This Flower is to bloom."   
-  Alice Walker. 

Hawks, pigeons and songbirds

The older generation thought nothing of getting up at five every morning — and the younger generation doesn’t think much of it either. ~John J. Welsh

Just before dawn I have the world all to myself. ~Terri Guillemets

 The last two mornings, out in the garden at daylight, I have stopped and wondered why the morning is so quiet.  It is almost eerie.  This morning, at around 8AM, I saw a flutter of small birds in one of the many tangles of weeds and bushes. They were small, probably sparrows.  On the high line wire near the road, there were 3 small birds perched and one probable dove.
No birds singing or twittering or feeding at the feeders.  I watched for them yesterday and they never came.

This is the time of year when hawks begin migrating through.  You can always count on their appearance in the fall and winter. There are some hawks that seem to be around all year as well.
The quiet is due to the neighbor who still has racing pigeons.  He was racing them (25 years or so) before the neighborhood grew up around us.  He still shoots at the hawks. (no comment) The hawks are just looking for an easy meal and word has gotten around  that they are served up year round if you wait til they come out from their house.
 I like hawks. They are beautiful birds.  I don't blame them for looking for an easy meal. They work very hard for most.  I have closed the blinds in the kitchen window when one has knocked down a bird in my back yard.  No reason to shoo them off as the bird is dead.  I let them eat and then I clean up the feathers.
As callous as this sounds, this is nature at its real.  A lot of nature is not pretty.
I have had the rare thrill of catching on my camera (cannot say on film these days) a Cooper's Hawk perched on an arbor in my garden. Pretty darned bold.  It was still a treat to stand for many minutes and just watch it.

The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn’t, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there. ~Monica Baldwin

  I have a "carpe diem" mug and, truthfully, at six in the morning the words do not make me want to seize the day. They make me want to slap a dead poet. ~Joanne Sherman

GARDEN CHANGES THIS FALL

I started this plan in August. Since then mornings have been cooler. Still no rain. More dying things.  Cooler mornings perk my brain to plan, plan and dream of next spring. Jotting ideas, and anticipating lots of work.

 THE GARDENS HAVE TO BE RESTRUCTURED/DESIGNED.

PLAN TO GET RID OF 4 AT LEAST.   
FIGURE OUT THE PATH ARRANGEMENT.  HARD TO VISUALIZE .
WHETHER TO LEAVE ARBOR WHERE IT IS.
     MAYBE MOVE IT TO SMALLER AREA AND ELIMINATE THAT PART OF PATH?
   
FINISH PUTTING TOGETHER THE WINDOW GREEN HOUSE OR GET RID OF.

START MOVING GRAVEL.  GOOD JOB FOR COLD NASTY DAYS THIS WINTER.  HARD TO NOT GATHER OR RAKE GRAVEL NOW THAT I KNOW I WILL DO LATER.
DEAL WITH WASH OUT AREAS WHERE THE WHITE BUCKET IS.  A GOOD COLD WEATHER JOB.

Summer phlox have never liked my soil. They always started dying from base up and looked so bad.
I have one that I cut back to 3" and it is greening up with watering.

The bed with the tall phlox was supposed to be the specimine bed, filled with blooms spring, summer and fall.
Never happened......................

I am toying with the idea of lasagna garden areas. 

Yep, those windows are the mini greenhouse I started last winter.  We took 2 trips in the Spring and the rabbits were looking for new, tender leaves.  I opened out the hinged windows and blocked the little buggers.  It is still there and so are the rabbits.  They are looking for anything green to eat.  They have not touched the salvias, nor the hyacinth bean vines nor the summer phlox (which are all dead now). 

This is my planned "dividing line".  The arbor is still pretty stable and don't want to move it. So, the area where the pots are will be the cut off point. The smallish grass near the arbor is dead now.  Need to think of what goes there after adding soil amendments.  The big grass is a ravenna grass.  Oddly, it is listed as a noxious plant as it has been "escaping" in Washington state.  It is too big to dig out and fills the space still.  Still mostly green. We will have to wait and see.

Had good ideas for this bed, maybe next year?

I may or may not move this birdhouse pole.

Need to move mailbox as this bed has to be taken out completely.

I have hopes of reworking soil, in this previous coneflower bed.  It is still fenced and maybe the rabbits won't dig under fence in an attempt to get at what greens remain.