Oh what a beautiful morning!

I know it's been a very long time since I updated, but there hasn't been much to tell.  Many of my seedlings survived being transplanted into little plastic cups, and I've started planting those in my outside gardens.  We had a ridiculously late spring this year (freeze warnings up until the first week of April!) so I didn't get things in the ground nearly as early as I did last year.  Here's a quick rundown of what I'm working with:
- all 6 cosmos plants survived and are doing well outdoors
- 5 of the zinnias got to the plastic cup stage and are doing well outside
- several marigolds were planted outside, but some didn't make it (I suspect they were eaten)
- the morning glories did wonderfully inside (some even bloomed!) but the ones I planted in the back garden aren't doing well.  A few may be lost causes.  The four I planted in the front a few days ago are doing well, though.  And I still have more plants indoors that I need to put outside (although for now, I'm enjoying the blooms!)
- A few random things (one snapdragon, some wild daisies, etc)

I noticed that some plants are coming up from seeds dropped last year.  The back side garden has cosmos, morning glories, and marigolds, and the front garden had some zinnias sprouting.  I was delighted and tossed down some more seeds - until all of the front garden sprouts vanished.  I suspect the snails I've seen hanging around lately, so I put coffee grounds around the new seedlings (supposedly poisonous to snails) and haven't had any more disappear - and the snails haven't been seen since.  I've had more morning glory sprouts appear in my back garden, and one Grandpa Ott variety has really taken off and bloomed a few times already.  I'm hoping some of the morning glory sprouts are the blue varieties, they were so pretty last year.

We also went to Calloway's Nursery last Sunday and bought some plants.  I got two coneflowers (as the sprouts I started aren't doing well - one is dead, one is doing poorly, and the other I'm keeping indoors to get bigger), and two daylilies (one "Indian Giver" purple and one "St. Francis of Assisi" pink). My husband got a Mediterranean palm tree (after our disastrous experience with the Japanese Maple, we're trying something more suited to our climate), and a prickly pear cactus.  Everything's been planted except the cactus - because we'd planned to put it in my old veggie planter box, and discovered that we couldn't dig down very far.  The house's previous owners didn't remove the old rocks in the back yard, they put sod squares down on top of everything - and apparently they buried more than just rocks.  We discovered some sort of metal plate down there and can't dig more than a few inches.  The cactus will need a new home.

Ok, photo time!  It's a gorgeous morning here in Texas, so I took a ton of pictures.

First, last year's flowers and plants:

Knockout Roses - Pink, Yellow, and Red.  These got some pruning and rose food a few weeks ago.

Surviving Shasta Daisy "Becky" from American Meadows.  Only survived because this Crepe Myrtle grew up through it and shaded it from the sun last year!

Gigantic knockout rosebush in the back yard.  It's going to be as tall as the garage soon!

Texas bluebonnets

 

Hollyhocks, 2nd year.  Can't wait to see what color they are!

Shasta Daisy, grown from seed last year.  You can see the cosmos, morning glory, and marigold sprouts coming up here, too. I don't know what the plant to the right of the Shasta Daisy is.

New seedlings from this year!

Front garden: zinnia (a pink one is flowering) and two snapdragons.  There are four cosmos here too, but they didn't photograph well.

 

New zinnia and marigold sprouts with their shield of coffee grounds

Morning glory seedlings, just planted a few days ago.

 

Seedlings in the back garden.  Cosmos (one dark pink is blooming!), zinnia, marigold, and morning glories (a Granpda Ott that came up on its own is blooming)

 

This marigold that came up on its own is the healthiest one I have, and it's getting ready to bloom.

The birds spill sunflower seeds out of our feeder, and the plants come up on their own.  I see no reason not to keep them!

Speaking of "coming up on their own", this is a mass of last year's morning glory vines that I pulled down and left next to our composter.  If you look closely, you can see dozens of new sprouts coming up.  Not sure what I'm going to do with these.

 

Newly-purchased plants:

Two coneflowers - yellow and some kind of fancy pink.

Two daylilies.

Mediterranean palm tree.

Prickly pear cactus.

Friday SproutWatch

The seeds have been planted for five days.  Let's see what's sprouted on today's SproutWatch!

Tray 1: four cosmos, 1 lilliput zinnia, and 1 thumbelina zinnia have sprouted.  Taking the lid off the Jiffy greenhouse so I don't get mold.
Tray 2: nothing yet
Tray 3: 1 peppermint stick zinnia

Square trays: 3 harlequin marigolds, 1 red marietta marigold

Morning glory cups:
4 "pale seed" purpurea morning glories

4 Heavenly Blue MG
5 random purpurea MG (3 of these have darker seed leaves and stems, while 2 of these are green - I wonder if the darker ones are going to produce darker flowers?)

So far, pretty good results.  I'll probably be starting another tray or two of seeds this weekend, since my new seeds just arrived in the mail.  It's going to be a good year for flowers! :)

Oddball morning glory

Thursday, Feb. 28: Morning glories doing very well.  All 4 “pale” are up (light green plants).  All 4 heavenly blue are up (green tinged with purple plants).  Many purpureas are up (almost all green, except for below).  Nothing yet from Blue Star or Flying Saucer.

There is this weird reddish purple one in the purpureas.  The stem and seed leaves are the same color.  I wonder if it will turn green or stay this unusual color.  What color flowers will it have?

Tray 1: 4 cosmos are up, some zinnias are starting to sprout.
Tray 3: peppermint zinnia sprouted.
Tray 2 still nothing.  Square pots still nothing. I think the morning glories are just overachievers.

First sprouts, inventory of last year's survivors

Wednesday, Feb. 27: Cosmos are sprouting.  Some morning glories have been trying to poke through since Monday. New seeds arrived in mail: bunny tails grass, ox eye daisy, blue daisy, and black-eyed susan.

Outdoor plants from last year round-up: the 3 knockout rosebushes are coming back to life.  New reddish leaves everywhere!  That’s good – I was afraid at least one of them had died on me. 

Only 2 of last year’s “perennials” from American Meadows are still alive: the Shasta daisy “crazy daisy” that actually put out a few blooms, and the Shasta daisy “Becky” that survived because the crepe myrtles grew over it and shielded it from the sun.  I think the aster plants are dead – they are brown and shriveled, and they seem to pull up out of the ground.  Very disappointing.

Last year’s seed perennials/biennials, on the other hand, are doing great!  The Shasta daisy is big and dark green, whatever it is next to it is doing great (something from the “Texas wildflower mix”), one of my Texas bluebonnets seems to have survived, and the two hollyhocks are springing back to life.  Looking forward to seeing how all of these do this year.

Interesting to note about the tetra snapdragon I grew last year: I started it late in the summer and grew it indoors.  It got very leggy but put out a purple flower or two.  I moved it outdoors when I put the last set of zinnias outside.  “Winter” (or what passes for winter here in Texas) happened.  Today I went outside to examine my remaining outdoor plants – lo and behold, the snapdragon is doing great!  It’s gotten nice and strong stemmed and is starting to bush out!

So let me get this straight - the "annual" survived the winter, and the "perennials" are dead??

Seed Starting 2013!

Sunday, Feb. 24: First batch of plants started in the afternoon/evening.  Forgot to soak the morning glories overnight, so I soaked them from about 2pm to 9pm and planted them right before bed. 

Morning glories are in the little cups: 4 heavenly blue, 2 blue star, 2 flying saucer, 4 “pale” purpureas (3 from last year, one from the heirloom purpurea mix), 2 Grandpa Ott (I think), 2 Crimson Rambler (I think), and 3 random ones from the heirloom purpurea mix.  I’m planning to put some in front of the house, some by the kitchen window as I did last year, and a few on the chain link fence at the edge of our property (hopefully to block a bit of the cemetery).

In the square pots are harlequin marigolds, red Marietta marigolds, and firewheels.

Tray 1: 6 cosmos, 6 zinnia (4 lilliput, 2 thumbelina)
Tray 2: 2 tetra snapdragon, 2 poppy, 2 shasta daisy, 4 purple coneflower, 2 peppermint stick zinnia
Tray 3 (7 plugs of old peat from last year): 2 harlequin marigolds, 2 red marietta marigolds, 2 firewheel, 1 peppermint zinnia

This isn’t all I’m going to plant for this year, but this is the first batch of seeds.  Now that I own a ferret who can reach the bottom shelf of my plant stand, my seed growing space is more limited than it was last year.

A Little Backstory - Part 2

2012 was the year I was going to get it right.  I did a lot of research about easy to grow plants, how to start seeds, how to harden off plants so they didn't die immediately, all that good stuff.  I was going to have something in my garden this year, darn it!

I went on Ebay and bought a ton of seeds from different sellers.  Then I ordered more from the Sample Seed Shop. More came from hardware stores.  My plan was to try a little bit of everything and see what worked (and what didn't).  I started the seeds in Jiffy greenhouses with the little peat pellets.  When the plants sprouted and grew larger, I trasnplanted them into little plastic cups with holes poked in the bottom, which I then placed into small plastic trays.  When the plants got bigger, I would put them outside to acclimate them to wind and sun.  I dug out a garden space in front of our kitchen window (in the back of the house). 

Because of our bird feeder, we also had a bunch of sunflowers come up on their own - and they were much larger and healthier than the ones I'd tried the year before.

The seeds that did the best for me were cosmos (sensation mix), zinnias (lilliput and cactus flower), morning glories (heavenly blue, blue star, Grandpa Ott, and those crimson ramblers I'd successfully grown the year before).  The balsaminas (a childhood favorite, as my mom always grew them at home) did okay, but they didn't care for the heat.  Once the cosmos grew too tall, they blocked out the second wave of balsaminas and they didn't return.  I was able to save seeds, though.

I dug out another garden, visible from the kitchen window.  There, I tried some wildflowers.  I'd bought a Texas wildflower mix the year before, so I picked out the seeds (a lot of the mix was filler material) and started them individually in the Jiffy greenhouse too.  Some of them did okay, but a few did very well.  Texas bluebonnets produced flowers (although out of season), and the firewheels (Indian blankets) did well enough for me to save seeds.

The morning glories went crazy, and completely covered the kitchen windows.

A dove made a nest in my vines, and two baby birds were born.

I tried some heirloom tomatoes, which did really well as plants, but stopped producing tomatoes when it warmed up.  Since Texas is warm most of the year, I didn't get much out of them (and probably won't grow them again).  By the time it cooled down enough for them to start up again, it was time for frost (and they died on the vine).  But the marigolds I grew near the tomatoes loved life and went crazy. The sweet basil I planted did very well also.

I started researching plants that were doing well around my yard. These are Mexican Petunias that are growing wild.  They're pretty, and they're no maintenance, so they can stay.

Overall, I would call 2012 a huge success for my plants and garden.  I've learned some things that work (starting seeds indoors), and some that don't (like ordering live plants from American Meadows - almost all of them died immediately and I only have two survivors for 2013).

In 2013, I will be trying some of the plants that did well, and experimenting with a few new ones as well.  I'm also planning to start plants for the front of the house instead of just the back, and finally get our front garden looking nice.

A Little Backstory - Part 1

My mom and grandma were/are avid gardeners and I grew up surrounded by flowers.  After years of living in apartments, I was delighted to finally move into my own home and start up a garden of my own.

2010: My first attempt... well, it was an unmitigated disaster.  Not a good idea to try starting seeds in a house BEFORE you move in, especially when that happens in Texas in June.  I so desperately wanted to have a garden that I ignored common sense and tried growing seeds when it was far past the time to do so.  I got one of those Burpee seed starting kits with the 72 slots and tried a whole mess of plants.  The roots became hopelessly entangled before I was able to start getting them in the ground, and nothing survived.

The 'landscaping' that the previous owners had put in died almost immediately when they apparently temporary sprinklers they were using were removed when we bought the house.  In the front of the house, we had two remaining shrubs left, and in the back was a beastly knockout rose bush that got bigger the more you cut it back. Well, I had a blank canvas to start with...

2011: I was going to grow veggies!  I went to Home Depot and got a veggie garden box, some small veggie plants (a few tomatoes, a few squash, a strawberry, etc).  I had no idea what I was doing - I didn't even have tomato cages for the tomatoes!  Squash vine borers killed my zucchini plants. The strawberry shriveled away under the Texas sun.  The marigolds I bought to keep the tomatoes happy were covered over by the floppy tomatoes and they all died. The tomatoes didn't do well at all.

What did go right in 2011 was that we bought and planted three knockout rose bushes in front of the house: a double red, a double pink, and a yellow.  We also got some sprinklers that connected to garden hoses, so we were able to keep the rose bushes and some of the lawn alive. :)

Also, I made a better attempt with seeds.  I bought a packet of crimson rambler morning glory seeds, soaked them in water, and was going to plant them outside in the back corner of our yard by the fence (the spot that I had cleared last year for the seeds I tried to grow).  As it turned out, right when I was going to plant them outside, it started to rain... and then it started to REALLY rain.  Out in the pouring rain and blowing winds, I mostly just tossed/dropped my dish of wet seeds in the area where I wanted the flowers, and ran back inside.  Much to my surprise, they did sprout!  I hadn't planned ahead for morning glories (I just thought they were pretty and I thought the neighbor's fence was ugly) so I didn't have a trellis or support for the plants at all.  But they grew anyway, and the vines self-supported enough to survive and even produce some pretty little reddish flowers!  That winter, after the vines were long dead, I was able to collect some seeds.

I tried some balsaminas, and they did okay until it got too hot (and then the poor things started to wilt in in the sun).  I potted up a few and brought them indoors, and they didn't do too badly as houseplants.

I also attempted some sunflowers from seed.  Little did I realize that sunflowers only thrive if planted directly in the ground (as they need a long taproot).  I started some indoors and replanted them outside our kitchen window.  They were stunted little things, only about a foot or so tall, but they did grow and produce flowers... that a cheeky little bastard of a squirrel ate right in front of us.  We were eating dinner when this squirrel plops his butt right on our windowsill, bites the flower stem, and takes off with his prize, the flower head.  Needless to say, I didn't save any seeds from those sunflowers!

To be continued!