Gems at Buchanan's + Planting

We allowed ourselves a visit to Buchanan's Native Plants today. We went in with a shopping list, and stuck to it, more or less:

[caption id="attachment_300" align="alignnone" width="625"] Wonderful goodies at Buchanan's.[/caption]

Amongst our goodies are stars like Natives Caroline Jessamine, Autumn Fern, Maidenhair Fern,  and perennial Sage Farinacea. We also stocked up on thyme, oregano, and mint. Our one unexpected purchase was a pink jasmine, whom we can't wait to find a special spot for in the garden.

We managed to plant most of these lovely beauties today. Our front courtyard is coming along nicely, after many, many hours of digging and replacing soil, and countless wheelbarrow trips back and forth by my better half. It did look like this in November:

   

And after our work today...

[caption id="attachment_304" align="alignnone" width="500"] Front courtyard[/caption]

So, it's getting there. Lots of seeds went into the front garden beds today:

[caption id="attachment_305" align="alignnone" width="500"] Seeds sown today[/caption]

...with many more yet to come. Some of these seeds were hardly larger than a good speck of dust - and I marvelled at how daring Nature is. She takes chances I would never dream of; a lot braver than I could ever be.

Carolina Jessamine is also gracing the front of our courtyard entryway, where we hope she will draw in bees and butterflies and all manner of life whose needs she can satisfy - certainly, ours included!

[caption id="attachment_306" align="alignnone" width="500"] The lovely, native, Carolina Jessamine.[/caption]

See you in Arcadia!

(Last) Weekend Round-up - also known as the tale of two compost piles

Last weekend, on Saturday, Living Earth delivered 8 cubic yards of compost to us. They dumped it all on the driveway and then they drove away. One pile was straight up leaf compost; the other, a mixture of leaf and sharp sand. This is what 8 cubic yards of compost looks like:

[caption id="attachment_284" align="alignnone" width="563"] A lot of compost.[/caption]

Yeah. That's a lot of compost. Thank goodness for no rain, and fantastic early spring weather to work in. We aerated the existing soil in the front garden beds, and then heaved and hauled compost. For all of Saturday afternoon, and most of Sunday. But, little by little, the work got done.

[caption id="attachment_287" align="alignnone" width="563"] The first of two front garden beds to be mulched and topped off with compost.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_289" align="alignnone" width="563"] Getting there...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_288" align="alignnone" width="563"] All done![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_290" align="alignnone" width="563"] Post compost mulching. Looks rather good![/caption]

That was Saturday. On Sunday, we tackled the back garden.

[caption id="attachment_291" align="alignnone" width="563"] Creating a new bed.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_292" align="alignnone" width="563"] Mohen spent a great deal of time sniffing the piles of compost.[/caption]

So after a while...

[caption id="attachment_293" align="alignnone" width="563"] Gordita enjoys a decent life in Arcadia. When we first moved here, she hated stepping on grass. Now, look at this.[/caption]

...we finished the bed, and this was the result:

[caption id="attachment_294" align="alignnone" width="563"] True to Texas form, this is one enormous bed.[/caption]

Working together, I realized how much this is a dream come true. My better half and I, working side by side, and enjoying every minute of it. This is Arcadia, after all.

It's Hard Work - from Spirited Away, the soundtrack
[audio mp3="http://coahuilagarden.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/11-Its-Hard-Work.mp3"][/audio]

And I hope to see you in Arcadia, too!

Gonna make this garden grow

In remembrance of Pete Seeger, who I do believe always wished to re-create Arcadia here, there, everywhere.

[caption id="attachment_270" align="alignnone" width="625"] One imagining of Arcadia[/caption]

Weekend roundup

[caption id="attachment_264" align="alignnone" width="625"] Kiki[/caption]

Perhaps you'd like to buy a flower?
But I could never sell.
If you would like to borrow
Until the daffodil
Unties her yellow bonnet
Beneath the village door,
Until the bees, from clover rows
Their hock and sherry draw,
Why, I will lend until just then,
But not an hour more!

--Emily Dickinson, To Buy a Flower

What we did: My better half toiled, yet again, on the front courtyard garden. It'll be ready by Superbowl Sunday. Pictures to follow.

I started clearing up the front garden bed, where this amazing vine grows in splendour:

[caption id="attachment_252" align="alignnone" width="563"] The majestic Bignonia capreolata, Crossvine (N)[/caption]

Meet Bignonia capreolata, also known as the Crossvine. A native plant for this region, left to us by the predecessors of this house (they left us quite a few lovely native plants to enjoy). While turning over the soil in this front garden bed in preparation for seed sowing, I discovered a little daughter of the mother, and couldn't pass up the chance to welcome her into what we hope will be a haven for all manner of native insects and bees, butterflies, and of course, a haven for us human folk as well. I found what should be a comfy spot for our - ha - little Bignonia. She'll take full sun or part sun, any sort of soil although she prefers a neutral ph. Once established, she's drought tolerant. She loves a wooden fence to grow on. Hummingbirds and bees love her. She's perfection. And here she is, in her little new home:



Take another look, go on:

[caption id="attachment_254" align="alignnone" width="625"] Little Bignonia Capreolata, in her new digs.[/caption]

To give you a better sense of perspective, she's in the sort of South-East-ish corner of the back garden, by the gate that leads to the magical meadow and the bayou (a post on that magical place will come soon).

[caption id="attachment_255" align="alignnone" width="625"] Home, sweet, home.[/caption]

Sweet journeying, little Bignonia. Also, Oxalis violacea has made a few sweet appearances around the garden, in front and back:

[caption id="attachment_256" align="alignnone" width="625"] Oxalis Violacea[/caption]

Last weekend, I planted fava beans, since I was itching to do something with our rather woeful looking raised beds:

[caption id="attachment_257" align="alignnone" width="500"] Oh, woe is me.[/caption]

Very little has happened this winter. I hear that it's been far less sunny than other gardeners remember in previous years. It has also been much cooler. Two exceptions to our rather dormant set of plants here are the lettuces and rocket in the back, and the green onions in the front. Oh - the green onions are rather a cheat on my part. They're from the grocery store, and sat in our fridge before I decided to stick them in the ground and see what they'd do. So far, they're doing beautifully! Behold:

[caption id="attachment_258" align="alignnone" width="500"] Grocery green onions.[/caption]

This little 4x4 patch makes me smile. These lettuces and arugula have survived multiple hard freezes, with a bit of help from us:



Can you see this and not smile? Or this:

[caption id="attachment_261" align="alignnone" width="625"] Smiling lettuces.[/caption]

There, you're smiling back at them now, aren't you? Funny, how lettuces can do that.

So, anyway, I planted these fava beans into some of the empty spaces of the square foot garden. But I had a couple of left over seeds that I had stashed in a pot, and decided to put those into the ground today.

[caption id="attachment_262" align="alignnone" width="625"] Holding all the promise of the universe. Two fava beans with a dear little worm. Three's company, too.[/caption]

These mighty creatures are nitrogen fixers, and don't need staking, to boot! So, do cross your fingers and send a little prayer their way, that they'll flourish. Here's their little place:

[caption id="attachment_263" align="alignnone" width="625"] Peace out.[/caption]

See you in Arcadia!

 

Dreaming and doodling on paper

O killing north wind, cease!
Come, south wind, that awakenest love!
Blow through my garden,
And let its odours flow,
And the Beloved shall feed among the flowers.

-- St. John of the Cross

[caption id="attachment_245" align="alignnone" width="625"] Perennial dreams[/caption]

A first spring in a first home; a first garden plan for the front. Consisting of natives: sunflowers, sago, turks' cap, prairie clover, coreposis, rudbeckias, crossvine, coneflower, and other butterfly and bee-loving plants, hardy in Houston: rue, amaranth, bachelors' buttons.

Now you see it...

[caption id="attachment_235" align="alignnone" width="563"] The better half toils[/caption]

Now, you don't!

[caption id="attachment_238" align="alignnone" width="563"] Space![/caption]

I was for keeping the wooden trellis, but it was rotting at the base. The wood is stored in the garage, waiting for another purpose, another life. We've been filling in the space that the stones took up with soil dug out from the front courtyard garden. Digging those stones was no easy feat, as my tired self clearly and rather compromisingly shows:

[caption id="attachment_241" align="alignnone" width="563"] Stopping to rest, every two seconds.[/caption]

Making a compost bin

[caption id="attachment_201" align="alignnone" width="563"] Garden mascot, garden gnome.[/caption]

My better half made a composter today. Squee!

We have three trees in the tiny little patch of earth on this planet we call home: a native bald cypress and two live oaks - one in the front, and one at back. These trees provide an amazing quantity of leaves throughout the year, which we are hoping to help find their way back into the ground. Composting will help this along.

[caption id="attachment_202" align="alignnone" width="563"] A magnificent resource to be blessed with: leaves![/caption]

What Nature takes a long while to do, we could possibly speed up just a little bit, seeing as we're not going to be here as long as She.

[caption id="attachment_203" align="alignnone" width="563"] Food, glorious food![/caption]

There are a thousand and one ways to make compost bins, and this is what we came up with. First, we picked a spot - a large, shady, corner of the garden, bordered by fences and by one side of the garage. Although it's rather tucked away, I love the let-it-be and wait-and-see quality of this space. With just a little nudge here and there, this could become a rather magical spot in the future. This is also only one of two places in the garden that I've seen earthworms. Having dappled shade and privacy also makes this a great spot for a compost pile.



Better half hammered down four metal garden stakes, three feet tall, into the earth.



We also placed three additional stakes for stability on three sides. Using a roll of sturdy wire fencing, also three feet high, we attached the fencing to the stakes very simply with small bits of wire, thusly:





And, in next to no time, the thing was done!

[caption id="attachment_209" align="alignnone" width="563"] Awaiting compost scraps and leaves![/caption]

We filled her up straight away.





By all accounts, we'll need to find a way to chop the leaves up in order to speed up the process. For now, this bin and a pitchfork will give us a great start.

I'd like to leave you with a song by Tom Paxton, the great American folksinger. Not quite a complete cycle as composting, but with the same Spirit of creativity and harmony with the world. Enjoy, and see you in Arcadia!

[audio mp3="http://coahuilagarden.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/08-The-Mountain-May-Be-Higher.mp3"][/audio]