Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Maintenance in the garden

Elephant ear bloom.  Kind of looks like a heron with a fro!
We spent today in the garden mulching and creating a garden path to the vegetable garden.  Its a work in progress.  I want to put some stepping stones on the path and flower beds on either side of it. Also, repotted plants from little seed pots.  I may have overdone the tomato plants.  Here are some pictures from the garden today.

Better Bush tomato

Those bloomin" peas!


Thinks she's boss of the garden.
The real boss of the garden


Doesn't care!


Charlotte!  The boss of the shed! Know what kind of spider she might be?

Monday, December 20, 2010

Day at the Beach

Christmas week and its in the 70's.  We went to the beach.  Enjoy the pics!





Shells we found.  One of them looks like a chicken foot!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Gardening tasks

Everyone loves chores, right?  Ha!  Raking leaves is one of my favorite chores, that is if I have a favorite chore. We rake up leaves and lots of times, have a good old leaf fight or pile them under the slide to slide in. Our Cypress tree dumped a bumch of leaves.  It is exceptionally beautiful this year.  Unfortunately, when you live in the city, trees sometimes get too big.  This one is going to have to go.  It is encroaching on our Oak tree and my vegetable garden.


In the process of removing the weeds from our garden and removing our old tomato plants, we found our rubber snake.  That snake made us jump more times this summer.  Our lab would kill that thing over and over again. I found it partially buried.  I'm sure Ruthie had something to do with it.  I pulled it up and the killing began again.  Our yard is now safe.

Broccoli all tucked in.

 



































Ruthie and the snake, once again reunite
And what boy doesn't love a good snake!


























What chores do you like in the garden?

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day


In honor of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, I present my flowers.  It froze last week, but today, the temperature is 75 degrees. 

Bluebonnets!  I may have blooms in January!     























Lavender and Marigolds The marigolds are a little worse for wear, but they are hanging on!




















   
Here is my favorite knock out rose.  It starts off yellow and fades to cream.





















                                                                                                                  
Lantana!  You can't kill this stuff!


Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Travels

I drove to the Houston Arboretum and picked up recycled pots to plant some more plants in my shed. (Thanks to The Lazy Gardener's idea in her blog!  Then I drove to Buchanan's Native Plants.  I love that place!  Where are your favorite places to shop for seeds and garden supplies?

Gardening in the shed

The weather has been kind of cold, especially for zone 9.  It has been dropping into the 30's lately.  I have set up grow lights in the shed to start some vegetables and flowers from seed.  I even rescued an ancho pepper from the garden before the weather turned bad.  I have two peppers on the plant and some bell pepper and tomatoes growing in flats. You can see some beans growing up bamboo in a couple of pots.  Like my modified shelf?  I need some real shelves in there.