So, I get home yesterday evening and Dash greets me at the door. He’s happy-go-lucky, trembling-with-joy, all-sorts-of-enthusiastic fur-kid exuberance. Then I step into the backyard and beheld the carnage in S1. All my tulips were uprooted and a puppy-sized hole lay at the feet of my myrtle. And the Heuchera Obsidian? Obliterated from the face of the earth. I’m understandably upset…so I placed an irate call with the DH and reminded him how many times I requested that the rampaging-garden destroyers be crated while we’re away at work. The tulips are back in their settings…but the tulip show is done for this year. And maybe it’s for the best that the heuchera is gone…I worry that the exposed location would challenge any shade lover at the moment.
Category Archives: Furkids
Scenes from the Late Winter garden
Here are some early evening (approx 7pm) shots of S1, B1 and B3 flowers. I suspect the plum colored iris in the photo is either histriodes George or reticulata JS Dijt. Incidentally, that’s the first Muscari botyroides album that I’ve caught sight of blooming in the gardens.
Dining with the dogs
When we were an apartment-dwelling couple with a single 150-pound Great Dane, we lived on the crossroads of several cities, within walking distance of many tasty restaurants. I distinctly remember only one restaurant that we were able to bring Dill to in Addison. Unfortunately, Dallas is still pet-unfriendly when it comes to dining destinations compared to other cities. (Plano is horrible and off-limits to many a pet owner seeking to dine out with their canine companions.)
I stumbled over this article at Dallas News which highlights some reasons why Dallas still fails to cater to our four-footed friends. I just wish we had many more area establishments I can take my fur family to.
Tornado cuts swathe of destruction thru local garden
That handsome tornado’s name is Dash, and he is 1.5 year old Australian shepherd who has taken a great delight in mowing over plants in my backyard. Several bulbs and tender shrubs have met their demise under the paws of this stampeding ball of fur. The most recent deaths included a healthy thriving purple salvia as well as my most mature white salvia. No fence can keep him out, and I’m at my wits end trying to find some way to deter him from entering the beds. I purchased 6 planter rings from Home Depot this weekend and hopefully I can protect the remaining fragile salvias, including the 2 salvia chamaedryoides that were cut low by this Texas twister.
Meanwhile, I’m way behind on purchasing my white daffodils for the 2008 show. I’m looking more into salvias to fill the bare spots in the garden. A few that have caught my eye: Salvia greggii or jamensis ‘California Sunset’ (orange) , Salvia greggii or jamensis (?) ‘Sierra San Antonio’ (coppery peach), Salvia greggii ‘La Encantada Peach’, Salvia jamensis Moonlight (yellow) , Salvia greggii ‘Yellow Cloud’, and any more orange, yellow and peach variants I can dig up.
Dog-gone!
It always seems that when a new plant finds its way into my flower beds, a mischievous puppy manages to rampage through: uprooting, trampling, eating and mangling all the newcomers.
For example: barely a week into the ground, the new irises I obtained from Zebrairis.com became victims of a stampeding fur-nephew. If he wasn’t such a cutie, Dash might have gotten more discipline than he received. It’s a sore reminder for us pet-loving gardeners to take extra precautions in securing plants from rambunctious puppies.