Ye Olde Garden

Water-Wise Landscape Tour June 4 2011

L and I decided to take the Dallas Water-Wise Landscape Tour yesterday to check out some local Coppell gardens. The event was free and we observed some great plants and met with the homeowners to discuss how to use water wisely. The tour reminded us that we definitely need to mulch our beds and try to generate a smaller water bill this year. Not only is it easier on our wallets and saving one of most precious commodities, but it will also spare us from the mosquito plague we’ve encountered lately. Off spray is my friend.

Thanks to one of the garden owners, I also scored a free plant. She said to give the Four-Nerve daisy, aka Angelita, a try in our garden.

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Technical

Crossposting to Blogger

I’ve recently opened an account over at Google’s Blogger to take advantage of their subscription services. I’ve been devouring a lot of excellent garden blog feeds lately, and I thought it time to share some of my gardening experiences from my WordPress blog.

I have a way to import all of my garden blog activities via a handy converter, which will address some of the garden posts. But the self cross-posting will be something of a challenge, since I only want to crosspost one category from my WP blog. I may have to develop a plugin specifically for this function since CrossPress currently does not support this option.

But since Blogger has an email-to-blog options (just like WP), I can test email-post plugins like Post Notification to see if that will suit my purposes.

Update: post to Blogger email won’t work because edited/updated posts show up as new, separate posts in Blogger. It appears I have hit a wall…unless I want to go into Blogger’s dashboard and delete the replicated posts. The solution seems to be an offline solution, like ScribeFire perhaps.

Ye Olde Garden

First vinca and June blooms

The first vinca to bloom from seed in our front yard bed is the Titan Lavender Blue Halo vinca, part of the Titan mix packet of seeds I purchased from Stokes earlier this year. Because I sowed it indoors in February, I suspect we bought at least 3-4 weeks head start compared to the seedlings that started outdoors from the 2010 planting.

With the summer heat upon us, many of the heat-loving plants are taking off. The Confetti lantana appears to finally have settled in, nearly doubling in size since planting, and boasting a new crown of blooms. The Hot Lips salvia transplanted into the front garden also has grown in size since it moved in. Of course, the daylilies are now in full swing; the Stellas have joined the Dallas Stars in staging a show. One of the fungus-infected coreopsis in the courtyard, though very sickly, is gamely producing sporadic blooms. The cosmos seeds sown in the tree ring have made an entrance; I spotted dozens of seedlings poking their tiny heads out of the ground. A second marigold has deigned to bloom. And all of the herbs are taking off: mint, basil, thyme and oregano!

With the advent of June, we say goodbye to the spring bloomers. The Navona Asiatic lilies have peaked and are slowly winding down. The abundant spring blooming dianthus need a shearing if I’m to coax them into another full flush. The pansies are looking a little heat-stressed these days, as our temps climb into the high 90s. Our Midnight Blue rose is finishing another floriferous run of flowers as it braces for the long hot summer.

I ordered some more Cosmic Yellow and Red cosmos, along with a packet of Toy Choy Pak Choi seeds from Stokes today. I’m hoping to experiment in some veggie goodness later this summer.

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Ye Olde Garden

Pepper dilemma

I’m down to 3 4 healthy pepper specimens in the herb garden: two Jupiter bells, 1 Thai chili, and 1 habanero.

6/1/2011 Death Comes for the Bell PepperOne pepper, a Jupiter bell, that recently became infected is looking much worse off than all the others. The hunny suggested we try the hydrogen peroxide method. I’m a bit hesitant we use H202, but the more I observe the damage, the more it seems likely that a fungus is indeed attacking the roots. After reading about positive results in a Gardenweb forum thread, I’m ready to take the challenge. The worst I can do is lose 4 plants, which seems unavoidable at this moment. The same forum thread references a very useful chart for mixing hydrogen peroxide with water.

I might also consider washing down the ornamental peppers with the same solution.

6/1/2011 Death Row PeppersUpdate: it looks like the Bayer Advanced 3-in-1 Insect, Disease & Mite Control ready-to-use spray is at fault here. Maybe I should have read the fine print. In any case, this means the peppers are most likely inedible, even though they may be coaxed back to life. Which means they’re headed for the compost pile. Whenever I get one.

I hope the Ortho Elemental Insecticidal Soap spray I currently use is less dangerous on vegetables (unless it was a combination of the Bayer and Ortho sprays that killed the peppers). I’ve been using it on the hostas, though maybe companion plantings of slug-repellent herbs would be the more practical solution.

Ye Olde Garden

Rise of the coral nymphs

5/31/2011 Coral Nymph Salvia seedlings in the purple bedThe coral nymph salvia began blooming this Sunday past. These are the bicolor pink and white salvia coccinea that I started from a single specimen a year ago. It’s not a perennial, but here in Texas, it is a crazy self-seeder, as evidenced by the dozens of seedlings I discovered in pots, planters and across the flower beds in our tiny courtyard. As soon as temperatures warmed into the 80s and 90s about mid-April, the seedlings began to appear. And flourish. And multiplied.

5/31/2011 Coral Nymph Salvia seedlings pottedI’ve plucked and transplanted what I can. These things are durable…as tiny rooted seedlings pulled from the beds, I just press them into the soil where I want them to grow. Add water, and they’re back to looking healthy…as if nothing ever happened to them. Easy to kill, but hard to eradicate…they come back with a vengeance. I am eying some particular specimens for removal even now and hope they don’t come back.

5/31/2011 White Nymph salvia planterMeanwhile, I increased my planter footprint nearly five-fold this weekend. I’ve created my miniature gardens with the leftover plastic planters and new bags of soil and compost. Everything from the sweet potato vine to the newly purchased vinca are in new homes. One oversight I made, however, is neglecting to drill holes in my ceramic pots, so some of my summer color might either drown or bake this season. Because they’re already filled, it’s most likely too late. I will have to keep careful watch on the plants and see how they fare in their new homes.

5/31/2011 Petunias and Dusty MillerPetunias, dusty millers, Lanai purple star verbena, red-eyed vincas and one Calico ornamental pepper are featured prominently in pots. I still have an Aztec red trailing verbena, a red-white vinca, and a dusty miller needing a new home. Luckily, friend Kathy gave me a spare ceramic pot from her collection.

5/31/2011 Petunias, Vinca, Ornamental Pepper and Dusty MillerWhat’s killing my peppers? I’ve added soil to see if it will stop the wilt. But I suspect poor soil drainage is the culprit, and adding more water may kill them. This morning, three were afflicted: a hot banana, a thai chili and a Jupiter bell. This afternoon, I came home to discover another ailing Jupiter bell. Oh the cruelty!

A friend that I gifted some pepper and basil seedlings to mentioned that when he stopped watering everyday, the seedlings took off. So I’m following his practice and going to alternate day irrigation to see if the peppers can bounce back.

5/31/2011 Hot Banana Pepper wilting 5/31/2011 Thai Chili Pepper wilting 5/31/2011 Jupiter Bell Pepper wilting

The same could be applied to the basil seedlings I transplanted to their new homes. I have 2 plastic pots planted with Thai, Genovese, Pesto, and Lime basils. I’m hoping they will grow and prosper fast…I’ve been craving fresh basil in my lunch and dinner recipes.