We experienced heavy rains for the past few nights, and it only cleared up yesterday. So naturally an industrious puppy decided to dig up my newly planted Heuchera Obsidian. Being rudely awakened by an enthusiastic pup and seeing the carnage first hand, I quickly took a spade and reburied the plant. I’m hoping it won’t be too badly shocked by the digging.
Early spring gardening
After our meal at New San Dor on Sunday, hubby was persuaded to do some lawn work. We stopped by Lowe’s to pick up a bag of weed-and-feed to treat the henbit weed infestation that has covered most of our front lawn. To my surprise, he fired up the lawn mower (which started on the first pull) and proceeded to scalp the lawn. Meanwhile, I busied myself on getting the plants that had been hardening off on the porch into the flower beds.
I am looking forward to purchasing another flat of dianthus; the 18-count flat that I got from Cristina’s are filling the front borders of B4 and B5. I had 2 or 3 leftovers that I proceeded to locate in B1 and B2…but there are still many more holes left to fill. I also grabbed the 3 Lowe’s ajuga and set them in B3, along with one of the Sooner ajugas. I’m concerned that the Chocolate Chip ajugas look dissimilar: the Lowe’s-purchased ajuga are darker and smaller-leafed, while the Sooner ajuga have longer, bronze leaves. Both were flowering blue however.
I situated the Oriental Limelight artemisia in B2 and B4, both centered in the bed…I noticed these specimens were busting out of their pots. I wonder how invasive they will be. Do they pose a threat to my lilies and daylilies? We’ll see as summer draws near.
Finally, I got the Hosta sunk into the ground next to the Hot Lips salvia in S1. I also planted the heuchera next to it. I’m hoping the newly pruned salvia will branch out and offer some shade to its new neighbors when the summer heat arrives.
Go only for the fried rice
New San Dor
240 Legacy Dr
Plano, TX 75086
(972) 517-0700DH and I finally made our way to New San Dor…and we have to say that we both were not too terribly impressed–too much hype maybe. The surroundings are nice, spacious and clean…so maybe the American crowd finds New San Dor less daunting than other ethnic Chinese spots, i.e. no pig heads or ducks hanging behind a glass window. We ordered chicken corn soup, shrimp with mayo, seafood fried rice with garlic, szechwan string beans, and beef on a sizzling platter. I was very disappointed to learn that they didn’t offer char-siu, bbq pork, here…and even more disappointed that I didn’t get a peek at their ethnic menu (which apparently only Chinese know to ask for).
The thick chicken corn soup held a nice amount of chicken, but I wish they had some green onions to it. The string beans had plenty of minced pork with it, and while flavorful, it was definitely NOT spicy. The shrimp with mayo surprised us with its huge battered jumbo shrimp slathered with mayo sauce…it scored points with the hubby, and I admit I was satisfied with this preparation. The best plate of the day was the house special seafood fried rice with dried garlic…it made the Filipino girl inside of me squeal with delight as I dug into the mound of rice and smelled the garlicky aroma waft into the air. Alas, this brief high came crashing down when we sampled the dreadful sizzling plate that hubby and I wouldn’t, couldn’t finish…the soggy, slimy pieces of beef were wholly unappetizing, and the sauce didn’t recommend itself either.
Overall, New San Dor needs to work harder on their menu if they’re to woo us back to spend our hard-earned dining dollars with them. Our meal rang up to $60…not the typical amount we spend at First Chinese BBQ or Plano Chinese.
My rating: stars
Scraped!
Logging into my dashboard this morning I discovered that Technorati had pinged my site and some unscrupulous scraper had since then picked up and absorbed my recent blog posts. Blog scraping is a serious problem, opening my site and content up to spamming and copyright issues. I obviously don’t want persons or businesses profiting off my personal thoughts and labor. I’ve started nailing down trackbacks and pingbacks in the WordPress database by following the instructions at the following site. It’s useful to note that I don’t have phpMyAdmin; I simply used the mySQL console window to enter the update statements.
Open only to registered users:
UPDATE wp_posts SET comment_status="registered_only";
To close all pingbacks and trackbacks:
UPDATE wp_posts SET ping_status="closed";
Feels like spring
I spent my lunch hour today visiting Cristina’s and Lowe’s. I walked out with an 18-count flat of dianthus (Telstar mix) from Cristina’s. At Lowe’s, I scooped up a 6 pack of white tulips that were going for 50% off and bought 3 3.5″ pots of Chocolate Chip Ajuga. Dad told me I should’ve waited out the local chain home improvement stores for the plants I wanted. 🙁 But of course there weren’t any Salvia greggiis that caught my eye (was hoping for white greggii).
So…for homework, I’m looking to propagate the following plants over the weekend: rosemary, salvia, and gaura. Not sure how the Crimson Brandy gaura that’s thriving in B2 will take to a disturbance, but this plant has intrigued me to the point of experimentation. As for rosemary, I’m inclined to believe that our yard is ready for a hedge of them, if only to alleviate the dog smell wafting from our yard. Dad says that 5 days in water will persuade it to root, and I’m thinking that unruly specimen in B5 is in dire need of a whacking. As for the salvia, the one remaining white salvia in B4 looks to be resurrecting itself in the warm weather. I’ll be inspecting it regularly for cuttings. And I’m going to keep trying to propagate more of the Hot Lips for sharing–I’m amazed that the 3 cuttings I took last year and sank into the ground before winter are still there, if a tad bit to puny. Hopefully I can also harvest some cuttings of the new Salvia chamaedryoides in B3.