Progress pictures on the late winter, early spring garden.
Take a look closer and one can see the seedlings starting to pop!
Lest we forget, the narcissus and tulip show ramping up for April blooms.
Tag Archives: texasgardening
Unboxing: Texas Tomato Cages
I’m stepping up my tomato growing game in 2021. I started my Sun Sugar cherry and Sugar Gloss currant tomatoes indoors in late January. They were seedlings by February 2. The vigorous young starts were then up potted in early March.
About the same time, I planned to take 5 of each tomato to raise in grow bags, so I picked up some 15g grow bags off Amazon.
But remembering the last time I raised a single Sun Sugar tomato, I decided to purchase cages from Texas Tomato Cages. On my order are MDC6 6 Medium 20″ Diameter Cages @ 169.99, which are 6 foot cages, coming 6 per pack. I already have 2 collapsible cages from a previous purchase, but from a different source (got them from Calloways), but these Texas cages are definitely quality. Yes, my math didn’t quite match the number of tomato plants I plan to grow, so I may have to get more cages. They are in-state so shipping is fast.
Cuttings and Seeds Spring Edition
It’s been a busy week sowing seeds and taking cuttings, not to mention putting new plants into the ground and all around maintenance. Weather has been mild enough to promote outdoor yardwork. Hey, it’s spring!
Potted lavender needed haircuts, so the White Anouk and Lavender Lady got pruned down to the base. I kept some Anouk cuttings to see if I could get them to root.
Other cuttings include silver thyme, golden sage, variegated berggarten sage, and catnip. I sheared half the catnip bush sitting in the Rogue Bed to give the Silver Fountain gaura some room, plus propagate more plants for the catkids, who are delighting and rolling in all the pots that house them. This particular catnip has a very lemony fresh scent, one that I hope to make more child plants out of.
As for seeds, I’ve indoor sowed mirabilis jalapa, Thai long green eggplant, lemon bee balm, Korean hyssop and Sirius blue sage. I’m also giving the habaneros another go, and started some Fish Pepper as well. I hope that starting in soilless sterile mix plus 80F+ temperatures will produce better germination rates in the habanero peppers. My previous success with ornamental peppers did not prepare me for the stubborn nature of the spicy hot ones.
For outdoor sowing, I decided to chance the mild weather and broadcast flower seeds directly into the flower beds: lemon bee balm, marigolds, cosmos and zinnias. The majority of these were from my stash of Botanical Interests seed packets that I received earlier in the month.
Unboxing: Colonial Creek Farm
I love purchasing budget friendly plants from Colonial Creek Farm. They always have a great selection of herbs and pollinator plants.
| Kitten Around Catmint x1 |
| John Whittlesey Salvia x1 |
| Mirage Rose Bi-Color Salvia x1 |
| African Blue Basil x2 |
This year, I get to grow African Blue Basil! I also purchased a dwarf catmint. Can you guess which one of the plants pictured attracted the kitties?
I also picked up Rose Bicolor Salvia. I had this plant last year but lost them to the heat. I did get another specimen from Denton Plant Factory.
Will It Live: Fern Edition
I’ve been fretting about the ferns in the shade bed. Since nearly everything but the ferns and hostas have emerged, I’m getting a little anxious to see if they made it through the freeze.
The ferns in question are of three varieties: two specimens of Japanese painted fern, Anisocampium niponicum, and two specimens of Silver Brake ferns, Pteris argyraea (?), and a clover fern, Marsilea macropoda,
The marsilea overwintered in the garage, but perished when I moved it inside in March. But I had already anticipated getting another specimen from Painted Flower Farm.
The Silver Brake ferns were marked for zone 9 hardiness according to the Lowes plant tag, so they could have been misidentified/mislabeled. Instead of Pteris quadriaurita argyraea, these may actually be Pteris cretica, at least based on the image lookups I’ve performed. Regardless, I didn’t expect them to resurrect. But I potted up the rootballs anyway to make room for an assortment of new plants.
The Japanese painted ferns were giving me the itch to go buy new ones. But I waited them out.
