Tag Archives: texasgardens

Plant Wishlist Spring 2024

My plant wishlist for 2024 stayed surprisingly modest. I still had some plants from previous years that definitely stayed in my plant shopping consciousness early this spring.

I pulled the trigger on one of those wishlist items in March when I attended Rose Weekend at North Haven Gardens.

My Rock N Roll rose now sits in a spot vacated by previous rose tenants. It displayed some new leaf growth and as of today is tipped with rosebuds.

In a previous post, I lamented the lack of volunteer basils this year. So I added African blue basils to my wish, which I will likely have to shop for to obtain the sterile version.

My stock tank garden is sparsely populated with green onions. I got a heads up that there may be some heat tolerant romaine lettuces in the market that I can try to grow. However, I need to figure out what’s been grazing on the plants in one of my stock tanks. The green onions and chives that I planted in it have been razed to the ground. I may have to drop some marigolds in there just to deter pests.

This past weekend on May 11th, I attended the Denton County Master Gardener garden tour. It was an opportunity to see how Denton county gardeners beautified their outdoor spaces. I enjoyed walking through four yards and a community garden, got to talk to homeowners as well as docents who volunteered their time to manage this tour.

I got really excited when I spotted some must-haves for my wish list at the tour. Flame Thrower redbuds, purple coneflowers, Egyptian walking onions, and a variegated Turks cap won my attention.

As soon as I got home, I shopped Etsy and found variegated Turks caps for sale at a vendor in South Carolina. Sold!!!

A couple of homes heavily featured native plantings which made me appreciate more the Texas tough perennials and annuals that thrive in our climate.

Overall, it was a great tour and we enjoyed mild weather to walk through all the beautiful yardscapes.

Primrose in Pink

I discovered that plucky pink primrose growing and blooming in between the flagstone in my front yard flower bed. The species version is blooming out in the wild fields surrounding the neighborhood, but in my flowerbed it is getting bullied by Gregg’s Mistflower. I would love to see more of these Oenothera berlandieri ‘Siskiyou’ blooming in my beds, but I realize I may need to have something blooming that lasts all season, rather than the spring show.

Admittedly it’s not planted in a very sunny spot but I admire it’s determination.

Hose Reel Repair

I finally got around to repairing my Eley Hose Reel. I purchased the Eley Portable Garden Hose Reel Cart back in 2020 after I got weary of storing my garden hoses and needed a better way to keep them stashed. The previous cheap “plastic” storage reel kept leaking and proved hard to roll up with each passing year.

Apparently a common point of failure on the original Eley hose reels was the brass swivel. Extreme cold temperatures would cause the fittings to expand and contract, which basically caused leaks starting in 2022. The fitting finally broke off in 2023, which rendered the reel rather useless. I was able to troubleshoot my swivel issues and determined that it had been subjected to that expansion, whereby the swivel fittings had broken loose.

The new brass swivel took about 15 minutes to install; instructions on how to replace the part were clearly printed on the box. A YouTube video also helped clarify the replacement process. Once I swapped out the parts, the swivel worked perfectly with no leaks and I was back in business again.

Instructions on the box, the old swivel
Some disassembly required
The new swivel
Repair complete!

End of March Garden Scenes

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.