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wantonamara

What are you doing in the Garden now?

What are you guys up to in the garden now? Got any garden worthy christmas presents?

I got my self an interesting hoe for christmas from my Husband and have been wailing away at the KR Bluestem. I like it. Heavy duty hoe with an interesting shape.

I also am slowly building a raised bed that drapes off a slightly on a slight slope where I am bringing in some NICE soil (for a change) for some actual garden plants like plumbago, not my normal tough as nails xeric plants.. I want some color in a break between some trees, so I was thinking plumbago and mexican oregano, mexican honeysuckle. It has been a lot of 10 gallon pots of dirt in the back of a small hatchback. A lot of trips but it slowly grows.I will get a picture of it tomorrow.

Today I was also moving some seedlings of a mexican astragalus lentigenosus and Mentzelia decapetala from New Mexico. I got blast off in my beds of sandy gravely xeric beds, and I am now experimenting with them out their in the wild boonies in various soil deposits. They seem to move well with out shock when they are tiny. They establish taproots in a hurry so it is now or never. I moved seedlings that are too crowded of poppies and standing cypress. I see tahoka daisies too close to some cactus , so out it goes. I am getting lots of liatris sprouting in caliche washes that I planted. That excites me. It is tough to get things started in the hot washes. Matter of fact this spring excites me. I can feel the moisture and the awakening land sighing in pleasure.

I think the spring will be a dousey. I see colorful things ahead for all of us. My blue bonnets are going gooooooood. I have never had good luck with them and I gt some seed from the neighborhood.

Here is a bed that I have been working on all summer bringing in xeric soil since it is right on rock and even agave's don't like it much.It should be a lot more colorful this spring. Right now it looks unimpressive and will need time to grow into itself. I am moving a bunch of tiny seedlings into it now. It is the finishing touches .

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So , what are you guys doing out in your gardens on this cool winter day. We had a nice sun but 33 mile per hour winds.

Here is a link that might be useful: My new KIller Hoe

Comments (17)

  • sylviatexas1
    9 years ago

    Your xeric bed looks great, & that hoe looks lethal (wouldn't wanna be a weed when you take that thing out in the garden)!

    Yesterday I moved stuff from one place to another;

    moved a stack of landscape timbers out behind the garage,

    moved the "pot ghetto" from beneath a glass-topped table where the cuttings had been protected from the direct sun,

    dumped bags of leaves into the leaf corrals,

    moved a Rubbermaid Tote "water garden" so that I can walk around it,

    moved what seemed like a great deal of tree trimmings out of their big pile into beds & walkways.

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    OH GAWD!, don't even mention the pot ghetto. I think I have a carload of plastic shizz to take to the recyclers.A mini tornado made itself at home there this summer, and topped the mess off with some broken tree limbs. I should start a thread of What is your #1 garden chore you really really do not want to do. I wish the pot ghetto would fit under a table.

    This post was edited by wantonamara on Sat, Dec 27, 14 at 17:45

  • castro_gardener
    9 years ago

    Hey Mara ! Yep, my pot ghetto needs cleaning out, too. If anybody needs some, write me. I got a nice ergonomic trowel. Have been wanting one, but was trying to wear out my others first. Waste not, want not ! But family in Michigan sent me one so I'm giddy to try it out. Not today.... it's nasty out there! We piled up the pecan leaves the other day when it was nice out and now I need to move them to my beds. Christmas eve morning was 26 degrees and everything that didn't turn brown earlier this fall, is now crunchy. Need to go check on the greenhouse and turn on the heater if it's going to freeze tonite. Happy New Year, Mara !

  • PKponder TX Z7B
    9 years ago

    Mara, what a brute of a hoe that is! I can envision you out there attacking the bedrock to make a home for a native. I bet that would work on tree roots too.

    We got some fall cleanup done finally.
    Anyone else in my area noticing a lot fewer leaves this fall? We usually mulch mow some of the leaves into the small lawn and gardens and store two big bins of mulched leaves for future compost. This year we chopped the leaves smaller and mulched some gardens that I am trying to enrich and we have nothing for the bins. I am going to need to shred paper or go on a bag grabbing mission to fill at least one bin.

    My hubby is making unhappy noises about the pot ghetto and the sheer number of individual plants out there, so I'm thinking hard about what I truly love and planning a more cohesive garden for the years to come. I am a bit of a 'collector' and have one of these and one of those.

    I have thinned my tropicals to the point that I only have three areas of them in windows for winter. We brought them inside yesterday.
    The cold frame is packed but many fewer pots in the house than last year.
    We tried a heavy layer of sand on top and in the pots this year to knock back the fungus gnats.

    I trimmed up a yaupon in preparation for moving it to another area. We are finally building the rainwater harvest stands for those big tanks. We have had the tanks and fencing to hide them for at least a year, just sitting there looking tacky. Our neighbors will be ecstatic!

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    PK, I work a lot with a pick axe, and I am a firm believer in finding a tool with the proper weight for the job. It saves on energy spent if one can get the weight to do most of the work. Most hoes just bounce off my land. The metal is wimpy. I am then left with having to wail at it and I end up breaking my tools. The pick axe was too thin in shape for popping out the grass rosettes . When I saw these tools when looking at grass seed, I thought they looked like the right thing for the job. I am a lot less tired after doing a whole bunch of grass removal.

    This post was edited by wantonamara on Mon, Dec 29, 14 at 17:53

  • sylviatexas1
    9 years ago

    pk, OPBL (other people's bagged leaves, a term I learned on the Soil Compost & Mulch Forum) run me nuts!

    Why do people imprison all that beautiful, rich, nutritious organic material, in *plastic bags* yet, to be sent to the landfill to be wasted???

    so I pick up (I *have* to pick up) any bagged leaves I find.

    result:
    more leaves than I can spread out, unless I want a layer of leaves about 2' deep all over the place.

    so I built a couple of leaf corrals.

    I fastened one end of a roll of hardware cloth (heavyish wire fabric with a small squares) to the chain link fence, using some pieces of wire I had on hand, may have been picture-hanging wire, unrolled the hardware cloth so that it made a pouch about 2' out from the fence, & fastened the other end to the fence.

    The fence looks like a sort of momma kangaroo with a 5' tall pouch of leaves.

  • PKponder TX Z7B
    9 years ago

    I have a couple of big wire 'bins' made from pig fencing that are free standing. After we use the leaves, I just roll it up and store it. I am on the lookout for OPBL :-). We will need them this year.

    We got he yaupon moved but had to finally use the truck and a tow strap to wrestle it free. I top pruned it by 2/3 and hope that it makes it. It looks awesome in it's new spot!

  • pinkkpearls
    9 years ago

    This past week I put in all my tulip, hyacinth, daffs, and crocus in the ground and in pots. and I scattered more poppy seeds (probably went overboard) outside. Inside I started some Lobelia, Moonflower, and some Rose of Sharon. This weekend I plan to clean up the corner in my garage of tools, gloves, dirt, etc. as it is starting to look unsightly. After that, I will rest my busy body and try not to glare out the windows at what will become SPRING!

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Gardeners all have secret pigsties. I guess there must be an exception to the rule but my experience is , the larger the garden , the larger the ghetto. God help you if you get into serious propagation with stacks of flats and stacks and stacks of 4" pots all falling apart. quarts and gallon pots. multiple sizes and saw horses to get them above hopping toad height. old hoses, rotten hoes that you are saving for a sculpture. collected rock and stepping stones, bags of amendments , fertilizers pesticides, organic vinegar, soap, gloves. It only gets worse.

  • sunnysa
    9 years ago

    Pinkk, Ha, I did what you did not want to do... I gazed out the window and dreamed of Spring time!

    Mara, We do a secret pigsty.... only it is not so secret. It's out behind our shed... much to the dismay of the nearby neighbor. But, he 'rewards' us by hanging his deck mop out to dry... right next to our plot of turks cap. In our defense, DH does eliminate the pile every spring whereas his ugly mop is ever present (in all our photos). :-)

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Sunny, Seems like a lattice with thick vine is called for that mop spot.

  • sunnysa
    9 years ago

    Mara, that's a great idea! We did that on the other side and we already have some leftover lattice. That would make a picture perfect backdrop for the turks cap. Thanks for the tip!

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Cheaper than that would be to pin some fake eyes on it and make it into a cute lawn critter.

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    9 years ago

    Make the eyes pointing back to the perpetuator of the hung mop and give him a startle ... LOL ... ;-)

    Mara, that is truly a killer hoe. And my -- what strong muscles you'll have, not that they are pretty darn strong already. And you're newly planted area looks GREAT!

    I got to play outside part of the last two days. I moved some things (I'm always moving stuff!), dug out one of the Rangoon creepers and have two little plants for the swap, also planted root pieces in hopes they'll make new plants, planted the last of the plants from the last swap, cleaned up some frozen back foliage, and stuff like that. Generally had fun!

    Nice to hear what all of y'all are doing!

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Ragna. I was talking about reaching over the fence and pinning the fake eyes on the hanging mop and making it into a cute garden beasty.

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    9 years ago

    Mara, that's a very neat idea for solving the problem by making the mop into something photogenic.

    Mine was just a little different ... :-)

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Here's the photo of the bed I am building. I still need more timbers and more dirt to carry it on. Their ar gobs of seedlings sprouting all around it.
    {{gwi:2132116}}