25 Random Things about Gardening

A list has been going around Facebook called, “25 Random Things.” When you receive it, you’re supposed to write 25 random facts about yourself. A friend did it for her blog about Celiac’s Disease (www.thesavvyceliac.com) and I thought it sounded like a good idea for the topic of gardening. So, here goes:

1. No matter how large or small your garden, there is always room for improvement.

2. St. John’s Wort and spearmint (the entire mint family for that matter) is best kept in containers (unless you want it invading your entire garden).

3. Knockout roses truly are disease resistant and bloom a lot during the Texas growing season.

4. Never plant rosemary too close to the house or near areas where children play because it attracts a lot of bees.

5. If you plant hanging baskets in Texas be prepared to give them a good soaking every morning (and sometimes in the evening, too) in July, August and September.

6. Never underestimate the importance of dead-heading and pruning.

7. A Moonflower plant is extremely drought-tolerant, loves the sun, blooms beautiful big, white flowers at dusk and has an enormous root system. If you let it grow past 6 inches tall and then you decide you don’t want it, be prepared to dig a long, LONG way down to get rid of the roots. And, if you don’t get rid of the roots entirely, the Moonflower will definitely reappear!

8. Don’t let the dainty facade of the Cypress Vine fool you. It is very hardy, loves the sun and heat and will drop a bunch of seeds ensuring you’ll have plenty more next year. You’ll also find it in several locations throughout your yard!

9. A new favorite plant for me is Plumbago. It seems to love the Texas sun and heat and blooms almost continually.

10. Just because a nursery tag says “full sun” on the label, does not always mean it’s meant for full TEXAS sun.

11. There is almost nothing better for your garden than amending the soil in the spring (and maybe even fall, too!).

12. A few of my favorite Texas annuals are: Vinca (a lot of people call this periwinkle), Wave Pentunia, Sweet Potato Vine (almost every color) and Purple Fountain Grass

13. A few of my favorite perennials are: Daylilies, Russian Sage, Moonflower, Summer Phlox, Creeping Phlox and Blue Salvia

14. No matter how early spring starts in Texas, you can almost always count on a freeze around Easter.

15. There is almost nothing more beautiful than Texas wildflowers – bluebonnets, in particular – growing along the state’s roadsides and ranch lands.

16. In my experience most “pass-along” plants are passed along for a reason – they go to seed or creep like wildfire!

17. Too much rain in the spring can kill drought-tolerant plants.

18. There really is something great about growing your own tomatoes.

19. Kids LOVE growing their own gardens (and harvesting them). It’s a great learning experience for everyone. My kids especially love growing strawberries!

20. Herbs I love to have in my garden are Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley, Chives, Cilantro and Basil.

21. Sometimes you just have to take chances in the garden – be open to trying new plants.

22. Rejoice in the successes and learn from the failures.

23. Gardens can be therapeutic – especially when enjoying their beauty!

24. Nothing is more rewarding for all your hard work than seeing flowers in full bloom.

25. Don't be afraid to get dirty -- most of the time it is worth the effort.

The Eye of the Beholder

Nearly all people that work hard in their yards will tell you that, without a doubt, dandelions are weeds and they have no business making a home in their lawns and gardens. But, no matter how hard we try to kill them organically, manually or chemically those pesky suckers just keep coming back.

However, not everyone considers the dandelion to be a weed. To the under 10 crowd, in fact, the dandelion is a flower – and a very beautiful one. When my 4-year-old daughter sees a dandelion, her face lights up like a Christmas tree. She’ll run across rugged terrain and boys holding Nerf guns just to pick one.

To this age group, it does not matter if the dandelion is in full bloom in all its yellow glory or if it is white as snow bursting with seeds. It just begs to be picked. They must hold it in their hands, give it away to moms, grandmothers and teachers or – best of all –blow it into the wind.

And, it’s because every toddler, preschooler and elementary school kid in America must blow the dandelion seeds into the wind that we will always have little yellow flowers growing freely amongst our beloved grass. I don’t care if you use Scott’s, Ortho or the mother-of-all herbicides -- the dandelion is not going away any time soon.

The gardener in me dislikes the dandelion. But, I have to confess that it does have the tendency to win me over at times. Today, I received a handful of dandelions from my kids when we picnicked outside. As they ran around and picked every flower they could find, they proudly placed them into my hands. They gave them to me as if they were giving me buried treasure. I cherish these moments and, because of this, the dandelion will always hold a special place in my heart -- even if it is a weed.

Update:

This morning while driving to preschool my daughter was looking out of the car window from the back seat. Out of the blue she said, "Mom...I love dandelions."

I had to chuckle to myself because I had just written this post. Then I said to her, "Really? Why do you love dandelions?" Her response? "I love to blow the seeds."

All I could say to myself was, "I rest my case."

Always Ready to Share

I’m definitely a novice when it comes to gardening. My yard is not “show” quality. I don’t know everything there is to know about plants (or landscaping). I am not a Master Gardener. I don’t have a leg up on what Internet or garden catalog companies are the best. I buy plants from all sorts of places including Wal Mart, Lowe’s, Home Depot as well as specialty garden centers (and I’ve gotten pass along plants from friends). I’m learning as I go. In short, I am simply a person who loves plants, appreciates beautiful gardens and aspires to have one myself someday.

Over the past few years I have learned a ton about various plants through the school of hard knocks. I have succeeded and failed. Parts of my garden have flourished and others have failed miserably. I have gotten my hands dirty and even thrown out my back by splitting and relocating plants, moving stepping stones and the ever popular and always necessary task of weeding. Even so, I still have loads to learn.

That’s really why I started this blog. I began this endeavor for several reasons:

-I am a writer and wanted to write about something I’m passionate about.
-I love plants and find myself utterly frustrated and completely elated at times – I needed an outlet.
-I’m hoping through others I may be able to transfer information and knowledge about plants and thus, shorten the learning curve.
-Maybe through my trials others like me can learn something.
-This blog will help me keep record of what I do each year so I can refer to it if necessary (the memory is not so great these days!).
-I can meet other online gardening friends.

So, I can’t promise to be the world’s greatest resource, but I can promise that I am always trying, always learning and always ready to share my successes and failures.

The Crazy Composter

I have a confession to make. I steal from my daughter’s preschool. (This also happens to be my place of employment as well as a Presbyterian church.)

Okay, well it’s not really stealing. It’s my job at the end of each preschool day to clean up the coffee pot in the kitchen. The church does not recycle or compost so I am supposed to just throw the used coffee grounds in the trash. Well, it just seemed plain wasteful to me – a gardener and a composter – to throw out those valuable coffee grounds. So, you guessed it, I started bringing them home. So, it’s really not stealing. It’s stuff that would have been thrown out anyway (at least that’s what I tell myself).

The first time I did this, I accidentally left the grounds in a container in my classroom. One of the teachers took one look at it and after ascertaining that the contents were indeed coffee grounds, she guessed it must belong to me (I guess I have “crazy composter” written all over me). When I saw her the next day she gave me a strange look and asked, “Is this yours?”

I admit it was a little embarrassing. I mean, who saves coffee grounds for God’s sake? When people learned what I was doing they did look at me a little differently. (You know the look…it’s the same look a dog gives you when you ask it a question and it cocks its head to the side.)

My embarrassment lasted about two seconds. This stuff was gold to me! My husband and I don’t drink coffee so being able to bring some grounds home for my compost bin was like hitting the mother load. Just the thought of that stuff enriching my compost pile, and eventually my garden had me singing in the car all the way home!

Sure, I could hit up the local Starbucks (which I have not completely ruled out, by the way), but why bother when I can get it from work?

So, before you throw out the grounds in your coffee filter each morning, just think of me, other gardeners, the planet, etc. and maybe you’ll be inspired to start your own compost bin. After all, it’s not nearly as embarrassing as stealing composting ingredients from a church.

February Flu Bug

It’s February 17 and I’m already wrist deep into planning my spring garden. The timing seems about right. Just about this time each year I start noticing sure signs of spring -- a few green leaves poking through the barren ground, the bud of a daffodil and a few buds on trees or shrubs. Just the sight of these phenomena sends me into a tailspin. The mere prospect of new spring growth causes the gardening gene in me to resurface. Maybe I should call it the “gardening bug” instead of gene. It’s like an illness that I have no control over and from which I am failing to recover.

Every August as I look at my brown, wilting garden, I swear that I am not going to buy a million plants next spring. I swear I will not fall prey to beautiful garden landscapes in magazines, local garden club plant sales or neighbors enticing displays of nature’s wonder. Instead, I swear that I will dig up all flowering and out-of-control perennials, replace them with standard builder-grade landscaping shrubs and call it a season. I’ll become a container gardener…just have a few, gorgeous containers, and let the yard be a boring, clean-cut, landscape that is relatively easy to keep up. But, nooooo. Each February, the bug bites and I am totally and utterly screwed.

I mean, I just came home from WalMart with gardening supplies for God’s sake. It’s February and even here in North Texas, it’s a little premature! The real reason for the trip? To buy Tylenol, soup, crackers and Sprite for my son who is home from school with the flu. Oh sure, I came home with the stuff for my son, but I also came home with 2 seed starter kits and a new hanging basket for my backyard -- a basket that I will not be able to fill with plants for at least 6 weeks.

Okay, I will confess that my WalMart purchase was premeditated. I am trying something different this year that makes my early gardening spending spree plausible – dare I say, even downright smart! I am trying to save money by starting plants from seed this year.

I have started some plants from seed in the past with relative success but I have never done it for the majority of my garden. But this year I am going to try to start all my annuals and a few perennials from seed. Crazier yet, I am going to do this all within the confines of my small laundry room. This should be interesting, maybe even crazy! Am I delirious?

For now, however, I am going to feel good about my new venture. I’m even excited about it! Yep, the gardening bug has gotten me good again this year. I didn’t even have to crack open a spring issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Dang, here I go again.

The Accidental Gardener

I am an accidental gardener. By “accidental” I mean that I didn’t plan to be a gardener. It just sort of happened. It happened because I am a sucker for nature’s beauty – especially in the form of flowers.

So, when my husband and I moved into a new house eight years ago I bought a few annuals to fill the space where the builder’s winter flowers had been. Then, I decided I didn’t like the arrangement the builder had created, which led to ripping out shrubs, flowers, etc. After I tackled the front yard, I moved onto the back. The back needed perennials. After all, I didn’t want to be planting a jillion annuals every year back there. Then, I realized that not all perennials are created equal. This led to the constant roaming of local nurseries. The next thing I knew I was gardening.

I have to confess, it came as a surprise – being called a gardener. Four years ago when my husband’s relatives were in town visiting, his aunt looked at my yard and said, “Julie, you’re a gardener!” Say what?

I denied it at first. “No,” I told her. “I just like plants.”

“Yes! You’re a gardener!”

Then, I looked around and decided she might be right.

I still didn’t like my landscape creation. It still needed tweaking. Heck, it is four years later and my yard still needs major tweaking – maybe even an overhaul! (But, hey, I’ve discovered that all gardeners feel this way and that’s why we’re always puttering in the garden.)

So, I have now accepted the label. I am a gardener. I may gripe about it, I may think I’m crazy sometimes, but there is nothing like sitting amidst the beauty of nature. So, here I am, forever, an accidental gardener.