It Blew Right By.....

  

The fourth anniversary of 

Patchwork Garden,

that is.

FOUR YEARS!

And, I missed it.  We've been busy weeding, and raking and

weeding and raking some more.

Lots of things have changed around here, in four years.

This was the view out the kitchen window,

that I posted on the first blog post.

This view hasn't changed too much.

April 24, 2013

Other views have, though....more than once.

And, I've taken you along with me.

April 24, 2013

Projects have been finished...and, finished again.

One blog friend calls that

RE-gardening.

A perfect description.

April 24, 2013

You've listened to my whining...about weather, and drought and...

...of course, our sweet little deer. (ahem)

There have been some travels.

And, celebrations of family and friends.

Thanks to all of you, who have taken this journey with me.

I've learned a lot from you, and hope I've been able to impart some knowledge, as well.

I plan to have more things to share.

For now....it's back to the weeding and raking.

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

Foliage Follow-Up....April, 2013....

Today is the day we join 

Pam at Digging,
for
Foliage Follow-Up.

I have LOTS of foliage, around here.
Blooms...not so much, yet.

So, here we go:

The front bed is hanging in there.
An unknown Agave, in the pot.
Sabal minor palm, in back.
Powis Castle Artemesia.
Sago palm.

Over to the side, is a Golden Barrel cactus.

It's been living in a pot for about a year.
Hope it gets bigger in the ground.

The Island Bed is looking good.
Getting the weeds out, and putting down new mulch.
Love the Mexican Feathergrass.  It's tough stuff.

The Yucca rostrata is putting on new growth.

So is the Prickly Pear.

And, this Softleaf yucca is putting out new leaves.
The deer had made a mess of the top of this one.

I have Powis Castle artemesia in a lot of places.
It's sturdy and the deer usually leave it alone.  This one got 'trimmed' a little this last winter.
But, doing really well now.

Inland Sea Oats.  Barely nipped.
The deer always have to try something new and fresh.  But, they usually leave it alone later.

Fortnight lily.  This will be it's third year, but I doubt I get any blooms.
Not enough sun here for that.  But, the deer don't touch it and it's evergreen.

This Lamb's Ear is one I brought from my old garden.
All the newer ones died.

The striped leaf canna is trying hard.  We keep having cold mornings.
Hopefully, they'll be over soon.

This is one of three Feverfew...and the last one alive...I planted three years ago.
I love the bright green, and it's evergreen. .It's never bloomed.  Could this be the year?

We put in a Japanese Aralia, hoping it will fill this space.

Variegated Dianella and Purple heart should make a nice combo.

Dusty Miller....another tough one and deer have never touched it.
It's in several spots, too.

Chrysanthemum Pacifica....not great bloom, but really nice foliage.
I saw it listed as a ground cover recently, and that's what this seems to be doing.
This one has been here for several years...little water...little sun.

I replaced the deer-eaten Japanese Holly Fern, on the front porch.
I'm keeping this one sprayed.  Makes a lovely-scented welcome, to visitors...ha.
Mostly, they've left these alone, though.

And, finally...the grape vine is really putting on new growth.
This was a gift, with the purchase of a ticket, to the
Texas Hill Country Wildflower and Wine Trail Tour,
a couple years ago.  We bought four tickets, got two vines and one died.
But, this one is pretty, and fenced in, in the Veggie Garden.

***********

From the Daily Whine Department:

We're still fighting the Cedar Elm seedlings.
They were dug out of this bed...twice...and then the bed was remulched.
And here we have them AGAIN.
Will it ever end???

Thank you for listening.

***********
Last...on a more serious and sobering note:
Yesterday's bombing, in Boston, was a horrible and sad event.
I really don't understand the mentality of people who can do this kind of evil.
What goes through their minds?  What kind of Devils do they have inside?

I guess from here, all we can do is pray for those lost or injured,
and all those who know and love them.

Again...when will it ever end?

~~Linda~~

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day...April,2013

It's been a long time, since I've joined in with Carol at

May Dreams Garden
for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Things are perking up around here,
but, I still don't have much blooming yet.

The one iris I have has bloomed.  It didn't for two years.
This is the only one that came all the way out.  Three other blooms were
'stuck', inside the leaves.  Not sure what that was about.

The Bougainvillea that has lived on the porch all winter...being covered and uncovered...
has been putting on new growth and blooms for a while.

I trimmed the Salvia greggii way back, a couple months ago, so it will bush out more.
It's beginning to give us some blooms.

The Jerusalem Sage is full of buds.  Some are beginning to open up.
Love these Dr. Seuss type blooms.

I moved this Silver Germander last fall, and trimmed it way back.
It's finally putting on new growth and a few blooms.

This Mealy Blue sage has multiplied, and is putting out some blooms.

It's such a pretty blue.  Not sure what the 'Mealy' part of the name is about.

The Stella d'Oro daylily is budding.
Some say this is an overused daylily.  But, I like the way it keeps on going.
The other daylilies here, are not budding out yet.

And last, but not least....the Ruby Chrystal Grass is blooming.
I thought it was a fall bloomer.  But, all the ones I have are blooming.
And, they made it through the hard freezes we've had.

Well....
That's All Folks.

Wish I had more.  But, it will come.
We're having very warm weather today.  But, they're saying we'll have
some cold mornings again, by the end of the week.
I may be covering some things...again.

Be sure to visit Carol at
May Dreams Garden
for more blooms, from around the world.

Happy Gardening...
~~Linda~~

This and That on Thursday...

Again...it's been busy around here.

New projects and working outside.

We had a very nice Easter.

I hope you did, too.

More and more signs of Spring.

The Virginia Creeper, on the fence, seemed to leaf out, overnight.

The Cyclamen is still blooming....not much, but some.

A new Indian Hawthorn we planted recently, is blooming.

I thought it had been burned by the cold mornings.

There are even some blooms on the Ruby Chrystal grass by the Rio.

I thought this would be an annual here.  But, this is it's third year.

The things growing best, are these Cedar Elm seedlings.

Hundred....thousands...of these little seedlings.

I've dug them out of all the beds once....some beds twice.

And still, they keep coming.  I think it's from the strange fall bloom we had.

It's one of the frustrating things about gardening here.  You think you have a job done...

a project finished...and then you have to REdo it.

Lots of time, energy...and, MONEY...goes into it.  And, that delays other

projects you might want to get done.

But, we keep on keeping on.

We got the walkway put in, in the Front Bed.

I still need to get out and find a Bamboo Muhly for the back of the bed part.

But so far, it's made it easier to get to the faucet to turn on the soaker hoses.

We did get almost two inches of rain, the last three days.

That will help a lot.

The weather is still squirrely.....it was 86 on Tuesday

and, didn't get out of the low 50s yesterday.

We're still lugging plants in and out.

We had hundreds of American Goldfinches come through, the other day.

Mr. P. was able to get a pretty good shot of one.

Isn't he pretty?

***********

And, lastly....from the What the Heck Department....

I turned on my computer Monday, and the desktop...the screen thing...was all rearranged.

The wallpaper was a default Toshiba one.

And, ALL MY PHOTOS WERE GONE.

GONE!!!

Nobody seems to know why.

I'm not too happy, to say the least.

But, it's not complete devastation.

I blog.  

In fact, I have THREE blogs.

All those photos are stored online, with Picasa Web Albums.

Plus, I have a couple other online album storage.

And, when we got the new laptop, we couldn't sync the new with the old.

I had to burn CDs to transfer photos.

Whew...that saved a lot.

And, I think I've learned my lesson...again...

BACK UP YOUR FILES!!

***********

So...that's what's been happening here.

We have more busy-ness coming up.

So, it might be another couple of weeks before I'm back here.

In the mean time...

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~