2016 – APRIL ANNIE’S GARDEN DAY

This post, 2016 – APRIL ANNIE’S GARDEN DAY, was written by Diva Glinda/ Annieinaustin for the Divas of the Dirt blog 

We Divas of the Dirt won’t work in non-stop downpours but we can still get some gardening done if the showers are brief and intermittent. That’s what happened last April when Diva Annie had her turn as hostess on a day that mixed sun, drizzle and rain.

Six Divas of the Dirt - Mindy, Karla, Mattie, Buffy, Glinda and hostess Annie sat down for breakfast at this pretty table. Crystal cups holding tiny pots of succulents paraded down the center surrounded by lovely vintage plates in floral patterns.

Diva Sophia was at a meeting and would arrive later.

Although Sugar was out of town, her two pups Junior and Skeeter were staying at Annie’s house. Since Annie also has two dogs (Chip & Dale) and Mattie’s dog Barbie came along to visit, the canine element was well represented! Here are Chip and Skeeter.

Annie made yummy Baked Muffin Eggs – a layer of hash browned potatoes was topped with ham, sauteed peppers and crowned with an egg before popping them in the oven.

She also served waffles – with a choice of regular or gluten free batter.

A big fruit bowl held strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and pineapple and Annie also gave us a choice of three kinds of juice.

What a lovely breakfast - how we enjoyed visiting with each other while disappearing the goodies that Annie had made for us!

When we went out to work after breakfast we had to take time to look around – the relatively mild weather meant that the Mexican Honeysuckle continued to bloom while Crossvine blossoms hung in colorful swags near the gate. And the Anacacho Orchid was already in full bloom.

We worked in small groups at first – branches from the Arizona Ash were overhanging the porch and house - Mindy and Glinda decided to go after some of them with the pole pruner.

Annie and Buffy were ready to clip and weed the central bed where Phlomis AKA Jerusalem Sage and Cyclamen were in bloom.

The front triangle and median bed also needed clipping and weeding so Karla and Mattie took on the assignment. Soon Sophia arrived and as we progressed, just about everyone worked on the beds in the parkway – Annie has a lot of Mexican Honeysuckle!

Yard bags of debris were soon marching down the driveway, awaiting pickup. At one point we were chased in by lightning to wait for the weather to clear a little. We went out again and were just getting back in the rhythm of work when zap! More lightning chased us inside again and Annie declared that it was time for lunch.

The fiesta that Annie unveiled was great – chicken tacos, shrimp tacos and black beans. Annie cooked and peeled seasoned shrimp. She cooked chicken thighs, then ingeniously used a hand mixer to shred the cooked meat.

For toppings she had two kinds of sauce, tomatoes, cilantro, queso, shredded lettuce and  avocado – all on corn tortillas.

Even the beverages were festive – delicious Italian sodas in citrus flavors, found at the local HEB.

Dessert was almost decadent. Annie followed a Martha Stewart recipe for flourless chocolate cake, topped with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.

Dear reader, I wish you could taste this delicious cake …

We went outside again and this time had a good dry spell. Soon more of the Arizona Ash was pruned away from the top of the fence. We snipped a little at the Vitex/Chaste Tree but could see that it had expanded beyond the scope of our tools – taming that tree called for a chain saw. The loppers worked well to remove dead wood from the interiors of the Almond Verbena and the Texas Mountain Laurel.

Some new plants went into beds, borders and containers, including violets, scabiosa/Cushion Flower, Kangaroo Paw, Baptisia and skullcaps.

We made a lot of progress but only had time to begin to spread the bags of mulch.

By the time our day ended it was dark and the rain had restarted. We were tired and our hostess was even more weary than we were, but Annie is indomitable! She’d promised to take part in the CAP 10K the next day and she got over that finish line in less than 2 hours.

This post, 2016 – APRIL ANNIE’S GARDEN DAY, was written by Diva Glinda/ Annieinaustin for the Divas of the Dirt blog