2017 – MARCH and APRIL, KARLA and MINDY

This post, 2017- March and April, Karla and Mindy was written by Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.

MARCH

Rain spoiled Karla’s plans for an early March meeting – she changed the date to later in the month. On the original day Glinda snapped a photo of her drenched Rosa mutabilis.

In early March the bluebonnets began blooming at Mindy’s house

A few days later the St Joseph lilies were in flower at Mattie’s house

In mid-March the fragrant peach iris had started to bloom at Mindy’s.

 

A week later the peach iris was blooming at Glinda’s house.

The following weekend Karla had better luck with the weather. She needed spring cleaning help and also promised a “murder mystery”

Tulips graced Karla’s pretty table.

Her native Bauhinia lunarioides/Anacacho Orchid tree – memorial to a loved one - was in bloom.

Karla’s clump of the passalong fragrant peach iris were now in bloom, along with Blue-eyed grass.

The Divas got beds weeded, plants reset and mulched.

And the murder mystery?  Crepe Murder! Well, not exactly murder but maybe ABH, Assault to Boughs with Harm? When a tree goes bad there is often no easy answer… digging an old crepe myrtle up and planting a “right-sized” new one may be prohibitively expensive while a severe chop might give the tree another chance.

APRIL

For her meeting in April, Mindy had dry weather but a very small crew… an avalanche of external events kept Mattie, Glinda, Sugar and Sophia from coming. On the other hand, Mindy, Karla, Annie and Buffy got a lot done and had fun doing it. They weeded and planted and got the beds in order and declared the lunch delicious. 

After the Divas left, Mindy and Warren worked to clear unwanted cedar that was smothering wanted trees like this Eve’s Necklace.

That pile of prunings is quite impressive!

Previously shredded trees had turned into mulch for the renewed borders – looking good Mindy & Warren!

This post, 2017- March and April, Karla and Mindy was written by Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.

2015-MARCH MATTIE’S GARDEN DAY

This post, 2015-MARCH  MATTIE’S GARDEN DAY, was written by Annie in Austin/Diva Glinda for her Divas of the Dirt blog.

Before her March garden day, Mattie emailed some information on what her project would be and asked that we bring any unwanted cardboard, newspapers and phone books to her house to fill the under layers of her planned Keyhole Garden. Mattie was intrigued with the idea of building a Keyhole Garden after meeting Deb Tolman - who brought the concept from Africa to Texas - at a conference. These gardens are especially useful in dry places with thin soil – sure sounds like parts of Texas! 

But instead of using recycled concrete, stones, heavy cement pavers or bricks, Mattie decided to buy a kit with a frame and corrugated sides. After we saw her idea photo, we were intrigued, too!

The weather for Mattie’s project day was pleasant but the Divas were not in top form. Sophia and Annie were so sick they decided to stay home and the rest of us were feeling creaky for a variety of reasons. As we’ve learned over the years, we often feel better once we’re working together, all talking and laughing. Of course that euphoric effect can sometimes be temporary so we might feel even worse after we stopped!

On the way in from the street I was floored by the sight of Mattie’s Peach Iris in full bloom. A few divisions shared in spring 2012 and planted in good organic soil with lots of sun had spread into a 5-ft sweep of beauty, form and fragrance. These were very happy iris!

Inside, tulips announced the season and pretty cupcakes promised a sweet reward after the project was done.

Mattie had made both a Spinach-Mushroom Quiche and a Broccoli-Pepper Quiche, a huge Berry-fruit salad with grapes, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and blueberries, and a nostalgic surprise – homemade Corned Beef Hash.

 In the hall we saw a very large box destined for the back yard – could an entire keyhole garden fit inside?

We looked at the big front border – the plants looked pretty healthy for March but where had all those Nettles come from?

Grass is invading this bed and the winter-killed tops of plants need to be cut back.

The lantanas have died close to the ground, but little leaves at the base are ready to grow. Let’s cut them back and get another crop of nettles out of this border!

Tree seedlings and weeds have invaded the little path by the entrance but they’ll soon be banished.

We split up into two teams… Karla, Sugar and I stayed in front to move along the ground tackling weeds, cutting back the tops of frozen perennials and reclaiming the edges of all the beds. (Mattie snapped this photo.)

Mattie, Buffy and Mindy took their tools into the back yard to start the layout and assembly of the keyhole garden. After some time they were pleased to see that the frame looked like the instruction manual.

Many more parts sit ready to be used in the next stages – will it all fit together eventually?

Tada! After a few glitches, the keyhole garden is assembled with wire basket tower ready to go!

The Divas roamed back and forth between front and back yards, visiting, kibitzing and working. Some finished the weeding, edging and cultivating of the beds. Other Divas sawed out pesky saplings that sprouted along the fence line, then cut up the pieces and layered them into the keyhole garden.

Many more layers were needed - branches, phone books, leaves, newspapers and any organic material we could gather, including piles of cardboard boxes brought by those Divas still in the midst of kitchen remodeling projects.

 “Time for a lunch break!” says Mattie.

Although we all like to cook, sometimes the wisest and most efficient choice is to let an Austin restaurant cook. This month Mattie chose Rudy’s BBQ. Their brisket is fine but Rudy’s turkey is my personal favorite. With salads and beans it was quite a feast.

Some Divas decided to leave the traditional white bread (and its gluten) in the bag. Rudy’s tastes as good as it looks.

Time for those cupcakes!

We went back out and worked for awhile longer. Lucky Mattie had a family member in East Texas who had access to bags of what gardeners consider as treasure: bags of pinestraw mulch. We used the fallen dry needles mixed with partially decomposed leaves over the soil in all the beds and borders.

Now the entrance bed looks good.

The big central bed looks good and the iris look even better with the weeds gone.

And the long front border sweeps smoothly across the front of the house again.

As to the keyhole garden – Mattie continued to rip cardboard and add to the interior of the doughnut-shaped enclosure and then added soil to the top so herbs and a few smaller vegetables could be planted. She still hunter-gathers organic material to keep the level up and it’s provided some food all year. When Diva Annie and I were at Mattie’s house last November, Mattie was still picking cherry tomatoes from her Keyhole garden. 

This post, 2015-MARCH  MATTIE’S GARDEN DAY, was written by Annie in Austin/Diva Glinda for her Divas of the Dirt blog.

2014 – June GLINDA’S GARDEN DAY

This post “2014 – June GLINDA’S GARDEN DAY” was written by Glinda/AnnieinAustin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.

Glinda here, with a few photos from my garden day in 2014. The project day took place in June, but the project idea was a response to the depressing view of our vegetable garden all winter through spring as we looked out the breakfast room window.

In general, our pepper & tomato plants grow better in containers than in the ground, where greedy roots from neighboring trees steal all the water and nutrients. But our motley collection of big plastic pots was not lovely – worse in winter but bad enough in spring.

The vegetable plot was adjacent to a mixed border but the two areas didn’t mesh right – how could we make them more coherent and connected?

I thought adding planting boxes for iris might work to soften the view and distract the eye without shading the vegetables, especially since I had a lot of dividable iris and they’re usually evergreen here. Ozz built one cedar rectangle and we set it on the grass to see how it looked.

Soon he built the second rectangle and we hauled home a large concrete paving block from the home center. We soaked the area, covered it in black plastic and set the boxes and block in place, hoping a few weeks of hot sun could kill the grass so it would be easy for the Divas to dig out.

By the end of June the weather was solidly summer hot. My friends were coming! A stars and stripes theme would be just right  -it was only a few days before the Fourth of July. Red, white and blue décor joined bowls of blueberries & strawberries and pineapple on the table. Under that mesh guard the Divas of the Dirt would find pecan muffins and blueberry muffins.

The makings for breakfast tacos were set out on the kitchen counter – beef chorizo from Whole Foods, sliced avocados, a few chopped tomatoes from the garden, grated cheese and salsa made by Ozz. On the stovetop, cubed, fried potatoes and scrambled eggs were just about ready. Time for sharing food and conversation!

After breakfast the Divas dived into the project.

But when we pulled off the black plastic it was obvious that the black plastic had not done its job very well! The St Augustine was daunted, but certainly not dead. Digging out the grass was going to be more difficult than expected. We also worked on making the curve of the adjoining bed blend in with the new boxes – scoring a line, moving stones and digging out grass.

Barbie had come to cheer on the workers. Mattie and Karla worked on the new beds and Annie weeded the path.

The work area wasn’t very large so Buffy decided to weed and reset the stepping stones inside of the garden perimeter.

Once the grass was banished, bags of soil and amendments were worked in and the planting began. Some of the tall purple iris (a passalong from Sophia) were divided from the front yard to go on the left, with a small daylily division in the center. The right side would have fragrant peach iris and a small ‘mystery’ daylily start from a garden blogger friend. A large bowl of a small mystery iris was dismantled. Some of it went in the front corners and some of it went home with friends who wanted to try it out.

It was an odd but interesting day. Annie had reached a milestone at work so there were posters & photos. Sugar couldn’t come and Mindy was on the injured list, but conversations are as important as the work! Warren brought Mindy and a couple of Sophia's family members were also there. Everyone could visit while those who were able could dig. Once lunch was ready, Ozz and Warren joined us at the dining room table and Buffy’s sister and nephew arrived in time for dessert.

I never got around to taking photos of our indoor picnic lunch – a simple spread of Mary’s Gone Crackers, croissants, some Artichoke-Spinach spread, chicken-basil salad, small tomatoes and a green salad with avocado dressing. There’s no photo of the double-dark chocolate oatmeal cookies, but this photo from a different day will work – my cheesecakes always look the same!

 

The day was hotter than expected and the job was harder that it should have been, but the Divas of the Dirt pressed on. By the time my friends went home it was obvious that the boxes and step would work well with the existing path. Here’s the view from our back door.

Less than a week later, the iris were settling into their new space, with the square stepping stone adding dimension and an illusion of height, the curve smoothed out and the reset round stepping stones also giving that illusion of going up… everything working to make a harmonious group.

When September rolled around the total effect was quite pleasant.

And this spring? The new wooden boxes had Iris in bloom!

This post “2014 – June GLINDA’S GARDEN DAY” was written by Glinda/AnnieinAustin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.