2018 JUNE – Karla’s Garden Day

This post, 2018 JUNE – Karla’s Garden Day, was written by Glinda/Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.

A diminished group of Divas of the Dirt turned up for Karla’s 2018 garden day on a very hot Saturday in June. She hoped we could weed and clip a couple of beds in the back. Luckily for us, Karla’s neighborhood had 2.3” of rain a few days before we came – no weeding in rock-hard ground! Unluckily for other people in the neighborhood, that storm also produced straight line winds that brought down trees.

Only Karla and Mindy were there when I came. Buffy soon joined us but she would be in-and-out for part of the day; DivaAnnie was still in intensive care after surgery, Mattie was out-of-state and Sophia’s medical issues were ongoing.

Karla had used some time off work to good effect in her front garden…it was in such pristine condition that all we could do up there was admire it!

The patio bed had a lovely little Anacacho orchid that was still staked and it needed some adjustment. Weeding and composting were needed along with digging/cutting out tree seedlings and saplings. Most of us live in neighborhoods that are 20 to 40 years old, full of trees like oaks, hackberries (the worst!), cedar elms, pecans, Arizona ashes, mulberries, China berries, Chinese hollies, yaupons, ligustrums and more so tiny trees everywhere are an unavoidable result.

Here’s one part of the patio bed after weeding, before clipping, composting and mulching. It’s all foliage in the photo, but there would soon be tubular orange Mexican Honeysuckle blossoms and the light, true-blue blooms of Plumbago, followed in a few months by the lavender daisy-shaped flowers of Fall Aster. Actually, late May-early June is a good time to cut back Fall Aster – doing that can mean even more blooms in late summer.

The Anacacho Orchid stood a little straighter, with Purple Coneflowers at its feet.

Karla’s long fence border had a lot of color, but she had chosen a restrained number of plant species.

The combination of  holly ferns, giant liriope and multi-colored Impatiens in this shadier spot gave it a feeling of peacefulness and order… 

…while the exuberant Echinacea purpurea/ Coneflowers added some excitement nearer the patio where more sun shines. I’ll bet there were butterflies later on, too.

One interesting effect of working in a small group in just one area was that we had long, uninterrupted conversations… we were all worried about Divas Annie and Sophia, shocked at the news that Anthony Bourdain had killed himself in France and fascinated with Mindy’s tale of being on jury duty. Talking as we worked made the steamy day seem shorter.  

Karla had a very cool lunch ready for this very hot day – a favorite chicken pasta salad, a green salad, tabouleh, rolls and butter.

And her dessert of individual strawberry-rhubarb pies (with ice cream) was as pretty to look at as it was delicious to eat.

I left a little early but Karla, Mindy and Buffy kept going – the high for the day was 96.1°F – whew.

Karla sent a gracious email the next day,

“We were small in number, but we were mighty! … I can’t wait to sit out there when it cools a bit this evening and enjoy the beauty.”

This post, 2018 JUNE – Karla’s Garden Day, was written by Glinda/Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.

2018 MAY – DivaAnnie’s Garden Day

This post, 2018 MAY – DivaAnnie’s Garden Day, was written by Glinda/Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt Blog. 

The rotating schedule told us that DivaAnnie’s turn to be hostess would happen in May, the month of her birthday. Annie really wanted to host the meeting but she was having serious health issues. We knew that Annie was having trouble with gardening maintenance and we wanted to do it for her. She was having trouble with other things too, and many of her friends and neighbors helped with what they could. They took her to stores, helped her get supplies for the garden, drove her to buy groceries, took Annie to doctor appointments and her pets to the veterinarian and helped with mowing. 

A few days before the meeting I took a Before Photo of the fence corner in front – hoping there would be a good After Photo. On the day before the meeting some rain fell on the garden, softening the ground and plumping up the plants.

Annie, Buffy, Karla, Mindy, Mattie and Sophia were already there when I arrived, enjoying coffee with muffins and fruit salad. And ooh, what’s this? A beautiful orchid decorated the table of the birthday girl.

After a while we all went outside and got out the tools. In that front Before corner a seven foot tall Barbados cherry had not done well over the winter – the whole top had died off, but new growth was appearing at the bottom. The Salvia guaranitica was running rampant, covering other plants that Annie liked. In the square bed the top of her magnificent Duranta was all dead sticks. We could fix all of that.

We could weed and clip back all the beds and borders, rescue plants that were being smothered and dig out the oh-so-many tree seedlings that had popped up everywhere. We were going to need a lot of yard bags!

The ‘Marilyn’ abutilon was so beautiful one could almost ignore the weeds in the bed.

You’ve seen Annie’s Abutilon ‘Patrick’ in previous posts…let’s take a closer look at her ‘Marilyn’

The day was quite warm, the ants were out and there was a lot to do. Everyone worked together, trying to make a difference in each part of the front yard while trying to keep an eye on Annie, who was working too hard in the hot sun.

Sweet mascot Barbie stayed in the dappled shade and kept us company.

Eventually the shady end of the front sidewalk looked respectable again

The square garden on the far side of the driveway was no longer a tangle of overgrown plants and saplings.

We couldn’t make the St. Augustine lawn look better, but we could get rid of the weeds in the center bed and clip things back so the Phlomis/Jerusalem Sage, columbines, salvias and other plants had some space. Maybe some mulch could discourage new weeds.

Annie called us in to lunch – really good broccoli salad, a fruit salad of strawberries and pineapple chunks, rotisserie chicken salad on croissants with leaves of romaine to add crunch. We had so much to talk about as we ate – well, we always have so much to talk about!

Annie had requested a lemon cake for her birthday. There were no candles on top, but she liked this old-fashioned 1-2-3-4 lemon cake with cream cheese frosting, made even better with a little ice cream plopped on top.

We puttered around a little more outside and added plants to her porch containers. We wanted to stay and keep working in the garden but Annie said what she wanted was for us to go home, and then she wanted to go to bed.

Before we left I snapped a photo of the now-pretty Barbados cherry-Salvia guaranitica bed so there’d be an After picture to go with the Before picture.

                                                                    

****************INTERVAL***************

I’m writing about this day a whole year after that meeting, and it’s been an odd and difficult post to write. Back then we were worried about Annie’s health and hoped that modern medicine could make her better, but we couldn’t know the future.

We didn’t know that this would be the last time she had a garden day, the last time we would all be together at her house, that this was her last birthday cake in this the last spring of her life.

All that I can do now is tell you about that day and tell you how we liked being together and tell you how much we loved and miss our dear friend.

2018 MARCH - Buffy's Garden Day

2018, March -  Buffy’s Garden Day

This post 2018 March Buffy’s Garden Day was written by Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt Blog.

We had no meeting in February 2018 but that didn’t stop things from blooming!

Sugar emailed photos of her flowering Quince – 

Eyepopping, aren’t they?

In early March we’d had some perfect gardening weather with moderate temperatures, and the Texas Mountain Laurel looked (and smelled) lovely, all over Austin.

Then the heat sneaked in just in time for Buffy’s garden day… the thermometer read just under 90°F during her meeting, and that night the air temperature was still 77°F at 10pm.

Mindy and Annie came for the morning and early afternoon but then Diva Annie headed to Wimberly for a friend’s concert and Mindy also had other things she had to do.

Buffy was hoping for help with spring maintenance and she’d also been planning Crepe Murder so we’d need pruning tools as well as clipping and weeding tools.

A cheerful bowl with three small pots of golden yellow Kalanchoe was in bloom on the kitchen table, complemented by the shamrock table cloth, a slightly early celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.

We worked on the parkway beds, cutting back the tired plants, weeding and mulching. Karla worked hard on the corner. We’d had some cold weather but the Euphorbium were still blooming and a few Four Nerve daisies had flowers. Some self-sown bluebonnets were looking very robust!

Indoors, Buffy had received a very interesting gift - one of those self-contained, lighted herb gardens. Her basil crop was ready to use and we were the beneficiaries!

Buffy used the basil to make capressi salad along with a favorite recipe to make tender, juicy, delicious fried chicken.

Dessert was a special Strawberry cake and it was delicious.

We didn’t need the dining room table with only four Divas there for lunch- the kitchen was just fine.

This post 2018 March Buffy’s Garden Day was written by Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt Blog.

2017 – NOVEMBER MATTIE’S GARDEN DAY

The Divas of the Dirt rewrote the lyrics of an old song to “It’s a long, long time from June to November” – yes, that’s how long it had been since the last time we gardened together. Travel plans, work schedules and health issues had the Divas scrambling to find doable dates.

Sugar could not come and Sophia was coughing and confined to bed so Annie, Karla, Buffy, Mindy and Glinda wielded their tools at Mattie’s house on a fine, warm fall day.

There was no specific project but general pruning, tidying and getting ready for what we in Austin call “Winter”. We spent some time just looking around the garden, seeing what was in bloom and deciding where to start. The front rose bed needed clean-up but that didn’t stop Mattie and Mindy from admiring the roses.

We tried to identify tree saplings planted by birds, wind and squirrels. This tree was growing quite nicely but what kind is it? My guess was some kind of ash - maybe an Arizona ash if they were still being planted when Mattie’s subdivision was built. What do you think?

Mattie had a problem with this variegated pittosporum. It seemed to have grown an awful lot since our last visit. Aha! See those solid green leaves at upper left? The variegated boughs of the pittosporum were relatively well-behaved but some solid-leaved trunks were growing from the rootstock. They’re not well-behaved and were crowding the part Mattie wants.

We Divas own some serious loppers and we know how to use them – once the rogues were cut out, the rest of the shrub looked darned good.

Buffy tackled the big boxwood with hedge clippers but I didn’t catch a photo, darn it.

Lantana is a great, drought tolerant, colorful plant – but it’s also a thug! Divas Annie and Mattie placed this bed next in line for taming.

This rosemary was out-of-bounds, smothering everything else in the bed. Although it looks green in the photo, the green needles were only a shell on the outside. The interior was all brown stems and needles. Unfortunately it was no longer worth keeping.

The adorable Fredric enjoyed visiting canine friends Barbie and Jeffy but he didn’t like being in the house away from the humans. It was very hard to resist that little face but it is safer to keep the pets inside unless we’re working behind the fence.

We’d already done a lot by that point – time to drop the tools and take a break.

Coming into the dining room we admired the absolutely smashing flower arrangement that graced Mattie’s table.

The first course was an elegant Butternut squash and shrimp soup with toppings of coconut, lime and cilantro. Everyone relaxed and we began to talk about every subject under the sun.

The counter was covered with an expansive array of goodies. Take a closer look.

Salsa, chips, guacamole, pretzel rolls and a big green salad.

Chicken salad, olives, herbed cheese, pickles, Gouda-pimento (!!) cheese and crackers.

Then a super-good apple cobbler with ice cream and welcome cups of coffee.

We’d had a few odd encounters with Nature during the day, including what may have been Palmetto bug nymphs jumping out and running around on the Divas who attacked the rosemary. For the Divas working on the pittosporum there were nicely hidden piles of poop donated by the neighbors’ cat. We made it through these minor irritants and decided we’d left Mattie’s house looking good.

The next day Mattie took a photo and sent it to us – yes, looking good! 

This post, 2017 – NOVEMBER  MATTIE’S GARDEN DAY, was written by Annie in Austin/Diva Glinda for the Divas of the Dirt blog.

2017 – MAY and JUNE, SOPHIA and GLINDA

This post, 2017 – May and June, Sophia and Glinda, was written by Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.

2017 was fixing to be a very unpredictable year. 

SOPHIA

May was another rain-out. Sophia thought 80% chances were so high that she cancelled her planned day. We were not happy – partly because we really wanted to help Sophia with her garden and partly because she serves such wonderful lunches and desserts!

The rain did materialize and boy, did we need it.

At least there was a new rescue kitten at Sophia’s house to console her for the lost meeting.

Mindy scored some rescue plants that had been torn out for new landscaping. This beauty is a RickRack orchid.

GLINDA

Back in January the Divas set mid-June as the date for Glinda’s day. Luckily for Glinda the weather was warm but dry. The back garden inside the fence looked pretty good.

The beds were tended and it was full of birds and flowers...

..but the front yard really needed help. There aren’t any Before photos of the project because Glinda didn’t like working up there. The trees were okay and the lawn was mown but the beds were a mess! The mutabilis rose had frozen back hard but Glinda wanted to clean it up and give it a chance. The hummingbird acanthus and salvia in the parkway were good for the birds but the weeds made it an eyesore for humans. The woodland area had flowers but you could hardly see them.

DivaAnnie arrived first, then Sophia, Karla and Mattie (with tail-wagging Barbie) and Buffy a little later. The Divas of the Dirt set to work and made everything better – the lawn bags were filling up!

Buffy set to work with the hedge clippers, taming the boxwoods.

The aging Arizona Ash provided dappled shade for the workers. No one knew this would be the tree’s last summer. A couple of months later Hurricane Harvey cracked off many limbs, revealing rot. The tree had became too dangerous to keep.

The front bed looked a lot better – what was left of the rose would have to decide whether to live or die. Mulching would come later.

The woodland area was pretty once more, with dead sticks and sapling trees gone and Malvaviscus/Wax mallow blooming for the hummingbirds.

 

Time for lunch! Glinda used her meeting as a chance to try out La Fleur flower shop where she found gorgeous Hydrangeas. But Glinda’s menu had nothing fancy – it was an indoor picnic. Chips and Guacamole, Cranberry Chicken salad, cheeses and Black Forest ham on crossants and Gluten-free bread, Sweet Kale salad with lemon poppyseed dressing, tomatoes, Hibiscus-Mint tea and coffee.

For dessert there were raspberry/chocolate cookies and blueberry shortcake on gluten-free sponge cake with whipped cream.

The mulched front border looked good and so did the parkway.

the Boxwood hedge looked not only good – it looked respectable.

Just one pair of left-behind garden shoes gave a clue who had worked the magic.

The next day Karla sent a photo of her butterfly border – Happy Summer! 

This post, 2017 – May and June, Sophia and Glinda, was written by Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.