2017 – DECEMBER BUFFY’S GARDEN DAY

This post, 2017 - December Buffy’s Garden Day, was written by Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.

After repeated delays and schedule problems the Divas of the Dirt realized that in order for Buffy to have a turn in 2017 we’d have to try something new. We’d never attempted a garden day in December in previous years, but the weather had been so mild we took a chance. On a lovely day at the beginning of December six Divas were able to meet at Buffy’s house: Buffy, Annie, Mattie, Mindy, Karla and Glinda. Sophia and Sugar couldn’t be there.

Buffy welcomed her friends with a holiday wreath on the door and muffins, coffee and HUGE blueberries at the kitchen table.

Buffy asked us to do some Diva magic in the area around the front entrance. A crepe myrtle and several Indian Hawthorns had been planted there soon after her house was built  but they had first become enormous and then become leggy. Buffy kept the crepe myrtle but had the Hawthorns professionally removed. The newly cleared space awaited us.

Mattie, Buffy, Karla and Mindy made quick work of taming the unruly crepe myrtle in the new bed.

The soil in the new bed was turned and fluffed with compost and other amendments added.

Buffy had collected a number of plants she thought would work in this space including pots of purple-leaved dwarf loropetalum, holly ferns, variegated aspidistra, artemesia and giant liriope. Some plants had been waiting to go in the ground for quite a while and the tops had become lopsided and the roots tangled. Snipping and loosening the roots might help. Glinda gave herself that job while Annie stayed at ground level with weeding tools.

Mindy and Buffy reworked some existing rocks and drainage tiles around the also new steps.

Barbie was interested in the work but stayed safely on the front porch.

Buffy and Frederick pointed out other parts of the garden that could use some help to Annie and Karla.

More crepe murder was planned for some trees that had thrown up spindly branches too close to the house and gutters. Buffy, Mattie, Mindy and Karla form the major pruning team.

Buffy and Mindy don’t hesitate and soon all the trees are pruned.

Next step – the new bed. Quite some time was spent in arranging, rearranging and subtracting the pots. Some would work well, others would not.

How could it be 3:30 already? Actual planting was delayed while the workers had a late lunch – Buffy had made Frito Pie with toppings of shredded cheese, sour cream and scallions with a big green salad on the side.

Buffy made Frito Pie with a base of Frito corn chips under a slow cooked meat sauce. Her favorite recipe called for browned ground beef, ranch style beans and HEB Cook Well & Company 3-step chili mix. It was delicious!

We went back out to plant, making a few final tweaks in the design before the plants went in.

Karla and Annie set to work setting plants in their new locations.

Annie and Karla worked on the agave bed while Glinda used loppers to reduce the crepe myrtle branches for yard pickup. Buffy, Mattie and Mindy looked around for other spots needing weeding or snipping.

This garden day in December idea was a success!

Oh, my – Buffy has produced a masterpiece – a very special Meyers Lemon* pie made with a Martha Stewart recipe [*edit: NOT Key Lime]. The flourless crust was made of ground hazelnuts and the lemon filling was made with Meyer Lemons from Buffy’s own tree!

Egg yolks went into the filling and the whites were used for the mile-high meringue.

We said “Goodbye” a little after 6 PM and also said, “See You Soon!” In a few weeks we’d meet again at Buffy’s house, but instead of wearing garden gloves and carrying pruners we’d be dressed for Holidiva Day and carrying Poinsettias.

This post, 2017 - December Buffy’s Garden Day, was written by Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.

2016 – SEPTEMBER BUFFY’S GARDEN DAY

This post, “2016 – September Buffy’s Garden Day”, was written by Annie in Austin/Diva Glinda for the Divas of the Dirt Blog at DivasoftheDirt.blogspot.com

All eight Divas of the Dirt made it to Buffy’s garden day in September – although both Glinda and Mindy were a little late to the taco-fest breakfast.

Buffy had hired professionals for a few really big jobs and her garden was a different place.

New block edging defined the back corner of the garden

Some of Buffy’s plants were in full glory – especially the plants that were in shade. Isn’t this begonia beautiful?

Where uneven ground was once responsible for trips and tumbles, a new decomposed granite path was level and attractive. 

This bed was once stuffed with shrubs of Indian Hawthorn/ Rhaphiolepsis indica. When they were young and the yard was sunnier, these shrubs stayed more compact and bloomed well. But as they aged and surrounding trees grew taller, the hawthorns lost leaves, grew leggy and no longer worked in this space so Buffy had them removed. Oh, boy – a cleared bed, ready for Divas to plant! 

The dappled shade in the middle of the yard suits the St. Augustine grass, and the layers of surrounding trees, shrubs, plants and borders make Buffy’s garden feel like a peaceful haven. 

Out near the front door, more overgrown Indian Hawthorns had been removed, making a another space for the Divas to plant. Buffy’s other wish was for help with composting and mulching.

What a good start to fall!

This post, “2016 – September Buffy’s Garden Day”, was written by Annie in Austin/Diva Glinda for the Divas of the Dirt Blog at DivasoftheDirt.blogspot.com

2012 - September GLINDA'S GARDEN DAY

The story of my September 2012 garden project actually began about 30 years ago when whoever lived here at the time planted an Arizona Ash at one end of the front yard, quite close to the front sidewalk. This fast-growing tree was very popular in new subdivisions, and its shade surely did make summers easier to live with, but its short life span and many problems means that planting them in Central Texas is no longer recommended. The Arizona Ash tree grew and at some time a Live Oak sapling was planted between the Ash and the house. The trees grew on, fighting for rights to the sun.



Now skip ahead to March 2012 when the Ash tree is no longer an asset but has suddenly become dangerous, dropping enormous limbs without warning right where kids walk to school, neighbors park their cars and runners and bicyclists pass all day long. We immediately called Austex Tree Service and said "Help!" The tree guys took away the fallen limbs, took down the tree & ground out most of the stump - not an inexpensive job, but we had peace of mind after the tree was gone.

In 2004 the Divas of the Dirt helped me begin a woodland garden in the area between the live oak and the house, with a native Beautyberry and a 'Forest Pansy' redbud replacing sun plants that had been shaded out by the growing trees.

The Forest Pansy & Beautyberry grew a little every year





Over the years more and more grass was removed, native and adapted plants went in under the oak canopy and the existing liriope border was moved to encompass the new sections. I wanted the footprint of the ash to become part of the woodland garden too, but the ground needed to mellow. The area where the tree had been was covered in mulch, given periodic deep watering during the long hot summer and left alone.


Our garden day was set for late September - a better time to remake a bed & transplant liriope.  We had mulch & compost ready along with a small pile of free rocks and a few plants in containers. Enough rain fell overnight to soften the ground - a good thing - but would the day be dry enough to work outside?

The table was set - some storebought flowers joined  'Julia Child' roses and dwarf Greek myrtle cut from the garden.




A friend shared a favorite recipe for a breakfast strata made with Italian bread, spinach, shallots, eggs and Swiss cheese ... but before she'd turn over the recipe she made me promise to buy shallots, no cheating by substituting onions! I'd made a zucchini- currant bread to go with the egg dish.  I used one of my grandmother's bowls to hold pineapple & grapes and another one for strawberries.
 

It was still dripping and drizzly when the Divas of the Dirt began to arrive but we no longer cared whether the weather would cooperate... this happens quite often! Once the Divas of the Dirt begin laughing and talking, the project fades in importance and just sharing time together becomes our main goal. The new recipe worked out perfectly (Thanks, Ruth! ) and we enjoyed our breakfast.



Suddenly Mindy said - look! the Sun is coming out! Let's see what we can get done. The original woodland garden looked pretty good.



Soon the hose was used to define a newer, more expansive woodland bed and the liriope border was on the move again. Liriope is not native but I have a lot of the clumping type that doesn't run but is easily dug, moved and divided. This plant can live through record cold, record drought, record flood and record heat, as long as it has some shade. Using one kind of plant to edge all beds in the shady parts of the yard adds that necessary element of repetition to the overall design. The liriope border makes it clear that the new section is part of the woodland garden.

   

Already growing under the oak canopy were white Fragrant Mistflower, a purple Aster, a flourishing Turkscap/Malvaviscus in bloom and this dark blue perennial Plumbago



In pots ready to plant were some red Salvia greggii, a red & white-flowering Salvia 'Hot Lips' and a struggling Barbados Cherry. The Divas added compost and added the plants but avoided digging near the oak roots. They transplanted an unhappy Texas Palmetto from another part of the garden and divided some purple aster to bloom on the opposite side of the oak. They used the rocks we'd collected to slow down the flow of water when we had a thunderstorm. We do not want to stop the area from draining, but sudden storms tend to run off without helping the trees and garden. We want to give any rain a chance to soak in instead of run off.

My friends also neatened the central bed and the parkway - digging out some kind of weed tree that had seeded in the middle of a Rock Rose colony.

I forgot to snap a photo of our lunch - some of it homemade and some of it storebought. I made Pimiento cheese with Pequilo peppers, picked up Rotisserie Chicken salad from HEB, along with a salad box of baby Greens, cut up tomatoes and made an Avocado dressing with Greek yogurt. We sipped Hibiscus tea and coffee, and for dessert had a choice of Key lime bars and/or Chocolate layer cake with Chocolate frosting. What a fun day!

The new section of the woodland garden is a few months old now - not yet established but promising to be lovely some day.


This was not the first failure of an Arizona Ash in our yard - after I wrote a song about losing the first one in 2007 it was made into a semi-comic video. Semi-comic because we do like our trees and we're sad, even when it's time for one to go.




Posted by Annie in Austin/Diva Glinda

2012, Flowers of Late Summer and September

The summer of 2012 was hot, but there was some decent rain in July and the fires didn't dominate our thoughts as they had during the summer of 2011. As always, a mix of joys and sadness, progress and defeat, excitement and fatigue filled the lives of the Divas of the Dirt, along with some summer flowers. I love getting flower photos sent by my friends!

The new front borders that we'd made for Diva Mattie were a resounding success... here is a native Gregg's Mistflower, Conoclinium greggii, complemented with Queen butterflies. Mattie was amazed at how quickly the small division planted in spring had grown and spread.

Diva Annie had a good-sized Senna tree in her front border that was not having a good year. But a Senna seedling that had lodged in the small space at the end of parkway and driveway was doing just fine!



Karla sent two photos of her long border along the side fence. The Fall Obedient Plants (Physostegia virginiana) were not exactly obedient, but they were blooming. You probably know that the "obedient" part only refers to shifting the individual florets around the stem - more a boon for Flower Arrangers than for gardeners. 

The Divas of the Dirt had planted a crepe myrtle for Diva Glinda in November 2011. The crepe myrtle was labeled 'Muskogee'. Glinda (that would be me) was relieved when the crepe myrtle bloomed in September 2012... a bit bleached out looking, but it does appear to be the delicately lavender-pink  Lagerstroemia x fauriei 'Muskogee', and not another of the way-too-many watermelon pink crepe myrtles found in my neighborhood.

Karla also sent us a photo of one of the iconic Austin fall flowers, Rhodophiala bifida AKA Oxblood Lilies AKA Schoolhouse Lilies. Years ago these were shared by the blogger at Zanthan Gardens in Austin.





Fall had arrived - soon it would be time for the end-of-September project of the Divas of the Dirt.


(posted by Annie in Austin for Diva Glinda)

2012 - MARCH, MATTIE'S GARDEN DAY

Written by Glinda for the Divas of the Dirt Blog 


On this warm March garden day, Mattie set her table with a special collection of dishes from her sister Patti. The dishes arrived piece by piece, traveling from country to country and from state to state. The result was sentimental as well as spectacular, crowned by a centerpiece of beautiful, densely-petaled roses in an unusual color. Mattie and Mindy said they were Rio roses, but Rio seems to be the grower rather than the variety.  

Egg & vegetable fritattas were almost ready to serve with sides of guacamole, turkey bacon, juice and fruit salad with grapes.

 

 Topping the menu was Blueberry French Toast, a dish with a personal connection for Mattie: 

The recipe came from Panache -  a beautiful cookbook that Mattie's niece helped to create for a hospital fundraising project  Link to Panache Cookbook

The temperatures were already warm when we went out to hear about the day's project and check out the plants we'd use. Mattie had chosen two roses, 'Julia Child' and 'Cinco de Mayo' along with a bronzy-red crepe myrtle, a good-sized pomegranate with developing fruit, silver ponyfoot, yellow lantana, gaillardia/blanket flower, bicolor sage, white Gaura, Salvia 'May Night' and tropical Butterfly weed/Asclepias currasavica. Passalong plants brought by the Divas included a huge clump of Setcreasia/Purple heart, White iris, Peach iris, Mexican mint marigold, a big sack of Salvia 'Black & Blue', White Salvia coccinea, and a small clump of Blue Mistflower (botanically either Conoclinium greggii or Eupatorium greggii )

A front yard with one tall tree trunk centered in an empty square of thirsty grass was not working for Mattie! The canopy on the tree had been raised so high that instead of connecting the house and garden and lessening the impact of the street, the trunk added a harsh vertical bar to the landscape. Our project would be to add a shorter, leafy tree - the new pomegranate-  to anchor a new border with a mix of plants. 

For the second part of the project we would add another bed where the lot met the curb. Making grass grow in a spot like this takes a lot of water! Mattie would rather use this precious resource on plants for birds and butterflies.

The Divas of the Dirt used a garden hose to lay out the long kidney shaped bed, with much discussion by Buffy, Sugar, Karla and Mindy as to where that line should go!

The tiller is always handy to dig up the bed and mix in amendments but Mattie had another job for it - rather than simply moving it along, she held it down in one spot, harnessing the power to excavate large holes for the pomegranate tree, the crepe myrtles and the shrub roses.

Diva-Annie took on a separate task - removing the stones that filled a bed near the entry. Mattie had plans for that bed and Annie's work would get it ready. Things were progressing.

NO PHOTOS INTERVAL
We hadn't realized how large the project would be or exactly what we'd be doing... we needed a lot more compost! We needed rakes! We needed compost & soil sifters! Since Buffy had already planned on a quick trip to take her son to work, she offered to make a tool & supply run. I felt about 100-years old that morning, so volunteered myself as her assistant.

While the rest of the Divas soldiered on in the 90°F heat we went off on our hunter-gatherer mission. We picked up tools from Buffy's house, stopped for more at my house, made a third stop at Sophia's and then headed to Countryside for bags of Revitalizer Compost. A special sale brought in customers and long lines. Eventually Buffy moved her vehicle to the loading area and we stacked bag after bag in the back.

We returned to Mattie's house, sure that with that compost the plants would have a better chance of survival and that the tools would make it easier to get the borders in shape. It was amazing how much progress had been made already. Some plants from existing borders were transplanted into the new bed, and the plants in containers were set in all over the garden.

By late afternoon everyone was delighted to hear that lunch was ready. We deserted the Dirt for the Dining room.

 Mattie had a second feast ready for us - delicious tomato-basil soup

Crab cake salad with garlic toast

and Cherry Cobbler with Bluebell Ice cream.

Can you see a dog in this photo? Barbie is a sweetie but she's so alert and responsive every Diva Day that most photos have been blurs! Maybe next month.
 

After we went back outside, the project moved toward completion- stones were sifted out, amendments mixed in, edges cut and recut. We paid careful attention to placing the plants where they'd not only look good but would have a chance at survival - Texas summers are brutal.
Long slow deep handwatering settled them in and mulch gave the borders a finished look, held in moisture and insulated the roots against the heat.

The large pomegranate border looked pretty cool!

The curb bed was going to be a knockout once it got going! Better give that native Blue Mist plant plenty of room!

And Mattie's plan for attracting wildlife was already working - check out the dragonfly that appeared like magic!

A few months later Mattie sent this photo of that tiny piece of Blue Mist plant - now very happy, greatly expanded in size, and spangled with Queen butterflies.

Written by Glinda for the Divas of the Dirt Blog