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.

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.

2016 – MARCH GLINDA’S GARDEN DAY

This post, 2016 – MARCH GLINDA’S GARDEN DAY, was written by Annie in Austin/ Diva Glinda for the Divas of the Dirt blog

Five Divas arrived on a windy cool morning in March for Glinda’s garden day – Annie, Mattie (with pup Barbie), Karla and Buffy were ready to go… Mindy would come later but Sophia was out-of-town and Sugar not able to come. Glinda hoped the Divas could help her clean up, and clip the messy front yard.

 In February the front garden had been bright with daffodils and gaura

Those yellow flowers had faded now and it was time for last year’s leaves to leave.

With the date the third weekend in March, Glinda couldn’t resist using a St. Patrick’s Day and St. Joseph’s theme for the food!

The table was definitely Irish – carnations & baby’s breath in shamrock vases.

And the breakfast dishes were at least sort-of Irish, with suggestions and recipes gleaned from various Irish websites. Going clockwise from the big yellow begonia we have fresh pineapple and mandarin orange sections, next a Limerick Cheddar pie with a Boxty crust.  A Boxty is a kind of Irish potato pancake, here used to make a gluten-free potato crust. At the bottom we see grilled tomatoes, then grilled mushrooms. A bowl of mixed strawberries, blackberries and raspberries is at the far left, a platter of gluten-free muffins combining carrots, zucchini and apple, and in the center – a pile of bacon.

We watched the windy cool day through the window and did not rush outside. The back yard is always warmer than the front, so instead of heading to work in the front, we first strolled the back. The winter had been incredibly mild and the garden was full of buds, blooms and new leaves.

An Amethyst bearded iris bloomed with unfrozen Mexican Honeysuckle in the background

A small-flowered southern favorite was in bloom. This is Magnolia figo, often called Banana Shrub for the fragrance of the flowers.

Another fragrant blossom opened on the Meyer’s Improved Lemon Tree. It takes a long time for a pollinated flower to become an edible lemon… with luck there will be a few ready at Thanksgiving.

Another iris, this one a fragrant peach variety, blooms in many Divas of the Dirt gardens because we like to share! Self-seeded Salvia coccinea blooms red in the bed.

While we were in the back, Mindy and Warren arrived. Now in the front yard we can see that the relatively new corner bed needs a lot of help! The rosemary plants are out of control. Karla appoints herself as curator of this corner.

Within a few hours, the central butterfly bed was already much improved

Mindy and Buffy set to work on resetting the tile base for the Mahonia pot, so it was once again standing straight.

The big mutabilis rose (AKA Chinese butterfly rose) had spread out so the ground underneath was unreachable and not enough light was getting to the center. It took a while, but things are better now in the mutabilis bed. 

The long parkway bed looked way better after Annie and Mattie let it know who was boss. Many of the plants needed thinning and heading back so there were lots of starter plants available for any Diva that could use Salvia madrensis, Salvia 'Hot Lips', Pavonia/Rock Rose, Purple verbena or the small iris called Blue-eyed Grass.

By late afternoon we were ready to move from Ireland to Italy for lunch. We started with a salad of spinach and baby greens, mushrooms, avocado dressing, then moved on to Baked Polenta with Roasted Red Peppers and Asiago Cheese.

Then the main dish, Beef Braciole. When Glinda was a kid, her dad used to make these-stuffed beef roll-ups in tomato sauce for a special dinner. Glinda made the stuffing gluten-free for this special lunch.

The finale was a ricotta, chocolate and almond confection called Geppetto Pie. The original recipe called for a cinnamon graham cracker crust, but this crust was made of gluten-free chex cereal, instead.

We went back out and worked a while longer, but the wind never died down so we didn’t try to spread mulch. Oz and I did that a few days later – it looked great and was easy to do after all the work by the Divas of the Dirt!

Karla told us she had some extra edging rocks available – leftovers from a neighbor. Oz and I (Glinda) drove over and filled up the trunk.

Karla had done most of the work on the corner bed – now the rocks she offered to us were perfect to line the path separating the main border from the corner bed. Thanks, Karla!

Happy first day of spring! 

This post, 2016 – MARCH GLINDA’S GARDEN DAY, was written by Annie in Austin/ Diva Glinda for the Divas of the Dirt blog