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Tuesday, May 21, 2019

THE TEXAS TWO STEP AND THE CHELSEA CHOP

Having a cottage-style garden is one of the most difficult gardens to have even though many say it is the easiest. It isn't just a matter of throwing out a few seeds and waiting for them to flower. It is trying to create a balance between those annual plants and perennials which carry the garden through the remaining months of the year. In Texas, because we have such a long growing season, a cottage garden will go through many changes and must be helped along at every step.  Texas Two Step is my term for that time when annuals have done their thing, set their seed and must now be pulled for tidiness sake. You sow them, you gather them.
Take this area of bluebonnets, a beautiful sight back in March.


Not looking quite so attractive by mid-May. This annual plant has made and thrown its seed and the dried, crispy remains of the plant must be removed for neatness sake. It's time for the Texas two step.


Having bluebonnets is a labor of love, but isn't all gardening. I have at least 8 areas of dried bluebonnets that I need to work on over the next week or so-if the weather would just cooperate. A stroll around the garden this morning made me realize that I won't be doing much of that today unless the sun comes out and pops those seed heads. But, I will be snipping some of the almost ready heads and storing in a brown paper bags or boxes until the fall.
But first up for the two step this week were the poppies. Those of ten thousand seeds. I'm guessing that like many wildflowers their seeds lie dormant in the ground waiting for me to disturb the soil, just like the poppies in the Flanders fields following WW1, so despite the fact that I have plums to reduce their numbers next year I am sure they will be back.
If you want these, and I do.



Then you must wait for this and hope to catch a few of them. Brown paper bags at the ready!


I am serious about collecting some of these this year because of a long term project we began two years ago. That of converting our septic field into a wildflower meadow. When the field was originally done I ordered 2 bags of wildflower seeds from Native American Seed with instruction for them to be added to the spray mix they use to cover the field. It wasn't enough to tell my builder and give him the bags with instruction for them to be put in the tank before they spread. It was never done.  I would plant seeds in the fall but nothing ever grew and then I discovered that the soil was probably to rich for them. For the past 3 years we have mowed and bagged and last fall I threw out blanket flowers and bluebonnets. It worked. These and so many more wildflowers showed up this year.

May 2019 on the septic field
The next Two-Step with be with Nigella,  Love-in-a mist. A cottage garden must have these.


Their seed pods put on a pretty good show too, but....


But there comes a time when they must be pulled too.

And the herb garden will hopefully take on a tidier appearance as I remove the parsley and cilantro once the seeds are ripe.



It's Chelsea Flower Show week and many gardeners in England adhere to the old rule of cutting back perennials by half at this time. The practice is known as The Chelsea Chop. I have quite a few plants that will get this treatment over the next couple of weeks. The roses, salvias, Mexican marigold mint, Copper Canyon daisy, mealy blue sage, the mint-I may even pull that out completely, oregano, basil, All of theses if left to continue growing will swamp the garden. I want them to look good right through to the fall. A little cut back will help them do that-and some summer rain.


11 comments:

  1. I just cut back my fall aster, white mistflower, and even some Turk's cap by half. Everything is jungly by fall otherwise - and maybe even so. Great post, by the way. It's always helpful to see how things change over the seasons and what it takes to maintain a flower-rich garden.

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    1. I have a few moment of despair as I do the pulling because it is exhausting work, but then it is all neat and tidy and I forget about how hard it was.

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  2. Your garden looks spectacular in all seasons, Jenny, but I can fully appreciate the hard work that goes into ensuring that. During the height of our drought, I didn't get many weeds but I also didn't see much in the way of self-seeding. After this year's slow, steady rain (continuing even now into May and possibly beyond!), my self-seeders have gone nuts and I'm spending more time than I can remember on maintenance and clean-up. No clever term for the California version of the Texas Two Step and Chelsea Chop comes immediately to mind but I'm nonetheless going through a similar process. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon just working on cutting back all the Centranthus currently dropping seed throughout 2 large areas of my garden.

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    1. That's OK Chris, you can do the TwoStep in California too.

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  3. It's been such a slow start to my garden here in Houston this year that I wouldn't even think about cutting anything back---they are just now starting to thrive.

    Your garden is looking lovely, even in its transition space.

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    1. It certainly has been a strange year. All that early heat and then lots of cold nights. At one time ahead and another behind.

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  4. The plethora of blue bonnets is such a beautiful sight. Well worth the effort to clean up and reseed every year. I admire your success with Nigella. I try every year to get the darn things to grow but they stubbornly refuse. Interesting about your septic field as I have had limited success with growing wild flowers there as well.

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  5. Isn't the septic field accessible to deer and other herbivores? So surprised anything "good" is still left there!

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    1. It certainly is but they are browsers meaning they don't devastate an area. I do see they have trimmed liatris but hopeful it will just bloom better than ever in the end.

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  6. Your garden may not be easy but you sure make it look effortless!

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  7. I love your garden and the lovely blooms you have.

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