WINTER IN THE HERB GARDEN

Most days I go out into the herb garden to pick herbs for the kitchen. At this time of the year there is parsley, thyme, oregano, sage, the ever abundant garlic chives and rosemary, which are all good herbs for winter cooking.

Parsley has done a magnificent job of reseeding itself. It is even growing in the pathway cracks. You can never have too much parsley.

Oregano gets cut back several times a year to make sure it stays round and bushy with fresh leaves. Most of my kitchen uses are for dried oregano which I make from the fresh young leaves but I also use fresh oregano chopped with parsley and thyme in herbed polenta. A little goes a long way.

Dried oregano is wonderful when roasting butternut squash. Drizzle the cut side of the squash with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and a couple of pinches of the dried crushed oregano.
 

Sage also was trimmed back this winter so has plenty of fresh new growth. I love to use the fried leaves on top of risotto. This one is the common culinary sage, Salvia officinalis.

It has the added bonus of beautiful sprays of blue flowers in the spring.

S.officinalis flowers. Late March

This one is Salvia officinalis "Berggarten" which has the more rounded leaves. It can also be used in the kitchen although it has a stronger flavor. I use it mainly to add leaf interest to the garden.

I also have a very compact cultivar S. officinalis "minimus" which I have used at the front of the beds.

There is a small thyme bed at the base of the pillar planter. I try to grow a variety of thymes including lemon, variegated silver and German thyme.I shall have to replenish some of these thymes this spring. They get very woody with age.

Alyssum brings some welcome color into the winter garden as well as a sweet fragrance on warm sunny days.

Rosemary is just beginning to flower. For some unknown reason we lost most of our rosemary during the summer. I need to take cuttings this year to replace them.

This week was a tough week for me. Blood work, infusions, met with radiologist, a nuclear injection, followed by surgery on Thursday to remove the cancer and the sentinel nodes. Things are looking good and the preliminary biopsy on the lymph nodes showed the cancer had not spread. I await confirmation of this and the findings on the biopsy of the lumpectomy. Clear margins mean I will move on to the next phase-30 days of radiation! I started the weekend with a much lighter heart and really ready to get back out in the garden. It is perfect timing for the spring garden.

HALF AN HOUR IN THE GARDEN

Yes, I am still laid up. How long this is going on for is becoming somewhat irritating. On the other hand it is too hot to spend more that an hour out there, which I did early this morning.
I felt a desperate need to run the hose over the sunken garden which has no irrigation. It is looking quite good considering our long spell of triple digit days and no rain. Even the most drought tolerant of plants can struggle under such conditions.  But the tough flowering native cosmos, Gomphrena 'Fireworks' and 'Strawberry fields' Pride of Barbadosn and the green of the Euphorbia are the best for this season.

When we had the late frost this spring and the nurseries were caught out and I was lucky enough to be at Lowes when they were having a "frost sale" Honestly, they were giving plants away for 50c and I couldn't resist buying some plants I would never normally buy-the pelargonium for instance. But it has fared well even in the south-facing garden although a mullein has seeded there and is trying to take over. What to do!

In the herb garden it is the grasses that speak the loudest.

I have moved some of my poly, roughed- up and painted boxes (think of a new word for them) so they get some afternoon shade.

I did the same with the hose in the front garden especially around the grasses which will green up almost instantly when they get water, and was thrilled to find the native poinsettia, Euphorbia cyanthophora,sometimes known as Fire on the Mountain. It would be fun to have both this one and Snow on the Mountain,  Euphorbia marginata,  growing next to each other. Both share the same season of flowering. How easy it is to love some of the Euphorbias and not others.

 These plants were given to me by my friend, Shirley Fox, who gardens south of here in San Antonio, Rock-oak-deer They were pass-a-longs last year when we had the Fling in Austin. Did they survive or seed here? I am not sure. But, I noticed the other day that she had posted something about hers blooming which made me wander over to the spot where I had planted them. What a lovely surprise.

Always a faithful, fall-is-coming, plant, and right on cue for September, October bloom, is the Velvet leaf senna, Senna lindheimeriana. It is a particularly good plant for the front courtyard as it just pops up in the gravel and always looks good. I probably give it just a little too much freedom but with all that August heat and lack of rain I welcome it.

While I was taking the photograph a bee was busy collecting pollen. I'm not positive of his identity so would welcome knowing if he is a wood bee or bumble bee.

Just look at those pollen sacs.

It shows how important it is to have plants flowering even during this heat. These bees need to collect pollen if they and their larvae are to make it through the winter. Ah! Yes. winter.

HOME IS WHERE THE GARDEN IS

After visiting a wealth of gardens in temperate zones it was time to come back down to earth 10 days ago, when we returned from our nine-week trip. Once again I had to get on, what I call, my Texas Eyes. I wonder what others think when they come from those lush, green gardens of England to the burnt up landscape of Central Texas in August. Does it take their eyes time to adjust?

Much had died in my absence so that was the first job. I am still not finished with removing weeds, and spent annuals. 12 bins so far. And there is much cutting back to do...the lantanas, salvias and roses. We still have a long season ahead of us and I must prepare for the cooler times in October.
The front garden is not under irrigation so I spent some time with hose in hand. The sennas are just starting to grow. One of the toughest plants I grow.

I ahd to remove almost all the blanket flowers. They had been attacked by some sap-sucking bug. But  ave no doubt that as the weather cools I will begin to see seedlings develop.

This is a garden with little shade. But the sentinel Yucca rostrata does offer a little respite for some plants from the mid-day sun.

Even so the plumbago is bleached out. I am grateful for that little patch of color.

The only other color in the garden is from the Pride of Barbados, Caesalpinia pulcherimma.

There is only a short window in the morning when I can work outside comfortably. Daytime temperatures are starting off at 80° and soon climb above 90° We are in for a full week of temperatures in the triple digits. I set myself a couple of jobs every day but much is left undone. It has taken me a week to getting round to fill up the bird bath. Tomorrow I plan to cut back the roses so that they will bloom again in October.

I have moved many of my cactus and succulents into the shade of the patio, and away from the brutal afternoon sun.

A GARDENER MUST DO THIS EVERY DAY

Every morning, before the heat of the day sets in, I take a stroll around the gardens. Most times I am carrying a cup of tea and not infrequently I put it down, pull out my phone and take a  photograph of a particularly pleasing view. Early morning is the best time which captures plants refreshed by cooler night temperatures.

View from the vegetable garden over the wall into the pool garden

The Monarda 'Peters Purple' and the tall spires of mullein, in the sunken garden, just looked perfect this morning.
I have no control over where the mullein place themselves. In fact I tried to transplant one this year and it didn't like the place I put it. But these just add a little drama to the back corner of the garden. Gone is the sadness of losing the Rosa Zepherine drouhin rose that once sprawled over the wall.

This spring we removed much of the planting along the back of the pool and replaced it with Mexican river rocks. I only left a few grasses and echinacea. On my morning walk I made a note that the wall looks a little stark. Maybe a taller grass behind the rock or maybe a mullein will plant itself there. I am definitely much happier to have the rock rather than the bare soil and I like the variety of colors in the rock.

Just a few more weeks to enjoy all 'this' in the herb garden. Soon it will be time to remove the parsley and cilantro gone to seed, and the seed heads of nigella.

And the Confederate rose agave clump, on the center pedestal, with the mother plant sending up a flower stalk. I will probably have to redo the whole pot because the mother plant is going to leave a big hole. Will the youngsters stay in there or will I have to make a completely new planting?

Two things took me by surprise in the herb garden. The flowering of the dill. Rather like parsley it makes a pretty umbel worthy of a place in any garden.

And an unusual variation in the color of Coreopsis tinctoria. Among all the yellows a beautiful burgundy. Now if that isn't a reason not to pull out all those seedlings. You never know which will be a surprise. I must remember to collect seeds.

I like this clump of self-sown echinacea in the English garden. If only it bloomed all summer!

But I need to remove this pink self sown lantana nearby. It just gets too big and requires too many cut backs during the summer.

This walk around the garden is not just a pleasure but an important part of noting changes you need to make. What works and what doesn't. Now on with the day's work

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR

The garden never ceases to provide us with an endless list of jobs to be done. As the cooler temperatures arrive there are plenty of outdoor jobs to be done.  Suddenly I remember those indoor gardening jobs I planned to do when it was 100º Somehow they just never got done.
This week I made a start on some garden ornaments that I needed to protect from the elements before putting them outside. After finally managing to pry the lid off the can of varnish and locating a paintbrush I made a start. By the time I had finished there wasn't a single metal item that hadn't received a coat of protective varnish. I found a shady place to work and made a start.

It was a job worth doing because it gave a new lease on life to all of them. These butterflies and dragonflies I picked up at a garage sale for $1. They looked pretty shabby with flaking areas.

I inherited this piece of decorative wall art from a friend who was leaving town. It spruced up nicely and found a place to hang it. This one I can see from my kitchen window.

These plaques came from a garage sale in Denver when we were traveling in our trailer some years ago. Not sure where they are going to go yet.

Then on to the wooden items. The fish who sits in the side garden pond as well as the wooden plaque above the side entrance.

Then I ventured to the outside to protect several metal wall hangings. It's quite amazing how it changed their appearance.

The bird houses were next. One of the owl houses needed a new floor, which David worked on. After which I shingled the roof.

The tree is turning into a shrine to owls. Surely this year the screech owl will come.

With plenty of bark left over I shingled another bird house. Outdoor things need all the protection they can get.

There! I ticked off quite a few items this week. Now to go and walk around the garden and see what needs doing.

TO LOVE TEXAS YOU NEED TO KNOW TEXAS

This is never more true than when it comes to gardening. I have lived and gardened in many places around this great country and gardening here is a whole other country, and it's not England!

For one thing, we can garden year round, our best seasons being spring and fall. It's that period from June to October when the heat of summer takes its toll on all our plants that makes us wonder, "Is it worth it?"  How are you are feeling about your garden right now, after these endless 100+° days with a lot more to come? Did someone say 107° tomorrow? And, no rain.

My return from a 4 week vacation was just in time. I have spent the last week both with hose and pruners in hand giving the ground some much needed water and cutting back lots of dead vegetation. Strange how when you leave for 4 weeks there is more than 4 weeks of work to catch up on. That 'Month of Sundays' that my mother used to go on about will not be enough.

The areas above are my sunken garden and vegetable garden. All the plants you see are self sown. This is a particularly good year for the narrow leaf zinnias-I'll never know why because we had several very cold nights this winter. But one of the reasons the plants in these areas do so well in the summer heat is the cool root run they enjoy under thick paving stones. They survived a whole month without water. Mulch is one thing but solid stone is quite another.

Gomphrena 'Fireworks' can also take the cold and heat. It seems to be one of the hardiest of the gomphrenas with the plants surviving winter cold to burst with their 4th of July display just in time for the celebrations. They can be a bit weedy but I'm not going to complain about that. I just cut them back and back they come. They may benefit from some water from the vegetable beds but other than that they get no additional water.

There's not much going on in the vegetable beds right now so I am leaving the Lindheimer senna, Senna lindheimeriana and orange cosmos, Cosmos sulphureus, which seeded there, until fall vegetable planting time.
The blanket flowers just keep on flowering and that is just fine with me and the goldfinches. I particularly like the darker colored ones that appear.

And this surprise yellow one.

But that aside one thing you have to know about summer in Texas is that it is more than worthwhile helping your plants get through the heat because they are sure to give you a fine display during our much anticipated fall. And if you don't want to spend too much on water then collect every drop you can. A bucket in the shower, a bucket under the AC fall out, wash your vegetables into a bowl and water your plants with it. There are lots of times we just let water run down the drain when it could be collected for the garden.