Amateur Gardener: 2012

October 20, 2012

A Few Garden Photos

A beautiful bi-color zinnia.

The big box store had these labeled as bell peppers when I bought these
last spring - they turned out to be peppers of some sort - not sure what
to do with them - but they are pretty on the plate.

Morning Glory growing up the fence. I thought they
look pretty up against the wildflowers in the field beyond our
property.

October 17, 2012

This is a Natchez Crepe Myrtle. This is my
favorite of the white crepe myrtles. It seems to
grow really fast and have masses of white blooms, however
this one did not like where I had it before. It
was planted in the front yard in the fall of 2010
and never bloomed in all of 2011.
So last fall I moved it to this spot in the back yard and it
has thrived here.
This Natchez was just gorgeous this year.
This photo was taken several weeks ago, and
now the leaves are starting to turn a beautiful red and orange.

Before photo of where I had the crepe myrtle in the front
yard.

August 25, 2012

It Has Been A While

I have been absent from the blog world

for a while. First, I have a

new grandson, whom I went to see in

beautiful California and second - the

triple digit heat returned to Texas and I

just threw the towel in, so to speak, on

gardening and took up quilting inside by

the air conditioner. I just let nature have

it's way with the garden. Cooler temperatures arrived,

so I ventured out and took a few token photos.

I have daylily buds!
When purchasing daylily's online, I have always ordered
rebloomers. When I lived
at my previous house in another town, the soil
was mostly clay and the daylily's would produce
once and then just hang on the rest of the year. Our
soil here is sandy loam - the daylily's seem to love it.

Our tree must be stressed. It has been raining leaves.
The plan for today is to cut back all
the roses and give them some food and
hopefully by the time fall arrives I will have a yard full
of sweet scents and beautiful
color once again.

July 01, 2012

Brandywine Tomato

Brandywine, an heirloom tomato, picked today. It was the
largest tomato I have ever seen. This is our first year
to grow this one.

Brandywine on the left and an average size
tomato on the right. Hubby
cracked the tomato when
picking it, so we sliced it up immediately.

Todays harvest. We are also growing
Abe Lincoln, Prudens Purple, Box Car Willie and
Arkansas Traveller, all of which
are the Heirloom varieties. The smaller ones
which are very tasty as well are Bistro Hybrid and
Early Treat Hybrid. We've been using these
in our salads.

Brandywine ready for eating. This
is one tomato on a normal size dinner plate.

June 21, 2012

Elainealope Iris Blooming In June

I knew Elainealope iris was a rebloomer, but here in North Central
Texas, I've never had one rebloom for me. I guess
the conditions were just right this year. I went
out this morning to look at the garden and this nice
little surprise was waiting for me.

Newberry Festival is such a gorgeous cranberry color and
has very large flowers. It is a late bloomer, which extends
the daylily bloom season.

This is Savannah Debutante, a double daylily, and also a late bloom
variety.

Here are some photos of other pairings for white
zinnia. This is the first year I've grown Bachelor Buttons.
I can see the beautiful blue color from my kitchen
window. I think it shows up because it is in front of the white zinnia.

You can't see in this photo, (it's not in bloom right now)
but on the right of the zinnias is the Double Delight rose
and on the left is the Red Knockout.

A returning sunflower. I just love
the rust color on it.

We planted tomatoes again this year. This is by far the largest
one to date that we have harvested, an heirloom, Boxcar Willie, which
we also grew last year. We decided not to try the
Black Krim again, it just seemed to have a lot of problems
with blossom end rot.

June 10, 2012

Double Delight Rose, Zinnias And Daylilies

I liked the white zinnias some much in my garden
last year, I planted them again. I received a Double
Delight rose for Mother's Day and planted it in the middle of
the zinnias. The rose White Lightin', I'm sad to report,
has died.