LAST DAY OF SCHOOL, THEN A SUMMER OF GARDENING!

I love my job. But, for a gardener, getting up early and driving AWAY from your garden is torture. I'm looking forward to FOUR things this summer:

Playing with our new kittens all summer!

 Then taking them out to the garden so they can be my helpers.

Do they look like they're ready to help out in the garden?

I'm looking forward to asking Cindy at My Corner of Katy (next to my school!) what these gorgeous flowers are. (Then begging her for a cutting)

Knowing her green thumb, they are probably Icelandic Poppies and she's figured out a way to get them to grow in Texas. LOL

I'm looking forward to adding flowers and plants to my own cottage garden. If you don't have a cottage garden you should try it!

I've never been one for flowers, but I must say if you find native and easy to grow flowers, the rewards are immeasurable.

And the last thing:

Getting to visit my 50 Nifty Garden Friends (and others!) and leaving comments. During the school year that is the one part of blogging I can't maintain. The school kids come first and I have to put my time into their lessons.

But during the summer, I get to visit all those other garden blogs! Hurray!

Year 31 is done! Happy Summer, my students.

I'm headed out to the garden now!

Thanks for stopping by.

David/:0)



THE CHINA CONNECTION...TO WORLD GARDENS

I'm trying to find areas of the world that would be climate twins for Houston and finding gardens that have the same feel as my own. We have a lot of plants in our gardens from China & Japan. And yet, it is VERY difficult to find a garden blog from these major countries. More on that later.
So what plants would we miss in our gardens if we were to take away the plants from China and Japan? For pure native gardeners, nothing. But for the rest of us here's a small list. See if you would miss these.

Would you miss daylilies?

I'd miss them a lot.

Would you miss hollyhocks?

And Buddleia davidii? It's from Sichuan Province in central China.

Would...

you....

miss....ROSES?  At least four species of roses are from China and these gave hybridizers new powers to perfect our modern varieties.

There are so many beautiful flowers from this sister region of the climate world. And I would miss them all except the Tallow tree.

Even though there are a few thugs amongst them that want to take over, most, like this Wisteria, just want to grow and fit in.

And the honeybees don't seem to mind at all where these flowers came from.

They're enjoying a Pittosporum tobira, a Japanese introduction from long ago.

Right now thousands of  crape myrtles are putting on their extravagant show all over Houston.

They've been in Texas and the South for hundreds of years. People can no longer remember a time when we DIDN'T have them in our gardens.

And yet, they came from China and India. Around 1790, they were brought to Charleston, South Carolina by a French botanist, Andre' Michaux. I would definitely miss these beauties!

But even more important than the plants are the gardening methods and ideologies we have embraced from China and Japan.

Any type of hedge or trimming scheme probably originated from China or Japan. Bonsai takes it to the extreme.

It's hard to imagine who developed stones for landscaping gardens, but I would think that the Chinese would be a contender. Some say Chinese gardens are mentioned as far back as the Han Dynasty around 200 BC.

That's over 2,200 years ago. By contrast, the oldest formal garden in the United States according to their website is Middleton Place near Charleston, South Carolina (by the way, their website is FABULOUS). Middleton Place started in 1741,  a mere 19 centuries later!

We do love our stones, don't we? This is from the Japanese gardens here in Houston.

The Chinese and the Japanese borrowed from each other for a thousand years, so the two are intertwined in the ancient mists of gardening history. It's difficult to say which country started the stone pathway tradition first.

Do you have bamboo in your garden? Most species are from China.

The Chinese botanical symbol for teacher is the bamboo plant. They are strong yet they also bend. Some say they never snap no matter how much they go through! Just like teachers! LOL

(One of my Chinese students gave me a sweater with this symbol on it...and  told me the story behind it)

My favorite plant from China is this Chinese fan palm from the southern island of Hainan. It is my signature plant for the tropical garden.

On of my favorite discoveries about gardening in China is the wonderful place names they have.

I'm thinking I need to get a lot more creative in naming parts of my garden.

This photo above in American thinking would be 'The Ginger Corner'.

But to a Chinese gardener it would be transformed into something like:

'The Nook of Dancing Greenery'.

My chicken coop would take a LOT of imagination to rename.

Perhaps the 'Village of Eternal Garden Manure'.

I will leave you with a photo from a Chinese garden borrowed from Wikipedia.

I've just started the long journey of finding personal garden blogs, travel blogs, and artist blogs from China. Personal blogs are a tricky business in China and I'm sure everything is monitored by the government.

But I have found 5 so far that give us a taste of true Chinese culture.

They are on my left sidebar. Go take a look if you get the chance.

Or, if you're like me, an easier visit to China would be to take a few steps into your garden!

Our garden pond...'The Twinkling Waters of Gliding Duckweed'

Thanks for stopping by!

David/:0)

TOMORROW'S GARDEN: GARDEN BOOK REVIEW

As a teacher, I plan those very first moments of summer with care. This will be the first gardening book on my list and I shall read it cover to cover.

The chicken on the front cover was the first hint that this book was a different kind of gardening book.

(some excellent drought tolerant plants for the front garden)

He doesn't tell you what to buy, but he'll guide you on the philosophy of buying for your area.

Part 1: GARDEN WHERE YOU LIVE

(the front wall in our cottage garden)

He won't tell you how to build a wall, or what materials to use, or even tell you cool how-to tricks.

But he will tell you why you need to use certain things instead of other things.

Part 2: CONSIDER THE MATERIALS

(our chickens)

And about that chicken...the last section won't tell you what breed to buy or how to construct a nice chicken run. He won't even tell you what crops or herbs to plant.

PART 3: EDIBLE GARDENS & COMMUNITY

(part of the tropical garden with a birdbath)

So, what will he tell you?

Stephen Orr will tell you how to THINK about your garden. He fills page after page with luscious photographs of gardens all across the country. Alongside the photos, he tells of his interviews with these successful gardeners and their sustainable and dramatically beautiful gardens.

Sustainable is key here. The question is how do you garden without killing yourself physically and ruining the environment?

(native American Holly trees in our garden..we have three of them)

He could have easily entitled it 'The Philosophy of Natural, Sustainable Gardening for Future Gardeners with Illustrations to Show You that it is Actually Possible'.

Published by Rodale Press in 2011.

Here's the link to see what's inside. Please go take a look and have fun visiting the future of gardening. It's a nice place.

And while you're at it, visit some other great links to garden books. It's all the brainchild of our wonderful host, Holley. You can find the colorful button and link up at the top of my blog. Thanks, Holley!

And thanks for stopping by.

David/:0)

One thing I learned from this book (it's next to my thumb):

 Most plants have two labels. Besides the fancy one, be sure and look at the other label to see if the plant was grown locally/regionally. This has several benefits including easy adaptability to your garden's climate, local knowledge from savvy growers that know what will grow in your region, smaller carbon footprint due to shorter shipping distances, and support of your local or regional economy.

All that in just one nondescript label!



FREEZE FRAME FOLIAGE FOLLOW-UP

Freeze frame...as in I'd like to stop the weather right...about...NOW...here in Texas and leave it this way all summer. Highs of 82 and lows of 62 each day. I'd love to also freeze frame my garden right now. Wait a minute...that's called photography and I can certainly do that. So, here we go. Happy Foliage Follow-up. And to see all the foliage fanatics, stop and visit Pam at  Digging over in Austin, Texas.

Some very creative art work from our school's 5th graders would look nice in any garden.

Wish I could make this!

We have a great art teacher.

The back yard. I LOVE tropical plants and especially FOLIAGE.

Knock, knock? Who's there?

Looks like a green anole.

Drought? What drought? You should have seen this poor backyard one year ago.

A leaf on a leaf on a leaf. I promise, I found it this way.

I'll probably never find another in my lifetime.

A view from the arm chair.

Some fuzzy bees have a meeting on the native goldenrod.

They like foliage follow-up a lot more than 'just grow a lawn' follow-up.

There are lots of different textures in the front garden.

Rosemary looks great with agaves.

The artemesia needs a haircut next to this stylish dwarf yaupon.

Agaves, purple ajuga, palm grass, purplish loropetalum, monkey grass, carpet grass, a palm frond, a chi-chi Ruellia, and.... a partridge in a pear tree (just joking...it just seemed to fit).

The back pathway.

This is my favorite foliage leaf. There are 600 species of Dioscorea in the air potato family.

Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of this one.

It lived through the drought and the freezes, so it's a keeper.

I'll leave you with some more charming butterflies and tropical art.

Thanks for fluttering by!

David/:0)

Watch out for the snake!