WEED WARS!!!

Down here in The South, Mother Nature brews up the perfect mix of heat, sunshine, humidity, and rainfall. Add to this the overheated and exhausted GARDENER, and you have the recipe

for 

WEED WARS!

Currently the troops are fighting an all out battle against this tough-rooted bunch grass. I haven't the faintest idea what it's called. We'd like to call it DEAD!

I've sent other troops to fight this tricky leaf flower weed.

It grows in even the smallest cracks. It can reseed by the hundreds if you don't pull it in time.

It will take an entire battalion to combat this hairy crabgrass.

It wins the prize for toughest root system to deal with. You can pull all you want, but most of the time it takes a digging tool to get all of it. 

This is a short version of leaf flower. It looks so pretty and ornamental...until you find hundreds of them in every nook and cranny. The leaf flower genus hails from South America and finds the Texas Gulf Coast a perfect place to live.

In the shady backyard the troops are taking on mulberry weed. This weed has not been in America very long, so many gardeners are just now seeing it for the first time. It moves around via the nursery trade.

Do NOT just snap off the top of mulberry weed. Here's why; as you can see by the above image, you will generate a whole Medusa's head of new growth each time you trim it.

Also, NEVER throw mulberry weed into your compost pile. Each seed head contains hundreds of viable seeds as tiny as this dot "."  (Actually they are tinier, but I know you would find that hard to believe)  I think it is actually closer in size to this dot "."  

Leaf flower has these cute little green seed pods dangling beneath the foliage. Each contains a powerhouse of seeds. Unless you have some weird 'cycle of life' thing going,  DO NOT throw leaf flower in your compost or leave them on the ground as mulch. You can enjoy the cycle of life in other ways. 

As we enjoy another Texas sunset, I'll leave you with some hopeful news.

Each of these bothersome weeds are annuals, not perennials. They don't like the cold and they must have open ground to show up each year. Mulching your garden will give you a distinct advantage.

Unfortunately, I love my gravel and rocky beds too much to cover them with mulch. I count pulling weeds as my stretching and yoga workout each morning.

That's it for now. Find some excuse to get outside today and garden!

YOU WILL FEEL BETTER for it!

David/:0)

FIRST FREEZE IN ALMOST 3 YEARS?

The skies are clear and temperatures are falling like a brick.

The weather guy used the term 'plummeting'. 

Why do I have so many tropical plants?

Why do they ALL have to be so beautiful?

And why don't I live in Miami or Key West?

We all tempt our zones and push the limits.

In my case, it's life or death....to the plants that is.

I've been studying weather and climate with my students for the past 12 weeks.

It's been fascinating.

For instance, here's a painting from Peter Bruegel from around 1550. Did you know that from around 1550 to 1850 most of Europe experienced a mini Ice Age?

It's reflected in many of the paintings of that era. 

Yes, I know it snows regularly in Europe, but during the aforementioned years it not only snowed, it SNOWED!

I also talked to the kids about the last ice age. It was difficult for them to imagine all of Canada buried in ice.

But what about Texas? What was going on here? It turns out WE had thousands of years of weather similar to Quebec or Manitoba. Everything shifted south thousands of miles and Texas was host to woolly mammoths and other cool animals.

We also had lots of spruce trees growing here 18,000 years ago.

I'm thinking a lot about cold weather because my garden is right on the FREEZE line tonight.

Talk about a nail biter. Everyone else is thinking about turkey and dressing and I'm thinking about green, mushy, frozen plants.

The latest wind map has some northerly winds moving the air around. That's good, because it means less chance of frost. 

There's also some high clouds in Mexico that could float by after midnight. This would keep the temperatures a few degrees higher. I can only hope!

In the meantime, I've brought in about 40 of my favorites, and packed my little garden shed with a couple of dozen more. 

I don't have my greenhouse ready this early in the season. I usually set it up the weekend AFTER Thanksgiving.

Oh well, pretending to be a tropical garden was fun while it lasted.

In closing, I do have a piece of really good news; one of my students donated a weather station to our classroom.

I'm babysitting it this weekend so I'll get to watch the carnage (or miracle) from a warm, cozy chair.

In the past, I had to run outside every few hours to view the thermometer. Brrrr.....

So, will I wake up to....

GREEN plants or BROWN plants? 

Tonight's weather will decide tomorrow's color scheme.

****

That's it for today. 

Have a

Happy Thanksgiving!

Stay warm and enjoy your holiday....and thanks for stopping by.

David/:0)

NEXT MORNING: The color is still GREEN...a large deck of clouds came across from Mexico just after midnight and lasted most of the night. We landed on a low of 34.1 here at the garden and in the center of the city.

:0) Now I can get that greenhouse filled with GREEN plants.

P.S. I like our local weather service...someone has a nice sense of humor. (Read below) LOL

I'M THANKFUL FOR LAST NIGHT'S CLOUD COVER:

FOLIAGE FOLLOW-UP: HERE'S TO A GREEN NOVEMBER

I love tropical gardening. But here in Houston, old man winter is poised to snuff it all out any month from November to February. But for now, all is green after cool weather and wonderful Autumn rains.

Ficus lutea from Africa

My agave collection

These will need thinning out next Spring. Ouch!

Giant Bauhinia leaves

Young castor beans grown from seed.

Young variegated banyan fig tree surrounded by other beauties.

Neoregelia bromeliads will need to come in during frosts.

Coleus 'You're So Vein' is still growing strong. This was my best coleus of the year.

Prickly pear and some weird bromeliads in pots.

Variegated Alstromeria frolics in the other foliage.

And finally, the exotic seed wings of the rain tree...Koelreuteria elegans.

Sometimes they stay this color while other winters they turn completely pink.

That's it for this November. I'll be putting everything away in the little greenhouse by next week.

Happy Gardening from David/:0)

A MIX OF FLOWERS & FOLIAGE FOR JULY GBBD

Howdy from Houston and welcome to my garden.

On the 15th of each month, our host Carol at May Dreams Gardens

invites us all to share our gardens. And my friend Pam at Digging, adds to the fun with a Foliage Follow-up on the 16th. It's a double header!

Fortunately, it has rained here during the past month and the garden is looking pretty good.
I've mixed my flowers with my foliage, so scroll down to what you'd like to see.

The Pride of Barbados has a little surprise. Do you see him? It's a tiny spider.

Speaking of surprises, I am delighted to tell you that the sun loving types (more like sun tolerant types) of coleus are getting better and better each year.

I'm a bit of a coleus freak, so this is great news. The one pictured above is probably 'Solar Sunrise'

from the Sunlover collection.

This sunlover is called 'Gay's Delight' . It's a sprinter and can grow about twice a fast as any coleus I've ever tried.

This one is called 'Redhead'. It is so velvety that you're tempted to pet it!

Here's 'Dijon' and it looks the part. Great name. It blends with dark greens perfectly.

Finally, here's my favorite called "You're So Vein". All of these can tolerate morning sun here in Texas.

Now back to the flowers.

The tiny Pearls of Opar (or Jewels of Opar) are popping up in the shade garden.

Our friendly cat 'Bear' poses next to the plant. See the tiny flowers?

Does anyone know how it got the name  'Pearls of Opar'? Sounds exotic...like it's from an Arabian fairy tale.

This is my first summer to grow Ice Plant. I think it's going to be a great little bloomer.

I'm also trying Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) for the first time. Anyone else LOVE this plant? I do.

And so does somebody else!

The lowly airplane plant is in bloom. I have it everywhere in the flower beds. It grows outdoors here in Houston.

This little Dahlberg Daisy has bloomed for an entire month. It loves sun!

Here's a larger view of the cottage garden with Gomphrena 'Buddy Purple' in the front.

Here's a larger view with some of the agaves. 

The silver plant is called Licorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare).

It is one of my favorite ground covers.

The agave is a hybrid called 'Sharkskin'.

Here's another view of the front garden. As you can see, I have to depend on plant foliage and textures rather than flowers at this point in the summer.

Our plumeria has finally decided to bloom after many years of waiting.

The scent transports me to tropical islands.

Here's the yellow one. It doesn't have the wonderful scent of the white one, but it's still nice to have around.

Perhaps my most difficult plant is this cycad. It has just put out its ONCE a YEAR set of leaves. That's it and the show is over until another year has passed. I must have the patience of Job to put up with this plant.

However, right now it is indeed beautiful.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is this lime green pothos. It has to be the fastest plant in my garden. I swear it adds a new leaf daily! Unfortunately, the bugs like to nibble on this one.

I am almost finished with a new fence. It's been the longest (literally) project I've ever done

and it's taken the longest time!

I'll close with this smiling dragon fly. They love to visit our pond. This particular species has absolutely no fear of humans. On the other hand, all the blue species are so paranoid that I can never photograph them.

Well, that's it for this month. 

I hope you enjoyed the July garden.

I'll see you next time.

Until then, happy growing!

David/:0)