August? It can't be, or can it?

Wow, I can't believe it's already August! This is a busy time in the gardens with everything trying to die and all. Those new water lines my husband laid out are saving me this year; it's so great that I have a hose or spigot pretty much anywhere I need water! My gardening advice for this month is mainly this: Don't get overheated! This is a good time to look at the Fall blooming perennials at the nurseries. Most of them are already having really good sales. They're tired of trying to keep everything alive, too! Some gardeners like to tuck in some annuals at this time of year, but I've never really gone for annuals as a general rule. If I'm going to spend the money and the time to plant the things, I'd much rather have more than a couple of weeks enjoyment out of them! But, each to their own. Try to stay cool in this Texas heat and keep in touch!

Texas Gardening

If you've never seen guinea fowl, don't fee alone! I hadn't seen one until two of them flew up on my roof one morning. Then they refused to leave! A few months later, here I am with a baker's dozen guineas and loving it! They are the most entertaining creatures. It also ties in with my title of "Texas Gardening". If you're not from this area you may not have heard that we're under one of the worst droughts since the 50's. Sure doesn't make it easy on the gardening. Some of the things you can do to help keep your garden green include putting in soaker hoses, water in the early morning hours only, and consider the water needs of your plants before buying them. Soaker hoses are the best thing I've found for getting the water down into the roots of the plants without evaporating as soon as it hits the air. But for this to work correctly, you must cover the hoses with a good layer of mulch, which you will have already done, so then you just need to tuck it under. I found it easier to just add more mulch - you can never have enough, anyway. Everyone's heard about watering in the early morning hours. I think this is mostly for overhead sprinkling. This accomplishes a couple of different things. First, the temperature's not so hot that the water evaporates immediately and secondly, getting water on the leaves will scorch them when the sun hits them. I guess the very best way to deal with the hot, dry Texas weather is by xeriscaping. This is a form of gardening that uses very little water, but takes a little more forethought and preplanning to be able to find the right plants for the right spots. I'm not talking about cactus and other prickly things, but beautiful, lush plants that can withstand whatever the weather can throw at it. Some of my favorites are all the ornamental grasses. They can be small and delicate or large and commanding. They're all graceful and depending on which types you get have some of the most beautiful colors in them. Another good thing about grasses is they usually stay nice looking through the winter, helping with that "winter garden" dead look. I've got one bed that I didn't think about xeriscaping, it's close to the house and I'm keeping it the way it is. But for all my outer beds and the rest of my garden planning, I'm definitely watching and looking for just the right plants that will thrive without me watering them daily. Just my thoughts on 7/29/09.

Ready - set- GO!.

Now that I'm finally here I can do what I've been threatening for years - I can write about things that I care about and not have to follow anybody's ideas of what they should be! Yea! Today I'm sitting out on my back porch looking out over the gardens. This has been a dream of mine for many years (okay-not that many years!). I hope you'll enjoy spending time with me as I offer up advice about gardening and living the country life and lots of other things that no doubt will come up. I live on 8 acres SW of Houston am a Master Gardener for Austin County. I'm technically in Medical Diagnostic Imaging as far as profession goes but as I've been out of work since Oct. of '08 I'm changing that profession to "writer". And I'm loving it more and more everytime I say it!