Digigirl's Garden

So, all the local gardeners tell me that here in Houston, Fall is our second Spring. Due to our extended growing season here and our relatively mild winters, Fall can apparently be another great time for planting and reworking the yard.

This is the first time I’ve ever really paid this much attention to the seasons. I mean, sure, I get hot in the Summer, and remember to put on my sweater in the Fall and Winter, but other than that, not so much. It’s been very interesting to me, this year, to watch the progression of my plants throughout the year. All of the Coleus I planted in Spring are considered tender perennials and it’s fascinating to see that a year is almost like a whole life cycle for them.

When I planted them, they were cute little babies, all fresh and dewy. After being in the ground a while, they grew and bushed out and became beautiful adults. Now, as Summer has passed by and we are in the midst of Fall, they are looking leggy and worn out. Time for a replacement!

Some of that is my fault, I know. I’m supposed to have been out there pinching and trimming and weeding all Summer. But, it was just so hot (can you hear the whine?) that I really let things go. Consequently, now I’ve got a bunch of work to do!

Another thing I planted is Oxalis or “False Shamrock.” I’ve been very pleased with this choice! They are a beautiful low, purple foliage plant that I put all along a narrow side border. They are planted as bulbs, but they popped their little heads up right away and have looked gorgeous ever since. They have more than earned their place in my garden and I just love that purple color! I’m planning to add a bunch more of these to the front bed in place of some of those Coleus.

Anyway, now that it’s the Second Spring, I guess I need to get off my butt and get back to work. The question now is, what will survive the Winter?

I’ve only been gardening for less than a year. See, I bought this house in January of 2006 and it is the first house I’ve ever owned. Since I’d never gardened before, I didn’t know how to get started, so I spent all the first year planning and figuring out what I was going to do with my yard.

Here are a couple of the things I’ve discovered during this first season.
My first realization is that I have a lot to learn about design and planning! Some of the things I chose didn’t do well at all, or were too small, or whatever, while other impulse purchases ended up being perfect for my yard! I had picked coleus to play a large part in my front bed, not realizing at the time that they aren’t true perennials – they’re “tender” perennials. Which means the first time we get a freeze, they’re gonna die and I’ll have to put a whole bunch of new plants in their place! Oops.

Nonetheless, they sure are pretty now. Some of the varieties I chose turned out to be too small. Take this Black Magic, for instance. Looks great in the pic, doesn’t it?

I got several of these and while they are very pretty, they are still, to this day, very small. Hindsight being 20/20, I see that these would be great for tucking into nooks and crannies, but not for filling large areas as I had hoped.

On the other hand, here’s Beckwith’s Gem.

This one also looks great, and grew nice and big and bushy. But, it turned out to be a lot more wine colored than purple, when purple was what I was hoping for. Oh well, still looks pretty.

The other big discovery in my first year of gardening is that weather is important. I mean, yeah, we all know weather is important to gardening, but I mean, it’s IMPORTANT.

In Spring, it was beautiful outside – low 70’s, cool breeze, gorgeous! I had a great time getting outside and putting those babies in. Then Summer rolled around.

Whew! It’s a good thing my plants don’t need too much maintenance, because it is WAY too hot to be out there messing around. Living in the Southwest Houston area, our summers are quite warm and very humid. This year, more rain and less heat than usual, but still plenty hot enough to keep me inside with the a/c. What can I say, I’m a heat wimp!

So, my big discoveries this year are that planning only gets you so far -some of it just depends on how it looks when it goes in – and that I’m a Fair Weather Friend. When it start heating up outside, Digigirl goes back to virtual gardening!