Workhorse Plants in My Garden

In order for a plant to thrive in my garden it can not be

high maintenance or faint of heart.

When the temperature reaches 100 and

above here in South Texas, these workhorses hang in there and

are very forgiving.

Kimberly Queen Fern (above)

I buy my Kimberly fern at WalMart each spring, and a healthy, large plant costs about $12.00.

Boston fern don’t like me ,

and although I like Asparagus fern, I made the mistake of

using them in flower beds where they are a prickly mess.

Bougainvillea

Are you tired of hearing me talk about my love of bougainvillea?

When they bloom, they are simply glorious,

and the hotter the sun the better.

Airplane Plant

Airplane plants don’t mind a good drenching with a water hose,

which makes them especially easy to keep. 

We also get to celebrate together when they start having

babies that can be re-planted. 

Portulaca

My fondness for Portulaca has grown over the years because of where I usually buy it-

at the flea market.

There is usually a grandmotherly aged vendor who is selling small cuttings planted in coffee cans.

I get to ask her simple questions about her plants in Spanish, and I leave there smiling.

Begonias

Begonias are deceiving. They look fragile- and to a certain degree they are-

but they will bloom with the rest of my workhorses as long as I do my part.

They thrive in partial shade, and they like to be groomed periodically.

White Plumbago

I first wrote about white Plumbago here,

where I referred to it as my form of a perennial border gardening girdle.

I enjoy it for its uniqueness (because white is hard to find in my area) and because it

thrives on neglect.

 

Do you have workhorses in your garden that you can not live without?

Scourge of the Stink Bug

 

My tomato plants have been attacked by stink bugs. 


At this point in the growing season , I should have beautiful, healthy tomatoes.  


I do not.


And as a quick aside- why not a more sophisticated sounding pest? 


Stink bugs??


I have had every variety of insect and spider in my yard this gardening season, but I assumed we were friends.


We are not. 

Over half of my tomatoes have been ruined.

So this afternoon I picked what I could salvage and because I am lazy efficient,


I loaded what I could into the front of my shirt and headed to the house. ( Our yard is an acre in size.)


This also allowed me to pretend for a moment that this was all a ‘little house on the prairie’ moment.

Everything was fine, and I was so proud of myself for making just one trip,

when two little stink bugs peeked out from underneath the tomatoes in my shirt.


I screamed,


dropped the tomatoes and ran into the house shaking my shirt. 


My husband looked away from the baseball game he was watching long  enough to laugh. 



I am going to Scarlett O’Hara this and think about it tomorrow.

This is a stink bug.

                                                                                                Any suggestions?








 

Gardening in Zones

 

I didn’t create this plan, but I am going to use it.

Jayme of the inimitable Tales From The Coopkeeper did.

I think it is brilliant and just what I need for my feelings of ‘how am I going to get everything in order for the spring’? 


I am going to take care of my 1 acre yard including all of the flower beds, my new tomato beds, and all of my plants in containers in zones.


Otherwise without a plan, I might be found napping under one of our shade trees in my Ross Dress for Less caftan.

Plus- and I know this sounds so weird to many of you- we are already having windy days in the 80’s.

So here is the plan.

Each day I will work in a certain zone and make sure that area looks as it should and has all it needs.

I am not however going to assign zones to certain days.

I am simply going to rotate zones.

There is a subtle difference there for those of us who are organizationally rebellious.

This makes perfect sense to me.

Zone 1
Back patio and flower beds surrounding it.

Zone 2

Esperanza Garden area 

(esperanza means hope)

Zone 3

La Brecha area and front yard     (brecha loosely translated means an opening)

Zone 4

Tomato and Zinnia beds.

Zone 5

Sit on my patio at dusk and do this.