a huge branch from our old American Elm crashed into the back yard

Friday afternoon we noticed that there was a crack in the largest branch of our 80+ year old American Elm and that it was hanging down a little lower than usual. I called and left a message with an arborist, thinking it could wait until this week. It didn't wait.

Saturday evening we heard that awful sound of an electrical transformer blowing and our electricity went out. The cracked branch was now a crashed-into-the-back-yard branch. Some Austin Energy guys swooped in with flashlights and did something with chainsaws and ropes (too dark for me to see) to get it out of the electrical line then quickly disappeared, like a scene from "Brazil".



Besides squashing a small cherry laurel tree and some of my raised vegetable beds, the branch didn't cause any real damage. Whew.





Today the fantastic Scott George and his fantastic crew from Austin Beautiful Trees, Inc. cut off and removed the branch and pruned lots of other drooping branches from the elm and our old 50+ foot sycamore. Watching these guys do their tree art is fascinating.















The trees look much happier now.


street side before: dense, droopy, crowded


street side as of an hour ago: clean and airy

And shade is no longer a problem for my tomatoes.


new sunny spot for vegetable raised beds


Basil and chard aren't too squashed after all. I need to harvest the last few potatoes and pull out the old bolted broccoli and kale.

garden bloggers' bloom day

santolina

Over the past 24 hours or so, Austin finally received a good rain--my rain gauge indicates 4.5 inches--so some of my blooms are a little battered right now. [EDITED May 17, 2010: In my excitement about the rain, I read the centimeter side of the gauge--doh! So we actually got 1.8 inches, not 4.5 inches.] Not complaining! Visit Carol's May Dreams Gardens blog to see blooms from the rest of the world today.


first plumbago bloom after extra-cold winter


Provence lavender


indigo spires salvia


gaura


blackfoot daisies and first Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) blooms


bicolor iris


last red cascade roses for awhile


Texas bluebells (Eustoma "Florida Blue")

Other plants somewhat battered but blooming today are society garlic, victoria blue salvia, purple and white ruellia, balloon flower, marigold, torenia, verbena, "Diamond Frost" euphorbia, and trailing lantana.

first ever potatoes

This is my first attempt to grow potatoes--Yukon Golds--and although it's a small yield, I'm very pleased. They were delicious sauteed in butter with a little salt--very creamy. I should have a handful more ready in a few days.



I think I'm getting so few because the potato plants didn't get enough sun because my huge American elm leafed out earlier and more profusely this year from winter and early spring rains. The huge American elm covers both my raised bed areas and last summer it was drought stressed and not very lush, providing just enough shade to protect my tomatoes and cucumbers from the intense heat.

This time around, I think there's just too much shade for the tomatoes I put in more than a month ago, so I recently planted Sun Golds, Juliets, a Black Krim, a Creole, and a Cherokee Purple in pots in the sunny side yard. This pot hodgepodge isn't pretty but it's practical, and I should at least get a fair amount of cherries and Juliets.



Next fall we'll make a raised bed in that area, which wasn't sunny enough for vegetables until a few weeks ago, when husband Kurt cut down an ailing cherry laurel tree. Already too hot to mess with making that bed this season, though.

My spicy potato-chickpea stew with homegrown chard

Linda Lehmusvirta, producer of Central Texas Gardener (aired on Austin's PBS affiliate station, KLRU), suggested I post tonight's dinner recipe. We'd already eaten ours at that point, so my only picture is what was leftover in the pan!



This is fairly spicy but has lots of extra healthy stuff included, like ginger, garlic, and turmeric. I'm not used to writing out recipes because I always taste as I go along and am usually making it up as I go along, but I think my guesses on the spices are reasonable.

Every ingredient I used was organic (and some local or homegrown) except the jalapenos. The prep work takes the most time, but it's not too bad. It's worth the effort!

A few tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (or ghee)
One large yellow onion, diced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
approx 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, minced
6-8 cloves garlic, chopped
6-8 red new potatoes or Yukon Golds, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1-2 cups chopped swiss chard and/or kale

Ground spices (all to taste, but these are my guesstimates):
cumin (2 T)
coriander (1 T)
turmeric (1 T)
fennel (1 t)
fenugreek (1 t)
asafoetida (1/2 to 1 t)
cinnamon (couple of pinches)
honey (1-2 T)

One 28 oz. can crushed (or diced) tomatoes
One 15 oz. can garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
salt (1-2 T)
Handful chopped cilantro (save part for garnish)
Half-handful chopped mint (save part for garnish)
optional: drizzle of yogurt as garnish

On medium-low heat, sautee onion, garlic, ginger, jalapeno, and potato, and chard/kale in olive oil (or ghee) for about 20 minutes. Stir often. Add all powdered spices and honey, continue cooking, covered, over low heat until potatoes are starting to soften (stir occasionally). Add tomatoes, salt to taste, and garbanzo beans (mostly drained).

Continue to cook, covered, over low heat for around 20 minutes. Add cilantro and mint. Continue to cook, covered, for a few minutes. Turn off heat: taste, adjust, make sure potatoes are soft but not mushy. Let sit for at least 15 minutes before eating. Garnish with reserved cilantro and mint (and yogurt).

show offs

Byzantine gladiolus

These weren't in their full glory on garden bloggers' bloom day (April 15), but I couldn't resist showing them now. Most of my front yard garden flowers are native or adapted and drought tolerant. As much as I appreciate them, not many are very showy, so I really look forward to the week or two my heirloom Byzantine gladiolus blooms. They came with the house, so someone planted these bulbs more than 20 years ago.



My only rose is this sun-loving miniature "Red Cascade" I've had for seven years. I really like this shade of red--not too pink and not too orange--plus it's super tough and dainty at the same time.


miniature "Red Cascade" rose

foliage follow up to bloom day

'Mahogany' nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) seedlings

Pam at Digging invites us to show off our foliage the day after garden bloggers' bloom day. Check out her blog to see hers and others' foliage standouts.


plumbago's slowly coming back after a tough winter


inland sea oats are lusher than I've ever seen them


Mexican feathergrass and bush germander


this biggest agave survived the cold winter pretty well, too

garden bloggers' bloom day

society garlic

Most of my salvias are a little behind bloom-wise, but they did make it through last winter's hard freezes.


victoria salvia peeking


Overall, things are pretty lush, but we still need today's predicted rain! Visit Carol's May Dreams Gardens blog to see other blooms from all over.


trailing verbena


"21st Century Blue" phlox


"Miss Tilly" balloon flower (platycodon)


byzantine gladiolus just began its show yesterday


"Diamond Frost" euphorbia


purple cauliflower finally bolted, too bad no purple blooms


blackfoot daisy


"Purple Moon" torenia

tomatoes in, lettuces out: sore muscles all over

At the moment, I'm lounging inside enjoying a chalupa, wine, and West Virginia versus Duke (go WVa) basketball. [EDITED 11:45 pm: ugh, cocky Duke won; well then, go Butler on Monday!] And I definitely earned this relaxation today.

I pulled out all the bolting lettuces and weeded four vegetable beds, which included mountains of chickweed. While I was doing that, husband Kurt was doing our taxes (yippee!) Later he came out and mixed up our compost and amended two of the newly empty beds for me to plant tomatoes (Old German, Arkansas Traveller, Valley Girl, Sun Gold), a tomatillo, basils (sweet, cinnamon, red rubin), and sweet banana peppers.

I left the monster parsley bush and oregano patch for now because both still have plenty of good stuff to offer. I also left the flowering broccoli and kale for now. I've still got some Juliet tomatoes in a big pot and six more sweet basils to plant somewhere, but they can all wait a week or two when I'm finally ready to pull out those bolting greens.


lettuce bed before


lettuce bed after, with new peppers, tomatillo, and tomatoes


old beet and carrot bed before


old beet and carrot bed during...


old beet and carrot bed during...


old beet and carrot bed after, before planting new basil


old beet and carrot bed after, with new basil: look how big the potato plants are now (far left)!


three kinds of basil

first timers

Yukon Gold potato seedlings (above)! I guess they're a little bigger than "seedlings" now, and I'm so excited that my first experiment growing potatoes is looking good so far. While I've been cooling my heels waiting to move my potted tomatoes and peppers into the ground (this weekend, I hope), I bought a few new plants. Another first: soaked and sowed Mahogany Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) seeds.


Proven Winners Safari Plum Nemesia fruticans--appears to be a good spring-summer container bloom


Gray Shrub Sage (Salvia chamaedryoides)--supposed to have pale violet flowers at some point


Upright Germander (Teucrium chamaedrys)--dwarf evergreen shrub that claims it will have purple flowers. I planted three of them among some gray santolina for contrast.



The verbena I planted two years ago has reseeded, popping up all over the front yard in a very pleasing manner. I never would have planted a verbena right up in that oregano, but nature did and it looks great!