Red Dirt Ramblings

Dee May 8th, 2008

The calm after the storm . . . .

Yesterday, I washed my cell phone. After one day of being without it, I knew a replacement was necessary when I had to borrow the Diva’s phone twice. We, the Diva, Bear and I, were in OKC for dental appointments. Afterward, at 4:30 p.m., we went to a comic book store, and were headed to Bear’s indoor batting practice and the T-Mobile phone store in Edmond.

It was raining hard, and I was concentrating on keeping my bus in my lane, when I heard a noise. With the rain drumming a staccato on the roof, I cracked a window and asked the Diva if she heard it. A moment later, we realized the wail came from sirens. Tornado sirens.

The tornado sirens always surprise us because, out where we live, there aren’t any. We watch a lot of the History Channel, and I swear, the tornado sirens sound like the ones used in England during the London Blitz. I always have this desire to shade my eyes and search the sky for bombs.

Instead, I turned on the radio. During storm season, many of the radio stations broadcast the weather from the three local television stations. I got Gary England, of KWTV Channel 9. He said a tornado was on the ground in the Bethany area. That was south and west of us, so I breathed a sigh of relief. You do not want to be in a car when a tornado is nearby unless you’re David Payne (a meteorologist on KFOR known for tornado chasing.) Get out the popcorn. Watching him is high drama.

Red Dirt Nana (my mom) lives near Bethany, so the Diva tried calling her. I kept driving, my eyes squinting through the curtain of pouring rain. The cellular network was so busy that it took eight tries to reach her. Nana said the track of the storm was headed toward us. I mashed harder on the gas.

We went to our regular destination. Home was still far away, and with most tornadoes, a block or two, and you’re out of their path. Also, according to Gary E., the thunderstorm was lessening in intensity.

At the phone store, the girls wanted to wait in the car. The Diva was studying for finals. Bear had her Jughead comics. I opened my umbrella and fought the wind and rain as I crossed the parking lot. Halfway there, Edmond’s sirens began blaring.

I ran back to the car, grabbed the girls, and ran inside the store, which was in a strip mall. Not the best place to be hanging out if a tornado is coming. The assistant manager, the manager and the district manager were all in the store. Odd, but I never got to ask why. At first, no one was worried. Tornado sirens go off automatically if conditions are right for tornado development, and if the area is in a tornado warning. That pretty much covers the entire state during any large thunderstorm in spring.

I was picking out a phone when all of the employees’ phones started ringing. We were told a tornado was truly headed our way. The district manager ushered us all into the middle hallway (a central location,) and we waited. Blackberries were in evidence everywhere, but no one could get through. The system was busy.

Bear was frightened. The Diva and I were calm, but I suggested we turn on a radio. They didn’t have a radio except through their phones. Sheesh! Were we addicted to these things or what? I waited a moment or two for the network to clear and asked for the Diva’s phone. I called HH at home and requested a weather report. He was watching Channel 5, KOCO TV.

Meanwhile, the store manager went to the front of the store.

“We’ll be fine,” said an employee, “Our manager is a meteorologist.”

A meteorologist? Managing a T-Mobile Store?

Only in Oklahoma.

My first thought was “Why?” The second was “What good would that do?” Meteorologists predict the weather. The can’t control it. And, right then, the highly paid ones on television couldn’t agree whether there were tornadoes or not, nor where they were.

After a moment or two, HH told me the “large, wind gusts, not tornadoes” had passed us by. The gust front was at I-35 and Covell (north and east of us.)

I told everyone, and moments later, after their blackberries came to life, we were let out of the hallway. I bought my phone, and the girls and I returned home to our boys, safe and sound with a good story to tell.

The garden wasn’t too bad either. These photos show my peonies before and after the storm, a little bedraggled, but still hanging in there.

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• Wild Weather , Oklahoma
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Dee May 4th, 2008

In the evening, when the light is as soft as a kitten’s paw, is the best time to entertain photography adventure. Tonight, no wind to blow the plants, and only mosquitoes to spoil the mood. The children call to me in the garden and often find me lying on my side on the paths or in the dirt. They think me strange, but I just dust myself off, hang my camera around my neck and smile.

Cl. ‘Old Blush’ at left is very happy this spring. I have not fertilized her or anything. I’m afraid she would grow even larger. Won’t you come on into the garden and play?

‘Zepherine Droughin,’ below, waits at the other arbor, her cerise pink petticoats shimmering in the perfect light. She had a little taken off the top and sides this weekend, and I fed her alfalfa pellets. The alfalfa is something new I’m trying this year to beef up the roses. ZD does not like the Bayer Advanced All in One fertilizer. I made the nearly fatal mistake of trying it on her last summer, and she was not pleased. Her canes died back, and she quit growing and flowering.

Some roses like the Bayer. Some don’t.

The ones grown with veggies, of course, don’t get Bayer. It is a systemic fertilizer, fungicide and insecticide. It does not work on thrips. I have a lot of thrips, and I won’t spray. Thrips are hardest on the lighter colored roses, like the light pinks and the yellows. They only spoil the first blooms before going away. Where they go, I don’t know . . . but now, I’m starting to sound like Dr. Suess, so I’m going to stop.

Below is another reason I won’t spray. This is a bee caught by a flower spider. I don’t want to kill the beneficial insects along with the thrips even when the beneficials kill each other. I’ve read you can spray neem oil mixed with insecticidal soap to interrupt the feeding and reproductive life cycle of thrips. I don’t know what the effect would be on beneficials, but I’ve read it isn’t as likely to hurt ladybeetles and spiders because they feed on insects instead of plants. However, the jury appears to still be out on bees because they could bring it back to the hive in pollen. You can spray neem oil in Oklahoma, but only on days cooler than 80 degrees. Otherwise, like all horticultural oils, you’ll burn the foliage. Believe me, I’ve done it. Neem oil is also a natural fungicide, but it stinks.

But, back to the light. In these autumn ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora,) golden light appears to shine through their leaves. However, this is their true color. They’ve recovered from winter, and every year, they grow larger and larger in circumference. I like them next to the peach coral bells (Heuchera) in the background. Planted long ago, I’ve lost the cultivar names of both the ferns and coral bells.

These are Ma’s pink iris. For such an old variety, they are heavily ruffled. When I met HH, these iris were planted out by the mailbox next to the road in very compacted soil. I moved them and put them in the garden where they flourished.

They belonged to HH’s maternal grandmother and then, his mother. Along with a French lilac, she gave him some of Ma’s iris rhizomes when he moved out to the country. We also still have the lilac, although the late frost spoiled most of the blossoms this year.

I can’t really see HH digging a hole and patting the rhizomes into place. He does not like to plant anything. I like to think his mother placed them next to the mailbox as a nice greeting for visitors so long ago.

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• Green Thumb Sunday , Roses
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Dee May 3rd, 2008

Shsssh, the “Red Dirt Rambler” has gone to the garden center, yet again, for more plants. RDR wasn’t going to do a hoe post. She was trying to let May 3rd slip by with no talk of hoes. She wasn’t even going to visit other blogs having a hoe down, because she doesn’t want the world to know how badly we’re treated.

RDR doesn’t know it, but when she brought her laptop out to write, our spies saw May Dreams Garden’s Hoe Down. While RDR is away, we’re having a “parteah.”

However, while we’re here, we’ve got a grievance or two that we want to air. It doesn’t matter how dirty or tired we feel, we are expected to serve at her pleasure like she’s the Queen of England or something.

It’s hard out here for a hoe. As Rodney Dangerfield would say, “We get no respect.”

Once she’s disposed of the crab grass, Bermuda grass, or the bindweed, she just drops us and leaves us where we lie. If we’re lucky, she stuffs us into a bucket with all the other gardening implements. Do you know how stuck up the Felco Pruners are? Although we’ve seen plenty of starry nights, we’re ready to come into the garage. Better yet, build us a classy shed like the ones in her friend, Debra’s, book, Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways.

We try to hide in the grassy paths, but she always seems to find us. Must be the color on the handles. One of our older short-handled hoes, a Smith & Hawken, is still out there hiding. Or, did RDR “put her out to pasture?” Permanently.

Can someone please tell her the importance of cleaning and oiling her garden implements? Since our employer won’t pay for our upkeep, we want socialized hoe care.

One of our members, a twenty year garden veteran, was lost, she says, by a teen, on a high school work project. We went on a hoe strike, but she brought in newcomers, aluminum and powder coated scabs that broke the picket line. We’ll never forgive them.

Although we have other dissatisfactions, those are our chief ones. We’d like you, the other bloggers, to comment some sense into her. Carol, you seem a sensible hoe supervisor. She treats us like she owns us, handle and blade.

The long-handled hoes have their own complaint.

“We don’t like how she plays favorites. We all work hard for her, but she turns again and again to the small, hand-held hoes. It’s favoritism or nepotism or some ‘ism.’ Give us justice!”

Perhaps this “parteah” is turning into more of an organizational meeting. RDR better watch out. This is America you know. Hoes unite!

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• Garden Bloggers' Hoe Down , Tools of the Trade
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Dee May 1st, 2008

Roses

You love the roses - so do I. I wish
The sky would rain down roses, as they rain
From off the shaken bush. Why will it not?
Then all the valley would be pink and white
And soft to tread on. They would fall as light
As feathers, smelling sweet: and it would be
Like sleeping and yet waking, all at once.

By: George Eliot (a/k/a Mary Ann Evans)

I wonder if George Eliot would have been so famous if allowed to publish under her own name.

For more musings, thank our host, Carolyn Gail, at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago.

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• Uncategorized
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Dee April 29th, 2008

Want some red in your yard? How about a Japanese maple like this? You can have one. I took this photo in a neighborhood in Edmond, Oklahoma. Although this is a great example of a mature ‘Bloodgood’ Japanese maple, which is one of the more common types of red Japanese maples available at the various garden centers, I would limb up some of the undergrowth to emphasize the beautiful crown.

I don’t own a ‘Bloodgood’, but I do grow two lovely Japanese maples. One, I’ve grown for three or four years. It is a very small, slow growing, cascading form called ‘Crimson Queen’ (Acer palmatum var. dissectum) and is shown with the angel below.

This is an excellent time of year to plant trees and shrubs, especially since this spring is cool, rainy and slowly creeping toward summer. Some years we have drought and heat in April, but not this one.

When you consider where Japanese maples originate from, you wouldn’t think they would thrive here. Japan is mountainous and cool. Oklahoma is flat or hilly and hot. Japan is an island. Oklahoma is in the middle of the vast American prairie. However, if you situate them in the right spot, give them enough water, and protect them from our drying winds, you can successfully grow one of these trees.

My new one is another dissected leaf form. It is a ‘Tamukeyama’ (Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Tamukeyama’.) I was looking for some small annuals at one of the box stores, and I became very excited when I found it and its brothers hidden behind some patio furniture. When I saw it was only $79.00, I was ecstatic.

I’m going to show you how to plant it and where. First choose a shady spot or a location on the north side of your house. If you have a garden on the north, that would be ideal, as the tree will be protected from the hot, afternoon sun which causes leaf burn. My ‘Crimson Queen’ Japanese maple is planted in dappled shade on the West side of my home (which is in my front garden,) but it is in deep shade by the time summer arrives.

About sunlight; this time of year, it is difficult to know how much shade you will have because the trees haven’t leafed out. Look up at the tree canopy. Although it isn’t leafed out in the spring, it will be by summer. Remember, the east side of your house receives early morning sunlight. The west gets hot afternoon sun. Because the north side of the house has weaker sunlight, we can grow some things we normally grow in shade. South side, think hot, hot, hot.

Do not put your sweet tree there.

After finding the perfect location, dig a hole. Readers sometimes wonder if my natural soil is red, and the photo below should resolve any doubts. The hole should be two times deeper than the root ball of the tree. Mine was grown in a container, so I dug it one and a half times the container. I also dug the hole twice as big around as the container.

Then, you need to amend the backfill soil with compost. I used crushed leaves and leaf mold. You could use your own homemade compost, or a commercial compost like Back to Nature. Just be sure to mix it into the soil. I also put a little in the bottom of the hole. There is some thought that we shouldn’t amend the soil because it kind of fools the tree into thinking it doesn’t have to work its roots into the regular soil. I say go ahead and amend it some. Give the tree a chance. If you have clay soil, really dig the hole big and deep and work lots of organic matter into the hole. You don’t want to create a clay bowl that retains water.

Before you place the tree in the hole, water it so that it doesn’t have to struggle so hard. Then, tickle the bottom of the roots. They’ve been in a pot, and they are root bound. Don’t worry if some of the soil falls off into the hole. Just incorporate it. All will be well.

Backfill your hole and tamp the soil around the tree with you foot. Top it off with some mulch. Again, I used shredded leaves, but you can use any type of organic mulch. This tree is in a windy area, so I will stake it for about six months. You don’t want to stake it too long because strong roots won’t develop.

Then, water your tree. If the water reveals a hole, tamp the soil down until the hole disappears. I water my new trees three times. That way, I’m sure the water penetrates their roots. You’ll need to watch your tree and not let it get too dry between waterings. New plantings generally need an inch of water a week.

I hope this information is helpful and didn’t bore you. I also hope you’ll give Japanese maples a chance in your garden. They are peaceful and beautiful just like the countryside where they were originally born.

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• Trees and shrubs
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Dee April 28th, 2008

Over the weekend, the Spring Flingers were profiled by Robin Chotzinoff in the Austin Statesman. Check it out, and you’ll discover that Carol from May Dreams Gardens is a rock star among garden bloggers. (I thought we all just wanted her for our neighbor.) After I read the article, I had visions of gentle Carol playing a riff on Guitar Hero. Who knows? Maybe she plays in a rock band when she’s not writing and gardening, or working at her full time job.

MSS of Zanthan Gardens and Pam from Digging were quoted, along with yours truly. Pam’s Digging and Tom Spencer’s Soul of the Garden were also part of the article sidebar. May I say that MSS looked really cute writing on her laptop in her garden?

Seriously, Robin put forth some good questions about blogging in general. She questioned whether we should try to make money with our blogs (to defer expenses for example.) Do blogs take away from gardening? Are they online diaries? Are they worth the time?

For me, I’d love to make a little money. Maybe someday. Yes, blogs take time away from other things. Just ask my family. I guess it is a diary of a sort, but I try to write things of interest to my readers. I also try to provide them with great photos. Otherwise, they won’t come by and visit.

Is blogging worth it? Absolutely.

I don’t know if we answered all of Robin’s questions, but we had a great time discussing these issues and more at the Spring Fling. I understand that several bloggers in Chicago are working on Spring Fling 2009. God willing, and the creek don’t rise, I’ll be there.

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• Vines , In Print , Blogging
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Dee April 27th, 2008

We are at the cusp of rose bloom. Tiny buds reach for the sunlight, but not many petals have unfurled during this chilly spring. Yesterday, a few blooms braved our roller coaster temperatures, starting to open. I still need to put alfalfa pellets around the bushes to give them a boost, but these blossoms won’t wait.

‘Archduke Charles’ in the photos (left and below) is a China rose. Chinas are credited with giving modern roses remontant (repeat) flowering. Before the Chinas became part of rose parentage and history, roses only bloomed once a season. I have several of these one-time Grand Dames, but they are still in bud and will be until May. The Chinas in my gardens begin blooming first, and usually close out the last of summer. The bottom photo isn’t a very good one because it shows both mottling on the open flower from cooler temps and diseased leaves. Once ‘Archduke Charles’ settles in, its lower petals will be dark and the center ones a light pink.

See the black spots on the leaves on the right? If you are new to rose growing and don’t know what blackspot looks like, now you do. Because of its location, this rose never loses its foliage in winter, thus encouraging early spring blackspot on its old leaves. I posted the photo because I wanted you to know that my garden is real. I’ll pull those diseased leaves off the plant when I get a chance. I’ll also fertilize as I go around the garden doing other chores. I don’t have a full time garden staff, and I figure you don’t either. So, sometimes, I’ll show you both the beauty and the reality of my garden. It’s only fair.

Before you run out to the local store and ask for China roses, know two things: first, you won’t find them there, and they need some protection. Some are hardy to USDA Zone 6, but others are only to Zone 7. Being located in USDA Zone 7a, I grow most of my Chinas near the house. ‘Archduke Charles’ is on the west side so he can soak up the early spring sunshine. He lives next door to ‘Cecile Bruner,’ a Polyantha. The lovely ‘Cecile’ is waiting for a warmer day.

Without fail, the first rose to bloom each spring is ‘Old Blush,’ also known as ‘Common Monthly,’ ‘Parsons Pink,’ ‘Common Blush China’ and ‘Old Pink Daily.’ ‘Old Blush’ has enough aliases that you would think it’s a member of the Italian mob. As some of the names suggest, it is another China.

There is nothing to growing ‘Old Blush.’ A five year old could do it. Once established, it needs very little water or food and is content to bloom like this with little of either. In spite of its ease, ‘Old Blush’ is famous and garners over half a page of information in my American Rose Society Encyclopedia of Roses.

“No rose has been so important in the development of our modern roses as ‘Old Blush.’ It is an old China rose which has been grown in China, and possibly Japan, for at least 1,000 years.”

This is the rose which was crossed with European ones to create the repeat flowering roses we know today. I also have the climbing form, a small section of which is shown at left. It grows on a trellis in my back garden where it commands our focus, especially in spring when it is covered in blooms. Again, the climbing form is extremely easy to grow. However, bloom form, once open, resembles a wadded up tissue.

Our last beauty of the day is a Polyantha, ‘Marie Pavie.’ Polyanthas are a separate class from the Chinas, and you see the difference in ‘Marie Pavie’s’ foliage, which is a little more leathery than the Chinas, and her bloom color, which is white. Few China roses are white. ‘Ducher’ is an exception.

Polyanthas were actually produced by a cross between two classes of climbing roses: the Mutiflora ramblers and the Wichurana ramblers. Surprisingly, some of their seedlings turned out to be small-statured shrubs, the Polyanthas.

This bush is eight years old and is at its mature height of two and a half feet. I remember, because it was given to the Diva in remembrance of her First Communion. Each of my children were given their own rose to celebrate this special occasion.

‘Marie Pavie’ needs little special care. Although she is sometimes bothered by blackspot, it doesn’t stop her from blooming, and I just remove the damaged leaves. ‘Old Blush’ has this same characteristic.

If you are interested in any of the older roses, I would suggest you request catalogs from both Chamblee’s Rose Nursery in Tyler, Texas and Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham and San Antonio, Texas. Mark Chamblee and his staff are very helpful. Over the years, I’ve bought a lot of roses from them. Michael Shoup, owner of Antique Rose Emporium, also wrote a book a few years ago, profiling older roses, Roses in the Southern Garden. I found it very readable and informative. As this one is out of print and only available from collectors, you might also look at Antique Roses for the South, by William C. Welch.

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• Green Thumb Sunday , Roses
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Dee April 23rd, 2008

I kept passing by the asparagus bed last week. Each time I frowned because this is what I saw. This may not look bad to you, but this patch normally produces more asparagus than my family can eat. Do you see those spindly spears? At first, I thought it just needed manure. Asparagus is a heavy feeder, eating almost as much as my roses. The day I saw this I didn’t have time to spread manure, so I walked on by.

A few days later, I decided to weed the bed before I amended the soil. We have lots of chicken manure, but, at present, no chickens. Our girls are all clucking in the great, green meadow in the sky. I almost bought new chicks this spring, but we want to travel some with the red dirt kids. Traveling and chickens don’t mix.

I took my angle weeder and began attacking the weeds. Suddenly, I knew why my asparagus was dwindling. Like soldiers left out too long on patrol and quickly running out of ammunition, the asparagus crowns bravely held on.

Slowly, they were being strangled by escaped Bermuda grass from the paths which run beside my back garden.

Bermuda grass is the sixth grader in school who is larger than everyone else. It carries brass knuckles and hits up other plants for their lunch money. In essence, it is the worst kind of bully, the kind that wants to meet you on the hill after school.

I hate Bermuda grass almost as much as I hate Bindweed. Are you now scratching your head and wondering why I don’t put something else in those paths? Two reasons:

1. Cost. The garden is very large, and if I tried to fill all of the paths with something else, it would break the bank; and
2. Heat. In the summer, everything else I’ve tried on the smaller garden increased the heat in the garden two or threefold. I’ve used pine bark nuggets (dark color) and considered pea gravel (also heat retaining and yuck.)

After working for thirty minutes with my wonderful hand hoe, I wanted to give up. I was actually planning my acquiescence speech when I turned to my garden bucket and smiled.

The cavalry had arrived! I held my Cobrahead weeder aloft and taunted the Bermuda, “You have met your match!”

I received a Cobrahead weeder at the Garden Writers Symposium last September. I tried it a couple of times, but stuck with my angle weeder. For most of my jobs, the CH felt a little thin. However, for weeding out Bermuda, there was no comparison. The CH was sharp enough to slice through the roots when I needed it, and the hook pulled up most of the roots which resided three to twelve inches below the soil’s surface.

Unfortunately, whenever you break off a piece of Bermuda, like Bindweed, it just reestablishes itself from whatever is left. Therefore, you are simply propagating more Bermuda and Bindweed throughout your soil.

This week, I will follow the Cobrahead weeding with Grass-B-Gone on any Bermuda which shows itself. It takes two applications seven days apart to kill Bermuda with Grass-B-Gone. Also, those applications should be made on hot, sunny days in order to be most effective. These two methods keep the Bermuda in check, but it is always lurking under the surface. As to Bindweed, I have to resort to the evil Roundup. I place a piece of cardboard between the Bindweed and the plant I’m protecting. In my experience, Roundup doesn’t appear to bleed within the soil and kill surrounding plants at the root level like Brush-B-Gone sometimes does.

Although I use organic methods whenever possible, I also know when to use some very limited, chemical help. Although Grass-B-Gone is supposed to spare other plants, some are still susceptible, so I’m careful to keep the spray to the grass.

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• Tools of the Trade , Weeds
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Dee April 22nd, 2008

In the last two weeks, I’ve received an E for Excellence award from three awesome bloggers. They are awesome in their own right and not just because they each gave me an “E.” Although, a girl always likes it when someone says she’s “done good.”

The bloggers in question are: Brenda from The Brenda Blog, who was the first to give me a gold star. I met Brenda through blogging. She’s a former Okie who’s moved to Texas. Curtiss Ann Matlock, who is an accomplished writer (published over 30 books) and has been my friend for the last twenty years, gave me the second one. She’s kinda new to the blogging scene. If you get a chance, please welcome her. Debi from Aunt Debbi’s Garden always makes me smile with her monkeys’ antics, and she gave me the third one.

Shannon from The Mommy Project originally started this award to honor blogs and to increase traffic for all those she enjoyed. She wrote, “I love being a part of the blogging community and part of all the friendships that I’ve formed so I wanted to give a blog award for all of you out there that have Excellent Blogs.”

A special thanks to Shannon for creating this way to honor each other in the first place.

I’m now supposed to choose ten blogs I’d like to award.

First, I’m giving the award right back to Curtiss Ann. She writes with such honor and integrity, and she’s that way in real life too.

Second, Karina from the Gluten Free Goddess, because she manages to create fabulous meals while dealing with a host of food intolerances and allergies.

My friend, David, writes and photographs the most amazing things on A Photographer’s Garden Blog. Every time I go to his blog, I am amazed at his ability to evoke emotion with his images and words.

Corey, from Tongue in Cheek, who continues to remain eloquent in spite of the fact that her father has been in the hospital for months. She’s stayed by his side while her husband and children cheer her on from France. In fact, her entire family deserves an “E.”

I was lucky enough to ride with Mr. McGregor’s Daughter while we were in Austin, and she is a hoot. Her blog is consistently smart and funny.

Reading Dirt always has something going on like the pea experiment she had last week where she planted peas at different times and gave the results. It seems Grandmother knew best. Are we surprised?

I would love Heavy Petal for her banner alone, but her writing always makes me think. She is still pregnant, and I know she wishes this baby would go ahead and come. For those of us who’ve had babies, we all know how she feels. I love that she crawled around on her knees in her garden today and snapped photos. She’s my kind of girl.

Antique Mommy had me at hello when I read her “How Did This Happen?” page. She writes touchingly human stories about what it means to mother a child.

Frances at Faire Garden and I both garden on a slope, and we’re in the same USDA Zone. Therefore, our gardens are blooming at similar times, and I feel a real kinship with her. And, after meeting her in Austin, I can say she is as sweet as she is on he blog. Check out her fairy post for some fun reading.

Last, but not least, go visit Pam at Digging. She has some of the most beautiful garden photography on the web, and she knows her stuff when writing about gardening.

Whew! That’s a lot of garden blogs. My special thanks to the ladies who nominated me for this award.

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• Awards , Blogging
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Dee April 20th, 2008

Bustani, which I’m told means garden in Swahili, is the name Steve and Ruth Owens gave to their small farm just south of Stillwater, Oklahoma. Steve is the former host of the popular PBS gardening show, Oklahoma Gardening. After he spoke at the Oklahoma Horticulture Society meeting last month, I decided I needed to make the trek north.

My garden friend, Katie, who is the brains behind Sister B.J.’s Pantry garden in Oklahoma City, came with me. There is no one more fun to travel to plant sales with. Katie is at least as enthusiastic about plants as I am. She was buying for both her own garden and that of Sister’s.

Warned by a friend to get there early, Katie arrived at my house at 7:45 a.m. We grabbed a couple of hot teas and bottled water and headed out map in hand. We got lost once, but after we called the farm, they directed us right to it. The sale opened at 9:00 a.m. and continued to 5:00 p.m. We were a little early, but they welcomed us with smiles and handed us cardboard flats to begin. Three tents were set up with tables inside covered in beautifully identified signs which also showed the plant in bloom. I felt like a kid on the first day of summer, staring at a bright blue pool ready to dive in.

According to their catalog (their first one ever,) Bustani is a specialty nursery growing “unique, uncommon, hard-to-find, rare and unusual plants not available at most garden centers and nurseries.”

I’ll second that. I bought a Variegated Tapioca (Manihot esculenta ‘Variegata,) hardy blue Passion Flower (Passiflora caerulea,) Cigar plant (Cuphea ‘David Verity’), ‘Stars and Stripes’ Pentas (Pentas lanceolata,) a variegated Kerria (Kerria japonica ‘Picta’) and so many others I can’t list. Yes, I also bought the Shower of Gold identified above. It was a last minute purchase.

At the OHS meeting, Steve said he was fond of variegated plants. Boy is he ever. I’ve never seen so many variegated varieties in one place.

There were also lots of native species and tropical plants. I bought several tropicals to enhance my garden’s look during the dog days of summer. You could argue that using tropical plants is expensive, but I know of no better way to add color. I just swallowed and thought “big, bright annuals.”

Again from the catalog, Steve writes “Our plant interests here at Bustani are highly varied, but grounded on exceptional garden performance.”

How many plants did I bring home? I had four full boxes and a couple pots on the side. Don’t even ask what I spent. HH sometimes reads this blog, and he doesn’t need to know. Let’s just say the red dirt family will eat beans and rice for the next couple of weeks.

The great thing about Bustani is that it’s north of me, but we are basically in the same zone. My garden is 7a to 6b, and they are definitely in 6b. So, if they say something will grow or is hardy here, I believe it.

All across the blogosphere, we lament the demise of the independently owned nursery in favor of the box stores. I’m not going to lie to you and say I never shop at my local boxes, but I support independents too, especially if they have something different to offer. If you want to see cool plants, plants which no one in the metro area has, get yourself over to Bustani for one of their plant sales. The sales run almost every weekend now through mid-June.

I spent the rest of the day in my garden, covered in soil and birdsong, planting. I got through two flats, and the remainder are resting under the deck where they won’t get direct sun. I am sore, but deliriously happy. It doesn’t get better than this.

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• Road Trip , Green Thumb Sunday , Reviews
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