Ok, I never thought I’d say that but we’ve been getting a ton of rain this spring, upwards of 23 inches just since I started tracking it in the middle of March.  Our lakes are full, our soils are saturated and really, I think I’m starting to be ready for some heat.  Lots of our plants are natives to Texas, not Bolivia and thus are probably also ready to dry out.  I’m hoping we don’t get any that drown.

We got 2.9 inches last night and it was raining when I got up.  We’re due for 1-2 more inches over the next 24 hours.  And yet, we have two neighbors who were watering this morning.  It’s hard not to shake your head and wonder how clueless some people can be but then I know I do some pretty clueless things sometimes too.

We pulled up the pansies from the winter tonight, probably 3 weeks later than they should have been pulled.  They were mostly starting to look pretty scrawny and torn up.

We’ve been getting a decent amount of rain this spring which should really help with the water levels.  Last Wednesday, we had 70-80 mile an hour winds come through and while we didn’t lose anything, several things got beat up pretty badly.  The Texas Star Hibiscus lost one shoot and the crape myrtle and autumn blaze maple are both a little wobbly.

We’re going to replant the front bed this weekend with either zinnias or sunflowers, not sure which.

Well, this here garden blog is a travesty of the medium at this point. However, that’s not for a lack of activity in our gardens, just a lack of motivation to write anything about. But worry not, fair (single) reader, this will soon change starting today with this random garden update brought to you by One Barrel Rum, the delicious taste of Belize.

There are far too many things in the ground to write about them all today so we’ll just have a little overview. We recently made a trip to the Dallas Arboretum’s annual plant sale. However, we went on Sunday as that was the only day we could get there and things were pretty picked over. If you want the best stuff, you need to hit it on Friday night but be prepared to get hit with the carts and bags of 300 other people looking for the best stuff.

We ended up getting the following items in the leftover bins in the back:

• Variegated Tapioca, a large tropical foliage plant that grows as an annual here in DFW and supposedly grows to a height of 30 inches and a width of 18 inches though we have anecdotal evidence it may get as big as 6 feet.
• An esperanza to replace the one that didn’t make it through the winter last year. It has beautiful, 2 inch yellow blooms through out the summer and fall.
• Sapphire Showers Duranta which grows to 5 ft. and has a great fountain like shape. The butterflies supposedly love it.
• Two Explosive Embers Pepper plants for the front yard.
• A type of hibiscus that grows to 9 ft which will be interesting if it comes true.

We’ve also spent a ton of money at Calloway’s and North Haven Gardens already this year with a hundred or so thrown towards Covington’s and Classic Gardens. We’ll have more pictures and stories as things move along into summer time.

Global warming can’t happen fast enough if you ask me. Granted, the Maldives might go under before I get to dive them but good grief, it’s currently 45 degrees in Dallas and moving towards the freezing mark tonight and tomorrow. That makes it tough to keep tomatoes, squash, peppers and basil alive. Below is a shot of the new garden as of 7 PM tonight. I may hook up the space heater tomorrow night in a futile attempt to keep from having to replant.

For God’s sake, it’s April 6th and I’m worried about my tomatoes freezing (that may or may not be a euphemism).

This is a little blog to keep track of our travails and tribulations growing plants and flowers in North Texas. It will be used both as a source of information as well as a garden journal to remember when things happened. We often forget things like germination times, when to fertilize, and when flowers bloomed or came up first in the spring. By creating this site, hopefully that will change.

We’ve been doing a ton of planting already this spring and have a new veggie garden to report on so for now, we’ll say this is enough general information and get to the good stuff.