Garden Diversion: Peonies, Iris, roses, hydrangeas, clematis

I love spring and all the fresh green colors and shades, but mostly I love all the blooming beauties in gardens here in Texas before it gets' hotter than the hinges of h---.

This week I went with six dear old friends (read from high school) down to a friend's amazing ranch in Central Texas, near Hico.  Before we got there, we stopped at to walk the amazing garden's of Ellen McS.  The peonies were glorious and abundant.  Her iris come from an iris farm in Hondo, New Mexico, down near Roswell.

This "Beverly Sills".  Isn't she stunning?

Here is the perennial bed full of Dephinium and Foxglove.  Heaven.

I wish Foxglove wasn't just an annual in sweltering Texas

My ranch friend, Janet's, Penstemons are a prize that are difficult to grow in Texas, but she did it.

And now to my backyard by the lake:  here is my Jackmanii Clematis and red Knockout roses.

To die for!!

First "Endless Summer" hydrangea of the season.  I'm mad for the blues in these.

Daughter, Kathleen, gave me this little "Fairy" rose for Mother's Day about six years ago. I dig it up and moved it from that house to this house four years ago.  It's thriving beautifully here by the lake.

Garden Stuff: Margaret Roach's cool blog

Perusing DMN Thursday's gardening section I found Mariana Greene's article on this fresh, gorgeous Blog by Margaret Roach, a former Martha Stewart minion who left to head to upstate New York and follow her gardening muse self.

I was drawn to her posts on crusty Brit, Ruth Stout, who mulched her garden to 8" heights, piling hay on decomposing vegetable matter without digging. See, I love this method, so it's reassuring to see this method is ok and successful. I HATE digging. I'm off to the feed store for hay. Next, it's a call to Cindy at Jacob's Reward Farm for some of her "alpaca gold" compost and I'm off to make my own lasagna mulch, layer by layer.

Footnote:

It looks like my blog is evolving into topics: fiber stuff, food stuff, garden stuff and a tiny bit of family stuff. I suspect that my popcorn brain likes bouncing around topics so please bear with me and continue to follow.

A Man Named Pearl

Yesterday while I waited for the satellite guys to come and repair what the storm did to my equipment (turns out my house actually took a lightning hit) I switched on the DVD player and popped in this film someone, I can't remember who, recommended to me.  Pearl Fryar lives in small Bishopville, South Carolina.  Son of a sharecropper who worked all his life in a can factory, he is spending his retirement creating the most amazing topiary garden on his three-acre homesite.  Scavenging plants from the local nurseries' castoff pile, he nurtures, trains and pruned trees into unique abstract shapes.  His is a story of compulsive creativity turned art acclaimed by art museums.  Spotlights and ladders can be seen in his yard into the wee small hours as he practices his art.  He remains a thoughtful, warm individual interested in encouraging young people to follow their dreams and work hard.  

I came away inspired to keep following those "artistic rushes" that come when a new idea pops in my head.  Only a little over an hour long, treat yourself and put it in your Netflix queue.