A Writer’s Garden–Gardening in Texas by Kathy Bryson

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A Writer's Garden, garden resources, Kathy Bryson, Texas Gardening, wildflowers, zucchinni

Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing. Today’s writer/gardener guest is author Kathy Bryon who will be talking about the trials of Texas gardening. Welcome, Kathy!

One upside of the pandemic and working from home is that I got to observe the rain and light in the garden before putting in flowers. And what I learned was, I know nothing! My experience is all based on gardening in Florida which is nothing like gardening in Texas, and everything I look up may or may not apply!

The flowerbeds were easy enough to build out and thanks to sturdy cardboard bottoms, they’re pretty weed free. Unlike Florida however, the cardboard didn’t break up – even with a week’s worth of snow! Texas is dry to the point that new dirt feels like ash within a week, which is really weird because we have high humidity from breezes off the Gulf, but the moisture doesn’t always hit the ground due to hilly country or the Balcones Escarpment – https://www.theweatherprediction.com/weatherpapers/041/index.html  – but wildflowers, like these bachelor’s buttons love it!

• 

  Cornflowers

• 

  Early Wildflowers

So watering is done by hand from a watering can with a chopstick to direct water into the ground. Watering by hand is actually a requirement from the city to conserve water. Lawns are problematic in Texas. Who knew St. Augustine grass could actually die?! But without water, it can, then the topsoil gets washed away when it does rain. May is when the rains start – thank goodness! Texas temps can go from 60 to 90 in a single day, seriously stressing the gardener if not the garden. However, May and June thunderstorms also create mini flashfloods that thunder downhill between raised houses, taking everything in their path with them.

This explains why people don’t mow their lawns. You need the grass to keep the topsoil and disperse rainfall. It also explains why people plant in pots. They’re are easier to move to manageable conditions. But we have some impressive gardening resources, so I’m determined to tweak the yard anyway:

• San Antonio Botanical Gardens
• Garden Style by San Antonio Water Systems
• The Big Red Barn by Texas A&M Univ.
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
• Wildseed Farms

The other big change is the lag in seasons. In Florida, I put out new plants over Spring Break in April. In Texas, plants don’t show up in the big box stores or Farmer’s Market until almost May. Spring bulbs are only just now sprouting, but the vegetables are already budding.

Zucchinni

The geraniums are happy. How many can I stick along the back fence? Will the veggies do better under my one shade tree next year? Nothing’s taken where the neighbors’ two-story house throws shade though! Ooh, how about ferns? Would the city fine me if I let the front yard go to wildflowers? Excuse me while I go look up the rules on bluebonnets again!

About the Writer/Gardener:

Kathy Bryson is the award-winning author of tongue-in-cheek fantasy that ranges from leprechauns who play the stock market to zombies who harangue med students. She’d like to say she’s climbed tall mountains, rappelled off cliffs, and saved small children, but actually she tends to curl up and read, is a life-long advocate of Ben & Jerry’s, and caters to spoiled cats. She also works regularly with student writing, so she can claim to have saved a few term papers.

Connect with Kathy onFacebook – Twitter – website – 

Available in ebook, audio & print at your favorite online retailer – https://books2read.com/ap/RDLNLR/Kathy-Bryson

Restless Spirits

by Kathy Bryson

Marilee Harper is desperate to find another job after she accidentally set fire to the home of the richest woman in town. Converting an old hospital into a bed and breakfast seems like a golden opportunity. Stressed and aggravated, Marilee wants nothing more than to redeem herself, even if faucets and lights turn themselves off and on, and old baseballs fly without help.

John Smith has every confidence in the bossy, strong woman he hired to launch his bed & breakfast. She handled difficult customers at the bank and now she’s handling electricity and plumbing and whatever unseen force keeps throwing baseballs. But when the angry, treacherous King of the Fairies shows up, can Marilee become his champion?

Available at your favorite online retailer –https://books2read.com/u/38MEnO

Available in ebook, audio & print at your favorite online retailer – https://books2read.com/ap/RDLNLR/Kathy-Bryson

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A Writer’s Garden–Building Foundations by Kathy Bryson

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A Writer's Garden, Fantasy, Giovanni Haunts the Hospital, inside-out-gardening, Kathy Bryson, retention gardening, Texas Gardening

Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing. Today’s writer/gardener guest is Kathy Bryson, who is talking about gardening inside out for Texas. Welcome, Kathy!

 

Building Foundations

by Kathy Bryson

Life had been particularly challenging for everyone lately. Compared to many, yet another move on my part in the past year was no big deal. But when I ended up working from home at the onset of the pandemic, I had to take steps to settle in and settle down! Naturally I turned to the garden.

When you discuss gardening in the Hill Country of Texas, you hear a lot about drainage. Vigorous thunderstorms roll by between days of ninety degree weather and the soil is compacted clay. Water puddles, so houses are built on elevated lots and foundation issues are not uncommon.

Rain gardens then are the perfect solution. They go by different names – bioretention, mound planting, hugelkulter – but the basic idea is a sort-of inside out garden bed. Instead of filling a raised bed with dirt and topping it with mulch, you put mulch or even gravel down first, then layer in dirt. This creates a sort of pocket where water can collect ac act as a reservoir for plants. Considering that Texas temperatures don’t get below ninety from May through Oct, this opens up opportunity for a much wider range of plants, as long as they don’t mind wet feet.

So I started with the damp spot near the front door. Pulling back the grass was easy.

 

Someone had laid out a flower bed there earlier and the St. Augustine grass has simple put out runners over it. It hadn’t even rooted through the plastic weed barrier.

Laying out the bricks, mulch, then dirt was harder but only because those things aren’t light.

Vinca or periwinkles added the final touch of charm.

I suspect the backyard beds won’t be as easy. There’s a bit of a slope there to contend with. But I can’t wait to get in and start digging!

 

About the Writer / Gardener:

Kathy Bryson is an award-winning author of tongue-in-cheek fantasy. She’d like to say she’s climbed tall mountains, rappelled off cliffs, and saved small children, but actually she tends to curl up and read, is a life-long advocate of Ben & Jerry’s, and caters to 2 spoiled cats. She works regularly with student writing, so she can claim to have saved a few term papers.

Her most recent release is the 5^th installment in the adventures of a hapless med student caught between the twisted worlds of the supernatural and medical science.

In Giovanni Haunts the Hospital, Giovanni accidentally calls up Prohibition-era gangster ghosts trying to locate his elderly missing patient. Can he survive rotations and graduate, or will they take him for a little ride?

Book link –

 

Connect with Kathy at: Facebook  Twitter – website –

 

 

A Writer’s Garden–Experimenting in the Garden with author Kathy Bryson

Tags

A Writer's Garden, Kathy Bryson, raised garden beds

Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing.

Today’s guest is author Kathy Bryson. Like many of us gardeners, she’s experimenting with new things in the garden. Welcome, Kathy!

 

Gardening Lite

By Kathy Bryson

 

When Catherine emailed about this year’s Writer’s Garden, I just gotten seed packets in the mail, Part 2 of my Gardening Lite experiment, and couldn’t wait to share it with everyone!

The experiment started when I spent Summer 18 weeding a surplus of decorative grass out of overmulched flowerbeds, so I was really looking forward to building out new beds.

Kathy’s overgrown beds

The frames were light-weight sheet metal, but the bags of compost weighed 50 lbs each. I hauled a few bags and admitted defeat. A student volunteered to help, so I swallowed my pride and gratefully accepted.

Kathy’s new beds

 

Just to make life easier, I did go to Lowe’s the Friday before we arranged to meet and got them to help me load 8 bags or 400 pounds of Black Cow compost in my Kia. I figured I could drive around for one day with that weight. But then the student emailed late Saturday that he’d gotten pulled onto another project. I managed to get another 2 bags spread, then had to quit.

We set a time for the next weekend, but plans change, and after a week of driving around in a car full of compost, I couldn’t wait. It wasn’t that low odor! I went back to Lowe’s and got a collapsible wagon, and over two days, finally got the car emptied. Of course, I came up short. I did not want to haul another thing, but I still needed mulch, so back I went to Lowe’s, telling myself to just get it done!

Texas has distinct seasons, so by that time the compost was mostly sold, leaving smaller bags of potting soil. I gathered them up along with the mulch and that’s when it dawned on me. Buy the smaller bag! Gardening is so much easier when you buy the lighter bag! It’s an epiphany that works for everything from cat litter to milk cartons.

With one problem solved, another Gardening Lite question popped up. In Florida, I had all sun, all day. In Texas, I only have direct sun for a few hours in one spot, so I had to find low light plans. My first choice was wildflowers as they’re usually sturdy and attract bees and butterflies, but generally, wildflowers like sun. It took some hunting, but eventually I found discovered wildflowers specifically for forest from Vermont. Sadly, however, Texas must differ enough from Vermont because nothing sprouted come Spring except for more of that horrid decorative grass. So back again I went to Lowe’s, this time for all the hostas and caladiums I could find. Those I know like low light because we use them inside the library for a touch of greenery and oxygen! You might have to peer into the shadows to catch the nuances, but you can’t go wrong in the garden if you pay attention to the light.

 

About the Writer/Gardener

A recent transplant to Texas, Kathy Bryson dreams of gardens that look like Thomas Kinkade paintings. This completely unrealistic grasp of reality is also what propels her to write tongue-in-cheek fantasy that ranges from leprechauns who play the stock market to zombies who hang out with and harangue med students. Not at all like the regular students she works with during the school year. Read more at http://www.kathybrysonbooks.com/

 

 

 

 

 

A Writer’s Garden–The Mystery of the Broken Birdbaths by Kathy Bryson

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A Writer's Garden, Author Catherine Castle's garden blog, Bird Baths, garden mystery, Kathy Bryson

Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing gardens—aka their books.

Today’s guest is author Kathy Bryson and she has a garden mystery to share. Welcome, Kathy!

 

 

The Mystery of the Broken Birdbaths

By Kathy Bryson

Last year, I moved from Florida to Texas, giving up my garden for a new job and a cozy townhome in the Piney Woods. By the end of my first semester, I knew I’d make a mistake. Those stairs were killing me!

So after much house-hunting, I settled into a single story patio home and immediately returned to gardening. There’s just something about being able to dig in the dirt, even if it is with the excuse of ‘settling in.’ But one thing puzzled me. Who owned this house and why did she have so many broken birdbaths?

I know the owner was a woman and she had very nice taste. She had a lovely home, all cream carpets and walls, and she left behind a closet of high-end clothes from Dillard’s that the mother of a friend immediately claimed for church. She also left a number of landscapes on the walls and a shelf full of biographies, including ones on Hillary Clinton and Ann Richards. I imagine that she was an older woman with a love of travel, well-educated and refined, but the garden tells another tale.

The flower beds, both front and back, are lush with Mondo grass borders. This is a nicely contained decorative grass that isn’t an aggressive spreader and in the front, even manages to keep the St. Augustine grass at bay. But in the back, someone also added Monrovia or maiden grass that spread everywhere! Fortunately it comes up easily because I will be weeding it till kingdom come.

The grass had a lot to grow in which leads me to believe that the former owner was not a hands-on gardener. Mulch is piled 4 inches high on top of earth mounded to the top of the beds. A couple of bags were left lying unopened under some eucalyptus bushes that were starting to crowd the gutters. The myrtle trees were ringed with foot-high sprouts, and the flower beds to the side of the house have rocks on top of mulch on top of sand. Whoever worked that patio just followed directions.

There was also a profusion of broken bird baths – four of them, two without basins. And an abundance of statuary – painted rocks, owls, rabbits, St. Francis, a couple of tikis, and a stone garden bench – all different styles and none of them matching the elegant interior of the house.

Where did all this junk come from? Why would a lady of apparently cosmopolitan taste have such a mishmash of concrete? Did she have a secret liking for kitsch? Did she moonlight for the Mafia? Or is my imagination just running away with me again?

A coworker suggested that the birdbaths were probably gifts that multiplied after the lady happened to mention she’d like one. One basin became a gift to a student who used it to hold succulents at his wedding; another I kept. The rest are headed to Habitat for Humanity along with the bench. But as it turns out, one reason those bushes might not have been trimmed is there are cardinals nesting in them.

If anything, I’ll need to fill in the bare spots in the gardens. Can’t wait!

About the Gardener/Writer

When not speculating wildly about her neighbors, Kathy Bryson runs a college writing center in East Texas. She’d like to say she’s climbed tall mountains, rappelled off cliffs, and saved small children, but actually she tends to curl up and read, is a life-long advocate of Ben & Jerry’s, and caters to 2 spoiled cats.  She can claim several awards for a series of leprechaun romances and to have saved a few term papers.

You can find Kathy online at https://kathybrysonbooks.com/ and her books on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Kathy-Bryson/e/B00DHIJ922/

 

A Writer’s Garden with Author Kathy Bryson

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A Writer's, A Writer's Garden, Author Catherine Castle's garden blog, Eastern Texas, Giovanni Joins the Werewolves, Kathy Bryson, Piney Woods, the Big Thicket, YA/Na fantasy

Today’s Gardener/Writer guest on A Writer’s Garden is Kathy Bryson. Kathy’s been with us before, but she has a new garden experience to share from one hot spot to another. Welcome, Kathy.

Thanks, Catherine.

Last Christmas, I packed up and moved from Florida to Texas for a new job. It was a great opportunity even though it meant I had to leave my garden behind. I had really mixed feelings about that. I loved my flowerbeds in Florida, but they had started to get away from me. I had to get help for weeding and mulching – a lot of weeding and mulching!

I wasn’t sure that I could manage better in Texas. Where houses are sold by the lot in Florida, they’re sold by the acreage in Texas – way too much change to take on immediately! So I moved into a townhouse and resigned myself to no garden, at least for a while. But then I started learning about just where I’d moved to.

Piney Woods–all photos by permission of Katy Pleake

The eastern spur of Texas isn’t open plains and cattle. It’s the Piney Woods region, pine forests that stretch from inside Oklahoma and Arkansas nearly to the Gulf in Louisiana. Historically known as the ‘Big Thicket,’ it’s considered one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. I live right between the Angelina National Forest and the Davy Crockett National Forest.

two paths

So I’m getting my garden fix after all. My college, Stephen F. Austin State University, sits on 400 acres and had 3 other sites where students practice forestry. Right behind the library is the SFA Mast Arboretum, 10 acres devoted to native plants. It rains almost daily, but that’s no excuse for not taking a walk!

natural gazebo

I had psyched myself up for all the stress of the move, knowing I’d have moments of anxiety and stress and not letting myself take on too much until I got settled. But I’m finding this new environment very inspiring, all sorts of ideas popping up and ticking over.

The pictures above were taken by one my student tutors, Katy Pleake, for a social media project and used by permission.

 

About the Author – 

Kathy Bryson is the award-winning author of a series of leprechaun romances as well as the adventures of a hapless med student. She has degrees in both advertising and literature as well 20+ years in business that came in handy for exposing leprechauns. The zombie stuff she’s making up out of research – mostly! A recent transplant to Texas, she also runs a college writing center and caters to the whims of spoiled cats.

I just released YA/NA fantasy novella Giovanni Joins The Werewolves. Giovanni Goes To Med School became an EPIC 2017 eBook Awards Finalist, and I’m thinking vampires need to take over the campus coffee shops for the sequel. It’s going to be a busy summer!

Author Links –Blog – http://kathybryson.wordpress.com/

About Giovanni Joins The Werewolves –

Poor Giovanni! Just as he enters his 2^nd year of med school, a voodoo curse catches up with him. He’s determined to get through medical school, even if he now howls under the full moon and has to take himself for walkies! But just as he’s getting used to fur and fangs, Giovanni’s zombie returns, leading him to wonder – exactly how many other monsters are out there?

Book Links –

Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Giovanni-Joins-Werewolves-School-Book-ebook/dp/B06Y1HV2KF

iBooks – https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1222356808

Nook – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/giovanni-joins-the-werewolves-kathy-bryson/1126090475

Kobo – https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/giovanni-joins-the-werewolves

All available outlets! – https://www.books2read.com/u/bMGMM7

 

 

Through A Writer’s Garden with Kathy Bryson

Tags

A Writer's Garden, Author Catherine Castle's garden blog, Florida Gardening, Giovanni Goes To Med School, Kathy Bryson, YA FAntasy, zen gardens, Zen of mulch

The Zen of Mulch

 

The Center Bed

My ambition when I started gardening was Thomas Kincaid. I wanted to grow the same lush, overflowing flowerbeds featured in his paintings. That ambition lasted a few years while I worked to enrich Florida’s sandy soil and get anything growing. But then my efforts started to pay off and I quickly lost control of my garden to the summer rains and St. Augustine grass run amuck!

The last 2 years have led me to the conclusion that perhaps Kincaid wasn’t so much a gardener as a painter, but what really changed my mind was a recent visit to Arizona. I expected to see desert, I was told the place was brown, but what I found was pebbled landscapes dotted with acacia trees like green lollipops on display.

At first, I didn’t know where to look. The brown landscape seems empty, but it’s not uniform like the lush, green backdrop that is Florida. My eyes skipped, looking for something to land on. But after a while, I noticed the trees more and, in particular, the odd flowering bush or cactus planted nearby, and that’s when I realized that the Arizona landscape is essentially a Zen garden.

Now I don’t know if that’s what the Department of Transportation intended, but I found the landscaping around Phoenix very calming, almost peaceful. The traditional Zen garden was developed in 15^th and 16^th century Japanese Buddhist monasteries to stimulate meditation. They were meant to be abstract representations of the essential essence of nature. There’s debate on whether they’re meant to represent the principal of Zen or whether they were meant as a form of art, but either way, they’re very restful.

 

I find my current garden restful but mostly because I go out there and weed when I’m

Before

having a bad week to work out all my frustrations. I did put out melaleuca mulch last year to reclaim the back bed from the St. Augustine grass, but I fully intended to replant that bed after it rested. Now I’m thinking I may not. The central flowerbed is wildflowers, the side beds are herbs, maybe the back bed should be a rock garden. After all, balance is an important part of Zen too!

After

About the Author

 

Kathy Bryson is an award-winning author of multiple leprechaun love stories. An avid fantasy fan as well as romance lover, she’s exploring new territory in series of YA/NA novellas. The Med School Series looks at B-movie monsters in today’s world and is inspired by her co-workers – really! The 1^st installment, Giovanni Goes To Med School, is self-published on: Amazon –iBooks – Barnes & Noble –Kobo –

About the Book –

You don’t have to be a medical student to know the dead do not get up and walk around. Anyone who’s buried a pet in the backyard knows the dead don’t walk. They don’t even lurch.

The night-shift in the morgue was supposed to be a chance to study in quiet and off-set ridiculous student loans. Giovanni is stunned when his patient sits up and starts scolding. Now he’s got to convince an unbelieving medical community to take action, so he can get back to learning about the dead – not the undead!

 

 

 

Wednesday Writers–Fighting Mad by Kathy Bryson

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Author Kathy Bryson, book excerpt from Fighting Mad, Catherine Castle's Wednesday Writers blog series, Clurichauns, Faires, leprechauns, romantic fantasy

Kathy Bryson is my guest today on Wednesday Writers. Kathy writes romantic fantasy. Today, she’s going to be sharing an excerpt from her book romance Fighting Mad. Honestly, when I read her opening comment about a leprechaun love story, and then saw the book cover, I had to laugh.  Her leprechaun hero is not of the Lucky Charms cereal variety. Kathy writes clean romance stories that have – as she describes it– “tongue in cheek humor.” Welcome, Kathy.

 

Thanks, Catherine, for having me to share my latest leprechaun love story!

I know what you’re thinking. Three books in and people still say, “What, wha?” People automatically think little green men, when actually leprechauns are the warriors of the ancient Celtic legends. They also just happen to like a good joke and will do anything to protect the gold and whatever else they hold dear!

About the Book –

Laid off from her job at the bank, Carla turns to her friends for support only to find they’re more concerned about their jobs. The one person she can count on is local bartender Murphy, but what kind of example is that to set for her daughters? Having learned the hard way, Carla’s not depending on any man, even if he is cute, charming, very kind, and some kind of leprechaun? Murphy is used to sneers. Clurichauns are the redheaded stepchildren of the leprechaun world and then there are the late-night throw-downs at his bar. What he wants, however, is to protect the dainty little mom who ogles him when she thinks no one’s looking. He knows she’s fighting overwhelming odds, but she’ll need more than bravery when the conflict between the King and Queen of the Fairies becomes outright civil war!

 

Excerpt from Fighting Mad

by Kathy Bryson

I don’t know why I deluded myself that I was somehow in charge of my own life, but I took a stab at it anyway. “I don’t have regular events at the Old Jennings Place, just a party once in a while.” That was the bed and breakfast Marilee took over last fall. It was named after Jinx’s grandfather and was one of the older buildings in town, now beautifully restored. Jinx’s family had been one of the original founders of Fayetteville.

“Un-huh.” Lauren held out another sheet of paper. “It’s turning into a monthly gig, so you need to get a contract signed. Get them to put you on retainer.”

“Now wait,” I started, but Ashley shook her head. Taking the paper from her sister, she thrust it at me.

“No way, Mom. This is what we were talking about. You’ve got to stand up for yourself and get a contract!”

“Exactly.” Lauren bobbed her head in affirmative. “No more favors for friends, Mom. This is business.”

I was torn between smiling at my girls’ antics and being terrified at where they were pushing me to go. But since I knew I wasn’t going to get a lot of sympathy over either position, I smoothed the paper across the top of the table.

“Okay, next we need to sign up for the Farmers’ Market. They’re starting early this year, but there’s still time to get a booth before Easter.” Lauren waved another sheet of paper in my direction. Ashley took it and added it to the growing stack in front of me.

“What am I supposed to do at the Farmers’ Market?” I asked, but I wasn’t really listening any more. I could feel tears welling up inside, but they were happy tears. I was so proud of my girls. When we had a problem, they just jumped right in and pulled together. Tentatively, I started, “You guys are just so . . .

“Oh man!” Lauren yelped. “She’s going to cry again. Ashley, do something.”

Ashley giggled. “Look out, she’s gonna blow!”

 

Want to read more about these leprechauns and the trilogy? Check out Kathy’s book here:   Amazon – Goodreads –Book trailer –

About the Author –

Kathy Bryson knew she wanted to be a writer when she finished reading through her school and local children’s libraries. She honed her writing skills on marketing brochures, websites, and several unfinished manuscripts before going into teaching and finishing award-winning books with all the stuff she enjoys most – from coffee to love to Shakespeare! Kathy lives in Florida where she caters to the whims of spoiled cats and wonders what possessed her to put in 75 feet of flower beds.

Author Links – Blog – Facebook – Google+ –Twitter

Other posts by Kathy on this blog include: A Writer’s Garden–Through the Garden Gates with Author Kathy Bryson

 

A Writer’s Garden–Through the Garden Gates with Kathy Bryson

Tags

A Writer's Garden through the garden gates with Kathy Bryson, author Catherine Castle, Gardening blog, gardening in Florida, sweet romance authors

Penta

I have a treat for our garden readers this week. Due to an overzealous scheduler—ME—I have not one, but TWO A Writer’s Garden features. Kathy Bryson will start us off, followed by the regular Thursday post. Double the pleasure this week! Kathy’s going to talk about her Florida garden. Take it away, Kathy!

 

Last year, I decided to go organic in my garden. I’d been reading about the problems with honeybees and butterflies and came across an offer for free butterfly weed. What gardener can resist free plants, even if they are called weeds? Without chemical sprays though, I ended up with long, spindly St. Augustine grass taking over all my flowerbeds.

 

This wasn’t the disaster it might seem. The backyard was barren when I first laid out raised beds of compost over cardboard. I was stunned to see the compost actually sink into the ground. Turns out the previous owner used white sand to level the ground for her kid’s swimming pool, trampoline, and swing set. On top of Florida’s naturally sandy soil, it acted like a sponge, sucking up 3 years of composting before supporting anything other than a burst of annuals.

 

Besides sand, gardening in Florida has the unique challenge of hothouse conditions all summer. Perennials become leggy biennials, tropicals thrive and take over unless they’re cut back ruthlessly, and everything from saw palmetto to the aforementioned grass seems to send out runners! One queen palm in the corner grew taller than the house before I realized it was there.

 

Blanket Flower

Wildflowers, however, love Florida’s heat and humidity. Last year’s butterfly weed was annuals, so this year, I seeded the central bed with both annuals and perennials. The cosmos and poppies grew 1^st, long feathery stems with bright pink and orange blossoms. They’re drooping as the summer heats up, but the perennials are starting to push up around them, penta, Indian blanket, and coneflowers. Ginger and lily of the Nile add more color.

 

I don’t worry about the pesticides. Left alone, spiny-backed orb weavers or kite spiders spin giant webs from the eves to the bushes. They’re dapper little spiders, tiny tuxedoed mites in black and white. They have competition for the flies, moths, and mosquitoes from the brown anoles, lizards originally from South America that have overrun the place. I rescue the lizards occasionally from the cats and they’re feisty, flashing orange dewlaps, hissing, and even biting though they haven’t got nearly the teeth to harm anything, most definitely not the cats!

Anole lizard

 

The St. Augustine grass is taking more work. I gave myself tennis elbow weeding, so while the central flowerbed was resown before the summer rains, the beds along the perimeter are still getting cleaned out and mulched. Melaleuca mulch has become my go-to mulch. Not only does it slow down St. Augustine grass, it’s helping to clean an invasive species out of the Everglades and prevent overharvesting of native cypress trees. I’m gardening on a mission!

 

 

Gardener/writer Kathy Bryson has been gardening since she put a pot out on her 1^st apartment balcony. Her favorite thing about gardening is the anticipation, the surprise of seeing what will actually come up. When she’s not gardening, she’s writing sweet and funny, fantasy romance. You can learn more about her at https://kathybryson.wordpress.com

10 Hints You Might Be Disorganized

Tags

Catherine Castle, humor about disorganization, humor about organizaion, organizaion, uses for baskets

I’m beginning a short blog tour  this month, and today I’m over at Kathy Bryson’s talking about organization, or in my case, disorganization. If you get a chance, drop by for a humorous look for  a 10 Hints You Might Be Disorganized.