FLOWERING KALE

the grand finale 

Happy Tuesday to you . . .

Hope you had a great 4th-

Happy Father's Day

It's also the first day of summer

                                                It's been a really wet Spring

But just what most of us needed . . .

                                        and what most of our plants needed


Too wet to do much planting today

                                     But did manage to enjoy a few of the plants who

seem to have enjoyed the wet weather


Looking forward to some nice, relaxing

                            Wine Gardening this summer

May Flowers

Paddle Plant

Spring Plantings-Vol. 2

Roses . . .

Spring Plantings- Vol. 1

ReD & wHiTe PeTuNiAs

On the potting bench . . .

SpRiNg is SpRuNg . . .

SIGNS OF SPRING

SIGNS OF SPRING . . .FINALLY

SAYING GOODBYE TO WINTER

Just as we would when we say goodbye to the very last couple of dear family members at the end of a lengthy holiday visit, we said goodbye today to 

the remnants of our most recent late winter snow 

in the form of uncle ernie and auntie gin, aka the snow from our garden, repurposed to resemble two people made of snow from our garden-  

From the sound of things, it has been a wild winter for much of the country and while we certainly appreciate the change of each season we are 

eagerly looking forward to the spring equinox 

 which will occur on Friday, March 20th . . .

FIFTEEN DAYS AND COUNTING

GARDEN ACCENTS . . .

embellished with 

February snow

What a difference a

 day makes . . .

LATE WINTER EVENING

LATE WINTER EVENINGRelaxing outside on a beautiful evening with a glass of wine -
Looking forward to some spring gardening -

Could be cold and icy tomorrow so grab a bottle of wine,  head outside, light a fire and enjoy -

while it lasts -

27 more days til Spring -

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Perfect day for a wine paring

Any wine goes well with Valentine's Day Chocolates

THE WINE GARDENER COMES OUT OF HIBERNATION

We're only a month into winter, but it's been so cold 

so far, it seems like it's been three months already 

The plankets came out early this year

The plumerias were hauled off to the storage

unit two months ago

and what was left came in the house or was placed

on the carts and hauled into the garage

This weekend was nice to get a brief reprieve

With no freezing temperatures in the forecast that
 meant carts came out of the garage, plankets came 
off and the other plants were hauled outside for a 
few days of relative warmth and sunshine 

Two weeks from today Punxsutawney Phil 

will reveal the remaining course of 

winter for 2015

I hope it's a cloudy day

Easy to Grow - Kalanchoe

In my experience it doesn't get any easier than this. I've been known to lead more than a few plants to a premature ending through neglect or just misunderstanding their care instructions 

But the Kalanchoe is not one of them 

There are many varieties (well over a hundred) but two of my favorite are the paddle plant and the mother of thousands  

Both are succulents which means to me they don't require a lot of water or a lot of attention

And they both spin off seedlings even for those of us who lack the skills generally needed to propagate plants  

With the mother of thousands, the "babies" literally fall off the leaves and grow wherever they land.  The biggest challenge with these plants is keeping up with all of the new plants the mother plant will be giving birth to

  This plant loves the sun.  The name mother of thousands refers to the fact that these plants have seedlings on the edges of the leaves that fall off 

and will root on their own   

You can pick up the seedlings and place them in other pots and they take root and become mothers themselves before you know what's happened.  I enjoy looking at the seedlings daily to see the changes

This plant thrives with very little care and you can share the wealth; you will have more seedlings than you can plant.  All of your friends can enjoy this plant with you

And you'll find it will leave you with more time to try new wines

Maybe a new Merlot to sip while you enjoy your Kalanchoe-

THE WINE GARDENER GOES TO THE WINE GARDEN

The State Fair of Texas wound down this week

I guess everyone that goes to the fair has a favorite thing to do there

Some people go just to taste the fried foods

Others go for the rides and games along the midway

I think everyone has to at least stop by to see what Big Tex has to say

I'm sure there are mirrors involved

but I've still never figured out how the midway barker balances himself so well on that stool

After I've had my fill of fried foods

spent more than enough on the midway games to buy the jumbo sized sock money outright

and stopped by to see if Big Tex has anything new to say this year

I like to head to the wine garden

The wine garden offers tastings from a number of Texas wineries

You can try a glass, a flight or a bottle

This year I tried a red wine from Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards located in Pittsburg, Texas

A lot of the Texas reds are a little sweet for my taste

The one I tried was a little drier

and was a nice pairing with the Texas fried chicken in a waffle cone I had just purchased

As an added bonus, there is a big screen tv on a nice, shaded patio

This is still one of my favorite things to do whenever I come to the fair

ROUND TOP - DAY TWO

This is the time of year that the population of Round Top increases more than 100 times.  

Today was no exception. 

It was a nice day and traffic was fairly light compared to what it will be like Friday and Saturday when it will look more like the LBJ Freeway at rush hour.

Many great finds today - two wine themed treasures.

Found this cool industrial looking gauge that serves as a wine holder.  

Can't wait to get it home and try it out- might even put it in my garage.

The second item was a vintage wine bottle- an Italian red table wine by Lambrusco.

I have two others that I have posted pictures of previously.  One is a plain green cylinder for the neck of the bottle.  Another is in the shape of a chain of fishes and this one is in the shape of an elephant's trunk with the elephant serving as the base of the bottle.

Funny thing is - I had no idea I needed these things when the day started.  

Who knows what I'll find that I didn't know I needed tomorrow.