Loving your home means tending to your garden and often that means being a couple seasons ahead.  Now is the time to plant bulbs for spring and 2012 marks the 9th Annual Collin County Master Gardener Fall Bulb sale. Nothing announces  spring or cheers our spirits like the blooming bulbs in the garden. While Dutch bulbs require too many chilling hours to be perennials in our climate, there are many heirloom, historic and adapted hybrids that will perennialize and return for many years of blooming color. CCMGA’s selections are carefully researched and chosen with southern climates in mind.Spring Bulbs for North Texas will be presented by the CCMGA at Wells Brothers Farm Store Saturday, September 22. See link below for Wells Brothers Farm Store location information. Go to Collin County Master Gardeners Association to view a flyer with detailed information and photos of this year’s selections.  Bulb orders must be received by October 1.

Proceeds from this sale benefit community horticulture and water conservation educational programs.

Questions? Call the CCMG Help Desk at the AgriLife Extension Office at: (972) 548-4232 or visit

http://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/programs/

http://www.ccmgatx.org/

http://www.wbfarmstore.net/

It is now the middle of July and we are having a particularly hot summer all over the United States.  We are used to the heat here in Texas, but it doesn't make it any easier.  Some things you just can't adapt to!It is the perfect time to think about indoor projects.  I love to garden and just can't find the time when it is cool to tinker in the flower beds. The garden is near dormant from the heat and all I can do is try to keep up with the watering.  Watering restrictions are tough so we all need to do our best to conserve water.  To get my gardening "fix", I have gone "Tabletop" with the greenery!

I found an old fountain basin years ago and have always used it outside with a fern in it.  I have decided to bring it in and create an indoor arrangement.  The bottom was jagged and needed to sit on something to sit up right.  I painted an old plant saucer grey to set the basin in and under that I placed a scrappy looking piece of wood. I planted everything in a bowl, inside the concrete basin with  1/2" gravel in the bottom.  The gravel will help the plants drain (discount dollar stores sell small sacks of gravel for $1 - 2). When the plants run their course, I can just remove the plants and replace with something else.  The concrete basin is quite heavy.  I wanted to lighten the "garden" by elevating the bowl with a couple to-go boxes placed inside the basin.  Just enough height to make the top of the bowl even with the basin top.  I covered the soil with moss, but one could use stones or small pine cones.

The results were nice.  I chose small inexpensive plants with an orchid for the height.  I have been able to find orchids for as little as $15 at the grocery store.

My other indoor garden project is a topiary.

Using floral foam (Oasis), I soaked overnight in my sink, I have created the perfect host for some Japanese Boxwood cuttings.  Cut the soaked foam with scissors to create a better shape.  Snip the bottom to fit into the container.  Many of the vintage vases I have used often have undetectable cracks in them.  This creates a mess when they leak.  Line the container with a tub or baggy cut to size.

It takes quite a few cuttings to create a good size topiary.  Mine is about 7" across and took over 120 clippings. I have the shrubs in my yard but you could buy a (gallon size) boxwood at your garden center and use clippings from that create your topiary. I begin at the top and work my way around the foam, making a sphere shape with the cuttings.  Each clipping is about 3 - 4" long.  I remove the leaves from about 1 1/2" from the bottom of the cutting to place into the foam.  The foam will break apart if you let the leaves remain on the  branch.  Fill in the bare spots with additional cuttings.  I always trim the topiary to the shape I desire.  The results are great!

I have had a topiary last for up to two months.  Keep foam wet. You will have to keep them trimmed.  Sunny spots in your house will promote the growth much faster than the lower light areas.

Happy Gardening!