What's Blooming Now - Aurelia Sunflower 08/30/10

I planted several seed packages of this sunflower, and the deer ate the top off of every one except this one. Well, that's life in the country, I guess. I used to go by the rule: one for me and one for them. Now I go by the rule: one for me and two for them. That's an average. In this particular case they took more, but I think the one for two rule is a pretty good one. Overall I really think I've been lucky with deer. They haven't bothered me too much. The armadillos are much, much worse. But isn't this a pretty sunflower? It's a particularly cheerful one. They grow to 4 feet tall and they are multi branching.

Medicinal Uses of Pennyroyal

Pennyroyal is in the mint family. Its has very pretty, round leaves that are light green, and it spreads very quickly. The essential oil is very concentrated and can be toxic even in small doses. The metabolite menthofuran is the active ingredient in Pennyroyal and it is this ingredient that can induce abortions. Its traditional uses (mention of its use for these purposes has been documented back to the Greek and Roman times) were as an emmenagogue (a menstrual stimulant) and an abortifascient. It has been documented that, taken as tea for several days in a row, self-induced abortion can occur. Pennyroyal has also been documented by colonial Virginia settlers to eradicate pests. Other reported medicinal uses through history include treatment for fainting, flatulence, gall ailments, gout, and hepatitis (presumably Hepatitis A), and as a lung cleanser, a gum strengthener and, when ground with vinegar, a tumor remedy.

A Weekend at the Farm 08/26-27/2010

Got here late Friday night after Max's game. Saturday morning was in the 60s. Very nice for a change.

• Spent a lot of time in the Vegetable garden. I cut down the tomato plants rather than pull them up to see if I can get a fall crop from the same plants. I turned the earth in several of the boxes and buried lots of orange peels in the boxes. I have quite a case of nematodes right now. I've tried growing winter squash two years in a row and the plants have died away. When I pull them up I see the knobby roots which is the sign of nematodes. I'm wondering now if squash is particularly susceptible to nematodes because my tomatoes did fine this year. About a month ago the Ichibahn eggplants took a turn for the worse and I knew they had a nematode problem. But I still got lots of eggplants, not as many as I think I would normally get - but more than I cared to eat! I'll have to google it. I pulled the eggplants up. I trimmed the asparagus where it was leaning out into the paths. Asparagus is unruly. My husband has built cages around the asparagus which helps reign it in quite a bit, but it still leans out in places. I raked the paths so it looks much neater. I'm ready to plant some fall veggies. Not sure what yet. I want to grow spring peas so I don't want to fill up the garden with fall and winter plants because they last too far into the spring. I think I will definitely grow beets, chard, lettuce, and dill. Other than that I'm not sure. We have been talking about expanding the Vegetable Garden. That way I don't have to make choices. I can grow anything I want. Good idea!


• Cut back the bee balm in the Star Garden.


• Watered some areas that are suffering. We haven't had any rain for weeks. It has been a very dry August.
  
• Swam in the pool. The cooler weather made the pool feel very nice again. Drank beer and listened to Honky Tonk.
  
• The armadillos have been so destructive. I keep forgetting to buy moth balls. And I'm going to start covering the ground in some places with chicken wire. That seems to work pretty well. I'm bringing some more with me next time I come.
  
• We had the neighbors over for dinner. They just moved here permanently a few weeks ago. Lucky them. They own the property right next to ours. I fried green tomatoes that I picked off the plants when I cut them back. And we had a salad with the last of my cherry tomatoes with arugula from the garden.
  
• I pickled some okra from the garden. Pickled okra is very good in a Bloody Mary. I also pickled some jalapenos.
  
• Cleaned the house.
  
• Made some suet for the birds: cup of bacon grease, cup of oatmeal, cup of peanut butter, 2 cups of corn meal and lots of old leftover nuts I had in the fridge - pecans, pine nuts, walnuts.
• Thinned my zinnias.
• Fertilized and watered the fruit trees. It's really too late to be fertilizing the fruit trees. But I skipped a lot of fertilizations this summer so I went for it.
• Watered the shrubs around the Greenhouse.
• Deadheaded the roses for a little while, but I really didn't spend much time in the Rose Garden.
• Cleaned up the Star Garden. Weeded, cut back some plants that were getting out of hand.

What's Blooming Now - Wild Texas Onion 08/21/10

Wild Onion makes very pretty flowers in the late summer. Each individual flowerette turns into a black seed that can be planted in another place or just allowed to drop to the ground and sprout. And, of course wild onion is edible. You can dig up a handful and eat them. They are similar to the green onions you buy in the grocery store.

A Day at the Farm 08/21/10

The plant in the pictures above is a kind of rock rose - Pavonia Hastata.

This was a quick trip, just long enough to water the fruit trees and be back in town for my dad's birthday. I won't need to worry about watering the trees soon enough. In September I am having some landscaping done. That's right, I'm not doing it myself. I'm paying someone to do it. Sprinklers down to the Orchard and flowerbeds and paths through the Orchard.

• Watered the trees and the shrubs in the Greenhouse Garden.
  
• Fertilized around the pool, the Hollyhock bed, the Fringe Tree, the Ballerina roses, and the Long Border.
  
• Sprayed herbicide in the Star Garden.
  
• Thinking about having a party in the fall, early October. It will look so pretty in October. The roses will be blooming beautifully, the asters will be in bloom, the zinnias will still be going strong, the fall Vegetable Garden will be planted. The weather will be tolerable.

Preparing for Spring

It's time to begin planning for spring. Spring bulbs are to be planted in the fall. Wildflower seeds are to be sown in the fall. It is a great joy of mine to search for seeds and bulbs that I want to grow. I have several new areas to plant. The entire area of ground around the fruit trees in the Orchard is going to be turned into flowerbeds as well as 8 foot flowerbeds on either side of the boardwalk down to the Orchard. That is a lot of space!! And my son, Max, and I built a flowerbed around an oak tree that I am going to fill with bulbs.

Today I ordered wildflower seeds. I ordered the following:

2 oz of Corn Poppies - Corn Poppies have 3-4 inch blooms that range in color from white and pink to red. The foliage is inconspicuous, which is nice . The poppy seeds that I got from my aunt Maedell have a lot of greenery, and that takes up a lot of space. 2 ounces of seeds will cover a 2700 square foot area. They are for the Orchard.

2 oz. of Corn Flowers - also called Bachelor Buttons. They come in colors of blue, white, pink, and red. The flowers last a long time and they dry well (I don't know why I mention that, I'm not going to be making dried floral arrangements or anything the sort!). The foliage is pretty gray-blue. I got some of these in a free seed packet that was mailed along with some seeds I ordered last year. I had never grown them before, and I loved them! It's good to try something new every year. They reseed. 2 ounces will cover a 1400 square foot area. They are for the Orchard.

1 oz. of Foxglove - These are for the Infinity Garden where my medicinal herbs grow and the beds that are going to be built on each side of the boardwalk. It is a bit shady in both those areas which Foxglove prefers. 1 ounce of seeds will cover a 5500 square foot area, but there is only a 50% planting success rate with these seeds. Reseeding biennial - you have to be patient.

3 packets of Maximillian Sunflowers - these are perennial sunflowers. I planted some last year but they didn't grow.

2 oz. of Larkspur - I love them. Pink, purple, blue, and white tall spikes of flowers. The are for the Orchard. Reseeder.

1 oz. Scarlet Flax - this is an effort at trying something new. The flowers are red. I've never grown them before. An ounce of seed will cover a 340 square foot area. Reseeder.

1 oz. of Tuber Vervain - another new one, deep purple flowers. 1 ounce will cover a 900 square foot area. Reseeder.

The bulbs that I want to order are as follows:

Bulbocodium conspicuous (Hoop Petticoat daffodils) - These daffodils are very tiny, only 4-6 inches tall. The foliage is grass-like. They will be very pretty around rose bushes. The flowers are so-named because they look like old-fashioned petticoats, they do not have surrounding petals. Very darling. They naturalize easily in Texas. I will probably get 200 of them; they are pretty inexpensive. 200 will cost about $100.

Tulipa var. chrysantha ‘Tubergen’s Gem’ - these are naturalizing tulips. They are the variety that grow wild in Turkey. They are a very vivid yellow and red color. I will probably get 200 of them which will cost about $100. They are also very short, 8-10 inches tall and will be very nice under rose bushes and towards the front of borders.

Allium sphaerocephalon (Drumstick Allium) - These are in the onion family. They make cute, drumstick-shaped purple flowers. They grow to be about 18-30 inches tall. I will get at least 100, maybe more. That will cost about $20. They naturalize.

Grand Primo Tazettas - these are truly the old-fashioned daffodils that one can still find growing next to an old house or in a cemetery. They look a lot like paper whites. Very expensive unfortunately - three bulbs for 15 dollars. Yikes! I will just have to be patient and wait for them to multiply.

Byzantine Glads (Gladiolus comunis ‘Cruentus’) - these are expensive also, but what gems! These are wild gladiolas found growing on mountainsides in the Mediterranean. But they have been in Southern gardens for many, many generations. They are a beautiful deep magenta.

Growing Henna in the Medicine Garden

Henna is a tender perennial. I have it growing in a pot so that I can move it into the Greenhouse in the winter.

Henna has been used since the Bronze age to dye hair, skin, fingernails, leather, and wool. For skin dyeing, the leaves are ground into a paste - whole unbroken leaves will not stain the skin. The coloring property in Henna that dyes the skin is called lawsone. Typically the leaves are ground, dried, milled, then mixed with an acidic compound (lemon juice or strong tea) and made into a paste. It is easier to intricately decorate the skin with a paste as opposed to the crushed leaves. Although the stain is immediate, the longer the paste remains on the skin the darker the stain will become.

This is a fun, interesting, and pretty herb to have as part of a collection .

Around the House

A Weekend at the Farm 08/07-08/10

This is a leaf of Striped Beauty Canna. Beautiful.

Sunny and hot! Again. There was no rain last week and none in the forecast.

• I cut back my Bee Balm in the Star Garden and the flowerbed outside the bedroom. It might bloom in the fall (which is another Texas summer but nicer).
• I watered the fruit trees. We won't be back for three weeks unless I take a day of vacation, I don't know how they'll make it without either my supplemental watering or some rainfall.
• I watered my Texas native trees.
• I watered the shrubs around the Greenhouse.
• I picked several dozen jalapenos. I'm going to pickle them tomorrow evening when I get home from work.
• I harvested a cantaloupe, some arugula, several bell peppers, lots of cherry tomatoes, and two eggplants from the Vegetable Garden.
• I cut my black and blue salvia down to the ground in the Rose Garden. It was getting very leggy. Now it will grow up from the roots and look pretty for the fall. I also cut back to the ground my catmint in the Star Garden and my white salvia greggii in the Hydrangea bed.
• I staked chicken wire across the top of the ground where my Spanish Bluebells are planted (in the Shade Garden) because the armadillos keep digging them up. I hate those little bastards! I also staked chicken wire across one of the points in the Star Garden where I planted zinnias for the same reason - armadillos.
• I sprayed herbicide in The Orchard and the Rose Garden and The Shade Garden.
• I deadheaded my roses.
• Pulled weeds. Zillions of weeds. But the effort is worth it. Everything looks really good. Very pretty and verdant.

What's Blooming Now - Butterfly Bushes 08/07/10

I have 3 varieties of butterfly bushes: White Profusion, Lindleyana, and Griffin Blue.

They are particular favorites of butterflies. But bees and hummingbirds love them as well. I watched the butterflies for a long time today as they flitted around my butterfly bushes.

This is Buddleia davidii 'Griffin Blue'

Above is a close-up of a Griffin Blue flower.

Below is Buddleia Lindlleyana cascading over a fence next to Dawn Pink Canna.

In the picture above you can see how beautiful, delicate, and unusual Lindleyana blooms are. It is my favorite.

Below is White Profusion Buddleia.

A Weekend at the Farm 07/30-31/10

These are Philippine Lilies.

Beautiful weekend, not a cloud in the sky. It's been raining. There was an inch and a half in the rain gauge. That's good! We had some friends join us on Saturday so I didn't work at all except for house work in the morning - vacuuming, sweeping, cleaning bathrooms, shaking out rugs, dusting, mopping. I also made some appetizers and some salads for lunch and a blackberry cobbler. All before noon - it's amazing what a person can do when they stay focused. On Sunday I worked outside.

• The Rose Garden is totally in bloom thanks to the rain last week and a very rainy July. I weeded and deadheaded for about an hour.



• Summer growth is lush and tumultuous. Plants start to need staking. I used 3 sacks of bamboo stakes and spent several hours staking zinnias. I used heavier sticks to stake my Pringle Aster. I had already staked it but it wasn't holding. I pulled some verbena bonariensis off a rose bush and staked it. I staked some of my okra. It's kind of flimsy - not all of it, just the recent plantings.



• I buried grapefruit peels and pith in all the boxes of the Vegetable Garden because I have nematodes. That is probably what is making the okra flimsy. When there are nematodes in the vegetable garden they make the plants weak. Nematodes don't like citrus peels. I also have some marigolds growing which is a nematode deterrent.



• It's time to plant sugar snap peas but I don't have any room. The tomatoes are still producing and I have about 15 okra plants growing. Between the two of them I don't have any space. Fall snap peas are an iffy proposition. If we have an early freeze they will die and all the effort will have been for naught. But if the weather cooperates, sugar snap peas are so delicious!



• I cut back my lime balm. It flowered and went to seed. I could see new growth at the base of the plants so I cut it back. It will look pretty again as we go into the fall. I have never had lime balm go to seed, I didn't even know it flowered! My catnip was flowering last week and it was so pretty. I forgot to take a picture, but it was very pretty.



• I planted two packages of 'Cut and Come Again' Zinnias in the Star Garden. I have lots of different kinds of zinnias blooming right now. I love them.



• I worked in the Long Border. As usual, I've made a muddle of it. I have so much happening in that flowerbed and it's all blooming and crazy and laying over onto other plants. I staked and staked. Next year I will really have to be disciplined to pull up things, for instance my cleome is throwing seed all over the place.



• Watered the fruit trees and the shrubs in the Greenhouse Garden.



• I had a beautiful, big cantaloupe in the Vegetable Garden that I was going to pick on Sunday morning. But the critters got to it in the middle of the night and it had a big hole in it and all the middle was eaten! I have about four or five more on the vine. They have been so delicious and fun to grow.



• Fertilized my rain lilies and my Soncy rose.



• My Magic Lilies are starting to bloom. (Lycoris Squamigera) They pop out of the bare ground, the greenery grows after they finish blooming. So all you see is the single stem and beautiful pink flowers - like magic, hence the name.



• My other Lycoris have also begun popping up. I have them in the Circle Drive. They behave the same way as the Magic Lilies - a bare stem pops out of the ground, blooms red, spidery flowers, and the blooms are followed by the greenery. They begin blooming in September which is the start of the hurricane season. That is how they got their common name - Hurricane Lilies.



• Pulled up lots of weeds in the Wave Garden, the Star Garden, the Infinity Garden.



• The butterflies are very entertaining. I watched those beautiful creatures for a long time.



• I sprayed herbicide on the paths in the Shade Garden, the Infinity Garden, The Circle Drive, the driveway, the Rose Garden, under the arbor, around the Star Garden, and around the pool. That is hot work.