Echinacea - the Beautiful Medicinal Herb

Every one of these prickly points will become a seed when the flower dies and dries out. And every one of these prickly points is full of delicious nectar that butterflies and hummingbirds absoutely love.

Echinacea is a perennial and likes to be a bit dry.

Roots that are three years old or older are the primary medicinal part of the plant, but all parts provide medicinal benefits. Echinacea ( also called by its common name coneflower) is an antibiotic that fights infection and is good for the immune system and the lymph system. It is also a blood purifier. Some people eat the seeds several times a day. However, in some people, frequent use causes hallucinations.

What's Blooming Now - Ginger 09/28/10

I don't know the specific name of this ginger. I bought it years ago, long before I started writing down the names of my plants.

The roots of all gingers are edible. The leaves can be used to wrap other foods while baking, and the flowers can be eaten raw or cooked. They are sometimes used to make gingerbread and ginger snaps.

Ginger tea can be taken to promote circulation of the blood, expel gas, and treat respiratory problems, voice problems, nausea, and motion sickness. It is also a strong antioxidant.

Gorgeous Vegetables

I love the beautiful flower of this Burgundy Okra. And the burgundy stems and burgundy okras are striking. Really unique and decorative. When it gets really hot in Texas nothing will grow in the vegetable garden, nothing will set fruit. Nothing except okra. Burgundy okra is so pretty. Plant it and enjoy this great plant.

The photos above are Hyacinth Bean vine. This vine is started from seed and will grow 8 feet very quickly. The vine is covered with these wonderful purple flowers followed by true purple bean pods. The beans are edible and beautiful in their own right. They are very dark purple beans with a white spot.

Medicinal Properties of Horseradish

This is Maliner Kren horseradish. Horseradish is a perennial. It rarely produces seeds so it will have to be grown from root cuttings. I ordered mine online in the spring, but almost immediately after it arrived I began seeing it in nurseries and even in the plant departments of Home Depots, etc. Although horseradish is said to bloom in the summer, mine has never bloomed. The flowers are white and fragrant, but they should be removed so that the plant concentrates all its energy on root development. Horseradish will spread and the roots can grow very deep. I planted mine in a tub so that I wouldn't have to worry about invasive spreading.

Horseradish root can be used as a condiment - ground and mixed with vinegar and dry mustard. But it also has medicinal uses. It is traditionally used as an antiseptic and stimulant. It is also a laxative and a strong diuretic. It cleans sinuses and treats inflamed gums. It aids digestion and respiratory problems. It is reported to have antibiotic properties. Horseradish juice is used to fade freckles and liver spots.

What's Blooming Now - Grandma's Yellow Rose 09/27/10

What's Blooming Now - La Marne Rose 09/27/10

I have five La Marne roses in a flowerbed that edges the driveway. I plan to plant a mix of spring-blooming Rolph Fiedler muscari and petticoat daffodils (both are very short) throughout this bed.

I love this rose! It has a wonderful scent. The flowers are very pink when the weather gets cooler - fall and early spring. They bloom almost white, sort of a yellowish white when it's really hot. The shrubs have a very attractive, round shape.

A Weekend at the Farm 09/25-26/10

Friday night, Max's football game. Saturday, wedding invitation shopping. Saturday afternoon to the farm. The weather is still a challenge, although mornings are starting to be a bit cooler.

• Worked in the Vegetable Garden for a long time on Sunday. Prepared several beds with compost and fertilizer. Added lots of citrus peel for nematodes.


• Planted a flat of Snow Crown cauliflower transplants and a flat of Gypsy broccoli transplants. Broccoli and cauliflower will be long gone when it is time to plant spring peas.


• Sowed Burpee Bibb Letucce and Burpee spicy Mesclun mix: Red Salad Bowl, Mustard Mizuna, Endive, Radicchio Red Treviso, Arugula Rocket.


• Planted 2 Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage transplants.


• Planted 3 Flash collard transplants.


• Also have beets, spinach, and dill growing - that's my fall garden. I'll probably stop there.


• Adjusted the sprinklers and reduced the run times for everything.


• Admired my new landscaping.


• Pulled up some unruly zinnias.


• Sprayed herbicide in the driveway, Vegetable Garden, around the new landscaping, and the Rose Garden.


• Weeded the Long Border.


• Attached labels to plant stakes.


• We took care of my husband's son's dogs. They got sprayed by a skunk. I guess we didn't take very good care of them... Bathed them in a washtub - hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and soap. What a mess.


• Planted some parsley in the Infinity Garden.

Completed Landscape Project

All finished!

I'm considering adding a fig tree to the Orchard. And I am going to replace several of the blueberries that struggled without regular water - they are half dead. I'm also going to add several more blueberries and blackberries. I might add a pear tree as well.

My plan this winter, generally, is to seed the beds with wildflowers and add some bulbs. When spring gets here I might add a few flowering shrubs. Plenty of time to think about that. I want to the emphasis to be edibles in the Orchard.

What's Blooming Now - Iceberg Rose 09/24/10

Iceberg was introduced in 1958. It is a prolific bloomer, consequently it is in the parentage of many roses, including Heritage (one of my favorites). Iceberg flowers are pure white, and they have a soft scent.

Iceberg is a wonderful plant to include in an all-white garden or a night garden.

What's Blooming Now - Pringle Aster 09/21/10

All summer Pringle Aster grows and gets bushier. Once the first freeze hits, the plant dies down to the ground. I usually leave all the dead debris on the plant for most of the winter because it insulates the plant. After the debris is cut a away you will be left with a rosette of greenery. Then the cycle begins again. It will grow all summer, etc.

A Long Weekend at the Farm 09/17 - 19/10

Took Monday as vacation. Max was in Oklahoma for one of his official school visits. Bert's mom came and spent a night with us. Overcast the whole time, fine with me!

• Made red beans and rice (used bell pepper from the garden) and bread pudding with whiskey sauce.
  
• Decided to go rabbit hunting so I can make one of Paul Prudhomme's rabbit recipes. I'm in a Cajun phase. In my (limited) experience, rabbits seem to be sitting ducks. They make a little run, but then their survival instincts makes them freeze so they won't be noticed. They seem to be pretty easy to shoot. My husband and I walked around the property looking for rabbits (we were vewy, vewy quiet) . I spotted one in the woods about 20 yards off the path. My husband shot it and skinned it. I didn't watch the skinning part. Yuck!



• Raked the Rose Garden. Trimmed away rose shrubs that were crowding the path. Sprayed herbicide in the paths. Treated a few roses with a systemic insecticide. Pulled up ratty looking Laura Bush petunias. Deadheaded. Attached my new plant labels to all the roses.



• Attached plant labels to signs in the Shade Garden.



• Cut back salvia in the Star Garden. Cut back verbena bonariensis in the Star Garden. Cut back Turnera in the Star Garden. Three armloads of debris.



• Turned the earth over in several several boxes in the Vegetable Garde. Added compost , chicken fertilizer, and grapefruit peel. Sowed spinach and beet seeds.



• Cleaned up the Wave Garden. That's my grass garden. Once spring is here there are definitely changes I want to make. First of all, it's way too crowded. Secondly, even though I was very careful about layering the plants according to height, there are several that are shorter than the ones in front of them. And there is one that is HUGE, and not only is he huge, he has the audacity to be really ugly. I'm going to dig him up and throw him out.



• Thought of several projects I want to tackle. I'm going to re-shape the bed around the pool so I can move some rocks. I have never used that small section of bed around the pool because my soaker hose isn't long enough. I'm going to use those rocks to extend the Bulb Garden in front of the shed. My husband expanded the shed a few months ago so I'm going to expand the Bulb Garden. The shed is built on a slope and the green landscaping strips I am currently using don't look good. I'm going to use the rocks because they can be built up higher where the land slopes. I still have some soil from the last load of soil I had delivered. I want to get rid of it so that I can buy some mulch. It's time to mulch before winter sets in. Gardens should be mulched twice a year. I haven't mulched yet this year. Not good. The other project is to use the cedar logs that the landscapers pulled up in the Orchard and use then to make another bed in the Wave Garden. When I move plants from the Wave Garden in the spring, I can re-plant them in the new bed. I want the beds in the Wave Garden to guide a walker to the Rose Garden. A path will be created between the beds.



• Monday I lined out the new beds and we asked the landscaper to use his front end loader to fill the beds. He obliged. That saved me hours and hours of work! My two projects are finished!



• Cleaned up the Bulb Garden - cut away dead leaves, smoothed out all the soil because the armadillos had turned it all upside down, re-planted all the bulbs they dug up (I HATE ARMADILLOS~!!!!), and laid down chicken wire across the top of most of it.
• Planted 50 Muscari comosum plumosum bulbs (also called Feather Hyacinth) that I got for an early birthday present.

What's Blooming Now - Heritage Rose 09/18/10

Heritage is a David Austin rose. It was introduced in 1983. It is described as a very delicate porcelain pink, but I think of it as the very palest coral color. The rose Iceberg is one of its parents. Iceberg is a prolific bloomer, I don't think Heritage is quite as a heavy a bloomer as Iceberg, but I live in the hottest place on earth, and it may be a function of location. It is black spot resistant. Heritage is one of my favorite roses. It has a wonderful scent, and it is practically thornless.

Landscaping Progress

This picture is taken just off the back porch. The path will be filled with crushed granite. The bed to the left has been mulched, the bed to the right has not been mulched yet. That's why one side is darker than the other. The pool is in view to the right.
Beds curve down the slope on both sides of the boardwalk. My husband is concerned that the wood will rot now that there are sprinklers around the boardwalk. Once I've planted shrubs, etc on both sides he won't be able to easily get in there and repair rotted wood. Yeah, he probably should have voiced that concern before I hired the landscaper, gave him half the money, and had him begin the work. I can't think of everything!
Another view walking down the slope to the Orchard.
This side of the Orchard is almost finished.
This side needs some mulching, and the beds have not been built yet. The landscaping will extend out past the two peach trees to the right and all the way to back where the land is cleared.
This is a view from the Orchard looking up towards the back of the house.