Pennyroyal

Pennyroyal is in the mint family. It is a very pretty spring green color, very cheery. As you can see from the pictures, it makes a thick blanket of green. Mine is growing in partial shade. In Texas, an herb that normally should grow in full sun can grow very happily in partial shade because the sun is so brutal here. Exceptions to that rule are flowering herbs. Flowering herbs won't bloom profusely in partial shade.

Pennyroyal is a medicinal herb. Tea made from pennyroyal is an abortifascient. (It will cause a fetus to abort.) Very powerful stuff.

If you let pennyroyal creep out into your garden paths, it will emit a wonderfully minty smell when you walk over it and crunch it under your feet.

Aztec Sweet Herb

Aztec Sweet Herb is a perennial ground creeper. Mine is growing in a shady place, and it seems to be very happy. This plant is 1000 times sweeter than sugar, but the camphor content is so high that it cannot be used as an artifical sweetener. Use of this plant can be traced back to the times of the Aztecs as a treatment for coughs, colds, asthma, and bronchitis.

The leaves are tasty to chew, although the camphor flavor is certainly noticeable.

Artemesia in the Herb Garden

This is "Powis Castle' Artemesia. Artemesia is one of the most useful non-flowering plants to have in the garden due to its silver color. So pretty. Great in a pastel border or a night garden or a white garden. It is also pretty planted in dappled shade such as the location above. I have some growing in the Long Border and in the Infinity Garden.

Its use as a medicinal herb (Wormwood) has fallen out of favor. It was the key ingredient in the liquor absinthe. Wormwood is now known to have serious side effects.

Views of the New Fence

Views of the Garden

Pink zinnias, pink Autumn Sage, and Pink Muhly Grass.

The Infinity Garden is finally starting to perk up after a brutal summer. I lost a lot of my medicinal herbs, but next summer I'll give it another go.

Blue Fortune Agastache, red salvia, hollyhock seedlings, and Cassian Fountain Grass.

Cosmos, Pink Autumn Sage, grasses, and Pink Muhly.

What's Blooming Now - White Mist Flower 10/29/2011

The White Mist Flower is starting to open - it is a fall bloomer. It is a huge favorite of bees. This plant dies to the ground in the winter, and comes back from the roots. In the spring it can be cut back to the ground. It gets about 3 feet tall and wide.

A Weekend at the Farm 10/28-30/2011

Monarchs on Blue Mist Flower.

What a beautiful weekend! Perfect weather (but no rain). I came up on Friday morning by myself, and my husband joined me on Saturday. Friday I didn't do much. Watched reruns on TV and laid around. Had 5 yards of soil and 5 yards of mulch delivered.

• Decided the spinach seeds I had were no good because none of it sprouted. So I bought another package and planted it on Sunday.




• Weeded the Vegetable Garden. It looks good! Everything is healthy looking.




• Picked some green beans. Next week all of it will be ready to pick. Fall is a good time to plant green beans because they ripen more slowly. In the spring, one weekend they will be too thin to pick, but the next week they will be too big to eat. Not so with fall plantings.




• The garlic has all sprouted.




• The parsley seeds I sowed two weekends ago has sprouted.




• Spent Saturday building a big bed in the Star Garden. The star formation is officially gone. I added more flower bed onto the plan and it is no longer a star shape. Now that the yard is fenced I am expanding. My intention is that the entire area become garden with gravelled paths wandering throughout.




• Spend Sunday building a bigger bed adjacent to the roses that line the driveway.




• Planted 3 Dwarf Flowering Almond shrubs in the bed I built on Saturday. Prunus glandulosa "Rosea" I'm excited about these shrubs! They are unusual, no one has them that I have ever encountered. In between the shrubs I planted 16 Grand Primo daffodil bulbs.




• In the other bed I seeded yellow yarrow, purple coneflower, and lance leaf coreopsis. The purple and yellow will be pretty together.




• Adding those beds was a lot of work! One is about 35 feet and one is about 25 feet, both are about 4 feet wide. Work! Used the rest of my compost.




• Deadheaded the roses.




• Deadheaded the white butterfly bush.




• Sowed Baby Blue Eyes seeds on the ground under the cedars and in one of the beds that leads to the Rose Garden.


• Sowed McKana's Giant Columbine seeds in the same bed where I sowed the Baby Blue Eyes.


• Adjusted the sprinklers.


• Read the book my sister gave me for my birthday - The Founding Gardeners. It is a book about the gardening passions of the Founding Fathers. Fascinating.


• Sowed California Poppy seeds in the Orchard in the Blueberry bed and one of the Blackberry beds.


• Mulched the Debutante Camellia, the Desert Willow, the Eve's Necklace, some of the herbs in the Infinity Garden, and various plants in the Star Garden.


• Watered here and there.


• Enjoyed the weather. Glorious.

Hemlock in the Garden

I grew this Hemlock from seeds I bought from Richters. Pretty leaves for such a deadly plant.

In ancient Greece hemlock was used to poison condemned prisoners, the most famous of which was Socrates (who was condemned to death in 399 BC for impiety). Plato described Socrates' death in the Phaedo:

The man...laid his hands on him and after a while examined his feet and legs, then pinched his foot hard and asked if he felt it. He said "No"; then after that, his thighs; and passing upwards in this way he showed us that he was growing cold and rigid. And then again he touched him and said that when it reached his heart, he would be gone. The chill had now reached the region about his groin, and uncovering his face, which had been covered, he said - and these were his last words - "Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Pay it and do not neglect it." "That," said Crito, "shall be done; but see if you have anything else to say." To this question he made no reply, but after a little while he moved; the attendant uncovered him; his eyes were fixed. And Crito when he saw it, closed his mouth and eyes.

A Weekend at the Farm 10/22-23/2011

Beautiful weather, but no rain unfortunately. It clouded up on Sunday morning, but nothing happened. Drove to the farm directly from work and forgot my camera at home, so I used my phone to take these pictures.

• My husband began building a fence around the side yard. This is very exciting to me because it will keep the armadillos and rabbits out. It is not tall, but it doesn't need to be tall. Two boards and some rabbit wire is all I need. He got the fence completely built, only the rabbit wire on half of it is left undone. A lot of work! It will need to be painted. I will do that in a few weeks. Pictures below.


• Planted (almost) the last of the fall vegetable garden. Still need some 1015 onions. Planted 3 Savoy Ace cabbage and 3 Early Round Dutch cabbage - that's a lot of cabbage for a non-cabbage eater! Planted a Cardoon Gigante. Cardoon is a very pretty plant, similar to artichoke. Deeply notched leaves and silver colored. It's a perennial. The flowers are edible. Planted some mustard greens. What can I say? I'm from the south. Collards and mustard greens, is there anything better?


• The garlic is already popping up - so cute!


• Planted 4 perennial Creeping Marjoram in the Infinity Garden and 4 cilantro in the Herb Garden.


• Worked in the Infinity and the Herb Gardens cutting away dead debris, mixing in some compost. Raked the Infinity Garden. Looks much better. Debris is always falling from the trees.


• Raked the Rose Garden.


• Weeded, weeded, weeded. Getting rid of the last of the summer weeds and watching the cool weather weeds start to show up...


• Planted some Allysum seeds.


• Planted some Sweet Delight and Sweet Dream Sweet Peas in the Orchard and the Wave Garden. Surrounded them with chicken wire staked to the ground.


• Planted some Fordhook Giant Hollyhocks in the Orchard and surrounded them with chicken wire. Rabbits love sweet peas and hollyhocks.


• Watered various plants. Next summer I will have to rig up something more effective for the Greenhouse gardens. Water coverage is poor.


• Tired of the moles! We bought some poison pellets. I came upon a mole as he was pushing dirt out of a hole, the little bastard. I poured some poison pellets down the hole and covered it up with a rock (per the instructions). I feel kind of sad about poisoning the little creatures, but they wreak havoc on the root systems of my plants. I never dreamed, when we built this house, how much of a battle I would be waging against nature! Armadillos, Leafcutter Ants, Moles, Rabbits, and Deer.


• Worked a long time in the Star Garden. I cut back lots of Fireworks Gomphrena that had absolutely gone insane! You couldn't walk on the paths because it completely covered them. I cut off many of the seed heads and I am drying them on a cookie sheet. I cleared away Prairie Aster that was crowding the bearded iris. I cleared out verbena that was dead. Looks much better.


• Had the neighbors over for dinner Saturday evening. After dinner we sat in the screened-in porch in rocking chairs and enjoyed the beautiful evening.


• Debra (our neighbor) brought me over a cutting of double pink Althea she had rooted. A treasure! I'm excited about it.
  

I will paint the fence forest green in a couple weeks.

Armadillos can dig under the fence, but they have to really want what's inside to go to the trouble.

I have a lot of painting to do!

What's Blooming Now - Red Salvia greggii 10/21/2011

This Salvia greggii is hanging on in a determined fashion. The armadillos are always rooting around in it, so it is not growing as robustly as it normally would. The flowers are a vivid red. Salvias are rabbit and deer resistant. The leaves have a very, very strong smell which I find to be very pleasant, sort of similar to sage - they are in the same family.

What's Blooming Now - Barbados Cherry 10/16/2011

Barbados Cherry is a Texas native. It blooms in the fall, and the flowers are followed by large red berries that are edible (and much loved by the birds). There is a miniature version of Barbados Cherry on the market. I also grow that one, but I am not very impressed. As the name implies, it stays very small. I'm not sure what use it has in the landscape, it seems pretty insignificant to me because it stays so small. The miniature has a nice rounded form which requires no trimming. I have not figured out how one would use it effectively in a garden. The leaves are tiny and light green in color, the flowers are small, and the berries are small. All in all, it is not a showy plant in miniature. The large Barbados Cherry has larger leaves and they are a nice dark green. Both versions are very slow to come back after winter. In my zone 8b garden the plants come back from the roots, not the branches, so I cut mine back to the ground after winter is over.

What's Blooming Now - Pink Autumn Sage 10/19/2011

I am growing two of these plants in the Wave Garden, and this one is in a bed by the master bedroom. Great plant, blooms all summer and loves the fall weather. Deer resistant. All salvias have a strong scent which I think is not attractive to deer.

What's Blooming Now - Blue Mist Flower 10/16/2011

Blue Mist Flower is a perennial. It will die back to the roots in the winter, but it will spring up cheerfully in the spring. Although it will bloom sporadically throughout the summer, it is a late summer-fall bloomer. This plant is very popular with bees and butterflies. I like the lacy spring-green-color leaves. I have some planted in partial shade and some planted in full sun. It tolerates both conditions very well. This plant will spread if you want it to spread, but it is also very easy to pull up.