What's Blooming Now - Red Baron Peach 02/25/2012

Gorgeous Red Baron Peach Tree! It's just beginning to bloom. It should be really special next weekend.

Winter Views of the Star Garden

Although it is still winter, everything is starting to green up.
Above to the right is a new flower bed. I have a pink morning glory tree, Picasso Cannas, and Strawberry Candy Daylilies planted. Also seeds of various sorts that have not yet sprouted.
To the right are three new beds. In one of the beds I have bearded irises planted along with some seeds that have not yet sprouted. In the long, narrow bed I have corn flags and a double red Althea planted. In the bed in the background of the picture I have a Satin Marina Althea planted (blooms blue flowers), some Indigo Spires Salvia, and some pink Laura Bush Petunia seeds that have not yet sprouted.

What's Blooming Now - Pink Autumn Sage 01/25/2012

Salvias are gorgeous. I love this color so much that I bought two more and planted them in the Star Garden. They are loving the cool weather. Autumn Sage stays green in the winter if the dips below freezing are not sustained.

My Kitchen Herb Garden

I just gave my kitchen herb garden a little face lift. Weeded (which means yanking up handfuls of mint), mulched, added some more herbs. This garden is just outside the back door, right by the kitchen. I have growing marjoram, fennel, cilantro, parsley, thyme, basil, chives, oregano, dill, lemon balm, lemon verbena, and mint. I have lots of rosemary growing in another place, so there is none in this bed.

What's Blooming Now - Hoop Petticoats 02/25/2012

Hoop Petticoats (Bulbocodium conspicuus) are just beginning to bloom. Their bloom time coincides with Rolph Fiedler Ipheions, as seen in the above picture. I have these two little bulb varieties planted under rose shrubs. When they are finished blooming, the greenery fades away quickly, not to be seen again until next winter. But, aren't they cute? Not more than six inches tall.

What's Blooming Now - Homestead Purple Verbena 02/25/2012

I've been digging up verbena and re-planting it in various places. It has a tendency to grow over the flowerbed borders and take root in the paths. Very pretty flowers. Verbena is one of the earliest perennials to flower. It is still February, and it is blooming its heart out. It doesn't much like the heat of mid-summer. Spring and fall are its best seasons, at least here in my part of Texas.

What's Blooming Now - Zeolite Calendulas 02/26/2012

The Calendulas looked really pretty this weekend. I have them growing with dill in the Vegetable Garden.

A Weekend at the Farm - February 24 - 26 2012

This is pretty Living Easy rose.

Arrived Friday evening. Beautiful weather. I worked hard this weekend!

• I built another bed. Used the last of the soil that was delivered last weekend. I planted gingers in the bed that I dug up from home. Still lots of gingers in the beds in Houston that need to be moved to Burton. Backbreaking work making flower beds.


• My husband dug up some bulbs from a house on Nixon Lake Rd. that appears to be empty. Isn't that nice! I wanted some of them, but I was too afraid to go into the yard. Perhaps someone passed away, I don't know what happened to the people that lived there. There are still cows on the property, and someone obviously checks on them. But the yard is getting really overgrown. There are some irises I have my eye on too... I planted the bulbs in the bed with the gingers. They are some sort of paper white bulb - winter bloomers that can live happily under deciduous trees.


• Soaked some Nigella seeds (also called Love in a Mist) and curly parsley seeds in water. Threw them down in the Star Garden.


• Mulched lots of plants along the Boardwalk, in the Orchard, the Infinity Garden, the Kitchen Herb Garden, and the Wave Garden. That was a lot of work.


• Fertilized the Sam Houston Peach, the Mayhaw, two of the grape vines, and a few blackberries. Fertilized with cottonseed meal that I purchased from Treeland Nursery. They have really big bags of cottonseed meal. I'm sure I could buy it from a feed store as well. I'll have to try that and see if it's cheaper. Also bought 2 Copper Canyon Daisies, two Pink Autumn Sages and three basil plants while I was there.


• Planted the basil, 2 lemon verbena, 4 Italian flat leaf parsley, and 2 lemon thyme in the Kitchen Herb Garden.


• Planted 4 small Indigo Spires and a Satin Marina Althea in one of my new beds. The Satin Marina Althea is one of my treasure finds! It has true blue flowers. I can't wait for it to bloom.


• Planted another Satin Marina in the Long Border. I couldn't just buy one - they are too special!


• Planted the 2 Pink Autumn Sages and a Dubonnet Buddleia in one of my new beds. Mulched them.


• Planted a Limelight Hydrangea in a shady bed - also a new bed that I made a few weeks ago.


• Sprinkled pink Laura Bush Petunia seed in some of the new beds.


• Planted a Blue Chip Buddleia in the Long Border. Blue Chip is a miniature Buddleia, good for the middle of the border.


• Planted 2 Catnip in the Infinity Garden for my kitty.


• Planted 3 Italian Red Ribbed Dandelion greens in the Vegetable Garden.


• The wisteria is beginning to bloom. It's the first time it has bloomed.

Our New Entrance

On the Hunt for Voles

This is my daughter's springer spaniel, Abby. Abby smelled a vole or perhaps she heard it. I'm not sure what makes the dogs start digging. My cairn terrier does the same thing. He starts digging furiously all of a sudden.

Farewell to My Sweeties

The sweeties are almost finished blooming. And I won't smell their wonderful scent again until next year.

A Weekend at the Farm Feb 18-19 2012

This is a Rolph Fiedler Ipheion. The flowers are deeper blue than the Whisley Blue Ipheion, and the leaves are wider.

There was five inches of rain in the rain guage. Many places in the gardens are rutted from water erosion. The ruts will have to be repaired and the areas will have to be adjusted to prevent future problems. Sometimes my repairs work and sometimes they don't. I'm not an engineer! Many vole tunnels collapsed from all the rain. The ones in the yard that collapsed will have to be repaired as well. But I'm thrilled with the rain. All the tanks are full, and the pastures are turning green.

• I planted a double red Althea 'Amplissimus ' in the Star Garden. Altheas are shrubs that can get pretty tall (8 feet) unless you prune them back. They have an upright habit. They don't sprawl. I think I'm going to get one for the Long Border too, or maybe a Vitex. Something purple or pink. Anyway, this one is supposed to be red. We'll see - I suspect it will be deep pink. When I google it, it looks dark pink. Because of the upright growth habit Altheas work well in my garden. I have narrow paths to walk around, and big shrubs get in the way. Altheas bloom in the summer. Not many shrubs bloom in the summer. Most are spring or fall bloomers. So Altheas add a lot of value to the landscape for that reason. At my home in Houston I have two Altheas. I have a white one and a double purple one. I really like them. Crepe Myrtles have replaced them in modern landscapes. I can certainly understand why - crepe myrtles are very beautiful. But altheas can fit into a smaller space. My neighbor gave me two cuttings of a double pink althea. I treated them pretty rough, and I'm not sure they made it through the winter. I will be very happy if they made it.
• I also planted two Buddleia - Dark Knight (in the Star Garden) and Pink Delight (in the Long Border). I was going to plant the Dark Knight in the Long Border as well, but I decided I would rather have an althea or a vitex in the Long Border. These are replacement plants for the ones I lost in the drought.
• I planted three Mother of Thyme and three Ne'we Ya'ar Sage in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
• I planted three Tansy in the Medicine Garden.
• I planted six Amazon Neon Purple Dianthus in the flower bed I built last weekend.
• One of my Ballerina rose is almost dead. It was fine last week, some leaves were yellowing, but it looked fine. This is vole damage. In November the voles pushed a big pile of dirt up in the box in which the Ballerina is planted. I should have flooded the box with water then, but I didn't. I guess they have been snacking on it ever since. It's something how quickly a plant turns from seemingly healthy to dead. I flooded the box with water until the soil collapsed, then I filled the hole with soil, We'll see if I can save it.
• I planted some gingers in the Shade Garden that I dug up from the back yard in Houston. I'm on a mission to dig up all the gingers in the back yard of my Houston home. They are crowding out the roses, they are entirely out of hand.
• Pulled up chocolate mint, pennyroyal, and Gotu Kola that were taking over in the Medicine Garden. Everything went in the compost pile.
• Trimmed debris away from the asters, the butterfly weed, the Buddleia, the thryallis, the cannas, and a few roses.
• Roasted some golden beets from the garden for a salad made with raddichio from the garden. Cooked the beet greens, wilted with garlic and chevre for dinner also. Very good!
• Cut one of the Savoy cabbages to bring home and forgot it.
• Moved some lantana that was growing in a bad place around the pool.
• Built another flower bed in the Star Garden. I have enough soil for maybe one more, maybe two.
• Weeded in the Orchard for a while. The Red Baron Peach is about to bloom. It's loaded with buds.
• Moved the Mexican Plum to the Orchard. It was in too much shade. Hopefully it will thrive in its new spot. It has never done well where it was.
• Mulched here and there. Happiness is a big pile of dirt. :-)
• I have a plan for an arbor off the corner of the shed. I want to grow a white Lady Banks Rose over it. They get enormous. Really, really enormous. The yellow Lady Banks I am growing in Houston is massive.

What's Blooming Now - Whisley Blue Ipheion 02/12/2012

Whisley Blues are pale blue. So far I think they are better bloomers than Rolph Fiedler Ipheions, but time will tell. The Rolph Fiedlers are a more intense blue. Ipheions are considered good shoes and socks plants for early spring blooming bulbs. The greenery of spring bulbs will all die back together and summer seeds can be planted in their place.

What's Blooming Now - Erlicheer Narcissus - 02/12/2012

This bed is filled with Erlicheers (which are blooming), some Candida rain lilies (fall bloomers), ox eye daisies, and, in front, Lycoris Squamigera (also called Magic Lilies or Naked Ladies) which are fall bloomers. The Magic Lily greenery will die back by mid-summer, and they will send up pink blooms on slender stalks in late summer.
Erlicheers have an intense smell.

What's Blooming Now - Crocus Tommasinianus 02/12/2012

These little flowers are so sweet! They would be good naturalized in the lawn. They are not very expensive. I bought 100 for $31 at Brent and Becky's Bulbs. I will see next year how well they come back. If they come back strong then they will be worth investing more in. It would be nice to see these little purple flowers popping up all over the yard in February. The winter would be a little less dreary.

A Weekend at the Farm - February 10 - 12, 2012

Cold and wet. Arrived Thursday evening.

• Pruned the roses. Missed a couple, but almost all of them are pruned now. Didn't prune aggressively this year. Only tipped some of them. Cut dead wood and clipped crossing branches. I cut a good amount off of roses that were really leggy.
• Put lots of weeds in the compost pile.
• Pruned the fruit trees and grape vines in the Orchard. Also didn't prune the fruit trees too aggressively. Removed dead wood, pruned crossing branches. Lopped off the top-most part of the branches of the peach trees. They are getting too tall. But other than that, I pruned sparingly. They are in their fourth year, so their shapes are established.
• Had 5 yards soil and 5 yards mulch delivered on Saturday. Building more beds.
• Built one bed on Sunday. Dug up the weeds and turned the soil, lined it with cedars that my husband cut down. Hauled three trucks full of soil and poured into the bed.
• Went to the hardware store in Brenham. Bought some day lilies, Yukon Gold seed potatoes, and Picasso cannas. The cannas and the day lilies were in bags - super cheap. Thought I'd give them a try. When I got home I checked an online order that I made 3 weeks ago to buy some day lilies - they were the same exact day lilies! There must be thousands of day lily varieties, and I bought the same variety twice. That is really weird to me. Strawberry Candy is the name of the day lily.
• Moved a pink Morning Glory Tree from a spot in the Star Garden (where it was blocking a path) to the new bed. Also planted the Picasso cannas (yellow with red freckles) and the Strawberry Candy Day Lilies.
• Planted some peach butterfly gingers along the Boardwalk that I dug up from the garden in Houston. Don't remember the name of them, I bought them several years before I began keeping records of my plants. I planted several clumps near the house and several clumps near the Orchard.
• Started to prune the wisteria on the big arbor, but it looks like it's in bud. I would hate to cut off blooms. I will wait a bit longer.
• Made a Chard Gratin Friday night using the swiss chard from the garden. Very good!
• Saturday night made a salad using kale from the garden with raspberry infused vinegar, toasted pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and dried cranberries. Very good.
• Worked in the Kitchen Herb Garden. Pulled up lots of mint, cleaned it up and made it ready for spring - I need some sage, basil, thyme, parsley. It was overrun with mint.
• Planted the Yukon Gold seed potatoes in the Vegetable Garden.
• Mulched the front flower beds.
• Cleaned the ovens.
• Spread ant poison on beds that popped up after the rains.
• Cut back the dead debris on the Lantana around the pool.
• Saw on the weather station that it was going to rain, so I spread fertilizer in the Vegetable Garden, on all the roses in the Rose Garden, and on the camellias and azaleas.
• Saw a vole popping up out of the ground, pushing dirt out of his tunnel. Ran to the house and told my husband to grab his gun and come a runnin'. He shot the vole, stuffed him down into his hole and covered him up with the dirt that was piled around the hole. Good bye, vole. I won't miss you.

The Long Border in Winter

This is the Long Border. It is alive with seedlings. I lost several anchor plants last summer - two buddleia, a rose, and possible a mallow. They will have to be replaced.

The list of plants or seedlings in this garden are:

Poppies

Gold Yarrow

Larkspur

several varieties of Crinums

Artemisia

Blue Spruce Sedum

Sea Star Sedum

Broken Colors 4 o'clocks

Walkers Low Catmint

Perennial Ageratum

white Lantana

Tickseed

Purple Coneflower

Hollyhock

Cut and Come Again Zinnias

Verbena Bonariensis

Santolino

several varieties of Salvia

Ox Eye Daisy

Johnny Jump Ups

White Butterfly Buddleia

several Rose shrubs

A Weekend at the Farm Feb 3-5 2012

Dianthus are reliable winter bloomers. I am thinking about building a winter garden. I will grow Chrysanthemums, dianthus, winter daffodils and whatever else I can think of that is perennial and blooms in the winter.

We got some really good rain this weekend. 3 inches in the rain guage. It was cool and cloudy all weekend.

• I cut back the tuber vervain in the Master Bedroom Garden and finally was able to pull away the chicken wire that I laid down last year. Tuber vervain has purple flowers in the summer. It is perennial and spreads by underground runners and seed.



• I pulled up a lot of weeds and threw them in the compost pile.



• I flooded the flower bed where I have lost a lot of my Dianthus from voles eating the roots. The earth fell away just like it did with the roses when I did the same thing. There was a huge, gaping hole. I filled it with mulch.



• I threw down seed from my Goldsturm Rudbeckia that I collected from my plants in Houston last fall. I threw them all in the bed I flooded with water.



• I planted a Tiger Lily in that bed as well that I purchased from Arbor Gate last weekend. So excited about it!



• I planted a Triumphator Lily in the bed where the Philippine Lilies and Ox Blood Lilies are planted, also purchased from Arbor Gate last weekend.



• Read a Grisham book.



• Sowed a bunch of seed that I purchased from Richters last year. Aconite, Henbane, Cnidium, Horehound, and Bai Zhi. Sowed it all in the Barbados Cherry shrub beds.



• Picked some asparagus from the garden that had popped up. Early due to the unseasonably warm winter I guess.



• Picked some kale from the garden and made kale chips using a recipe that my mom gave me. Just tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper. Cooked in the oven for 15 minutes at 300. They were very good!



• Walked over to the neighbor's property and checked out their progress. They have been doing some clearing. They were not there. We were being nosy.



• Took several walks.



• Pruned a few roses. I have a lot of roses to prune, plus I need to prune the fruit trees and the wisteria. Time to get started!



• Left early Sunday to get back for the Superbowl.