Weekend at the Farm December 6 - 8, 2013

The table is decorated with fresh cedar and yaupon that I gathered from around the property.  The home tour was last weekend.  About 100 people came through.

Thanksgiving at the Farm 2013

Fourteen for Thanksgiving in Burton.  Beth, Mom and Dad, Nan, Lisa, Will, Kim, Zellie, Henry, Carol Montgomery, Nathan, Jess, Bert and me.  Arrived Wednesday evening after a hideous week at work.  Thursday morning early I swept, mopped, laid down floor shine, cleaned the bath rooms, made a pie and a casserole, changed the sheets, gathered greenery, set the table all before 10:30.  Guests arrived 11:00.  Very pleasant day.  Carol arrived in her Model A.

• Will, Kim and the kids stayed the night. 
• Friday morning I planted 100 Narcissus Odorous Pleno (nickname Butter and Eggs or Bacon and Eggs or Double Campernelles) along the outside of the Rose Garden fence .
• Planted 10 Chinese Sacred Lilies next to the Ginger Bed in the Star Garden and  in the Ginger Bed.  
• Planted 10 Chincheree in the bed with the Double Pink Althea.
• Planted 10 White Star Ipheion next to the Peggy Martin Rose.
• Left at noon to drive home to Houston to be with Max, home for the holiday weekend, for the rest of the weekend.

Rose Close Ups November 24, 2013

Copper Canyon Daisy November 24, 2013

 Copper Canyon Daisies are late fall bloomers.  Their foliage is extremely pungent and they are considered deer resistant because deer don't like the smell.  They are drought tolerant - I have these growing where they get no supplemental water.  These daisies are deciduous perennials.  I love all daisies, and these are no exception.  So cheerful!

Weekend at the Farm November 23 - 24, 2013

It was very cold and rainy all weekend, a pleasant change.

• Planted 50 Narcissus odorous Linnaeus (Campernelles) that my daughter bought me for my birthday.  I planted them in drifts along the outside of the Rose Garden.
• Planted about 150 onions - 1015 onions and some kind of white onion (my husband bought the sets for me or else I would know what the white onions are called!).  I planted them in the Vegetable Garden.
• Worked in the Vegetable Garden.  I raked, pulled weeds, cut back the asparagus in the large bed.  I loosed the soil and spread Mountain Garland seeds.  They probably won't germinate because of the hard rains we got immediately after I seeded the bed.  The rain beats them into the ground and they get covered with soil.  Too much soil for them to live. 
• Spent half a day clearing brush out of the area across from the house. We're nearly finished.  What a lot of work it has been!  Next will come the war with my husband over what to do with the area.  I want to allow the native bunch grasses to flourish and plant seed of other native bunch grasses.  The focus should be on eradicating the yaupons.  My husband, on the other hand believes everything should be mowed - happiness is a dry brown patch of hard packed dirt. There are a lot of arguments coming down the pike, I'm afraid.
• I have been seeing lots of signs of hogs around the house, the first time we have ever been bothered by hogs.  They are incredibly destructive.  My husband shot one on Friday night.  He only wounded it, he didn't kill it.  I hate to think of any animal suffering despite the fact that I hate those nasty hogs, I was sorry for the poor animal. 
• I sowed seed in the Rose Garden - under the Bermuda's Kathleen, the Iceberg, around the tree in the Rose Garden, next to Chorale, and under Chrysler Imperial.  I raked up lots of pine needles under the pine trees and mulched around Perl d 'Or, Bailey Red, Duchess de Brabant, and Cramoisier Superior.  Also spread seeds in the bed with the crinums.
• Spread seeds in the newest bed in Bert's Garden.  Pulled up the Mexican Sunflowers in the Vegetable Garden.  The light freeze we had last week had done them in.
• Cleaned both of the ovens.
• Admired all my bulbs coming up.  Enjoyed the wet, cold weather.

Marigolds November 17, 2013

I planted these marigolds from seed a few months ago.  They are in the Vegetable Garden.  French Marigolds deter root knot nematodes.  My soil is infested with them.  Nematodes love sandy soil, so they are quite a pest at my farm. They are a great fall flower to grow, they like the cool weather although they are not freeze-hardy. 

Pictures of the Farm November 17, 2017

This pepper plant is called Tabasco.  So pretty!  I planted a tiny little plant last year.  I let it go to seed, and I had lots of seedlings pop up in the spring.  This is one of them.

 

My La Marne rose hedge was pretty this weekend.  One of my best blooming rose shrubs.

Torch Mexican Sunflower.

Iceberg Rose blooms.  Pristine white.

 

Above, petals litter the ground after a wonderfully pretty floral display.

 

 Above, a Duchess de Brabant bloom.

 

Pulling Up Zinnias

Summer is really gone.  The zinnias look pretty bad.  These are the last of them to get pulled up to make way for spring seeds.

Below, one of many little spaces in the Star Garden I cleared to make way for seeds.  Many kinds of seeds have to be planted now i order to have blooms in the spring.  In Texas the seeds of any flowers that dislike hot weather have to be sown in the fall.  By the time spring arrives they are ready to bloom.  They will be ready to pull up by June.

Weekend at the Farm November 16 - 17, 2013

Beautiful weather!

• Cathy Komisky came by to take a look at the house in preparation for the home tour in December.  Lots to do to get ready for that many people tramping through the house and yard.
• I pulled up the rest of the zinnias and salvia in the Orchard, turned over the soil, cleaned up the beds, and spread seed - Dame's Rocket, Moss Verbena, and Mountain Garland.  It looks so clean and organized in the Orchard!  Job well done.  Hard work.
• Planted some Bloomsdale Spinach in the Vegetable Garden.  My winter garden has spinach, celery, mustard, swiss chard, beets, lettuce, calendulas, carrots, and cabbage.  Every kind of leafy green under the sun, and we will probably never eat any of them.
• Planted Scented Streamers Sweet Peas in the Orchard around the stake covered in chicken wire.
• Cut away Black Eyed Susan Vine that was growing over the Pink Vitex.
• Pulled up the zinnias in the Star Garden.  Sowed seeds in the areas where I pulled up plants.  Scads of Love-in-a Mist seedlings are popping up from last year's plantings.  It will be a beautiful spring if the deer, voles, leaf cutter ants, and rabbits don't eat everything first.
• I dug up some Rolf Fiedler Ipheion bulbs in the Orchard and replanted them in the bed by the back door.  That bed needs some help.  Anything I plant there is always getting washed away during a heavy rain despite the fact that my husband installed rain gutters on the roof eaves. 
• Thinned my mustard seedlings in the Orchard.  I hate thinning!  I don't like to pull up healthy plants even though the plants that remain do much better with room to spread out.
• Sprayed herbicide around the pool and the driveway.  The weather was warm.  Herbicide isn't effective once the weather gets cool.
• I transplanted some Verbena Bonariensis from paths in the Rose Garden to the area I just created for my wildflower space near the Rose Garden.
• Transplanted some Clerodendrun Bungeii from the Boardwalk to the Shade Garden.  It spreads really aggressively.  I think it will be very attractive growing around the outer edges of the Shade Garden.
• At my husband's suggestion I trimmed away the lower branches from the Harlequin Glorybower and the Almond Verbena to open up the paths in the Star Garden.  
• My husband helped me move some cedar logs over to the outside of the Rose Garden where I am building a bed along the fence.  It will be a natural area for Black Eyed Susans and other wild flowers as well as the 100 Bacon and Egg Daffodil bulbs that Josh gave me for my birthday.  They have not yet arrived, but I expect them to be delivered either this week or next.  And Blake got me 50 Campernelles for my birthday.  I will plant those along the fence as well.  We made a wide area parallel to the Rose Garden fence about 5 feet wide.  It is already covered in seedlings that appeared naturally, I did not seed the area.
• Pulled up the chicken wire in the Infinity Garden that I laid over the ground during the summer (to armadillo-proof the bed), turned over the soil, and spread some Broadfleaf Sage and Flat Leaf Parsley seed.
• Planted 4 celery plants in the Vegetable Garden.  I like having celery plants, it is much cheaper than buying celery.  You won't hear me say that often.  Nothing is more expensive than home grown vegetables.  The soil, seeds, plants, fertilizer - it's not cheap to be act poor.
• Planted 4 Green Globe Artichokes in the Orchard in the space where I pulled up the green beans that were killed in the freeze we had last week.   Artichokes get really big.  The two that I planted this spring have gone from a few spindly leaves to plants that are about 3 feet wide and just as tall.  Picked all the green beans for dinner later in the week.
• Planted 4 Powis Castle in the Infinity Garden.  I love the smell of Artemesia and I love the silvery color. Artemesia can get really big when it's in the right spot.  The plants I have growing in the Long Border are quite large, but they get full sun.  The ones I had growing  in the Infinity Garden in partial shade didn't thrive.  But I love them so much I planted some more.
• Adjusted the sprinkler frequency.
• Planted Wedding Blush Sweet Pea seeds around the Butterfly Magnolia hoping they will weave themselves around the tree in the spring.
• Spent time training branches of my Peggy Martin and my Climbing American Beauty on their arbors.  I tied some branches to their support and wove some through the spaces between the slats.  Peggy Martin is growing on a section of chain link fence I found and mounted upright as an arbor.  American Beauty is growing up an old metal conveyor belt my step son gave me.
• Enjoyed the weather so much.  Spent time day dreaming and watching butterflies.  All my bulbs are coming up.  It's a lovely time of year in Texas.

Sowing Seeds

I made good progress pulling up all my zinnias that are past their prime.  I cleared out four beds in the Orchard and turned over the soil.

 I smoothed out the soil and seeded the beds with Dame's Rocket, Mountain Garland, and Moss Verbena.  There is still a lot of work left in the Orchard, the biggest beds are still full of zinnias and salvias.  I'll tackle them next weekend and sow the rest of the seeds.

Days at the Farm November 7 - 10, 2013

 I am in the process of laying down stones and crushed granite at the entrance to the Star Garden.  Below is the area I am working on.  And the photo below this one has the stone laid down, no crushed granite yet.  I will probably surround the area with landscaping edging to keep the whole thing neat.

 Took two days of vacation and spent four days at the farm.  Mr. H and Blake, Josh and Amy came to visit.  Josh and Amy spent the night.  It was really good to be with them.

• Planted 6 Mother of Thyme plants in the Star Garden.  Mother of Thyme blooms tiny flowers in the spring in addition to being a a wonderful herb.  The bees love it.
• Planted a flat of twelve Venti Parfait Crimson Eye Dianthus and a flat of twelve Diana Blueberry Dianthus in the Star Garden.  The voles seem to love Dianthus roots, so I was hesitant to plant more after they decimated my last plantings.  But it's one of the only perennials that blooms in the winter and in the cold, early spring and throughout the summer and fall.
• I pulled up the zinnias in four of beds in the Orchard and turned over the soil.  I seeded the beds with Dame's Rocket, Mountain Garland, and Moss Verbena.
• Planted Cupani Sweet Peas in the Star Garden.
• Cleaned the house - vacuumed, mopped, laid down floor shine in the bedrooms, living room, and kitchen.  Cleaned the bathrooms.
• Did a lot of cooking.
• Shot guns with the kids. 

A Day at the Farm November 3, 2013

Spent the day at the Aquarium with mom, dad, Nan, Lisa, Gretchen, and Beckett.  Drove up to the farm on Sunday morning.  What a beautiful day!  I couldn't leave, so I spent the night and left at 4:00 in the morning to go home and get ready for work.

• I'm so happy to see that the alliums I dug up from the house on Nixon Lake Rd have sprouted.  After I dug them up and planted them in the Rose Garden, they wilted and faded away.  I felt terrible that the plant which was doing so well untended at that deserted house was killed by me because I moved it.  But, hooray, they have come back.  I'm happy.
• I spent a long time in the Rose Garden deadheading roses and enjoying the weather and smelling the blooms.
• Transplanted lots of Ox Eye Daisies growing in the paths in the Rose Garden.
• Transplanted some Flame Acanthus growing in the path over to one of the flower beds in Max's Garden.
• Worked in the Orchard Sunday morning raking paths, trimming blackberry vines, and pulling up ratty-looking zinnias.
• Picked green beans for dinner.
• Gathered all the Phillipine Liliy seeds from the pods that were dried and spread them in the Circle Drive flowerbeds.
• Changed the sheets in the guest and master bedrooms, vacuumed, cleaned bathrooms.