Tuber Vervain April 28, 2013

The tuber vervain looked really pretty this weekend.  I yanked up wheel barrows full of it in the early spring.  I grew this from seed the year before.  It has taken over.  No matter how much you yank up you still have scads of it everywhere.  It grows by underground runners and from seed. Aggressive but pretty.  

Columbine Blooms April 28, 2013

Columbine makes a pretty photographic subject.

Note the insect in the photo above.

Weekend at the Farm- April 27 - 28, 2013

Above, pink salvia greggii.
We had a party on Saturday.  William cooked 180 pounds of crawfish. Lots of people.  We had a good day.
Sunday I planted several plants that I received as gifts.  I washed a mountain of dishes and swept small mountains of dirt off the floor.  We laid by the pool for several hours then left for home.

Above, the La Marne hedge roses looked very showy this weekend.

Above, verbena bonariensis.  VB gets very tall.  It makes gorgeous puple flowers that are loved passionately by the butterflies.  It goes to seed if you let the seed heads turn brown..  It will pop up everywhere.

Above, giant ligularia.  Dramatic shade lover.

Above, poppy bloom. 

Above, Mexican feather grass.  One of my favorite plants.

Pastel Poppies in the Orchard - April 28, 2013

Red Poppies in the Orchard

There are lots of flowers blooming in the Orchard right now, but the Flanders poppies are really standing out right now.  So vivid.

Above - red poppies and corn cockle.

Above - red poppies, blue larkspur and California poppies.

Red , white, and blue

Weekend at the Farm April 20 - 21, 2013

• Dug up a pepper that had seeded from a Tabasco pepper plant I let go to seed.  Moved it into the Vegetable Garden where one of my tomato plants had died.  The late freeze killed one of my tomato plants.
• Weeded in the Vegetable Garden.
• Made a double batch of red beans for the party next weekend.
• Sprayed the roses.  Some of them are getting powdery mildew really bad.  I've never had that happen before.  Black spot was the scourge I had to watch for.  Well, it's one thing or another.  I always try to spray early in the morning before the bees start scavenging.
• Watered lots of the plants I'm babying along.
• Sunday I cleaned.  Vacuumed, mopped, put down floor shine, cleaned walls and base boards, under furniture, shook out rugs.  Dirty grimy work.  I didn't get to everything, but what I cleaned I cleaned well.
• Raked all the paths in the Shade Garden.  Trucked lots of wheelbarrows of debris to the compost pile.  
• Raked in Max's Garden as well. 

Love In A Mist April 20, 2013

The Love In A Mist, also known as Nigella, also known as the Black Fitches from the Bible, is just beginning to bloom.  They come in three colors - blue, pink and white.  Their foliage is lacy and delicate-looking.  I sowed my plants from seed last fall.  They bloom in the spring then they set seed in great big interesting seed pods, then they fade away as the weather gets hot.

Sarah's Eve Sweetspire April 3, 2013

Sweetspire can be a little sparse, so I don't think it's a great plant to set out and showcase alone.  It is a fine woodland plant that looks great amongst other plants in a woodland setting.  It blooms in the spring.  And it has a fine red autumn color.  Sweetspire is semi-deciduous.  It never entirely drops its leaves.  It will colonize - spreading by underground runners which can easily be dug up and transplanted to other places in the garden or mowed down.  As the description of "woodland" suggests, sweetspires like shade.  There are several varieties of sweetspire.  I have Sarah's Eve, Virginia, and Henry's Garnet.

Gulf Coast Penstemon April 13, 2013

This Gulf Coast Penstemon is growing in a shady spot, but I also have it growing in full sun.  It does very well in both shade and sun.  This penstemon is evergreen, and it reseeds prolifically.  It takes a few seasons to get big enough to bloom from seed.  And during that time it sort of looks like a weed.  But if you can wait for it to get past its awkward stage, it is a very rewarding plant to grow.  Like many perennials, it is two weeks of glory and 50 weeks of nothing.  But it is a Texas native and easy to grow.  I recommend cutting off most of the spent blooms so they don't have time to form seed heads.  They produce millions of seeds that sprout into an unruly mess if you don't deadhead.

Roses and Irises April 13, 2013

I loved the vivid color combination of Cadenza rose and Paul Redmond Irises.

Before and After April 13, 2013

This is one of the views from the back porch.  The path is just raked dirt.  I laid down some crushed granite, the picture below shows the change.  Crushed granite will get pretty hard, but it does wear away over time.  Looks pretty good right now though!

I meant to take the picture before I started laying down the crushed granite but forgot.  Below is the completed path.  An improvement over the dirt path.