Weekend at the Farm September 27 - 28, 2014

  

My husband put up a small bat house that he built with Beckett when he came for a visit this summer.  The house faces south / southeast, it is about 12 feet up in the air, and it was mounted on a pole rather than on a tree.   That is bat heaven based on what we have read.   

Has fall weather begun or will we have more hot weather?  It's nice today, so I will enjoy  it without looking forward.

• I stopped at The Arbor Gate on my way to Burton and found some Blackberry Lily.  It's a great find!  I bought 2 containers of it.  I planted them in a large plastic bucket that once held fertilizer.  I got three of them from Albert Meyers, my husband's business partner.  He has a bunch of them.  I placed the container on a spot in the Star Garden that never seems to grow anything.  No matter what I plant in that area, nothing grows. Voles seem to think lilies are delicious, so I wanted to plant them in a container in order to protect them.
• I spent all morning on Saturday clearing the paths.  Lots of salvia, zinnias, cannas, Almond Verbena, hyacinth bean vine, and flame anisacanthus had grown into the paths - my husband's pet peeve.  Hauled away a bunch of debris.
• We went for a ride on Friday night, and the cub cadet tire went flat.  We barely got home without having to walk, and I was in flip flops, it was dark outside, we had no flash light, and I would not have liked that.  My husband drove to town and bought a tire on Saturday morning.
• Dug up  a Beautyberry plant that sprang up next to the Boardwalk and transferred it to a bed near the house (they grow wild all over our property).  It's a good spot for this plant because it is located on the edge of shade and sun.  I was looking for an upright-growing shrub that I could plant in that spot while I was at The Arbor Gate on Friday, and it hit me that I should plant something that I already had.  I have so many plants, and the majority of them can be split and replanted.  Things are pretty self-sustaining  around here - I could expand my gardens indefinitely and never have to buy anything ever again.  But, I would never have anything new if I did that exclusively - what's the fun in that?
• Mulched the rain lilies by the Vegetable Garden and around the Dwarf Flowering Almonds.
• Now that the Hurricane Lilies have quit blooming, I uprooted several clumps and pulled about 30 bulbs out of the clumps.  Planted them in the Circle Drive beds around the cedar trees.  In two or three years autumn will bring forth quite a sight in the Circle Drive area.
• Planted the Excelsior Spanish Bluebells that I collected after the heavy rains washed them to the surface last weekend.  I planted them along the driveway at the edge of the Shade Garden.
• The Rose Garden looks really good.  Lots of buds are forming for the fall flush.  Fall is such a beautiful time of year.
• The Vegetable Garden looks really good too.  Something is eating my Edamame seedlings, unfortunately.  Not sure what, I assume it is not rabbits because the Vegetable Garden is enclosed.  On the other hand, a lot of the rabbit wire has pulled away from the fencing, and they could be getting in through the openings.  The rabbits are definitely the culprits that are eating the green beans in the Orchard.  I guess I will put some chicken wire enclosures around them until they get a little bigger.  Rabbits don't seem to want to bother the mature plants, probably not as tasty.
• Spent a lot of time in the Orchard on Sunday morning.  I pruned all the Blackberry vines away from the pathways and hauled them to the burn pile.  Pulled up overgrown zinnias, weeded everywhere.  Spread three bags of grass clippings in several places to keep down the weeds.
• Covered some green bean seedlings in the Orchard with chicken wire to try and keep the rabbits away.
• Raked pine needles and mulched some of the roses in the Rose Garden.  
• Spread the fourth bag of grass clippings around the Soncy rose at the entrance to the Rose Garden.
• I'm still trying to eradicate the slimy fungus in the Orchard, so I sprayed herbicide on all the paths again.  And today I turned off the sprinklers, they don't come on down there again until Thursday.  I don't know, maybe water is working against the effectiveness of the herbicide.
• Adjusted all the sprinkler times now that it is getting slightly cooler.
• Bathed Buddy and Sadie.
• Planted 2 Brussels Sprouts in the Vegetable Garden.  I prepared the soil with fertilizer and chitin.  Chitin is crushed crab shell, and it is supposed to deter nematodes.
• Planted 2 Mustard Greens and 2 Collard Greens in various places in the Star Garden, the same as above, with fertilizer and chitin.  I surrounded all four of the plants with chicken wire enclosures to protect the small plants from the rabbits.

Weekend at the Farm September 19 - 21, 2014

Thursday evening at Ciao Bella to celebrate Mom and Dad's  55 anniversary, Nathan's birthday, and Jessica's pregnancy.  Oliver was such a good  baby through the whole thing.  Took Friday as vacation, so drove to Burton that evening.

• Friday, took all the dogs in town to the vet.  $500, and we thought we got off easy!
• Napped for the rest of Friday.
• Saturday we went to Donald's place in Marlin to see his new house.  He had an old farm house moved to his property.  It is very charming.
• When I got home from Marlin I sprayed herbicide in the Orchard.  There is a very creepy fungus spreading on the gravel paths in the Orchard.  It has covered half the paths in the Orchard!   I'm spreading it when I walk on it in addition to it spreading by itself.  Really slimy and gross.  It doesn't seem that herbicide has any effect on it, but I decided to make a deliberate effort to stay after the herbicide-spraying to see if I can eradicate it.  Maybe if I spray ever weekend I will get it all.  I've queried the internet, but I can't find any comments about it.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden.  There is fungus there too, but not very much.  It's actually pretty alarming.  Hopefully herbicide and the onset of winter will get it.  Well, I know winter won't kill it because it was a problem last summer as well.  But if it knocks the wind out of it, that would help the battle.
• My Edamame and green beans have sprouted.  
•  I decided to pull up my thin bladed arugula and plant a wide-leaf variety.  It's easier to harvest.  I made an arugula salad last week, and it was a painstaking task.  
• Sowed wide leaf arugula in part of the spot where I pulled up the other arugula.  I planted Red Sails lettuce seed in the rest of the space.  I cleared an area that had some miscellaneous marigolds and pepper seedlings growing and sowed a packet of Blue Lake 274 green beans that I forgot I bought.  That is the second packet of green bean seeds I planted for a fall crop.  If the first freeze of winter is late, I will have a thousand green beans.  If we have an early winter freeze, I will have none. 
• Gathered about 50 Excelsior Bluebells that had washed to the surface after the heavy rains we had last week.  I will plant them next week.
• I'm so impressed with my Candida rain lilies.  They are blooming their hearts out everywhere I planted them, a solid mass of white flowers.  So pretty.
• I read in one of my vegetable books that you can turn your French marigold plants under the soil like green manure for even better root knot nematode prevention.  The book said this method can work for a year.  What a great idea!  The book also suggested chitin, which is ground up crab membrane and shell, to help get rid of nematodes.  I ordered some on line on Sunday morning.
• Spent some time cutting French marigold greenery and burying it  in various beds:  the long bed where the Scarlet Runner beans are growing, the bed where the Edamame seedlings are growing, I buried some in the bed where the Nasturtiums are growing, and near my tomatoes, and in the bed where the birdhouse gourds are growing.
• Got up on the ladder and cleaned the bar lights and the kitchen lights.  Vacuumed on top of the kitchen cabinets.  Cleaned inside the stereo cabinet.  Cleaned both ovens.  Cleaned the ceiling fan in the living room.  Cleaned the master bath shower.  Pulled the armoir away from the wall in the living room and cleaned behind it.  Cleaned the a.c.vents and changed the air filters.  Cleaned the shelves and walls in the office space.  Cleaned the toilets. 
• Carol came by to say hello.  We returned her bat house instructions.
• Sanitized all the equipment and transferred the mead from the secondary fermentation vessel to the tertiary fermentation vessel. (Which means I used suction tubing to suck it out of the glass bottle back into the plastic bucket for one more fermentation period and separation of the mead and the dead yeast.)

Unopened Rain Lilies September 19, 2014

This morning I snapped pictures of many of my Candida Rain Lilies before the sun signaled them to open up.  I love when they look  like this.

Fall Garden Scenes September 19, 2014

 Above : Lion's Tail, Salvias, Hyacinth Bean Vine, and Morning Glory Tree.

 Above - Lion's Tail, Ehemanii Canna, zinnias, and Mexican Salvia.

Above -  Frog Fruit, Gruss an Achaan rose, a Tabasco pepper plant that sprang up on its own, Pringle Aster, Perennial Ageratum, zinnias, Almond Verbena, red cannas, and Morning Glory Vine.

Pretty Salvias September 19, 2014

The rain has really helped revive my salvias.  With the exception of the pink autumn sage, all of these salvias are reseeding annuals.  Many years ago I sowed a packet of seeds in the Star Garden, and I have had loads of plants every season since then.  Below, Cleopatra cannas reside happily with white and red salvias.

 Above, this is my pink autumn sage.  Next year I'm going to prune it hard s it will get fuller.

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Fall Festival of Flowers September 19, 2014

Most of the flowers below are late summer / fall blooming flowers.  Perennial ageratum is a fall bloomer.

 Below, dwarf Barbados Cherry only blooms in the fall.

 This is one of my favorite cannas, called Dawn Pink.

 Below, Cactus Flower Zinnia.

 Below, Indigo Spires Salvia will bloom all summer, but in the fall the purple color of the flowers is really vivid.

 Below, Fireworks Gomphrena will bloom all summer and into late fall.

 Below, butterfly ginger is a late summer bloomer.  This variety has been spectacular for me.  It spreads really fast.  Because of that I have it growing all over the place.  It can be easily dug up and transplanted.

 Lantana - and old faithful that blooms its heart out all summer and into the fall.  A butterfly magnet, so for me, it is a must-have.  Cut it back after it blooms, before it starts getting woody.

 Graham Thomas rose likes the cooler weather of fall.  The fall flush for this rose is better than the spring flush in my garden.

 Lion's Tail is a fall bloomer.  This is the first time I have grown it, and I think it is really interesting.

 Below, Pringle Aster is a fall bloomer.  I flops over, unfortunately.  Pretty, but clumsy.  I used to have a lot of purple aster in the Star Garden, but it sort of disappeared.  I find it here and there, but nothing like three years ago when it was a solid purple carpet of flowers.

 This is Caldwell Pink, a found rose that I planted last weekend.

Buttercup Turnera September 19, 2014

 Turnera will get shrubby and grow about three feet tall if placed in the right spot.  My turnera is not optimally placed, and it is sprawling and gangly.  I have it in part sun.  They are sun lovers.  But I had some empty space, and I saw it in a nursery and bought it.  There is a bright yellow variety which I have grown before, but this creamy color with the brown eye is my favorite.  The flowers open up in the morning and close up about noon.  Turnera re-seeds, and I hope to get lots of volunteers next year that I can transplant all around the Star Garden in sunnier spots.

 Above and below, I took pictures of my turnera this morning.  It is a cloudy day, and the flowers have not fully opened.  The petals look so pretty.

Cone Flower September 14, 2014

I've never had much luck growing echinacea.  I think it is because they have a tap root.  Voles love plants with tap roots - they are very delicious.  For this reason, I haven't been able to keep these lovely perennials growing year after year.  But 2014 has been a good year.  They are easy to sow from seed.  I found some young plants (they do not typically bloom the first season) in the Star Garden, and I remembered that I got some free seeds at the March Mart and sowed them in that spot.  I had completely forgotten.  The ones is my garden are the common wild variety, but there are some beautiful varieties for sale in nurseries these days.  I refrain from spending money on them because of my vole problem.

Scarlet Wave Canna September 14, 2014

Cannas are lovely and useful in the garden.  Useful because they provide vertical interest in the garden with little or no care.    Lovely because the buds and flowers are magnificent and dramatic.  Scarlet Wave is planted at the entrance to the Orchard.