Days at the Farm February 19 - 20, 2015

This is my sweet grandson, Sammy.

Went to the farm Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday.  Home to Houston for dinner at Brennan's with Bert's kids.  Stopped at Home Depot for green metal landscaping strips and more lumber for the pool decking.

• Started working on a new path with the landscaping strips I bought.  I'm finishing out the area near the Greenhouse and gardens surrounding it.  The wedding ceremony will be just on the other side of the area, and it needs some sprucing up.  I set three of the landscaping strips around two trees and the other two along the edge of flowerbeds that are already in place to make a path.  I filled the tree area with fallen leaves I raked up.  That will keep the weeds at bay.  I'm having 5 yards of decomposed granite delivered on Friday, and I will begin laying it down in the paths.  I'm short by about 6 landscaping strips in order to finish out the area, darn it.  They cost ten dollars  each.
• Pruned my elderberry plants, henna, and sweet myrtle in the Medicine Garden.
• Pruned a couple of roses in the Rose Garden.
• Drove around the property with Bert.  Everything is still wearing its winter coat.
• Slept in on Friday until 8.  Looks cloudy, might rain.
• Friday morning I pruned my anisacanthus, white mist flower, and lion's mane all the way to the ground.  Began the process of cutting back all my autumn sage. 
• Granite arrived about 11:30.
• Pruned 2 La Marne roses then began my crushed granite project.
• Laid down one more landscaping strip (my husband bought 6 more for me when he went into town for more lumber) so I can close off the path near the house.
• Took a long nap with my sweet Cosmo kitty that we have begun taking with us to Burton since Beth passed away.  We don't want kitty to be lonely.
• Planted two Guacamole Plantain Lilies in one of the new beds I built close to the house.  These are the only hostas that have ever done well for me.  All the others I have purchased through the years have  faded away after the first season.  I love them and can't quite seem to give up on them even though Texas heat does not make them happy.  I bought them last week, they are crowns, not potted.  I dropped them in one of the rain buckets to hydrate the roots and promptly forgot about them.  So I planted them today.  Hope they make it after sitting submerged in water for a week.
• As usual, Bert and I walked around and surveyed all we have done.  He finished building the deck around the pool.  It looks most excellent.  The seeds I planted in the pots - Rose Campion, Catmint, beets, and purple loosestrife are just just just beginning to sprout. You have to look with the utmost concentration to see seedlings in the soil.
• Friday evening Venus and the moon made a beautiful spectacle.  We walked out to the cul d'sac and viewed the wondrous sight for a long time - us, the four dogs, and even the cat made the trip.
• Woke up before daylight Saturday morning and sat outside hoping to hear all the animals that I heard last week.  But alas, I only heard one lone rooster crow and nothing else.
• Cut back the last anisacanthus, all the autumn sages in the Star Garden, the last three of the La Marne roses in the Star Garden, and the last of the roses in the Rose Garden.  I wasn't going to prune the two Noisettes and Bermuda's Kathleen, but the more I looked at them the more I realized there was a lot dead wood in the middle of them.  That took a long time, but it was worth it.
• Weeded here and there.
• Fertilized my gilt-edged toad lily.  
• Spread four or five more wheelbarrows of granite in the new path and laid down another green strip between one of the ginger beds and the horse shoe pit. 
• Cleaned the house and headed back to Houston.

Daffodils Beginning to Bloom February 21, 2015

I have  several named varieties of daffodils planted in this wild setting.  Ice Follies, double campernelles, narcissus odorous, a few Carltons, and some wildings that were given to me and that I "saved".  The little narcissus odorous are blooming right now, the others bloom later.  They are not at their peak yet, but they are so pretty.

My New Project February 19, 2015

I am creating a path along the far side of the Medicine Garden.  I envision this being the path that people use to walk to the wedding ceremony site.  I have begun laying out the path with green metal landscaping strips.

 Above, this curve in the path is pretty wide, so it is ideal for a bench of some kind.

 

Above, on Thursday this is as far as I got.  I needed one more landscaping strip.   

 Friday early afternoon.  The granite had been delivered, and I had started lying it down.  I had 6 more landscaping strips, so I finished the path's curve in the photo above.  The cedar flowerbed that looks mostly like leaves is a bed filled with Elderberry.  I have an Elderberry "orchard".  I am determined to make elderberry wine.  So I am transplanting all the elderberry offspring that come from the two mother plants I planted last spring. 

 Above, all the space in the top of the photo will have granite spread throughout it.

 In the photo above, I will place one of my landscaping strips between the Elderberry bed and the horseshoe pit.  All of that area will be filled with crushed granite.

 Above, another image of the area that will have granite spread throughout.

Above - progress so far.

Rocky and the Evil Serpent

 This is what my Rocky dog does all day. 

 One day Rocky will catch it, but until then the evil serpent will continue to torment my poor dog, swimming just out of reach and squirting water in his face.

Weekend at the Farm February 14 - 15, 2015

This paperwhite is from Nixon Lake Road.

Beautiful weather, although I hear a cold snap is coming sometime next week.

• Pruning the roses is the big project for the weekend.  Hopefully I will get all of them pruned over the next two days.  I pruned three on Friday afternoon.  Saturday morning I pruned eight.  
• Raked the Rose Garden on Friday afternoon, but all I did was make a bunch of piles of leaves.  Still need to haul them away.
• Friday afternoon I also dug up some more plants around the pool and moved them.  I moved some Cigar Plant to one of the new beds I built.  I dug up and re-planted two clumps of yellow lantana and one one clump of orange lantana into that same bed.  And I planted one clump of yellow lantana in the bed leading to the Boardwalk.  And finally I planted a Senna in the Hot Border next to the Vegetable Garden and one Senna in the bed with the Cigar Plant and lantana.  It gets hard to remember everywhere I sticking stuff.  I have to pay close attention to it now and as summer approaches in order to make sure it does not die from lack of water.  This morning I was looking for the Senna I planted - I couldn't remember where I planted it at first - ah - the Hot Border (mental note).  I really want the Senna to make it.  Senna has beautiful yellow flowers in the spring and fall.  And the Cloudless Sulphur butterflies lay their eggs on it.
• Met mom and dad in town for lunch.  They were checking out the bed and breakfast they are renting for the wedding weekend.
• After lunch Bert and I went to Home Depot and bought more lumber for the pool decking.
• I pruned three more roses when we got home.
• Replaced the leaking faucet on the sprinkler system in the Rose Garden and watered the garden.
• Various small daffodils have begun to bloom.  My narcissus odorous and the little "found" ones are beginning to bloom throughout the garden.  Daffodils are such sweet flowers.
• The neighbors are building a house to the right of us.  They were here this weekend with guests.  Sadie barked all day at the noise.
• Saw some of those white sucking insects on one of my roses today.  Horrors.  I sprayed insect oil on them.  I don't want to see that kind of insect spread.  I had a real problem with them in Houston for a while.  If they get out of control it's pretty nasty. 
• Watered here and there with my watering can - my new transplants, my new plants, and some of my young roses in the Rose Garden.
• Couldn't sleep so I got up before daylight on Sunday and sat outside on the porch with the dogs and a cup of coffee.  We listened to the roosters crowing and dogs barking in the distance, coyotes howling, and we even heard a turkey gobbling over and over again.  The dogs bark at every sound during the day, but in the dark early morning they never bark.  It's always a very peaceful time.
• Sunday morning I pruned four or five more roses.  There are about 15 more to go.  I gathered up all the leaves I raked up yesterday and put some around my Fortune's Double and dumped the rest on the edge of the neighbors' property.  The fact that they are building a house is cramping my style.  First of all, my favorite Rose Garden dumping ground is about to be taken away, and second - I'm out there early, probably 7:00, maybe earlier.  Hello someone says - I look up, there are the two of them.  No, I don't want to see you in my private space.  Jeez.  What happened to my seclusion?  If you're going to be there, don't be visible at 7 in the morning when I'm not expecting to see anyone.  I haven't even brushed my teeth.  I don't want to speak.
• William, Kim and the kids came and spent the night so nothing of consequence was accomplished after that.  Played with Zelda in the fort (which she calls the little house).  Henry is getting to be a lot more fun, smiling and walking.
• Made chicken and sausage gumbo.
• Vacuumed and mopped the living room, kitchen, dining room and guest bedroom.  Cleaned the guest bathroom, shook out the rugs, changed the sheets, did a bunch of laundry.  
• Cut back the butterfly bush in the Star Garden.
• Started lightly raining for most of the afternoon.

Sweet Pea Seedlings February 15, 2015

 I'm determined to have sweet peas this spring (the rabbits eat them if I'm not vigilant), so I planted them in a big bucket and surrounded the bucket with chicken wire.  I strung twine around so the peas would have something to grab.  It's quite an engineering marvel!  I have the same set up in one of my flowerbeds right next to a path (surrounded by chicken wire to keep the pesky rabbits away). 

Irises Beginning to Take Off in Preparation for Spring February 15, 2015

I have many varieties of bearded irises.  Most of them I have been given, or I have saved from deserted properties.  They are old fashioned types.  But hardy and tough.  Of course, I guess they all are pretty tough because the have an excellent drought tolerance due to the thick corm that stores water and doles it out in times of drought.  Irises are early spring bloomers, so they will be long gone by the time of the wedding.  Too bad, they are very elegant flowers.

 Above, Janine Snapp gave me these.  I won't know what color they are until they bloom this year.  Janine found them outside of the bloom time, so she didn't know what color they were when she gave them to me.  They are surrounded by wildflower seedlings, Ox Eye Daisy, and a dormant Dwarf Flowering Almond shrub.

 Above, I have had these irises for years.  Some of them are Paul Redmond  irises, but most of them are purple beardeds.  I also have Parrot Glads in this bed (still dormant), some thyme, and some wildflower seedlings.  There is also a double red Althea (not pictured) growing in this bed.

Above, another view point.
Below, all the irises in this bed have been here for years - Paul Redmond and some pink beardeds.  The tree growing in the background of the picture is a Harlequin Glorybower.

 Above, these irises were also given to me by Janine, so the color will be a surprise.  Verbena Bonariensis seedlings, Mexican sedum, and oregano are also in this bed.  The shrub just barely in the photo is a Pink Cloud Kolkwitzia amabilis shrub.

 Above, I dug these irises up from the yard of a deserted house on Nixon Lake Road last year, so I don't know what the color is.  There are also some gold irises in this bed that I bought at the Bulb Mart two years ago.  In the foreground of the photo are Candida rain lilies.

Above, more Janine irises as well as some Ox Blood lilies, Ox Eye Daisy, and Corn Flags.  I have chicken wire around most of it because the rabbits ate my Corn Flags last year and I didn't get a single bloom.  I am being pro-active this year and protecting them. 

New Decking Around the Pool February 14, 2015

 There are three reasons why I am happy that we are decking over the flowerbeds.  First, they are mostly clay due to hauling in tons of it to stabilized the pool when it was installed.  It's pretty hard to find a plant that likes clay.  The second reason is that I don't want to pay for a sprinkler system around the pool, and it gets really dry in the summer.  And finally,  it's hard to keep it cleaned out.  It's on a very steep slope, and it is hard to stand steadily in order to weed it and maintain it.

 We will buy some clay pots and make several groupings of plants in various places. 

 The green shrubs in the photo above will remain.  I can't face digging them out.  And it will break up the decking, I think it will look nice.

 The area in front of where Lanie is standing in the above photo will also be decked. 

Ehrlicheer Daffodils February 14 - 15, 2015

The Ehrlicheer Paperwhites are beginning to bloom.  I look forward to this every year.  Happy days.

Days at the Farm February 6 - 10, 2015

Pretty weekend.  Saturday Josh and Danny Frost came up to Burton to help build the dance floor for the wedding.  We met at Home Depot, purchased the supplies, and they built the dance floor.  Sunday I drove home to spend the day with Blake and Sammy.

• Friday I didn't do much in the morning - too cold.  
• Friday mid-morning I weeded the La Marne flowerbed.
• Seeded an area of the La Marne flowerbed with Roe Campion seeds.  I hope they succeed.  I have wanted to grow it for several years.  I tried a couple of years ago with no luck, the plants never prospered.  I am putting them out earlier this time, it seems the seeds like a little cold in order to germinate. 
• I also cut back the dead debris of the cannas.
• Friday early afternoon I finished cleaning out the Shade Garden.   I cut away the dead debris of the Southern Wood Fern, gingers, and Snakeroot.  I raked the paths again.  And I repaired a huge hole that an armadillo had dug next to a path.  The stone edging had collapsed into the hole and a bunch of ferns had been uprooted.  The little bastard.
• The Vegetable Garden looks good.  It could use one more raking before spring.  The peas have sprung up in the two buckets that I planted them in.  The beets have sprouted.  I need to thin them.  The carrots have sprouted as well.  The large beds have been fertilized and turned over, and they are waiting for my next shipment of seeds.  The celery is going strong, the onions and garlic are growing - it all looks good.
• Saturday morning we went into town, ate breakfast at Manuel's, went grocery shopping, and met Josh and Danny at Home Depot in Brenham.  Purchased the dance floor lumber and returned home.  We gave Danny "the tour" and they began to build the dance floor.  I drove back into town, went to Walgreens to buy Danny a hearing aid battery and some barbeque for lunch.  I wasn't sure what hearing aid batteries to buy, so I called Danny.  He couldn't understand me, so I had to shout over the phone, people were staring at me which was kind of funny - if ever there was a reasonable time to shout on the phone around a bunch of people, this was the time.  By the time I returned the dance floor was completed.  We fiddled around for a while and they left, to return in two weeks.
• While we were at Home Depot  I bought a couple bags of mulch for around the pool . Not nearly enough for that barren landscape, but its a start.  Bought some potting soil, a wooden pot and a flat of 10 Southern Wood Fern.  I shared an idea with my husband about the area around the pool.  I think we should put some decking around the pool, just enough to cover the flowerbeds (about 4 feet wide) I made years ago.  We can put some potted flower arrangements on the decking.  We had to haul in clay in order to stabilize the pool.  Nothing will ever grow well there.  Why fight it?  And unless we get a sprinkler system in there, plants will never flourish.  He really liked the idea, so I see that as already built!
• Filled the pot I purchased at Home Depot with soil and seeded it with Rose Campion and Purple Loosestrife.
• Spent time in the Orchard cleaning up and weeding.
• Seeded several spots in the Star Garden with some of my remaining Swiss Chard seeds.
• Weeded the Star Garden.
• Watered various plants that I have transplanted over the last several weeks.  The rain last week helped greatly keeping them healthy.
• Sunday I planted the remaining Swiss Chard seed in the Star Garden.  I left the seed packet on the ground and the sprinklers got it wet, so I had to do something with the seeds right then. 
• Went to Blake's house for the day on Sunday.  We had lunch, shopped at Baby Gap, and sat outside for a while.  Very pretty day, especially considering we are in the middle of winter.  Returned to Burton after our visit.
•  Now that all my spring-flowering bulbs have sprouted I spend time being amused at everything I have forgotten.  They spring up in all sorts of places, and I don't  remember planting them there because I planted them a year ago.   That is a lot of fun.  The daffodil surprises I have had this year have been great fun.  And I already mentioned in a previous blog how the Spanish Bleubells in the Shade Garden surprised me.
• Monday morning I planted the 10 Southern Wood Fern - four in the Star Garden in one of the shady beds I just built with the wine bottle edging and six in the Shade Garden.
• I also cut back all my Turks Cap along the Boardwalk.  I hate that job.  But it's done now.  I also picked up a lot of the dead ginger vegetation.  
• While I was doing that chore I noticed there is a really weedy spot along the Boardwalk that I need to clean up and mulch.  I'll try to get to that before I leave.
• Dug up my Easy Ned Daylilies by the pool in preparation for Bert building the decking.  I planted all but two clumps in the flowerbed by the master bedroom.  I planted the other two clumps in the bed alongside the path to the Boardwalk.
• Dug up two clumps of Cigar Plant from around the pool and planted it in the Star Garden.  Hopefully it isn't too shady in the spot where I planted it.  I'm all out of room.  I want to get some of that orange lantana and yellow lantana, but I really don't know where I would put it - lantana requires full sun.  I guess I'll see if my neighbor wants it.
• Dug up Elderberry plants that were growing in the paths and planted them in a new bed that my husband made for me out of cedar logs.  The bed is in the Medicine Garden.  I am making a little "orchard" of Elderberry plants so I can have enough berries to make wine.  It's all in fun.  Elderberries are tiny.  I don't know how anyone collects enough to make wine!  
• Tuesday morning I pruned back my double red Althea, my two blue Chaste Trees and my pink Chaste Tree.
• I spent most of the morning painting the boards that line the beds in the Rose Garden.  They look pretty crappy, and I would really like to replace them with stone, but I think that is a next year thing.  The green paint is a slight improvement.  I have always liked painting outside.  It is very relaxing, and you don't have to be careful - you can slop it everywhere and it will just wash away with a little rain.
• Bert went into town and bought the lumber to extend the decking around the pool.  I spent the rest of the morning shifting soil in those flowerbeds over to a new bed that he built me this morning.  Some of the soil and all of the plants have to be moved in order to make a nice level deck.  I think back on all the work I did around the pool many years ago hauling that dirt over there.  And now I am hauling it away and building decking over the rest of it.  Two steps forward one step back. 
• I thought about Janine this morning and how I could have given her so many plants - Striped Beauty Cannas, lorapetalum, lantana, Cigar Plant, miscanthus.  But she is not at DCP anymore.
• I planted most of the Striped Beauties in the bed by the master bedroom.  I will probably end up regretting that because, although a dwarf variety, they are tall and I won't be able to see outside when I'm laying in bed.  I planted three small ones in one of the beds in the Star Garden.
• I dug up orange lantana and put it in a bucket of water along with some more Cigar Plant.  I don't know where I'll put it, but I don't want to get rid of it.
• Put two bags of mulch around my Copper Canyon Daisies and Chaste Tree.
• It's a warm day so I sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden, the Star Garden, and the driveway.
• Watered the Star Garden and spread some Catmint in various places.
• Raked out the herb beds in the Medicine Garden, turned the soil, and planted some Catmint in various places.
• Spread Catmint seed in the wine bottle bed.
• Helped Bert off and on with the deck he's building.
• Bert helped me move a big pot from behind the Greenhouse into the Star Garden.  I filled it with soil and spread some more Catmint and some beet seed.
• Tuesday evening:  exhausted!!!

Weekend at the Farm January 30 - February 1, 2015

 I seeded this pot of soil with Mesclun.  All my clay pots are pretty worn, but they still work.

Big round of layoffs at work today, but I made it through.  Drove to the farm Friday afternoon.  Home on Sunday for a Superbowl party at my folks.

•  Worked on my wine bottle flowerbed edging Friday afternoon.  I'm just doing one side of the flowerbed - it's hard to get those labels off the bottles!  I have had the wine bottles soaking in a tub of water since last weekend, but it's still some work getting the paper off and all the glue rubbed off.
• Saturday morning I shredded leaves behind the shed and next to the arbor.  I was able to add a truckload and several bags of shredded leaves to my leaf pile and to the compost pile.
• Raked in the Shade Garden.  Added some of the leaves to the flowerbeds and piled up the rest.
• Got most of the ginger and snakeroot dead vegetation cleaned out of the Shade Garden.
• I noticed lots of Excelsior Spanish Bluebells coming up in the Shade Garden.  I had forgotten I planted them.  Once I saw them I remembered that the plan last year was to begin creating a mass of bluebells at the edge of the Shade Garden along the driveway.  You will see them as you drive to the house.  It is something that will take some years, but it will be quite pretty.
• Turned the soil and planted two more more rows of Early Wonder beets and two rows of Red Magic Hybrid Swiss.
• Filled a pot with soil, set it on the metal frame of an old vanity chair in the Star Garden, and seeded it with Mesclun.
• Finished my project in Max's Garden.  I'm very excited about it.  I used the soil I dug up to finish filling the flowerbed with the wine bottle edging.  I have lots of new beds now to fill with plants.  These beds are all located in the shade.  Although I prefer sunny gardening to shady gardening, it will be fun choosing plants for these beds.
• Sunday morning I watered the Rose Garden.  It was supposed to rain - rain was everywhere but did not get us.  I also watered the Medicine Garden.
• Cleaned the shower, sinks and toilets - the ususal suspects.  
• Headed home to get ready for the Superbowl.