Peters Purple Bee Balm May 30, 2015

Took some more pictures of the bee balm because it is still so pretty.

 This is Peter's Purple Bee Balm with Easy Ned Day Lilies just beginning to bloom and a big Agapanthus bloom in the forefront.  The Black and Blue Salvia and the white Four O'Clocks are just beginning to bloom too. 

Weekend at the Farm May 30 - 31, 2015

Arrived Friday afternoon.  No rain for the first time in many weeks.

• Saturday morning I picked blackberries for a cobbler.
• Spent most of the morning clearing out paths in the Star Garden.   Plants want to grow toward the light and away from other plants, so it is a constant effort to keep the paths clear.  No one likes to brush up against branches, etc as they stroll.  Trimmed back my Harlequin Glorybower and my Almond Verbena.  Cut back my thyme and Catmint that was growing in the paths.  Transplanted several clumps of thyme to the bed by the AC units.  Staked the Montbretia and White Mist Flower.  Used the hedge trimmers on the anisacanthus.  Cut back Ox Eye Daisies and threw some in the Erhlicheer bed, but mostly just threw them in the compost pile.  I'll probably live to regret that because they reseed like crazy. Weeded, weeded, weeded.  I basically cut anything that was was even slightly growing into a path.  Hauled many wheel barrows of debris to the compost pile.
• Pulled up the last of the Love in a Mist, weeded, and sowed some zinnia seeds.
• Cut lemon balm back in the Kitchen Herb Garden because it was crowding my basil.  
• Made Spanish Bean Soup.
• Read my book for a long while.
• There is a crazy female cardinal that spends hours every day flying into the window in the dining room.  Over and over and over.  This has been happening for the last three weekends.  I feel really sorry for her.  It has to hurt!  She bangs into the window  hundreds of times a day - I am not exaggerating.  It's quite distressing.  Bert and I go to the window and wave violently trying to scare her, but seconds later she is back - bang, bang, bang.  She starts about 6:30-ish in the morning and wakes me up.  
• Sunday morning 6:30 dozing on the couch because I couldn't sleep.  The bird woke me up banging on the window.  I stopped counting at 200.  It's still going on as I write this.  My husband just walked in and declared he's going to shoot her.
• Worked on my climbing roses tying up the long canes to their supports.  American Beauty, Peggy Martin, and Climbing Pinky.  Still need to work on Fortune's Double, it's in the Rose Garden going nuts from neglect.  And it has the most vicious thorns of all of them.  It might as well be a blackberry vine.
• Had to drive in to town first thing to buy a new herbicide sprayer.  Mine stopped working, and the top priority for me this weekend was to spray herbicide in every path and drive.  With all the rain it's a mess.  Also bought 3 bags of mulch and a pack of purple zinnia seeds.
• Spent several hours in the Long Border and Star Garden weeding and laying down bags of mulch.  Hauled many wheel barrows of debris to the compost pile.
• Sowed some Moonflower seeds that I saved from last year, some by the front trellis on both sides, some by the trellis at the entrance to the Long Border, and some on a chicken wire trellis in the Star Garden.
• I'm happy to see that my Cypress vine is starting to climb nicely in the Long Border and on two arbors in the Star Garden.  And the Hops vine in the Star Garden at the entrance to Max's Garden has tiny buds on it and looks really healthy.  I love vines, but I don't always have luck with them. I try nearly every year to grow morning glory vines on the arbor at the entrance to the Long Border, but they never seem to take off.  Usually that's a water issue, but this year something seems to have eaten them right at the base of the vines. They had already started to climb up the chicken wire, so it is doubly disappointing.  Usually if I can get them to the point that they are climbing I am home free - rabbits, deer, insects - I have beaten all of them.  Last year I had beautiful blue morning glories on the front arbor. Love them!
• Tied up my BeeBalm and Pringle Aster in the Star Garden to keep them from flopping all over. Pringle Aster gets pretty heavy, we'll see how successful I am.
• Rested for a couple of hours and read.
• Sprayed herbicide on the driveway, in the Rose Garden, in the Star Garden, in the Vegetable Garden, and the Orchard.  Hot work!
• Walked around Sunday evening and enjoyed the fruits of my labors.  The Long Border looks good, parts of the Star Garden look good.  The Rose Garden looks really bad, needs a lot of work.  The Orchard is chock full of ripe blackberries.  I should pick them, but don't have the energy.
• The cannas are particularly pretty and showy this weekend.  Also, the BeeBalm is really pretty.  Gorgeous weather this weekend.  I was glad to be in it.

Everything's Bigger in Texas May 30, 2915

These are Kiowa blackberries.  I have lots of Kiowa vines growing in my Orchard.  These berries are big!  Lots of thorns, unfortunately.  I also have some thornless berry vines growing in the Orchard, but the berries are half the size of these impressive berries.

Pink Vitex May 30, 2015

My pink Vitex looks even prettier this week than last week, so I took another picture.

In the foreground of the below picture is my blackbery lily.  I planted it last year after its bloom time, so I have not seen it bloom yet.  The scapes with the seeds were still on the plants, and several seeds dropped down and have sprouted.  I have tiny little plants around the base of the big pot I have them growing in.  I planted these lilies in a pot because of the voles.  I will move them into the ground after I get some good multiplication.

Canna Blooms May 30, 2015

Below, this is a bargain bin bulb that I bought at Wal Mart.  It is a miniature.  Pretty color flower with burgundy leaves. 

 Below, this is Ehamanii.  An old fashioned passalong canna.

 Below, this is a very old variety, introduced in the late 1800s called Shenandoah. 

Double Tiger Lilies May 30, 2015

Wow, how gorgeous these are!  I couldn't stop taking pictures.  I'm growing these in a big pot because the voles love lily bulbs.  Tigers grow little bulbils in the leaf axils that drop to the ground and take root.  It may be several years from the time they take root until they bloom, but they are pretty good multipliers.

Russel Manning Rain Lilies May 30, 2015

These are the biggest flowers of all my rain lilies.  I grow this variety, Candidas, a native white one with large, waxy blooms, and a peach colored variety.  Russel Mannings might be the largest variety amongst the Habranthus, not sure.  Very pretty shell-pink color.  Very delicate color.  The rain has woken them up.  They don't bloom for me every year which is why I have always been kind of lukewarm about the Russel Mannings.  But they sure look pretty this weekend.

At the Farm May 23, 2015

Went to my family reunion in Madisonville at my uncle Tut and aunt Maedell's old place.  Her kids have remodeled it.  Went to Burton for the night.  Left in the afternoon and went to the lake for Memorial day.

• Picked green beans, pulled up some scallions, and dug up some red potatoes.  
• Cleaned up one of the tomato plants that was loaded with rotten tomatoes.  Too much rain I guess. 
• Cleared out a flowerbed near the front porch in the Star Garden.  I pulled up all the nigella and threw it in the meadow garden, hoping some of it will take hold come next spring.  Weeded a big portion of the bed.  Still more to do, but looks better.
• Picked blackberries to bring to Conroe.
• Raccoons broke most of the limbs of one of my plum trees trying to get to the plums at the ends of the branches.  I feel like the tree only just recovered from the last time it happened a couple of years ago. 
• Everything is green, green, green.

Peter's Purple Bee Balm May 23, 2015

I staked these plants very early on, and it really helped keep them upright through all the heavy rains we had in April and May.  I planted this two summers ago.  This is the second year of blooming, this year was much better than last year.  I have always loved bee balm.  In addition to being a very pretty flower it is also a useful herb with antiseptic and anti-bacterial properties.  It is also one of the key ingredients in Earl Grey tea.  The flowers are edible.  The leaves are very aromatic when crushed.  There are many varieties sold commercially.  I love the red flowered varieties too.

My Wildflower Garden May 23, 2015

 Above and below, this is wild bee balm just beginning to turn lavender.  It doesn't get dark purple like domesticated varieties, but it is quite pretty.  And it is a good reseeder.

Above, I threw bunches of Ox Eye daisy seed heads into the wild garden hoping I would get some new plants.  Ox Eyes are perennials, so they would be a good addition to the garden.  This year I had some verbena bonariensis spring up as well as some Laura Bush Petunias, poppies, wild carrot, phlox, and blue bonnets.  It will take some time, but it will be very charming some day,

Old Fashioned Leek Flowers May 23, 2015

I dug up these leeks from the yard on Nixon Lake Road.  They pop up every winter around the same time as the paper whites.  They bloom in May.  And then they go dormant until winter again.  They are good multipliers.  And look at these fascinating flower heads.  I planted the bulbs in three beds in the Rose Garden.  Super cool plants.

Crinum Powellii Roseum May 23, 2015

My sister gave me these crinums.  Good multipliers. I have several varieties in addition to this one - procerum splendens, milk and wine, and Ellen Bosanquet.

I wish I had planted them in the middle of the border rather than the bac of the border, but too late now.  Crinums like to be very deep, and they will claw their way down to the depth they like if they are not planted at the right depth originally.  Very hard to dig them up and move them.

China Chiffon Althea May 23, 2015

I have a couple of double altheas and a couple of singles.  This althea, which I just planted a few weeks ago, is a semi double, and it will grow quite large.  I absolutely love it.  So pretty.  I planted this one in the Long Border. The weather has really cooperated so far by preventing my new plantings from drying out.  We have had an incredible amount of rain in April and May.  In fact, we are already over our yearly average.  Bring it on.  

Weekend at the Farm May 15 - 17, 2015

 

These are photos of my saturated Star Garden.  It has rained for two months.  

• Arrived Friday afternoon.  Didn't do much, just looked around making mental notes of what I want to do Saturday and Sunday.  There are ripe plums on the trees, I need to pick them this weekend.  Verry vines are loaded.  The grape vines are loaded with tiny berries.  They are much smaller than the mustang grapes growing wild on the property.  Lots of big green tomatoes in the Vegetable Garden (please, squirrels and racoons, let me have a few this year) .
• Saturday morning I picked squash blossoms and filled them with ricotta for later.  Picked a few yellow squash as well that we will have for dinner tonight.
• Spent most of the morning cutting back all the floppy Ox Eye daisy stems.  They have already thrown seed everywhere and tiny little Ox Eyes are sprouting all over the paths.  I filled about 10 bucket-fulls and threw them in the wild border next to the Rose Garden.  That's a good place for them.  Maybe I can get a good stand of them started in there.  I'm still not finished with that job, but I got a good start on it.
• Picked plums while Bert held the ladder.  I have a large bowl of them.
• Picked blackberries.  I have a really big bowl of them.
• Sunday morning I picked squash blossoms and asparagus.  Stuffed the squash blossoms with ricotta and put them in the fridge for later.  There were lots of asparagus spears, plenty for dinner.
• Started right in cutting back the Ox Eyes in the Rose Garden and in a few spots left in the Star Garden. The rain held me off, so I went in the house.
• Made blackberry jelly with the some preserve jars I bought on my way to the farm..
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.  Laid down some mulch that I bought when I purchased the canning jars.   Need more mulch!
• Sowed some pink zinnias in the Star Garden.
• Went back to the Rose Garden and worked in there for about three hours.  Got most of the Ox Eyes cut back.
• The wisteria was growing into the oak trees nearby.  Bert blasted the vines with the shotgun.  Problem solved.  He turned to me, deadpan and said, "You know you're a redneck when you trim your wisteria with a shot gun."  That was a giggle.
• After dinner we sat on the porch, drank wine and watched the lightening bugs. 

The Rose Garden May 8, 2015

 Above, Cadenza rose.  Below, Cadenza, the Noisettes blooming in the background, Ox Eye Dausies, irises, black eyed Susans, and Moss Verbena.

Graham Thomas May 8, 2015

 This is Graham Thomas rose.  In the photo below is Caldwell Pink (a "found" rose) in the same bed with it as well as some old fashioned leeks with golf ball sized flower heads just about to open.

 Below, Caldwell Pink, covered with flowers.