Weekend at the Farm August 29 - 30, 2015

Arrived Friday afternoon with Bert.  I like coming together, we had really gotten away from that in the past year or so.  And we certainly save a lot on gas!  Bert went to Groesbeck on Saturday to give William all the lumber we had after tearing down the screened-in porch.  The family is on high alert, Josh and Amy's baby will be born any day now.

• Saturday morning I walked around the gardens looking at everything.  The colors in the Star Garden are purple, hot pink, yellow and peach.  My Obedient Plant and Butterfly Bush are supplying the pretty purple colors.  The hot pink, yellow and peach colors are my Cannas.   Cannas are among the most useful plants in August here in my garden.  Not many things will bloom in this heat.  The Americrinum, Hurricane, and Schoolhouse Lilies are also blooming.  But their bloom time is short - the beginning and end will only be a few weeks.  My cannas have been blooming their hearts out all summer long.
• The roses in the Rose Garden are starting to perk up, a combination of my watering schedule and the approach of fall. 
• I watered the roses for about an hour then set about weeding the most horrible weed that God ever slayed us with - Day Flower, or at least it is in that family.  And it is a fitting name because I wrestle with it every day.  This weed can have one single tiny leaf sprouted and the roots will already be 4 inches long.  You cannot pull it up by grabbing the greenery and pulling because it breaks off  below the surface of the soil at a knobby point from which the stems and roots emanate.  The roots are thick and fleshy, there are many of them, they grow straight down, and they can be six, seven, eight inches long.  You have to pull them up by driving your fingers down into the soil, getting below the knob from which the roots grow, and pulling it up with all your might because these weeds don't like to be pulled up, and they pull back!  And there are billions of them.  I spent over two hours out there on the Day Flower mission - total eradication once and for all of that irksome weed.  It may take many weeks of determined pulling because they come back from little bits of root that you cannot manage to pull up.  But I got rid of nut sedge, another really tenacious weed, long roots although of a different size and shape.
• Came in during the hottest part of the day and watched Casablanca.
• Deadheaded the Verbena Bonariensis and pulled weeds in the front flower beds.
• Pulled weeds in the Star Garden, deadheaded zinnias and spread the seeds throughout the beds.  Pulled up some Forsythia that had tip rooted and therefore gotten too big for its britches.  Forsythia appears to be a host for nematodes.  When I have occasion to pull it up I notice that the roots are very knobby.
• I sprayed herbicide on the Wild Border.  I cut everything down with the weed eater a few weeks ago.  Now I am starting with a blank slate.  I'll cover it with fallen leaves in the fall.
• Sprayed herbicide around the pool area and here and there in the Orchard.
• Spent time in the Orchard pulling up salvia, deadheading zinnias and spreading the seeds on the ground I loosened when I pulled up the salvia.  The zinnia seeds I sowed last weekend have sprouted.
• Swam in the pool throughout the day.
• Coq au vin and onion gratin for dinner.
• Sunday morning.  I planted my four new bearded iris that I ordered from Schreiner's Iris Gardens.  They are nice big rhizomes.  I planted them all in the Rose Garden:  Sentimental Rose (peach standard, rose fall) next to Chorale, Deliciously Different (Orange standard, pale orange fall with orange edges) next to my half-dead Duchess de Brabant, Sofia (white standard, pale yellow fall with white edging) next to the Noisettes, Gaelic Jig (a pale, almost grey iris) next to Perl d Or.
• I decided to separate the Clyde Redmond iris growing next to Cadenza rose because they were crowded with the Day Flower weed, and they had spread to the edge of the flowerbed (iris spread in one direction and when they get to a stopping point the rhizomes start piling on top of each other).  I had a gazillion after I started digging them up.  So I started planting them everywhere I could find a spot.  I planted here, I plated there.  Yes, I planted everywhere.  That is a Dr. Seuss reference.  In particular I planted about 10 rhizomes in the flower bed that surrounds the dead tree in the Rose Garden.  I have needed something permanent there for a while now.  I probably have a hundred iris plantings in the Rose Garden now.   Spring should be beautiful, or at the very least, two springs from now should be gorgeous.  Clyde Redmond is a pure, very dark blue iris.  It is not a bearded iris, but has a really beautiful blue color. 
• Sprayed herbicide on the back walkway and a bit in the Star Garden.
• The seed pods of some of the Cleome in the Star Garden have dried and split open, so I spread them around to various spots in the Star Garden.
• I spayed herbicide in a few spots in the the Vegetable Garden that I missed last week and pulled some weeds.  The lettuce seed and the green beans that I sowed last week have sprouted. The Vegetable Garden looks pretty good.  The asparagus is tall and ferny.  The leaves of the sweet potato vines are green and purple.  Hyacinth Bean vine is crawling up the goat wire arbor (not edible, but pretty).
• I cut back the trailing purple  lantana that was growing into the path.  Bert pointed it out to me last night.  Sometimes I don't notice when a plant starts encroaching. 
• Cleaned the bathrooms.
• Took a nap.  Swam in the pool for a bit.  
• Watered in the Medicine Garden and around the pool.
• Headed home.

Hurrican Lilies August 30, 2015

Hurricane Lily (Lycoris) is so named because its bloom time coincides with the start of hurricane season.  They pop out of the ground before any greenery appears.  The leaves grow after the bloom dies back.  The greenery endures until the hottest part of the summer at which time it turns brown and dies away.  They are good multipliers, and last year I dug up some clumps in the Circle bed where most of them are growing and planted bulbs around some of the trees in the other Circle flowerbeds.  I also have some growing in the Rose Garden in the bed with my Bailey Red rose.  I am going to dig up more this year as soon as they finish their bloom.  Lycoris likes to be planted very shallow, with their neck just out of the ground.

 Above, the bed at the back of the photo is one of the beds where I planted some of my offsets.

 Above, I planted some of my offsets in both of these beds last year.

 Below, the bed in the back of the picture, I planted some bulbs last year.

Homestead Purple Verbena August 30, 2015

This perennial verbena was spotted by two University of Georgia horticultural professors (both very well known experts in the fields of perennials and woody plants) as they were driving through the countryside.  It was growing on some property.  They stopped and asked the owner of the homestead about the plant, but she didn't know its history, it had been growing there for as long as she had been living there.  They took some cuttings, and the rest is history.  This plants grows vigorously, has a spreading habit, and will root along the branching stems.  Really pretty.  I bought a flat of tiny plants this spring and planted them in four different beds in the Rose Garden.  It is a great front of the border plant, or for use anywhere you want something that trails along the ground.  I have grown it before, and my recollection is that it is a evergreen.  But once winter is here I will see if it retains its greenery.

Weekend at the Farm August 22, 2015

 This is Cleome, common name is Spider Flower.  There are three colors that I know of - hot pink, light pink, and white.  After they flower they send out a long pod full of seeds that will supply you with a whole new crop of plants the next year.

 Above, this is a Cleome bud.  And note the leaves - they look just like marijuana leaves. 

Thursday evening birthday party for my dad.  Bert's kids, my kids, spouses, their kids, Lisa and Nan and mom.  About 16 of us.  Happy occasion.  To the farm next day early Friday morning.  Jess, Nathan, and the kids came for the weekend.  They put their house on the market so they wanted to clear out of there the first weekend.

• Friday all I did was "straighten out" the flowerbeds.  The armadillos tear up the flowerbeds - big holes, big piles, dirt strewn over the paths.  Little bastards.
• Napped for about four hours!
• Woke about four and started cooking Osso Buco and Risotto Milanese for dinner.
• Took a ride around the property with Bert at dusk.  The air was cool and heavy with wonderful smells of wet earth and the mystery of flowers that you cannot see.
• Saturday morning, walked around with coffee and looked at everything.  The Rose Garden is in pretty good shape thanks to the work I did the last several weekends.
• Weeded in the Orchard for most of the morning.  Cut back blackberry vines that were leaning into the paths, cut away dead canes - yuck!!!!!, weeded along the grape arbor, that area has really gotten away from me.  Laid down grass clippings and the last of my precious mulch over the area where I weeded along the grape arbor.  Pulled up salvia that I was sick of looking at.
• Swam in the pool with Bert.  The water was cool!
• Spent some time in the Star Garden cutting away plants that were growing towards the paths, in particular the Almond Verbena tree, the red cannas, verbena bonariensis, and weeds.
• Tied back Peggy Martin canes onto the chain that Bert attached to the tree nearby.
• Inside to rest through the hottest part of the day.  
• Swam with Nathan, Jess and the kids.
• My Hurricane Lilies are popping up.  How do they know that fall is approaching when the weather is still 100 degrees outside?
• Sunday morning I watered in the Rose Garden.  
• Did some much-needed house cleaning.
• Planted some green bean seeds in the Vegetable Garden.  I think I'll be getting a crop just under the wire unless the first frost is early.  Around here the average first frost is December 9, which means I have a 50 percent chance of getting a frost before that date.   Ollie came in the garden and walked all over where I planted the seeds - well, why not, it was the softest looking, most inviting dirt
• Sowed some lettuce seeds also. And a few Borage seeds.
• Raked in the Orchard.  
• Pulled up lots of salvia in the Orchard and sowed some zinnias.
• We all swam in the pool before Jess left with the babies and dogs to visit her folks for a week.  Nathan left soon after.
• I weeded in the Star Garden for a while.
• Dumped a wheel barrow full of mulch, part into the back bed to fend off some weeds and part around my Marie d Orleans rose in the front bed. 
• Fed my bees some sugar water again.
• Since I've been here about a dozen of my Schoolhouse Lilies have popped up.  Small red flower, but I also have a pink variety that my sister gave me.  The pink ones are not as common, and they are said to be slower multipliers than the red ones.
• Home to take Max to the grocery store before he returns to school.

 

Amaricrinums August 22, 2015

 My Amaricrinums are beginning to bloom.  Janine Snapp gave me these bulbs.  What a valuable plant for any Southern Garden!  It is reaching 100 degrees outside, and that signals their bloom time.  Most perennials have retreated to dormancy or are sitting in the flowerbeds looking miserable.  This is Amaricrinum's signal to start blooming.  The greenery is robust and dark green.  They die back when the winter arrives, so plantings have to consider what will take their place when they go dormant.

I think one of their defense mechanisms to guard them from the heat is their interesting habit of extending their bloom stalk straight up in the air in the morning, lowering it in the hottest part of the day so that it is literally laying on the ground, and then raising it back up to its original position in the evening.  Fascinating!
  
Below, I took this picture on Friday evening.  I knew some of the buds were just about to open.

Below, Saturday morning they were in full bloom.

Day at the Farm August 16, 2015

 This is Castor Plant, easily grown from seed.  Those exotic-looking, round, spiny balls are seed pods.  Castor is a prolific re-seeder.  I planted some in various places around the Star Garden.  The grow from zero to six feet tall in just a few months.

 I noticed this little frog sitting on one of the leaves.

Amy's baby shower on Saturday.  I went to the farm on Sunday morning.  Bert went up on Friday evening.

• As soon as I arrived I started watering the Rose Garden with the hose.  I spent about two hours doing that.  
• Went down to the Orchard and forked up some of my Victoria Falls bearded iris.  I re-set some of them down there and brought the rest of them up to the house for planting in various places.  I planted some of them in the Rose Garden next to Madame Joseph Schwartz, Vesuve,  and Perle de Or.
• I cleaned out one of my newest beds in the Star Garden that has a clump of Pink Muhly grass and some dead Ox Eye Daisy clumps and some weeds.  I planted some of the Victoria Falls bearded iris.
• I cleaned out another one of my new beds in the Star Garden that had nothing growing in it but dead Salvia.  I planted a small mop head hydrangea plant that we bought to adorn the table for Amy's shower.  I also planted some of the Victoria Falls bearded iris.
• I watered in the Star Garden for a long time - several hours.  Watering has positive and negative impacts.  Obviously it is good for my poor, thirsty plants, but moist earth attracts the armadillos.  They have rooted up most of the flowerbeds in the Star Garden that have ample access to water from the sprinklers.  Bert connected some hoses together, so I can water throughout the Star Garden. 
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.  Laid down some mulch in the Star Garden.
• Watered the flowerbeds along the front of the house.  Some of the Galactic Gold bearded iris were crowded out of the dirt, so I pulled them up and reset them in various places in the front beds. 
• Watered in the Infinity Garden, in the bed with the Thryallis, and the pots around the pool.
• Surrounded as many of the beardeds with chicken wire as I could before I ran out of stakes.  The armadillos will try to root them up.  I had to leave some unprotected.
• Swam in the pool throughout the day.  The water actually felt pretty good, not too warm. 
• Sprayed herbicide in the driveway, the Orchard, the Rose Garden, and the Star Garden.
• Several of my large rose shrubs have died.  I'm convinced that I'm pruning them too severely.  I had a beautiful Bermuda's Kathleen growing at the entrance to the Rose Garden - huge shrub rose that had gotten too big for its location.  I cut it back severely in February, and it died little by little throughout the summer.  Last weekend I cut away all the dead canes, there was only one cane left that was alive.  This weekend when I arrived I saw that cane was dead too.  Same with my Duchess de Brabant.  I pruned it severely last February.  Almost all of it died as the summer wore on.  I cut away all the dead canes last weekend and this weekend the few remaining canes that were alive were completely dead.  I thought I was going to lose my Mrs. B.R. Cant for the same reason, but it looks like she might forgive me.  In addition to replacing the two roses I lost, I am going to replace my Chrysler Imperial rose.  It is still alive, but it isn't thriving.  So I have three, possibly four roses that I'm going to replace this fall.  I will likely get another Chrysler Imperial because it is the best smelling rose I've ever owned.  And I will likely get another Duchess de Brabant because it is a floriferous, chunky rose shrub with a good scent.  But I won't get another Bermuda's Kathleen - I like the rose, but it does not have a scent.  I am thinking about getting Maman Cochet or Carefree Beauty.  I have one empty spot (my new Madame Wagram didn't make it through the hot summer) but I am thinking about leaving it empty and planting bulbs.
• Went inside to rest for 30 minutes or so before I drove home.  The weather clouded over and it started pouring rain.  I wasn't expecting that!  Between the watering I did today and the rain, everything should be pretty happy.

Day at the Farm August 9, 2015

Babysat for Sam Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.  Went to a co-worker's daughter's Quincinera Saturday evening.  Bert and I went to the farm on Sunday morning for the day.

• My focus today was mostly thinning out my crowded Erhlicheer daffodils and some clumps of my bearded irises.  
• I dug around in only one spot in my Erhlicheer bed in the Star Garden and unearthed about 25 bulbs near the surface.  They have multiplied vigorously over the years since I planted the original 100.  I planted most of them in the new ginger bed by the greenhouse where the Toad Lily used to be.  I planted a few in the bed with the flowering almond shrubs.  
• Forked up clumps of Missy Prissy Bearded Iris in the Orchard, separated them and replanted some of them in that spot, some of them in the Orchard bed with the Mayhaw, and some of them in the Rose Garden - in the bed with Chorale and in the bed with Belinda's Dream.
• Forked up clumps of Persian Berry Bearded Iris and replanted some in the same spot, some next to my red cannas and Climbing Pinkie rose.  Also planted some in the bed with my Noisette roses and my Iceberg Rose in the Rose Garden.  I am planning to move quite a few bearded iris into the Rose Garden this fall.  I can do that throughout the month of August and into September.  I will also move some more Ehrlicheer bulbs.
• Watered all the iris I planted. 
• Fed the bees.  I fed them about two weeks ago.  I'm trying to strengthen the hive.
• The armadillos are, once again, tearing everything up in the Star Garden.  They will stop once the weather turns cool. Yet another reason to long for cooler weather.
• Put down a bag of grass clippings on one of the beds in the Orchard that seems to get particularly weedy.  Pulled weeds as I laid it down over the soil.
• Watered a few beds in the Greenhouse Gardens that were really dry.  Used the hose and spent about twenty minutes watering those beds.  Not to state the obvious, but August is hot.  It's pretty difficult to work outside for any sustained period.
• It may be my imagination, but the Rose Garden seems to look much better since I watered it so thoroughly last Wednesday when I came up for the day.
• Bert connected two hoses together in the Star Garden so I can hand water some of the driest places in the Star Garden.  I spent some time watering in there.  
• Watered the pots around the pool.
• Every single grape on my grape arbor is gone.  I was here Wednesday, they were still green, on Sunday they were all gone.  Arrgh!  Damn deer. 
• Next week I will fork up my Victoria Falls bearded iris and move them to the Rose Garden and to a few beds in the Star Garden.  And I will dig up more Ehrlicheer daffodils.
• The morning glories and moon flower seeds I planted a few weeks ago are starting to climb their trellises.  And the zinnia seeds I have been sowing are coming along nicely.  We should have a showy fall.