Weekend at the Farm April 29 - 30, 2017

This is Perl d'Or rose.
My family reunion was this on Saturday in Madisonville.  Mom was very under the weather and could not make it, but overall we had a good turn out.  From my gang, Josh and family and Blake and family attended, but no Max.

• Sunday started out cold and rainy, but ended absolutely spectacularly - cool and sunny.
• I have been meaning to write in my notes that last weekend and the weekend before that, I saw lots of Snout Butterflies.  They look like they sound, they have a long beak-like snout.  Their wings have a a unique shape, they are orange and black - very distinct-looking butterflies, I don't think I have ever seen them here.
• I worked in the Long Border all morning, the mulch pile is nearby so I wheeled the wheel barrow over there to load it, I didn't bother with the cub cadet.  I weeded and mulched.  I pulled up or broke off at the base all the Four O'Clocks near the arbor and put down lots of mulch.  Four O'Clocks are the kind of plant that you don't care if it lives or dies, so rather than carefully mulch around every plant, I just dumped the mulch right on top and stamped it down.  And I mulched here and there wherever it was getting weedy.
• Bert and I drove in the cadet down to Jeff and Amy's to see the progress on their house.  Amy walked me through her meadows that she has been working on that surround the house.  Really lovely and very inspiring.  I am hoping to convert back to its original state the area that Bert is about to have bull dozed.  We'll see.  I don't want it to turn into a war of wills between Bert and I - him wanting to mow and me wanting to naturalize.
• I spent some time in the Orchard weeding.  It's holding up pretty well with the mulch that I've laid down, not a lot of weeds, but a truckload of mulch would help.  The anise hyssop is really looking lovely down there.  Some of the day lilies that I planted a couple weeks ago are sending up scapes.  I cut away Mexican Hat and Moss Verbena that were crowding my roses.
• I spent some time in the Vegetable Garden as well.  I had one wheel barrow of mulch, and I spread it in one of my new asparagus beds.  Weeded her and there, thinned my zinnias. 
• I cut back my Heritage rose by about half.  
• It rained hard Saturday night, so I didn't have to mess with watering except for the pots around the pool. 
• The Infinity Garden is in dire need of mulch.  That's where I'll work next weekend.
• I picked blackberries on Saturday and Sunday.  I have a gallon bag of them which I will bring home and make a cobbler. 

Squash in a Pot

 

This a patty pan squash plant.  I grow squash for the squash blossoms, I don't eat squash casserole much, although it was a staple at family gatherings when I was young.

Mock Orange April 30, 2017

I thought Mock Orange was supposed to smell like orange blossoms.  No.  At least, not mine, so that was a huge disappointment.   There is no better smell than citrus blossoms.  But it is a very pretty little tree.

Yellow Flowers

Cleome April 30, 2017

 Spider flower is a heavy re-seeder, no need to buy the seeds more than one time.  All my plants came back from seed.  This plant gets tall, about four feet tall, and depending on where it's planted it might need to be staked.  Best at the back of the border.  Since all my flowerbeds are small I have beds with nothing by Cleome growing.  I plan to spread the seed more widely as soon as these plants go to seed, and next year I will have plants growing throughout the Star and Rose Gardens. 

Giant Rudbeckia April 20, 2017

This is one of my favorite plants.  It's common name is Dumbo Ears. When it is blooming it grows to about six feet tall, it is the tallest flower in the garden.  The foliage is evergreen and a memorable blue-green color.  It is a prolific re-seeder, so cut it back before the seed heads dry out if you don't want volunteers all over the garden.  I have it growing throughout the Star Garden, but my favorite place it's growing is in the flowerbed along the outside of the Vegetable Garden.  It looks great there growing alongside Mexican Torch Sunflower.  

Black and Blue Sage April 30, 2017

My camera does not do these pretty plants justice.  The blue is very, very vivid.  They have unusual root systems with bulbous kind of clear bulb-like places in the roots.  This plants does not bloom all summer like a lot of salvias do, but it puts on a very impressive showing in the spring.  After that it gets a little ratty-looking through the rest of the summer.  I have a very large stand of it along the back of the house.  It spreads.  The calyxes are black and the flowers are blue, hence the name.

Crinums April 30, 2017

 

These crinums were given to me by my sister, Terry.  She is gone, but I have this living memorial to her in my garden.  They looked particularly pretty this morning.

 The crinums below ere given to me by Janine Snapp.  This crinum is really interesting.  When the flower heads go to seed the form a huge, very bumpy ball.  The ball eventually bursts open and a bunch of smaller balls fall to the ground.  Then they swell up to the size of large marbles about an inch around.  They will really spread.  

The Flowers of April

Salvias, verbenas, roses, coreopsis, zinnias, daisies, poppies, and iris are all blooming right now.