Day at the Farm December 30, 2018

The only things blooming right now are my camellias and these little woodland violets.

Christmas on Saturday with my side of the family.  It was at my house in Houston.  Gretchen and family were there.  Drove to Burton on Saturday night after we cleaned up the party.  Stayed through Monday and drove home for New Year's Eve with Mom, Dad, Nan, Lisa, and the New York contingent.  Dinner at Café Annie's.

• I trimmed the Yuletide camellia here and there trying to encourage a little more branching.  I really hate to cut a camellia since they grow so slowly.
• I transplanted 40 or so plants from paths into flowerbeds.  I moved Homestead Purple Verbena into beds throughout the Rose Garden, and I moved Ox Eye Daisies into the flowerbed that is adjacent to the path that leads to the Boardwalk.  I now have that long bed almost completely filled in with daisies, and I think it will be very pretty in the spring.  That has been a fairly sizeable project for me because they have to be dug up and moved there.  Up to this point that bed has basically been just mulch and a few random plants here and there.  I watered them in.
• Raked here and there.
• I laid down chicken wire in various paths in the Rose Garden.  I read somewhere that deer don't like to walk on strange surfaces.  We'll see how effective that is.  I'm not holding out much hope.  It certainly does a number on me, though.   I've tripped over it about 10 times now. 
• Next morning I was sore!
• I moved a dozen or so transplants to various beds including the front flower bed.   I decided that the verbena would look pretty there as well as keep down weeds and slow down erosion.
• I fertilized my parsnips, beets, and garlic in the Vegetable Garden.  Also did a little weeding.  It's important to keep the weeds away from the veggie seedlings.
• I put some fertilizer around my little species gladiolas that are just coming up.
• Decided to go down to the Orchard and putter around for a while.  But I ended up doing a great thing!  I tackled the Swamp Sunflower problem.  I have a skinny bed at the back of the Orchard in which I planted a couple of clumps of Swamp Sunflower two years ago.  That is a massive, unruly plant that spreads quickly.  And it has quickly grown out of that spot and needs to be moved again.  I cut away all the dead vegetation.  Then I dug out clumps of it and moved it over to the meadow.  The part of the meadow that is at the bottom of the hill is one the wettest parts of our property.  I tossed the clumps of plants into the standing water (we have had a lot of rain lately).  I planted some here and there in that part of the meadow, but most of it I just set in the water.  I transplanted 10 or so clumps - heavy!  It was hard work, but if they take off, they will be amazing in the meadow.  It's (I think I have finally found the perfect spot for these giants) the perfect spot for my Swamp Sunflower.
• Headed home about 2:30.  

Pretty Greens December 30, 2018

I've always thought that greens - mustard and collard - are so pretty.  They have these wonderful, massive leaves.  And the color of collards is a beautiful blue-grey.

I'm growing greens, parsnips, beets, lettuce, carrots, garlic, parsley, dill, and cilantro in my Vegetable Garden right now.  And I have my two beds of asparagus in there lying dormant.

 And a picture of my lettuces...

At the Farm December 23-24. 2018

 This is Giant Ligularia.  It is a large, shade-loving plant with great big round leaves.  And in the fall it shoots up long stems and blooms these cheerful yellow flowers.  It will remain green through light freezes, but it will go dormant if there is a really harsh freeze.

We had the Bonassin Christmas at our Houston house, and Zelda, Henry, Oliver and Wes spent the night on Saturday.  We returned the children on Sunday morning and headed to the farm.  Spent the night and part of Christmas Eve day, then headed home for dinner at La Table with Mom, Dad, Nan and Bert.

• Sunday evening I picked some mustard greens from the Vegetable Garden and we had them for dinner.  I love them.
• Saturday I raked in the Vegetable Garden and weeded around my beets and parsnips.
• I raked in the Star Garden for quite a while.  Dumped all the leaves in the Rose Edge bed. 
• Watered in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.  I can see that one of the hoses has a hole in it - no doubt a vole or a mouse - because a small puddle formed during the process of watering in the Star Garden.  We have some of the hoses buried shallowly to keep them from being eye sores.  This one will have to be replaced next weekend.
• Watered around the shrubs and roses I transplanted last weekend.
• Spread a wheelbarrow of mulch around an autumn sage that was about to become a weedy spot.  
• I weeded in the Orchard.  I'm trying to eradicate dollar weed in the bed where the Jujube grows.  It's not easy.  I have lots of Coneflower seeded there, and I don't want dollar weed to overtake it.  
• I spent lots of time walking around and admiring all my seedlings:  poppies, larkspur, tickseed, California poppies, Philippine lilies, so many wonderful beginnings.
• Headed home about 2:00. 

Weekend at the Farm December 15 - 16, 2018

 These are pictures of my White By The Gate Camellias.  Pure white flowers.  I love them.

I took Friday vacation and finished almost all of my Christmas shopping.  Nine grandchildren and one on the way.  We just found out Blake is pregnant with a little girl.  Very exciting!  Arrived at the farm Friday late afternoon.  It's disconcerting how quickly things can take a turn.  Our little dog Buddy was run over by our flat bed trailer on Saturday morning.  We rushed him to the vet.  The x-ray revealed that his back and pelvis were broken, so we put him down.  Poor, poor little fellow.

• We buried Buddy next to Lanie and Cosmo.  
• I raked leaves throughout the day on Saturday and dumped the leaves in the large area adjacent to the Rose Garden.
• I dug up some Standing Cypress seedlings growing in paths in the Rose Garden and planted them in various places in the Rose Garden.  Watered them in.
• Weeded here and there.
• I cut away dead canes from the roses in the Orchard.
• I finished cutting back the dead vegetation in the small asparagus bed in the Vegetable Garden.
• I took many strolls through the gardens looking at all my seedlings.  I have a particularly great crop of poppies coming up everywhere this year.  Perhaps I've found the secret to getting lots of poppy sprouts - do absolutely nothing to prep the beds.  Literally, just sprinkle the seeds.  Even the loosest of soil will cover them up.  They are so very tiny that they exhaust their energy almost immediately.  In past years I prepped the beds, but before I sowed the poppies I would firm the soil.  This year I didn't do that, and I have zillions more than I usually have. 
• I fertilized all my camellias - the one in the Shade Garden, the two White By The Gates along the Boardwalk, and the Debutante in the Circle.  I've already fertilized the Yuletide Camellia.  I fertilized more of my emerging bulbs including my Snowflakes and Blue Bottles, and my little narcissus odorous in the Star Garden.
• I raked out the beds in the Circle Drive where I have lots of lily seedlings growing.  Bert and I are always at cross-purposes in the fall.  He blows the leaves in the beds and I rake them out.  If I don't have seedlings growing of course I let the leaves remain there.  They discourage weeds and fertilize the soil.  But the leaves smother my lily seedlings.
• Sunday was very productive.  I dug up two Altheas and re-planted them in the Long Border.  One of them was given to me by my neighbor,  Debra.  It is a double pink.  I've had it for many years, but it has always been in a terrible spot - shady and dry.  It's only a little bit bigger than when she first gave it to me.  So I moved it, fertilized it, watered it in, and mulched around it.  The second one is a Satin Marina althea.  Blue with a deep blue throat.  I planted it amongst some Indigo Spires salvias, and it has never prospered there.  So I moved it to the Long Border, fertilized, watered and mulched.
• Next I dug up two plugs of Peggy Martin rose that had tip-rooted near the mother plant.  I planted one on the goat wire fence at the entrance to the Long Border, and I planted the other one next to the trailing purple lantana in the Rose Garden.  Fertilized, watered and mulched. 
• I dug up six or so plugs of Ox Eye Daisies and planted them near the altheas.  Watered them in and mulched around them.
• I dug up three plugs of Homestead Purple Verbena growing in paths and planted them in beds in the Rose Garden.
• Next I dug up four clumps of cannas (no-name bargain bin cannas) and moved them away from my white sweet shrub.  The cannas have been crowding the sweet shrub for a couple of years.  I'm not sure she will make it, but she has a better chance now.  I planted the clumps of cannas in the Star Garden in various places.  They are pretty good bloomers and worth saving.
• I raked in the Star Garden.  All the trees are bare now, so I can start raking out the beds and paths.   The sprinklers came on, so I moved to the Medicine Garden.
• I raked in the Medicine Garden.  Filled 30 or so wheelbarrows with leaves and wheeled them over to the unfinished areas of the Star Garden.  The leaves condition the soil and keep down the weeds.  I also dumped some over the daffodils I planted last weekend in the Daffodil Border.
• I planted 250 Sweetness daffodils in the Daffodil Border last weekend.  And 200 Excelsior Spanish Bluebells and 200 Star of Bethlehems (AKA Silver Bells) along the driveway adjacent to the Shade Garden.  Star of Bethlehem is Ornithogalum nutans.  I've never grown them, but I've been curious about them. 
• I did something I've been meaning to do for several years.  I dug up my Ellen Bosanquet crinum and moved it to a sunnier location.  I bought two of them at the River Oaks plant sale some years ago.  I planted them both in the shade which, as it turns out is not good.  In my defense I saw a picture in Scott Ogden's bulb book, and it looked like they could take shade. They have never thrived or multiplied and one of them actually died.  You have to be a pretty bad gardener to kill a crinum, but I did.  I planted it in the Long Border near the crinums that my sister gave me.  
• Spent the night on Sunday and drove in to work on Monday morning. 

Thanksgiving Week at the Farm 2018

 Tuesday morning when I went outside in the early morning the sun looked so pretty shining through the Shade Garden.

I took the week off and Bert and I spent the better part of the week at the farm.

• Saturday Will, Kim and the kids came for a visit and spent the night.  We played outside, I pushed the kids on the swing, we made jewelry from a kit, and played Lite Brite.  They left around lunch time on Sunday.
• We have had our first freeze, so everything is shriveled up.  I spent some time working outside pulling up the Mexican Sunflowers.  I got rid of the ones in the Rose Edge Border, the Star Garden and the Vegetable Garden.  I also spent some time straightening up in the Vegetable Garden.  I cut back the dead vegetation in the big asparagus bed in preparation for fertilizing and mulching.  I stacked tomato cages and pulled a few weeds.  I'll be back in there to cut back the small asparagus bed, rake etc.  But it's a start.
• Monday was rainy in the morning.  I transplanted ten or so Ox Eye Daisies from paths and into the flower bed that runs alongside the path to the Boardwalk.
• I went to the grocery store and bought all my Thanksgiving ingredients as well as food for the girls.  Josh and Amy are leaving the girls with me after Thanksgiving through the weekend (or as long as I can last).
• I worked in the Vegetable Garden for a while.  I mulched with two truckloads of mulch.  Spread it over four empty beds - I'm leaving them fallow for the winter.  I fertilized and mulched around my garlic and carrots.  Fertilized and mulched the big asparagus bed and fertilized the small one.  Raked leaves and debris.
• Fertilized all my emerging bulbs in the Bulb Bed, the Daffodil Border, Rose Edge, and here and there in the Star Garden. 
• Tuesday was cold and sunny, a beautiful day.  I pulled up all the frozen zinnias in the Orchard, roughed up the soil and sowed the last of my coneflower seeds.  I also spread some red corn poppies that were left over from last year.  They might not sprout, they are so tiny I'm not sure how long they remain viable.  I also spread some parsley along the front edge of the bed.  And I spread some of the peony poppies from Maedell.
• In the Star Garden I spread some Feverfew seeds that I found in my seed box.  
• And in the shady part of the Star Garden next to the Banana Shrub, I spread 2 packages of McKana's Giant Columbine seed.
• I spent some time cleaning up the area around the Banana Shrub, lots of dead vegetation such as Philippine Lily stems.  I spread some lily seeds around, and I raked the path.
• I spent some more time raking in the Star Garden.  There are tons and tons of acorns everywhere.