At the Farm During the Pandemic May 25 - 31, 2020

These are some of my pretty daylilies.

• Josh and the girls came for a visit arriving Monday evening (Memorial Day) and departing Wednesday afternoon.  We had a nice visit.  On Wednesday while the girls were napping I brought Josh out to the Rose Garden to see the baby cardinals in the nest, but they had fledged and were long gone.  I had seen them in the nest just the day before!
• Our first visitor showed up from the EcoLab program.  He walked the property and collected soil samples.  He is particularly interested in wooly croton, red lovegrass and partridge pea.  He wasn't too sociable and just came and went without much discussion.  I was hoping I could walk with him and he would name some of the vegetation for me, but he was in a hurry.
• Wednesday evening I spent about 2 hours in the Rose Garden.  It had rained and the temperature dropped.  It was easy work in the cool air.  I culled.  Pulled up Brown Eyed Susans, cut back Verbena Bonariensis, pulled weeds and lots of that nasty vine, deadheaded roses, cut back Tickseed, and spread seed. 
• Bert and I sat on the porch and watched a terrific storm come through - lightening strikes and thunder and thunderous rain.  The lightening continued long after we went to bed, lighting up the back over and over in very eerie and ghostly way.  I was glad I wasn't by myself!
• Thursday.  Bert called me out to the shed.  Lined up along the edge of our power washer were the four little wrens from the nest - learning to fly.  Pretty cute.  We were there to see the beginning.
• I did some more weeding in the Rose Garden.  Then I spent a little time in the Greenhouse Garden weeding.  I spent about 45 minutes in the Orchard weeding the Jujube bed.  I pulled up lots of dollar weed, some crabgrass, and some spent wildflowers.  I cut back my Duelberg salvia to rejuvenate it.
• The coneflower is magnificent right now.  I'm very proud of my coneflower.  I grew it from seed, and it took two years to get my first flowers. So it is a wonderful feeling looking at all the blooms.   
• After work I deadheaded my Indigo Spires salvia.  And I spent some time cleaning out the Bulb Bed of wilted, brown daffodil greenery and spent Ox Eye daisy flowers.  The white mist flower is coming on strong in there.  
• Weeded in the Star Garden.
• Cut back Four O'Clocks that were leaning into the path.
• Friday.Worked.
• Saturday.  I started laying down the rock that we retrieved from under the deck around the pool.  Bert nailed boards along the bottom of the deck to create an edge, so all the rock could be used for something else.  I used some of it along the edge of the apple bed in the Orchard.  The metal landscape edge had sunk into the ground over time, so there was no edging around that bed.  It looked bad.  It still needs more to complete the circle.
• I used some of the rock to line the path that leads from the back door to the pool.  The armadillos have really messed that up with dirt strewn everywhere.  I used my trowel to scoop dirt back into the bed and then I placed the rock.   I cut spent Ox Eye stems and pulled up scraggly stuff.  I didn't finish, but I stopped to eat some breakfast. 
• Sowed some zinnia seeds in the Star Garden.
• Pulled up the sweet peas.
• Finished laying down rock along the back path.  I planted plugs of Strawberry Begonia in a large section of the walkway bed.  Debra gave it to me.  I've never grown it, don't know much about it.  But that bed is in shade, so I think it will take off.
• I spent about 2 hours in the Orchard.  I trimmed away at the grape vines so that the little grapes could get sun.  I cut away at spent blackberry canes and hauled them off.  Picked blackberries.  Not enough to make jelly again, unfortunately.  Cobbler it is!  Trimmed low branches on the apple and the plums, just enough to make it easier to walk around.  Weeded a bit.
• I planted 8 hot pink / orange and pale pink / pale yellow lantana in the Rose Garden.  They are work horses in the Garden, they like it hot.  After all the Brown Eyed Susans finish blooming there will be nothing around the roes.  So I'm tucking them in here and there.  Butterflies love lantana.
• I planted 3 Ellen Bosanquet  crinum in the Long Border.  This fall, winter and spring I have planted crinums in the Long Border:  Summer Nocturne (pale pink based on the photo), some that Debra gave me (she told me they are dark pink), and now the Bosanquets.  None of them will bloom this year since they were just planted.  They take up a lot of space, and I need to fill up the Long Border.  I also moved some cannas in there last fall.  Along with the Indigo Spires, the phlox, some iris, some moss verbena, perennial ageratum, the cannas and crinums that have been there for years, cypress vine on a trellis, and two climbing roses (Peggy Martin and Veilcenblau) there is only a small space left for seeds.  That suits me fine.
• I planted two Biltmore Ballgown Abutilon in the Medicine Garden.  I already don't like where I planted them (too close together).  I dug up two Rosemary in order to put them there  The spot was always too shady for Rosemary, so that was a good think to do.  I planted the Rosemary in the Star Garden.  I like where I planted one of the Rosemary, but I will regret where I planted the other (amongst my Flowering Almond shrubs).  Maybe I will move it Sunday.
• Sunday.  I watered here and there with my watering can - seedlings, pots and such.
• I spent four hours in the Vegetable Garden.  I pulled up spent things like squash (burrowing insects get in the stem and kill them), dill, etc.  I harvested the last of the beets, the carrots, onions (small  and pathetic), squash, and potatoes. I hauled rock from next to the pool where Bert fixed the deck over to the little piece of bed next to the goat wire arbor.  I built up the bed with the rock.  Then I filled it with my compost and horse manure.  Turned it over.  I turned over five other beds.  Whew.  Hot work.  I sowed Clemson Spineless okra, red amaranth, red basil, lots of French marigolds (tucked in everywhere), and Giant Sunflower (just for fun).  Also sowed some zinnias in the buckets. I staked 2 Mexican sunflowers and another sunflower that I don't remember sowing - but good for me.  It has lots of buds on it, can't wait to see what it is.  Job well done.
• I drove to Antique Rose Emporium to see if they had any lantana since I'm on a lantana kick.  But they had none.  I drove home by way of Brenham to see if Home Depot had any lantana , but they didn't either.  I will have to wait until the weekend and get it at Arbor Gate.  Blake and her girlfriends are going to be here this weekend for a girls thing, and Bert and I are going to Houston.
• Weeded a bit, did a little bit of watering.  That was it for me.  
  

Coneflower May 29, 2020

At the Farm During the Pandemic May 18 - 24, 2020

• Monday.  Worked.
• Did some weeding.
• Picked blackberries.
• Walked the Meadow.  It is really pretty right now.  Brown eyed Susans, Standing Cypress and Red Gaillardia are the stars of the show - really outstanding. 
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• I sowed a packet of Autumn Beauty sunflowers, some in the Vegetable Garden and some in the Star Garden.  I don't have a lot of space in the Vegetable Garden right now.  I'm keeping a few spaces open for okra.  And there are a few spaces with larkspur going to seed that will be available soon for okra and maybe more sunflowers.  And of course once the tomato plants are pulled up I will have even more space for okra and amaranth and sunflowers.  But all three of those plants can grow in true Texas heat, so I'm in no hurry.
• The Nigella seed heads were mostly dried, so I pulled up a bunch of it and spread the seed throughout the Star Garden.
• Weeded in the Dining Room bed.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• Every day I look for dried seed heads of my Ox Eye daisies.  I scrape them into my hand and distribute them here there and everywhere - in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.  Today was no exception.  
• From my work space at the dining room table I watched the birds bathe in the bird baths.  Each morning I dump out yesterday's water and fill them with fresh water.  Doves, Painted Buntings, birds I can't identify (which I think are juveniles), cardinals, Titmouses (Titmice?) - so much fun to watch.
• Celebrated Bert's birthday.  69 years old.  Where did the time go?
• Thursday.  Worked.
• Spent time cutting plants away from the paths and tying back plants in preparation for our Airbnb guests that arrive on Saturday.  Bert mowed everything on Tuesday.  Picked up personal things, put them away.  Cleared closet space, etc.  Gathered up what I want to bring home with me for the weekend. 
• Sowed a packet of sunflower seeds in the Rose Garden, mixed variety. 
• I walked over to the Greenhouse to check on things.  It was really dry, so then I noticed that the automatic sprinkler apparatus wasn't working.  Damn, that's crap timing since I'll be gone for the weekend.  It's always something with those timers.
• I spread some zinnia seeds and watered them in.
• Adjusted the times on the sprinkler system.
• Friday - worked then headed home to Houston.
• Saturday and Sunday and Monday - did nothing.  No one wanted to get together for Memorial Day because of Covid.

At the Farm During the Pandemic May 11 - 17, 2020

This is Cypress Vine.  Cypress Vine will stand up under its own weight.  Sometimes tall plants have to be staked, but this one does not.

• Monday.  Worked.
• Someone left the Vegetable Garden gate open (probably me) and an armadillo got in, tore up the small asparagus bed.  I put all the soil back, smoothed it out.  
• I pulled up the dead vegetation in my round pot in the Star Garden and sowed some zinnia seeds.
• Watered all my potted plants.
• I watched a male cardinal pick all the tiny butterfly caterpillars off my fennel while I sat at the kitchen table working. Again and again.  Grr. 
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• I cut back lots of Spiderwort in the Star Garden around the white mist flower and flowering almond shrubs.
• I pulled up all the tall poppy mallow in the Rose Garden.  It was leggy and unruly.  It had not gone to seed yet, but that's okay.  I can re-seed in the fall.  Weeded.  Cleaned up the partially dormant daffodil greenery - it was spread out all over the bed near the front of the garden.  Weeded around La Vesuve rose.  Pulled up up some brown eyed Susans that the voles had killed.
• Weeded in the Long Border.
• Cleaned up the dried vegetation from the hurricane lilies in the althea bed in the Rose Garden.
• The whole time I was working in there I was trying to stay away from the mama Cardinal nesting in the rose shrub.  She was very worried.
• I pulled up spent poppies in the Star Garden.
• My parrot glads are blooming.  I dug up lots of them in very early spring.  They had multiplied vigorously, but unfortunately they were growing in the shade behind a spicebush.  I planted them in various places in the Star Garden.  I didn't expect them to do much since I dug them up after they had already put on lots of greenery.  But a handful of them are blooming, and I couldn't be happier.  These are the old-fashioned passalong glads - orange and yellow, smaller than the fancy ones.  But so pretty.
• Thursday. Worked.
• I seeded an area in the Rose Garden that I cleared out yesterday.  Put up a chicken wire wall in front of it.  There are other ways for the armadillos to get past my barrier, but I'm hoping they are too stupid to find them.
• Weeded amongst the iris in the large dining room flowerbed.bed.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Star Garden.  
• Trimmed iris flags that were leaning into a path in the Star Garden.
• Texted Debra to see if she wanted any of my parrot glad bulbs.  I'm going to dig them up from behind the spicebush before they die back and I can't find them.  
• Spent a bit of time weeding in the Medicine Garden.  It can be hard to distinguish between a particular weed that I suffer from and the catnip that I seeded in the Medicine Garden this spring.  So I weeded discerningly. 
• Friday.  Worked.  Good hard rain Friday night.
• Saturday.  I cut back all the Duelberg salvias in the Star Garden.  I cut back the nemorosa salvias in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.  
• I worked for quite some time in the bed near the front in the Star Garden.  I pulled up brown eyed Susans and spent Nigella.  Cut away verbena on a stick that was getting unruly.  Pulled up weeds.  Basically made room for the next phase of flowers and cleared out space around my young roses (Carefree Beauty, Cinco de Mayo, and Julia Child.  I will seed with zinnias. 
• Deadheaded my Butterfly rose and cleared out some Obedient Plant that was growing underneath Butterfly.
• Dug up a bunch of Parrot Glads for me and to give to Debra.  Planted mine near the ones that are blooming right now.  Drove over to Deb's house and gave her some.
• Pulled up brown eyed Susans and Tickseed out of the front bed.  They were leaning on my daylilies which are about to bloom, so they needed to go away.  Cut back the Ox Eye daisies next to Marie d'Orleans rose.
• I went down to the Orchard next.  During this period of staying here, I only work in the Orchard on the weekends.  It can be pretty daunting, too discouraging to go down for twenty minutes during my lunch hour.  I tied up a few Giant Rudbeckia, but mostly I weeded, weeded, weeded.  The day lilies look really pretty, and most are loaded with buds.  Lots of apples on the apple tree, lots of plums on the wild plum tree.  And so many blackberries.  I pulled up all the tall poppy mallow and cut back lots of tickseed.  I also pulled up dollar weed in the Jujube bed.  Yuck.
• I spent some time in the Kitchen Herb Garden pulling up mint and making room for the other herbs growing in there.  The mint had taken over.  I uncovered some chives and oregano that I had forgotten about.
• Cut back some more Duelberg salvia in the Star Garden.  Cut back lots of Tickseed.
• I picked a large bowl full of blackberries and made jelly.
• That was it for Saturday. 
• Sunday.  I weeded for a while in the Dining Room bed.  I'm really trying to stay on top of this bed this year.  I'm here every day, looking out the window as I work.  It only takes a few moments to go outside and pull up a weed here and there.
• I went down to the Orchard.  Bert joined me for a while and cut some low-growing branches on one of the plum trees and the Jujube tree.  I cut some branches off one of the apple trees and some of the thin low-growing branches of the crab apple and Jujube.  
• Weeded.  Raked.  Scooped soil back in to beds where the armadillos had scratched it out.  I brought my oil can of poison, and I cut and poisoned a Beautyberry and a Poke Salit that were growing in one of my blackberry beds.  I cut away some grape vines that were growing along the ground at the base of the vine.  And I snipped away at tendrils (to keep the vines from getting unruly).  I spent a couple of hours out there.
• Sowed some zinnias in the space I cleared yesterday at the front of the Star Garden.  Surrounded it with Chicken wire.  Also surrounded a space I seeded the other day.
• Staked some Giant Rudbeckia.
• Bert surprised me by clearing a path to a clearing in the woods.  We were looking at it a couple of evenings ago while riding around in the cadet.  I commented that we should clear a path so we could walk to the clearing - it is so rare to have a space with no yaupon choking it.  I was thrilled.  It's so pretty in there.  I walked through it and found a stand of Purple Pleat Leaf growing in there.  What a wonderful find! And what a sweet husband.

Some of My Altheas Blooming Now May 17, 2020

This is China Chiffon.

 This is one of my newest additions.  I planted it last winter.  This is Minerva.

This is Strawberry Smoothie.  Sam helped me plant this in 2019.

This is called Double Red.

This is a new althea called White Pillar.  It is a little more frothy than my single white Diane. althea.

Some of My Day Lilies May 17, 2020

Terry's Crinums May 17, 2020

I've never really put the dates together before, but my sister's birthday is in 8 days.  And she passed on just days before that (I have refused to commit that date to memory).  And the bulbs she got me for my birthday bloom at this time every year.  I don't know why I have never put that together before.  But it is lovely.

Painted Lady Runner Beans on my Arbors May 17, 2020

I sowed some Painted Lady Runner Beans on my front arbor and the arbor in the Rose Garden.  They are just beginning to bloom.  The ones I sowed on the front arbor were just intended to be a little color until my passionflower vine broke dormancy.  But apparently it is not going to come back.  Third time was not the charm.  I have tried to grow passionflower vine 3 times, and it has never come back after the first winter.  We had a very mild winter, so I don't think it was the temperature.  And everything around it survived fine, so I don't think it was a water issue. Was it voles?  I guess I'll never know.

 This is the arbor in the Rose Garden.

This is Why Kiowa Blackberries are the Best Berries to Grow May 17, 2020

Kiowa makes huge berries.  Yes, the canes have lots of thorns.  But I've grown a thornless variety, and in my experience the plants just sort of disappear over time.  You look up one spring and there are none growing anywhere.  But Kiowa persists.
Blackberry brambles are hard work.  You have to remove the old canes.  If you don't get in there with loppers and hand snips every year and cut away the old canes, you will really end up with an un-navigable patch of pain. Blackberries grow on year-old growth.  The new growth is springing up right when you are picking the berries from last year's growth.  As soon as all the berries have been picked, there is no sense in waiting, you can get in there and cut away the canes (before it gets too hot).  I never do that - I procrastinate until it is 100 degrees outside, but it's good advice nevertheless.  Maybe I'll take my advice someday.

Parrot Gladiolus May 15, 2020

I dug up these bulbs (from behind a shrub) in early spring after they had already produced some greenery.  I didn't think I would have any blooms this year.  But they look so pretty!

At the Farm During the Pandemic May 5 - 11, 2020

You can really see the Verbena on a Stick in this photo.  This photo is looking into the Rose Garden.  Maybe I have over-done the verbena, but it is an amazing butterfly magnet.  If you want to entertained by the insect world, this is the plant to make that happen.

• Monday.  Worked.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• Sprayed the Star Garden here and there with herbicide.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• Sprayed the Rose Garden with herbicide.
• Thursday.  Worked.
• I trimmed the grape vines again, trying to get rid of all the non-fruiting tender vines trying to reach everywhere.  Its' only a theory, but I'm hoping to keep those cut back so that the grapes get more sun.  I am working on getting a better crop.
• Pulled weeds here and there.
• The plums on my wild plum are getting a bit bigger.  I'm pinning all my hopes on the wild plums since my large plum crop failed from the late freeze.
• Tied a few plants back in the Star Garden.
• Lucas was here today with his crew.  He worked on all our sprinkler heads and also put in another station in the Star Garden so that we would have better coverage.  He also ran pipe out to the bottom of the Rose Garden and the shady part of the Star Garden and put in faucets.  The shady part of the Star Garden was not there when we got our initial sprinkler system, and we couldn't afford to put in a sprinkler system in the Rose Garden.  Now it's too late to put in a system in those gardens unless they tear up all my beds.  But with a faucets in those spots I can put automatic timers in with some hoses.  It's not pretty, but prettier than before.  The hoses are still strung everywhere, but they are in less intrusive places.  Also, now I have four sprinklers in the Rose Garden when I used to have three.  And I have two hoses in the Shady Star Garden when I used to have one.  Yay!
• Friday.  All I did was water in the Rose Garden and cut away some rosemary that was growing into the path of the Long Border.  
• I drove to the mail box, my zinnia seeds had been delivered.  Tomorrow is seed-sowing time.
• Bert and I walked out to the Vegetable Garden and I picked some asparagus and the first zucchini of the season.  The heavy winds today had caused the tomatoes to lean over.  We will work on propping them up in the morning.  Several poblano peppers have formed.  We love poblanos stuffed with cheese and baked in the oven,  Lots of jalapenos too.  Flowers on the eggplant - I'm only growing one this year - we can only eat so much eggplant.  And lots of green tomatoes on the vine.  Hopefully the birds let us get our fair share.  The beans I sowed last weekend are just popping up.  And the old amaranth seed that I sowed last weekend are sprouting - the seed packet was dated 2016, so I wasn't sure if it would sprout.  No cucumbers yet, but flowers are blooming. 
• Saturday.  In to Carmine with Bert to buy a bag of cottonseed meal.
• I sowed lots of zinnia seeds in the empty bed where the Fortunes Double grows.  Spread some mulch.  Put up a chicken wire barrier across the front of it.  Watered it in.
• I dug up a bunch of hurricane lilies in the front bed of the Circle Drive.  Called Debra to see if she wants some.  Smoothed the soil.  In one section I planted about 30 African Hostas that had sprung up in the path under the Paw Paw tree.  I sprinkled lots of Beutyberry seeds off one of my shrubs into the bed as well.  And in the sunny spot I sowed a bunch of zinnia seeds.  That bed should get more water now that the sprinkler head was adjusted.  Laid down chicken wire across the seeds and staked it down.
• Planted 10 of the hurricane lily bulbs in the Rose Edge Border.  I'll probably plant some more.
• Carol stopped by in her Model A car.  
• Did some weeding in the Rose Garden - always.  
• Bert set up and adjusted all the hoses using the new faucet by the Rose Garden.  He was worrying to death the cardinal sitting on her nest in one of the rose shrubs, poor thing.
• Debra came by and took 20 or so of the bulbs, and I planted the rest in the Rose Edge Border. 
• Spent some time adjusting Rose Garden sprinklers. 
• Weeded.
• Sunday.  Max, Julia, Luke, and Blake and her family came up for the day to spend Mothers Day with me and Bert.  We had a nice day.   

Flowers Blooming Now May 9, 2020

 This is an althea bloom.

 Some of the last of my red corn poppies.  I've pulled almost all of them up.

 This is Innwood daylily.

 This is a bargain bin canna, don't know the name.

 A pretty red daylily, don't know the name.

 Brown eyed Susans, horsemint and tall poppy mallow

 Martha's Vineyard rose, Caldwell Pink rose, and brown eyed Susans, Standing Cypress and coreopsis.

 Various roses, not blooming, Verbena on a Stick, daisies, wild flowers and some iris.

 Lots of Giant Rudbeckia in the photo above.

 Parsley going to seed, poppies.

 Althea, canna, salvia, Giant Rudbeckia, wildflowers