At the Farm During the Pandemic February 8 - 21, 2021

 

This is our rain chain, frozen solid.

• Monday.  Worked.
• I pruned the roses in the front beds.
• I spent time in the Kitchen Herb Garden which had basically turned into a mint garden.  I pulled up mint for 20 minutes and didn't finish.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• I pruned my Mutabilis rose in the Star Garden.  It becomes a monster over the spring, summer and fall.  
• Spent more time in the Kitchen Herb Garden pulling up mint and doing some general weeding.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• I pruned my Perl d'Or and Cramoisier Superior in the Rose Garden.  Snipped a bit at my Maggie that grows nearby. 
• Pruned the 2 little white roses (their name is escaping me this red hot moment) outside the dining room window.
• Cold and drizzly on Wednesday.  The weather is supposed to get extremely cold Thursday through the end of the week - well below freezing for several days, very unusual for this part of Texas.  Bert removed all the timers from the outside faucets, they always break in cold weather.  And he wrapped all the pipes that are exposed, etc.  We won't be here, we have Airbnb guests through the weekend until Tuesday.
• I hope I don't lose all the blooms on my daffodils - they are full of buds.  I have no idea how these Sweetness daffodils will perform in these temperatures, nor the paperwhites for that matter.  
• I picked lots of kale for a salad.  Kale likes cold weather, but I thought it would be a good idea to harvest some before the extended freeze.
• Airbnb guests left early - husband is a fireman and got called in due to the weather emergency.  We drove up here on Sunday.  Extreme cold, ice and snow for five days.  I definitely won't have daffodil blooms this year.  The greenery basically looks like jelly.  They will come back next winter, but I'm sad that I missed a year.  Not sure what I will lose permanently.  I don't cover anything up - if a plant can't make it on its own in bad weather, I will just plant something else.
• Saturday Feb 20 - I pruned all the La Marne roses in the Star Garden.   In the Rose Garden, I pruned my Caldwell Pink for the first time, I have had her for 3 or 4 years.  She is a very twiggy rose.  I pruned Louis Philippe, 3 Belinda's Dream, and Mrs. Dudley Cross. And I pruned some of my small roses which doesn't take long, I just do a few snips here and there.  The sun was shining all day,  and the cold weather felt great.  Hard to believe we had single digit temperatures just a couple of days ago.  
• Sunday.  I went out first thing and pruned my grapes.  I got almost finished.  It's a bit of a project.  It will only take one more hour, but the bees started getting pretty active.  I will go out there first thing in the morning one day next week and finish.  The only area remaining is directly in front of the hive.  
• I pruned Archduke Charles in the Star Garden.  In the Rose Garden I pruned Le Vesuve (my thorniest rose), Valentine, and Ducher.
• I cut back a thryallis in the back yard.
• I cut back my Pam Puryear Turks Cap along the Boardwalk. And I started cutting back my red Turks Cap but didn't finish. 
• I moved 4 clumps of Inland Sea Oats from the dining room bed over to the Shade Garden.  They got so big a messy last year in the dining room bed that it was literally creepy getting in there to weed.  Maybe I will leave one there, but the rest need to go.  
• Spray painted the green bird feeder and the wire butterfly in the Shade Garden with red paint.  I decided to put some red accents in the Shade Garden.  Bert put a new bench in there with red legs (the old one rotted from the constant sprinkler water hitting it).  It was actually kind of an interesting coincidence - Josh was the one that sat in it when it collapsed.  The Shade Garden is dedicated to Josh.  I painted a little wooden bird house attached to a tree red, and we moved an old red barbecue grill in there to re-purpose as a planter.  I am planning to put one more red thing in there, some red wine bottles, probably just upside down stuck in a clay pot.
• I used up the last little bit of wood stain painting a big spot on the front arbor that I couldn't get to last year.  The Ballerina roses were blocking one of the posts.  Now that I cut the Ballerinas down to the ground I was able to paint that post.  And I stained 3 pieces of fencing in the Rose Garden that Bert replaced a couple of weeks ago. 

At the Farm During the Pandemic February 1 - 7, 2021

 

This is Coral Delight camellia.

• Monday.  Worked.
• I finally planted a few of the Alocasias that I dug up from Amy and Josh's back yard.  I  planted two good sized bulbs (or whatever you call them - tubers?) in the thryallis bed in the back.  That soil is dense with roots, and whatever goes in that bed has to have a pretty strong will to live.  So those should be perfect.  I spread some humus and manure over the top of them to give them a little encouragement.  I planted one of the tubers in a pot that sits by the swimming pool.  And I stuck a tiny one in a bed in the Star Garden.  I have a few more, but I will likely throw them out.
• I planted 3 Mrs. James Hendry crinum bulbs in my mom's garden. 
• I cut a few yaupons in the Shade Garden and poisoned the tips. That whole area used to be yaupon scrub.  It was the one of the first gardens I ever built.  We cleared out all the yaupon, it was hard work.  But yaupon is impossible to eradicate completely.  I try to find them and pull them up when they are very small, but if I miss them, they get too big to pull up (without hurting my self). 
• Tuesday.  Worked.
•  I pruned my pink Vitex.
• I cut back the white mist flower in the Star Garden. 
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• I pruned one of my blue Vitex and part of the other.
• I gave my Royal Velvet camellia a good watering.  My hose busted over there, and Bert will have to repair it.
• I cut back some grasses and gathered up some Philippine Lily stalks.
• I cut back a couple of Philippine Violets. 
• And I did some raking in the Star Garden.
• After work I planted some potatoes - red and yellow.  I tucked them in all over the place.  I still have more to plant.
• Thursday.  Worked.
• Bert bought the trough that I'm going to use for my water garden.  Very exciting!  He set it up steady on some stones.   
• I know I should feel bad, but Southern Bulb Company accidentally sent me 3 more Mrs. James Hendry crinums.  At some point I had called them and changed the delivery address, and that must have thrown them for a loop because they sent me another order.  I don't feel bad, I'm super excited!  They are very expensive bulbs, with tax and shipping they cost $100.
• I planted the stolen bulbs in my mom's garden.
• I planted a few more potatoes in the Vegetable Garden and threw the rest in the compost pile.
• I cut back my Copper Canyon daisies and a few other plants.
• Cut back the 3 Thryallis in the back bed.  While I was there I cut back my bunny grasses and a few Siberian iris clumps.  The back bed needs some help.  Horseherb got a foothold in those beds, and it is a booger to pull up.  Yuck.  I hate that weed - some folks think it is a great groundcover.  I disagree.
• Friday.  Worked.
• Bert went to Schroeder's and got a yard of mulch for me.
• Headed to Houston after work to spend the night and go to Cleo's birthday party on Saturday.
• No work in the garden.  We had a good hard rain.  Cold and wet.
• Returned Saturday evening.
• Sunday.
• Picked the first 2 asparagus of the season.  Weeded (not very many weeds in the asparagus beds, I am diligent about keeping them cleaned out because they don't like competition) and spread mulch.
• I pulled up all the tall poppy mallow that had completely taken over one of my 4x4 beds in the Vegetable Garden.  Turned the soil and spread mulch over the top. 
• I planted 2 Augusta Duelberg (white) salvia, 3 white trailing lantana and 3 white petunias in my mom's garden.  Mulched.
• Mulched around all the other plantings in there - the lilies, bulbs, camellia, althea, verbenas, rose, and iris.  
• I used up all the mulch except for one wheel barrow-ful.  I will use the last bit here and there.
• Next, I painted the fence around my mom's garden with some green paint Bert found in the shed. Yay, we didn't have to buy paint - that's a savings.  Bert also found the light green paint that we painted the Greenhouse, so I painted the back of the Greenhouse.  The back of the Greenhouse was pretty rust stained and grubby from years of junk being stored behind it.  Now that one of the entrances to the garden is right there, it needed a face lift.  I also painted the wood trim on the Greenhouse that Bert just replaced.  

At the Farm During the Pandemic January 24 - 31, 2021

 

My Zeolite calendulas looked pretty today.  There is a special sort of pride that comes from growing flowers from seed, it's more satisfying than buying bedding plants and seeing them grow and bloom.  Starting from a tiny seed is particularly rewarding.

Arrived on Sunday afternoon.  We had Airbnb guests over the weekend.

• I never tend to do much when part of the day has already passed by.  I like to start working first thing in the morning.  
• I did some weeding in the Orchard.  
• I dug around the mulberry stump to see what I was up against.  I bought a Sam Houston peach tree to plant in its place (I'm planting a peach tree because I thrive on heart ache I guess).  I was trying to find out how hard it would be to dig it out.  It turned out Bert came down there and was able to push it over.  There is still a lot to dig out, but it's a start.
• I walked around the Rose Garden and saw an enormous vole pile near my Old Blush rose, so I ran the hose down the hole and tried to mush down the soil.
• I dug a big hole for my new Sea Foam camellia and filled the hole 3 times with water to get the soil really wet.  I'm planting it in my mom's garden.  So far, I'm sticking with the white theme.  
• I chose Sea Foam camellia because the flowers are white.  But also because it is described as a vigorous grower and an excellent, very popular variety.  Vigorous for a camellia is still pretty slow.
• Monday.  Worked.
• I planted the Sea Foam camellia in the hole I dug the day before.  I added lots of shale chips to the bottom of the hole and lots of mushroom compost. 
• I spent a little time cutting back branches on Turk's Cap in the Greenhouse Garden.
• And I spent a little time in the Star Garden pulling up Obedient plant that had spread into a path.  I never re-plant Obedient Plant.  I pull it up and throw it away.  
• I went down to the Orchard with my loppers and cut away some of the mulberry roots that I had run into with my shovel the day before.  
• Pulled some weeds. 
• After work I dug up about 20 Philippine Lilies out of paths and planted them in my mom's garden.
• I planted a White Pillar althea in my mom's garden.
• And I planted 15 Colonial White verbena in my mom's garden - half around the Madame Alfred Carriere climbing rose and the other half around the althea.
• Along the fence line closest to the Greenhouse, I sowed lots of Sweet Autumn Clematis seed that I collected from my vine in the Orchard.
• Tuesday. 
• During the lunch hour I raked the Star Garden and did a little watering.
• I gathered up and discarded dead debris from my black seeded moudry grasses.  I can see that the voles were munching away on the roots.  There were barely any clumps to trim back, it mostly was an exercise of gathering up the fallen debris.  That's okay.  It will come back from the zillions of seeds that it throws off.
• After work I worked on my future peach tree hole down in the Orchard.  
• I planted 2 Kiowa blackberry plants in the Orchard that I bought from Arbor Gate.
• Bert and I admired his work in my mom's garden and discussed future activities.
• At dusk, Bert and I drove around the property.  The moon was full and the air smelled of green, cold, damp earth.  The beautiful full moon was shining through the bare limbs of the oaks, and we both commented on it simultaneously. And it was good to know that we were so connected at that moment in time. 
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• In the morning before work I went out to the Vegetable Garden and cut the tops off my brussels sprouts.  This is supposed to concentrate all the growth on the sprouts.  I might be too late on this.  I've never had success with brussels sprouts.  My neighbor gave me a six pack of them last fall, so I planted them.  I have fertilized them twice. 
• During lunch I cut back the blue mist flower in the Star Garden.  It dropped so much seed.  Yuck.  That particular variety of mist flower is pretty, but it gets enormous.  It took up so much space in the flower bed.  Based on how many seeds it dropped when I cut it down, I will be pulling up seedlings aggressively.
•  While I was over there I decided to cut away the deadwood on my Peggy Martin.  I clipped and cut and pulled.  And finally I decided that it was completely beyond saving regarding whether it could be trained.  So I cut the entire thing down to the ground.  If she forgives me and sends up new canes I will start over training her.  And she will probably send up new canes because Peggy Martin is famous for being resilient. 
• Thursday.  Worked.
• I drove over to the ditch on Sandtown Rd where the old Cemetery iris are growing.  I dug up 10 or so.  I planted them in my mom's garden.
• After work I spent about 30 minutes in the Shade Garden snapping all the twigs of Snakeroot and gathering them up in the wheelbarrow.  And gathering all the dead debris of my gingers and putting them in the wheelbarrow to be disposed of later (my husband will do it for me if I don't do it promptly, so I don't do it promptly...).
• Friday.  Worked.
• At lunch I cut away dead branches on my Fortunes Double rose. 
• I enlisted Bert's help to cut off all the massive canes on my two Ballerina roses.  They were alive but really old and scraggly.  I'm hoping it will rejuvenate those old roses so that they will throw out some new growth.  We'll see.  
• The paperwhites are beginning to bloom.  It's a favorite season of mine.  I love the sweet smell.  After they finish blooming I will move some of them to my mom's garden. They are very dear to me as is she.
• Saturday.  Straightened up the house and did some laundry and changed the sheets.
• I planted my Sam Houston peach tree in the Orchard.  I cut it down to my knee level which is what you are supposed to do the first season.  Watered it in well.
• While I was down there I gave my Celeste fig tree a good watering.
• I cut up seed potatoes and spread them on a cookie sheet to dry out before I plant them.
• I went to work in my mom's garden shoveling a yard of mushroom compost that Bert picked up with the trailer on Thursday.  Made quick work of that.
• Next, I raked up pine needles to mulch down in the Orchard.  I weeded and then laid down pine straw in an area around where I planted the blackberries.
• William and the kids came up for the afternoon.  William and Bert consulted on placement of the zipline.  They decided 2 tree would have to be taken down (which I'm not too happy about).
• Sunday.  I decided I'd better start cutting back dead debris because we are beginning to book up on Airbnb.  
• I cut the red shrimp plant down to the ground in the Star Garden and the Greenhouse Gardens.
• I pruned my Climbing Pinkie.  I watched a youtube video on how to prune climbers.  It was really helpful.  
• I cut down all my canna vegetation in the Star Garden.  
• I gathered up dead ginger vegetation in all the gardens.  
• I cut back a few Turks Cap, but that is a big job all in itself, for another day.
• I cut all the Elderberry down to the ground.
• I cut some of my henna to the ground, still more to go on that.
• I pulled up dead Philippine lily stalks.
• I cut back some grasses to the ground, I handled most of that a week or so ago.
• I cut back most of my white Philippine Violets.
• I cut back a few of my autumn sages, more to go on that.
• I still need to cut back my Vitex trees and all my roses.  And as mentioned previously, all my Turks Cap must be cut back.  And I still have to prune my grape vines.  I am waiting to cut back my salvias  for a few more weeks.  And there are zillions of this and thats such as my white mist flower, thryallis shrubs, butterfly weed, etc., etc.
• I moved many Verbena Bonariensis plantlets from paths into flowerbeds in the Rose Garden.  And I moved a few Ox Eyes from paths into beds in the Star Garden.
• I cut back some dead morning glory vine off the arbor at the front of the Rose Garden.
• Bert added some trim to the top of the fencing in my mom's garden.  It is an improvement.  I need to paint all the wood trim, but I will need to go to the hardware store and buy the paint.  I will have to paint the Greenhouse at the same time, so it is a bit of a project.
• I made a pot of stew using parsnips, turnips, carrots, mustard greens and kale from my garden.  That's a good feeling.
• Sunday was so beautiful, I didn't want the day to end.