At the Farm During the Pandemic March 20 - 25, 2021

 

Spiderwort - I have several varieties in my garden and a wild one in my Meadow - are just about to begin their bloom season.  The flowers are a true blue, so rare in nature.

• Arrived Saturday afternoon.  Josh and the girls were already here for a visit.  We did the zip line for a long time.  Took a long walk in the woods.  They spent the night.  Blake and kids came up on Sunday for a visit.  More zip line fun and walks in the woods.
• After everyone left around 2:00 I spent some time laying down decomposed granite (DG) in Mom's garden.  It's coming right along.  The Black eyed Susan alba vine is beginning to come up.  I ordered a bench for her garden, but the delivery was late, so we had to leave Houston without it.  One of the neighbors will have to drag it into their garage which I feel bad about.  None of them are exactly spring chickens, but then neither are we. 
• I added some of my compost to two places in the Vegetable Garden and sowed Luffa seeds in one spot and Leelanau Sweetglo (orange) watermelon seeds in the other spot.  Josh got me the watermelon seeds from the Baker Heirloom site.  He is so sweet!
• Watered my pots in the Star Garden and the Vegetable Garden.
• Dinner at Jeff and Amy's.
• Monday.  Worked.
• I did a little work in the Kitchen Herb Garden weeding, and then I laid down the pine straw that I pulled off the beds in the Vegetable Garden a week or so ago.  I planted a gold oregano.
• I laid down more DG in my mom's garden.
• Watered in the beds on the other side of the Greenhouse. 
• I potted up a Pink Pop agastache and put it in the Star Garden.  The pot is too small, but it's bigger than the one I bought it in.  
• Weeded here and there. 
• Pulled up Four O'Clock seedlings in the Sassafras bed.
• After work I did some more watering.
• I put on the leather rose gloves and cut my Fortune's Double down to the ground. All the canes were dead from the freeze.  Fortune's Double is a climber and my most stickery rose.  One of the thorns went right through the glove and got me good in the thumb.  Thorn sticks are so painful for several days afterwards - I don't know why.  I can see it coming up from the ground, so it's not dead.  But no blooms this year - this is a once-blooming rose.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• We had a good rain last night, good for my Meadow.
• Amy Thomeson gave me a Sand Sunflower Sunday evening, and I planted it in the Meadow.
• Pulled weeds here and there.
• During lunch I sprayed herbicide in the Orchard, the pool area, the Medicine Garden, the Greenhouse Gardens, the Rose Garden, the Star Garden, the Vegetable Garden, and along some fence lines so that Bert won't have to edge.
• Everything looks so pretty.  And it's all so close to bloom time.
• I planted a bronze fennel in a pot in the Star Garden.  I have lots of fennel seeds coming up in another pot in the Star Garden.  I just love it, and it is so much fun to watch the caterpillars munching away on it.
• I planted 3 more bronze fennel in the Star Garden.  
• Pulled lots of weeds in the Star Garden.
• Wednesday.  Together, Bert and I cut back my Bay Laurel tree and two of my banana shrubs.  The Bay is coming up from the ground.  I haven't seen any life in the banana shrubs, but I'm hopeful.
• I finally cut all the caster dead wood down that was standing behind the Vegetable Garden like skeletons.
• The grape vine growing along the back Vegetable Garden fence looks like a female to me. It didn't produce any grapes last year, so I'm giving it another chance to determine if it is male or female.  I compared it to the vine growing on the neighbors' fence (which has grapes that I pick every year to make jelly), and it looks the same - little reddish nodes / flowers - I think.  
• I cut down my little Senna tree.  Maybe it will come up from the roots, but I find them to be very short-lived anyway, so perhaps it's totally dead.
• I sowed some Pippin's Golden Honey pepper seeds that Josh got me.  We have such a long hot season here that I decided to try my luck even though it's almost April.  I already have two pepper plants and they are 6 -7 inches tall already.  On the other hand, I can see that the Tabasco pepper plant from last year dropped a ton of seed, and it is just now sprouting.  I will have a lot of peppers this year!
• I finished laying down DG in Mom's garden.  The garden is done except for putting in the bench.
• I went down to the Orchard and weeded for a long time.  
• I put a little sedum in a pot in the Medicine Garden.
• Anne Thames dropped by for a short visit.  She has a native plant nursery nearby.  I walked her through the gardens, it is so rewarding to talk to knowledgeable people about gardening.  
• I sowed some Painted Lady runner bean seeds on the front arbor.  The Pam Puryear honeysuckle is really taking off this year. 
• I sowed some more French marigold seeds in the Vegetable Garden.
• I added some of my compost to several places in the Vegetable Garden along the fence line and sowed more Luffa seeds.
• Bert and I walked all the gardens in the early evening.  We love this place so much.
• Lettuce from the garden for our salad.
• Thursday.  Worked.
• Drove to Houston after work.  Airbnb people arrive on Saturday.

Mexican Buckeye March 25, 2021

 I feel lukewarm about Mexican Buckeye because the blooms are not very spectacular.  But it is native.  And now that I have extended the garden - when I created the Water Garden - the 3 Mexican Buckeyes I have growing are now center stage (rather than on the far edge of everything).

The bees love the flowers, they are all over them.  It looked pretty today.

Pearlbush March 22, 2021

Pearlbush looked pretty today.  Pearlbush sets seed, and I have several offspring growing underneath the mother shrub.  I keep meaning to dig them up and plant them in a sunnier spot to see how they perform.  This shrub sits in dappled shade all day.  I'm wondering if it will grow bushier in full sun.  I have cut it back several times (immediately after it finishes blooming in the spring) - not severely, but just along some of the more gangly branches.  It doesn't seem to help make it fuller.

A Couple Days At the Farm March 16 - 17

 

Quick turnaround trip between Airbnb guests.  Drove up on Tuesday afternoon.  Took Wednesday as vacation to do a little gardening.

• Wednesday morning.  Up early and started working in the Vegetable Garden.  It looks so good in there!  All my green beans and zucchini and squash have sprouted.  And my French marigolds are starting to come up.  The purple phacelia is in bloom and the larkspur and getting tall.  Where I have allowed them to grow, the Black eyed Susans are clumping up and Tickseed is getting bigger - that amazing spring surge in growth.
• I amended the soil with my compost and some molasses and fertilizer and planted two Ping Tung Long eggplants.
• Did the same soil prep and planted a jalapeno pepper plant and another one whose name I can't remember - orange peppers.
• Planted another thyme in the bucket next to the one I planted last week. 
• Did some weeding here and there.  Threw down some Arugula seed in one of the beds (because I can't help myself and crowd everything).
• I bought some hot pink plastic labels on the internet that you write on with permanent ink.  100 labels for $8 - such a deal.  They really stand out.  I labelled everything in case guests want to harvest.  I still have carrots and parsnips hanging on.  And I have potatoes growing everywhere as well as tomatoes, cilantro, dill, asparagus, lettuce, green beans, squash, zucchini, parsley, Swiss chard, arugula, basil, thyme.  Of course, a lot of it is not ready for picking, but some of it is.
• Next I did some weeding in the Star Garden. 
• In my mom's garden I planted 4 white Cleome.  Cleome is an annual, but it is a very good reseeder.  And I planted 3 white Guara (whirling butterfly).  I also planted a white Mealycup Sage. I've never grown mealycup before because I read that they aren't cold hardy.  But maybe they reseed, so I'm giving one of them a try.  The morning glory seeds, Snow Nymph salvia and white zinnia sees that I sowed last week have popped up.  The moonflower and white black eye Susan vine seeds have not emerged yet.   The Colonial White verbena is in full bloom right now, white flowers are such a standouts.  I watered everything in there that doesn't get hit with the sprinkler.
• I planted another Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' in a pot around the pool. I planted one last week.  I'm intrigued, we will see how it does through the long hot summer. The tag says it is perennial and drought tolerant.
• I planted some Golden Japanese Sedums in the pots in the Medicine Garden.  And I planted a Creeping Jenny in the tall pot.
• I planted two Creeping Jenny in the bed against the Greenhouse, nothing ever grows there, maybe a ground cover will take hold.
• I planted a green fennel in a pot in the Star Garden.  Fennel is larval food for the butterflies.
• I planted two Tango Agastache in two pots that I brought from Houston.  I have tried to grow it in the ground, but the voles are very attracted to it.  I believe it was two summers ago that I bought a bunch of plants and put them in the ground, and one by one they disappeared.
• The last thing I did was use up the last of a bag of fertilizer in the Star Garden.  I fertilized many of my shrubs - hydrangea, spicebush, altheas, roses, mock orange, white mist flower, camellias, etc.
• I need to hit all the paths with herbicide, but it was too windy to do it.
• Headed home to Houston.

At the Farm During the Pandemic March 8 - 11, 2021

 

My husband built this adorable gate for one of the entrances to my newest garden.  So cute, I love it.

• Drove to the farm on Monday during my lunch hour.
• After work I planted an Icecap rose, 3 licorice plants, and two Silver Frost  sedums in my mom's garden.  I've never grown licorice plant.  It is a silvery furry ground cover.  Generally, I would say that silver plants don't like the humidity here.  But I wanted to try this plant.  I've never grown it before.  
• Watered in the Rose Garden.  Watered in my mom's garden.  Watered in the Vegetable Garden.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• Before work I planted 4 tomatoes:  Old German, Carmello, Champion, and Mr. Stripey.  Pulled up all the turnips to make room for one of the tomatoes.  I will cut them up and throw them in the compost pile.  If I don't cut them up they want to keep growing.
• I clipped dead vegetation away from my calendulas (pot marigolds).  They have sprouted leaves along the green joints.  I am pleasantly surprised, I thought they were dead after the extreme cold.  I knew they liked cold weather, but it looked like 7 degrees for 3 straight days was too much for them.
• I cut dead vegetation off my kale.  The kale also looks like it is going to get a second wind.  I will probably save a few of those plants, but not the whole plot. 
• During lunch I planted the last 4 tomatoes I bought:  Brandywine, Champion, Blue Ribbon, and Pineapple.  I amended the soil with my own compost.
• I cut back three big clumps of Holly Fern in the Shade Garden.
• I filled my repurposed barbecue lid in the Shade Garden with potting soil and planted some impatiens, Creeping Jenny and foxtail fern.
• I cut back the dead vegetation on my Giant Ligularia.
• Watered here and there.
• After work I turned over the soil and sowed 4 long rows Kentucky Wonder green beans.  
• I turned over the soil and sowed a row of zucchini seeds under the goat wire arbor.  And a few in the really tall bed.
• I added potting soil to two pots in the Vegetable Garden and planted basil in both of them.  It is not Genovese, but it is very similar.
• My potatoes are all coming up. Always a thrill.   My carrots have sprouted.  I sowed some carrot seeds a couple of weeks ago to see if I could get a few more before the hot weather sets in.  The grandkids love to pull up carrots.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• During lunch I sowed packets of white "Pearly Gates" morning glories and Moonflower that I had soaked overnight, and some Black Eyed Susan Vine "Alba" in my mom's garden.
• Bert and I drove up the road and I dug up 20 or so Paperwhite Italicus that are growing in the ditch.  These are some very old-timey Narcissus.  I planted them in Mom's garden.  They are winter bloomers.  They bloom in early February.  I was very happy with myself that I did that.  I've been wanting them for a long time.  Italicus Narcissus have pointy petals.  They are very distinctive.
• After work I sowed Polar Bear zinnias (white) and Snow Nymph seeds (white) in Mom's Garden.
• I planted all but 4 of the paperwhites in Mom's Garden.  
• Along the border of that bed I planted some little Australian Violets, a ground cover.  The flowers are sweet little white and purple blooms.  They are evergreen.
• I planted a couple of silvery sedums around the water feature in Mom's garden.
• I sowed a packet of crook neck squash in the Vegetable Garden.
• And I added fresh potting soil to a pot in the Vegetable Garden and sowed a zucchini seed in it.
• I planted a Mother of Thyme plant in another pot in the Vegetable Garden.  
• And I sowed some French Marigold seeds around all my tomatoes.
• In the Long Border I planted 3 John Fanick phlox in the spot where my huge Rosemary died due to extreme cold.  All my Rosemary will have to be replaced. I have a patch of this phlox in the Long Border already, and it is a really good bloomer, a pretty long season for a perennial.  While I was in the Long Border I cleaned up dead debris for a bit. 
• Thursday.  Vacation day.
• Ironed a new bed skirt I got for the guestroom and put it on the bed.  I got a foam topper for the mattress and put that on as well.  That bed is not comfortable.  Hopefully that inexpensive solution will be successful and I can get more time out of the old mattress.
• I got to work right away in the Star Garden. I laid down all the pine straw that I raked up from the Vegetable Garden when I  sowed my green beans.  I spread it all in the Dining Room bed.  At some point soon I will have to put chicken wire around the whole bed because the armadillos love that bed.
• I spent a couple of hours cutting back dead vegetation in the Star Garden and pulling weeds.  
• I watered in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden. 
• Hand watered in my mom's garden.
• Next I worked on the Medicine Garden.  I cut to the ground my Biltmore Ballgown Abutilons and one of my Barbados Cherry shrubs.  I dug up a big Rosemary that's been there since the beginning of our life at the farm.  The freeze killed it.  I planted a small one in its spot.
• I spent time in the Kitchen Herb Garden.  I planted 2 thyme, a rosemary, and 2 marjoram.  I cleaned up in there a bit - straightened up a few of the landscape rocks, weeded, pulled up a lot of mint and tried to scrape away tiny weed seedlings beginning to form. 
• I planted 2 thyme in a pot in the Star Garden.   
• I planted 3 Hens and Chicks in a pot in the Star Garden.
• I planted 2 lysimachia in the old toilet sitting out in the yard.
• I planted an aloe vera and some Green Acres sedum in a pot in the Medicine Garden.
• I planted a Green Acres sedum in the old watering can in the Star Garden.
• I planted 4 bronze fennel in a pot in the Star Garden.
• I planted an amazingly colorful plant called a Piranha aloe and another amazingly colorful sedum-type plant (there are so many amazing plants in that group, I can't memorize their names) and a Green Acres sedum in a pot that sits around the pool. 
• Watered all the pots in the Star Garden.
• There were 4 Narcissus Italicus left that I did not plant on Wednesday.  I got those in the ground next to the others in my mom's garden.
• Next, I spread 100 pounds of cottonseed meal (fertilizer) around all my fruit trees. I did a little weeding while I was there, but by that time I was pretty worn out.  I watered my fig and my new peach.
• Drove home to Houston.  Airbnb guests for the next 4 days.

Purple Phacelia March 13, 2021

 This little wilding is so pretty.  It grows in almost every one of my gardens.  I love it.  It really is the first sign of spring.

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

 

This is Purple Phacelia, a little wilding that first showed up in my Vegetable Garden.  Now I have spread it over the whole Vegetable Garden, the whole Star Garden and parts of the Rose Garden.  It the only thing blooming right now.  And the bees are all over it.  It's been shown that bees are more attracted to blue flowers than any other color.  But the main reason bees are covering my phacelia is that nothing is blooming right now after that terrible winter storm.  

• Monday.  Worked.
• It rained throughout the day.  That's always a good thing.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• I started cutting all the dead wood away from my perennials in the Star Garden.  
• I spent some time cutting back the slimy parts of my iris.  They looked a mess.
• I haven't gone around scratching the wood on some of my most dead-looking shrubs to see if there is green under the surface.  I feel like everything I have will survive, but I'm just dreading finding out that I'm wrong. My camellias and banana shrubs in particular.  I keep passing by them, but I haven't checked them.  I'm curious about my cannas and gingers because it is reasonable that they might not have made it.  Those are definitely a wait and see.  On the one hand, I think of cannas as indestructible, but in the north people dig them up and store them over the winter, so maybe they took a hit, not sure.  The Chronicle said that gingers probably didn't make it.  That will be very sad for me because I have one of the best blooming gingers that I have ever come across.  
• I sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden, around Bert's sculpture in the back, along the edge of some beds in the back, and in the parts of the Star Garden that I missed last time.  I feel real good about that.  I've gotten kind of nervous using that herbicide now that they say it causes cancer.
• The fountain in the Water Garden stayed on all day, I was relieved to see.  It was sunny.  The last week it has been cloudy, and the fountain has not come on. It's so new, I wasn't sure if it was faulty workmanship or cloud cover.
• After work I spent about an hour cutting back dead vegetation in the Rose Garden.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• Before work I cut back more dead vegetation in the Rose Garden.
• I mixed together some potting soils and perlite.  I potted up 8 or so little pots full of the mix and sowed some Nicotiana seed (which is like powder its so tiny).  And I filled a pot in the Vegetable Garden with soil and perlite mix and sowed Nicotiana seed.  I find Nicotiana very difficult to grow.  But I keep trying.  I had a really large plant last year but I never got the wonderful scent it's supposed to have.
•  Thursday.  Worked.
• Drove home to Houston after work. Airbnb guests arrived on Friday.

At the Farm During the Pandemic February 22 - 28, 2021

 

Nine of my eleven grandchildren, lined up to take rides on the zip line, my two sons getting them all strapped in.

• Monday.  Worked.
• I raked for a bit in the Rose Garden.
• I moved a couple of Verbena Bonariensis from paths to beds. 
• Trimmed away some dead moss verbena vegetation.  It really took a hit during the hard freeze, not sure yet if it will be root hardy.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Medicine Garden, a little in the drive way in front of the house.  And I sprayed all the paths in my mom's garden.  I ordered 5 yards of decomposed granite to be delivered on Wednesday, so time to get prepared for laying it down.
• After work I sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden.
• Tuesday.  Worked.  
• During lunch I drove over to the Carmine antique shops to poke around looking for wash tubs.  I bought one that was pale green with a white enamel interior.  I want to hang a couple of them on the outside of the Greenhouse at one of the entrances to my mom's garden.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• Decomposed granite (DG) was delivered.  At lunch I spread a half dozen or so wheelbarrows of DG in my mom's garden.
• Thursday.  Worked.
• I got the fountain set up in my mom's garden.  I have ordered additional extender pieces for the fountain.  Right now the motor is sitting on top of a bucket that has been turned upside down.
• Drizzling rain all day and very busy work schedule, no work done in the garden.
• Friday.  Worked. 
• I moved a bunch of DG trying to get finished before everyone arrives tomorrow.  Big family group coming to help install the zip line.
• Josh and the girls spent the night.
• Saturday.  Mom and Dad, Nathan and 2 older kids, William and kids, Blake and family, and Max and family arrived. All the men worked on the zip line.  William, Josh, and Max groups spent the night.  No gardening was done in all the chaos, that's for sure!