Day at the Farm December 11, 2022

 This is Debutante Camelia.

I just drove up for the day on Sunday to bring up Christmas stuff.  There is a lot to haul up to get ready for Christmas.  Last night was Josh and Amy's annual Lights in the Heights party.  Fun evening!

It had rained hard the night before.  There were 3 inches in the rain gauge, so that's good.  All my seedlings were pummeled, but they will bounce back.  I picked leaves out of my seed beds.  I have good stands of Columbine seedlings in the Greenhouse Gardens, and I'm very happy about that.  I love those beautiful flowers.  I sowed McKana's Giant, and the color combinations are striking in that variety.  

All the daffodil bulbs are up, and I have buds on the Italicus paperwhites.  Hardly any of the daffodils bloomed last year because of the weird, extreme freeze we had right when everything was in bud. I have hundreds maybe even thousands of Sweetness daffodils in the Daffodil Border, and I have paperwhites growing everywhere.  I so, so, so don't want to miss another year.  

I cut down the blue mist flower.  That took a while because they get massive.  I threw all the debris into the Meadow.  It's native, and the butterfly display on them in the fall is so amazing that, if some of them spread seed, I will be very pleased.   The flowers are all brown, most of the seed is possibly not ripe, but some will be, I'm sure.  Watching the butterflies on this plant when it is in bloom is like watching a National Geographic show. 

The Star of Bethlehem bulbs I planted last weekend are already popping up.  The greenery is sturdier than I thought it would be for such slender, tiny little bulbs.

I pulled up grass growing in the Daffodil Border before it gets out of hand.

I hated to leave, everything right now feels like such a miracle.  But - home I did go.

Day at the Farm December 7, 2022

 Archduke Charles looked pretty today.

I drove up for the day and worked from the farm so that I could haul up some china and crystal for Christmas dinner.  And I missed the garden.  The miracle of all the little seedlings is so entertaining.

I had 75 bulbs to plant which only took 20 minutes or so.  I had 50 Geranium tuberosum and 25 Ornithogalum dubium  (Star of Bethlehem).  The Geranium bulbs are perennials, not the same as the cheerful red geranium in pots, these are different.  I'm just curious about them.  Both of these bulbs were really inexpensive, so I bought them just for fun.  I planted all of them in the Rose Garden.  Gave them a good soak.

Picked leaves out of my seed beds.

Headed home after work, it was already dark.  That's my least favorite part of the winter months.  All the dark hours.

Thanksgiving Week November 22 - 27, 2022

This is my sassafras tree.  They have very pretty fall color.  In the last couple of years I have started to have a lot of offsets show up in various spots near the mother tree.  Very interesting.  I have had this tree for more than a decade, and it just started suckering.  

I worked on Monday, volunteered at a food pantry on Tuesday morning then headed to Burton after that.  Cooked on Wednesday.  Thursday - the Big Five(Lisa was sick), William's family, Nathan's family, Max and Julia and Amy Thomsen for Thanksgiving.  Friday cleaned up, otherwise a dead day except I walked around making notes about what I wanted to do on Saturday and Sunday. 

Wednesday.  I pulled up some Passalong Pink verbena that was rooted in the paths and planted some in the back bed and some in the front bed.

I pulled up some of the Connie Gwyn artemisia growing in the path of the Water Garden and planted it in one of the beds of the Rose Garden and in the center bed of the Star Garden.

Saturday.  Two inches in the rain gauge from a storm during the night.

I started in the Orchard.  I sprinkled poison on active leaf cutter ant piles.  I cut back all the salvia.  Did some weeding.  Raked.  And I planted 3 Becnel's Smith fig trees that Lisa W gave me a couple of months or so ago.  These figs are rare Louisiana heirlooms, supposed to be very productive trees.  Lisa grew them from cuttings.  It's hard to find space for fig trees because they grow to be monsters, as wide as they are tall.  But in the end I planted all but 1 in the Orchard.  If they survive, they will grow into the paths and become nuisances, but that's a big if.  My record of success with fruit trees has not been stellar.

I planted the fourth fig tree that Lisa gave me behind the Vegetable Garden.  I feel good about getting them in the ground.

Sprinkled baking soda on a few fungus spots in the Star Garden and the Orchard.  

I dug out a clump of red Firespike and planted a Pink A Boo camellia.  I planted the clump of Firespike nearby in an open spot.  Now I have In The Pink, Anacostia, Professor Sargent, Pink A Boo and Junior Miss in that area.  I have re-named it the Camellia Garden.  Before, I called it: the irrigated, shady part of the Star Garden.  So, Camellia Garden is an improvement.  I'm thinking of getting one more camellia and planting it where the pink Turks Cap is currently growing.  That bed could use a face lift.  But they are so expensive that I think I'll wait until next year.  

I  planted sprigs of Passalong Pink verbena in several beds in the Star Garden.

I removed some dead canes from my Archduke Charles rose.

Pulled up 3 Mexican sunflower giants in the Vegetable Garden. 

Next, I worked in the Rose Garden.  I finished cutting down all the salvia and the Fruity Pebbles lantana.  I dug up 40 or so Lycoris bulbs from a bed in the Rose Garden and planted them in a row in front of the Rose Garden fence that faces the driveway.  They needed to be thinned, they didn't bloom well last fall.  They were piled on top of each other they were so crowded.  I moved some Passalong and Homestead Purple verbena from one place to another.  I planted a little plug in one of the Rose boxes and some in the Long Border.  Dug up some Verbena Bonariensis from a path and moved it to a bed.  Deadheaded my roses.  Raked.  Weeded in the paths, the beds are clean.

Over the last 4 days since I have been here, I have examined with the utmost intensity all of my seed beds to check for germination.  I sowed a lot of seed last weekend.  They are starting to pop up - it's so fascinating.  I also spend a lot of time picking leaves out of all the seed beds that I've started.  They will smother the seedlings if I am not vigilant.  

Sunday.  Last precious day at the farm.  Sunny and cold.  So beautiful.

Will gave me a square bale of hay.  I spread it in one of the blackberry beds where Cleaver weed wants to get really bad.  I also raked up a truckload of pine needles and spread it in one of the narrow blackberry beds.  First, I roughed up the soil and uprooted as many baby Cleaver weeds as I could.  

I used my claw rake to weed in the Vegetable Garden between the rows.  Purple Phacelia takes over in there.  Why did I ever think that was pretty in there?  I love it in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden, but in the Vegetable Garden it is a pain.

I dug up some more Lycoris and planted them along the front of the Rose Garden.  I started to run into some rock, so I gave up on that spot and planted the rest of them (15 or so) in front of one of the Witch Hazels along the drive way.

I dug up some Schoolhouse Lilies in the bed where they are pretty hidden by other taller plants, and I planted them in drifts along the driveway in front of Zelda's tree.

I sowed 2 more spots in the Rose Garden with California Poppies.

Put castor seeds in some vole tunnels.

I walked the Meadow and spread Inland Sea Oat seeds that I collected from the Dining Room bed.

Headed home about 4:00. 

  

A Tree for my Grand Daughter November 12, 2022

 This is a Summer Chocolate Silk tree.  I love the burgundy-colored pinnate leaves. 

A Tree for my Grandson August 20, 2022

This is a Huisache tree.  It's fierce because it has lots of thorns.  It also has beautiful pinnate leaves and wonderful smelling yellow puffball flowers that are very much loved by the bees. 

Pink a Boo Camellia November 26, 2022

 I finally got around to planting this camellia in my Camellia Garden.  I have In the Pink, Anacostia, Professor Sargent, and Junior Miss in there already.  I love these stately, evergreen, winter-blooming, frustratingly slow growers.  I had to move a clump of red Firespike over to another bed so that I could plant the camellia in that spot.  They grow slowly, but (if they make it) they take up a lot of room eventually.

Roses November 22, 2022

 Marie de Orleans

Gaye Hammond

Caldwell Pink

Madame Antoine Mari

Iceberg

Duchess de Brabant

Weekend at the Farm November 18 - 20, 2022

 

I was going to work on Friday from the farm, but I forgot my computer at work.  I guess I walked off and left it on my desk.  I didn't know it wasn't in my bag until I got to Burton.  So I took the day as vacation.

We have already had a freeze, but it was a brief one because some plants are freeze damaged and some are still fine.  I won't get any green beans this fall.  I knew I planted them late, and if we had an early freeze I'd get no beans.  And that's exactly what happened.  The time got away from me, and I didn't plant them early enough. 

I spent the whole day cutting back perennials and pulling up annuals in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.  I don't cut back the freeze-dead debris off of perennials that I really value.  It helps insulate the plant from hard freezes.  But for salvias, I won't miss them if I lose some (and I doubt I will).  I pulled up almost all the gomphrena and cut a bunch of the seed heads off onto a cookie sheet to dry.  That's not really necessary.  I could just throw them into the flowerbeds and they would germinate in the spring.  I still might do that.

I sowed seed in most of the places I cleared out.  I sowed Johnny Jump Ups, Ox Eyes, California Poppies, a package of pom pom poppies, dill and parsley.  Dill and parsley like cold weather, and they will be great larval food for butterflies in the spring.  Everywhere I sow seeds I stick a bamboo stake in the ground, or I forget where I sowed seeds.  That is a new idea, I have never marked my seed beds before, and it's a very good likelihood that, in the past, I have re-sown many seed beds.

All the Mexican sunflowers were killed by the freeze.  I got so much enjoyment out of them this year.  I spent time pulling some of them up.  Many more to go.  The trunks of Mexican sunflowers can get 3 fingers thick, so it's a chore.  

Saturday.  Cold and rainy all day.  It never poured but it never stopped lightly raining all day.  

I drove to the Antique Rose Emporium with my neighbor Amy.  I bought a polyantha rose called Sweet Pea, 2 packets of larkspur and a packet of poppies.  The man there said we had been the only customers all day - not surprising since we were shopping in the rain.  Sweet Pea rose is perfect as a container rose which makes it perfect for me since I am only growing my new roses in feed buckets.

I did nothing else all day, too rainy to be fun.  Sometimes I work in the rain, but the rain was too steady.

Sunday.  The day started cold and sunny.  I had Bert drill holes in the bottom of 2 feed buckets so that I could plant my new rose and move a few roses.  I filled the buckets with potting soil, a bag of mushroom compost and some of my compost.  I planted Sweet Pea rose in one of the buckets.  My daughter in law, Amy, gave me 3 Kordes miniature roses a couple of years ago.  I planted them in the Star Garden, but I planted them in a terrible spot.  The Mexican Turks Cap, Mexican salvia and butterfly weed soon over-shadowed the poor things.  So I dug all 3 up and planted them in one of the feed buckets.  Not sure I did them any favors since I  crammed them all together, but at least the will get some direct sun.  

I raked pine needles in my good spot next to the Rose Garden and mulched Enchantress, Sweet Pea and a few of my other roses in pots.  

I spent time cutting down the salvia in the Noisette bed and cleaning out around the Noisette.  There is a certain weed that starts growing in the late fall around that rose, so I scraped it all away (which is easy when the weed is still small) and mulched around the rose with a thick layer of pine needles.  

I used my little electric saw to cut down two thick Mexican Sunflower trunks and some old rose canes.  

I roughed up the soil in the Noisette bed with a shovel and spread Johnny Jump Ups, California Poppies, blue Larkspur and some purple poppies.

I cleared out another area in the bed that encircles the old dead tree and spread some California Poppies and Johnny Jump Ups.  

And I spread some Larkspur and Johnny Jump Ups in the Ducher bed. 

I did a little raking in the Rose Garden, not much.  

We caught 2 mice in traps in the laundry room.  I left a door unlocked when I was here last, and it blew open while we were gone. It's possible the door was open for several days.  Some mice got in - they chewed a hole through a bag of Lays potato chips.  Gross.  But I think that's all - no raccoons and hopefully no snakes since it was cold. We have set out more traps to see if there are more mice, but I have a feeling we got them all.

Cleaned up all my equipment and headed home. 

  

Day at the Farm November 9, 2022

 

Duchess de Brabant.

Iceberg rose.

This is Valentine rose.

Drove up for the day and worked from the farm.

The roses are loaded with buds.  Roses love this Texas fall weather.

I deadheaded Mexican sunflowers.  They are extremely floriferous.  So pretty.  Staying on top of the deadheading has really helped them stay standing.  

I stopped at Home Depot on the way to the farm and bought some bags of potting soil. I used the potting soil and some mushroom compost and planted 2 True Passion roses in feed buckets.  They have deep orange blooms.

Watered in the Rose Garden.  The water has been turned off since Saturday when I was here last.

I laid down ant poison in the back where there are well-worn ant trails weaving back and forth.  And I put ant poison on some active entrances in the Orchard.

Sprayed the roses for blackspot.

White Butterfly Ginger November 9, 2022

 My ginger is in full bloom, but it seems like the foliage is beginning its decline into dormancy.  I cut some of the blooms, brought them inside and put them in a vase.  They have a wonderful smell.  One of my favorites.

Giant Mexican Turk's Cap November 9, 2022

 Mexican Turk's Cap is a fall bloomer.  The other varieties of Turk's Cap I have bloom all summer and through fall.  The flowers are much bigger on the Mexican than on the other varieties.  I have mine growing in an area where it gets a little protection from full sun, I'd call it part shade.  

Red Fire Spike November 9, 2022

 Fire Spike is a shade perennial.  As soon as it finishes blooming I'm going to dig it up and move it.  I bought a new camellia that will need a lot of room (someday - they are very slow growers).  So I'm going to put my new Pink-a-Boo camellia in this spot.

Trailing Purple Lantana November 9, 2022

 This is a little hedge about 10 feet long of trailing lantana.  It is in the Rose Garden.  

White Mist Flower November 9, 2022

 I often see this sold as Fragrant Mist Flower.  This white variety has a very strong smell, but it's kind of a not very good smell in my opinion.  However the insects love it.  I have this growing in shade and in full sun.  It performs better in full sun, but it will bloom in shade.  This variety throws off seed, but it is not nearly as aggressive as the blue mist flower. 

Morning Glories November 9, 2022

 One more look at my pretty morning glories.

Pretty Flower Bed November 5, 2022

 Same area, different angles.  White salvia, blue salvia, purple gomphrena, Country Girl mums, Heliopsis, butterfly weed, celosia, Giant Rudbeckia, Mexican Mint Marigold, perennial ageratum, zinnias.

Day at the Farm November 5, 2022

 Monarchs on blue mist flower.

Drove up Saturday morning for the day.  Bert was hunting.  Watched the Astros in the World Series with Mom, Dad and Nancy and Lisa on Saturday night.

I planted 3 Russian Sage in the center area of the Star Garden.  It stays pretty dry in that area which suits sages very well.  Russian Sage has white foliage which I thought would look very pretty with the low-growing Artemesia that I planted near there a couple of weeks ago.  Russian Sage is a sub-shrub.  If it takes off it should be very attractive with its lavender flower spikes.  I have bad luck getting plants to grow there, my hope is because it is so dry, these plants will be perfect there.  

I planted a Summer Chocolate Silk tree which I will dedicate to my granddaughter Zelda.  They will be here next weekend, and I have a plaque ready with her name and the date.

I planted 2 Ballerina roses in the rose boxes attached to the arbor in the Rose Garden.  I filled them with mushroom compost last week in preparation for planting and I added some more compost today.  I also planted an Enchantress rose in one of my feed buckets.  I had some pentas in that pot, so I pulled them up.  I saw armadillo activity in there and walked around the garden until I found 2 entrance holes.  I hammered down some stakes on the wire fencing to close the holes.

I cleared out the front flower bed of ageratum before it went to seed.  And I pulled away all the luffa vine from the fence.  I brought 13 huge luffa gourds into the house to dry out.  Did some general clean up in the bed once that mess was gone.  And I sowed seed:  Cornclockle, yellow yarrow, Larkspur, and California poppies.