At the Farm January 18 - 20, 2022

 

This is a close up of an Anacostia camellia bloom.

• Tuesday.  Worked.
• During lunch I loaded the truck with mulch and spread mulch over my small Oakleaf hydrangea and some gingers along the Boardwalk.
• Sprayed a bit of herbicide along the edge of the back beds.  Weeded in the beds.  
• After work I dup up some shampoo ginger roots (also known as pinecone ginger).  One root was growing in a path in the Shade Garden, and  the 4 or so others that I dug up were growing amongst my sweetspire along the Boardwalk.  In both places they were growing in pretty hostile environments.  I have been fretting that they would disappear completely one day if I didn't rescue them, and I finally did.  I planted them in the Medicine Garden, a good spot for them.  This ginger grows an interesting flowerhead shaped like a pinecone.  And it oozes a soapy substance that can be used as shampoo.  I would never shampoo my hair with it, but all the literature about pinecone ginger lists that as a use for this very interesting plant.  The pinecone flower heads look really exotic looking in floral arrangements - I have used them for that. 
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• During lunch I mulched my 2 new camellias - Anacostia and Professor Sargent as well as the bed area surrounding Anacostia where I reset all my amaryllis.  It's supposed to get really cold over the next 2 days, so I wanted to get that done.  
• Headed home after work.  

New Camellias January 18, 2022

 This one is Professor Sargent.

This is Anacostia.

At the Farm January 13 - 17, 2022

 

This is a little Texas native honeysuckle growing on the front trellis.  The blooms are not yet open.  The flowers have little yellow-y-orange trumpets when they open. This vine is blooming in January, and we have had lots of freezes, but freezes don't seem to knock this vine back.  

Arrived after work on Thursday.  Bert was already here.

• Friday.  Worked.
• Using my new little chain saw I worked on clearing the trail adjacent to the Long Border.  The yaupons were crowding in on that trail.  I poisoned the cut on every yaupon I cut down.  Threw all the debris in the fire pit, not sure how my husband will feel about that, but he won't hesitate to make his feelings known about it.
• I watered here and there in the Rose Garden.  The voles ate all my yarrow in one of the flowerbeds.  I spread gomphrena seed heads in some of the beds.
• Planted another Rosemary and 2 sage plants in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
• Saturday.  Cold and windy.
• I raked all morning and dumped leaves in the unfinished part of the Star Garden and along the Boardwalk.  
• I watered all my pots.  All the vegetation is dead, but wetting the soil will protect the roots.  I watered my Kidneywood and my little native Tenaza tree in the Shade Garden.
• Nathan and family arrived about noon, and we all played for the rest of the day.
• The wind blew down a huge dead cedar on the other side of the shed, and all of us helped gather up the broken limbs and throw them in the fire pit.  It fell right on our trailer, lots more work left to do on that chore.
• Sunday.  Nathan and family left before lunch time.  I went to work in the gardens.  It was sunny with no clouds in the sky.  I was able to take off my hat and jacket.  The weather was very fine.
• I raked 4 truckloads of leaves and dumped them all along the Boardwalk.  Maybe 3 more truckloads of leaves along there and I will be happy about heading into spring with a good layer of mulch along the Boardwalk.  There are a few places that I want to mulch with real mulch that will have to wait a bit longer, in particular my White by the Gate Camellias, my gingers and one small Oakleaf Hydrangea.  
• I watered all the pots in the Medicine Garden and around the pool.  I watered in Mom's Garden and all my potted roses in the Rose Garden.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Star Garden, the Medicine Garden, and a few spots in Mom's Garden.
• I was looking very intently at some sweet alyssum that I managed to kill in the space of a few weeks after planting, but I thought I saw some green.  However it was white yarrow that is spreading throughout that space.  Many people have told me that yarrow is invasive.  I have never been able to keep it alive.  Perhaps my sorry streak has ended. 
• Monday. Martin Luther King holiday.  A more beautiful day would not be possible.  Cool and sunny without a cloud in the sky.  Perfect.  I wondered, as I often do, what other people do on a day like this?  Shopping?  TV?  I feel lucky beyond measure.
• I weeded along the back beds for a while.  
• I decided to plant my new camellias - Anacostia and Professor Sargent.  I have been hesitant to do it because the long range forecast is predicting very cold days at the end of January.  I'm not sure how anyone can predict that so far in advance, but I work for an energy company, so there are people who make it their business to know those things.  Camellias don't like it below 10 degrees.  All but one of my camellias made it through winter storm Uri when it was only 7 degrees for an extended period of time - not a dip and then back up, but 7 degrees for several days.  I did not protect them with blankets, etc.  Although all but one survived, the new ones were pretty hard hit.  And camellias grow soooo slowly that it will take years before they make any sort of visual impact in the garden.  Despite all that I decided to plant these two new shrubs.  I planted them in the irrigated, shady part of the Star Garden.  
• I planted Professor Sargent in a bed next to a cedar tree that only had Philippine lily seedlings in it.  That was a chore because cedar trees spread an extremely dense web of roots along the surface of the soil.  I spent a lot of time digging out a hole and shaking out the soil from all the root mats that I dug up.  I made a deep and wide hole, and then I filled it up with many gallons of water to get the soil wet way down deep. Well done me.  I planted Professor Sargent.  
• I was going to plant Anacostia in the spot where Royal Velvet camellia is growing now.  It was my hardest hit camellia, and if not for the 3 leaves on it, it would be mistaken for dead.  I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to plant Anacostia in the bed next to my sassafras tree.  That decision meant I had to root out all the americanum in that bed (that is a crinum variety, and I might have the name wrong).  Every couple of years I get in there and dig all of those out, but eradicating americanum is very difficult.  I was forced to dig out all the wonderful red amaryllis in that bed as well in order to pull up all the crinums.  I threw all the crinums in the fire pit - I don't want those to take root anywhere.  I planted Anacostia and re-set all the amaryllis.  That took about 3 hours, but it was time well spent.  I probably won't get any blooms on my amaryllis this spring, but the crinums needed to be gone. 
• I spent about an hour clearing the trail adjacent to the Long Border.  I cut down 3 truckloads of yaupon and threw them all in the fire pit.  I poisoned all the cuts with my diesel / Remedy mix in my little oil can.  Bert was burning off some of the cedar tree that fell on Sunday, so it was a good time to do that chore.  
• Watered in the Greenhouse Gardens.  
• Raked the paths in the Greenhouse Gardens and dumped the leaves around one of the Mexican Buckeyes where some weeds want to live.
• I raked up a truckload of leaves along one of the trails, got the truck stuck in reverse so Bert had to help me get that straightened out.  I dumped the leaves along the Boardwalk.
• I worked in the Rose Garden for about an hour, just doing a little weeding and puttering about.  
• I watered in the Daffodil Border.   

At the Farm January 3 - 10, 2022

Barely any green left in the Star Garden after the 2 hard freezes last week.  The evergreen plants in this photo are the Ox Eyes, the Giant Rudbeckia, the thyme and the wildflower seedlings.  And the weeds - ughh!

Back to a weird schedule at work while Omnicron works its way through the population that results in me being here at the farm for a majority of the time.

• Monday. Worked.  Cold.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• During lunch I worked in the Orchard spreading mulch and weeding.
• Too dark after work to do anything in the garden.  
• Wednesday.  Worked.  Sunny and cool and beautiful.
• Pulled weeds in the the butterfly rose bed in the Star Garden and surrounding beds.
• During lunch I spread 2 truckloads of mulch around some of my Oakleaf Hydrangeas along the Boardwalk.  I raked up some leaves and put them down first, then spread the mulch.  I haven't mulched my oakleaf hydrangeas in a long time, so I feel good about that.
• Thursday.  Worked.  Sunny and cool, so gorgeous.
• During lunch I did a bit of weeding in the Star Garden.
• I cut away from the fence all the dead vegetation from the luffa vine.  And I cut back all the asparagus in the small bed.  I gathered up all the luffa gourds and put them in the Greenhouse to finish drying out.  I have about 15.  What in the world I'm going to do with all those luffas, I don't know.  Some of them feel squishy, so I think they will rot rather than dry out.
• Dumped the asparagus and luffa vegetation in one of my erosion spots.
• I planted 3 rosemary, 2 thyme and one oregano in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
• Friday.  Worked.
• During lunch I spread 2 truckloads of mulch in the Star Garden.  I will need to have more mulch delivered - so much area to mulch.  
• Saturday.  I raked all morning and dumped the leaves in a very thick layer around the rest of my Oakleaf Hydrangeas along the Boardwalk and through the large bed area behind them where Beautyberry and Turk's Cap have self-sown.  
• I began raking and dumping leaves on the other side of the Boardwalk where we have terrible run-off from the hill the pool builder created when he built the pool.  The rain runs down the hill and across a large bed area around the Boardwalk.  I got the bright idea of creating one of my erosion control debris piles in there using leaves.  I love the look of fallen leaves in my beds - not all of my beds, I use real mulch in the flowerbeds around the house and in the Rose Garden.  But leaf mulch is useful, and in the wilder areas it is the right "look". 
• Spent some time in the Vegetable Garden pulling up my French marigolds ( dead from the freeze) and cutting the seed heads into the beds.  I pulled some weeds.  I cut away freeze damaged mustard and collard leaves and put them in the compost pile.  Raked and weeded in the area around the luffa vine that I pulled away from the fence earlier in the week.
• I spread a thick layer of leaves around the Mexican Buckeye in Mom's Garden.  This is one of 3 Mexican Buckeyes that I planted many years ago that was not in a flowerbed.  The garden ended before the spot where this one was planted.  Now it is a big feature in Mom's Garden, right in the middle.  I did not surround it with valuable mulch at the time that I created her garden.  I used leaves, and that is what I did again on Saturday.  
• I cleaned leaves out of a bed in the Greenhouse Garden and spread Nicotiana seeds.  There are lots of little native red Columbine seedlings in there as well.  I am giving them a fighting chance. 
• After lunch I raked more leaves and spread them along the Boardwalk.  
• Loaded a truckload of mulch into the cadet and spread it around my False Indigo trees along the Boardwalk.  They are right in the path of the worst erosion along the Boardwalk, and the roots are exposed, so this should help them a lot.  I spread leaves before I laid down the mulch, so they will get some good rot all through the next summer.  I'd like to prune them back so they aren't so leggy although I think that is their natural growth pattern in the wild.
• I took a long walk through the gardens just before dusk. 
• Sunday.  Packed up and headed home to run some errands. 

New Years at the Farm December 30, 2021 - January 2, 2022

 One of the few plants of mine that didn't get frozen off during the freeze a couple of days ago is this pretty artemisia that I got from Connie Gwyn.  I love it.  It is so pretty.  It is growing in my mom's garden which is an all white garden. 

I took Thursday vacation and arrived Wednesday evening.  Bert was already here.  

• Thursday.  Stuffed and marinated a boliche for New Years Eve dinner.
• I worked in the Rose Garden for a couple of hours mulching and weeding.  The voles ate almost every one of my Naples onion bulbs that I planted by my Noisette rose.  The bulbs had all popped up, and now I only have a few in that area.  And you can see the little loose soil circles where they pulled them down into their tunnels. 
• I filled the cadet with soil and drove down to the Orchard to work.  I raked everywhere and dumped the leaves under the blackberry bramble to discourage weeds.  Sprayed herbicide on all the paths in the Orchard.  The winter weeds have really come on.  It's pretty warm today, I'm in shorts and a t-shirt, so the herbicide should be effective.  I focused on one bed down there and weeded it and spread mulch.  I pulled weeds here and there.  I cut some dead blackberry canes.   When the mulch was all gone I drove up to get more mulch and it was already 3:30.  I couldn't believe it.  The Orchard needs some more work.  All the beds except the ones that I have done over the last several weeks need to be cleaned out and mulched. Lots of winter weeds.  I take some care trying to save my poppy seedlings, so mulching can be a painstaking effort.
• I made a pot of Spanish bean soup, used cabbage from the garden and bay leaf from my tree.
• I spent some time in the Rose Garden raking.  I got most of it raked.  I dumped all the leaves in the Rose Edge and Daffodil Borders.  The deer are really bringing me down.  I have some ideas (all of them are ugly-looking) - the best idea would be a deer fence around the whole thing.  That would solve my armadillo problem and my deer problem.  But that would be expensive.  And probably no one would want to do it because it's such a small space.  It has been my experience that these companies don't want to waste their time with small projects.
• I hated for the day to end.  I was having such a nice and happy day.   
• Friday.  New Years Eve with Mom and Dad, Max, Julia, Luke, Koy, Cleo, Nancy and Lisa.  Another year no one will miss because of Covid.  But, I was able to spend a lot of time here in the country, and I loved it.  All my family made it through in tact - what more could I ask for?   
• Saturday.  Black eyed peas for luck, family headed home about 3:00.
• Sunday.  We had a hard freeze.  We were in shorts and short sleeved shirts on Saturday to 28 degrees on Sunday.  Very cold all day.
• I cut all the leaves off my Hoja Santa stalks and layered them in the leaves in my compost piles.  The freeze did them in, so I made the leaves useful.
• I raked 3 truckload of pine needles and used them all in the Orchard.  I pulled weeds and cleared out beds underneath the grape vines and underneath my biggest blackberry bramble then spread thick layers of pine needles in the cleared sections.  I didn't get finished by a long shot because this a big garden area with big flowerbeds in it.  But I did enough work that I felt pretty good about it.     
•  I filled the truck twice with mulch and mulched various areas in the Orchard - around the Celeste fig tree and around some cannas and lantanas.  
• I worked until about 2:30 and knocked off for some lunch.
• Back outside and worked in the Orchard until 5:30.  I loaded another truckload of mulch and mulch in various places.  Then I raked up a load of leaves into the truck and dumped them into one of the blackberry bramble beds.  Weeded, weeded, weeded.  
• A good day in the Orchard.  For some reason, it is the garden I dread the most.  I always attack the work with some distaste.  But once I get a handle on it (I'm not finished, but it looks good down there) I feel a great deal of satisfaction.