Brown Eyed Susan and Horsemint May 20, 2023

 This color combination looked very pretty.

Some Daylilies Blooming Now May 20, 2023

 The double orange daylilies are not my favorite, but I have hundreds!

This is one of the daylilies that I bought from a local grower in Brenham last March.  This is my first bloom.

Anise Hyssop May 20, 2023

 Anise Hyssop is a bee magnet.  They absolutely love it. I sowed seed last winter, and plants are finally blooming in May.  I find it a bit difficult to grow from seed, but this year I have a half dozen plants or so.  But considering I sowed a quarter ounce of seed, I'd say that's a very poor germination rate.  It reseeds very well if you allow the flowers to turn brown and dry up.  This is a short-lived perennial for me.  The leaves are used in teas, so the plant is classified as an herb.

Catchfly May 2023

 Catchfly is a very pretty hot pink wildflower.  I sowed some seed years ago, and a few keep coming back year after year.  I read that Catchfly is a perennial, but I've never noticed any plants that have lived through the changing seasons.

Pink Yarrow May 20, 2023

 Two years ago I saw a stand of pink yarrow at The Arbor Gate.  I was enchanted.  Had to have some!  It took two years for it to spread enough that it makes a statement when it's in bloom. That's the thing about perennials.  They get better and fuller and stronger every year.  

Pictures of the Garden May 20, 2023

 My Strawberry Smoothie Althea was so pretty last weekedn.

The Rose Garden (below) and the Star Garden and the Orchard are practically choked with brown eyed Susans.

Coneflower and Anise Hyssop below.

Beautyberry, larkspur, brown eyes, and Cosmos below

Weekend at the Farm May 19 - May 21, 2023

 

I worked from the farm on Friday.  I haven't been here for several weeks, and you can really tell.  Weeds in the paths is the biggest problem.  I sprayed vinegar herbicide (I have gone organic, yay me) in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden.

Everything is a sea of yellow in all the gardens.  Yellow coneflower, yellow brown eyes, and yellow giant coneflower.  Really beautiful.  

I picked cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, dug up potatoes, pulled up onions, and picked blackberries.

After work I spent a couple of hours pulling up Tall Winecup and cutting back blue and white salvia in the Star Garden.  I finally went in about 8:30.  

Saturday.  Out early.  I cut down all the stems of white yarrow flowers in the White Garden.  They were flopping over, but they still looked pretty.  I made a huge bouquet and brought them in the house.

Sprayed more vinegar herbicide in the Vegetable Garden and the Orchard paths.

I pulled up lots of Tall Winecup in the Rose Garden next to the Peggy Martin trained on the fence.  Raked and sowed seed.  Cut away plants leaning into paths.  

I cut away plants leaning into my Russian Sages in the Star Garden.  I'd really like to see those mature and thrive, so I'm being careful to keep them from getting "disappeared" by rampant growth from plants around them.

My daylilies are beginning their bloom time.  Always lovely.

I pulled up all the Tall Winecup near Sam's tree, raked the area and sowed some Hyacinth Bean seeds on the arbor that I soaked over night.  

Watered my split leaf philodendron.

Weeded in the Vegetable Garden.  Voles have pulled every single one of my dill plants under as well as a pepper plant that I put in a few days ago.  

Sunday.  Put away my tools, cleaned up and headed home to go to the Astros game with Nathan and the kids.

Weekend at the Farm April 28 - 30, 2023

 

This is Augusta Duelberg salvia.

Drove up on Thursday night and worked from the farm on Friday.  Family reunion in Madisonville on Saturday.  Koy and Cleo came back to Burton with me and spent the night.

It's been raining, there was rain in the rain gauge.  And it rained Thursday night and Friday night. A wet, cool spring so far.  In fact, I'm starting to worry that all my succulents will rot.

I cut away lots and lots of plants leaning into paths. That was my main focus during my stay here.  And I staked lots of stands of flowers.  The Brown Eyes and Giant Coneflower and yellow coneflower are beginning their bloom time.  Yellow everywhere, and it's outstanding.

I cut the spiderwort in the front beds down to the ground.  I love their beautiful blue flowers, but when they are still blooming but almost finished they just look kind of raggedy. I dumped the debris in the Meadow hoping for some reseeding.

I had some absolutely gorgeous stands of Italian flatleaf parsley in the Vegetable Garden.  The voles ate them all just since I was last here.  I harvested some last week, and now - completely wiped out.

I sprayed vinegar on weeds in the paths of the Vegetable Garden and the Star Garden.  But since it rained last night, I'm not sure if it will be effective. 

Sunday.  I pulled up all the Tall Winecup out of the bed at the front of the Rose Garden and raked it clean.  Koy helped me sow the bed with pink zinnia and cosmos seeds.

I potted up an Aztec King Mangave and set it by the pool with all the others.

Me and the girls headed home about 1:00.