Weekend at the Farm November 16 - 17, 2013

Beautiful weather!

• Cathy Komisky came by to take a look at the house in preparation for the home tour in December.  Lots to do to get ready for that many people tramping through the house and yard.
• I pulled up the rest of the zinnias and salvia in the Orchard, turned over the soil, cleaned up the beds, and spread seed - Dame's Rocket, Moss Verbena, and Mountain Garland.  It looks so clean and organized in the Orchard!  Job well done.  Hard work.
• Planted some Bloomsdale Spinach in the Vegetable Garden.  My winter garden has spinach, celery, mustard, swiss chard, beets, lettuce, calendulas, carrots, and cabbage.  Every kind of leafy green under the sun, and we will probably never eat any of them.
• Planted Scented Streamers Sweet Peas in the Orchard around the stake covered in chicken wire.
• Cut away Black Eyed Susan Vine that was growing over the Pink Vitex.
• Pulled up the zinnias in the Star Garden.  Sowed seeds in the areas where I pulled up plants.  Scads of Love-in-a Mist seedlings are popping up from last year's plantings.  It will be a beautiful spring if the deer, voles, leaf cutter ants, and rabbits don't eat everything first.
• I dug up some Rolf Fiedler Ipheion bulbs in the Orchard and replanted them in the bed by the back door.  That bed needs some help.  Anything I plant there is always getting washed away during a heavy rain despite the fact that my husband installed rain gutters on the roof eaves. 
• Thinned my mustard seedlings in the Orchard.  I hate thinning!  I don't like to pull up healthy plants even though the plants that remain do much better with room to spread out.
• Sprayed herbicide around the pool and the driveway.  The weather was warm.  Herbicide isn't effective once the weather gets cool.
• I transplanted some Verbena Bonariensis from paths in the Rose Garden to the area I just created for my wildflower space near the Rose Garden.
• Transplanted some Clerodendrun Bungeii from the Boardwalk to the Shade Garden.  It spreads really aggressively.  I think it will be very attractive growing around the outer edges of the Shade Garden.
• At my husband's suggestion I trimmed away the lower branches from the Harlequin Glorybower and the Almond Verbena to open up the paths in the Star Garden.  
• My husband helped me move some cedar logs over to the outside of the Rose Garden where I am building a bed along the fence.  It will be a natural area for Black Eyed Susans and other wild flowers as well as the 100 Bacon and Egg Daffodil bulbs that Josh gave me for my birthday.  They have not yet arrived, but I expect them to be delivered either this week or next.  And Blake got me 50 Campernelles for my birthday.  I will plant those along the fence as well.  We made a wide area parallel to the Rose Garden fence about 5 feet wide.  It is already covered in seedlings that appeared naturally, I did not seed the area.
• Pulled up the chicken wire in the Infinity Garden that I laid over the ground during the summer (to armadillo-proof the bed), turned over the soil, and spread some Broadfleaf Sage and Flat Leaf Parsley seed.
• Planted 4 celery plants in the Vegetable Garden.  I like having celery plants, it is much cheaper than buying celery.  You won't hear me say that often.  Nothing is more expensive than home grown vegetables.  The soil, seeds, plants, fertilizer - it's not cheap to be act poor.
• Planted 4 Green Globe Artichokes in the Orchard in the space where I pulled up the green beans that were killed in the freeze we had last week.   Artichokes get really big.  The two that I planted this spring have gone from a few spindly leaves to plants that are about 3 feet wide and just as tall.  Picked all the green beans for dinner later in the week.
• Planted 4 Powis Castle in the Infinity Garden.  I love the smell of Artemesia and I love the silvery color. Artemesia can get really big when it's in the right spot.  The plants I have growing in the Long Border are quite large, but they get full sun.  The ones I had growing  in the Infinity Garden in partial shade didn't thrive.  But I love them so much I planted some more.
• Adjusted the sprinkler frequency.
• Planted Wedding Blush Sweet Pea seeds around the Butterfly Magnolia hoping they will weave themselves around the tree in the spring.
• Spent time training branches of my Peggy Martin and my Climbing American Beauty on their arbors.  I tied some branches to their support and wove some through the spaces between the slats.  Peggy Martin is growing on a section of chain link fence I found and mounted upright as an arbor.  American Beauty is growing up an old metal conveyor belt my step son gave me.
• Enjoyed the weather so much.  Spent time day dreaming and watching butterflies.  All my bulbs are coming up.  It's a lovely time of year in Texas.