Cigar Plant November 26, 2016

The orange and yellow looked really vivid this weekend!  I don't have this plant sited correctly.  It is sitting in mostly shade, and it should be sitting in mostly sun.  But, it's doing okay.

November Roses

This is Madame Antoine Mari.  She is a pink blend:

 

This is Marie can Houtte, she is a yellow and pink blend, my newest addition to the Rose Garden.  The flowers get pinker with age:

This is Carefree Beauty:

This is La Marne:

Giant Ligularia November 26, 2016

I love this plant.  The leaves are beautiful all year, and in the fall it throws up thewe pretty yellow daisy-like flowers.  It will stay evergreen all winter if there are no really hard freezes.  Here in the Brenham area that rarely happens, but it happened last year.  It's nice to have flowers in a shade garden, but to have flowers that look like they belong in a sunny garden is really nice!

Thanksgiving Weekend at the Farm November 23 - 27, 2016

This is a cluster of Copper Canyon daisies.

It was Mom, Dad, Nan, Lisa, and the two of us for Thanksgiving.  Carol stopped by.  This year all the kids were with the other side of the family.  The weather was perfect!

•  Wednesday I dug up all the Americrinums that had completely taken over one of my beds in the Rose Garden.  I threw them in the ditch down the road.  I didn't want to offer them to anyone because I dislike them.  This is the bed in which I'm going to plant my rose.
• Friday, rainy and cold.  I drove to the Antique Rose Emporium and bought a Marie van Houtte.  She is a yellow and pink blend.  I had her once before but she died.  This one is in a much better location.  I looked around for some perennials to buy, but I didn't see anything I couldn't do without.  I bought a couple of variegated sages and three French sorrel plants.
• Bert went hunting in Groesbeck with Will so I was by myself.  I spent a lot of time walking around the gardens, didn't do much at all except plant the rose and mulch the bed.
• I also raked away mulch in five spots in the Orchard and seeded them with wildflower seed.  I still have some seed left despite all my efforts to use it all.
• Saturday.  I raked up pine needles in the trails, two truck loads of them, and spread them under one of my big blackberry beds.  I threw rakefuls down and pushed them under all the prickly canes with the end of the rake.  It was so weedy under there this past last summer, this should really help.  I hated to use my precious mulch in there, and it occurred to me that I should use the pine straw that falls into the paths.  Excellent.
• I cut the seed heads off a dozen or so Philippine Lily stalks and spread them in the shady part of the Star Garden and in various places throughout the Circle Gardens.
• I planted my new herbs, all perennials, in the Kitchen Herb Garden and fertilized them.
• I dusted my cabbages with insecticide.  While I was there I cut a bunch of seed heads off my Mexican Sunflowers and threw them into one of the beds in the Orchard.  The Orchard is a good place for those giants.
• Took a walk around the property about one o'clock.  The weather turned out so pretty today even though it started cloudy and cold.
• I left early Sunday morning to go to Houston and babysit Koy while Josh and Amy decorate their house for Lights in the Heights.

Weekend at the Farm November 19 - 20, 2016

I went to Blake's house on Saturday morning and took to Sam to Target.  We spent two hours looking at the toys and I bought him whatever he wanted.  Went to MacDonalds for a happy meal.  Charlie is adorable.  Arrived at the farm about 4:00, Bert was already there.  Drove to work on Monday morning from the farm.

• Sunday morning I dawdled quite a bit getting up.  I didn't have much that I wanted to do.  
• I gathered seed from my Philippine Lilies and spread it in the Shade Garden and the un-landscaped areas of the shady parts of the Star Garden.  
• I pulled up two more big clumps of anisacanthus in the Star Garden.  I spread mulch around the edges of one area and seeded it with my wildflower seeds.  I spread compost over the second area and turned over the soil, then spread seed.
• I raked the paths clean where I was working.  
• Watered in the Rose Garden throughout the day.
• I walked down to the Orchard around one o'clock and was surprised to see that all my salvia and zinnias had died from the cold we had last night.  I didn't think it had dropped below freezing, but sure enough everything was gone.  So I pulled up all the zinnias and salvias.  It took me about two hours.  I also ran the hose around my Jujube.  There were piles of dirt around the tree where voles had pushed it out to make room for their tunnels, so I figured they had taken up residence around the roots of my tree.  Sure enough, after the water ran for awhile my boots sunk down into the mud around my ankles.  So I mushed it down all around the tree.  The voles will go some place else, but hopefully someplace less destructive.  I threw a lot of the zinnias flower heads in the beds and the area behind the Orchard, but most of it I just threw into a trash heap.  I have a bunch of zinnia seeds that I bought this spring but never used.  I'd like fresh colors next year.
• I sprayed fungicide on my roses right at dusk.

Weekend at the Farm November 12 - 13, 2014

 This is La Vesuve rose. 

I arrived Friday evening.  Bert went hunting with Donald and Albert, so I was by myself all weekend.

• Saturday morning I took Rocky and Buddy to the vet.  Rocky is scratching at himself again and Buddy's eye looked really bad.  The vet says we should have Buddy's eye removed.
• Seeded wildflower seeds in a few spots in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden.  The Orchard is still beautiful with zinnias, so I don't want to pull them up and seed the Orchard yet.
• I pulled up the marigolds in the big bed in the Vegetable Garden to get ready for seeding it with wildflowers.  To heck with vegetables, the nematodes are getting them anyway.
• I dusted my cabbages and collards with Seven dust.
• I cut away lots of anisacanthus in the Star Garden in preparation for pulling it all up and seeding the bed with wildflower seeds.  I cut back the dead canes of my Mexican salvia.
• I worked on the Kitchen Herb Garden for about two hours.  I yanked up several really big, dead sage.  I also cut back and dug up a Beautyberry that was totally in the way.  I weeded.  And I mulched the entire area.
• I walked and walked and walked - from the Rose Garden to the Star Garden to the Orchard.  What a beautiful day.
• I spent some time working with the compost pile.  I hauled away lots of dead Mexican Sunflower branches and I used the pitch fork to turn the compost.  I'm going to use it tomorrow to mix into the big Vegetable Garden plot.  If you ever want to see some really big, scary-looking spiders, a compost pile is the place to be.
• Weeded here and there.
• Enjoyed the day! 
• Sunday.  I began by pulling up all my anisacanthus in the long bed in the Star Garden.  I had to pry it up with a shovel to start, but after the initial effort it pulled up pretty easily.  There was also a lot of Wedelia growing around it and the adjacent Ehamanii canna.  I pulled up as much as I could easily reach, I will dig up the rest after the canna die back.    Wedelia is very difficult to pull up.  I edged the area with mulch and seeded the middle area with wildflowers seeds.
• I moved on to the Vegetable Garden.  I loaded up my wheelbarrow with compost and mixed it into the bed that I cleared out yesterday.  The compost was infested with ants so I had to be pretty careful.  I smoothed out the soil in the middle and edged the entire area with mulch.  I spread wildflower seeds in the middle area.
• Fertilized my cabbages, mustard and collard greens.
• I watered here and there in the Rose Garden.
• The butterflies are still beautiful and plentiful..  So pretty.
• Left about 3:30 to go to Blake's house.  Spent the night because she and Josh had to leave very early to go to the hospital.  Little Charlie will be here tomorrow!

Blue Bedder Salvia November 13, 2016

This is a really pretty salvia that has a very long bloom time.  It bloomed all summer long and it is still blooming.  The old flowers become very white, so the plant looks like it has two different color flowers blooming on it at once - unique.  This is the first year I have grown it, so I don't know if it will come back - it is labelled a perennial, but we'll see about that come spring!

Mustard Greens in a Pot

 

I have always thought that mustard greens are so pretty in addition to being edible.  I plant them in my flower gardens every year.  When they go to see they produce really pretty flower stalks that are covered with yellow flowers much loved by all insects.

Pink Autumn Sage November 12, 2016

This is Autumn Sage's time to really shine.  It blooms its heart out in late OCtober / November.

Butter Pat Chrysanthemum November 13, 2016

I bought two of these plants at the Round Top Herb Fair last March.  I'm always on the lookout for fall blooming plants.  These are putting on a good show this year.  They spread by underground stolons (and I think by seeds as well), so I will be able to separate them soon and have more stands of them throughout my gardens.  Butter Pat is an old-fashioned favorite, like Country Girl mum.  The flowers must be delicious because there were insects all over them this weekend!

Perle d' Or Rose November 13, 2016

I brought this rose back from the brink of death, it had one sad little cane that was mostly brown.  So I am particularly proud of it.  It is a Polyantha rose with peach flowers.  The color is unique and therefore a good one to have in your garden.  It stands out amongst the red and pink roses.  The tiny little buds are perfectly formed and so pretty.

Perle d' Or Rose November 13, 2016

I brought this rose back from the brink of death, it had one sad little cane that was mostly brown.  So I am particularly proud of it.  It is a Polyantha rose with peach flowers.  The color is unique and therefore a good one to have in your garden.  It stands out amongst the red and pink roses.  The tiny little buds are perfectly formed and so pretty.