Weekend at the Farm October 19 - 21, 2017

Arrived Thursday afternoon with Bert and stayed through Sunday.  Weather very nice.

• Thursday I just spent the afternoon walking around and enjoying the day.
• Friday I spent time in the Rose Garden watering and fertilizing and weeding.  The California Poppies that I seeded last week are just beginning to germinate.  I can see the tiny little white sprouts emerging from the seed that is on the surface of the soil.  My plan:  Before I leave for the weekend I will pull up all the Turnera.  It is done for the season and has thrown off its seed.
• I did a lot of weeding in the Star Garden, and I pulled up lots of leggy zinnias.  The ageratum is mostly finished and gone to seed, and it's time to pull it up as well.  Maybe Sunday.  I cut away plants leaning into paths - the Four O'Clocks always require cutting. 
•  The Heavenly Blue morning glories are just beginning to bloom on the arbor at the front entrance to the Star Garden.  So pretty.
• I pulled up the eggplant in my wheelbarrow that I'm using as a planter, and I sowed it with lettuce seeds.  I also dug up some thyme from the path where it is taking over, and I stuck some in the wheelbarrow as well.
• My green beans in the Vegetable Garden are loaded with buds.
• My husband got some four by fours from the hardware store to re-build my rose arbor at the entrance to the Rose Garden.  The old arbor fell apart - well, it lasted many years.
• My hurricane lilies are doing fine in the many places I moved them.  Several weekends ago, I believe it was the weekend Koy was with me - I dug up a bunch of  Lycoris.  The Lycoris in the center bed of the Circle Drive didn't bloom this year.  That means over-crowding.  So I dug up 50 or 60 or so and moved them to various places in the Rose Garden and the Orchard.  I was so happy I did that.  When I dug up the clumps the bulbs were on top of each other and way too crowded.  
• Butterflies are everywhere.  Really pretty.  Sulphurs, Painted Ladies, American Beauties, Black Swallowtails of various varieties, Giant Swallowtails, Gulf Fritillaries, White-striped Longtails, Long-tailed Sippers, and all the myriad varieties that people tend not to notice because they are black or brown or beige  (but they create so much activity in the gardens).  I have not seen any Zebras or Julias, and Monarchs are as scarce as hens teeth unfortunately. 
• In the afternoon I swept and mopped the kitchen and living room and cleaned the big oven and then the sink.
• I cut back the Pringle Aster - that plant makes a lot of debris.  It stays as a low-growing rosette (no more than a foot tall) all winter and spring.  Then in the summer it sends out four foot tall branches covered with bristly greenery.  Then, in the fall it bursts into thousands of little white flowers.  The branches are what must be cut away.
• I dug up 10 or so Philippine Lily seedlings and moved them to the Shade Garden.  And I spread seed in lots of different places.  I cut back the tall stems of many of the lilies, but I'm waiting another week for some of them that are still really green and have lots of leaves.
• I transplanted 10 or so ox eye daisies from paths into beds.
• I am pleased at how many Rudbeckia Maxima seedlings I have in the Orchard.  I collected all the seeds from the flower heads in late summer and threw them down in the bed next to the Satsuma tree.  Nothing much grows there, so I thought I'd try Dumbo Ears.  There are maybe 20 seedlings, maybe more that have sprung up.  It is a very pretty perennial with blue-grey large-leaved foliage.  It blooms in early summer.
• Raked in the Star Garden.  The leaves are beginning to fall.  Another summer has come and gone. 
•  Saturday.  I worked in the Rose Garden for a while.  It's so pretty in there right now.  I scraped the ground and threw down lots of Standing Cypress seed in the natural bed in the corner of the Star Garden where the Fortune's Double Yellow is growing.  That area doesn't get much water.  And Standing Cypress is supposed to be drought tolerant.  I bought a pound of seed to throw in my meadow.  So I used some of it liberally in the Rose Garden.  I also spread some in the bed where the Monsieur Tillier used to be.  That area also does not get a lot of water. 
• I pulled up the last eggplant in the Vegetable Garden, prepared the bed and spread a package of dill (Tetra variety).  I pulled weeds for about 30 minutes or so.  
• Filled the wheel barrow with compost from my compost pile to fill my new bed in the Rose Garden.  Bert cut down some dead cedars and made the edging for me.  This is just an expansion of a bed - there has always been an open spot there, I don't know why I never used it before.  I'm going to move a bunch of my iris to that spot.  None of my iris thrive because they are always smothered with perennials that overcome them.  This year I'm vowing to give them a chance by putting them in a fresh clean bed with nothing else around them.
• I spread more Philippine Lily seed and watered them in.  I think, from a gardening perspective, out of all the things that I've done through the years and will do in the coming years, the activity that has the most meaning for me is multiplying my lilies.  I envision them 10 years from now being quite a spectacle - they already are quite a spectacle.  
• Around 2:00 I drove to the Antique Rose Emporium and bought two roses.  While I was there I surreptitiously took some seed from a variety of princess feathers that I have long admired that grows there every year.  It is a very tall variety that I have never seen offered in catalogues.  When I got home I threw the seed in a bed next to the house.  Maybe I'll have some next year, who knows. 
• Came home and planted both roses.  I planted Bermuda's Kathleen in the bed where the Lady Hillingdon was (and some rose that was such a disappointment I won't bother to name it).  Lady Hillingdon was one of the many roses I lost last summer.  I have grown Bermuda's Kathleen before.  She gets quite large.  I am partial to the huge rose shrubs.  I pruned her way, way hard one spring and she up and died on me.  She is floriferous, and I like her a lot.  So I bought another one.  I planted a Marie van Houtte in the spot where the Chrysler Imperial was growing.  It pained me, but I pulled up a lot of Tickseed so that Marie would not have any competition her first year.  It so hard to choose a rose.  I've grown many varieties, and I love some of them which makes me want to get another one, but there are so many that I've never grown.  It's always a pull between getting a proven winner and trying something different. 
• I trimmed back the trailing purple lantana in the Rose Garden and then raked that path.
• I pulled up some Turnera, cut off the seed heads and threw them in the flower beds in the Star Garden.  If I get a lot of Turnera next summer in the Star Garden that would be quite a new dynamic in that garden.  We'll see.
• Sunday morning - rain. 
• I got outside about 9:30.  I pulled up all the Turnera in one of the beds in the Rose Garden and seeded it with Moss Verbena and Tickseed.
• I pulled up a bunch of ageratum in the Star Garden and cleared the bed of debris and weeds, about a five foot long area.  Seeded it with Tickseed and Moss Verbena.
• I dug up a bunch of iris, mostly Prissy Missy, and planted them in the new bed in the Rose Garden. 
• I sprayed herbicide in the Greenhouse Garden and cut away a lot of Elderberry that was leaning into the paths.  Generally cleaned up in that area.  Didn't have time to rake, though.
• Puttered here and there and watched butterflies.  
• Headed home about 3:00.

The Rose Garden October 21, 2017

Some pictures of the Rose Garden:

 Below, this is Louis Phillip rose.

 The below two pics are Belinda's Dream.

 Below, this is Dame de Couer.

Mexican Sunflower October 21, 2017

Last winter I threw down a bunch of seed in this natural area.  I was hoping for exactly what happened.  It took root and now I have lots of blooming sunflowers which the butterflies love.  Next year I will have even more.  I also have many plants that sprang up randomly in the meadow.   And I saw a plant growing in the woods a great distance from the house (carried there on someone's boot or in some bird droppings - nature is amazing). 

Pink Dawn Cannas October 21, 2017

This color of this canna really popped in the garden this weekend.  So pretty.

 Above, this picture is taken looking across a stand of Four O'Clocks, Indigo Spires, and crinums.  Cypress vine is behind the cannas.

 Below, in the background you can see the unruly Swamp Sunflower leaning over the fence.

 Below, last winter I transplanted the Indigo Spires from a bed in the Star Garden to this spot.  I wanted some perennials in the Long Border that would take over and defeat the weeds.  It is doing exactly what I wanted - a plan that worked out - yay!

A Pretty Stand of Zinnias in the Orchard October 14, 2017

Weekend at the Farm October 12 - 15, 2017

I arrived on Thursday morning, and I stayed until Friday around 1:00.  Drove back into town for Grandparents Ice Cream Social at Koy's school, and after that I went to see the play The Secret Garden with Nancy and Lisa.  Saturday morning I came back to the farm.  So much to do since I haven't been here and able to work for the last three weekends.

• I started in The Orchard.  I had allowed the crabgrass and several other varieties of grass to go to seed in there.  "Allowed" sounds like I did it on purpose, but I simply did not have time to get in there and weed.  I pulled all of that mess out of the beds, pulled up some leggy zinnias, cut back Henry Duehlberg salvia that was crowding other plants, cut away some dead blackberry canes, pushed all my new blackberry canes into the beds, weeded.  The butterflies are plentiful, although not amazing like last summer.  I don't have as many zinnias blooming this year.  One bed is loaded with zinnias, really pretty.  But I planted some perennials in the rest of the beds so that I don't have as much maintenance every year.  They are not as floriferous and therefore not as attractive to the butterflies.  I sprayed herbicide on the paths, they were a mess.
• Friday morning I went straight to work on the Rose Garden and Long Border.  I pulled up a couple of dead rose shrubs and weeded in a particularly messy bed.  Day Flower is such a scourge in the Rose Garden.  So hard to pull up!  I battle it every year.  I weeded in the Long Border and raked out the pine needles.  Deadheaded zinnias.  I liberally spread some California Poppies in the bed around the old dead oak tree in the center of the Rose Garden and in the corner of  the bed that I cleared out.  I have some really pretty, bushy zinnia plants in the Rose Garden that are covered with rosy red flowers.  So pretty.  The Rose Garden looks good.  Buttercup Turnera, roses, moss verbena, Fireworks Gomphrena are all in full bloom.  Sprayed herbicide here and there.  Reset the sprinklers. 
• Saturday I was here bright and early, arrived about seven after a rather harrowing drive in extremely foggy weather the entire way.  
• I went to work spreading hay over my meadow.  I worked on and off spreading hay throughout the morning.
• Puttered here and there. 
• Sunday, I spread more hay in my meadow.  Even if I don't spread anymore, I know I've done yeoman's work.  But I will work on it one more weekend.
• I spent about an hour spreading Philippine Lily seed all over the place.  This year I spread some in the Shade Garden.  I don't know why I have never thrown seed down in the Shade Garden - it's the perfect place for it.  Well, we will see how it does once all the leaves fall.  If the seedlings (which sprout pretty quickly once they are on the ground) get smothered by the falling leaves then my little experiment will have failed.  After all, one of the best things about the Shade Garden (which is a woodland garden) is that I don't have to weed in there.  The leaf drop keeps weeds from growing, it is nature's mulch.  I also spread some in the shady part of the Orchard, not shady, but gets a little respite from the sun in the afternoon.  And I spread some in the Circle Gardens which is where most of the lilies are, but if I don't deliberately place the seeds then they fall in the paths.  There are probably a hundred seedlings in the paths, and I just end of spraying them with herbicide because it's too hard to dig them up out of the rocks.  I also spread seed in a spot in the Boardwalk Garden.  So, the reward that comes with this task is about three to five years away.  That's how long it takes to get blooms on the lilies.  Gardening is the quintessential Long Game.
• I sprayed the roses with fungicide, but naturally too late, I already see black spot.  But I'm glad I did it, I always dread that job for some reason.  It is not a difficult thing to do, and it is not associated with "hot work".  Blackspot only shows up when the temperatures are getting cooler in the fall or warmer in the spring - both extremely pleasant times of year. I guess dragging out the sprayer and the chemicals, I procrastinate for sure.

Cypress Vine October 14, 2017

I no longer have to seed this area, the Cypress Vine comes back every year from seed and covers this little trellis.  My only job is making sure it doesn't engulf the Antoine Mari rose that is planted next to it.

Swamp Sunflower October 13, 2017

I got my start of  Swamp Sunflower many years ago at the Mercer Arboretum plant sale.  It starts out as an innocent little rosette of leaves each year, but by the fall it is an eight foot tall monster that can't support its own weight.  It always ends up flopping over and getting in the way.  I haven't figured out where to put it.  Last spring, completely done with having it in the Long Border, I dug up some clumps of it and moved it to an empty bed in The Orchard where I thought it could really stretch.  I pulled up a lot of it the Long Border but allowed a couple of plants to remain - I'm sentimental that way.  Now it is a nuisance in both places!  And beware, it sets a lot of seed in addition to being a perennial.  Despite its name, it doesn't have to have a lot of water, but I haven't tested to see if it is drought tolerant.

Strawberry Fields Gomphrena October 13, 2017

Growing amidst the Fireworks Gomphrena is a plant of Strawberry Fields that I grew from seed.  I really like the color, and I will try to grow more of it next year.

Red Firespike October 13, 2017

Another fall bloomer - Firespike.  This one likes shade.  It dies back to the ground in the winter here in zone 8B, but in my Houston garden it stayed green all year.

Country Girl Mum October 10, 2017

I just bought these two plants.  I have some growing in the Rose Garden which I planted two summer ago, but I took a picture of these because the ones in the Rose Garden need staking, and I haven't gotten around to it yet.  Country Girl is a very old-fashioned variety.  When fall rolls around it send up two feet tall stems with flowers that branch out from there. The new chrysanthemum varieties are very compact.  Country Girl spreads by underground stolons, and it stays green all year which means it makes a pretty decent ground cover in the spring, summer and winter.  In the fall it starts its growing spurt and the low-growing ground cover starts to get more lush and full.  Then the flower head branches shoot up.  The flowers are very, very pale purple.  In the bottom picture you can see that these are new plants, they have not begun spreading yet, but when I pulled them out of the pots I gently spread the little green shoots out all around the mother plant to get them started.

Juana's Orange Amaranth October 1, 2017

Amaranth gets really tall!  I did my usual over-crowding when I planted it, so it is very leggy.  One of the plants broke off at the top, and I see that's the way to go - lop off the top and you get a lot of branching.  I will do that next year.  A fun and pretty plant to grow.  Here in Texas where I garden I think it is best to plant it in the summer rather than the spring.  I planted it in the spring two years ago, and the bugs chewed on it until the leaves were like lace.  Not attractive.  This year I planted it in the summer and had no problem with insects.  Whatever insects were so enamored of my amaranth in the spring were already dead or dormant by the time I was growing it this summer.  Insects have a very short season.  The insects that thrive in the spring are different than the ones that thrive in June.  Japanese beetles are an example of that, they arrive in spring, just in time to wreak havoc on my roses.  By the end of spring they have laid their eggs in the soil and died away.

 Below, this is the plant that broke at the top.  It shot out four branches, and I have many more seed heads as a result. 

White Philippine Violet September 30, 2017

This is a new discovery for me.  I saw it blooming last fall at the Antique Rose Emporium.  I hunted down an employee to ask them what it was.  Barleria, or common name Philippine Violet.  I had never heard of it.  That is why it's good to go to display gardens at various times of the year to see what is blooming.  It is a fall bloomer, and it likes shade.  Two things I really like:  fall bloomers and anything that is a shade plant that blooms.  There is a white variety and a purple variety.  They didn't have any for sale at the Rose Emporium, but I found some at the Arbor Gate.  It is a perennial, not a shrub, although it gets about 3-4 feet by 3 feet every year.  In cold winters it dies to the ground and then comes up from the roots.  It is cold hardy, but last winter the weather dropped 40 degrees in a few hours, and I lost several of the plants I put in - the purple ones, unfortunately.  But I have two white ones at the entrance to the Boardwalk Garden and two in the Star Garden.  I really like them, and I plan on getting the purple variety to plant in the Infinity Garden next spring.  They set seed, so I can start some plants from seed and put some in the Shade Garden as well.

Above, this plant is not yet in bloom, but the light was right for displaying the size of the plant.