Day at the Farm December 30, 2018

The only things blooming right now are my camellias and these little woodland violets.

Christmas on Saturday with my side of the family.  It was at my house in Houston.  Gretchen and family were there.  Drove to Burton on Saturday night after we cleaned up the party.  Stayed through Monday and drove home for New Year's Eve with Mom, Dad, Nan, Lisa, and the New York contingent.  Dinner at Café Annie's.

• I trimmed the Yuletide camellia here and there trying to encourage a little more branching.  I really hate to cut a camellia since they grow so slowly.
• I transplanted 40 or so plants from paths into flowerbeds.  I moved Homestead Purple Verbena into beds throughout the Rose Garden, and I moved Ox Eye Daisies into the flowerbed that is adjacent to the path that leads to the Boardwalk.  I now have that long bed almost completely filled in with daisies, and I think it will be very pretty in the spring.  That has been a fairly sizeable project for me because they have to be dug up and moved there.  Up to this point that bed has basically been just mulch and a few random plants here and there.  I watered them in.
• Raked here and there.
• I laid down chicken wire in various paths in the Rose Garden.  I read somewhere that deer don't like to walk on strange surfaces.  We'll see how effective that is.  I'm not holding out much hope.  It certainly does a number on me, though.   I've tripped over it about 10 times now. 
• Next morning I was sore!
• I moved a dozen or so transplants to various beds including the front flower bed.   I decided that the verbena would look pretty there as well as keep down weeds and slow down erosion.
• I fertilized my parsnips, beets, and garlic in the Vegetable Garden.  Also did a little weeding.  It's important to keep the weeds away from the veggie seedlings.
• I put some fertilizer around my little species gladiolas that are just coming up.
• Decided to go down to the Orchard and putter around for a while.  But I ended up doing a great thing!  I tackled the Swamp Sunflower problem.  I have a skinny bed at the back of the Orchard in which I planted a couple of clumps of Swamp Sunflower two years ago.  That is a massive, unruly plant that spreads quickly.  And it has quickly grown out of that spot and needs to be moved again.  I cut away all the dead vegetation.  Then I dug out clumps of it and moved it over to the meadow.  The part of the meadow that is at the bottom of the hill is one the wettest parts of our property.  I tossed the clumps of plants into the standing water (we have had a lot of rain lately).  I planted some here and there in that part of the meadow, but most of it I just set in the water.  I transplanted 10 or so clumps - heavy!  It was hard work, but if they take off, they will be amazing in the meadow.  It's (I think I have finally found the perfect spot for these giants) the perfect spot for my Swamp Sunflower.
• Headed home about 2:30.  

Pretty Greens December 30, 2018

I've always thought that greens - mustard and collard - are so pretty.  They have these wonderful, massive leaves.  And the color of collards is a beautiful blue-grey.

I'm growing greens, parsnips, beets, lettuce, carrots, garlic, parsley, dill, and cilantro in my Vegetable Garden right now.  And I have my two beds of asparagus in there lying dormant.

 And a picture of my lettuces...

At the Farm December 23-24. 2018

 This is Giant Ligularia.  It is a large, shade-loving plant with great big round leaves.  And in the fall it shoots up long stems and blooms these cheerful yellow flowers.  It will remain green through light freezes, but it will go dormant if there is a really harsh freeze.

We had the Bonassin Christmas at our Houston house, and Zelda, Henry, Oliver and Wes spent the night on Saturday.  We returned the children on Sunday morning and headed to the farm.  Spent the night and part of Christmas Eve day, then headed home for dinner at La Table with Mom, Dad, Nan and Bert.

• Sunday evening I picked some mustard greens from the Vegetable Garden and we had them for dinner.  I love them.
• Saturday I raked in the Vegetable Garden and weeded around my beets and parsnips.
• I raked in the Star Garden for quite a while.  Dumped all the leaves in the Rose Edge bed. 
• Watered in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.  I can see that one of the hoses has a hole in it - no doubt a vole or a mouse - because a small puddle formed during the process of watering in the Star Garden.  We have some of the hoses buried shallowly to keep them from being eye sores.  This one will have to be replaced next weekend.
• Watered around the shrubs and roses I transplanted last weekend.
• Spread a wheelbarrow of mulch around an autumn sage that was about to become a weedy spot.  
• I weeded in the Orchard.  I'm trying to eradicate dollar weed in the bed where the Jujube grows.  It's not easy.  I have lots of Coneflower seeded there, and I don't want dollar weed to overtake it.  
• I spent lots of time walking around and admiring all my seedlings:  poppies, larkspur, tickseed, California poppies, Philippine lilies, so many wonderful beginnings.
• Headed home about 2:00. 

Weekend at the Farm December 15 - 16, 2018

 These are pictures of my White By The Gate Camellias.  Pure white flowers.  I love them.

I took Friday vacation and finished almost all of my Christmas shopping.  Nine grandchildren and one on the way.  We just found out Blake is pregnant with a little girl.  Very exciting!  Arrived at the farm Friday late afternoon.  It's disconcerting how quickly things can take a turn.  Our little dog Buddy was run over by our flat bed trailer on Saturday morning.  We rushed him to the vet.  The x-ray revealed that his back and pelvis were broken, so we put him down.  Poor, poor little fellow.

• We buried Buddy next to Lanie and Cosmo.  
• I raked leaves throughout the day on Saturday and dumped the leaves in the large area adjacent to the Rose Garden.
• I dug up some Standing Cypress seedlings growing in paths in the Rose Garden and planted them in various places in the Rose Garden.  Watered them in.
• Weeded here and there.
• I cut away dead canes from the roses in the Orchard.
• I finished cutting back the dead vegetation in the small asparagus bed in the Vegetable Garden.
• I took many strolls through the gardens looking at all my seedlings.  I have a particularly great crop of poppies coming up everywhere this year.  Perhaps I've found the secret to getting lots of poppy sprouts - do absolutely nothing to prep the beds.  Literally, just sprinkle the seeds.  Even the loosest of soil will cover them up.  They are so very tiny that they exhaust their energy almost immediately.  In past years I prepped the beds, but before I sowed the poppies I would firm the soil.  This year I didn't do that, and I have zillions more than I usually have. 
• I fertilized all my camellias - the one in the Shade Garden, the two White By The Gates along the Boardwalk, and the Debutante in the Circle.  I've already fertilized the Yuletide Camellia.  I fertilized more of my emerging bulbs including my Snowflakes and Blue Bottles, and my little narcissus odorous in the Star Garden.
• I raked out the beds in the Circle Drive where I have lots of lily seedlings growing.  Bert and I are always at cross-purposes in the fall.  He blows the leaves in the beds and I rake them out.  If I don't have seedlings growing of course I let the leaves remain there.  They discourage weeds and fertilize the soil.  But the leaves smother my lily seedlings.
• Sunday was very productive.  I dug up two Altheas and re-planted them in the Long Border.  One of them was given to me by my neighbor,  Debra.  It is a double pink.  I've had it for many years, but it has always been in a terrible spot - shady and dry.  It's only a little bit bigger than when she first gave it to me.  So I moved it, fertilized it, watered it in, and mulched around it.  The second one is a Satin Marina althea.  Blue with a deep blue throat.  I planted it amongst some Indigo Spires salvias, and it has never prospered there.  So I moved it to the Long Border, fertilized, watered and mulched.
• Next I dug up two plugs of Peggy Martin rose that had tip-rooted near the mother plant.  I planted one on the goat wire fence at the entrance to the Long Border, and I planted the other one next to the trailing purple lantana in the Rose Garden.  Fertilized, watered and mulched. 
• I dug up six or so plugs of Ox Eye Daisies and planted them near the altheas.  Watered them in and mulched around them.
• I dug up three plugs of Homestead Purple Verbena growing in paths and planted them in beds in the Rose Garden.
• Next I dug up four clumps of cannas (no-name bargain bin cannas) and moved them away from my white sweet shrub.  The cannas have been crowding the sweet shrub for a couple of years.  I'm not sure she will make it, but she has a better chance now.  I planted the clumps of cannas in the Star Garden in various places.  They are pretty good bloomers and worth saving.
• I raked in the Star Garden.  All the trees are bare now, so I can start raking out the beds and paths.   The sprinklers came on, so I moved to the Medicine Garden.
• I raked in the Medicine Garden.  Filled 30 or so wheelbarrows with leaves and wheeled them over to the unfinished areas of the Star Garden.  The leaves condition the soil and keep down the weeds.  I also dumped some over the daffodils I planted last weekend in the Daffodil Border.
• I planted 250 Sweetness daffodils in the Daffodil Border last weekend.  And 200 Excelsior Spanish Bluebells and 200 Star of Bethlehems (AKA Silver Bells) along the driveway adjacent to the Shade Garden.  Star of Bethlehem is Ornithogalum nutans.  I've never grown them, but I've been curious about them. 
• I did something I've been meaning to do for several years.  I dug up my Ellen Bosanquet crinum and moved it to a sunnier location.  I bought two of them at the River Oaks plant sale some years ago.  I planted them both in the shade which, as it turns out is not good.  In my defense I saw a picture in Scott Ogden's bulb book, and it looked like they could take shade. They have never thrived or multiplied and one of them actually died.  You have to be a pretty bad gardener to kill a crinum, but I did.  I planted it in the Long Border near the crinums that my sister gave me.  
• Spent the night on Sunday and drove in to work on Monday morning. 

Thanksgiving Week at the Farm 2018

 Tuesday morning when I went outside in the early morning the sun looked so pretty shining through the Shade Garden.

I took the week off and Bert and I spent the better part of the week at the farm.

• Saturday Will, Kim and the kids came for a visit and spent the night.  We played outside, I pushed the kids on the swing, we made jewelry from a kit, and played Lite Brite.  They left around lunch time on Sunday.
• We have had our first freeze, so everything is shriveled up.  I spent some time working outside pulling up the Mexican Sunflowers.  I got rid of the ones in the Rose Edge Border, the Star Garden and the Vegetable Garden.  I also spent some time straightening up in the Vegetable Garden.  I cut back the dead vegetation in the big asparagus bed in preparation for fertilizing and mulching.  I stacked tomato cages and pulled a few weeds.  I'll be back in there to cut back the small asparagus bed, rake etc.  But it's a start.
• Monday was rainy in the morning.  I transplanted ten or so Ox Eye Daisies from paths and into the flower bed that runs alongside the path to the Boardwalk.
• I went to the grocery store and bought all my Thanksgiving ingredients as well as food for the girls.  Josh and Amy are leaving the girls with me after Thanksgiving through the weekend (or as long as I can last).
• I worked in the Vegetable Garden for a while.  I mulched with two truckloads of mulch.  Spread it over four empty beds - I'm leaving them fallow for the winter.  I fertilized and mulched around my garlic and carrots.  Fertilized and mulched the big asparagus bed and fertilized the small one.  Raked leaves and debris.
• Fertilized all my emerging bulbs in the Bulb Bed, the Daffodil Border, Rose Edge, and here and there in the Star Garden. 
• Tuesday was cold and sunny, a beautiful day.  I pulled up all the frozen zinnias in the Orchard, roughed up the soil and sowed the last of my coneflower seeds.  I also spread some red corn poppies that were left over from last year.  They might not sprout, they are so tiny I'm not sure how long they remain viable.  I also spread some parsley along the front edge of the bed.  And I spread some of the peony poppies from Maedell.
• In the Star Garden I spread some Feverfew seeds that I found in my seed box.  
• And in the shady part of the Star Garden next to the Banana Shrub, I spread 2 packages of McKana's Giant Columbine seed.
• I spent some time cleaning up the area around the Banana Shrub, lots of dead vegetation such as Philippine Lily stems.  I spread some lily seeds around, and I raked the path.
• I spent some more time raking in the Star Garden.  There are tons and tons of acorns everywhere.       

Yuletide Camellia November 21, 2018

I've had this camellia for many years, but the last two years have been particularly rewarding.  What a gorgeous show this shrub has put on in the recent years.  I love it!

Day at the Farm November 10, 2018

When the weather gets cool the blue of the salvias get beautifully intense.

Arrived Saturday morning.  Bert was already here.  Left Sunday around 10:00 to go visit my mom and dad. Cool and cloudy, but that suits me fine.  I can work like a robot in this weather.

• I put mulch around the Velchenblau that I planted a couple of weeks ago.  I mulched all the roses I planted except this one - I missed it.
• I dug up about 20 plugs of Ox Eye daisy growing in paths.  I planted them in the bed alongside the path that leads to the Boardwalk.  It sorely needed something growing in it. About a month ago I covered one half of the bed with chicken wire to keep the armadillos away.  The remaining half, the half I worked on Saturday, was covered with a layer of sand.  The drainage is bad in this spot and water runs down the hill, depositing silt, right in the path of this bed.  I dug a trench along the landscaping edge - that usually works for 4 or 5 months, and I turned over the soil, then I planted the daisies.  It should be pretty next spring if nothing befalls them between now and April.
• I saw that the Columbine seeds  I sowed a month ago have sprouted.  I should have read the package because I think Columbine germination period is long.  At any rate, two weeks ago when I was at the farm, I was disappointed that my Columbine hadn't sprouted.  The seedlings were tiny, but had sprouted none the less.  I'm sure no one would have noticed them unless they had been looking for them.  Trying to save a little money by sowing Columbine seed rather than replacing plants in the spring. 
• I spent some time on Saturday gathering Phillippine Lily seeds and planting little lily bulbs that I dug up from paths in the Cirlce Drive.  I spread the seeds everywhere - the Star Garden, the Medicine Garden, the Orchards, the Shade Garden, and anywhere I could tuck a few seeds.
• Sunday morning I took the last of my wildflower seeds and sowed them in the Meadow.  Bert mowed a big section of the meadow last week or so.  I walked along in the mowed area and sowed seed wherever I saw a bare area of dirt.  I finished off the last of three pounds of seed - Tall Poppy Mallow, Moss Verbena, and Standing Cypress.  My general thoughts on my meadow at this point are that, at the very least, I can have a lovely wildflower meadow.  The crab grass might be too much to overcome, and I will possibly just content my self with a spring wildflower meadow and then mow it down before the grass gets too tall for the mower.   But I will press on in my goal to have a native grass meadow for now.  I will probably need at least two more years of effort before I can judge whether or not it's worth it to keep trying for the next 10 years.  Definitely a long-term project.
• I raked an area of the Star Garden, the paths that lead from the back door to the shed.  We have had a bumper year for acorns.  The paths are strewn with acorns and some leaves, but not nearly as many leaves as we will have in a couple of weeks.
•  I transplanted some Wooly Stemodia from one bed in the Star Garden to several others.  It had taken root in the paths, so I cut it away from the mother plants, scooped it up with some soil, and planted it in several beds in the Star Garden.  It will help keep the weeds down in these beds.  
• The Camellias are beginning to bloom.  I love my camellias.
• I picked lots of tender lettuces for our salad on Saturday evening, then totally forgot to make the salads.  Next week I'll try again.
• I adjusted the sprinklers  The soil is wet.  
• Inspected all my roses.  They look okay.  No leaf cutter ant onslaught or deer destruction.
• I meant to fertilize all my emerging bulbs - there are some peeping through in the Rose Garden, and my snowbells (that's not the right name, but it alludes me right now) in the Star Garden.  And I meant to fertilize my asparagus.  I didn't get around to either of those chores.  Asparagus is a heavy feeder.  It's important not to neglect it in the winter months.
• I sowed an ounce of larkspur and corn poppies in the Star Garden. 
• Bert and I moved the avocado tree into the house.  I don't want to get caught with an unexpected freeze and it gets left outside.  One day when it forms a bark around the trunk I will put it in the ground in the Orchard.  Until then it has to be babied through the freezing temperatures. 
• Headed home to Houston about 10:00 on Sunday morning.

Some of My Fall Flowers November 11, 2018

Red Canna

Butterfly Weed and Mexican Mint Marigold

Mexican Mint Marigold

White Mist Flower

Pink Salvia

Red Firespike

Prairie Aster

La Marne Rose

African Blue Basil

Butter Pat Chrysanthemum

Standing Cypress

Debutante Camellia

Mexican Sunflower

Autumn Sage

Sowing Philippine Lily Seeds November 10, 2018

I have been sowing Philippine Lily seeds for the better part of the ten years I have been gardening here at the farm.  I have - let's call it - 100 lilies that bloom every summer, and many, many hundreds of seedlings in various stages of maturity.  I have read that you can get blooms from this lily within two years after you sow the seeds, but that would be the Superman of seedlings if you experience that.  However, in four to five years (maybe a year sooner) you will likely get a bloom.  Over time you will get eight or ten blooms on a single bulb. They make quite a sight standing 6 feet tall blooming in the worst part of summer.  Very spectacular, and they take up very little room.  I throw seeds in every corner of my gardens, and they fit right in to tiny spaces.

Today I sowed seeds in the Circle Drive Garden, the bed next to the dining room window, the Boardwalk Gardens, various beds in the Star Garden, I sowed lots of seeds under my pink Vitex and completely covered the bed underneath the big apple tree in the Orchard, and in several places in the Medicine Garden.

The seeds tend to take root in the white rock in the Circle Drive paths.  I dug up about twenty tiny little bulbs and planted them in the Shade Garden.  The heavy leaf drop discourages the seeds to sprout, but the little plants that I stuck in the ground last fall seem to be doing fine. So I'm trying that again.  I'd love for them to line the driveway along the edge of the Shade Garden.  That would be quite a display.

Below are the seed pods of the Philippine Lily and the seeds inside the pods.

 

Weekend at the Farm October 27 - 28, 2018

This is white snakeroot.  It's in full bloom in the Shade Garden right now.
Saturday morning went to Blake and Josh's for Sam and Charlie's birthday party.  Charlie is two and Sam is four.  To the farm after that, arrived about 5:00.  Sunday was beautiful weather.

• The roses I planted last weekend look good.  No leaf cutter ants or deer attacks.
• I spent most of the day clearing out the Star Garden of all the ageratum.  It is on the wane, and it's time to sow fall seeds.  I pulled all of it up in the two long beds.  And I weeded.  And I cut back and pulled up a couple of Mexican Sunflowers that had fallen over.  I hauled away four truckloads of ageratum and other debris.  
• The Mexican Sunflowers (Tithonia) are in full bloom.  They are gorgeous.  Butterflies were all over them all day long:  Monarchs, Queens, Black Swallowtails, Hairstreaks, Sulphurs, Skippers and zillions of tiny ones that are too fast to identify.  It was wonderful to watch them.
• The garlic I planted last weekend has sprouted.  And the parsley I sowed two weeks ago in the Medicine Garden has sprouted. 
• I spread Philippine Lily seeds in various places.  But the real effort for that will be next week or so.
• I planted 3 marjorams in the Kitchen Herb Garden.  I just love the smell of marjoram.  The label indicated it is an annual, but I think of it as a perennial.  It definitely can withstand the winter in Burton.
• I went down to the Orchard and pulled up spent zinnias and weeds in the Jujube bed.  I painstakingly pulled up dollar weed out of that bed as well.  Then I sowed lots of Coneflower seeds.  It was kind of funny because I went to several spots to sow seeds and saw that I already sowed seeds in that spot.  I get pretty industrious with my seed-sowing and forget where I have been.  But it's always a pleasant surprise to see these little "forgets".  Yay for me and my efforts towards next year's beauty.
• I spread Coneflower in two of the areas that I cleared in the Star Garden.  And I spread some Coneflower seeds in the back bed where I pulled up all the white Four O'Clocks last weekend.
• I deadheaded roses.  I should have sprayed for blackspot but didn't get around to it.
• Drove home about 4:00.

Caldwell Pink Rose October 28, 2018

This is a found rose.  It has no scent.  But it is a pretty good fall bloomer.  It blooms well in the spring too, but very late spring.  When all the other roses are in full bloom, this one is just setting it's buds.

Salvia Nemorosa "Blue Marvel"

This a low-growing salvia that I bought last weekend.  I planted 3 of them in the Rose Garden.  I'm always on the lookout for low-growing plants to surround my roses.

My Country Girl Mums October 21, 2018

If you have the right spot for Country Girl (or any of the other wonderful heirloom mums) then they will give you so much pleasure.  They flop over, so basically they take up a lot of room.  You can stake them if you have the energy, or you can plant them where they have room to lie down when they are in full bloom which is what I do.  In the winter and summer their growth is similar to a ground cover.  In late summer and early fall they grow tall stems that lean over.  A great, spreading perennial.  Last year I tried to harvest the seed and spread it in various places.  I actually had one plant sprout from all that effort, so I know it is possible to grow them from seed, but transplants are easier.

Toadlily October 21, 2018

Toadlily is quite beautiful when you stand directly over it, but from afar the flowers don't really stand out.  This is a shade-loving perennial.  I planted it about 10 years ago.  Once a year I put some fertilizer on it, but other than that it takes care of itself.