Weekend at the Farm March 29 - 31, 2019

The iris are starting to bloom.  This is one of the first, so pretty.

• I drove up on Thursday evening.  Bert was already here.  Traffic was hideous.  Not sure if I will do that again soon.  Better to come in the morning.
• I hauled gravel half the day on Friday.  
• I pulled up three of my mustards and planted 3 bell pepper plants and a serrano pepper plant. 
• I planted an African Blue basil in one of the big buckets in the Vegetable Garden.
• Bert and I drove up to Papescapes up the road and bought 2 yards of what they said was mulch, but it's not mulch.  It is a mulch / compost / sand mixture.  But we were already there with the trailer, so we bought it.
• I spent part of the day with my mulch mix.  I filled in the big holes in the back bed that washed away from erosion.  And I put some around the herbs in my Kitchen Herb Garden.  
• I spread some of the mulch mix in the Dining Room bed - lots of dandelions in there.  I yanked up a bunch and spread mulch, then mushed it down hard.  
• I used some of the landscape rocks that I got from Josh and Amy in the Star Garden and the Shade Garden and the Rose Garden.
• Josh, Koy and Cleo and Blake, Sam and Charlie came for a visit on Saturday.  Blake and the boys stayed for the day, Josh and the girls spent the night.  Ben Meers drove in from Austin to visit Josh and he spent the night as well.
• Before they arrived Jeff and Amy brought some friends over to tour my gardens.  That was fun for me because of course I am so proud of my gardens!
• We did lots of playing and the cousins argued throughout the day over this and that toy.  
• A cold front moved in and it got cold.
• Sunday morning Josh and the girls and Ben left about 11:00.  I sent Josh home with lots of carrots, cilantro, and beets from the garden.  I worked until about 5:00.  My decomposed granite is almost gone.  And I moved some more mulch mix as well.
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.
• Pulled up lots of invasive grass that is growing amongst my daffodils in the Daffodil Border.  
• Watered in the Rose Garden.
• Cut back the Copper Canyon Daisy and added some of my mulch mix to the bed.
• I walked the Meadow.
• I ambled through all the gardens for several hours.
• Headed to work on Monday morning.

Trip to the Farm March 22 - 23, 2019

• Josh and Amy are having a total re-do of their front yard, so they offered me (I asked for) all the plants they didn't want.  I went over to their house on Friday morning and loaded lots of ferns and amaryllis bulbs and a few little woodland cannas into my Mini Cooper, then headed to the farm.
• I planted all the ferns in the Shade Garden and watered them in well.  These are not Southern Wood Ferns of which I have many.  These are a different variety, perhaps Autumn Fern, but not sure.  At any rate, very pretty and different - and I saved my tons of money!  If I had tried to buy the equivalent amount of ferns for myself, it would have been very expensive.  So I'm excited about them.  There were 10 or so very large transplants.
• I planted the little woodland cannas in the sunny part of the Shade Garden.  It's pretty dry over there, but if anything can make, a canna can.  They remind me of Daisy Delite cannas, but neither Amy nor I know the real name of them.
• Fertilized here and there in the Shade Garden as I went along.
• I also snagged eight or so amaryllis, I think they are orange and white.  One of them has a bud on it, so I will know soon.  I planted them in a group in the Long Border.
• Very excited about my new plants.
• After that all I did was move gravel.  I couldn't get the cadet started, which meant I couldn't finish the Orchard.  So I worked on the Star Garden.  I could see that my pile of gravel was going to run out before I finished, and I really can't afford to get another load, so I started covering all the paths that are most visible and most frequented (as opposed to working from the back to the front). 
• The weather is so beautiful right now.  I saw Red Admirals, Tiger Swallowtails, Giant Swallowtails, the black and blue swallowtails, Monarchs, and Sulphurs. 
• Watered in the Rose Garden.  I need new timers in the Medicine Garden and the Rose Garden.  They have gotten unreliable.  One day I will show up and see that a sprinkler has been running for five days or something.
• I walked the Meadow.
• Did some weeding in the Orchard along the grape arbor. 
• I weeded in the lower Boardwalk Garden, and I cut back all the dead Red Wave Canna and White Butterfly Ginger vegetation.
• The Ox Eye daisies are beginning to bloom.  I love my cheerful daisies.
• Headed back to Houston on Saturday early afternoon.

Three Days at the Farm March 15-17, 2019

Here are some more pictures of my dear little wildings.  They are popping up all over the place.  This is the best year ever for them (must be all the rain).

We arrived on Friday morning.  We made it just in time to get our delivery of 8 yards of gravel, the truck showed up about 10 minutes after we arrived.

• The first thing I did was put down gravel in the little area in the Vegetable Garden that was undone.  
• Then, I spent the whole day from early morning until 3:00 laying down gravel in the Star Garden and the Orchard.  It was a beautiful, cool day, so I was able to work for a long time.  I got about a third of the Orchard completed.  From 3:00 until 4:30 I worked in the Star Garden.  A lot of progress was made.
• I put a new shirt and hat on the scarecrow in the Orchard.  The old shirt was faded to white and the hat was falling apart. 
• Saturday.  I started back on laying gravel in the Orchard first thing.  I had to stop at 12:30 and clean up.  We went in to Brenham to Pam Hutchings book signing (our neighbor).
• After we stopped by there we went to the hardware store.  I bought a couple of tomato plants, but our goal was to find 27 inch shutters.  The ones on the Greenhouse had rotted away, and we need to replace them.  Small shutters are hard to find, I will go to the internet next.
• When we got home I worked for a while in the Vegetable Garden.  I pulled up the remaining lettuce, added a bag of compost, and planted the two tomato plants that I bought in town.
• I added some potting soil to one of the big feed buckets and seeded it with Rose Campion seeds.  I've tried to grow Rose Campion several times with no luck.  I'll give it one more chance.  I have no idea if this is one of the plants that should be planted in the fall or the spring.  But, spring it is.
• Spent some time in the Star Garden weeding.  I planted a Mango Tango Agastache.
• Worked in the Medicine Garden for a while raking.  I planted 5 comfrey plants.  It's a risk planted anything with a tap root.  The voles love tap roots - very tasty.
• I planted two wooly thyme plants in the Kitchen Herb Garden.  I don't think they could possibly be edible (too fuzzy), but they were so damn cute that I bought them.
• Sunday.  I started immediately laying down gravel in the Orchard.  I quit about 11:00.  I'm almost finished, but Bert needed the cadet to haul some logs to the wood pile.  A tree fell down across one of the paths, so he had to cut it up and move it.
• I worked on the paths in the Star Garden for a while.  I got the main one in the front completed.  It was a long and wide path, so that was good.  But mostly I'm working on the back paths first so that I don't have roll the wheel barrow over the paths I've completed.
• I sowed some lettuce seeds in the Vegetable Garden.  I'll try to get some tender spring lettuces before it gets too hot.  Next weekend I will pull up the mustards that have gone to seed and I will plant something, don't know what - probably a pepper and an eggplant.  But for now I will leave the bees some flowers.
• I sowed some Cleome and some Nicotiana seeds in the Long Border.  I set the sprinkler on them to go off every day for 15 minutes to give them a good start. 
• I planted 3 Salvia Nemorosa May Night in the Star Garden.  I agonized over where to plant them because I hate pulling up seedlings.  But I finally pulled up some poppy seedlings and planted the salvia (it was painful).
• I cut my 5 Thryallis down low to the ground.
• I cut back the Turks Cap in the big bed in the back.
• I cleaned up salvia greggii in my various gardens, cutting away dead limbs and trimming back gangly ones so they looked neater.
• I walked the Meadow all 3 days I was there.  I find the variety of plants starting to spring forth endlessly fascinating, but I'd guess most people would be thinking "look at all these weeds".
• My Neopolitan Alliums are in bud, and I have one bud on my bearded iris already.  I see the Spanish Bluebells are budding, and there are lots of flowers on my Paw Paw.  So far the deer have left my roses alone.  I think it was a good idea to spray them with fungicide.
• I couldn't pull my self away to go home on Sunday, so we spent the night.  We all got up early and drove in to Houston on Monday morning, and I drove from there to work.  I walked the property for several hours after we decided to stay the night, and it was a joy to take in all the life that that was springing forth.

Sweetness Daffodils and Purple Verbena March 15, 2019

Purple Phacelia March 10, 2019

This little wildflower is blooming throughout my gardens as well as behind the Vegetable Garden and in a few places near the woods.

Sweetness Daffodils March 10, 2019

The 250 Sweetness daffodils I planted this fall all started blooming.  They are the same kind of daffodil as most of the other ones planted in this area, but they bloomed later this year due to being just planted.  I'm sure next year they will bloom at the same time as the other ones.  

 

 

Weekend at the Farm March 8 - 9, 2019

I stopped at The Arbor Gate on Saturday morning on the way to the farm.  Bert was already here.

• Dr. Bill Welch and Chris Weisinger were giving a lecture on southern plants at The Arbor Gate that morning.  Dr. Welch was roaming around with the owner of the nursery collecting plants to use in his lecture.  We exchanged "good mornings" when we passed each other in the aisles.  Oh how I wanted to tell him that I have every book he has ever written, and he has had a huge influence on my life (that sounds very dramatic, I know).  But the moment passed, and I didn't seize it.  It's always like that with me, though.  Given the choice of speaking to someone and passing them by, I will always choose to pass by.
• I bought some plants although I should not have - I need to save for Alaska!
• I stopped and bought some compost and potting soil as well.
• I began pulling weeds in the Star Garden as soon as I arrived at the farm.  
• I planted two Mystic Spires in the Star Garden.  They are less unruly (more compact) than Indigo Spires but just as floriferous. 
• I dug out a dead forsythia in the Star Garden.  I want to replace it with something tall, not sure what yet.
• I planted some ice plants in some old boots.
• Sprayed the roses with fungicide again.  Just trying to keep the deer away.
• I fertilized all the roses in the Rose Garden except for the Ballerinas, so I will need to go back and hit them next weekend. 
• I fertilized all the plants in the front bed.
• Sunday.  I packed up my wheel barrow with my loppers, clippers, trowel, herbicide, fungicide, rake, scissors, seat cushion, and leather rose gloves and headed down to the Orchard.  I fertilized everything except for the small blackberry bed in the back, ran out of fertilizer.  I'll have to come back and hit that one next weekend.  I pulled large weeds out of paths, and weeded pretty thoroughly in the beds, particularly around my daylilies.  Pruned back the four roses.  Sprayed herbicide in the paths.  Sprayed the roses with fungicide.  I put on my leather gloves and shifted around the blackberry vines as best I could to get them out of the way of paths.  Cut a few tree limbs with my loppers.  I stayed out there from about 8:00 until 1:30 working.  This is all in preparation for next weekend when I will have more granite and can lay out granite in the paths.    Looks much better in there already. 
• I bought an agastache and 3 salvia nemorosa May Night, but I couldn't decide where to plant them, so in the end I didn't plant them.  I left them for next weekend.
• I amended the soil in the big bed in the front of the Vegetable Garden and planted 5 tomatoes.  And I planted one tomato in the narrow bed where the goat wire is.  I also planted 2 Siam Queen basil in the narrow bed.
• I added potting soil to one of the big plastic pots in the Vegetable Garden and sowed some Nicotiana seeds.  I also planted some Buckwheat seeds that Lisa W gave me.
• Sowed some Bella Nicotiana seeds in the shady part of the front bed as well.
• Pruned a couple of my La Marne roses.
• Drove in to work on Monday morning.

Three Days at the Farm March 1 - 3, 2019

First day of March!  I call that the first day of spring although it is technically not.  Lots to do.  We arrived on Thursday evening, pretty much went straight to bed.

• Friday morning.  Bert and I took a walk, lots of hog activity in the Meadow all the way up to the pool between the Boardwalk and the pool.  That is almost at the house.  Bert drove around, and they have been rooting all over the property.  They are probably living in the low part of our land by the bridge.  Everything around here is wet - it has been an extremely wet winter.  Not good from a hog perspective.
• I started out in the Star Garden laying gravel, just long enough to finish off the remainder of the pile nearby.
• I continued on, laying gravel in the Medicine Garden with the big pile near the arbor.  I worked for about four hours raking then dumping gravel then spreading it.  It's cool, and I can work like a robot in cold weather I always say.  I moved six or so columbine seedlings from paths into beds as I went along.
• Pruned Franziska Kruger rose.  
• Worked on laying gravel until about 3:00.
• During rest periods I started cleaning out the Shade Garden.  This was relatively simple because Bert had already blown the leaves out of the paths, so no raking was required.  I just had to snap off dead branches of Snakeroot.  I filled up the cadet with debris.  I didn't finish, but I'm about halfway done.
• I started pruning the grapevines.  It was a little bit less difficult than past years because I made a point of cutting the long vines throughout last summer.  I worked on that for an hour, perhaps more.  I didn't finish, but I made progress.
• Saturday.  Cutting the dead debris away from the perennials was on my list today, but we are going to have hard freezes for several days.  Plants do better through the winter if you leave that dead vegetation on the plants.  So, I took that chore off the list.  The cold snap is a blow.  All the fruit trees are in bloom.  It will be a sorry year for fruit.
• First thing in the morning I started laying gravel in the Vegetable Garden.  Raked, pulled up the weeds that were too big to cover with the gravel, spread gravel.  I ran out of gravel before I was completely finished.  So close!  Two more wheelbarrows of gravel would have done it.
• We went to Jeff and Amy's house for a bonfire party.  Joan and Richard were there.  Dinner and then sat by the fire.  I brought collards from our garden.  Jeff and Amy had never had collards before.
• Sunday.  Last wonderful day here.  Bert saw hogs coming out the woods headed towards the house.  He pulled out his semi-automatic rifle and strafed into the bunch.  He got one little one.  Poor little piggy.  I hate them until I see one lying dead.  Then I feel sad.
• I dug up several dozen Philippine Lily seedlings from paths in the Circle Drive.  Now is the time they make a charge in growth, so the little ones that I passed by several weeks ago when I was transplanting them, have gotten bigger and worth moving.  I planted them all in the Shade Garden.  Then I spent some time cleaning out the Snakeroot debris.
• I pruned Mutabilis rose.  Mutabilis is one of the roses that I find confusing to prune.  Mrs. BR Cant is another one.  The canes grow in all directions, and I don't really know where to cut so that the rose form looks pretty.  They end up all crooked-y.
• I finished pruning the grape vines.  
• The Orchard is an absolute mess.  Next weekend I will start tackling it
• I planted 3 Mother of Thyme, 1 Corsican Mint, 2 Sage, and 2 Lovage in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
• The weather cleared up, and I took the opportunity to spray the roses with fungicide.
• I planted a Giant Ligularia in a bed leading to the Rose Garden.
• Weeded for a while, but the cold drove me in.
• Headed home to Houston late Sunday afternoon.

Pearlbush and Freesia Laxa March 2, 2019

Not a fabulous display this year for my Pearlbush this year, but respectable enough. The little stand of red flowers in front of it is Freesia Laxa.  The freeze that is coming the first part of the week will knock back the greenery of these little bulbs, but nothing permanent.

Cemetery White Iris March 2, 2019

These are another harbinger of spring.  One of my earliest plants to bloom are the cemetery whites.  With these exception, my love affair with bearded iris is over.  I've tried for years to grow them.  The only one that performs for me is this old-fashioned one.  The new fancy bearded iris do not perform for me at all.  Every once in a while I get a bloom, but not often enough to cede valuable space to them all year long.  Victoria Falls is one notable exception.  They do pretty well down by the Orchard.  Probably because they have no competition at all.  Iris don't like competition / crowding.  In my garden you have to be tough enough to fight your way to the light.

Before and After - Laying Down Gravel in the Vegetable Garden March 2, 2019

I was short a couple of wheelbarrows to finish the Vegetable Garden, and I left a spot undone deliberately because we are going to put in another raised bed.

Before

After

Before and After - Laying Down Gravel in the Medicine Garden March 2, 2019

It's hard to believe that a run down mess can turn out so pretty in just a few hours.  It's hard work, but also great fun to see the change.

Before:

After

 

Homestead Purple Verbena March 2, 2019

Verbena is a harbinger of spring, one of the earliest plants to bloom.  It will continue to bloom through March.  Then it's done until fall.