Some Early Blooms Feb 29, 2020

Verbenas are early bloomers.  Below is Moss Verbena.  This is very easy to grow from seed, and I have it seeded everywhere - the Rose Garden, the Long Border and the Star Garden.  It gets a lot thicker with flowers as the spring season goes on, and it blooms pretty well throughout the summer.  I eventually cut it all the way back in the real heat because it starts to look scraggly even though it is blooming.

 Below is Homestead Purple Verbena.  It is a very early spring bloomer, loaded with buds right now.   It has only just begun its bloom period.   This verbena is an excellent evergreen ground cover, but the blooms are gone before April is over.  Butterflies are incredibly attracted to this verbena.  Much more so than Moss Verbena.  It brings in the Tiger Swallowtails, there was one in the garden all day yesterday.

Below, this is Star Flower, a tiny little bulb.  Once it finishes blooming in the early spring, the greenery dies away and it disappears until the next winter when the greenery comes back.  These bulbs multiply quickly, and I have planted them in every garden,

Finally, a surprise early bloom from Peggy Martin rose.  This rose is in full bloom in April.

Three Days at the Farm February 21 - 23, 2020

Arrived Thursday evening after work, Bert was already here.  Friday was cold and sunny.

• The robins are everywhere, and they are cheerful, noisy birds.  The morning was filled with their good-natured chirping.  They were at every rain barrel and bird bath.
• I cut away dead vegetation from my perennials in the Star Garden - milkweed, salvias, cannas, etc.  I weeded in the Star Garden for a while.
• I dug up 2 Rudbeckia Maxima in the Star Garden that were growing  in bad spots (crowding other plants) and moved them to the Hot Border.
• I dug up 4 double orange day lilies in the Star Garden that had spread into the path and moved them to the Hot Border.
• Dug up some African Hostas growing in paths.  I thought I had gotten them all several weeks ago when I dug up a bunch and planted them in the Hot Border, but now that spring is around the corner they are sprouting leaves and more became visible.  I don't know why these little hostas are so notorious for escaping the beds and ending up in the paths, but they seem to do it a lot.  I planted some of them in the Hot Border where I planted a row of them several weeks ago, and I planted some of them in the Shade Garden where one of my main stands of African Hostas grows.     
• I promised myself that if this certain stand of daffodils did not bloom again this year, I would dig them up and throw them in the compost pile.  They have been in the Ginger Bed in the Star Garden for years.  I dug them up and threw them out.  In their place I planted some Ehrlicheer bulbs that were growing too close to the white mist flower shrubs that I planted last fall in the Bulb Bed.  The Ehrlicheers were finished blooming, so I pulled them up.  There were 17.  In addition to the four that I planted in the Ginger Bed, I planted some in the Greenhouse Garden and the Medicine Garden.  And I found my favorite hand trowel while I was planting bulbs in the Medicine Garden.  Yay!  It was in the flower bed right next to where I had moved some woodland violets several weeks ago. 
• Using the shovel, I dug up more of the ugly asters that are growing in the Star Garden and threw them out.  That stand of asters had gotten too big. 
• I decided to work on the Greenhouse Gardens and the Medicine Garden.  The elderberry had creeped into the paths and was making a little elder forest in there.  I sat down and scooted along the ground cutting the stems at ground level and putting a drop of poison on the cuts.  Then, using the loppers, I cut back the woody stems of elderberry in the beds.  Spring is coming, and I want the young plants but I don't want the leggy year-old growth.  I cut back my henna plants.  Raked the paths.  Cut back all the red shrimp plant in the bed with the Port Hole sculpture - I've got a lot of red shrimp plant.  Cut back the Turk's Cap.  Pulled up dead ginger vegetation.  Moved a big plug of hoja santa away from my new camellia.  Still lots to do in those gardens - they are very large - but took a break for lunch. 
• After lunch I hard-pruned my pink vitex in the Star Garden.  I had to have Bert come out and cut some of the higher, thicker branches. 
• I spent some time tying back my Nixon Lake paper whites in the Star Garden..  The greenery needs to die back, but I don't like it flopping all over the place.  So I gather it up, bend it over, wrap twine around it and tie it up.  Basically I make a little bundle low to the ground so it can go dormant while still looking presentable. 
• After that I decided to go down to the Orchard and work on my grape vines.  I pruned grape vines for about 3 hours, weeding here and there as well.  That damn dollar weed has taken over in the JuJube bed.  Luckily it has not infected any other bed down there.  Things are pretty much in control in the Orchard (dollar weed not withstanding) because I spread pine straw over all the beds last fall.  Nevertheless, some work is needed to get ready for spring.  The day lilies are coming up which I always get a little thrill out of.  And the crab apple tree is just beginning to bloom.  Crab apple blossoms smell wonderful.  I read somewhere that crab apple blooms are the best-smelling fruit tree flowers - which is why I planted one.  And the flowers do smell wonderful.  But citrus is the best of all in my opinion.  Plum tree flowers also have a fabulous grape koolaid smell.  I see that one of the grafted varieties of my three-in-one apple tree has died.  And the grafts don't look too healthy on the other 2.  Well, I can't worry about that now.  I'm not going to replace the tree unless it dies, and anyway, I won't plant a tree unless it is winter.  It is in bloom right now.  So it's doing okay right now.  I also pruned my Maggie rose while I was down there.  More work to be done, hopefully I'll get down there again this weekend.
• That was it for Friday.
• Saturday morning, robins!
• I worked in the Medicine Garden for most of the morning.  I spread compost and planted 6 comfrey plants near my new camellia.  I also planted 4 Italian oregano near the camellia.  While I was there I dug up several plugs of Hoja Santa and move them to better spots.  I raked out the beds here and there and dumped the leaves in the wild parts of the Star Garden.  Spread compost.  I cleaned out all the leaves that were piled amongst my Cemetery Whites.  I cut back the Turks Cap. I cut the three Barbados Cherry shrubs to the ground. I did some weeding.  Raked the paths.  Sprayed herbicide on the paths.  All of that took a long time.  I spent most of the day in there.
• Bert and I drove in to Carmine and poked around the antique shops along 290.  I bought a metal sign to hang in the Vegetable Garden.
• I cut all the red shrimp plant down the ground in the Star Garden.  Cut back the Pink Muhly grass in that bed and the adjacent bed.  Raked.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Star Garden and the Vegetable Garden.  I cut back lots of plants in the Star Garden - my Autumn Sages, Rusellia, etc.
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.
• I pruned my two large La Marne rose shrubs.
• Sprayed fungicide on the roses in the Star Garden.
• At dusk I cut back my trailing purple lantana in the Rose Garden.  I worked there until dark.
• Sunday.  The joyful robins were back making it another memorable morning.
• I went to work on the Long Border.  I raked out all the pine needles and oak leaves in the 2 lower sections of the Long Border.  Dumped them in the wild area adjacent to try and control weeds when summer sets in.  I side-dressed all the perennials in the middle section of the Long Border.  I pulled up as much of the wild white-flowered aster that I could that grows by underground runners in that section of bed.  That aster is not pretty - it might be if it was massed somewhere else, but I don't want it in that bed.  I dug up the swamp sunflower - pretty, but a nuisance because it flops over under its own weight and spreads aggressively.  I moved it to the adjacent wild area - a good place for it if it can stay alive in the heat of summer without irrigation.  
• I raked in the Rose Garden and weeded here and there.  I finally dug up my dead noisette and covered the hole with compost.
• I moved on to the Star Garden spreading compost in the more neglected parts of the Star Garden.  I also spread compost over the Red Shrimp Plant bed, around the cannas next to the Climbing Pinkie, around the asters that I thinned out, here there and everywhere - pulling weeds and laying compost.  
• I dug up a dozen or so Naked Ladies in the Bulb Bed because they were crowding my white mist flower plants that I put in last fall.  They really need a colder climate to bloom successfully.  I get a few every year, but not enough to have such a prominent spot in the garden.  They make huge greenery in the spring (therein lies the problem), the greenery dies away soon after in the heat of the summer, then it sends up a leaf-less stem in the fall with pink flowers.  I planted them in the wild part of the Star Garden (out of the way).  I tied back a dozen or so clumps of paper whites that were finished blooming.  Weeded amongst them.  
• Spent some time pulling up weeds intermingled with wild flowers in the Star Garden and side dressing the perennials.
• I dug up some amaryllis that I don't like and threw them on the trash pile. 
• Sprayed herbicide on the paths in the Rose Garden.
• Fertilized my Snowball Bush, Veilcenblau rose,  and Climbing Pinkie. 
• At the end of the day, practically stumbling from fatigue, I went to the Rose Garden and sprayed fungicide on my roses. 
• That was it for me.
• Drove in to work on Monday morning. 

Weekend at the Farm February 15 - 16, 2020

These are pictures of flowers on my new Royal Velvet Camellia.  The shrub is tiny, but the flwoers really pack a punch.

Saturday morning the whole family met at Mom and Dad's storage unit to clear it out and lay claim to the last of their unclaimed stuff.  To the farm after that.

• I had a lot to do in a very short span of time.  I really didn't think I'd get it all done, but I did.
• Saturday afternoon I pruned roses.  One advantage to losing so many roses and having to replace them is that there is not much to prune.  Many of my roses are still very small.  I've got lots left to do, but I got about a half dozen pruned.
• I noticed a lump of soil next to my Valentine rose.  Usually the voles aren't so cooperative as to leave such a tell tale sign that they have taken up residence underneath one of my roses, but this time they did.  I ran the hose underneath the plant and the hose sunk about two feet down.  I ran the water for a long time, smushed down the soil and added some soil to the cavity.  I saved Valentine.
• I worked until dusk weeding and tidying.
• Sunday.  I loaded the cadet with compost and began working in the Vegetable Garden.  I amended the soil in various beds and planted Yukon Gold potatoes.  I bought these seed potatoes several days ago, cut them up and let them cure for a few days.  I went to the nursery to buy some sulfur to sprinkle on them, but it was too expensive.  They will be fine.  I've never used sulfur before, and my potatoes do fine.  I planted some of them in my big buckets because the voles like potatoes as much as I do.  The rest I planted in the deep bed.  Hopefully the voles won't find them.  At least not this year.  While I was working with the buckets I dug up a Senna that had sprung up from a seed, and I moved it to the Hot Border.  The mother plant used to grow in the Hot Border, but she died last year.  Fortunately she left behind this little seed.
• I sowed some lettuce seeds in several beds that I amended.
• And I planted some 1015 onions in several beds.
• I was in the Vegetable Garden working for about 4 hours - hauling compost, spreading compost, turning over soil, etc.
• I had one blank spot in my asparagus bed (I think I might have inadvertently sprayed herbicide on the asparagus growing in the that spot), so I planted a Martha Washington two year old root there that I bought at Wabash.  There was a random Southern Wood Fern there that had somehow sprung up, so I moved it to the Hot Border. 
• The carrots and garlic that I planted 2 weeks ago are starting to sprout.  Yay!
• I planted a Pride of Oregon hydrangea in the Medicine Garden.  I spotted it at Arbor Gate - tiny and priced at $8.99.  When I see a shrub priced that low I buy it!  Yes, it is small, but I'm very patient.
• Throughout the day I fertilized some of my roses and watered in the fertilizer.
• I bought a flat of Columbine at Arbor Gate, it is the little red and yellow native Columbine.  I amended the soil in the bed adjacent to the Greenhouse and the bed across from the Greenhouse.  I planted all of them.  I've done quite a bit of work on the beds next to the Greenhouse, so I'm quite happy about that.  They had fallen in to disrepair over the last year or so.  Of course now it will be a challenge to keep everything alive during the hot summer months ahead until it all gets established.
• I also bought a Country Girl mum.  I planted it in the Star Garden.
• And finally, I bought a bare root Bela Lugosi day lily, and I planted it in the Rose Garden.
• I spread compost in the shady path that leads to the Rose Garden.  I spread compost in the bed that leads to the shed.  Weeded in there for a while.
• I worked on spreading compost in the beds along the back of the house.  That is a very long flower bed, so I am working on it in phases.  I did a lot last weekend.  And this weekend I did a little bit more.  I didn't see any of my bee balm while I was in there, so I'm wondering if it will come back.  If I see it being sold in small containers I will buy some.   
• Pulled weeds in the Rose Garden. 
• All day long and into the early evening hours the birds were singing their hearts out.  It was another perfect day, and I worked until darkness set in.  
• Drove in to work on Monday morning. 

Daffodils February 10, 2020

Day at the Farm February 9, 2020

Cleo and Koy spent the night on Friday, then Cleo's birthday on Saturday.  Work party Saturday night then to the farm later that evening.

• First thing in the morning, I filled the cadet with compost.
• Then I pruned all the roses in the front flower beds.  Cut away some dead vegetation while I was in there.
• I used the truckload of compost to side dress my Black and Blue salvia in the Back Bed behind the master bedroom.  I also cleaned out a lot of the fallen leaves that were in there.  Leaves make good rot, and sometimes I put the compost on top of the fallen leaves.  It is also serves as another layer of armor against the weeds.  But I wanted to inspect the bed and really "get at" the trouble spots, so I scraped out the big chunks of leaves with my hands.  Pulled weeds.  Cut my 4 Thryallis down to the ground.  Still more work to do, but I moved on to other activities.
• Bert and I drove down the road a ways where I spotted some paper whites growing in the ditch.  It took some effort, but I managed to dig up a clump of them.  They were really deep in the ground.  I got about 11.  I planted them in the Hot Border (adjacent to the Vegetable Garden).  I am on a quest to make some improvements to that bed.  Last week I laid down a bunch of compost, moved some Rudbeckia Maxima over there, and planted some African Hostas.
• Next, I dug up some of the spider lily bulbs that Debra gave me.  I had thrown a handful on the other side of the path out behind the house, but I didn't recall doing that.  I thought I had found all of them and planted them all over the past several weekends.  Bert spotted them last weekend.  I dug them up and planted them in the Hot Border.
• I finished spreading compost around all the plants in the Hot Border. I'm very satisfied with that work.  Very happy that I improved that bed.  
• I watered the beds around the Greenhouse.
• I put all my tools away. but I kept piddling.  I finally put my gloves back on and cleaned out the bed by the air conditioning units. I cleaned out a lot of leaves and cut away Montbretia dead vegetation.  I pruned my Archduke Charles rose which grows in that bed.  
• I moved around weeding and scraping leaves out of beds that were circling all the seedlings - Rose Garden and Star Garden.  In the Star Garden I yanked up lots of asters that were getting out off hand.  If it was the gorgeous fall asters (that I have some of), I would have encouraged their steady march.  But it was the ones that are less special.  I worked until 6:30, absorbed in my work.  At one point a soft steady rain fell, but I kept working right through it.  The sky fell dark or I would have kept going.  A really memorable evening.

Cheerful Daffodils on a Grey Day February 9, 2020

My daffodil border is in bloom.  So cheerful.  And so brief that it makes it especially wonderful.

Staycation at the Farm January 29 - February 2, 2020

Above, this is In The Pink Camellia.

I took Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off and we stayed at the farm the entire time.

• Wednesday I spread compost.  In the Vegetable Garden, I redistributed the soil mix that is in the long, deep bed.  I never completely filled up that monster last fall.  And then I began the process of filling up the rest of that bed with compost.  I also spread compost over my small asparagus bed.
• I spread some compost along the sunny edge of the Shade Garden.  Spread some in the front bed amongst the verbena.  I weeded and then spread compost in a few spots in the Star Garden.
• I dug up some Philippine Lily seedlings in the Circle Drive paths, and I replanted them in the Shade Garden.
• I did a little bit of weeding in the Rose Garden.
• I felt really cold on Wednesday even though it was only in the 50s, so I didn't work real hard.  
• Thursday.  More compost spreading.  I decided to work on the Hot Border.  I haven't messed with it for years.  The only thing that's growing in that long bed (that is adjacent to the Vegetable Garden) are a few random columbine that seeded on their own and several healthy clumps of Giant Rudbeckia.  There are also a few daffodils coming up that I planted many years ago.  They have never flourished there.  Except for the paperwhites, they have never bloomed nor have they produced many leaves.  So, I decided to give that bed a helping hand.  I moved a few Giant Rudbeckia seedlings from other gardens over to the Hot Border.  I spread compost around the feeble daffodils and around the Rudbeckia clumps.  I dug up some African Hostas that were growing in paths nearby - there were about 30 or so.  I planted them along the front of the bed in a 3 foot wide swath.  It will be pretty if I can remember to give it a shot of water every once in a while.
• I spread compost in some low-lying areas in several beds in the Star Garden.  And I mostly covered the bed with my Venus Sweetshrub.  Still no bloom from that sweetshrub.  Trying to give it some encouragement.
• Spread compost over my large asparagus bed.
• I painted the Vegetable Garden fence.  Some boards on the inside are covered with rabbit wire, so I wasn't able to paint those boards.  But I painted all the outside and most of the inside.
• I picked kale from the garden and made a salad for dinner.
• Friday.  I started right away spreading compost in the Long Border.  First, I raked out the leaves and threw them on a weedy spot in the wild bed adjacent to the Rose Garden.  I spread compost around some of my salvias and my Lindlyana Buddleia.  
• I weeded and spread compost in the Bulb Bed around my Pearlbush, my Bid Daddy hydrangea, my spicebushes, and my Diana Altheas and amongst the various bulbs growing in that bed..  While I was working in that bed I saw that lots of Parrot Gladiolas were coming up.  I didn't realize I had so many.  I dug up about 30 of them - they never bloom in that location - and planted them in three places throughout the Star Garden.  That was a good deed (moving my glads to a more prominent place in the gardens).
• I dug up some tiny little milk and wine crinum bulbs that had sprung up from seeds.  They were growing in paths.  I moved them to the spot where the little senna tree used to be.
• I began painting the fence around the Star Garden.  I got a large section painted.
• Drove to Chappell Hill and met Josh where we did a switch, and I took the boys for the weekend.  They stayed with me Friday and Saturday night, so there was no more gardening for me.  I watered in a few places, but that was about it.
• Put down plastic shelf liner in the cabinets underneath the sink.
• Met Josh at 1488 intersection and handed off the boys on Sunday afternoon.  Super Bowl at Mom and Dad's that evening.

White By The Gate Camellia February 1, 2020

I have two of these camellia planted side by side along the Boardwalk.  On of them is in full bloom and the other one has not begun blooming yet.  Interesting.  The one in bloom always stays a little yellow-tinged.  I work pretty hard trying to keep them happy - fertilizer, compost - but it always looks just a little bit unhealthy.  The green low-growing plants in front of the camellias are lily seedlings.

 Below, this shrub has lots of buds but almost no blooms yet.