At the Farm During the Coronavirus Pandemic April 20 - 26, 2020

This is Veilchenblau rose which is violet blue in German.

• Monday.  Worked.
• I had a packet of Heavenly Blue morning glory seeds soaking overnight.  I sowed some on the front and back Rose Garden arbors and the goat wire arbor at the entrance to the Long Border, both sides of the arbor at the entrance to the Orchard, along the metal screen in the Orchard, the arbor at the front of the Star Garden, and the Veilcenblau arbor.  
• Yesterday I pulled up some spent Spurred Snapdragon.  Today, I prepared the area and sowed Purple Prince zinnia seeds.  Covered the area with mulch.  Surrounded the bed with chicken wire and staked it down.
• Staked some Verbena Bonariensis in the Rose Garden.
• Turned the compost piles.
• Weeded for a bit in the Vegetable Garden.  Picked some asparagus.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• I soaked overnight a baggie of Grandpa Ott morning glory seeds that I collected from last year's vines.  I sowed them around the mattress springs that are wrapped around the old dead tree in the Rose Garden.
• I sowed lavender zinnia seeds in two places in the Rose Garden.  Surrounded both areas with chicken wire.  Watered them in.
• Watered all my seedlings in the Star Garden, the pots in the Star Garden, and the pots around the pool.
• Spread some mulch in the Medicine Garden.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• Up very early.  Temperature very pleasant.  Deadheaded roses.  
• Pulled up lots of Strawflower.  My strawflower was a real disappointment this year.  Many years ago I grew it, and I was so impressed by it.  But this year it was floppy and the blooms were very unimpressive.  I gave it a lot of space in my gardens, and it was a nothing.  Strange.
• Sowed more zinnias in the Star Garden and laid down some chicken wire.  
• Thursday.  Worked.
• I staked several stands of Verbena on a Stick.  Staked some clumps of floppy Tickseed.
• I moved a small Rudbeckia from the driveway into the front bed.
• Picked some asparagus.  My asparagus is still going strong.  I'm so proud of my asparagus this year.  I covered it with mushroom compost and fertilized throughout the winter.  So I was expecting a good year.  But I also think it is because I am here every day during its growing season, and I can pick them every day before they go to fern.
• Watched the butterflies - I find them endlessly diverting.  Monarchs, Red Admirals, Buckeyes, Painted Ladies, Harestreaks - I've named them before - but so many of them - it is wonderfully entertaining.
• I walked the Meadow.  I had my tennis shoes on, so I only walked the margins.  I am so proud of my Meadow.  The diversity is endless.  I will have to be ever-vigilant to keep the invasives out, but I am up to the task.  So pretty.  So special, but only in the way that someone who knew what they were looking at would know is special.  That's okay.  I do all of this for myself.  I do it for my future, my own future and the future of the Old Lady Compound - for my sister and I when we live together and face our final years.
• I staked the Tall Poppy Mallow in the Vegetable Garden.  It got really tall and flopped over (which is different from the plants that grew from the seed I sowed in the Meadow) - that is all about the irrigation.  The Meadow only gets water from the rain, and the Vegetable Garden has steady irrigation.  Of course, as usual, I waited too long and now the staked Poppy Mallow is all scrunched up and looks squashed.  It might straighten itself out.  Sometimes it does.
• Deadheaded roses.  I carried a bamboo stake with me into the Rose Garden and staked a stand of Verbena on a Stick. 
• Sprayed herbicide in the middle of the Circle Drive.
• Friday.  Took a day of vacation.  Bert and I drove in to Houston to pick up our car from the mechanic.  Rats had eaten some of the wiring while it was parked in the shed.  That "only" cost a thousand dollars.  I dropped off some clothes at Blake's that got left behind when the boys were here last weekend.  And I stopped at my 2 favorite nurseries on the way.  I bought some garden gloves, some milkweed, several Mystic Spires salvia, gomphrena, African Blue basil,  and a Country Girl mum.  Since I will be here through May, I can keep small plants alive in the heat. None of my milkweed came back from last year.  That surprised me.  So I have been replacing my plants this spring.  I bought 2 in early spring.  They have already been munched down to the stems and grown a new set of leaves.  So I bought 8 small plants.
• I watered my 3 new camellias (that I planted last winter).  I happened to glance at one of them when I moving a hose around, and I realized they needed some care.  I put several gallons of water on each of them.  I need to get them through this first summer.  After that I think they will be fine.
• Watered all my pots.  Watered in the Greenhouse Gardens.
• I staked some larkspur in the Vegetable Garden that was leaning into one of my tomatoes.
• I planted one of the basil in the Rose Garden.  This variety - African Blue - is really special.  It puts off long purple flower stems.  The bees are unnaturally attracted to this plant.  It's pretty amazing to watch the bees on this plant.  I sowed some purple zinnia seeds around it.  Surrounded the whole thing with a chicken wire cage.  Watered it well.  
• Saturday.  Outside by 7:00.  Cool and wonderful weather.
• I pulled up some spent corncockle and poppies in the Star Garden.  I staked a Giant Rudbeckia nearby and saw a poor Country Girl mum smothered underneath its leaves and leaning stems.   I gave it a shot of fertilizer and some sunlight. to help it along.  leaves.  I planted the new  Country Girl mum next to it.  Mulched around them both.
• I planted an African Blue basil in the circle bed around the old dead tree in the Rose Garden.
• I planted two milkweed in the Rose Garden - one in the bed in the far corner of the garden and one next to the Louis Philippe roses.
• And I planted two milkweed in the center of the Star Garden.
• Staked a Henry Duelberg.
• I cut all the scapes off my milk and wine crinum that had finished blooming and were going to seed.  I have enough of those!
• I fertilized all my small roses except for the small Belinda's Dream roses.  I ran out of fertilizer before I got to anything else.
• Inside for a little breakfast.
• I went down to the Orchard and worked in there for a couple of hours.  I cut back all my Lazy Daisy in the citrus bed and threw it in the Meadow.  It would be great if some of it took hold in there.  Bert came down to the Orchard and cut away lots of dead branches on my Pakistan Mulberry.  Not sure why it is dying away, none of the other trees look water-stressed or stressed in any way for that matter.  I fertilized all the fruit trees, grapes and blackberries.  My blackerry patches are loaded with berries.  It is a good year for blackberries, and a bad year for plums.  Weeded, weeded, weeded.  I pulled up all the poppies and strawflower around my little fig tree in preparation for spreading some zinnias.  I'm also going to put some tomato cages around my fig.  It is a perfect little deer rub right now, and I don't want the deer to find it.  I cut a nasty vine that had taken hold in one of my blackberry beds, poisoned the cuts.  I trimmed the tender ends of my grape vines just under the grape clusters.  I want my grape vines to focus on the grapes, not growing vines.  I pulled up brown-eyed Susans and Henry Duelberg seedlings that were growing amongst my day lilies.  I staked salvia and Mexican Hat.  I cut away dead branches on my Satsuma.  Generally cleaned up in the Orchard.  It is in pretty good shape thanks to all the pine straw I laid down last fall, but there is always room for improvement.
• I loaded my wheelbarrow with mulch and mulched the area around my Mystic Spire and milkweed in the Star Garden.  
• With the remaining mulch I went down to the Orchard.  I ran the hose on the area I cleared out around the fig tree (and a long time on the small fig).  Seeded the area with zinnia seeds.  Covered all with mulch.  I stuck two tomato cages around the fig hoping to deter deer that might want to rub the velvet off their horns - that time is approaching.
• Ate some lunch.
• I worked in the Vegetable Garden for a while.  I pulled up all the cilantro.  It had gone to seed.  We didn't use any of it this year.  I chopped it up with my scissors and threw it in the compost.  I worked with the compost piles for a while.  I turned both of them, added leaves to one of them.  I pulled a large healthy clump of brown eyed Susan - which pains me to do - and added horse manure that I got from the neighbors.  Turned it all over and mixed it in real well.  This is for Bert's garden.  Picked some asparagus.
• Worked in the Rose Garden for a long while.  I planted a milkweed and a gomprhena next to Louis Philippe.  Watered them in well.  Covered them with mulch.  I did not protect them with chicken wire.  Hopefully the armadillos will leave them be.  I pulled up all the Toadflax is scraped the seeds off the stems in various beds.  I really enjoyed the Toadflax this spring.  I pulled up lots of strawflower - goodbye strawflower, I will not miss you.  Pulled up some poppies and spurred snapdragon.  I will do something with those empty spots tomorrow.
• I walked the Meadow.  The evening was cool and so pleasant.  I moved along the margins of the Meadow and observed all the wonderful things that have taken hold.
• Sunday.  Another beautiful day.
• I did some mulching in the dry part of the Star Garden.  And I individually watered each bed that I mulched.  Weeded as well.
• I did a lot of staking of Ox Eye daily and Tickseed.
• I spent some time on the bed at the front of the Rose Garden.  The day lilies are about to bloom, so I'm getting rid of all the wildflowers that aren't going to have enough time to bloom before it's time for the day lilies to take over.  I don't want their light hid under a bushel.  I mulched and watered well.
• Pulled up the collards going to seed.
• I surrounded all my new plants with chicken wire.  The armadillos dug up one of my newly planted basil plants.  I also surrounded the entire bed with  chicken wire in the Rose Garden where my Country Girl mums are planted.  They have been cruelly uprooting them.
• I cut and poisoned Beautyberry in the Meadow.
• I filled two little pots with soil that I found in the Greenhouse.  I cut some of my dear little sedums from other pots and stuck them in the soil of the two little pots.  Watered them well.
• I was busy all day, but it was mostly piddling - no large projects.  It is early spring, and things have not yet gotten out of hand.
• I walked around in the Orchard.  It looks good.
• Ray came over and brought us some fish that he caught today.  The moratorium for fishing on Lake Livingston was lifted today.  He said the lake was packed with fisherman.
• Bert and I drove out to the cul d'sac and looked at the stars.  Beautiful night. 

Butterfly Rose April 28, 2020

My Butterfly Rose looked very pretty this morning.  The blooms start peach-colored, then turn pale pink, then dark pink.  At any one time you can have all three colors blooming, hence the name.  They look like pretty butterflies.  About a month ago I cut it back to 4 sticks.  It was about a month later than recommended (Valentine's Day), but voles had gotten underneath it and hollowed out a den.  The whole rose - which was HUGE (this rose grows to 6 x 6) - had fallen over on its side.  So I felt I had to cut it back, fill the hole with water to chase the voles out, lift it up straight, stake it, mulch, and hope it would recover.  It did, and didn't seem to muss a beat.

Corncockle April 21, 2020

My corncockle in the Vegetable Garden looked really pretty this morning.  I grew this from seed.  I sowed the seed last fall.  It likes cool weather.  It will be long gone before spring is over.

 

Mock Orange in Bloom April 19, 2020

My mock orange has no scent.  That is a real disappointment, but everything else about this little tree / large shrub, is wonderful.

The Shade Garden Just After a Good Rain April 18, 2020

The ferns are beginning to fill in.  The gingers are about 2 feet tall, and they are just spreading their leaves.  And the Snakeroot is about a foot tall. The beautyberries are leafing out.  There is a halo of light green growth surrounding the camellia.  Everything is greening up and looking fresh and healthy.

More Pictures of Perl d'Or Rose April 19, 2020

At the Farm During Coronavirus April 13 - 19, 2020

This is Beverly rose.  The blooms are very large and smell wonderful.  Beverly is one of my best smelling roses.

• Monday.  Worked.  
• Sowed zinnia seeds in one spot between 2 La Marne roses in the Star Garden.
• Pulled up a few poppy plants that had ripened seed heads.  Spread the poppy seed across beds in the Star Garden.
• Watered the pots around the pool and in the Star Garden.
• Watered various beds here and there.
• And, of course, did some weeding.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• Put chicken wire around some of my seed beds to try and keep the damned armadillos out.
• Wednesday.  Worked
• The two spots that I did not put chicken wire around or over were turned upside down by armadillos last night.  Almost all my seedlings were either pulled up or buried.  I hate those animals.  
• I re-seeded the beds and spread some chicken wire over it, hammered it down with stakes.  Before the seeds have sprouted I can stake the chicken wire right down on top of the mulch.  After they gotten a little bigger I have to basically put a cage around them.  
• I seeded two more spots in the Star Garden - one right by the front arbor and one spot next to the red cannas.
• Tied up some poppies that were leaning over.
• Dug up a red canna that was growing into the path and planted it nearby in the canna bed. 
• I seeded one more spot in the Star Garden after I pulled up some scraggly poppies.  Covered it with chicken wire. 
• Bert bought a roll of chicken wire for me, and I surrounded the bed in the Rose Garden at the corner where there are no roses planted.
• Thursday.  Worked.
• During lunch I went to town and bought more bamboo stakes at the hardware store.  Went to the grocery store for a few things since the boys are coming to stay with me this weekend.
• After work I pulled some spent Lazy Daisy and various small wildflower seedlings (that aren't going to do anything because they are too small and spindly) in the front bed near the arbor and seeded it with Purple Prince zinnia seeds.  Mulched.  Surrounded the area with chicken wire.  Watered.
• The reason I sow so many zinnias is because they are extremely attractive to butterflies.  In the summer the amount of butterfly activity I have is no less than astounding.  It is memorable, entertaining, fascinating.  And they are pretty.  So it is a win all the way around.  I have tried to plant cosmos through the years, but I don't have much luck with them.  And they are so spindly.  I finally just gave up on that seed.  
• Bert and I walked out to the front at dusk.  We saw a copperhead, so Bert went back to the house for his gun.  But by the time he came back the snake had slithered into the yaupon.  Walking back, we saw another one.  Bert shot it.  When we go to the house moments later, there was one on the porch!  He killed it with the shovel.  Yuck  Apparently dusk is a very active time for snakes.
• Friday.  Up early.  Watered the pots by the pool, set out a sprinkler in a dry area.  Inspected my seed beds for armadillo activity, saw none. The boys arrived about 3:00. 

Perl d'Or April 14, 2020

I have 5 Perl d'Or rose bushes planted in the front beds.  They have lots of buds on them, and they are beginning to bloom.  They are growing amongst spiderwort and Rudbeckia Maxima.

Climbing Pinkie Looked Pretty This Morning April 16, 2020

Easter Weekend at the Farm During the Coronavirus Epidemic April 9 - 12, 2020

I took Thursday off, so with Good Friday and the weekend I had 4 days off.  We stayed at the farm, and Max, Julia and Luke came to stay Saturday night.

• Thursday,  I filled the cadet with mulch two times and spread mulch.  First I pulled up all the Purple Phacelia in the Star Garden that had gone to seed, smoothed out the dirt, spread zinnia seeds, and mulched.  Zinnias will come up in a thick layer of mulch, they are pretty strong.  I spread seed in the dry part of the Star Garden where the Moonflower vine grows and on the other side next to the pink Vitex.  Since I'm here to hand water, I can get seed to germinate and survive during their most vulnerable period.  After that, zinnias don't mind a little drought-y conditions.  Watered the areas well.
• I also cleared out an area in the main part of the Star Garden and spread some zinnia seed, then spread mulch.  I worked around several stands of poppies that are drying out
• I cleared out the bed in the Rose Garden that has no roses growing.  Pulled up weeds and scraggly plants, sowed zinnias and spread mulch.  Watered in well.
• Next I worked for about an hour in the Long Border.  I pulled weeds - the crab grass is just starting to show up.  Not much to weed, but I pulled up what I could.  Spread mulch around the cannas, lindlyana, rosemary and Terry's cannas.
• The guy from Brenham Glass and Mirror showed up to take measurements for mirrors in the master bath.  I want to removed the small mirrors that are attached to the walls and put in wall to wall mirrors above the sinks and vanity.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden and the Shade Garden.  
• Spread mulch around my Rudbeckia in the front bed.
• Watered the pots in the Star Garden.
• Bathed the dogs.
• I staked a Henry Duelberg salvia in the Star Garden, but I was too late for it to look good.  I should have staked it much sooner while the limbs were still green and soft.  I will get the others staked tomorrow - they are not as far along as this one is. I stake my Augusta Duelberg also, and it looks good and very natural.
• Bert shot a copperhead just as it was leaving the Star Garden.  Yuck.  And he shot one next to the pool yesterday.  The snakes are active now that the weather is warm.
• A hard rain came in at 4:30.  It poured and the temperature dropped.  I like rain, but those hard rains flatten my flowers, and they often get so beaten down that they don't straighten back up.
• Friday.  I staked my Montbretia, a Blue Bedder salvia and a Verbena Bonariensis.
• Mulched for most of the day in the dry part of the Star Garden.  
• I pulled up the cedar logs that I use for flowerbed borders next to my blue Vitex and moved them to the Rose Garden.  I pulled up the rotten board along the Noisette bed and set those logs there.  I have been wanting to fill in the path between the Vitex Bed and the Black Moudry grass bed.  It's always been too narrow to walk through.  I filled the path between the two beds with mulch.  
• I worked for a long time in that area.  I pulled up lots of Gulf Coast penstemon seedlings.  I like that penstemon, but the seedlings can really look weedy.  I also pulled up lots of weeds and a particular coreopsis that I don't like.  Mulched, mulched, mulched.  The weather was so pretty and the temperature was cool with no humidity.  Butterflies everywhere.  
• Watered everywhere in the Star Garden where I have sowed zinnias.
• I spent quite a bit of time in the Shade Garden.  I cut and poisoned the tip of some nasty vines.  I cut away Sweetspire that had grown into the path.  I dig up two gingers that were growing in paths and moved them to the beds.  Snapped off and disposed of lots of dead Snakeroot limbs from last year.  I dug up and re-set some edging stones that were sunk into the ground. I filled in the damn armadillo hole that is huge and seems to keep getting bigger.  Dug up some Southern Wood Fern growing in the path near the hole - the armadillo pushes it out of the way and it takes root in the path.  I re-set the ferns in the ground on top of the newly filled hole and the nearby area.  I set big stones on top of all the spaces around the ferns to try and discourage the little bastard.
• We dyed eggs on Saturday.  Luke hunted for Easter eggs on Easter morning.  We got videos of Blake's kids hunting eggs.  And Nelda took video of the girls getting Easter baskets.  No one was together - a holiday we have always spent together in the Lopez family.  Max, Julia, Bert and I took a long walk before they left.  We saw 2 snakes - and a cow had gotten on our property.  The dogs were very excited, and they shooed it back through the fence.  
• On Saturday Amy and Jeff came over to take a look at our Vegetable Garden to get some ideas and ask some questions.  While she was here she was nice enough to walk my meadow to see what was growing.  I asked her the names of some things that were growing.  I have a dozen or so clumps of Eastern Gamma Grass - I did not know what it was, I am very excited to have that native in my meadow!
• Sunday.  I walked the Meadow with my oil can of diesel and Remedy cutting down Beautyberry and poisoning the cuts.  I spent about 45 minutes doing that (every step I take I have to check for snakes).  I don't want shrubs in my meadow.  And Beautyberry is a prolific multiplier.  First you have one, then the next year you have 30, then the next year you have 100, etc.  I have zillions.  Some, I cut and poisoned, others I just dotted the leaves with poison.  Dotting the leaves with poison will be enough to kill the small ones.  If you own a tractor with a shredder you don't have to worry about these things. In early winter you can run your tractor over everything and shred.  That results in great mulch and lots of seeds, etc.  I don't own a tractor.  Everything I do, I do by hand. 
• I spot watered in the Greenhouse Gardens and the Star Garden.  My Sweetshrubs are coming back.  Talk about late bloomers!  I thought they died.  I have one in the dry part of the Greenhouse Garden next to the Greenhouse.  I finally started seeing some green.  Yay!  I rewarded it by giving it lots of water.  And the one in the Star Garden - I saw a hint of green so I set the sprinkler on it.
• This is the most interesting year I believe I have ever had for American Painted Lady butterflies.  They are everywhere, so may of them.  And they love - absolutely love - the Verbena Bonariensis.  Sunday was a hot and bright day.  Perfect for butterflies.  I saw Red Admirals, Painted Ladies, Monarchs, Giant Swallowtails, and Sulphurs.  Such a lovely day for butterfly viewing. 

Some Pretty Bearded Iris in the Rose Garden This Morning April 10, 2020

My Best Year So Far for Indian Pinks April 20, 2020

I side-dressed these little guys with manure last winter.  And it paid off.  This is the best showing I've every had for Indian Pinks. (And it's not that great even now.)  They are not good multipliers or clumpers.  But I nurse them along year after year nevertheless.

 

White Marked Tussock Moth Larva April 12, 2020

I've been seeing a lot of these around the place, so I looked them up.  They will sting if you touch them, although I cannot think why anyone would do that!  They look vicious.

White Rain Lily April 10, 2020

When I walked outside this morning I saw this little cluster of rain lilies blooming.  It was a cloudy morning, and they really stood out.  I dug these rain lilies up from the front yard of the old house on Nixon Lake Rd.  At the time, I thought they were Schoolhouse Lilies, and I was sooo excited about it.  They weren't blooming, but the bulb was black just like Schoolhouse.  They turned out to be rain lilies, and I was disappointed.  These little rain lilies now take up a lot of space in one of my flower beds, and they are very stingy bloomers.  These are native rain lilies - penducalata or Evening Star.

Climbing Pinkie April 10, 2020

This is Climbing Pinkie rose.  She looked pretty this morning.  I am not good at training roses.  I try to get them up to a certain height, then I just let them "waterfall" down around themselves.  It is trained (if you want to call what I do training) on a conveyor belt that Bert's friend John Nelson gave us.