At the Farm During the Pandemic August 24 - 30, 2020

 

Above, this is butterfly ginger, poke salad and colocasia.

• Monday.  Worked.
• I planted several of the lantanas in the Rose Garden that I bought on Sunday.
• The voles ate the roots off of one of my Milkweed plants in the Rose Garden.  I ran the hose down into the soil in four places trying to chase them off (drown them hopefully).  The earth crumbled away, the den down below was huge.  
• Watered by hand the Long Border and nearby beds and the Greenhouse Garden beds.  I ran the hose down vole holes around the Sweetshrub tree next to the Greenhouse.
• I planted two lantana in the Orchard.  Up to this point I've planted all of the lantana in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden and Front Bed.  Mostly it's because I don't want to trudge down there every day to water them until they get established.  But it's done now.
• I planted a red / orange lantana amongst my orangey-red cannas (can't pull the name out at this very instant) in the Long Border.
• I pulled up most of the pink zinnias in the Long Border that were growing close to the front of the bed, and I planted a group of three pink / yellow lantanas.
• Butterflies are plentiful and entertaining.  What a great time of year (for butterflies, certainly not the temperature!).
• Picked okra - every day twice a day.
• After work I cleaned up one of the boxes attached to the arbor where I have a Ballerina rose growing.  I've decided to try and baby my two Ballerina roses through the summer and winter to see if I can restore them to their former beauty.  I cut back the moss verbena growing underneath one of them and cut away dead wood.  I'm not done with that, I need my loppers to get the thick canes.  Pulled some weeds.  Hand-watered both Ballerinas and the Fortune's Double and the roses nearby.
• Planted the remaining Mexican sedums and lantanas in the Rose Garden. 
• Picked some more paw paws. 
• Tuesday.  Worked.  
• Did the usual watering.
• Did some light weeding in the Orchard.
• Picked okra.
• During lunch I staked a lot of plants.  I staked several stands of perennial ageratum and several unruly branches of Pringle Aster and one of my Philippine Lily scapes in the Star Garden.  I also staked a rosemary that I moved a couple of months ago (I can't even remember where it used to be planted) in the middle bed of the Star Garden.  It was leaning over so I straightened it up.  I also staked a stand of ageratum in the front bed because it was leaning into a rosemary.  Then I staked the rosemary because it was leaning to get out of the way of the ageratum.
• I put a chicken wire cage around some zinnia seedlings in the middle bed of the Star Garden.
• I cut the coneflower to the ground in the back bed and spread the seeds.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• I had a stand of Four O'Clocks growing up on the other side of the path that runs along the Long Border.  They were just bulbs that I dug up last year some time and threw over there half expecting them to die.  But, being Four O'Clocks, they didn't die.  They were about two feet tall and gasping from the heat.  Although they would have survived they looked horrible. I didn't love them enough to expend energy watering them, and most importantly, they were obscuring the view of a wonderful hollow log laying in that same space.  I pulled up (if possible) or cut down all of them.  It looks so much better over there.  These kind of things are always so difficult in 98 degree temperatures that they are worth mentioning because they are hard work.
• Next I pulled up all the scraggly zinnias that were growing in front of the Fortunes Double rose.  I scattered the seeds in the same area.  Maybe they will sprout and bloom before the first freeze.  I weeded in there as well.
• Thursday.  Worked half a day in the afternoon.  
• I amended the soil with compost in one of the big beds in the Vegetable Garden.  I sowed green beans.  They germinate in about 5 days and will be ready to harvest in 60 days.  So we will get a good harvest before the first freeze.  I'm still getting lots of okra.  And the poblano and jalapeno peppers and eggplant are still prolific - they love the heat.  The sunflowers are still blooming, and those that have finished blooming are drying out so that I can get the seeds.  And the amaranth seed heads are just sprouting.  I don't have a lot of space right now.  If I can find a little bit more space for another packet of green beans and some arugula I will be happy.  After the okra is pulled up I can start my vegetables that I over-winter.  The seeds are sown now and they grow a little through the winter and get their root systems started.  Then in the early spring they grow quickly.  Beets and parsnips and kale are examples of that.
• I did some weeding in the Vegetable Garden.  I staked the poblano peppers.  I pulled up a bunch of basil and cut some away from the paths.  Deadheaded zinnias.
• I weeded in the Orchard.
• I weeded in the Star Garden.
• I watered thoroughly in the Greenhouse Garden and the Rose Garden.  Set my sprinklers in the places I thought would most cover all my tender new transplants.  Drove home to Houston.  Airbnb guests on the weekend (every weekend from now through the first weekend in November.  Yuck - the money is good but the stress is for the birds.  Koy and Cleo stayed with me for the weekend.