At the Farm During the Pandemic September 21 - 27, 2020

 

This is a Strawberry Fields Gomphrena flower.

• We got here Sunday early afternoon.  
• Monday.  Worked.
• There was a light rain day all day.  Cool and cloudy.  
• This week my goal will be to prep a few beds for fall veggies and pull up some of the zillions of basil plants I have growing everywhere and replace with lantana.
• I cut over-grown okra and threw it in the compost pile.  Brought the good pieces into the house.  I have soooo much okra.  
• I pulled up some leggy zinnias in the Rose Garden.
• Bert killed a coral snake in the back.  Normally we let coral snakes live (and we rarely see them), but this one wouldn't go away, and he kept slithering under the fresh mulch that I just laid down.  I wouldn't want to walk on top of him. 
• Fried okra for dinner.  Not healthy, but I hate to see this huge bag of okra go to waste.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• When I woke up I made the coffee and sat on the porch for a long time watching and listening to the rain and breathing deeply the damp, good smell of earth..  It was cool outside and the mosquitos were no bother. 
• I took a walk in the Rose Garden with an umbrella to shield me from the rain.  Overnight, it seems, the moss verbena has become beautiful again.  And I have so many Belinda's Dream roses blooming.  They are fully double, true pink roses with a good smell.  They look so pretty.
• This year I take great pride in the work - successful work (because often I labor so hard only to be disappointed at the end of a season) - that has resulted in 3 healthy new garden beds.  The Hot Border, the bed adjacent to the Greenhouse, and the Long Border.  In the Long Border this spring and last fall I planted 3 altheas as well as many varieties of crinums (true southern bulbs that thrive on hot weather).  I also have Ox Eye daisies, 2 climbing rose - Veilchenblau and Peggy Martin with Alamo vine and morning glory woven amongst them, several varieties of cannas, cypress vine on a trellis, Indigo Spires salvia, rosemary, some old fashioned bearded iris, almond verbena, some amaryllis (that Amy gave me), and swamp sunflower.  There is a Lindleyana buddleia in there that I think I will dig up.  I have my suspicions about whether it is really a Lindleyana.  It is not at all like the one I had many years ago that was so very pretty.  This one is not as floriferous and it suckers terribly.  It takes up too much valuable real estate to be that disappointing.  Last spring in the Hot Border I moved many clumps of Giant Rudbeckia from the Star Garden.  I planted some paperwhites that I dug up from the roadside.  And I planted a row of African Hostas in there.  I also moved a tiny senna tree seedling over there.  And I moved some old fashioned orange double daylilies from a path in the Star Garden over there as well.  Also last fall I dug up some spider lilies from the woods where I had tossed them and planted then in that border.  Everything made it through the hot summer with almost no help from me.  I n bed adjacent to the Greenhouse I planted (all dug up from other gardens) a red autumn sage, double orange daylilies, and a giant Rudbeckia.  I bought a couple of native grasses from a bargain bin at the nursery and planted them there as well.  Also in that bed is a sweetshrub that has been there for many years.  It didn't have a single bloom this spring, so I vowed to pay it special attention this summer.  And I have done so faithfully by watering it regularly.  The only things that failed in that bed this season were a couple of columbine plants. 
•  Wednesday.  Worked.  The rain seems to have passed.
• I planted some lantanas in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden.  My latest (hopefully dastardly) plan is to plant each plant with a layer of shale stones underneath them and some pieces of castor around them.  To get to the roots of the plant the voles will have to eat their way through rock and poison.  Take that, you little rodents! 
• I also planted a Heliopsis, also over a shale bed and castor surrounding it.
• I worked in the Vegetable Garden for about an hour.  I pulled up lots of okra plants.  I'm covered up in okra, and since okra is a host plant for nematodes, I knew that I wasn't doing myself any favors by letting the plants sit in the ground.  I won't plant anything in those spots.  I will let those areas rest.  I added soil amendments to several other beds.  I also put lots of tangerines into the soil.  Nematodes don't like citrus, and it seems to deter them.  I have a tangerine tree in the back yard of my Houston home.  I'm not a big fan of citrus, so it seemed like a perfect use for all that fruit.  I sowed red and chiogga beet seeds in one bed and in the other bed I sowed Nero Toscana kale, Little Finger carrots, and a small area of parsnips.
• Later in the day I went back out, spread the last bag of humus and manure and sowed some swiss chard, a few purple top turnips (I'm not a fan of turnips, but the greens go in a family-favorite Spanish soup) and a little lettuce.  Then I worked the soil in another area, but added no soil amendments - because I had none - and sowed 4 rows of pot marigolds (Calendula),some fernleaf cilantro and dill.  A lot of my green beans didn't survive the grasshoppers, so in their place I sowed some dill. If the Calendulas make it, they will be gorgeous in the spring.  They like cold weather, but I usually don't get many flowers until spring.  The greens are edible and the flower petals are edible.  
• Planted a Rajun Cajun Rusellia in the Rose Garden, same drill - shale and castor.
• After work I spent about 20 minutes in the Orchard planting a couple of lantanas but mostly weeding and cleaning up, deadheading coneflower, and pulling up spent marigolds and zinnias.
• I cut back some salvia in the Star Garden and weeded a bit.
• Thursday.  Worked.  
• I spent some more time in the Orchard trimming runaway vines from my grapes, raking and doing a bit of weeding.
• Planted a few more lantanas.  I have 7 left, and really not sure where to put them.  I haven't lost any for several days.
• I moved half a dozen landscape rocks from the Vegetable Garden over to the Rose Garden to shore up a bed in there.
• Dad woke up with chills and fever which put everyone in worry mode because of Covid.  There was lots of discussion amongst Nan, myself and them as to whether they should go to hospital or wait.  The decision was finally taken (by them) to wait another day.  Oxygen levels, etc were monitored. 
• Friday.  Worked.
• Thankfully, Dad felt better today.  Fever gone, oxygen level slightly higher.   
• I suspected one of my lantanas was being eaten by voles because the very young tops were wilting.  I dug it up, added shale and castor then re-planted it.
• Using some of my compost, I amended soil in the front bed and planted 2 lantana.
• Friday was so beautiful, I couldn't recall a day more lovely.  The mornings have been cool, I don't know if that is permanent for the season or just a short bit of relief.  But I am in the moment every moment.
• There are a series of tunnels and a large den of voles right at the front of the Rose Garden.  Everyday I fill the tunnels and den with water.  The next morning when I get up and go out to the Rose Garden, there are little piles of dirt where they have cleared out the area.  I fill the holes again.  It is so funny to watch Sadie as she stands over the area with her head cocked.  She can hear them under the ground.  Sometimes she digs a big hole trying to get to them - not my favorite thing! - but they are long gone at the first sign of trouble.
• I planted my last 3 lantana in the back bed in a sunny spot.
• Saturday and Sunday - Nathan and family came up for the weekend.  
• The only thing I did in the way of gardening is dig up a clump of Hurricane Lilies in the Circle Drive and move them to the Hot Border.
• I walked the Meadow Sunday evening.  There are a lot of Blue Stem clumps forming in the top part of the Meadow which really surprised me.  This is the time they get tall and so they really show up.  Yes, good news.  Unfortunately there are none that I see in the rest of the Meadow.
• My seeds finally arrived from Wildseed Farm.  I bought a pound of Clasping Coneflower, a pound of Tickseed, a quarter pound of milkweed (very expensive and a low rate of germination), a pound of Black-Eyed Susan, a pound of red Drummond Phlox, a pound of Maximilian Sunflower, an ounce of Johnny Jump Up, a pound of Tall Poppy Mallow, and an ounce of Ox Eye Daisy.