At the Farm During the Pandemic October 7 - 9, 2020

 

• Arrived at the farm on Tuesday evening just after our AirBnB guests left.  One of them painted a picture of the front of the house and left it for us as a gift.  We love it, so nice of them!
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• I added several bags of manure and humus to one of the beds in the Vegetable Garden and planted two collards.
• I bought a wonderful grass at the Arbor Gate called Blond Ambition blue gramma.  The seed heads are positioned horizontally on the stems rather than vertically.  Really unique.  I wish now I had bought all they had. I planted it near my bunny grass along the back path.
• Yesterday evening I noticed some new vole piles (they pile up the dirt that they burrow out of their tunnels) very near one of my new camellias.  Noooo!  Not my expensive new camellias!  I ran the hose down in the tunnels for a long time.
• Dinner at Volare in Brenham for my birthday.
• Thursday.  Worked.
• I had Bert cut down two olive trees in the Star Garden.  They were trees given to me as gifts many years ago.  I really had no place to plant them, so they have always been languishing in two shady spots in the Star Garden.  Olives are not understory trees!  In one spot I planted a Two Winged Silverbell (Halesia Diptera) which blooms white flowers .  I plan to leave the other spot open because the olive tree was blocking easy access to one of my flowerbeds.
• Leaves are starting to drop.  Another summer gone.  What happened to the time?  Thinking about it makes me feel very wistful.  
• Bert took the blower to everything around the house including the Shade Garden and the Greenhouse Garden.  It looks really good.  Another group of guests arrive on Saturday.
• The Pringle aster, although still covered with white flowers, is on the wane.  The blue and the white mist flower will be blooming soon as well as the Texas aster.  And the Barbados Cherries in the Medicine Garden are blooming now.
• The Giant Swallowtails are really making a big showing right now.  They are the largest butterflies in North America, so how lucky am I that they are in my region of the country! 
• When the sun went down I sprayed my roses in the Rose Garden for black spot - of course I'm already seeing black spot, so too late again.  Why break my record for missing the mark. 
• Friday.  Took the day as vacation although I had to join several work conversations through the day.
• I worked in the Orchard for about 45 minutes.  I weeded, did some hand watering of my rosemary, new lantanas and fig tree.  I sprayed some herbicide.  I raked a bit.  And I surrounded a couple of my lantanas with pine needles because they are planted in a dry spot.
• I worked for a while on the bed right at the fence by the shed.  I cut back all the wild petunia, pulled up dried lily sticks, pulled weeds, and roughed up the soil.  I spread Ox Eye seeds over the whole bed.  Watered them in.
• I hand-watered the Long Border really well.  I will be gone until Tuesday evening, so they needed a little support.  I raked the path that runs along the length of the bed.  And I raked out parts of the bed.  There is a huge pine tree adjacent to the Rose Garden and Long Border.  And it has made its end of summer needle drop.  Lots of needles drop into the Long Border.  That's my best pine straw spot, so I am not complaining!  I sowed Ox Eye Daisy seeds in the spots that I raked.  One of the sprinklers hits those spots, so I should see some good germination.
• I hand-watered all the beds in the Rose Garden.  I tied back some zinnias, mulched some plants with pine straw, tied up some Peggy Martin canes and raked.  
• Watered all the pots around the pool and in the Medicine Garden. 
• Re-positioned all the sprinklers in the Star Garden, the Greenhouse Garden and the Rose Garden.
• Throughout the day I was busy weeding, weeding, weeding.
• Filled all the rain barrels along the front porch.  They are wooden barrels, and when they are not full the wood shrinks.  Best to keep them full with the hose if it is not going to rain.
• Headed back to Houston.