A Couple Days At the Farm March 16 - 17

 

Quick turnaround trip between Airbnb guests.  Drove up on Tuesday afternoon.  Took Wednesday as vacation to do a little gardening.

• Wednesday morning.  Up early and started working in the Vegetable Garden.  It looks so good in there!  All my green beans and zucchini and squash have sprouted.  And my French marigolds are starting to come up.  The purple phacelia is in bloom and the larkspur and getting tall.  Where I have allowed them to grow, the Black eyed Susans are clumping up and Tickseed is getting bigger - that amazing spring surge in growth.
• I amended the soil with my compost and some molasses and fertilizer and planted two Ping Tung Long eggplants.
• Did the same soil prep and planted a jalapeno pepper plant and another one whose name I can't remember - orange peppers.
• Planted another thyme in the bucket next to the one I planted last week. 
• Did some weeding here and there.  Threw down some Arugula seed in one of the beds (because I can't help myself and crowd everything).
• I bought some hot pink plastic labels on the internet that you write on with permanent ink.  100 labels for $8 - such a deal.  They really stand out.  I labelled everything in case guests want to harvest.  I still have carrots and parsnips hanging on.  And I have potatoes growing everywhere as well as tomatoes, cilantro, dill, asparagus, lettuce, green beans, squash, zucchini, parsley, Swiss chard, arugula, basil, thyme.  Of course, a lot of it is not ready for picking, but some of it is.
• Next I did some weeding in the Star Garden. 
• In my mom's garden I planted 4 white Cleome.  Cleome is an annual, but it is a very good reseeder.  And I planted 3 white Guara (whirling butterfly).  I also planted a white Mealycup Sage. I've never grown mealycup before because I read that they aren't cold hardy.  But maybe they reseed, so I'm giving one of them a try.  The morning glory seeds, Snow Nymph salvia and white zinnia sees that I sowed last week have popped up.  The moonflower and white black eye Susan vine seeds have not emerged yet.   The Colonial White verbena is in full bloom right now, white flowers are such a standouts.  I watered everything in there that doesn't get hit with the sprinkler.
• I planted another Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' in a pot around the pool. I planted one last week.  I'm intrigued, we will see how it does through the long hot summer. The tag says it is perennial and drought tolerant.
• I planted some Golden Japanese Sedums in the pots in the Medicine Garden.  And I planted a Creeping Jenny in the tall pot.
• I planted two Creeping Jenny in the bed against the Greenhouse, nothing ever grows there, maybe a ground cover will take hold.
• I planted a green fennel in a pot in the Star Garden.  Fennel is larval food for the butterflies.
• I planted two Tango Agastache in two pots that I brought from Houston.  I have tried to grow it in the ground, but the voles are very attracted to it.  I believe it was two summers ago that I bought a bunch of plants and put them in the ground, and one by one they disappeared.
• The last thing I did was use up the last of a bag of fertilizer in the Star Garden.  I fertilized many of my shrubs - hydrangea, spicebush, altheas, roses, mock orange, white mist flower, camellias, etc.
• I need to hit all the paths with herbicide, but it was too windy to do it.
• Headed home to Houston.