Spider Lilies June 28, 2021

 My start of these bulbs came from the house on Nixon Lake Road.  The clump of bulbs in the last 2 pictures below is from Nixon Lake Road.  Since then my neighbor Debra gave me about 20 bulbs that I planted all over the place:  3 spots in the Star Garden, 1 spot in the Hot Border, and 1 spot in the Shade Garden.  The greenery is very pretty and very mannerly (compared to, for example, crinum greenery).  The bloom season for spider lilies is only a couple of weeks, so it's important for the greenery to be pretty because they take up a lot space and they aren't in bloom for very long. 

More Pictures of Montbretia June 28, 2021

 

Time at the Farm June 27 - 28, 2021

 

I drove up by myself mid-morning on Sunday after the Airbnb folks left.  Took Monday as vacation.  The company announced that we would continue every other week in the office through Labor Day.  

• I spent what was left of the morning watering in the Rose Garden and the Water Garden.
• I gathered seed pods from my Peace Pipe nicotiana and spread them here there and everywhere.
• I staked them also.  They were leaning over into the paths.
• Weeded.
• Sprayed herbicide on the driveway and in the Star Garden.  The purslane is coming up everywhere.  
• I pulled up all but one tomato plant in the Vegetable Garden.  Weeded and cleaned up.  I threw everything over the fence to be picked up later.  I didn't sow any seed.  The seedlings from seed that I sowed last weekend were all eaten.  I will sow more.  That's okay.  I always over-buy seeds.
• It began to rain, and I took advantage of the cooling down of the temperature and weeded and cleaned out beds in the Star Garden for about an hour.  I was soaking wet, but it's better than being incredibly hot and sweaty.  I made another huge pile of debris that I will have to haul off tomorrow.  
• An armadillo dug up the burr oak given to my by Connie that I planted last weekend.  I knew that was a risk.  I had filled the hole many times with water before I planted the little tree.  Armadillos can smell that good wet earth and they seek it out.  It lay gasping on the ground, I don't know for how long it lay there without any water, but I stuck it back in the ground and surrounded it with chicken wire.  I hope it survives. 
• So, so much to do.  July and August are grim months.  So hot.  You look around and don't know how you will keep up with the weeds and the rampant growth.  It can be very discouraging.  Then along comes September and things settle down.  The temperature cools off (not that you can notice it, but the days get shorter and the nights get longer) and you find the strength and renewed vigor to get it under control again. 
• Monday.  I dug up 8 or so Fruity Pebbles lantana from paths and potted them up.  It's too hot to stick them straight in the ground after uprooting them.  I'll keep them in a shady spot until fall and plant them in the ground then.
• I worked in the Rose Garden for about 4 hours pulling up spent brown eyes and cutting Verbena on a Stick down to the ground.  I've found it resents being cut to the ground, but it's all flopping over.  Even though it is still blooming very prettily, I was trying to organize the garden, and that stuff looks messy.  I cut all the tops off and threw them in the garden to reseed next year.  I cut the moss verbena back.  I probably should have just pulled it up, but I don't have anything to replace it with, and I hate bare ground.  Weeded out lots of day flower. Yuck.  Barricaded a few places with chicken wire.  The armadillos are out in force.  It won't help, but it makes me feel better.
• I weeded in the Daffodil Border and the Rose Edge border.  I shouldn't have to weed in those beds because I keep them completely covered in leaves from the fall.  But last fall I used all the leaves I raked in the wild parts of the Star Garden.  
• I weeded in the Long Border.  Pulled up ageratum that was crowding my altheas.  
• In for lunch.  Then right back out.  
• I worked in the Dining Room bed for quite a while cutting the iris greenery down low so that the rudbeckia has room to shine.  It's about to bloom, and the iris greenery is really tall.  I also did a lot of weeding in there.  And I pulled up all the ageratum that was growing in there.  It will really take over, and that bed is supposed to be two roses, iris, phlox and rudbeckia.  That's it, nothing more.  Well, there are a few ferns in there and a couple of Snow rose shrubs (that are cut all the way to the ground after the February freeze and still haven't really come back).  Also, I have let wild petunia get a little crazy in there and I need to yank it all out.  For as stingy as that stuff blooms, it sure does manage to throw off a lot of seed.  There are also some small milkweed plants in there that came up from last year's seeds.  So, suffice to say that I needed to clear some stuff out!
• I wandered out to the Rose Garden to gather up some of my tools, and there was an armadillo digging in one of my beds!  I yelled at it, "Get out of here you little bastard!", but it didn't seem inclined to move along.  I clapped my hands and yelled some more.  No fear.  So I threw a rock at it, and I hit it.  When armadillos get startled they jump straight up in the air.  So it jumped straight up, but it didn't run off. I threw a big piece of bark at it, and it jumped straight up, but it still did not run off.  I threw one more piece of wood at it, and it finally wandered off.  That was the darndest thing.  No fear at all.  Such strange-looking creatures.
• I cut the tall seed heads from all my columbine in the Greenhouse Gardens.  Looks like voles are under the biggest bed and steadily eating my columbine because I've lost half a dozen or so of my large Hinckley columbine plants.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden.
• Headed home to Houston about 4:00.  

Days at the Farm June 18 - 21, 2021

 

This is Illustris colocasia.  This is what I have been moving from paths over to flower beds.  

• Watered and weeded.  That's pretty much it.
• I moved some colocasias growing in paths in the Shade Garden over to the Star Garden.  I've already done that, and I was very proud of myself, but more popped up.  Still not finished.
• Connie Gwyn and I went seed collecting on Sunday evening.  She knew a place where basket flower was thick all along the road.  We spent about 45 minutes collecting seed.  I collected a medium-sized paper bag full to the brim with basket flower seed heads.  Some effort is required to tease the seeds out of the seed heads.  I may do that or I may just throw them on the ground and leave them to their own devices.  Back at her house she had a big patch of Indian Blanket that had gone to seed, and I collected a small bag of that.  I'm very excited about both, but especially about the basket flower which is a much-coveted wildflower around here.
• Connie gave me a burr oak seedling.  I dug up 2 Peggy Martin roses that had tip rooted behind the mother plant, and I gave them to her.  She also pulled up some sort of artemesia growing in one her beds that I admired, and she gave my a handful.  I planted it my mom's garden because it is white.  A white groundcover.  Very striking.  Hopefully some of it will live. It's so hot already, and putting in plants is an iffy business at this point unless you baby them along with a lot of water. 
• I cleaned out the Vegetable Garden.  I pulled up several of the tomatoes and cut away most of the unruly branches from the rest.  They won't set any more fruit at this point because it's too hot.  But there are a few green ones still on the vine.  I also pulled up all the green bean plants.  The voles got both of my eggplants - disappointing.  Of course all the peppers are going gangbusters.  They love it hot.  Bert fenced in the asparagus which has completely ferned out and was falling over.  Most of it is fenced but there was one section that was open, and asparagus was flopping over.  What a horrible year for my Vegetable Garden.  It was a hard lesson to learn that I have to pull up all the wildflowers in there.  It's a vegetable garden, not a flower garden.  I pulled up all the spent larkspur and brown eyes.  Weeded, weeded, weeded.  The sunflowers and amaranth that I sowed last week have popped up - fun!.  I hauled away 2 big truckloads of debris.
• I spent some time in Mom's garden weeding and spot watering.
• Sowed lots of zinnia seeds in the Rose Garden.
• I sowed lots of Grey Stripe sunflower seeds and amaranth seeds in the Vegetable Garden everywhere that I pulled up green beans, eggplant, and tomatoes.
• Watered all my potted plants.  
• Monday.  Worked in Burton.  It's my week to work from home, but we have Airbnb guests coming on Tuesday and staying through Saturday.  It rained a little, always a good thing.  Headed home after work.   

White Pillar Althea June 19, 2021

 White Pillar is, of course white, and looks similar to Diane.  But there is a little more going on in the White pillar flowers than in the Diane flowers.  Diane is true single.  White Pillar has a little swirl at the center.  But what makes White Pillar really different is the shape.  It has a very upright growth.  Other altheas can be very floppy and take up a lot of space.  White Pillar would be an excellent shrub in a small sunny garden because it has a very small footprint.

Montbretia June 20, 2021

 Montbretia is just beginning to bloom.  It is in the Crocosmia family.  If you've ever wished you could grow Lucifer, here is the next best thing.  It loves the south, and all the other Crocosmia do not like our heat.  Montbretia spreads at an alarming rate, just a little word to the wise.

Double Red Althea June 19, 2021

 Double Red looked very pretty when we arrived on Friday evening.

Heliopsis June 20, 2021

 Heliopsis is a relatively new plant discovery for me.  I noticed it blooming last year in the display gardens of The Arbor Gate.  And, for a perennial, it had a very long bloom season.  I go there often, and whenever I went it was always blooming.  Some of them have red stems and some of them have green stems.  The ones with red stems are more striking, just that little bit of extra something.  I bought 5 plants last spring.  I planted 4 of them in the Rose Garden bed at the back of the Rose Garden, and I planted one in the bed around the old dead tree in the Rose Garden.  They get about 4 feet tall.  I haven't had to stake them.  I really love them.  In the fall I will probably try to root some cuttings of the red stemmed plants. 

Inland Sea Oats June 13, 2021

 This is a native grass, and I have actually seen inland sea oats growing on the side of the road leading to our house.  I planted this in the corner of the Dining Room bed because much of the year that bed is in shade.  It reseeds prolifically, though, and can become a nuisance.  Last spring or late winter I dug most of it up and moved it to the Shade Garden.  It is in a very good spot in there, and I wish I had taken a picture of it in the Shade Garden because it is in a much prettier location.  I left a few plugs in the Dining Room bed, and here it is going to seed.  The next place I'm going to put some is in the large bed along the path to the pool area.  This grass likes shade, and that bed surrounds several post oaks.  It's the perfect spot for it I'm just realizing!

White Black Eyed Susan Vine

 This vine, which I grew from seed, is a  late summer / fall bloomer.  But it has a few flowers on it, so I thought I would post some pictures.  This is growing in my mom's garden which is a white garden.

White Althea June 14, 2021

 I'm pretty certain this althea is called Diane.  It is a beautiful single white flowering shrub.  I have noticed several offspring growing around the two large shrubs which means they have come up from seed I guess, unless a branch was on the ground and rooted from that.  I'm actually not sure because I have never seen seed on these shrubs.  On the other hand, I have never actually searched for any sign of seed.  I grew the two large ones from cuttings (which I am very proud of).  These are growing in a very shady spot, and they don't seem to mind.  White flowers show up so well in the shade.  Underneath these shrubs it looks pretty messy.  There are lots of rain lilies and freesia laxa growing haphazardly underneath, and I don't have the heart to spray them or the energy / interest to move them. 

Texas Pink Phlox June 13, 2021

 The first time I saw this growing was in my grandma's front garden.  I never forgot it.  So when I spotted it several years ago for sale at The Arbor Gate, I bought 2 of them.  This is growing in the dining Room bed.  Since then it has spread, and this year it is putting on a really good show for me.  I bought one plant last spring and planted it in the Star Garden.  I was careful to avoid crowding it (which is what I always do) and it has spread a bit as well.  I love the huge hot pink flower heads.  This is a real old fashioned passalong plant.

Time at the Farm June 7 - 10, 2021

 

I love these gorgeous red cannas with the purple foliage. The skippers have been munching away on the leaves which makes the leaves look pretty raggedy.  That's okay.  We love insects around here.

• Monday.  Worked. 
• I sowed zinnia seeds throughout the Rose Garden in every empty spot.  And sowed some in the front bed.
• Picked several tomatoes in the Vegetable Garden.
• During the lunch hour I sprayed herbicide in the Orchard paths.  That was the last of my must-do activities to clean the place up in time for the next Airbnb guests.
• Weeded in the Dining Room bed.  There is a huge ant pile in there, so I ended up laying down some poison and retreating. 
• I erected a few chicken wire barriers in the Rose Garden.  
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• During the lunch hour I weeded in the Orchard.  And I pruned back the grape vines nearest the beehive.  I didn't do that section last time I was pruning grape vines because it was a cloudy day.  Bees are aggressive on cloudy days, and I didn't want to get too close to the hive.  I only cut away long vines that have no grapes on them when I prune in the summer.  I think it allows sun to get to the vines with grape clusters on them.
• I weeded in the Boardwalk Gardens close to the Orchard entrance.  I pulled up lots of blackberry canes that had sprouted up everywhere in there.  I weeded amongst my native lantanas and around the Victoria Falls iris and Red Wave cannas.  
• Watered lightly here and there in the Rose Garden just to keep my Fruity Pebbles lantana transplants moist.
• I watched butterflies for a while.  So beautiful.
• Drove around the property to see what I could see.  Lots of erosion in the trails from these latest rains. The Purple Pleatleaf are beginning to bloom.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• I sprayed a little herbicide in Mom's Garden.  Filled the fountain with water.  
• Watered the hydrangeas in the Greenhouse Gardens.
• I harvested some more white larkspur seeds and spread them in Mom's Garden.
• Only one more day before we have to go back to Houston.  I miss this place so much when I'm not here.  
• I weeded for a bit in the Orchard.  It looks pretty good in there.  
• Weeded in the Dining Room bed.
• The old-timey hot pink phlox is beginning to bloom.  Sadly, since I will be gone over the weekend and through next week, I will miss its peak.  Perhaps I will come back on Sunday after our guests leave and drag the hoses around and check things out.  It will be a quick turnaround trip if that happens at all.
• Thursday.  Worked.  Drove home after the maid left.

Double Orange Daylilies June 9, 2021

 These are not the prettiest of daylilies, but they throw off so many blooms and spread so quickly that I think they are great.  Look at the many, many dozens of blooms on mine in the pictures below.  These are growing in the Star Garden.  I have moved some to several of my other gardens because they creep into the paths.  So I dig them up and move them. I never worry if it is the right or wrong time of year to transfer daylilies.  These double orange will withstand any type of treatment.  I bought these online some years ago, and what a sorry bunch of scrawny roots I received in the mail.  But I needn't have worried because over the years they have spread and spread and spread.  

Shenandoah Canna June 8, 2021