A Day at the Farm October 23, 2021

 

Arrived after work on Friday, left for Houston on Saturday afternoon to do dinner with friends.

• I left the sprinklers off when I left the last time we were here, and I wanted to come up and turn them back on.  Plus, I just like being here!  When we are in Houston I am just staring at the clock wondering what in the heck I'm going to do to fill up the time. 
• My parsley seeds that I sowed a week or so ago have all sprouted.  I am making ready my larval nursery for next spring.  Parsley likes cold weather.  They will thrive all winter, and then they will be ready for butterflies to lay eggs when spring comes.
• My Country Girl mums in the Rose Garden look gorgeous right now.  And my Texas aster is still going strong. Unfortunately my sugar snap peas look really bad.  They are not thriving at all.  And my carrot germination was poor at best.  Strange.  I'm going to sow more carrots in the morning.  I don't think it's too late for carrots that I will harvest in the spring.
• I bought a tall Retama tree at Buchanan's on Monday.  Bert drove it up here, and he couldn't believe how thorny it was.  It's common name is Jerusalem Thorn.  I am planting it in a place where no one will have a chance encounter with its vicious thorns.  The leaves of the Retama are very special.  And the summer flowers are show stoppers.  I bought one from Anne Thames some weeks ago that is very small.  Despite the fact that they grow quickly, I wanted another one.  I saw a big one at Buchanan's and bought it. 
• I planted the Retama.
• I spent quite a bit of time in the Star Garden pulling up ageratum.  It's really hard to get rid of that stuff.  While I was pulling it up billions of seeds were flying off it.  I raked up a truckload of pine needles from the trails.  I used all the pine needles in the Star Garden surrounding roses, altheas and perennials so that wildflowers aren't allowed to spring up too close to them.  I left several areas clear, and I sowed anise hyssop and moss verbena in those spots.  The wildflowers will start germinating soon - poppies, Tickseed, brown eyes, purple phacelia, Love In A Mist and others.  All of that took quite a bit of time.  
• Headed home to Houston about 2:00.