Time at the Farm December 17 - 26, 2021

 

Arrived Friday morning and set to work getting ready for the Bonassin Christmas.  Saturday - the Bonassin Christmas.  Nathan and family spent the night and left mid morning.  I took vacation the whole week.

• Sunday.  I finally received the bulbs from Brent and Becky's that I ordered months ago.  I planted 30 Sternbergia in the Rose Garden.  And I planted most of the 25 Ice Follies in the Rose Edge Border, the others I tucked in here and there.
• Weeded a bit in the Star Garden.  
• A little dog wandered up while I was outside working.  A collar but no tags.  I was prepared to keep him while I looked for the owner, and I gave him a few bites of some chicken I had on hand.  I went back inside to put the chicken away, but by the time I went back outside he was gone without a trace.  Poor little thing.  There is nothing but trouble out here for a little lost dog, coyotes being the worst of it.
• I decided to work in the Vegetable Garden next.  I couldn't decide:  do some mulching, do some raking or work in the Vegetable Garden.  Vegetable Garden won.  I moved all the goat wire surroundings and cut down all the asparagus stalks in the big bed.  I turned over rye grass plugs that I missed the first time I turned over the soil a month or so ago.  I weeded several large beds in there.  Pulled up lots of chicken wire, folded it up and put it in the corner of the garden.  Covered two large areas with pine needles that I weeded.  Raked most of the paths.  I pulled up all the red salvia in there.  I probably should have pulled up a bunch of it before it seeded excessively.  It will come back with a vengeance next year.  Roughed up several beds that I weeded recently to uproot the new weeds beginning to appear.  All that took a couple of hours.  Looks better.  I really need to get in that corner where the loofa is growing and clean it out, but there are about 10 large loofa gourds that are still green, and I want them to turn brown on the vine.  The vine is crawling all over the small bed of asparagus.  I'm ready for that vine to be gone.  
• Monday.   Cold and grey, that's okay.  That's my mantra - cold and grey, that's okay.  I like to work in that weather, I can go all day long.
• I pulled up all the castor plants and Mexican sunflowers growing in the Daffodil Border.  Despite being 6 to 8 feet tall they came up easily because it has been raining.  The soil was soft.  I loaded them into the cadet, and dumped them in an erosion spot on one of the trails.  
• I raked up many wheelbarrows-ful all along the drive where Bert blows the leaves off the driveway.  I dumped the leaves in the Daffodil Border everywhere I pulled up the castor and sunflowers.  All the paperwhites and the little wilding daffodils are beginning to emerge.  The Sweetness have not begun to pop up yet.
• I raked the Long Border and the path that runs alongside it.  I used the rake, and around my plants I used my hands.  There is more to do there because the leaves have not finished falling.  I raked up armloads of mostly pine needles mixed with some oak leaves and dumped them all adjacent to the Long Border path.  The only thing that grows there are Four O'Clocks (much to my dismay - there is no good place to grow Four O'Clocks - they are a nuisance).
• Next I mulched a few beds in the shady part of the Star Garden.  I didn't do much there.
• I raked the paths in the Star Garden and dumped all the leaves in the unfinished areas at the edges of the Star Garden.
• Trimmed shrimp plant that was leaning into paths.
• I took my new hand held chain saw and cut about 30 yaupon in a clearing that I'm trying to expand.  It's a pretty little natural clearing along one of the trails.  Most of the property is a yaupon motte.  I dragged all the yaupon into a pile.
• I walked all the gardens at the end of day.
• Tuesday.  Cold and grey, that's okay.
• I sprayed herbicide in the the paths of the Vegetable Garden.  The winter weeds are bad in there.  I used my boot to scrape away the ones growing right up against the raised beds.
• Our neighbor, Ray, and Bert rented a log splitter.  They had taken down some dead oaks recently, so they split logs all day. 
• I had a little sassafras tree spring up near the mother plant that I was going to give to my neighbor Debra.  I tried to dig it up, but try as I might, I couldn't dig it up in one piece.  The trunk broke off below the ground.  Bummer.  
• I raked leaves under the Basswood tree on the edge of the Shade Garden.  I dumped many wheelbarrows-ful in the Rose Edge Border and all around the unfinished parts of the Star Garden.  
• I dug up and moved the big clump of Mexican sage.  I only moved it a few feet, but it is an improvement.  It was right at the edge of a border, and was really in the way when it bloomed.  And it was right in front of my beautiful Mexican Turks Cap that is in full bloom right now.  The clump was huge, so I split it and planted it in 3 places. 
• I dug up one of the three Kordana red roses that Amy gave me last Christmas.  I moved it basically to the spot where the Mexican sage used to be.  The Kordana roses are miniatures, so it should be fine there.
• I mulched that whole area around the 3 Kordana roses, the Mexican sage and the Mexican Turks Cap.  
• I dug up some double orange daylilies that had spread out into the path and moved them in amongst the other ones in the flowerbed.  And I moved a few to the Hot Border.
• I pulled up some Philippine Violets and blue mistflower that had sprung up in places where they didn't belong.  
• I pulled up some Horseherb - that stuff has managed to get a foothold in one area of my long bed in the Star Garden.  It is s booger to pull up.  Very tenacious roots. 
• I did some weeding in the Star Garden and mulched wherever I weeded.  Mulched my Franziska Krueger rose in the front bed.
• I raked out leaves choking one of my beds in the Medicine Garden.  Bert blows leaves into the beds - sometimes I don't care because it keeps the weeds down through the winter.  But it also keeps seeds from germinating and taking hold.  I gathered the great big seed heads off my Indian Peace Pipe Nicotiana and spread them in the bed that I cleared of leaves.  I'm hoping to get a beautiful show of Nicotiana in the Medicine Garden next year.  
• I dumped armfuls of the leaves into the unfinished area next to the pool. 
• Wednesday.  Drove to Houston to grocery shop for the Lopez Christmas on Sunday and get ready for cookie baking at my house with Blake, Mom and Nancy on Thursday.  
• Thursday evening returned.  
• Friday.  Fiddled around with Christmas this and thats.
• Watered in the Water Garden and the surrounding areas. 
• Saturday.  Christmas.  Prepped for Sunday Christmas with the family.
• Sunday Lopez Christmas.  Drove home to Houston about 8:30 that evening and went to work on Monday.

  

Mexican Turks Cap December 21, 2021

 Still have not had the first hard freeze, so Mexican Turks Cap is full of blooms and buds.  This is my second year for this plant.  The first year, no blooms.  The second year it came back slowly because of the historic, hard February freeze.  I kept the area clear and didn't let other plants take over its space.  And I feel well rewarded for my effort.  It looks really pretty.  As this is only my second year for growing this plant I don't know if my observations thus far will hold true over the long run.  I'm pretty certain that this perennial will get bigger every year until it reaches its ultimate height and width of 5 feet by 5 feet, maybe more.  It has died back in the winter here in my zone 8b garden and has gained all of its current height and width over the spring, summer and fall. I call this a fall bloomer because that's the only time it has bloomed for me.  Based on what I have read it can also bloom in the summer.

Below, Mexican Turks Cap next to coral red cannas.

Pink Firespike December 21, 2021

Pink Firespike looked pretty today.  This is a shade loving fall bloomer.  It freezes down to the ground.  each winter, and I cut down the dead wood in early March each year.  Butterflies are very attracted to Firespike.  There is also a red variety. 

Debutante Camellia December 17, 2021

 There is not much I can say about my beautiful Debutante camellia that I have not already written.  It is one of my very most favorite plants in my collection.

Biltmore Ballgown Abutilon December 18, 2021

 It was December 12 when I took these pictures, and we still had not had our first freeze of the season.  Interesting.  Some years we have our first hard freeze before Thanksgiving. Last winter I had made a note in my head that I would prune back these Abutilons (I have 3) in early summer to see if they would get bushier by the time their fall blooming season came around.  But the intense February freeze knocked them all back so much that they were barely at knee length in early summer. These are fun plants to grow.  They like some shade or morning sun.  They are fall bloomers, always a selling point for me.  

These two are in the Medicine Garden.  They were hurt worse by the February freeze than the one in the Star Garden.  But they clawed their way back, and the tall one bloomed.  

   

 

At the Farm December 5 - 10, 2021

 

Arrived Sunday morning.  Our cars were loaded with stuff for Christmas - presents, folding chairs, a new folding table, and all of my china.  Plus all the normal things we bring like food, a flat of plants and a bag of potting soil, clothes, etc.

• Leaves everywhere!  And raining down constantly.  Bert blew all the leaves from around the pool.  I will start raking again in earnest on Monday.  
• My neighbor Debra left me some plants by the front door.  Yarrow, some little bunch grass plugs (I think it's Cup Grass), an artemisia and a little native Fragrant Mimosa seedling. 
• I did some spot watering in the White Garden.
• I did some spot watering in the Rose Garden.  I hand watered all my roses in buckets.  I raked the walkway along the Long Border and dumped all the leaves and pine needles in the Rose Edge Border.  I pulled up or cut back all the Four O'Clocks along the walkway of the Long Border.  Mulched a few of my roses in buckets and around Caldwell Pink. 
• Watered all the pots next to the pool and in the Medicine Garden. 
• I planted a flat of Sweet Alyssum in the White Garden. Cut back some white salvias  and cleaned up some white black eyed Susan vine that was creeping along the ground.
• I raked some leaves into piles in the Greenhouse Gardens.  And I raked leaves out of a few beds where I have sown Nicotiana seeds.  
• Monday.  Worked.
• Messed with the compost piles.  I layered more greens in between the leaves.  The green cooks the browns.  You need that to help break the leaves down more quickly.
• During lunch I did a little raking and cleared leaves from an area in the Medicine Garden.
• I pulled up some red shrimp plant that had taken root in a few beds where it was not wanted. 
• I shot holes in a feed bucket that Bert brought back from hunting last week in preparation for planting a rose.
• I dug up Madam Antoine Mari and planted her in a bucket.
• After work I raked up leaves and dumped them in the unfinished part of the Star Garden and the Rose Edge Border and the Daffodil Border.
• Tuesday.  Worked.  
• Before work I dug up Heritage rose and put her in a pot.  Heritage has a wonderful scent, one of my best smelling roses.
• During lunch I raked and dumped leaves in various places  - the unfinished parts of the Star Garden, the Daffodil Border and the Rose Edge Border.
• I had Bert shoot holes in the bottom of 2 more feed buckets in preparation for digging up 2 more roses.  After that I will have only 1 more bucket that I am going to use to dig up a Sweet Olive in the Star Garden that has hung on faithfully for a decade, but it has never done well.  I have decided to give it a fighting chance by potting it up.  These feed buckets look pretty ugly.  But with some silver pony foot or some sedums draping over the edges, they will for the most part be hidden from view.  Plus over time they will sink a bit.
• I used the contents of one of my compost buckets in the Vegetable Garden.  Then I added browns and greens to it to start a new pile.  After work I dug up Madame Joseph Schwartz and moved her to a bucket.  A few Country Girl mum seedlings came up with her, and I planted those in one of the beds in the Rose Garden.
• After work I dug up my Gaye Hammond rose and put her in a bucket.  I'm all out of potting soil now.
• I mulched all the tubs that were not mulched yet.
• I spread mulch around the asters that I dug up and moved last week when I shortened some beds.
• Wednesday - already!  The week is flying by.  I worked.
• Before work I planted the five white yarrow my neighbor gave me.  I planted them in Mom's Garden (the White Garden / the Water Garden).  I also planted the artemisia she gave me.  It is the same variety as one I already have in there that I got at the plant swap a month or so ago.  So I planted it next to that one.  I'm hoping for a large stand of them next spring and through the summer.  I just love artemisias.
• During lunch I raked leaves and dumped them in the area I cleaned out recently near the pool.
• I pulled weeds in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
• I sat in the Rose Garden for a while watching the butterflies and bees and the myriad other insects that were flitting about.  We still have not had a freeze, and all the gardens are beautiful.  Everything takes on such a special beauty in the last days before winter.
• After work I did more weeding in the Kitchen Herb Garden, and I mulched a good part of it.  I really smushed down the mulch - I don't want any weeds to break through.  More to do there.  There are only a few parsley seedlings that came up from last year's harvest, some chives, mint and my adorable perennial, native chili pequin growing in my herb garden.  That's it.  I need to get some herbs!
• Bert walked around the gardens with me just before darkness set in, and then we took a nighttime ride around the property. 
• Thursday.  Worked.
• Before work I walked around the Rose Garden for a bit.
• During lunch I finished mulching the Kitchen Herb Garden.  It looks so good even though there is almost nothing growing in it.  It is a sea of perfect, black mulch.
• I raked a truckload of pine needles and dumped them next to the Vegetable Garden.  I will probably use most of them in the Orchard underneath the blackberry brambles, but I don't have time to do anything this week. 
• Did some raking and loaded up the truck.
• After work I emptied the truck, but I did nothing else. 
• Friday.  Worked.
• Watered the buckets in the Rose Garden.
• Headed home during the lunch hour.  Spending the night at Blake's to watch the kids, Cleo's recital on Saturday afternoon, Lights in the Heights at Josh and Amy's on Saturday night.  Back here on Sunday to decorate the tree.

A Week at the Farm November 20 - 28, 2021

 

This is Perl d'Or rose.

Arrived at work on Friday evening.  Bert was already here.  I have vacation all next week.  The weather will be cool all week.  Very poor planning on my part, I should have had some mulch on order for delivery so that I could start work on my fall list of maintenance activities.  But alas, I never even thought about it.

• Saturday.  I watered the Kidneywood and Tenaza tree by the Shade Garden and Vegetable Garden.  
• I sprayed herbicide on the back paths, under the arbor and in the large space next to the pool.  If I don't get the winter weeds knocked out now it will get too cold for the herbicide to be effective. 
• I dug up my Dr. Grill rose in the Rose Garden and planted it in a feed bucket.
• I dug up Carefree Beauty and planted it in a feed bucket as well.  It had been completely overtaken by purple gomphrena.  I could hardly find it there was so much gomphrena leaning over it.  It was leggy from being buried so I snipped off all the ends.  It should be much happier.  I had 2 growing in that bed, one died from vole attacks.
• Ray and Debra stopped by to ask about a tree in our back yard that has wonderful fall color.  It was my sassafras tree.  I have a seedling coming up nearby, so I offered it to her.  It's skinny, but it's about 4 feet tall - worth having.  She's going to come by some time after Thanksgiving and dig it up.  
• I raked in the Rose Garden for a bit and dumped the leaves in the Daffodil Border.  Watered here and there.
• Drove out to the road and dug up a bucketful of rock to fill in spots where I shortened those beds last week.  I still have more to do out there, but I have enough time to do it little by little.
• I turned my compost piles.  One of them was alive with ants, so I poured a couple of gallons of water into it.  That will get rid of them.  About an hour later I turned the ant infested pile again.  
• I raked up leaves along the edge of the arbor where Bert blows fallen leaves.  I dumped 3 wheelbarrows of leaves into the Daffodil Border.  Did more raking in the Greenhouse Gardens, but more to do there.
• I drove down the road and dug up another bucketful of rocks to continue filling in where the beds used to be.  Feels like I strained a muscle.  Bummer.
• Took a nap.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden and along the Long Border and in the front along the front beds.
• Did some more raking in the Greenhouse Gardens.
• My wheelbarrow of parsley looks really good.  I have been ruthlessly looking for and pulling up anything that is not parsley.  I want a perfect bed of parsley in the spring for my caterpillars.  Last year I let wildflower seeds take hold, and the wheelbarrow was a mix of parsley and other plants.  My caterpillar activity was not nearly as good as the first year.  This is year three for my little science experiment.
• Sunday.  I went straight out to the Rose Garden and planted 75 Naples Onions next to the Noisette.  
• I sprayed herbicide along the sunny side of the Circle Drive beds.  And I sprayed herbicide along the Daffodil Border.
• Did some dead wood pruning on the Noisette.  Working that closely to it while planting the little flowering onions made me notice how much dead wood was in there.
• Raked in the Rose Garden some more.  And I raked along the driveway edge where Bert blows leaves off the driveway.  Dumped all the leaves in the Daffodil Border.
• When I raked near the Homestead Purple Verbena in the Rose Garden, I pulled it up and cut it away from the paths.  I planted all the cuttings in various places in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.
• I did some raking in the Star Garden.  And I fussed around with the beds I'm decreasing, but I didn't really make any headway.  I am waiting for Bert to cut the cedar edgings to fit the smaller beds, but his saw broke while he was cutting down a tree.  So I will have to wait until Monday for the part to be replaced.
• I cleaned the white bench in Mom's Garden with Clorox and 409 mixed with water and a sponge and some elbow grease.  Looks much better. 
• Collected some seeds from my Fruity Pebbles Lantana and scattered them in a bed in the Orchard.  
• Napped.
• I did more raking in the Greenhouse Gardens.  Dumped all the leaves in the Daffodil Border.  While I was in there I cleared fallen leaves out of several of the beds where my Columbine seedlings are trying to thrive.  I also threw down lots of Nicotiana seeds in those beds throughout the last summer, so I will try to keep them cleared out.  No seed will grow where leaves are thick on the ground.
• I raked in the Vegetable Garden as well.  
• This is an important time of year for me.  Raking up the fallen leaves and spreading them in various gardens is an important part of my gardening regimen.  I can't buy enough mulch to cover all my beds.  It would be cost prohibitive.  Leaves and pine needles are my mulch in many areas.
• Spot watered in the White Garden. 
• Monday.  Grocery store first thing to get my Thanksgiving supplies.  Twelve adults, six kids.  Our contribution is turkey, pork roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, mustard and collards in ham (only because I have so much of that growing in my garden - it's not part of our traditional dishes), 2 cakes, muffins and some of the appetizers.  Also picked up some more potting soil to fill one more feed bucket.
• I worked on the beds that I am shrinking.  Bert cut the cedar edging to fit.  I finished digging up the soil from the areas where I shortened the beds.  I threw it all in other beds.  I dug up lots of rock from the road and laid it down in my new paths.  Still more to do there.  Lugging rocks is heavy work.
• I dug up another rose in the Rose Garden - Iceberg - and planted it in a pot. 
• I cut 3 big handfuls of a pretty sedum overflowing the sides of a pot and pressed them into the soil of one of the roses I planted.  It might not make it through the winter.  Some of those sedums I plant make it through freezing temperatures and some don't.  I can't remember if this one will or not because I buy so many varieties.  But a ground cover on top of the soil of those potted roses will help trap moisture. 
• I puttered around in the White Garden deadheading roses, pulling a few weeds and clipping plants that were crowding other plants.  
• I did some more raking and dumping leaves into the Daffodil Border. 
• Watered my sweet peas in the Vegetable Garden that I sowed a week or so ago.  They are just beginning to pop up.
• It was a beautiful day, sunny and cool.  Really a perfect day.   
• Tuesday.  Cold and sunny.  Thanksgiving is supposed to be a very rainy day.  Too bad.
• I made my gravy stock and some pea soup.
• I cleared out the area next to the greenhouse that has gotten a bit overgrown.  There used to be a bed in there, but I long ago quit messing with it because it was too hard to water.  Now some Beautyberry shrubs, Snakeroot and Poke have taken over in there which is fine.  But it's gotten a bit weedy.  I raked in the Medicine Garden and dumped all the leaves in there after I pulled up all the offending weeds.
• I turned over the soil in one of the beds in the Vegetable Garden that I sowed with rye.  The rye was pretty long.  I chopped up all the grass and will let it rest for the remainder of the cold season to make green manure.    
• I spent time in the Rose Garden just puttering.  I spread seed from my Red Shades yarrow.  I don't know if these many yarrow cultivars come back true from seed.  I googled it but couldn't find anything helpful.   Pulled a few grasses popping up in the corner bed.  
• There isn't really much to do right now in the gardens.  It's that wonderful time of year when the weeds are gone and the weather is beautiful.  I just walk around and do a touch here and there.
• Wednesday.  Baked.  Went to dinner with the Thomesons and the Gwyns.
• Thursday.  Thanksgiving.  William and family and Cleo and Koy spent the night.
• Friday.  Bert went hunting.  Spent part of the day with Josh, Cleo and Koy.  The girls and I gathered lots of peppers in the Vegetable Garden for Josh to take home.  Rested for a bit after they left.
• Did a bit of mulching in the Rose Garden - the Zepherine Drouhin and some of the roses I put in the buckets.
• Spent some time in the White Garden.  I collected seed off my Mexican Buckeyes and threw them at the base of the smallest tree.  
• I cut away all the bottom leaves of my collard and mustard greens and threw them in the compost piles.  Also gathered lots of Hoja Santa leaves for the compost piles.  Turned the piles. 
• Mulched the Marie d'Orleans and Beverly roses in the front beds. 
• Laid chicken wire down on the ground in the Rose Garden because I heard deer don't like to step on it.  We'll see.
• Saturday.  A total bust.  Rained all day long with no stopping.  Cold also.  I tried to go out for a bit despite the unpleasant conditions to do some mulching.  But I didn't last long.
• Sunday.  Rain is gone, but the sky was steel grey all day long, and it was cool.  
• I sowed some Moss Verbena in a spot where I thought I had already sown, but it either never sprouted or I was mistaken.   
• I spread mulch all morning in the shady part of the Star Garden.  I mulched around my Pearlbush, both my little camellias, my double red althea, my snowball bush and Veilchenblau.  And I spent a lot of time weeding and mulching in spots where I cleared.  I mulched most of the Bulb Bed that wasn't covered up in white mist shrubs.  I mulched around the white mist shrubs really well last year, so that will have to do for next year as well.  I reset some of my cedar log edgings as I went along mulching.
• I gathered seed from my Country Girl mums.  One stem happened to be brown, so I cut it, brought it inside to dry out then broke apart the flower heads just to look at them.  I have hundreds of mum flowers in the Rose Garden to deadhead, I just wanted to check out the seed.  I have spread seed in the past, but nothing much came of it.  I'm going to get more serious about it now because I want more mums in the garden.  They are so pretty in the fall.  In a week or so I expect they will be ready to harvest - the stems need to be brown.
• The Rose Garden looks really pretty right now, so verdant and healthy. 
• Spent 30 minutes or so putting away the last of the Thanksgiving decorations and gathering stuff to take back to Houston.
• I went down to the Orchard and spent a couple of hours mulching in there.  I weeded then laid down mulch.  I pulled up lots of pink salvia.  I did some raking.  A lot more work to be done in there.  But what I did looks good.