At the Farm March 3 - 5, 2022

 

Arrived in the evening on Thursday.  Bert was already here.

• Major, exciting development.  Bert constructed attractive movable barriers that block every entrance in to the Star Garden.  All the horrible-looking chicken wire enclosures that I have created can be removed!  These wooden barriers are about two feet tall, maybe a bit taller.  They will be used to keep the armadillos out.  I think (emphasis on the "think" that they will successfully keep the armadillos out.  They have very bad eyesight, and when they bump into the barrier, I believe they will just move on rather than trying to climb over.  Of course, they know that this wonderful moist oasis exists, so perhaps the barriers will prove to be too short.  But that is easily adjusted if necessary.  Right now I can easily step over them or move them aside.  I'm very, very excited about them.  Next he is going to construct a short fence around my front beds.  Then he is going to work on the fencing around the Rose Garden.  Finally, I will have respite from one of my arch enemies.  There is nothing I can do about the voles.  It's not clear if my castor experiment has been having success.  There is no question I am still losing plants to voles - but would I be losing more plants if I wasn't planting castor?  And the deer, well, that wasn't a problem until very recently.  And it is not a rampant problem.  There are so many forbs to eat around here on the property.  Anyway, March is off to to a wonderful start with my new armadillo barriers.  
• Friday morning.  Up before sunrise.  I sat on the porch listening to the birds and watched the sun come up.  Walked around the Star Garden in the dawn light looking at the plants I put in the ground last weekend.
• Before work I prepped the beds and planted 6 tomato plants in the Vegetable Garden.  3 Celebrity, 1 Brandywine, 1 Mortgage Lifter and 1 Bella Rosa.
• I continued my project of cutting away dead winter vegetation in the Star Garden - salvia and canna mostly.
• I dug up a Colonial White Verbena in the Vegetable Garden (No idea how that got all the way from Mom's Garden to the Vegetable Garden!!) and moved it to the Star Garden.
• During lunch I cut away more dead vegetation in the Star Garden.
• I worked in the Long Border for awhile cutting away canna, salvia and crinum debris.  
• I pruned the two blue Vitex in the Star Garden.  Yay me.
• Bert spent part of the day erecting the barriers in the front beds. Very exciting.  He got one side of the front bed finished.
• After work I did more debris clearing.  I worked in the Rose Garden until dark cutting things back, raking.  I cut back the trailing purple lantana which took some time because there is a lot of it.  It grows inside the Rose Garden fence adjacent to the length of the Daffodil Border. Now the Peggy Martin rose that is trained along the fence will really show up when it blooms.  Peggy Martin is a once blooming rose.
• I rearranged my armadillo trap in the front bed that is not fenced.  I think I'm going to get one! 
• Saturday.  No armadillo in the trap.  
• I spent the whole morning in the Water Garden doing some watering, cutting back salvias, cutting morning glory and Moonflower vine off the fence, raking, and mulching.  
• I mulched the bed with the sweet shrub and the Creeping Jenny bed adjacent to the greenhouse.
• I mulched around the other sweet shrub in front of the greenhouse. 
• I prepped the bed and planted a Celebrity tomato.  I didn't realize I bought so many Celebrity tomatoes.  I bought 4 of them.  Very unobservant on my part.
• I mulched around the tomatoes and onions.  I mulched the large and the small asparagus beds.
• I see that a vole has gotten one of my onions, so I am expecting them all to be gone soon.  I planted them in 3 places hoping to save at least one area from devastation.  
• I worked in one of the Belinda's Dream beds in the Rose Garden.  I pulled up all the oregano.  That was an okay idea when I planted it at the time, but I want to move on with something that is more showy.  I planted 2 red yarrow.  
• I planted a red yarrow in the other Belinda's Dream bed.   There will come a time when all I will be doing will be pulling up yarrow because it spreads invasively.  But, I want to see how it does.  I am hoping that it will grow faster than the voles eat.
• Planted 3 red yarrow (Cerise Queen is the name of this variety) in another bed in the Rose Garden.
• I planted 4 silver ponyfoot in 4 of my new tubs in the Rose Garden.  A ground cover that will drape over the edges of the buckets and cover the top will help keep the soil from drying out. 
• I planted 3 Mexican Mint Marigold in the Star Garden.  They provide great fall color in addition to being a  great herb - Texas Tarragon is its nickname.
• I cleaned up lots of debris in the Rose Garden that I created last weekend.  Dumped it in an erosion spot.
• Watered my herbs in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
• Watered my young camellias.  
• Watered my new plantings from last weekend.
• Headed home to Houston.  Nancy's birthday at Caracol.