At the Farm May 5 - 7, 2022

 

I was walking by this amaryllis and spotted the beautiful little tree frog resting in the flower during the hot part of the day.

• We had a really good rain on Thursday, and we really needed it around here.  The pounding really made my salvias and daisies splay out into the paths.  I need to do a lot of staking.  My least favorite activity - no wait, my least favorite activity is weeding - so I guess I'm having a good day come to think of it.
• When Bert got here yesterday there was an armadillo in the trap.  I feel really bad about that because no telling how long it has been stuck in that tiny space.  I do not like to leave the traps set up while I'm gone for this very reason.  I hate to think of any animal suffering.  Am I willing to shoot armadillos?  Yes, but they don't suffer.  Bert drove it some miles up the road and released it with a spot of yellow paint on his back.  Interested in seeing if it makes its way back.  That happened to a neighbor - they put paint on the back of an armadillo that got caught in a trap, dumped it miles away, and within a few days it was caught in the trap again.
• I have a bed in the shady dry part of the Star Garden that does not look good, and has not looked good for quite a while.  I bought a Ruby Slippers oakleaf hydrangea to plant there. The flowers darken to pink as they get older.  This cultivar gets 3 to 4 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide.  So the size of the bed is perfect, and I think the sun exposure is going to be perfect as well.
• I planted 3 Buttercup Turnera in the Ducher rose bed.  I like the pale yellow with the brown throat more than the solid yellow form.
• Weeded for a bit in the White Garden.  Laid down a little mulch.
• Cut away Tall Poppy Mallow falling in to the paths in the Rose Garden.  Weeded for a bit.  Cut down spent Johnson amaryllis stalks.
• Planted 2 Golden Globe Lysimachia ground cover around the Ruby Slippers.
• The crinums are getting ready to bloom.  I have mature clumps and new clumps of various crinum selections in the Long Border, the Water Garden, and the Star Garden.  I am always happy to see their beautiful blooms each May.  And the old fashioned Parrot Gladiolas have tall bud scapes on them.  The white zinnias and salvias are coming up nicely in the White Garden.  The White Garden is slow to start in the spring with the Colonial White verbena being the exception.  The Mock Orange is in the beginning of its bloom cycle.  I find it very interesting that the bees are not attracted to the Mock Orange flowers - they seem to be repelled by them.  There is not a single bee on on the flowers, I have been watching very carefully.  My Mock Orange has no scent, but I still find it very strange there is no bee activity because they are loaded with pollen and nectar.  All the roses are resting after their spring burst. The exception is Caldwell Pink which is covered in buds.  It is literally a late bloomer. 
• I planted 2 more of the Buttercup turnera in the Maggie rose bed. 
• After work I spent time pulling up spent poppies and spreading the seed throughout the gardens.  More to do there.  
• Saturday.  Up at 4:00, I always get very eager to begin working outside and cannot sleep in.  Spring is so beautiful that I hate to miss a moment of it.
• I began working in the Orchard.  The Jujube tree is in bloom and the smell is wonderful.  I fertilized all the fruit trees and blackberry brambles.  I used part of a 50 pound bag and a full 50 pound bag of fertilizer.  I weeded.  I cut down Jujube (it suckers horribly) and poisoned the cuts. Picked the first, early blackberries.  Dumped the debris in an erosion spot.
• I sprayed herbicide here and there in the Meadow.
• I totally forgot to plant my Retama tree just outside the Vegetable Garden fence.  I dug the hole last week and was filling the hole again and again with water to give the tree a fighting chance at the start.  But I ended up walking off and forgetting to plant the tree.  So, I got that done.  
• I planted a little sedum in one of the pots by the pool.  And I planted the last Passalong Pink verbena in the Star Garden.
• I pulled up more poppies in the Rose Garden and spread the seed.  Pulled up the dreaded peppervine that has made itself at home in my Rose Garden.
• Watered my new hydrangea and lysimachia really well.
• I spent some time in the Vegetable Garden cutting back spent Tickseed and pulling weeds around the onions.
• I had a half a wheelbarrow full of mulch that I left in there last week, so I spread it in the Water Garden.
• Got cleaned up and went to Amy's to help her set up her Airbnb website.  To Houston after that.