Sassafras is a really neat little tree. In addition to spring flowers, you get wonderful fall color - really pretty spectacular fall color. And, it is an herb, so this little tree checks a lot of boxes. Mine has suckered, and now I have 3 tall offsets and a handful of little tiny trees. I'm fine with that. A little thicket of sassafras near the house would be most welcome.
This is the Snow Moon rising.
Friday vacation. I spent the morning pruning roses, cleaning out flowerbeds and breaking off dead debris from salvia and Mexican Mint Marigold. I pruned my pink Vitex , all except for 5 or so branches too thick for me to cut with hand clippers. I kept intending to get the loppers and finish the job, but I never got back to it. I cut double red althea down to about half its size. I've never done that to an althea before, so I'm interested to see how it does. I cut down all the Southern wood fern dead debris in the dining Room Bed.
Anne Thames and I visited the Antique Rose Emporium to get them to join the NICE program for the Native Plant Society. They were very enthusiastic about it. On the way home we stopped at Texas Trees nursery and spoke to them about the program as well.
In the early evening I did some clean up in the Rose Garden. I pruned a couple of roses and pulled weeds.
Saturday. I planted a Methley plum tree in the Orchard. Dug up 4 sorry looking Missy Prissy iris that were in the way.
I met Josh halfway and picked up the girls. I had the La Bahia NPSOT folks over to tour my Small Prairie Restoration. That lasted all afternoon.
Sunday, met Josh halfway and dropped off the girls.
Cut back my tall blue mistflower in the Star Garden. I used all the debris in an erosion spot. No worries if it seeds because it is native.
I painted the fence that runs along the side of the house leading to the barn.
I went down to the Orchard and put down poison for leaf cutter ants. I cut back my Texas Lantana to the nub. I moved a tall blue mistflower from the Star Garden down to the Orchard and planted it under the Jujube. I saw that my 3 in 1 apple tree is down to 1, so I will need to get another apple tree or that one will never make an apple. I've lost 2 of the grafts, very disappointing. I weeded for a long time until it was nearly dark.
Monday vacation.
I planted the 4 Missy Prissy in the Rose Garden and dug up another one that was being consumed by salvia. I planted them in the Noisette bed. I fertilized them very lightly.
Leaf cutter ants had stripped 2 of my roses, so I put down poison along their trails.
Fertilized some of the roses in pots. More to do there. The fennel seed that I tossed in the buckets is popping up. The deer don't seem to like the fennel. Hopefully I'm right and that will keep them away.
I sowed a row of green fennel in the Vegetable Garden - for the butterflies.
I worked in the Orchard. I pulled weeds, raked, cleaned out beds. I pulled up all the brown eyes in the fig bed. I don't want any in that bed.
Took Nelly to the vet for boosters, and we headed to Houston after that.
I don't know the name of this camellia. I planted her long ago, before I began carefully documenting all my plants. But she really looked pretty. This is a very late winter bloomer, so the December cold snap did not kill the buds. In the photo below, in the foreground coralberry has broken dormancy with its cheerful spring green leaves.
This clump of paperwhites looked really pretty today. I admired it for a long time, breathing in its unusual and unforgettable scent.
Friday I was working, but I did a few things during the lunch hour. Mostly, I weeded chickweed in the rose Garden and the Star Garden.
After work I cut back all the purple trailing lantana in the Rose Garden. One that is cut back every year and out of the way, I can look at the Peggy Martin rose trained on the fence and see how to get her organized for bloom time. What canes to keep, what canes to completely get rid of, which canes to trim. And I can tie her to the fence in places. Peggy Martin is so easy to work with. Extremely vigorous with very soft, pliable canes. And she will tip root all over the place, so you have lots of roses to give away or spread to other locations.
I planted a pack of 5 daylilies that I bought at Home Depot I planted them in one of the planter boxes in the Rose Garden. Five for fifteen dollars, that's the best deal going. The big drawback is that you don't know the name of the daylilies in the bag. But cost outweighs that. Daylilies are pretty drought tolerant after they get established. So I'll give those a try in the arbor box. I planted 2 Ballerina roses in the boxes last winter, and they both died. I couldn't keep them alive without any rain to help out.
Saturday was cloudy and cold, not a pretty day. Blake and Josh and family spent the night.
Before they arrived I picked up all my debris that I accumulated the day before and dumped it in an erosion spot on the other side of the property.
I cleaned out the front beds taking particular care to remove weeds and pull up wildflower seedlings that had sprung up around my yellow bearded iris. I pulled up dozens of brown eyes, and it kills me to do it. But, I will have more brown eyes than I know what to do with come May. And the iris are so special, I don't want to discourage a single bloom.
After that I worked in the Rose Garden raking and pulling weeds. In the paths, when they are small I scrape the ground with my boot and uproot most of them. So I did a lot of scraping. If you do that, you don't have to spray. I dumped the leaves in the Long Border and the Daffodil Border.
Charlie and I planted his tree - a Pawnee Pecan. He was very excited about it. He kept saying, "My very own tree." So sweet.
I have lots of blooms and buds on my Sweetness daffodils. So pretty. It's supposed to freeze tonight, but I don't think it will do anything but dip there and come back. So my flowers and buds will be fine. Winter bloomers seem especially beautiful because you really aren't expecting them.
Slept in on Saturday. We got some good rain, and it stayed cloudy and rainy all day which was fine with me. I'll catch up on my sunshine in July.
There are buds on all the paperwhites. Next weekend the air will be filled with their scent. I love it, but Bert thinks it stinks. There's no accounting for taste!
I began the process of cutting back dead debris. I'd like to wait a bit longer because it's great for overwintering insects, etc. as well as insulation for the plants, but there is so much to do that I need to start. I cut back Henry Duelberg salvias, Southern woodfern and fragrant white mistflower.
Pulled weeds in the Dining Room bed.
Turned the compost piles.
Put a load of debris in an erosion spot near the house.
I weeded in the beds along the back of the house.
I cleaned out the area near the Medicine Garden where I have a hot pink Oxalis colony. It is a natural area, and it looks very charming when the Oxalis is in bloom.
I cut some blue spruce sedum that was cascading over the edge of a wheelbarrow serving as a planter. I pressed a handful into a bed in Mom's Garden and a handful into a bed in the Greenhouse Garden. Hopefully it will thrive and make a pretty grey-blue groundcover.
I weeded in the Kitchen Herb Garden. I asked Bert to put a fence around the bed before it gets warm. It's a pretty big bed. The armadillos really mess with it. It's next to impossible to get anything to thrive in there because almost every warm night of the year it is turned upside down.
Sunday. Slept in. Not expecting to do too much before we head to Houston for the Super Bowl at Mom and Dad's house.
I fertilized some of my baby trees around Mom's Garden. I cut back the fragrant white mistflower and fertilized. Fertilized the oakleaf hydrangea.
Fertilized in the Shade Garden (coralberry, my camellia, the Arkansas oak, the ferns and the bluebells).
Fertilized the bluebells along the driveway and the bridal wreath and maple leaf oak in the Circle Drive.
I lightly pruned some roses in the Rose Garden. And I pulled up brown eyes and other seedlings that were growing under the roses.
Soaked overnight and then sowed a couple of packets of Sweet Peas around a trellis. I found them in my seed box and decided to stick them in the ground, hopefully it's not too late.
We got some good rain while we were here. And we were lucky to get about 5 inches last week.
I listened to the quarterly NPSOT meeting from 9:00 to 1:00 with my ear buds on while I worked out in the garden.
I dug up 4 or so clumps of Southern Wood Fern from the Dining Room bed and moved them to the Shade Garden. There is a spot at the edge of the Shade Garden that used to be gorgeous with ferns. The last 2 years of drought have really knocked it back, The first year injured it, but the second year engraved the headstone.
I moved 3 or so clumps of peach cannas that were growing right under my Strawberry Smoothie althea. I just had to move them a few feet.
The Snowball Viburnum died after all these years. I pulled it up out of the ground easily, There is already a Texas Mountain Laurel planted there because I could tell the Viburnum was dying.
Spent several hours raking leaves. I weeded in the Daffodil Border and laid down piles of leaves over the areas that I weeded. I got most of the bed done. The Sweetness Daffodils are about a foot tall now. I fertilized the whole border just when they appeared, about a month ago. I am hoping for a floriferous spring. Last spring was not amazing. I'm going to thin them after they finish blooming.
Collected some little woodland violet seeds and pressed them between the pages of a book.
For the rest of the day I dug chickweed out of flowerbeds where ever I saw it as I walked around the gardens.
The weather was so beautiful One of those perfect days when the sun is shining and the temperature is so perfect that you don't even feel the air. It is neither hot nor cold. There were lots of Red Admirals out and about.
Sunday. Windy. I raked leaves in Mom's Garden and spread them in the Daffodil Border.
I dumped one of my compost buckets into the Vegetable Garden beds. Turned over the other three buckets.
I dug up 2 blue mistflower plugs and planted them in the Vegetable Garden.
I dug up a white mistflower and planted it in Mom's Garden.
I collected and spread some handfuls of Black Seeded Moudry grass in the shady part of the Star Garden.
Collected and spread blue mist and fragrant white mistflower seeds in various beds as well as Pringle Aster seed.
Dug out the rest of the peach cannas growing underneath the althea and stuck them in the ground nearby.
Collected some Velvet Leaf Senna seeds to give to Anne Thames. Native Plant meeting at 2:00 at Los Patrones, then home to Houston after that.
