A Day at the Farm 05/13-14/2011

What a gorgeous day! The temperature was very cool on Saturday. And it was sunny. Perfect. We left in the early afternoon to go to a family party.

• Planted 3 Pink Autumn Sage 'Salvia greggii'. Two in the Wave Garden and one in the back bed by the bedroom. I have a soft spot for salvias. I just love them. There is an endless variety to choose from. And they are deer resistant.
  



• Weeded, weeded, weeded. But I'm weeding a lot less than I would be if we weren't in a drought. There was an inch of rain in the rain gauge, that's good but not nearly enough.
  



• Sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden, the Orchard, around the pool, and in the Vegetable Garden.
  



• Worked in the Vegetable Garden for awhile. Picked some peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash.
  



• For dinner made a salad with the cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic, chives, and thyme marinated in vinegar and sugar and lemon juice. All from the garden. Also for dinner tossed the squash in olive oil and roasted it with some garlic.
  



• Swam in the pool and soaked up some sun.
  



• Fertilized the fruiting plum, the pomegranate, and the Mayhaw. Fertilized the asparagus and the Anacachoe Orchid tree.
  



• Trimmed the wisteria.
  



• A bird hatched some eggs in the glove box of the cub cadet. We had to move the nest - we drive that thing all the time! I hope the mother finds her babies.
  



• Butterflies everywhere! There is a frenzy of movement in the Star Garden - butterflies, all manner of bees and bee-like insects and an endless array of odd looking insects.
  



• Moved sprinklers and adjusted sprinklers.
  



• Deadheaded the roses.
  



• Planted some Echinacea seeds.
  



• Sat in the Orchard for some time. It is the same as the Star Garden - crazy with insect movement.



• I need to re-do the Bulb Bed. I have a bed that spans the length of the shed, and the only thing growing in it is bulbs - irises, watsonia, rain lilies, and amaryllis. The armadillos were terrorizing it, so I covered the whole thing with chicken wire. But now it is too difficult to weed it, and things aren't growing as well as they should. Plus I need some height in there, something shrubby, not sure what. Hydrangeas maybe. It doesn't get full sun there. I'll fix it in the fall. That's the best time to move bulbs. I'll need to figure out where to put all the bulbs I dig up.

Some of my Hostas

The two photographs above are Guacamole Plantain Lily. The plantain lilies do a little better in our heat than the hostas do.

The two photographs above are Stained Glass Hosta.

The photograph above is Alligator Shoes Hosta.

The two photographs above are Sum and Substance Hosta.

What's Blooming Now - Butterfly Weed 05/02/2010

Butterfly Weed is a must have plant in a butterfly garden. It is a milkweed plant. Milkweed is the larval food plant for Monarch butterflies. And all butterflies love the flowers. Orange is my least favorite flower color, but these are established plants so I'm keeping them.

There are several varieties of Butterfly Weed and various flower colors: white, yellow, pink, as well as some exotic varieties. Butterfly Weed is a perennial. It will die back in the winter, and it will come up from the roots and get bigger every year. Don't be afraid to cut it back when it gets leggy in the middle of summer. It grows fast, and you'll have lots of new growth and flowers for fall. August, September, and October are prime butterfly months.

What's Blooming Now - Rudbeckia Maxima 05/02/2011

Planted along a fence next to the Vegetable Garden. Alongside I have some Mexican Mint Marigold, some rain lilies, and I am growing pumpkins.

Rudbeckia Maxima has very large ears which is why it has earned the common name Dumbo Ear Cone Flower. It can grow to 6 feet tall. I have mine growing along a fence to help prop it up and protect it from high winds. The leaves are large as I mentioned previously, and they are a pretty gray-green. The petals are that yellow color we are all familiar with amongst the black-eyed Susan type of wildflower, but the central cone of the flower can be 4 - 6 inches tall. Very unusual. When the cone dries out the finches and other small birds love the seeds. This is an evergreen perennial. A clump of greenery remains throughout the winter. Each year the clump (I like that word!) gets bigger. It is a drought tolerant plant. I have mine planted in a place that gets some incidental water, it is not in the main path of the sprinklers.

Joe Pye Weed - the Medicinal Herb

I have Joe Pye Weed growing in the Star Garden. It is interplanted with Cleome, Stone Crop, and Verbena Bonariensis.

The Joe-Pye Weed was named after a Native American doctor named Joe Pye who used it medicinally. The medicine man taught early settlers how to use it.

As a medicinal herb, the root is the "official" part, with a fragrance that resembles old hay. It is a good remedy for gravel in the gallbladder - it dissolves stones. It has been used for chronic urinary and kidney disorders, bed wetting, poor appetite, dropsy, neuralgia, rheumatism. It is very soothing and will relax the nerves. Joe Pye increases the flow of urine. It is good for female troubles, bladder and kidney infections, diabetes, and Bright’s disease.
It is also used for headache, hysteria, impotence, indigestion, intermittent fever, sciatica, sore throat, urine retention, vomiting, asthma, chronic coughs, colds, typhus fever.

And it blooms pretty flowers! The flowers haven't begin to bloom yet, but they are quite lovely.

What's Blooming Now - Verbena Bonariensis 05/02/2011

I just love this plant. It is so pretty. It is a good re-seeder and a tender perennial. This Verbena Bonariensis came back from seed. I have it planted in the Star Garden, which is where these pictures were taken. I also have lots of it in the Long Border and the Rose Garden. It is inter-planted with Joe Pye Weed and Cleome.

Nasturtiums - the Medicinal Herb

Nasturtiums are very fun to grow. The seeds are big and easy to handle. The large seeds and the fast growth rate of nasturtiums makes them a favorite in childrens' gardens. All parts of the nasturtium are edible including the stems. They have a peppery taste. They like cool weather, and they will be long gone by summertime. Plant seeds in the early spring time and in the fall. They also like poor soil which is unusual. The only other plant I can think of that likes poor soil is Morning Glories.

Nasturtiums are loaded with vitamin C. The seeds have been used historically as an antibiotic and for respiratory and urniary tract infections.