Composting

I am dedicated to composting. I hate to see compostable materials go to waste! Compost is very important, particularly in a location as hot as Texas. Nutrients in the soil get depleted very quickly in hot environments. It's important to prepare the soil when building a new bed by adding compost generously. But also, piling compost around shrubs and established perennials is very important too. Mulching is another good way to add nutrients to the soil.

In the fall I shred oak leaves for my compost piles. Oak leaves are superior compost material! I also sneak over the barbed wire fence and filch cow manure from my neighbor's obliging cows. That's really good stuff! I also usually add the bags of grass clippings left at my Houston neighbors' curbs because my own lawn service mulches the clippings into the grass, so I do not have any of my own. Grass clippings are a good "green". The green material cooks the compost pile, so grass clippings will really move the process along. And, of course, all the debris from the Vegetable Garden gets thrown into the pile, scraps from the kitchen, and egg shells. I also throw all the fire place ashes into the compost pile, although there is some debate as to whether or not ashes are good or bad. In a summer such as we had last year, I water the compost pile occasionally because, optimally, the compost material should be slightly moist - like a wrung-out sponge. I also occasionally turn the pile and mix things up. Turning over the compost pile helps speed up decomposition.

I am working on the above pile first. All the green material gets thrown into the above pile, and then at some point, I will let it decompose and start throwing green material into the pile below.

A Day at the Farm Jan 29, 2012

This is bronze fennel. With the cool weather and mild winter, the bronze fennel is really thriving. I let all of it go to seed, and there are fennel seedlings all around the mother plants and in other nearby beds in The Orchard.

Beautiful weather. Arrived Saturday evening.

• One of my roses is suffering from the tunnels around the root system. I noticed that it is dropping leaves and tilting over. I turned the hose on full force and pushed the hose into the ground around the roots. I poured water into the hole, and all the soil collapsed. Hopefully the varmints living in there will move on. I repeated this on several of my rose shrubs. Same thing, the earth collapsed when I flooded the tunnel.



• Mulched one of the boardwalk beds near the house.



• Sowed some triple curled-leaf parsley in the Infinity Garden.



• The parsley that I sowed two weeks ago in the Orchard and the Infinity Garden has sprouted.



• Filled in a flower bed with the last of the soil I bought a month or so ago. It just needed a little. My husband changed out the cedar log that was edging the bed, and it needed to be filled in.



• The crocuses and the star flowers are starting to bloom. Also, the Erlicheer daffodils are beginning to bloom.



• The Meyer lemon tree in the Greenhouse is in full bloom - smells wonderful! It's early for the lemon tree to bloom. Must be the mild winter and the warmth of the Greenhouse.



• Raked and shredded leaves. Got a large part of one side of the Boardwalk Gardens covered up in leaf mulch. Most of the leaves that have fallen from the trees are gone. It's strange how that happens. I guess they blow into the woods. I shredded a lot of them, of course.



• Cut away chicken wire from around the Prissy Miss Bearded Irises in the Orchard. Cut away chicken wire from the plants in the Bedroom Garden.



• Pulled up some lettuce in the Vegetable Garden that was about to go to seed. I didn't like that lettuce! So I certainly don't want it to go to seed and get more of it!



• Sprinkled Sevin Dust on the cabbages. I try to stay away from pesticides, but sometimes I have to do it. The caterpillars are really making it look ugly.



• Pulled weeds.



• Stopped by the Arbor Gate on the way home. The fruit tree sale was today. I wanted a Cherry of the Rio Grande and a Mayhaw. They didn't have either. The Cherry will be sold at their citrus sale, and the Mayhaw will come in with their new natives. I was excited to see that they had Tiger Lilies. I purchased one, I have been looking for them. And I purchased one Triumphator Lily. The Tiger Lily was an great find.
  

A Day at the Farm Jan 22, 2012

Quick trip to the farm to check on things.

• Pulled weeds everywhere.


• The Erlicheers are beginning to bloom. They have the sweetest smell of anything I grow with the exception of the Noisette roses.


• I spent quite a bit of time pulling up seedlings that were growing around my bulbs. Bulbs don't like to fight for space. I find they won't bloom if they are overwhelmed with other plants. I don't like pulling up plants of any kind! I feel like they're my babies.


• I watered the citrus trees in the Greenhouse.


• I watered here and there.


• All the crocuses have emerged. All the Byzantine Glads have emerged. I'm still waiting on the the Spanish Bluebells to pop up that I just planted. The ones I planted last year are already up.


• Worked in the Vegetable Garden for a while. Took home mustard greens to put in a soup.


• The radicchio is beginning to go to seed. That's good. The bees like the flowers, and there is almost nothing blooming anywhere else.

Multiplying Gladiolus Communis Byzantinus

The above picture is of a bed of Byzantine Glads (with some errant little mushrooms sprouting up around them). They are spring bloomers with magenta colored flowers. These are not like the gladiolas in the florist shops and grocery stores. They are the wild, or species, tulips that grow on the hillsides of Turkey. I just planted these corms this fall, and as the picture illustrates, as they emerge from the ground, there is one green blade - one per corm.

The corms in the above picture were planted three years ago. A single corm has multiplied into 10 corms.

Emerging Bulbs

These are some of my species tulips. They are called Tubergen's Gems. Where there was one, now there are two. This is why I love bulbs - it's the only math I understand - multiplication! Tubergen's Gems are yellow and red. They open and close with the movement of the sun. When they are fully open with in the middle of they day, they look completely yellow. When they are closed up in the very early morning and evening, they are completely red. I planted 100 of these species tulips under a peach tree last fall.

These are bearded iris. Normally they have attractive greenery that does not go dormant. But these were not in a very hospitable spot. I just moved them to a new flowerbed where they will receive more sunlight.

These are Excelsior Spanish Bluebells. Just beyond the spot where the greenery ends I have created a new bed and planted about 100 more of them.

Excelsior Spanish Bluebells are good multipliers. I planted these last fall, and one bulb has turned into three.

This is a row of Philippine Lily seedlings (grown from seed off of plants that have long ago disappeared thanks to rooting armadillos) and a row of Ox Blood Lilies give to me by my sister for Christmas.

This unruly greenery is Neapolitanum Alliums. The flowers are white. They reseed vigorously. The bulbs are not very long-lasting. They multiply primarily by seed.

These are called Narcissus Linnaeus Odorus, commonly called Campernelles. They have a good smell, hence the name "odorus".

A Weekend at the Farm Jan 6-9 2012

This is a Zeolite Calendula. Calendula flowers are very long lasting. This flower has been open for two weeks, and it still looks good. Candulas are also called Pot Marigolds because the greens used to be thrown into the stew or soup pot. I don't know of anyone anymore that cooks the greens of Calendulas, but you can! The flower petals of these plants are edible. I have these growing in my Vegetable Garden. The leaves can be used to sprinkle across plates or to brighten salads.

I cut back the dead asparagus vegetation.

Shredded leaves on Saturday and Sunday. Spread the leaves in the circle of the driveway and the Rose Garden. I'm trying to enrich the soil in the circle drive. My long term plan is to naturalize various bulbs in that area - Phillipine Lilies, Spider Lilies, and Rain Lilies.

Sprinkled organic fertilizer on all of my emerging bulbs - the Bacon and Egg daffodils, the Grand Primo daffodils, the Excelsior Spanish Bluebells, the Oxblood Lilies, , the Phillipine Lilies, the Rolf Fiedler Ipheions, the bearded irises, the Napes Garlics, and the rain lilies. I try and fertilize my bulbs when they first appear and just when they form buds.

Soaked parsley seeds overnight in water to soften them up. Sowed them in the Orchard and the Infinity Garden.

Sowed a packet of California Poppied 'Sunset Mix' seeds in the Orchard.

Pulled up chicken wire that was pegged down over the Bluebells along the Boardwalk.

Trimmed bug-chewed leaves off the vegetables.

Moved some Ox Eye Daisy plants growing wild in the yard over to a flowerbed where I think they will do really well.

Watered shrubs around the Greenhouse.

Watered the citrus trees in the Greenhouse.

Weeded. I'm keeping up with it pretty well. Cool season weeds are easier to pull up than warm season weeds.

The gardens look good. Spring will be so pretty!

Pretty Vegetables

This is a big patch of radicchio.

These are stems of Bright Lights Swiss Chard.

More Bright Lights Swiss Chard - so colorful!

Bright Lights Swiss Chard.

Greenery of golden beets.

Golden beet greens again - beet greens are very tasty.

These are mustard greens. Mustard green leaves are huge. They have a wonderful flavor.

Curley leaf parsley. It makes a great border plant. Butterfly larvae eat it, so it is a great plant to grow in a butterfly garden.

More parlsey growing amongst some garlic.

This is kale. Interesting looking!

More kale - bumpy and deep green.

This is wrinkly Savoy Cabbage.