A Weekend at the Farm July 5 - 6, 2012

This is a Picasso Canna.  Picasso is a dwarf canna, it only reaches about two feet in height.  The variety of colors and patterns that can be found in the canna family is quite spectacular.  I love the red spots on the Picasso.  Cannas seem to have fallen out of fashion, probably because they are so easy to grow.  When something is easy to grow it becomes a common sight, and then people don't like it anymore.  But I find them to be really useful in the garden.  They provide vertical interest in the garden, like gingers - but many gingers are for shade, and cannas love the sun.  They have wonderfully big leaves, often with great color variation such as burgundy or stripes.

• My family came on Saturday for a visit.  My parents, my sister Nancy, my sister in law Gretchen and nephew Beckett, my mother in law Beth, my husband's niece Ashley, her two children Nolan and Nicholas, my husband's son William, his wife Kim, and their two month old daughter Zelda.  It was a very nice day. William and Kim stayed the night.  I had lots of time to spend with my new granddaughter.  She is beautiful and very sweet natured.  I walked her all around the gardens.  She loves being outside, she quiets down immediately and looks all around intently.
• William and Kim and the baby left on Friday around 11.
• Swam in the pool.
• Pulled weeds.
• Dug up seedlings of purple columbine that were growing in the paths of the Infinity Garden and moved them to one of my new shady gardens.
• Dug up Aztec White Nicotiana that was growing in the paths and moved it to several of the new shady gardens.  That's the secret to inexpensive expansion, use what you have.
• Watered the hydrangeas and the Vitex.
• Fertilized the shrubs with liquid fertilizer - flowering almond, wegelia (almost has disappeared completely), almond verbena, pearl bush, snowball viburnum, double red althea, blue satin althea.  I fertilized last weekend as well, I won't fertilize again for awhile.
• Next weekend I will work on the Vegetable Garden.  It needs a lot of work.!   

A Video of the Shade Garden in Late June 2012

 http://youtu.be/dE1tsiBpesk

A Video: If Poop Made Us Happy The World Would Be A Better Place

Please check out my video of a dung beetle.






 http://youtu.be/fO8W9xZK8qs

A Weekend at the Farm June 30 - July 1, 2012

Click on the link below for a video of the Star Garden in late June.

 http://youtu.be/B0ReCgWsi0g


Busy weekend (aren't they all?) By the end of the weekend my hands were cut up, and I was covered in mosquito and ant bites all over my feet, hands, arms, back and legs.  This was a rough one!

• Sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden, the Orchard, the driveway, the Shade Garden, the Star Garden, the Vegetable Garden, the yard area (so that Bert doesn't have to mow inside the fence anymore), and along the fence lines. I wish I knew what the name of the weed is that is my Enemy Number One.  It's everywhere, and you have to pinch right in the center of it to pull it up, it spreads out from the center like a hand, flat to the ground.  By the end of the weekend my middle finger hurts from the pinching motion.  I spray them whenever I can, but if they are too close to a plant, I can't risk it. 
• Weeded and thinned out plants in the Star Garden and the Long Border.That was quite a bit of work.  I hauled many wheel barrows of debris off to the woods.  I'm mostly pulling up Tick Seed plants (Lanceleaf Coreopsis).  They really took over.
• Cleared out the Daffodil Bed. It was very weedy.  Seeded it with Zinnias.
• I took advantage of the little bit of rain we had and fertilized everywhere with two bags of fertilizer I brought with me.  Everything got some fertilizer.  Excellent.
• Pulled up lots of mint in the Herb Garden.  Looks better.
• Weeded in the Shade Garden.  Raked the paths.  Looks much better. 
• Sat on the porch and watched the rain.
• Put down some mulch in the Star Garden.  I'm trying to cover the paths with mulch hoping they will look better.  We'll see.
• I put on my tall rubber boots and waded into a particularly crowded part of the Long Border to thin out the Tick Seed. I don't like going into places like that without my long boots for two reasons:  fire ants and snakes. 
• I tied string from the morning glories in the Rose Garden arbor up to the roof of the arbor so they will have something to climb up.
• Watered some plants that looked really dry when I arrived on Friday - the hydrangeas and the Vitex.
• I mulched around the Mojito Colocasias in the Boardwalk Garden.  Several of them had fallen over.
• Deadheaded roses in the Rose Garden.
• Pulled up dead sunflowers in the Rose Garden that I was letting go to seed.
• Pulled up Verbena Bonariensis in the Rose Garden that didn't look good anymore.
• Seeded several places with zinnias.  I can't even remember where I seeded.  In fact sometimes I have the feeling that I seed a flower bed and then later I mulch the bed and smother the seeds.  Ah well. 
• Put two bags of grass clippings in the compost pile that my husband brought from Houston.
• Swam in the pool (more like washed myself off) many times throughout the weekend.  Sunday was incredibly pleasant because it was grey and there was no sun.

What's Blooming Now - Bermuda's Kathleen June 24, 2012

This huge rose shrub that dominates the entrance to the Rose Garden is called Bermuda's Kathleen.  It is a "found" rose.  It was discovered in Bermuda, and it's heritage is unknown.  BK has no scent.  But it makes up for this short coming by blooming profusely and having pretty hips that turn orange in the fall and look like little lights all over it.  The flowers start out a deep pink, fade to peach and then to pale orange.  It really gets big, so give it lots of room.

This Bailey Red is getting crowded out by Bermuda Kathleen's agressive size.

Oakleaf Hydrangea June 24, 2012

The oakleaf hydrangeas have already bloomed and put on their show.  The flowers are very long-lasting, though.  They grow in a long cone shape of white florets which open from the bottem and move upwards.  Eventually the flowers turn a dusky pink like the ones in the pictures.  Oakleaf hydrangeas are native to Texas.  They like shaded areas.  They are deciduous.  The leaves are large and interesting-looking.  In a garden it is good to have lots of different leaf sizes and shapes and colors.  It adds interest.

Mojito Colocasia

Mojito Colocasias get about 3 feet tall.  They like shade.  They die back in the winter.  I had one I planted last year that I grew from a bulb, and it came back very well this spring.  That's important because I find they don't always come back well the second year.  I had a gorgeous Nancy's Revenge that grew beautifully the first year, but it never showed back up the second year.  Black Magic did not do well for me either.  But Colocasias (elephant ears) are classic plants for shade gardens, so I keep trying various varieites.  I bought nine more Mojitos and planted them this spring.  The markings on the leaves are really dramatic.  A single leaf in a tall, very narrow vase is very stylish looking as a floral arrangement with no flowers.  Very modern.