Weekend at the Farm October 4 - 5, 2014

Friday after work I went to the annual bulb sale put on by the Houston Garden Club.  Sandy Bramanti's wedding on Saturday evening.  Drove to the farm after the reception.

• Fertilized my Snowstorm Beautyberry.  I thought one of them had died due to lack of water, but it sprang back when the weather got cooler.  It must have dropped all its leaves as a defense mechanism.  
• Fertilized my Banana Shrub.  Still have never gotten a flower (which smell like ripe bananas), but I think next year is the year.
• I planted 2 Ellen Bosanquet Crinum bulbs (they are massive bulbs) in the beds in the Star Garden that lead to the Rose Garden.  I planted one in the bed with the Snowstorm Beautyberries and one in the bed with the half-dead Sweet Olive.  Both of them are in partial shade, I think the flowers are prettier when they are protected from the afternoon sun.
• Cut back all the dried seed heads of Gulf Coast Penstemon.  They were surrounding my Banana Shrub (they are very tall).  I shook out all the seed in the bed along the side of the Rose Garden where all my double daffodils are planted and my Black Eyed Susan seedlings are growing.  
• Cut away salvia growing in the path next to my Chaste Trees.
• Mulched the Banana Shrub, the Sweet Olive, in the bed where the Hydrangea is growing that Ashley gave me, both Crinums I just planted, and the Crinum bed in the Rose Garden.
• Edged the bed where the Crinums are growing in the Rose Garden with rock that I hauled back from the woods a couple weeks ago.  Trying to head off weeds - that bed can get weedy.  One thing about the change in weather - the summer weeds die back, and the winter weeds start making an appearance.  
• Pulled up the birdhouse Gourd Vine in the Vegetable Garden.  I waited one week too long to pick those gourds.  They were fine last weekend - big and perfect for picking and drying.  This week they are gone.  I found one in the Infinity Garden, almost completely eaten, not even any seeds were left so I could plant them again next year.  Haven't found the others. Whatever is eating them (I assume a racoon) usually leaves a half-eaten mess somewhere.  
• Sprinkled generous amounts of chitin in the bed where the vine was growing and turned over the soil.  Buried lots of marigold greenery throughout.
• Planted 2 White Butterfly Ginger (smells just like honeysuckle - wonderful) along the Boardwalk on opposite sides of the walk.  One side gets a bit more sun, but it isn't full sun.

Weekend at the Farm September 27 - 28, 2014

  

My husband put up a small bat house that he built with Beckett when he came for a visit this summer.  The house faces south / southeast, it is about 12 feet up in the air, and it was mounted on a pole rather than on a tree.   That is bat heaven based on what we have read.   

Has fall weather begun or will we have more hot weather?  It's nice today, so I will enjoy  it without looking forward.

• I stopped at The Arbor Gate on my way to Burton and found some Blackberry Lily.  It's a great find!  I bought 2 containers of it.  I planted them in a large plastic bucket that once held fertilizer.  I got three of them from Albert Meyers, my husband's business partner.  He has a bunch of them.  I placed the container on a spot in the Star Garden that never seems to grow anything.  No matter what I plant in that area, nothing grows. Voles seem to think lilies are delicious, so I wanted to plant them in a container in order to protect them.
• I spent all morning on Saturday clearing the paths.  Lots of salvia, zinnias, cannas, Almond Verbena, hyacinth bean vine, and flame anisacanthus had grown into the paths - my husband's pet peeve.  Hauled away a bunch of debris.
• We went for a ride on Friday night, and the cub cadet tire went flat.  We barely got home without having to walk, and I was in flip flops, it was dark outside, we had no flash light, and I would not have liked that.  My husband drove to town and bought a tire on Saturday morning.
• Dug up  a Beautyberry plant that sprang up next to the Boardwalk and transferred it to a bed near the house (they grow wild all over our property).  It's a good spot for this plant because it is located on the edge of shade and sun.  I was looking for an upright-growing shrub that I could plant in that spot while I was at The Arbor Gate on Friday, and it hit me that I should plant something that I already had.  I have so many plants, and the majority of them can be split and replanted.  Things are pretty self-sustaining  around here - I could expand my gardens indefinitely and never have to buy anything ever again.  But, I would never have anything new if I did that exclusively - what's the fun in that?
• Mulched the rain lilies by the Vegetable Garden and around the Dwarf Flowering Almonds.
• Now that the Hurricane Lilies have quit blooming, I uprooted several clumps and pulled about 30 bulbs out of the clumps.  Planted them in the Circle Drive beds around the cedar trees.  In two or three years autumn will bring forth quite a sight in the Circle Drive area.
• Planted the Excelsior Spanish Bluebells that I collected after the heavy rains washed them to the surface last weekend.  I planted them along the driveway at the edge of the Shade Garden.
• The Rose Garden looks really good.  Lots of buds are forming for the fall flush.  Fall is such a beautiful time of year.
• The Vegetable Garden looks really good too.  Something is eating my Edamame seedlings, unfortunately.  Not sure what, I assume it is not rabbits because the Vegetable Garden is enclosed.  On the other hand, a lot of the rabbit wire has pulled away from the fencing, and they could be getting in through the openings.  The rabbits are definitely the culprits that are eating the green beans in the Orchard.  I guess I will put some chicken wire enclosures around them until they get a little bigger.  Rabbits don't seem to want to bother the mature plants, probably not as tasty.
• Spent a lot of time in the Orchard on Sunday morning.  I pruned all the Blackberry vines away from the pathways and hauled them to the burn pile.  Pulled up overgrown zinnias, weeded everywhere.  Spread three bags of grass clippings in several places to keep down the weeds.
• Covered some green bean seedlings in the Orchard with chicken wire to try and keep the rabbits away.
• Raked pine needles and mulched some of the roses in the Rose Garden.  
• Spread the fourth bag of grass clippings around the Soncy rose at the entrance to the Rose Garden.
• I'm still trying to eradicate the slimy fungus in the Orchard, so I sprayed herbicide on all the paths again.  And today I turned off the sprinklers, they don't come on down there again until Thursday.  I don't know, maybe water is working against the effectiveness of the herbicide.
• Adjusted all the sprinkler times now that it is getting slightly cooler.
• Bathed Buddy and Sadie.
• Planted 2 Brussels Sprouts in the Vegetable Garden.  I prepared the soil with fertilizer and chitin.  Chitin is crushed crab shell, and it is supposed to deter nematodes.
• Planted 2 Mustard Greens and 2 Collard Greens in various places in the Star Garden, the same as above, with fertilizer and chitin.  I surrounded all four of the plants with chicken wire enclosures to protect the small plants from the rabbits.

Weekend at the Farm September 19 - 21, 2014

Thursday evening at Ciao Bella to celebrate Mom and Dad's  55 anniversary, Nathan's birthday, and Jessica's pregnancy.  Oliver was such a good  baby through the whole thing.  Took Friday as vacation, so drove to Burton that evening.

• Friday, took all the dogs in town to the vet.  $500, and we thought we got off easy!
• Napped for the rest of Friday.
• Saturday we went to Donald's place in Marlin to see his new house.  He had an old farm house moved to his property.  It is very charming.
• When I got home from Marlin I sprayed herbicide in the Orchard.  There is a very creepy fungus spreading on the gravel paths in the Orchard.  It has covered half the paths in the Orchard!   I'm spreading it when I walk on it in addition to it spreading by itself.  Really slimy and gross.  It doesn't seem that herbicide has any effect on it, but I decided to make a deliberate effort to stay after the herbicide-spraying to see if I can eradicate it.  Maybe if I spray ever weekend I will get it all.  I've queried the internet, but I can't find any comments about it.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden.  There is fungus there too, but not very much.  It's actually pretty alarming.  Hopefully herbicide and the onset of winter will get it.  Well, I know winter won't kill it because it was a problem last summer as well.  But if it knocks the wind out of it, that would help the battle.
• My Edamame and green beans have sprouted.  
•  I decided to pull up my thin bladed arugula and plant a wide-leaf variety.  It's easier to harvest.  I made an arugula salad last week, and it was a painstaking task.  
• Sowed wide leaf arugula in part of the spot where I pulled up the other arugula.  I planted Red Sails lettuce seed in the rest of the space.  I cleared an area that had some miscellaneous marigolds and pepper seedlings growing and sowed a packet of Blue Lake 274 green beans that I forgot I bought.  That is the second packet of green bean seeds I planted for a fall crop.  If the first freeze of winter is late, I will have a thousand green beans.  If we have an early winter freeze, I will have none. 
• Gathered about 50 Excelsior Bluebells that had washed to the surface after the heavy rains we had last week.  I will plant them next week.
• I'm so impressed with my Candida rain lilies.  They are blooming their hearts out everywhere I planted them, a solid mass of white flowers.  So pretty.
• I read in one of my vegetable books that you can turn your French marigold plants under the soil like green manure for even better root knot nematode prevention.  The book said this method can work for a year.  What a great idea!  The book also suggested chitin, which is ground up crab membrane and shell, to help get rid of nematodes.  I ordered some on line on Sunday morning.
• Spent some time cutting French marigold greenery and burying it  in various beds:  the long bed where the Scarlet Runner beans are growing, the bed where the Edamame seedlings are growing, I buried some in the bed where the Nasturtiums are growing, and near my tomatoes, and in the bed where the birdhouse gourds are growing.
• Got up on the ladder and cleaned the bar lights and the kitchen lights.  Vacuumed on top of the kitchen cabinets.  Cleaned inside the stereo cabinet.  Cleaned both ovens.  Cleaned the ceiling fan in the living room.  Cleaned the master bath shower.  Pulled the armoir away from the wall in the living room and cleaned behind it.  Cleaned the a.c.vents and changed the air filters.  Cleaned the shelves and walls in the office space.  Cleaned the toilets. 
• Carol came by to say hello.  We returned her bat house instructions.
• Sanitized all the equipment and transferred the mead from the secondary fermentation vessel to the tertiary fermentation vessel. (Which means I used suction tubing to suck it out of the glass bottle back into the plastic bucket for one more fermentation period and separation of the mead and the dead yeast.)

Unopened Rain Lilies September 19, 2014

This morning I snapped pictures of many of my Candida Rain Lilies before the sun signaled them to open up.  I love when they look  like this.

Fall Garden Scenes September 19, 2014

 Above : Lion's Tail, Salvias, Hyacinth Bean Vine, and Morning Glory Tree.

 Above - Lion's Tail, Ehemanii Canna, zinnias, and Mexican Salvia.

Above -  Frog Fruit, Gruss an Achaan rose, a Tabasco pepper plant that sprang up on its own, Pringle Aster, Perennial Ageratum, zinnias, Almond Verbena, red cannas, and Morning Glory Vine.

Pretty Salvias September 19, 2014

The rain has really helped revive my salvias.  With the exception of the pink autumn sage, all of these salvias are reseeding annuals.  Many years ago I sowed a packet of seeds in the Star Garden, and I have had loads of plants every season since then.  Below, Cleopatra cannas reside happily with white and red salvias.

 Above, this is my pink autumn sage.  Next year I'm going to prune it hard s it will get fuller.

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Fall Festival of Flowers September 19, 2014

Most of the flowers below are late summer / fall blooming flowers.  Perennial ageratum is a fall bloomer.

 Below, dwarf Barbados Cherry only blooms in the fall.

 This is one of my favorite cannas, called Dawn Pink.

 Below, Cactus Flower Zinnia.

 Below, Indigo Spires Salvia will bloom all summer, but in the fall the purple color of the flowers is really vivid.

 Below, Fireworks Gomphrena will bloom all summer and into late fall.

 Below, butterfly ginger is a late summer bloomer.  This variety has been spectacular for me.  It spreads really fast.  Because of that I have it growing all over the place.  It can be easily dug up and transplanted.

 Lantana - and old faithful that blooms its heart out all summer and into the fall.  A butterfly magnet, so for me, it is a must-have.  Cut it back after it blooms, before it starts getting woody.

 Graham Thomas rose likes the cooler weather of fall.  The fall flush for this rose is better than the spring flush in my garden.

 Lion's Tail is a fall bloomer.  This is the first time I have grown it, and I think it is really interesting.

 Below, Pringle Aster is a fall bloomer.  I flops over, unfortunately.  Pretty, but clumsy.  I used to have a lot of purple aster in the Star Garden, but it sort of disappeared.  I find it here and there, but nothing like three years ago when it was a solid purple carpet of flowers.

 This is Caldwell Pink, a found rose that I planted last weekend.