Ehrlicheer Daffodils February 14 - 15, 2015

The Ehrlicheer Paperwhites are beginning to bloom.  I look forward to this every year.  Happy days.

Days at the Farm February 6 - 10, 2015

Pretty weekend.  Saturday Josh and Danny Frost came up to Burton to help build the dance floor for the wedding.  We met at Home Depot, purchased the supplies, and they built the dance floor.  Sunday I drove home to spend the day with Blake and Sammy.

• Friday I didn't do much in the morning - too cold.  
• Friday mid-morning I weeded the La Marne flowerbed.
• Seeded an area of the La Marne flowerbed with Roe Campion seeds.  I hope they succeed.  I have wanted to grow it for several years.  I tried a couple of years ago with no luck, the plants never prospered.  I am putting them out earlier this time, it seems the seeds like a little cold in order to germinate. 
• I also cut back the dead debris of the cannas.
• Friday early afternoon I finished cleaning out the Shade Garden.   I cut away the dead debris of the Southern Wood Fern, gingers, and Snakeroot.  I raked the paths again.  And I repaired a huge hole that an armadillo had dug next to a path.  The stone edging had collapsed into the hole and a bunch of ferns had been uprooted.  The little bastard.
• The Vegetable Garden looks good.  It could use one more raking before spring.  The peas have sprung up in the two buckets that I planted them in.  The beets have sprouted.  I need to thin them.  The carrots have sprouted as well.  The large beds have been fertilized and turned over, and they are waiting for my next shipment of seeds.  The celery is going strong, the onions and garlic are growing - it all looks good.
• Saturday morning we went into town, ate breakfast at Manuel's, went grocery shopping, and met Josh and Danny at Home Depot in Brenham.  Purchased the dance floor lumber and returned home.  We gave Danny "the tour" and they began to build the dance floor.  I drove back into town, went to Walgreens to buy Danny a hearing aid battery and some barbeque for lunch.  I wasn't sure what hearing aid batteries to buy, so I called Danny.  He couldn't understand me, so I had to shout over the phone, people were staring at me which was kind of funny - if ever there was a reasonable time to shout on the phone around a bunch of people, this was the time.  By the time I returned the dance floor was completed.  We fiddled around for a while and they left, to return in two weeks.
• While we were at Home Depot  I bought a couple bags of mulch for around the pool . Not nearly enough for that barren landscape, but its a start.  Bought some potting soil, a wooden pot and a flat of 10 Southern Wood Fern.  I shared an idea with my husband about the area around the pool.  I think we should put some decking around the pool, just enough to cover the flowerbeds (about 4 feet wide) I made years ago.  We can put some potted flower arrangements on the decking.  We had to haul in clay in order to stabilize the pool.  Nothing will ever grow well there.  Why fight it?  And unless we get a sprinkler system in there, plants will never flourish.  He really liked the idea, so I see that as already built!
• Filled the pot I purchased at Home Depot with soil and seeded it with Rose Campion and Purple Loosestrife.
• Spent time in the Orchard cleaning up and weeding.
• Seeded several spots in the Star Garden with some of my remaining Swiss Chard seeds.
• Weeded the Star Garden.
• Watered various plants that I have transplanted over the last several weeks.  The rain last week helped greatly keeping them healthy.
• Sunday I planted the remaining Swiss Chard seed in the Star Garden.  I left the seed packet on the ground and the sprinklers got it wet, so I had to do something with the seeds right then. 
• Went to Blake's house for the day on Sunday.  We had lunch, shopped at Baby Gap, and sat outside for a while.  Very pretty day, especially considering we are in the middle of winter.  Returned to Burton after our visit.
•  Now that all my spring-flowering bulbs have sprouted I spend time being amused at everything I have forgotten.  They spring up in all sorts of places, and I don't  remember planting them there because I planted them a year ago.   That is a lot of fun.  The daffodil surprises I have had this year have been great fun.  And I already mentioned in a previous blog how the Spanish Bleubells in the Shade Garden surprised me.
• Monday morning I planted the 10 Southern Wood Fern - four in the Star Garden in one of the shady beds I just built with the wine bottle edging and six in the Shade Garden.
• I also cut back all my Turks Cap along the Boardwalk.  I hate that job.  But it's done now.  I also picked up a lot of the dead ginger vegetation.  
• While I was doing that chore I noticed there is a really weedy spot along the Boardwalk that I need to clean up and mulch.  I'll try to get to that before I leave.
• Dug up my Easy Ned Daylilies by the pool in preparation for Bert building the decking.  I planted all but two clumps in the flowerbed by the master bedroom.  I planted the other two clumps in the bed alongside the path to the Boardwalk.
• Dug up two clumps of Cigar Plant from around the pool and planted it in the Star Garden.  Hopefully it isn't too shady in the spot where I planted it.  I'm all out of room.  I want to get some of that orange lantana and yellow lantana, but I really don't know where I would put it - lantana requires full sun.  I guess I'll see if my neighbor wants it.
• Dug up Elderberry plants that were growing in the paths and planted them in a new bed that my husband made for me out of cedar logs.  The bed is in the Medicine Garden.  I am making a little "orchard" of Elderberry plants so I can have enough berries to make wine.  It's all in fun.  Elderberries are tiny.  I don't know how anyone collects enough to make wine!  
• Tuesday morning I pruned back my double red Althea, my two blue Chaste Trees and my pink Chaste Tree.
• I spent most of the morning painting the boards that line the beds in the Rose Garden.  They look pretty crappy, and I would really like to replace them with stone, but I think that is a next year thing.  The green paint is a slight improvement.  I have always liked painting outside.  It is very relaxing, and you don't have to be careful - you can slop it everywhere and it will just wash away with a little rain.
• Bert went into town and bought the lumber to extend the decking around the pool.  I spent the rest of the morning shifting soil in those flowerbeds over to a new bed that he built me this morning.  Some of the soil and all of the plants have to be moved in order to make a nice level deck.  I think back on all the work I did around the pool many years ago hauling that dirt over there.  And now I am hauling it away and building decking over the rest of it.  Two steps forward one step back. 
• I thought about Janine this morning and how I could have given her so many plants - Striped Beauty Cannas, lorapetalum, lantana, Cigar Plant, miscanthus.  But she is not at DCP anymore.
• I planted most of the Striped Beauties in the bed by the master bedroom.  I will probably end up regretting that because, although a dwarf variety, they are tall and I won't be able to see outside when I'm laying in bed.  I planted three small ones in one of the beds in the Star Garden.
• I dug up orange lantana and put it in a bucket of water along with some more Cigar Plant.  I don't know where I'll put it, but I don't want to get rid of it.
• Put two bags of mulch around my Copper Canyon Daisies and Chaste Tree.
• It's a warm day so I sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden, the Star Garden, and the driveway.
• Watered the Star Garden and spread some Catmint in various places.
• Raked out the herb beds in the Medicine Garden, turned the soil, and planted some Catmint in various places.
• Spread Catmint seed in the wine bottle bed.
• Helped Bert off and on with the deck he's building.
• Bert helped me move a big pot from behind the Greenhouse into the Star Garden.  I filled it with soil and spread some more Catmint and some beet seed.
• Tuesday evening:  exhausted!!!

Weekend at the Farm January 30 - February 1, 2015

 I seeded this pot of soil with Mesclun.  All my clay pots are pretty worn, but they still work.

Big round of layoffs at work today, but I made it through.  Drove to the farm Friday afternoon.  Home on Sunday for a Superbowl party at my folks.

•  Worked on my wine bottle flowerbed edging Friday afternoon.  I'm just doing one side of the flowerbed - it's hard to get those labels off the bottles!  I have had the wine bottles soaking in a tub of water since last weekend, but it's still some work getting the paper off and all the glue rubbed off.
• Saturday morning I shredded leaves behind the shed and next to the arbor.  I was able to add a truckload and several bags of shredded leaves to my leaf pile and to the compost pile.
• Raked in the Shade Garden.  Added some of the leaves to the flowerbeds and piled up the rest.
• Got most of the ginger and snakeroot dead vegetation cleaned out of the Shade Garden.
• I noticed lots of Excelsior Spanish Bluebells coming up in the Shade Garden.  I had forgotten I planted them.  Once I saw them I remembered that the plan last year was to begin creating a mass of bluebells at the edge of the Shade Garden along the driveway.  You will see them as you drive to the house.  It is something that will take some years, but it will be quite pretty.
• Turned the soil and planted two more more rows of Early Wonder beets and two rows of Red Magic Hybrid Swiss.
• Filled a pot with soil, set it on the metal frame of an old vanity chair in the Star Garden, and seeded it with Mesclun.
• Finished my project in Max's Garden.  I'm very excited about it.  I used the soil I dug up to finish filling the flowerbed with the wine bottle edging.  I have lots of new beds now to fill with plants.  These beds are all located in the shade.  Although I prefer sunny gardening to shady gardening, it will be fun choosing plants for these beds.
• Sunday morning I watered the Rose Garden.  It was supposed to rain - rain was everywhere but did not get us.  I also watered the Medicine Garden.
• Cleaned the shower, sinks and toilets - the ususal suspects.  
• Headed home to get ready for the Superbowl.

My New Bed with Wine Bottle Edging January 31, 2015

 Just trying to think of something useful to do with all the empty wine bottles we go through...

Project Completed in the Max's Garden January 31, 2015

 Years ago I made a massive flowerbed in the side yard.  But I never liked it - creepy walking through it and hard to weed it, and hard to appreciate it because you couldn't walk in it.  So for the last month or so I have been creating paths with cedar logs, digging out the soil in the paths, and filling new beds with that soil.  I have transplanted some Pink Muhly Grass and a Copper Canyon Daisy that were in the way, but for the most part, I didn't have to move anything.  In the above photo there is an Anacachoe Orchid tree that I will be able to get to easier and baby it a little bit this spring and summer.  These beds are located in a mostly shady area of the yard.

 In the above and below photos, the three flowerbeds were all one bed.

The two beds at the top of the photo above are new beds that I just built using some of the dirt from the paths I created.  One of the things I'm going to plant are Nicotiana seeds.  I ordered a large packet of seeds a few weeks ago.  Nicotiana flowers are very fragrant.

First Daffodils of Spring January 31, 2015

I don't know the name of this daffodil.  It was mixed in with some Erhlicheers that I bought several years ago.   

Weekend at the Farm January 16, 2015

 This is a metal sign / yard art Josh gave me for Christmas.  He knows me well...

Arrived Thursday evening, limping from a fall off of a ladder and a bandage across my nose from having a basal cell carcinoma cut away from my nose - stitches from the top of my nose to the bottom.  I don't look too good!

• Friday I cleared out the remaining part of the garden that I am splitting up into multiple flowerbeds.  
• Went to the Antique Rose Emporium on Friday.  Yahoo, they were having a sale - half price perennials and $12 roses.  I bought 5 Country Girl mums.  I saw them blooming in the fall last year when I was there, and I was entranced.  Pale purple daisy-like flowers blooming when most things are not.  I loved them, and if they reseed like my Ox Eye Daisies (which they remind me of), they are plants that can really transform my fall garden for the better.  I also bought 3 Indian Pinks.  They are shade lovers that bloom red and yellow flowers.  I bought one Gardenview Scarlett Monarda.  Finally, I bought a Climbing Pinkie rose and a Zepherine Drouhin rose, they are both climbers.
• Jess and Nathan had Oliver's birthday party here on Saturday.  The weather was really pretty - cool and sunny.  About 25 guests.
• Sunday morning I planted my three Spigelia Marilandicas (Indian Pinks) in one of the shady beds I made a couple of weeks ago.
• I planted three of the Country Girl mums in the Star Garden next to my Gruss an Achaan rose, and I planted the other two in the flower bed with the Morning Glory tree.  I had to dig up a bunch of Picasso dwarf cannas.  I put them in pots and will check with my neighbor and my co-worker to see if they want them.
• I planted the  Gardenview Scarlett Monarda in the Morning Glory tree.  That flowerbed has been kind of uninteresting. Hopefully these two plant additions will help.
• I planted the Climbing Pinkie next to one of the metal conveyor belts that my husband set upright in cement in the Star Garden.  I will train it up that support.  Climbing Pinkie is a Polyantha rose, which is a cluster-flowered rose.  It was introduced in 1952.  This rose is supposed to be a prolific bloomer.
• And finally I amended the horrible, rocky soil at the edge of the Rose Garden closest to the front driveway and I planted the Zepherine Drouhin.  This climbing Bourbon rose was introduced in 1868, the flowers are cerise. The Bourbon rose class has the wonderful smell that you associate with the "true" rose smell.  My husband is going to set up a tri-pod around it so I can train this pretty rose upwards.  I would have preferred that he set up the tri-pod first for fear he will trample all over the rose, but he isn't ready to do it.  He spend his time putting in extra shelves in the laundry room and cleaning the oven - both good chores!
• Filled two big black buckets with potting soil, mixed in some greensand and organic fertilizer, set up climbing structures in them, and planted Burpeeana Early peas in the Vegetable Garden.  
• Sowed two rows of Early Wonder beets in the Vegetable Garden.
• Dug up a clump of gingers and moved them to a new bed.  The Hoja Santa will take it over this summer, so I was proactive for a change, and I moved it before it started suffering.
• Fertilized my newest Banana Shrubs and my Brussels Sprouts.