Pink Autumn Sage November 12, 2016

This is Autumn Sage's time to really shine.  It blooms its heart out in late OCtober / November.

Butter Pat Chrysanthemum November 13, 2016

I bought two of these plants at the Round Top Herb Fair last March.  I'm always on the lookout for fall blooming plants.  These are putting on a good show this year.  They spread by underground stolons (and I think by seeds as well), so I will be able to separate them soon and have more stands of them throughout my gardens.  Butter Pat is an old-fashioned favorite, like Country Girl mum.  The flowers must be delicious because there were insects all over them this weekend!

Perle d' Or Rose November 13, 2016

I brought this rose back from the brink of death, it had one sad little cane that was mostly brown.  So I am particularly proud of it.  It is a Polyantha rose with peach flowers.  The color is unique and therefore a good one to have in your garden.  It stands out amongst the red and pink roses.  The tiny little buds are perfectly formed and so pretty.

Perle d' Or Rose November 13, 2016

I brought this rose back from the brink of death, it had one sad little cane that was mostly brown.  So I am particularly proud of it.  It is a Polyantha rose with peach flowers.  The color is unique and therefore a good one to have in your garden.  It stands out amongst the red and pink roses.  The tiny little buds are perfectly formed and so pretty.

Copper Canyon Daisy November 13, 2016

Copper Canyon Daisy is a late fall bloomer.  The foliage has a very strong scent that I find pleasant, but deer do not.  It is big, sprawling plant with an unruly shape that is drought tolerant, so put it somewhere out of the way in the sun.  It'll do fine.

Sunday at the Farm November 6, 2016

 The first camellia of the season - Debutante.

I babysat for sweet Koy on Saturday night.  Drove up to the farm on Sunday morning.  Bert was hunting and arrived about 1:00. 

• Our neighbor, Jeff, called me on Saturday because he was extracting his honey.  He invited me to bring my comb to his place and extract my honey since he had all his equipment set up.  I wasn't able to do that because I was in Houston, but when I arrived on Sunday I checked on my hive.  I have honey, but I didn't feel I had enough to go through all the work.  A lot of comb was not filled at all.
• I got my bulbs in the mail that I ordered from Old House - 25 Trevithian daffodils.  I don't ordinarily order from them because they are extremely expensive.  But apparently some bulbs I ordered from them in the past were discovered to be incorrectly labelled so they were offering refunds.  So I ordered the Trevithians. I planted them in the Daffodil Border along with about 15 or so other daffodil bulbs I had stuck in a basket after they had been unearthed by the armadillos.
• I thought I had some Sevin dust to sprinkle over my cabbages and collards in the Vegetable Garden, but alas no.  So I picked all the caterpillars off my plants and squashed them.  Three of them are okay, but one cabbage has been chewed into lace.  It'll be okay, but I can't be here every day to pick the worms off my plants.
• I weeded and mulched two beds down in the Orchard.
• I pulled up a bunch of spent ageratum in the Star Garden and seeded it with wildflower seeds.  I threw the ageratum into one of the beds in the Circle Drive so I can get that area going with ageratum.  It does fine in shade. 
• I spread some dill seed in the Star Garden, and I spread some fennel seed in the Vegetable Garden.  
• I fertilized my sweet peas and all my new vegetable plants in the Vegetable Garden and in the Star Garden. 

Weekend at the Farm October 28 - 30, 2016

Arrived Thursday evening for a long weekend. Went to JW's for dinner.  Invited the family to come on Sunday.  Mom, Dad, Blake and Sam, and Amy, Josh, and Koy were able to make it.  I'm so glad I got a chance to show them the butterflies!

• Friday morning I pulled up about 4 feet of purple trailing lantana.  It spreads pretty aggressively and had taken over a lot of valuable real estate.  I spread my wildflower seeds in its place and mulched along the edge of the path.
• I pulled up all the faded Ageratum next to my Gruss an Achaan rose, mulched and spread wildflower seed in an area I left un-mulched.
• Next I went to my Rose Edge garden and raked away the leaves so that I left two wide rows.  Last year I filled the entire area with fallen leaves in order to suppress the weeds.  It has remained like that since last winter and remained pretty weed-free.  I seeded it with wildflower seeds.  I will plant some daffodil bulbs in there as well (I ordered 500 bulbs this year that have not yet arrived.), and there are daffodils already planted there. 
• Saturday morning I mulched.  I loaded the cub cadet several times with mulch and spread mulch in the Circle gardens.  All the Philippine Lily seed heads are dried and open, so I spread Philippine Lily seeds across all the mulch and scratched them in. Still lots of seed left to spread!
• I also spent some time in the Vegetable Garden mulching.
• Tied up some canes of my Peggy Martin rose onto the gate I have it trained on.