Day at the Farm May 6, 2017

 Lots of flowers blooming in the Star Garden.  The flowers in this picture:  Butterfly weed, cannas, Giant Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, poppies, verbena, daisies, roses, and zinnias.

Koy spent the night on Friday, and I drove to the farm by myself on Saturday morning.  Bert and Max went to a golf tournament.  I drove back on Sunday morning to go to Zelda's birthday party.

• Pretty much the only thing I did on Saturday was to load the cadet with mulch and spread it in the Medicine Garden.  I am on a mission to get rid of a particular weed - how can I describe it - it has a tender talk with serrated leaves and it flowers sort of fuzzy-looking fluffs at each leaf nodule.  Yes, I can describe it THAT exactly because it has been the pain in my side for several summers.  Last year I let it get totally out of hand, and I'm paying for it now.  All the mulching I'm doing right now is geared towards trying to stop this weed from growing. 
• I watered the Mayhaw and the Satsuma and the Jujube.  I forgot to turn off the water, luckily I walked down to the Orchard in the evening and saw that the water had created a gully in the soil and  was pouring down the slope along the side of the Orchard.  I felt so guilty for wasting all that water! 
• We are having a about 5 acres of land cleared, about half an acre has been cleared so far.
• It's getting hot.  I adjusted the sprinklers by five minutes on all zones.
• The blue flowers of my anise hyssop are absolutely covered with honeybees.  It's actually quite astounding how many bees are on those flowers.  I watched the show for a long time.
• I picked lots of blackberries - a large bowl-full.  I made jelly, six jars.  I'm not actually a fan of jelly, but I give it away to family.
• Sunday, I didn't have a lot of time but I managed to get a lot done.
• I pulled lots of weeds.  Everywhere I walked I pulled weeds.
• I watered in the Rose Garden.  The way I water in the Rose Garden is to put the sprinkler in each of the rose beds on the setting that creates a short (about two feet tall) little waterspout shape.  It's perfect for soaking a four x four space.  I set it on a 15 minute timer.  Then I move it to the next bed.  It's a high maintenance activity, but it gets the soil thoroughly wet. 
• I watered all the pots in the Star Garden and around the pool.  So far the mulch I put on top of the soil in the pots around the pool has kept them looking pretty good in between weekend waterings, but that won't last much longer with the heat creeping up on us.
• I picked more blackberries and some green beans and a few patty pan squash to bring home.
• I walked around all the beds with Tickseed and Ox Eye daisies and pushed / tucked all the flowers leaning into paths back into the beds.  I want them to reseed in the beds, not the paths.  It doesn't look pretty, but it's not permanent.    
• I pulled up spent poppies in the Star Garden and the Vegetable Garden and sowed zinnia seeds.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Star Garden paths and in the Orchard paths.  I hit a bunch of Mexicali Rose with herbicide as I walked down the Boardwalk.  It wants to get totally out of hand, but herbicide is very effective on it considering it's such a tall plant.
• Headed back to Houston about 11.  

Weekend at the Farm April 29 - 30, 2017

This is Perl d'Or rose.
My family reunion was this on Saturday in Madisonville.  Mom was very under the weather and could not make it, but overall we had a good turn out.  From my gang, Josh and family and Blake and family attended, but no Max.

• Sunday started out cold and rainy, but ended absolutely spectacularly - cool and sunny.
• I have been meaning to write in my notes that last weekend and the weekend before that, I saw lots of Snout Butterflies.  They look like they sound, they have a long beak-like snout.  Their wings have a a unique shape, they are orange and black - very distinct-looking butterflies, I don't think I have ever seen them here.
• I worked in the Long Border all morning, the mulch pile is nearby so I wheeled the wheel barrow over there to load it, I didn't bother with the cub cadet.  I weeded and mulched.  I pulled up or broke off at the base all the Four O'Clocks near the arbor and put down lots of mulch.  Four O'Clocks are the kind of plant that you don't care if it lives or dies, so rather than carefully mulch around every plant, I just dumped the mulch right on top and stamped it down.  And I mulched here and there wherever it was getting weedy.
• Bert and I drove in the cadet down to Jeff and Amy's to see the progress on their house.  Amy walked me through her meadows that she has been working on that surround the house.  Really lovely and very inspiring.  I am hoping to convert back to its original state the area that Bert is about to have bull dozed.  We'll see.  I don't want it to turn into a war of wills between Bert and I - him wanting to mow and me wanting to naturalize.
• I spent some time in the Orchard weeding.  It's holding up pretty well with the mulch that I've laid down, not a lot of weeds, but a truckload of mulch would help.  The anise hyssop is really looking lovely down there.  Some of the day lilies that I planted a couple weeks ago are sending up scapes.  I cut away Mexican Hat and Moss Verbena that were crowding my roses.
• I spent some time in the Vegetable Garden as well.  I had one wheel barrow of mulch, and I spread it in one of my new asparagus beds.  Weeded her and there, thinned my zinnias. 
• I cut back my Heritage rose by about half.  
• It rained hard Saturday night, so I didn't have to mess with watering except for the pots around the pool. 
• The Infinity Garden is in dire need of mulch.  That's where I'll work next weekend.
• I picked blackberries on Saturday and Sunday.  I have a gallon bag of them which I will bring home and make a cobbler. 

Squash in a Pot

 

This a patty pan squash plant.  I grow squash for the squash blossoms, I don't eat squash casserole much, although it was a staple at family gatherings when I was young.

Mock Orange April 30, 2017

I thought Mock Orange was supposed to smell like orange blossoms.  No.  At least, not mine, so that was a huge disappointment.   There is no better smell than citrus blossoms.  But it is a very pretty little tree.

Yellow Flowers

Cleome April 30, 2017

 Spider flower is a heavy re-seeder, no need to buy the seeds more than one time.  All my plants came back from seed.  This plant gets tall, about four feet tall, and depending on where it's planted it might need to be staked.  Best at the back of the border.  Since all my flowerbeds are small I have beds with nothing by Cleome growing.  I plan to spread the seed more widely as soon as these plants go to seed, and next year I will have plants growing throughout the Star and Rose Gardens. 

Giant Rudbeckia April 20, 2017

This is one of my favorite plants.  It's common name is Dumbo Ears. When it is blooming it grows to about six feet tall, it is the tallest flower in the garden.  The foliage is evergreen and a memorable blue-green color.  It is a prolific re-seeder, so cut it back before the seed heads dry out if you don't want volunteers all over the garden.  I have it growing throughout the Star Garden, but my favorite place it's growing is in the flowerbed along the outside of the Vegetable Garden.  It looks great there growing alongside Mexican Torch Sunflower.