Day at the Farm

Here are more pictures of my cheery morning glories.  So pretty!

I went up for the day to do a little work before the Thanksgiving holiday.

• I cut back severely the Four O'Clocks in the bed by the dining room.  They were really encroaching on the Marie Pave roses growing there.  I also spread some mulch to smother the tiny little weeds that are trying to pop up. 
• Cleaned up and spread some mulch in a bed in the shady part of the Star Garden that was a little weedy.
• Trimmed the Almond Verbena so that no little branches brush up against you when you pass by.  I walked around the Star Garden and cut away anything that was brushing against me as I walked past - the red cannas, salvia, Vitex.
• I cut away all the flower stalks of the Philippine Lilies in the Circle and throughout the gardens.  Those things can make the place look really unruly.
• I raked away the leaves in the Shade Garden that were covering all the lily seeds I spread over the last several weeks.  Bert blew the leaves off the driveway right on top of where I'm trying to grow lilies.  Sometimes we are at cross purposes!
• I cut down all my gingers in the ginger bed so that my daffodils just popping up won't be over-shadowed.  I've read conflicting information about cutting back gingers before the greenery dies off on its own.  Since they won't bloom again on the same stalk one account indicates you can cut it down.  Another account says the greenery should be left in tact to provide energy to the bulb (it's not technically a bulb, but whatever).  I don't know what the right way is, but I cut them all down , so it's done.
• I planted 3 Delphiniums in the Rose Garden in the bed with the Duchess de Brabant.  I've never grown delphiniums.  I bought plants rather than try to grow them from seed.  If they do well I will try seed next time.
• I planted two blue barleria cristata (Philippine Violets) in the Greenhouse Garden.  There was a bed that really needed something in there.
• I planted six blue Columbines in the Greenhouse Gardens.  I just love Columbine.
• I added some compost to two beds in the Vegetable Garden and planted some 1015 onions.  And I filled a pot with soil and planted four onions.  I set the pot out in the Star Garden.
• Spread some double peony style poppy seeds in the Rose Garden.
• Watered here and there.
• Walked around a lot in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden.  Cleaned up here and there, pulled weeds.  Pulled up the last of the zinnia plants in the Rose Garden, threw the flower heads in various beds for next year's flowers.  I pulled ripe seed heads off my Fireworks Gomphrena and threw them in various beds for next year's flowers.  Pulled up Tickseed seedlings in places where I think they will crowd other plants, particularly my iris.  It's astounding how many seedlings of Coreopsis I have in the Rose Garden.  I could pull up hundreds and they wouldn't be missed. 
• Cleaned the oven.
• Bathed poor Buddy.
• Sprayed pesticide around the house.

Day at the Farm November 9, 2017

Yellow bugs with three rows of black spots across their backs (they look a little like lady bugs) are wreaking havoc on the petals of my Butter Pat chrysanthemums and my roses. I don't know what they are, but they are really making me mad!  I've seen them before, but I don't recall them making such a mess of my flowers before. 

This weekend Nan, Lisa and I camped at the Renaissance Festival, arrived Friday early evening and left on Sunday morning.  We had a good time - an interesting experience.  Sunday I drove straight to the farm and joined Bert, drove in to work on Monday morning.

• Cut away spent branches off my Mexican leucantha.
• Noted that some of my daffodils in the ginger bed in the Star Garden are all the way up.  I will cut back the gingers next time I'm there.  Those daffodils never bloom which is strange, I can't imagine that I would plant daffs that are not good for my region.  I don't remember what they are, maybe Chines Sacred Lilies?  Anyway, this year I'm going to cut the gingers down to the ground to see if the daffodils will bloom without the gingers looming over their heads. 
• Checked on my seedling beds to make sure they are getting enough water. 
• Cut away some Philippine Lily stalks, need to get the rest of them next time I'm there.  The seeds that I've been spreading everywhere are starting to sprout.  That's good. 
• Bert used the blower and blew the paths in the Shade Garden and the Star Garden.  Leaves are falling everywhere.

Debutante Camellia November 12, 2017

My Debutante Camellia is just beginning to bloom.  This was one of the very first shrubs I planted when we built the house, so I have a warm spot in my heart for this ole gal.  I don't want to think how many shrubs I have lost through the years, but I have managed to keep this prize alive.  It has very pretty peony-style flowers. Camellias are notoriously slow-growing shrubs as can be seen by how small this shrub is after 10 years of growth!  I love camellias, though - winter bloomers that like shade - they give me color in the season when little else is blooming,

Yuletide Camellia November 12, 2017

This is very best year of bloom that my Yuletide Camellia has ever had.  It looks really pretty.  Interestingly, it's the same year that the other one died.  I had two - one on either side of the faux door to the greenhouse.  Last summer one of them up and died.  I was so surprised since they were both pretty mature.  I guess it was a water issue.  Anyway, this one looks really beautiful.

Weekend at the Farm November 4 - 5, 2017

Above, this is La Marne rose.  She is pretty in the spring, but she really is spectacular in the fall.

Sam and Charlie's first and third birthday party on Saturday, to the farm on Saturday afternoon.  Bert was hunting with William and joined me on Sunday.

• I did nothing but stroll around on Saturday.  Made mental notes of what I wanted to do on Sunday.
• Ray and Debra came by on Sunday morning.  Deb brought me some native milkweed seeds.
• I pulled up most of the ageratum in the Star Garden that I didn't get to last weekend.  It's dropping its wispy seed everywhere.  I also gave the plants a hard shake over the natural area where the Mexican Sunflowers are blooming right now.  Maybe I'll get some fall color in that area next year - orange and purple are complimentary colors.   Seeded the bare area in the Star Garden with Standing Cypress and Coreopsis.
•  My seedlings are popping up in the Rose Garden (Standing Cypress, Coreopsis, Moss Verbena).  It's a thrill to see it every time.
• I spread seed in lots of places in the Star Garden, the Orchard, and the Rose Garden.
• Watered here and there in the Rose Garden.
• Sprayed paths in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden with herbicide.  Almost out of herbicide, need to get more.
• I sowed several packages of Larkspur (Galilee Blend) in the bed with Carefree Beauty and some poppy seeds as well.  Spread more coreopsis and poppy seed in the bed where B R Cant used to be.
•  The butterflies are amazing.  I had never grown a plant that attracts butterflies more than zinnias - until I began growing Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia).  I saw all at once on a cluster of three Tithonia plants two Monarchs, several of the iridescent blue swallowtails, a Painted Lady, a Giant Swallowtail, several Longtails, a Gulf Fritillary, and a Sulphur.  What a show, and it went on all day long.  If you love butterflies I highly recommend Tithonia (also an excellent reseeder).
• I spent a lot of time in the Rose Garden.  It's so beautiful in there right now.  I raked throughout and did some weeding (although there are not many weeds in the Rose Garden right now.  Pulled up spent zinnias - the big plant that was throwing off so many dark rose-pink flowers is offically gone, I loved her while she was there.  I threw the flower heads in various beds throughout the Rose Garden.  My Butter Pat Chrysanthemums are beginning to bloom.  Their cheerful yellow flowers are a happy thing to look at.  I deadheaded the roses.
• I found some poppy seeds in my seed box and threw those in the bed by the front gate.  I forgot I collected the seed last year.
• Planted 6 or so daffodil bulbs that had worked their way to the surface last summer - planted them in the Rose Garden where Iceberg used to be be planted.  I don't remember what they are, so I'll have to wait for them to bloom.  Planted six or so Ehrlicheer bulbs in the Shade Garden in the bed with the night blooming jasmine.  They also had worked their way to the surface - with the help of the armadillos.
• Mulched around the Belinda's Dream roses in the Rose Garden.
• My Heavenly Blue Morning Glories are in full bloom, so pretty.  And I have a Hyacinth Bean vine growing on the arbor at the entrance to the Orchard, also very pretty.  
• Bert finished the new arbor at the entrance to the Rose Garden.  It looks really good!
• I had a wonderful weekend.  Headed to Houston Monday morning.

Heavenly Blue Morning Glories November 6, 2017

One of my favorite vines.  So easy to grow from seed, and so pretty.  These vines are growing on an arbor leading into the Star Garden, right at the front of the house.  One of the truest blues in nature, and there are so few true blues that occur in nature, so that makes them really special.  I will enjoy them until the first frost, then the vine will die, but I will be left with lots of seeds for next year.

Weekend at the Farm October 19 - 21, 2017

Arrived Thursday afternoon with Bert and stayed through Sunday.  Weather very nice.

• Thursday I just spent the afternoon walking around and enjoying the day.
• Friday I spent time in the Rose Garden watering and fertilizing and weeding.  The California Poppies that I seeded last week are just beginning to germinate.  I can see the tiny little white sprouts emerging from the seed that is on the surface of the soil.  My plan:  Before I leave for the weekend I will pull up all the Turnera.  It is done for the season and has thrown off its seed.
• I did a lot of weeding in the Star Garden, and I pulled up lots of leggy zinnias.  The ageratum is mostly finished and gone to seed, and it's time to pull it up as well.  Maybe Sunday.  I cut away plants leaning into paths - the Four O'Clocks always require cutting. 
•  The Heavenly Blue morning glories are just beginning to bloom on the arbor at the front entrance to the Star Garden.  So pretty.
• I pulled up the eggplant in my wheelbarrow that I'm using as a planter, and I sowed it with lettuce seeds.  I also dug up some thyme from the path where it is taking over, and I stuck some in the wheelbarrow as well.
• My green beans in the Vegetable Garden are loaded with buds.
• My husband got some four by fours from the hardware store to re-build my rose arbor at the entrance to the Rose Garden.  The old arbor fell apart - well, it lasted many years.
• My hurricane lilies are doing fine in the many places I moved them.  Several weekends ago, I believe it was the weekend Koy was with me - I dug up a bunch of  Lycoris.  The Lycoris in the center bed of the Circle Drive didn't bloom this year.  That means over-crowding.  So I dug up 50 or 60 or so and moved them to various places in the Rose Garden and the Orchard.  I was so happy I did that.  When I dug up the clumps the bulbs were on top of each other and way too crowded.  
• Butterflies are everywhere.  Really pretty.  Sulphurs, Painted Ladies, American Beauties, Black Swallowtails of various varieties, Giant Swallowtails, Gulf Fritillaries, White-striped Longtails, Long-tailed Sippers, and all the myriad varieties that people tend not to notice because they are black or brown or beige  (but they create so much activity in the gardens).  I have not seen any Zebras or Julias, and Monarchs are as scarce as hens teeth unfortunately. 
• In the afternoon I swept and mopped the kitchen and living room and cleaned the big oven and then the sink.
• I cut back the Pringle Aster - that plant makes a lot of debris.  It stays as a low-growing rosette (no more than a foot tall) all winter and spring.  Then in the summer it sends out four foot tall branches covered with bristly greenery.  Then, in the fall it bursts into thousands of little white flowers.  The branches are what must be cut away.
• I dug up 10 or so Philippine Lily seedlings and moved them to the Shade Garden.  And I spread seed in lots of different places.  I cut back the tall stems of many of the lilies, but I'm waiting another week for some of them that are still really green and have lots of leaves.
• I transplanted 10 or so ox eye daisies from paths into beds.
• I am pleased at how many Rudbeckia Maxima seedlings I have in the Orchard.  I collected all the seeds from the flower heads in late summer and threw them down in the bed next to the Satsuma tree.  Nothing much grows there, so I thought I'd try Dumbo Ears.  There are maybe 20 seedlings, maybe more that have sprung up.  It is a very pretty perennial with blue-grey large-leaved foliage.  It blooms in early summer.
• Raked in the Star Garden.  The leaves are beginning to fall.  Another summer has come and gone. 
•  Saturday.  I worked in the Rose Garden for a while.  It's so pretty in there right now.  I scraped the ground and threw down lots of Standing Cypress seed in the natural bed in the corner of the Star Garden where the Fortune's Double Yellow is growing.  That area doesn't get much water.  And Standing Cypress is supposed to be drought tolerant.  I bought a pound of seed to throw in my meadow.  So I used some of it liberally in the Rose Garden.  I also spread some in the bed where the Monsieur Tillier used to be.  That area also does not get a lot of water. 
• I pulled up the last eggplant in the Vegetable Garden, prepared the bed and spread a package of dill (Tetra variety).  I pulled weeds for about 30 minutes or so.  
• Filled the wheel barrow with compost from my compost pile to fill my new bed in the Rose Garden.  Bert cut down some dead cedars and made the edging for me.  This is just an expansion of a bed - there has always been an open spot there, I don't know why I never used it before.  I'm going to move a bunch of my iris to that spot.  None of my iris thrive because they are always smothered with perennials that overcome them.  This year I'm vowing to give them a chance by putting them in a fresh clean bed with nothing else around them.
• I spread more Philippine Lily seed and watered them in.  I think, from a gardening perspective, out of all the things that I've done through the years and will do in the coming years, the activity that has the most meaning for me is multiplying my lilies.  I envision them 10 years from now being quite a spectacle - they already are quite a spectacle.  
• Around 2:00 I drove to the Antique Rose Emporium and bought two roses.  While I was there I surreptitiously took some seed from a variety of princess feathers that I have long admired that grows there every year.  It is a very tall variety that I have never seen offered in catalogues.  When I got home I threw the seed in a bed next to the house.  Maybe I'll have some next year, who knows. 
• Came home and planted both roses.  I planted Bermuda's Kathleen in the bed where the Lady Hillingdon was (and some rose that was such a disappointment I won't bother to name it).  Lady Hillingdon was one of the many roses I lost last summer.  I have grown Bermuda's Kathleen before.  She gets quite large.  I am partial to the huge rose shrubs.  I pruned her way, way hard one spring and she up and died on me.  She is floriferous, and I like her a lot.  So I bought another one.  I planted a Marie van Houtte in the spot where the Chrysler Imperial was growing.  It pained me, but I pulled up a lot of Tickseed so that Marie would not have any competition her first year.  It so hard to choose a rose.  I've grown many varieties, and I love some of them which makes me want to get another one, but there are so many that I've never grown.  It's always a pull between getting a proven winner and trying something different. 
• I trimmed back the trailing purple lantana in the Rose Garden and then raked that path.
• I pulled up some Turnera, cut off the seed heads and threw them in the flower beds in the Star Garden.  If I get a lot of Turnera next summer in the Star Garden that would be quite a new dynamic in that garden.  We'll see.
• Sunday morning - rain. 
• I got outside about 9:30.  I pulled up all the Turnera in one of the beds in the Rose Garden and seeded it with Moss Verbena and Tickseed.
• I pulled up a bunch of ageratum in the Star Garden and cleared the bed of debris and weeds, about a five foot long area.  Seeded it with Tickseed and Moss Verbena.
• I dug up a bunch of iris, mostly Prissy Missy, and planted them in the new bed in the Rose Garden. 
• I sprayed herbicide in the Greenhouse Garden and cut away a lot of Elderberry that was leaning into the paths.  Generally cleaned up in that area.  Didn't have time to rake, though.
• Puttered here and there and watched butterflies.  
• Headed home about 3:00.