Day at the Farm March 8, 2023

 

Drove up for the day and worked from the farm.  

During lunch I planted 3 Agastache in the front bed.  Voles seem to love this plant, but I'm hoping that it will be relatively protected in the front bed because it is surrounded by the drive way and the house slab.

I sowed Cosmos and Zinnias in one bed in the Orchard.  That's all I had time for, but I will seed the rest over the weekend.  I watered my Wolfberries, my new blackberries and my pomegranate (which I was afraid had died, but I see new growth).

The voles have pulled one of my tomato plants under - it's gone.  And they ate a beautiful head of lettuce. 

I sowed some zucchini and squash seeds in the Vegetable Garden.  Pulled some weeds.

Watered here and there - some of my young trees, a few places in the Water Garden, and a few spots in the Rose Garden.  I watered all my roses in pots.  

There has been a step change in growth since I was last at the farm.  But there are still things that have not budded out yet, my mock orange and my fig trees being some examples.  The post oaks have not leafed out either.

The Purple Phacelia is in full bloom and covered in bees.  Bees are particularly attracted to the color blue.  

It's another glorious spring.  God is good.  

Weekend at the Farm February 24 - 26, 2023

 

Arrived on Friday at noon with Bailey pup and Sadie dog.  Worked from here the remainder of the day.  

Saturday.  Bailey and Sadie were with me every step of the day.  

I raked the ashes where we burned off the yaupon in the Meadow.  Then I spread native grass seed that Amy gave me for Christmas.  This seed was gathered from around here, so that's the best kind.  

I cut back my Pearlbush because if looked dead.  The wood looked pretty green everywhere I cut, which was confusing.  A seedling nearby already has a couple of blooms and some leaves, so I assumed last year's drought got the mother shrub.  Maybe it will sprout from the roots or the part of the trunks I left in place. 

I cut down some dead limbs on my Snowball Bush.

I pruned the pink Vitex and one of the blue Vitex,

The Southern Crabapple in the Orchard is dead, all but one branch.  So I cut away all I could without Bert's help.  I will have him cut away the part of the trunk that is dead and leave that one branch.  I don't have anything to replace it with, so I might as well leave it there and see if it will prosper with all the death cut away.

I'm extremely pissed to see that the pomegranate tree I planted a couple of weeks ago looks dead.  Everything else I planted looks fine.   I can't believe I lost it due to lack of water with all the cold weather and rain.  But I don't know what else it could be.

I worked in the Vegetable Garden for quite a while.  I planted 5 tomatoes, sowed a packet of lima beans that Koy gave me for Christmas, sowed some lettuce seed, and some cucumber seed.  That involved weeding and turning soil.  Fertilized the tomatoes.  Raked and cleaned up.  I cleared out other beds and pulled up as much Purple Phacelia as I could.  Threw all the soft green weeds into the compost pile.  Weeds are good green compost if they haven't gone to seed.

I planted 5 Pirates Pearl, 3 Mexican Oregano, and 5 Skullcap in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden.

I planted 3 miniature Joe Pye Weed in the Dining Room bed which is the bed in my gardens that stays the most wet.  Joe Pye likes water.  Weeded in that bed for a while since I was there.  Cleaned up some iris debris.   

Sunday. Bailey and Sadie were with me every step of the day.

I cleaned out the bed in the Medicine Garden where the Turk's Cap and the gingers grow.  And I cleaned out the bed where the Cemetery Iris grow.  Dumped all the leaves behind the Vegetable Garden.  

Turned the compost piles.

I planted a couple of Creeping Jenny in some old tennis shoes of mine and set them near the front gate to the Star Garden.

I planted 3 Mexican oregano in a dry part of the Star Garden.  

Planted 3 Comfrey in the Medicine Garden.

I painstakingly emptied one of the feed buckets in the Vegetable Garden into a wheelbarrow.  Then I hauled the dirt and the bucket to the Rose Garden.  Then I filled the bucket up again and planted a rose.  That was hard.  Drawing a blank on the name, but it is a yellow and pink blend.

I spent quite a few hours in the Rose Garden sowing seeds.  I sure hope we don't have a freeze because none of these seeds are winter hardy.  I sowed Cockscomb, Balsam, zinnias, Cleome, and Cosmos.  I raked the paths.  I set up the sprinklers.  Did some spot watering.    

Next, I sowed seed in the back bed where the Black and Blue salvia grows in  half the bed.  

I never got to the Orchard or the Star Garden.  I had big plans to seed all the gardens, but I couldn't get those done.  

Watered all my little trees that I planted last year.  I might have lost one of my Witch Hazel, I'll give it a little more time to see if it comes up from the roots.  

Spot watered in the dry part of the Star Garden.

Everything is greening up.  Spring is here.  The Purple Phacelia is in bloom, my earliest spring bloomer, although Colonial White verbena is giving it a run for its money.  The plum trees are flowering too.  All the altheas have tiny little leaf sprouts of bright greenish-yellow.  So pretty.  My Cranesbill bulbs are beginning to emerge.  Yay.  I have seen Tiger Swallowtails, Red Admirals and Sulphurs.    

 

Several days at the Farm February 2022

 

Spirea looked pretty - February 25.

Feb 15 - I planted a flat of Self Heal in the Medicine Garden.  And I planted 3 Comfrey and 7 Rosemary.  

Feb 15 - I planted 4 Sweet Peas in the Rose Garden that will climb on the mattress springs tied around the old dead oak tree.  I had sown my own seed at the beginning of the cool weather, but the freak 8 degree weekend killed them. 

Feb 20 - Most of the weekend was taken up by grandkids (Nathan and Jess).  But I managed to do a few things.

I planted a sack of Yukon Gold potatoes.  I prepped a 4 x 4 bed and planted them all.  They are going to be crowded if they survive the vole attacks which is a big "if". 

I planted most of a flat of Mexican Mint Marigold in the Star Garden.  

I planted a flat of Tansy in the Medicine Garden.

I planted 6 Mexican Oregano in the Star Garden in an area that stays pretty dry.  

I also planted 3 Desert Mallow plants - these were a real find, very happy to have them.  Also drought tolerant, so I planted them in a dry, sunny spot in the Star Garden.

And finally, I planted 6 Skullcap, also in dry areas.  

I sowed a bunch of dill in the Rose Garden for my butterflies.

I sowed some African Daisy seed in the Vegetable Garden. 

Feb 22 - Raked in the Star Garden for quite a while.  

Watered all my new transplants in the Star Garden and the Medicine Garden.

Watered all my roses in pots in the Rose Garden.  Spot watered here and there.

I watered and fertilized my Pineland Wattle, Anacachoe Orchid Tree and both my Two Winged Silverbells. 

I raked in the Greenhouse Gardens and made mulch circles around some of my trees.

Cut back all the Shrimp Plant in the Star Garden.

Spot watered in the Star Garden.

I planted 3 Mexican Mint Marigold in the Star Garden, 4 Australian Violets in the Camellia Garden and half dozen in Mom's Garden.

I transplanted some Woodland Violet plugs that had spread into paths back into the bed.  

I sowed pink Cosmos and orange Cosmos in the Rose Garden.  I threw down some Laura Bush petunia seed also.

Pruned the roses in the Front Bed.  And cut back a clump of Moudry grass and Siberian iris debris.

Planted some Pirates Pearl in the Rose Garden.

My Desert Mallow is in bloom, so I am very excited.  

The paperwhites are in full bloom right now.  And the Daffodil border is blooming.  

Day at the Farm February 4 - 5, 2023

This is the Daffodil Border.

I came up Saturday evening.  

Sunday.  Beautiful weather.  Sunny and cool.  

I worked in the Orchard for several hours.  I planted 2 Goji Berry shrubs , 3 Kiowa Blackberry and a Desertnyi pomegranate. I watered everything in well.  Raked up some pine straw and spread it around all my new transplants.  Weeded, weeded, weeded.

I planted one bunch of 1015 onion starts, mostly in pots since the voles ate them all last year.  Raked a bit.

Sprayed herbicide here and there in the Vegetable Garden, the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.

Cut back bunch grasses along the back path and the back beds.  Fertilized the grasses and Siberian iris.

I pulled some Giant Rudbeckia out of a pot sitting in the Vegetable Garden and planted it in the back bed.

Planted 3 Colonial White verbena in the Water Garden.

Headed home about 5:00.

 

Day at the Farm January 28 - 29, 2023

 This is one tough vine.  This is native honeysuckle.  It has 10 or so blooms and buds on it.  And it's January!  Pretty cool. I have had it planted in that spot for 2 years now.  Most perennial vines really take off in the third year.  I am looking forward to being amazed.

 

Bert and I drove up after Rick's funeral.  It has been raining, there are about 2 inches in the rain gauge.

I turned the compost pile.

Picked leaves out of my Columbine seedling beds.

I planted 4 Toad Lily next to the ones I planted some weeks ago.  Two of them are variegated.  These are fall bloomers that like shade.  I think I am planting them in a good spot, because you have to walk right by them to get to the shed.  They have beautiful, orchid-like spotted flowers that are very small.  You don't notice them unless you come upon them. But they are very special.

I turned under the rest of the rye grass in the Vegetable Garden.  I'm planning to grow cucumbers on the goat wire arbor in that spot come springtime.

I spent a couple of hours moving plants from paths to flowerbeds.  Three Ox Eyes to the Rose Garden, three large plugs of Inland Sea Oats from the Dining Room bed to the shady part of the Star Garden, five plugs of Passalong Pink Verbena to the Dining Room bed, one large Colonial White Verbena to a bed in the White Garden.

I cut back the dead winter debris from the purple Trailing Lantana in the Rose Garden.  I tied up long canes of Peggy Martin along the top of the little fence that surrounds the Rose Garden. 

   

Weekend at the Farm January 20 - 22, 2023

 

This is Autumn Joy Stonecrop coming up.  

Saturday.  I worked in the Meadow for several hours cutting down yaupon and dragging them to the fire pile.  Bert had a good fire going and we burned off the pile that I created over the last several weeks.  Bert cut down some yaupons that were too thick for my little saw.

I worked in the Star Garden for a couple of hours.  I cut down canna debris and did some raking and weeding.  

My paperwhites are in bud.  The freak cold weather in December damaged the greenery but they are going to flower.

After lunch I planted 5 Self-Heal in the Medicine Garden.  I planted 3 blue larkspur seedlings in the Rose Garden.

I cut down the asparagus debris in the big asparagus bed in the Vegetable Garden.  Fertilized.  Picked 4 asparagus.

I cut down the dead debris from the Inland Sea Oats and Southern Woodfern in the Dining Room bed.

Cut down more canna debris.

I pulled up 8 or so plugs of artemisia that had grown into the path in the Water Garden and planted it in one of the Barbados Cherry beds near the pool.

I spent some time moving Passalong Pink from paths to various flowerbeds.

Sunday.  I cut back debris on one of my biggest salvias.

I cut back my trailing white lantana in the Water Garden and cut back scraggly white verbena.  Raked.

Weeded in the Vegetable Garden for a bit.

I used the last of my compost to fill the 3 holes I made in the Star Garden a couple of months ago.  I dug up my miniature roses and planted them in a pot, but I never filled the holes.  That's finally done.  

I dumped my 2 compost piles from the buckets on to the ground where the ripe compost was.  Mixed it up well.

I cut down all the Red Shrimp Plant debris in the Porthole Bed.

Bert and I went to Amy's for a little party to meet the new neighbors.  Headed to Houston after that.  

Weekend at the Farm January 13 - 15, 2023

 

Worked from the farm on Friday.  Cold.  I felt feverish all day.

Amy Thomeson gave me a sackful of bur oak acorns to plant.  It takes about 35 years for a bur oak to produce an acorn, so planting these seeds around the property this weekend is the definition of  contributing to the enjoyment of future generations.  I will never see the acorns, and the trees, if any of them germinate, will only be shoulder height high when I am an old woman.

Saturday.  Up before daylight.  

I worked at the Meadow's edge in the morning clearing yaupons.  The pile of debris that I have created is large.  And it is alive with birds.  I guess they feel protected in there amongst the leaves and branches.  That is really neat.  Easy to see why creating brush piles is one of the activities that qualifies in Wildlife Management plans

Most of the day I felt sick and laid down on the couch.

Sunday.  Turned the compost piles.

I planted all the Bur Oak acorns around the outer edges of the Star Garden and in the Medicine Garden.  I planted them in groups of 3 hoping that some of them will germinate.

Did nothing for the rest of the day.  Sick.  And tired.

Monday.  Martin Luther King holiday.  I watered my roses in pots.

Headed home.