Weekend at the Farm August 24-25, 2013

I thought several times throughout the weekend that it might rain, but alas no.  It's really dry.

• I spent a lot of time in the Rose Garden on Saturday morning.  I watered all the roses and many of the plants in the Long Border with the hose.  I pruned all the roses too.  Cutting them back at the end of summer will encourage a good flush of flowers for the fall. Weeded.  I also used the blower and cleaned out all the debris in the Rose Garden.  That looks good! I usually rake the Rose Garden, but my husband suggested I use the leaf blower, and it is a huge improvement over raking.  
• Deadheaded zinnias.  
• Trimmed the wisteria.  I used the ladder to trim around the entire arbor.  I had to use hand clippers because I waited too long and the vines were too thick to use hedge clippers.  This was an involved project.  Move the ladder, climb up the ladder, cut a foot of vines, climb down the ladder, move the ladder.  Looks good, though.
• I put tomato cages around the two Spicebush shrubs, the two Althea starts, and the Pearlbush.  An armadillo had dug up one of the Spicebushes - it wasn't dead, but I decided to I had better try to protect them.  Last weekend I found my Veilchenblau completely dug up and possibly dead.  I stuck it back in the ground, but I'm not sure it will survive.
• Ran the hose over my hurricane lilies and all the shrubs in the Circle.  The hurricane lilies are popping up out of the ground, and a few are blooming. 
• Picked up bluebell bulbs that had been been turned up by the armadillos.  Replanted them in the Shade Garden.  There must be 100 of them exposed on the ground.  I need to get around to replanting all of them.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden, the Rose Garden, the Star Garden, around the front of the house, around the pool, and in the Orchard.
• Watered the Cigar Plant.  It isn't getting much water since we changed out the soaker hoses around the pool.
• Watered the Mexican Buckeye trees and the azaleas in the Greenhouse Garden.  
• I'm going to have to buy a new sprinkler timer set for the Greenhouse Garden. One of the valves won't open.  
• Deadheaded the Cockscomb in the Vegetable Garden and threw them in the Star Garden.  Hopefully I will get some seedling starts.
• Watered all the shrubs in the Star Garden and the Greenhouse Garden.
• Trimmed the Indigo Spires salvia.
• On Sunday my husband and I cleared some more of the land across from the Circle.  You can see most of the Rose Garden from the front porch now.  This involves cutting yaupon, pulling vines out of the trees (that have extremely large stickers) dragging dead trees and branches out of the woods, loading all of it into the back of the cub cadet, hauling it to the burn pile about twenty times.  We are about one third complete.  Whew!  It's going to look good, and I think it will allow more breeze into the yard.   Got poked in the eye with a branch.  Painful for a long time.
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.
•  Swam after dinner on Saturday night. 
• Came home Sunday afternoon with scratches on my legs, arms, and four of my finger pads throbbing from stickers broken off under the skin.

Days at the Farm August 12 and 13, 2013

Dad's 80th birthday at Brennan's on Saturday evening.  To the farm on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

• An armadillo dug up my Veilchenblau rose.  It looks dead, but I cut the canes back and stuck it in the ground to see if there is any life left in it.  That rose has been in the ground since the spring, so I'm a bit surprised that it couldn't resist the armadillo activity a little better.  I would have thought that the root system was more established.  I'm disappointed about this.  I was really looking forward to seeing this rose mature and become part of the landscape.
• I spent quite a bit of time in the Orchard weeding and cutting back dead blackberry canes.  I hauled lots of wheel barrows of debris to the burn pile.
• Fed the bees on Tuesday morning.  The hive looks a little weak.  This is the second time I've fed them in a month.  Hopefully it will help them.
• The pool motor broke so the pool repair people came on Tuesday to repair it.  I'm sure that will be a thousand dollars.  Bad luck.  This will be motor number three!  And they always crap out just after the warranty expires.
• Sowed a package of calendula seeds in the Vegetable Garden.  
• Weeded in the Vegetable Garden and cleaned up a bit - put away tomato cages, pulled up some scruffy plants, trimmed the arugula, sprayed the paths with herbicide.  The Mexican Sunflowers are getting tall.  They will bloom soon. 
• Cleaned the usual suspects - toilets and sinks.
• Staked my blue Althea that was leaning over.
• Raked the Shade Garden.
• Raked the Medicine Garden.
• Raked the Rose Garden.
• Sprayed herbicide on the driveway, in the Star Garden, the Shade Garden, and in the Rose Garden.
• Fertilized the cannas given to me by Janine and Debra as well as the Shenandoah cannas.  Cannas are heavy feeders, so they should appreciate that!  Also fertilized the salvias in Max's Garden, the Mexican salvias, everything in the center bed of the Star Garden, the elephant ears in the Shade Garden, Cadenza rose, and the asparagus in the Vegetable Garden.
• Hand watered the La Marne roses, the Peggy Martin rose, and the salvia and butterfly bush.
• Planted a white Morning glory tree that I dug up from the yard in Houston.  I have a pink one in Burton, but I really love the white flowering variety.
• Helped my husband begin clearing the land on the other side of the driveway opposite from the house.  We cut away yaupon and pulled vines out of the trees, cut down a few dead trees, and hauled it all to the burn pile.  There are about 5 more hard days of work remaining to get it cleared.  I'm not sure what we're going to do with the cleared area - I don't want my husband just to mow it because we will end up with a patch of dirt.  I guess I will seed it with some sort of native grass mix from Wildseed Farms.  I don't want to make another garden - not because I don't have the interest or the energy, but because of money.  It's expensive keeping it mulched and fertilized.  And flowerbed edging is expensive.  The boxes in the Rose Garden are a mess and have to be replaced, but no can do!
• Deadheaded Belinda's Dream in front of the house.  I wanted to prune all the roses so I can get a good fall flush.  But I never got to it.  It was over 100 degrees on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  Too hot to work all day long.
• Both of the Altheas I rooted were blooming this weekend.  They are both white which is great.  I love the pure white flowers, and they are growing right next to each other, and I think that will be very pretty.  

Obedient Plant August 4, 2013

 This plant came from my home in Houston.  There was a tiny piece of it mixed in with some Tredescantia that I moved several years ago from Houston to Burton.  I was not trying to dig up Obedient Plant, but here it is, taking over like it usually does.

 Obedient Plant is also called False Dragon Head, I guess because the buds resemble a reptilian head.

Weekend at the Farm August 3-4, 2013

I thought these canna leaves looked so pretty this morning.
Came up Friday evening straight from work.  Left early Sunday morning to get ready for a family dinner before Max goes back to school.

• Found another huge armadillo hole in the Star Garden.  It was dug out under my white mist shrub, a huge pile of dirt in the path.  Covered the area with red pepper.  We'll see if that works.  I doubt it.  That would be way too easy.
• I watered and fertilized all the roses in the Rose Garden except for the few I fertilized last weekend.  Still need to fertilize the roses in the Long Border.
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.
• Fertilized the Dutchman's Pipe Vine.
• Watered in the Greenhouse Garden.
• Fertilized the salvias in the flowerbed along the back of the house.
• Fertilized the 3 Sweetshrubs in the Medicine Garden.
• Fertilized the Sweet Olives except for the one in Max's Garden.
• Deadheaded zinnias and salvias.
• Watered all my shrubs.
• Animals got the last of my decorative gourds and the cantaloupes in the Vegetable Garden.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Circle, the Driveway, and the Shade Garden.
• Planted two Hoja Santa that I ordered on line.  I planted one of them in the shady part of the Star Garden near the Sassafras tree and the other one in the Medicine Garden.  Hoja Santa is also known as Rootbeer Plant.  Both sassafras and Hoja Santa contain the essential oil safrole which imparts the root beer smell.  Hoja Santa is used quite a bit in traditional Mexican cooking both as a flavor and as a wrap for food.  It is a root hardy perennial that spreads aggressively by underground runners.  It gets tall and the leaves are really big (which is why it is used to wrap foods during cooking).  Interestingly, it is the main ingredient in the drug ecstasy.
• I noticed some okra plants coming up in the spot where I was growing them last year.  I wondered if the would reseed because I threw a lot of okra on the ground last year - overgrown pods.  And there are four plants coming up. 
• The Marigold seedlings in the Vegetable Garden are coming right along.  And the sunflowers look like they grew six inches since we were there last weekend.   

Fireworks Gomphrena July 28, 2013

I transplanted lots of Fireworks Gomphrena over the last several weeks from around this bed (where seeds took root in the paths).  I put several plants in the Orchard and a half dozen or so plants in the Star Garden.
I really like this plant.  It is a reseeding tender perennial.

Belinda's Dream July 28, 2013

The Belinda's Dream next to the house was really pretty this weekend.  I have three Belinda's Dream roses in the Rose Garden, but they are not blooming.  This one gets a lot more water.

At War with the Armadillos July 28, 2013

The armadillos love this flowerbed.  They turn it up every single night so that I haven't been able to grow anything in it successfully.  So I am trying to make it as inhospitable as possible.  I put chicken wire around the perennial violets.  I put chicken wire around the crinums that Janine gave me.  And I laid chicken wire over all the areas that have nothing growing.  I transplanted a Pam Puryear Turk's Cap from the boardwalk to this flowerbed. If the armadillos leave it alone, this should be a pretty little flowerbed by the fall.  I know they will try to dig around the wire, it's just a question of how hard they will try.  That will determine how successfull I was with my efforts.

Above, six crinums that Janine gave me.

Above, the pink Pam Puryear Turk's Cap that I transplanted from the Boadwalk Garden.  It will get about 3 feet tall and just as wide.