At the Farm During the Pandemic July 27 - August 2, 2020

• Monday.  I spent the whole morning in the Star Garden after I made an inspection of all my new plants to make sure the armadillos hadn't upended any of them.
• I planted 2 Malabar spinach on the arbor at the front.  I planted them on the side of the arbor that is  gravel, so I have no idea if they will do well there.
• I planted a Coral Honeysuckle on the other side of the arbor.  Last year I planted a passionflower vine there, and it never came back from dormancy after winter.  That is the third or maybe fourth passionflower vine that I've tried to grow through the years, and none of them have made it. I don't know if it is voles or cold - I don't think it was a water issue.  I won't try that again.  
• I worked on beds at the outer edges of  the Star Garden that tend to get neglected.  I moved three Ox Eye Daisies an one clump of Moudry grass out of paths and into beds.  I pulled up a wildflower (I can never remember the name of it) that spreads by underground runners.  It has a purple flower.  It's pretty in the late spring, but starts to look ugly.  I yank it up, but some always ends up spreading and blooming the next year.  I did some trimming at the bottoms of my blue Vitex trees.  I don't like when I can't see under my trees / large shrubs like my almond verbenas and my vitex shrubs.  I cut the bears breeches down to the ground.  The leaves were brown and full of bug holes.  They will come back strong in the fall for one last show.  I trimmed my red shrimp plant so that I can walk through that path.  I cut away a greenbriar vine that was covering one of my olive trees and poisoned the cuts.  As I was doing that I decided to cut down the olive tree (a gift that never really suited this place) and plant a native tree this winter.  I scooped dirt back in the beds - most of the beds have been destroyed by the armadillos and smoothed out the soil, it always looks like a hurricane came through thanks to those pests.  I raked each of the paths after I cleaned out the beds. Weeded, weeded, weeded.  I noticed a peavine had taken over on my snowball bush.  So I cut it away.  While I was in there I saw that Veilchenblau was a mess, and growing into my snowball bush.  I knew that was happening, but it is such a big job that I've been ignoring it.  I started cutting dead limbs away, and I cut one of the really thick canes that was the biggest offender to my snowball bush.  Looking at it I didn't really know where to start.  It's the classic climbing rose that was completely neglected and allowed to get completely out of control.  I decided to pick three canes and cut them off and let new young soft canes grow, then train those.  I went through about 8 beds before I took a break and had a Job Well Done beer. 
• Tuesday.  Worked.
•  On my lunch hour Bert showed me how to used the riding mower.  With the deck lowered but the blades not moving, I rode around knocking down the camphor weed growing rampant in my Meadow.  Camphor weed is really invasive in my opinion.  It has really taken over.  In the fall I will rent a shredder and shred everything.  But in the mean time I don't want the camphor weed to bloom.  It's pretty fun riding on the mower!
• I worked in the Rose Garden.  I planted some lantans.  I staked zinnias.  And I weeded.
• I dug up a big group of Montbretia that I had allowed to multiply for a couple of years.  But it was growing in a shady part of the Star Garden.  Who knows how it got there, but it only takes one random Montbretia bulb to create a monster.  
•  Wednesday.   Worked.
• I cut all the dead debris off the Montbretai and planted them in various places in the Long Border and the Rose Garden.
• I worked in the Rose Garden for some time.  I planted the rest of the lantana that I bought last weekend.  I'm definitely having a love-fest with lantana right now.
• I sowed a packet of Love Lies Bleeding in the Vegetable Garden.  I have tried sowing amaranth several times in the past month and none of it has germinated.  Some of it was really old seed, but not all of it.  Strange.  Trying one more time even though it is late in the season, we might have an early frost before it sets its seed.
• I sowed 3 packets of zinnia seeds in the Rose Garden. 
• Sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden and a few spots at the edge of the Star Garden. 
• Thursday.  Worked.
• I planted 3 Little Bunny grasses in the bed along the back walk.  
• Staked some zinnias.
• Watered all my new plants and seed beds (I do that every morning.).
• Replaced the water in the bird bath.
• I sprayed herbicide along the Boardwalk Garden the paths in the Greenhouse Garden and around Bert's sculpture and the path leading to it.
• Fertilized all my young plants.
• Friday.  Worked.
• First thing in the morning (as usual) I watered all my pots and young plants.
• Picked okara.
• Adjusted the sprinkler timer in the Rose Garden.
• I put mulch around all of my young lantana.  I used the last of my mulch, always a sad time for me!
• Josh drove the boys up for the weekend.  They are always a joy to be with.  
• Sunday.  I met Josh halfway and we made the switch with the boys.
• When I got home I worked in the Rose Garden for about an hour.  Pulled weeds and staked a few things.

Happy Thursday!

My sunflowers are beginning to bloom.  So cheerful!

At the Farm During the Pandemic July 17 - July 26, 2020

• Wednesday.  We returned from Galveston and drove to the farm.
• I began watering immediately.  Dry!
• Thursday.  Worked.
• I went out to the Vegetable Garden and pulled up 5 of the tomato plants.  I would have done it sooner but I just haven't had time.
• The okra is about 2 feet tall now.  And the red amaranth is about 3 feet tall.  And the sunflowers are 4 - 5 feet tall.
• Did lots of watering -  everything is gasping. 
• Friday.  Worked.
• In the morning I pulled up the last 2 tomato plants.  
• I sprayed herbicide on the camphor plant growing in the Meadow adjacent to the Vegetable Garden.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden and the Rose Garden.  
• I did lots of watering.  
• The new Abutilon and the new Whitewater Acanthus that i planted before I left for Galveston had basically disappeared.  I literally thought someone had pulled them up and taken them.  But as I looked closer I saw two pathetic barely alive plants.  I watered them, and I am hoping to nurse them back to health.  The acanthus was not cheap!
• We got a little rain around 5:00.  Enough to (barely) fill the rain barrels.
• Saturday.  I cut my parsley growing in the wheelbarrow down to the ground.  I didn't pull it up because that soil is dry and hard.  It was dead from not being watered and because it is a biennial.  It was loaded with seeds, and I sprinkled them over the soil.
• Weeded a bit in the Star Garden.  Deadheaded zinnias.  Cut away from my new lantanas and my Carefree Beauty so they wouldn't get crowded out.
• Weeded in the Rose Garden a bit.  I pulled up the last few dried up Brown Eyed Susans.  I cut away plants that were crowding my lantanas.
• Watered here and there.
• I spent some time in the Greenhouse Gardens pulling weeds, raking and watering.
• Moved on to the Vegetable Garden.  I looked pretty good.  Bert has been working in there.  I sowed some Early Splendor Amaranth, Molten Fire Amaranth, and Love Lies Bleeding amaranth in the beds where I pulled up the tomato plants.
• Watered the pots around the pool (every day). 
• Cleaned out the bird bath.  I fill it with fresh water every day and I clean it every couple of days with a scrub brush.
• Sunday.  I went straight out to the Orchard to work on the dead blackberry canes in the back left bramble bed.  I got all of them cut out, bent into small pieces, then into the wheelbarrow and finally in to the burn pile.  I weeded around me as I scooted along the ground.  
• I did a little weeding around my new bird of paradise plant down there.
• After that I hand-watered in the Rose Garden for an hour and a half.  I pushed the hose into the ground around my small roses to see if there were any vole dens around the roots.  I found deep dens around four roses.  I filled them with water hoping to get them to move away.  Smushed down the muddy soil and water around the roses hoping to fill in the soil around their roots.  While I was working I cut back a bunch of Bonariensis and pulled weeds.
• It was a little after 11:00 and I went inside to escape the heat.  
• I staked a few zinnias to keep them off my new roses in the Star Garden.
• Monday.  Worked.
• After work I dragged a hose over to the Vegetable Garden and watered in the dry part for about 20 minutes.  Pulled some weeds.
• I spotted the first okra.  They will be coming fast by next week.
• Watered the pots by the pool.
• Watered in areas I usually ignore.
• Tuesday.  Worked.  At lunch I drove to town to buy some zinnia seeds.  I didn't need them, but I wanted to get out of the house.
• After work I pulled weeds for about 30 minutes in the bed outside my window.
• I made 2 chicken wire cages, watered the ground and sowed two packets of seeds in the cages.  
• I made another cage and surrounded my poor beleaguered newest bears breeches that almost died from lack of water and is now being besieged by armadillos.   Set the sprinkler and watered it well.
• Whew, that's all I could stand - it's so hot outside.  Sweat was pouring into my eyes.  
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• Up early and out in the Rose Garden at 7:00 to hand-water.  The voles have pulled another of my new plants underground.  I have been getting so discouraged lately.  Between the voles and the armadillos I can't seem to make any progress. So disappointing.
• Watered my new zinnia seed areas and the pots around the pool.
• It's overcast.  I'm hoping for rain.
• Thursday.  Worked.
• Did some watering.  Still no rain.  There is a hurricane forming in the gulf.  Maybe it will bring rain.
• I did quite a bit of weeding in the bed outside the dining room during lunch.
• After work I changed out the water next to the shed (with the cistern water).  
• Watered in dry places in the Star Garden and did lots of weeding in the Star Garden.
• Friday.  Worked.
• I got up early and spent an hour hand watering in the Rose Garden.  
• I watered the potted plants.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Orchard.  The nozzle has been going crazy lately nad I can't figure out why.  I taped a Styrofoam cup around it so that the spray would go downward instead of out to the sides.  But it ended up just spraying the side of the cup and dripping down onto the ground.  So I don't know how effective that was in terms of landing on everything I was aiming at.  
• Saturday.  Yay!
• I started off cutting all my Black and Blue salvia in the back bedroom bed down to the ground.  Maybe I'll get another flush in the fall.  It took several hours.  I have a lot of it.  I cut the tender tops off of it and put it in the wheelbarrow, the rest I piled up on the ground.  I put all the young tender green tops in the compost pile.  I hauled the hard stems to the burn pile.  I turned the old compost pile.  I used leaves that I collected last fall mixed with my green leaves and started a new compost pile. 
• I piddled around in the Greenhouse Gardens for a while.  I pulled up some parsley that went to seed and spread it around.  I cut away some dead branches off my Bay Laurel.
• I spent some time in the Circle Drive beds.  Pulled weeds.  The Hurricane Lilies will pop up next month, and I don't want them to be growing amongst weeds.  And I cut away sweetspire growing in paths.  Cutting back my sweetspire revealed an armadillo hole in the middle of that shrub.  That galls me that an armadillo is living so close to the house.  Nasty things.
• It began to rain - good news!  I continued to work in the rain.  I cut back a lot of my Giant Rudbeckia in the Star Garden that had gone to seed.  The garden looks a lot neater now.  I took all the seed heads and threw them in the Hot Border next to the Vegetable Garden.  There are still a bunch more to cut down, but I made a start.  I hauled the debris to the burn pile.  The cadet is broken right now, so I am hauling my debris with the wheel barrow.  
• I did some general weeding in the Star Garden.  And I staked a few lilies that were leaning over so that their seed heads can dry without getting in the way.
• I changed out of my wet clothes and drove into Houston to go to the Arbor Gate.
• I bought 3 Little Bunny grasses, one Biltmore Ballgown Abutilon, a couple of Malabar Spinach, a Coral Honeysuckle, a Rosemary and a dozen Lantana. 
• When I got home I planted the Abutilon in the spot where the armadillo tore up the last one (a shady section of the Star Garden).  I surrounded it with a chicken wire cage to protect it.
• I weeded in the one of the beds in the hinterlands of the Star Garden.  I have a lot of Hurricane Lilies planted there, so I spruced up the bed in anticipation of their bloom time.
• I planted a couple of the lantana - one in the Star Garden and one in the front bed next to the Mystic Spires salvia.  
• I went to the Rose Garden and planted a lantana in the Noisette bed.  Then I started cutting back all the Homestead Purple Verbena and pulling up weeds.  I was crawling in to the bed on all fours to get to everything that I wanted to cut.  I was covered in dirt.  I made four big piles of debris.    
• After dinner Bert and I drove in to Carmine so he could get some candy.  Then we drove around with the dogs, windows rolled down, over all the country roads for a long time.  The weather was cool after the rains, and it was a really nice evening.
• Sunday.  Wow, I got a lot done.  It was either overcast or rainy all day.  And cool (for July).
• I inspected all my lantanas and other small plants first thing to make sure the armadillos had not uprooted any of them.  
• Then out to the Orchard to work.  I spent about four hours out there.  I weeded.  There were a lot of weeds, but since I had been out there working a couple of weeks ago it wasn't awful.  I scooped soil back into the beds everywhere that the armadillos had scratched it out.  I re-planted lots of Philippine Lilies that the armadillos had uprooted.  I spent some time in the Fig bed gathering up zillions of little Monbretia bulbs that were laying clumped up and brown on top of the soil (you guessed it - armadillos).  I cut all the dead vegetation away and re-planted them.  Then I laid a sheet of chicken wire over the top of the soil and staked it down.  Deadheaded lots of coneflower and spread the seeds here there and everywhere.  There are hundreds more coneflower to deadhead and spread.  It was a great, great year for my coneflower.  I will wait until the heads get a little drier before I do a big deadheading project.  Bert came down and cut down the Pakistan Mulberry tree.  It was almost completely dead - I have no idea why it died (or was doing so poorly).  Time to move on to a plum tree, I like plums.  I never got a single mulberry, so I don't feel sad about getting rid of it.  I poisoned the cut.  I want it to die and start rotting so that it will be easier to dig up this winter when I'm ready to plant my plum. Bert also help me surround my swamp sunflowers with goat wire.  They are tall but they have not yet fallen over, so it was the perfect time to stake them.  I cleaned up in the blackberry beds again where a persistent stand of horseherb is growing behind some of my blackberry canes.  Cut away spent branches off my day lilies.  I planted a Tuscan Blue Rosemary in the bed at the entrance to the Orchard.  I surrounded it with a chicken wire cage.  And I tied up some leaning plants with string and bamboo sticks.  I also trimmed my Muscadine grape vines.  The grapes are plump but still green.  I can't wait to gather my grapes.  I also sowed a bunch of zinnias in the Jujube bed and put a chicken wire cage around them. 
• While I was down there I weeded around my Pride of Barbados that I planted about a month ago. 
• Bert and I swam in the pool for about 30 minutes.  It was the only time during the day when the sun broke through.  Fortuitous.  
• I laid down for a few minutes while it rained really steady.  As soon as it stopped I headed out to the Rose Garden.  I stayed in there until 6:00 working.  I pulled weeds, raked, planted 5 or so lantana.  I cut back lots of Moss Verbena.  I'm not sure what to do about that.  I don't know if it will come back from the roots when it's been cut back severely.  But I really wanted to get rid of it and plant some lantana and sow some zinnias.  On the other hand, if will make a strong come back in the fall I'd really like that pretty pale purple in the garden.  So I cut it back to see what will happen.  I sowed some zinnias and put a chicken wire cage around them.  I painstakingly pulled up day flower digging my hand down around each one and grabbing those long roots.  I stake lots of zinnias.  I cut away dead stems on my day lilies.  I worked until I couldn't stand it anymore - not because I was tired but because I was so dirty that I couldn't stand myself anymore. 
• It was a day to be proud of.  I worked steady for 9 hours.       
  
  

Philippine Lilies July 17, 2020

Just when the lilies were loaded with fat buds, we took a family trip for five days to Galveston - Bert and I, Josh and family, Blake and family, Max and Julia and Luke.  The lily blooms don't last long.  There were lots of them, but the peak was over.    And I couldn't believe how dry it was when I returned!  A Lot of the lilies were gasping.  But I took pictures of a few of them.

Obedient Plant July 17, 2020

Obedient Plant blooms in the dead of summer.  Very useful.  If given the right conditions it will really multiply, but it can easily be pulled up.  I always have to stake mine or it will lean all the way over.  It's better to stake it before it leans - but that is the guiding rule for all plants.  Stake BEFORE they lean over.  That's the only way to get a natural and pretty look.

Spider Web Japanese Aralia

I  planted this shrub along the Boardwalk.

At the Farm During the Pandemic June 29 - ??, 2020

• Monday.  Worked.
• I got up at 6:30 and went straight outside to the fence at the front of the property and picked all the mustang grapes.  A week or so ago when I made jelly the ones on the fence were not quite ripe.  I ended up picking grapes from some low-growing vines along Coyote Run.  I saw these yesterday evening as I was taking a walk, and they were perfect.  I'm here - why let them go to waste?  Bert is bring me jars and sugar from the grocery store.  I thought I had so many jars that I'd never run out, but the honey took almost all of them.
• A cardinal has made a nest in the vine climbing on the arbor at the Star Garden entrance.  She flies off in alarm every time I walk near.
• There are lots of big fat caterpillars on the fennel that grows in the gravel near the Star Garden arbor.  I hope the cardinals don't see them!  We don't have many butterflies right now.  I want to see my beloved butterflies!
• At lunch I planted some of the alternanthera yellow and red that I bought last weekend.  Fertilized.  Mulched around them.  Fertilized some of the lantana plants that I have planted over the last several weeks and mulched around them.  I also planted a few of the Mexican sedum plants I bought.  I put all of this in the Rose Garden.  They are all front of the border plants.  I would never normally buy this many plants this late in the season.  But I am here to baby them through the hot summer.
• Watered here and there, especially my new buddleia and my new cannas.
• After work I planted one of my lantana that I bought, two blue spruce sedums and a couple more Mexican sedum and alternanthera.  Again, all in the Rose Garden.  Fertilized and mulched and watered them in.  Hopefully they will survive the armadillo assaults tonight.  And tomorrow I will surround them with chicken wire.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• Up early to clean the grapes I picked yesterday morning.  Pull out the stems, wash them, etc.
• Tuesday evening I made jelly.
• Weeded here and there.  Planted some sedums I bought last weekend.  I fertilized them and mulched around them.  And I fertilized some of the small roses.
• I noticed that one of my zones along the back is not working.  I will have to call Lucas again.  I did manage to find the box on the first try.  The little box has long ago been covered up with soil run off because the back is on a slope.  What a lucky break!  So I can turn it on with my hand until he gets out here.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• I planted the last of what I bought last weekend.  I decided to plant my Spider Web Japanese Aralia along the Boardwalk.  When I stuck my shovel in the soil I saw that that part of the Boardwalk Garden soil was really hard!  So to soften it up I made a big hole and filled it with water a half dozen times.  I threw some fertilizer in as well.   This plant looks really interesting.  It is winter hardy and evergreen, but it looks very tropical.  It is a shrub, and it gets very large.  I planted it where I used to have a big stand of Mojito colocasias.  But the Mojitos eventually fade away.  I like to plant something and then it goes on autopilot forever.  I don't like when plants sort of just disappear over time - and Mojito does that for me.  Too expensive to continue to re-pant them although they are beautiful. I planted the Aralia off center in the space in case I soften to the idea of getting more Mojitos.  Now the only thing left to do is to remember to hand water it occasionally until it settles in - it's already so hot that nothing planted so late can be expected to go it alone.
• I planted another Biltmore Ball Gown Abutilon in a shady part of the Star Garden.  This is the third one I have planted this year, and I still haven't seen it bloom, nor do have experience seeing it come back from a winter. I don't usually commit to a plant so fully without having experience with those two things.
• Finally, in the shady part of the Star Garden I planted a Whitewater Acanthus.  This is another Bears Breeches type of plant.  With white veining in the leaves.  They do pretty well, take up lots of space, and have big leaves.  I'm a lover of unusual foliage.  That's why I was attracted to Aralia and why I am attracted to many of the cannas.  Striking foliage. 
• I also planted some sedums, and I had two more little lantana so I put those in the ground.  I fertilized and mulched around them.
• Thursday.  Worked.
• Went to the grocery store.  Josh and the family are coming for the July 4th weekend.
• Friday.  Holiday.
• I went straight to the Orchard to work.  I pulled weeds.  I pulled up lots of swamp sunflower that was growing in my coneflower bed.  That stuff will take over!  I cut old blackberry canes - just a bit.  I wound new blackberry canes amongst themselves to keep them out of the paths.  I trimmed my Muscadine grape vines so that the grapes could get sun.  And I scooped soil back in to the beds where the armadillos had spewed it into the paths.  
• After that I headed to the Long Border to pull weeds and straighten up.  I cut back all the Indigo Spires salvia as well.  I pulled up swamp sunflower.  It has a strong will to live.
• Friday evening Josh, Amy and the girls arrived.  They stayed until Sunday afternoon.  We swam and had a great time.  The girls are so special.