Some Flowers Blooming Now May 1, 2024

 I spent the day working from here, and the flower were so pretty.

This is a canna bud. 

Valentine rose and coreopsis

Horsemint

Caldwell Pink rose

Standing Cypress

Catchfly and coreopsis

The Rose Garden

Brown Eyes and Clasping Coneflower

New canna growth

Daylily

Giant coneflower

Black and Blue sage and Brown Eyes

Some Flowers Blooming Now April 28, 2024

 This is Globe Mallow.

A pretty amaryllis given to me by Amy.

Passalong Pink verbena.

Parrot gladiola, an old passalong bulb (or corm, never sure which is which).

Salvia.

Giant Coneflower

A daylily that I bought from the grower on 290.

Coreopsis

Ox Eye Daisy

Verbena bonariensis

Standing Cypress

Spider Flower (Cleome)

Martha's Vineyard rose.

 

Crawfish Boil Week April 16 - 21, 2024

 

Tuesday.  Up early.  Cloudy morning.  I went down to the Orchard and cleaned out part of a small skinny bed and planted a Duelberg that I had dug up some time ago.  Then I used part of a quart of paint that Bert bought and painted the back part of the fence in the Orchard.  I used up that quart pretty quickly, need more.

I sowed 14 four inch pots with Texas Star Hibiscus seed that I got at the plant swap.  They are for the plant sale in October.  Now, all I have to do is keep them alive for six months.

Wednesday.  I worked in the Orchard for a couple of hours pulling up big weeds and wildflowers and hoeing the tiny ones.  I sowed lots of Cosmos seed.  Looks like the rabbits ate all my zinnia seedlings that I sowed a couple of weeks ago.  

I worked in the Rose Garden for an hour or so spot watering and weeding.  I cleaned out the Caldwell Pink bed, added some compost and sowed lots of Cosmos seed.

That's it!  No time for anything else except cooking.

Texas Orange Lantana April 17, 2024

This is when Texas orange lantana looks best, in the spring when it's very compact.  By the end of the summer it is huge and woody, stems sticking out everywhere.  I'm sure there is a way to make it look better, but if you do nothing, it's kind of a mess by mid-summer.

 

Archduke Charles April 16, 2024

 Archduke Charles looked pretty this morning.  

Weekend at the Farm April 12 - 14, 2024

 

I staked several clumps of flowers leaning into Paths in the Star Garden.

I sowed lots of Cosmos seed in the Star Garden

I potted up a Colonia White verbena for the plant swap, it's not native, but it has a storied past.  George Washington grew it at Mount Vernon and wrote about it in his plant journals.

Saturday.  Spent all day at the Antique Rose Emporium for the NPSOT NICE program engaging with their customers about planting natives.

Did nothing after that, I was kind of tired, plus I have never been able to jump into garden work halfway through the day when it is already hot.

Sunday.  Up early.  I helped Bert repair the tri-pod in the Rose Garden that holds up my once-blooming climber (can't come up with the name at this moment).  The tri-pod fell over  in the high winds we had last week.

I worked in the apple bed in the Orchard.  I turned over the soil, cleaned out the bed, and sowed lots of cosmos and zinnia seeds.  I pulled up lots of Brown Eyes while doing it.  But I have a terrific display of Brown Eyes coming in May down there, and I can spare a bed. Weeded while I was down there.  Did some clean-up.  I'm trying to get that garden under control before the dog days of June and the mean dog days of July, August and September.  

I potted up 10 4 inchers and sowed Alamo Vine seed for the plant sale.  Also collected some for Michael.

I planted a Carolina Buckthorn in the Boardwalk Gardens.  

I planted a Martha Gonzales rose in a bucket in the Rose Garden.  Weeded a bit while I was there. 

I sowed the Rattlesnake Master seeds that Michael gave me.  I sowed them under the shade of a Mexican Buckeye.

Lastly, I planted an Asclepias tuberosa next to the other ones I planted  a few days ago.  And I planted an Asclepias incarnata in the wet bed near the button bush.

Weekend at the Farm April 6 - 7, 2024

 

I repotted my Mission from Mars mangave, and I used the broken pot to plant Painted Desert mangave.

I pulled up artemisia in Water Garden.  That will be a lifelong task.

I ran the weed eater across some rescue grass in the Meadow so that it wouldn't go to seed.

I ran the weed eater across some weedy growth in the Rose Edge Border.  The entrance to the Rose Garden was looking pretty shabby.

Pulled up Cleaver weed that was crawling all over the area next to the Vegetable Garden.  I did that way too late, and I will have a big problem with that weed next year.   Cleaver has the sticky balls that cling to everything - dog fur, clothes, etc.  On the bright side, it is edible.

I weeded the beds in the Vegetable Garden.

Turned the compost and created a new pile.

Added compost to the long bed in the Vegetable Garden and sowed corn seed.  Pulled up poppies to make room

Raked in the Vegetable Garden.

Planted 2 Asclepias tuberosa, 6 Strawberry Fields, 3 Twistleaf Goldenrod, 1 Fireworks Gomphrena, and 2 Cleome.

Spot watered in the Rose Garden.

I potted up an Inland Sea Oats and 2 swamp sunflower for the plant sale.

I put a Frosted Elegance mangave in a pot, and I put a small Pineapple Express into a new pot, the old one was broken.

Cleared out tall winecup from around the althea seedlings that Tommy gave me.

I watered in the Greenhouse Garden, I see some of the groundcovers trying to make a comeback.

My Virginia Creeper groundcover plan is working.  I'm very proud of it.  I'm starting to get some pretty growth on the ground in the Shade Garden and the Circle Drive.

Sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden, the Star Garden and the Orchard.

I cleared out part of a bed in the Orchard and sowed a bunch of zinnia seed.