Thursday, May 1, 2014

The Hiatus Is Over (mostly)



This is the view from where I sit at the computer.....things are getting very green.

(Hiatus refers to the long time between posts)

I hope things have settled  down here for a bit. We have had more company over the weekend. It is not definite; l9  year-old granddaughter will be staying with us this summer.  She wanted a break from her normal summer jobs and will be taking care of a neighbor's 8 month old son...just around the corner from us.  Another one of those "it's a small world" stories.

Not much has been happening either on the farm or in the house.  It has been much colder than usual and very windy.  Outside work has been kept at a minimum for me.

DH, of course, has normal cow chores.  Nothing has been done about fertilizer for the hay fields and ,as late as it is, maybe we won't be fertilizing this year.  The cows have grazed the hay fields since last May so they have been depositing natural fertilizer all along.

I did finally get 4 bunches of Candy onions planted.  I watered heavily afterwards and they have greened up nicely. They were sure sorry looking when I put them in, the tiniest I have ever received from Dixondale.

We have  finally ,over the period since  I last posted, received about l inch of rain.  We are still way behind.

Orchard:  peach trees (2) have bloomed and dropped blooms - ready for another spray
                apple trees (2) have also bloomed and need spraying

I still need to prune back the blackberries but will wait until it warms up.

Ornamentals:

The early dark blue/purple iris from the neighbor (aka Lisenby Iris) is starting  to bloom and I see buds on some other early ones.

 

A few money plants are blooming.  There aren't as many as in other years.  I do have two variegated ones left that I really like.

The daffodils are about finished.  The May ones (rustled from a ditch) are in their glory now.  I like their simplicicty.  I see they are still blooming in that same ditch.

I have managed to clean several beds and pruned all the clematis. We had a trailer load of debris  that my assistant hauled off the same day which set a new record for tidiness for us.

 I began the Edward Gloucher abelia pruning a couple of days ago and still need to top it back some.  I wish it were in another place...I need to try to propagate it.  You can't see here, but it does have some green tips showing.  Lots more debris to remove after the pruning.


I was worried the  poppies  weren't returning.......checked recently and found a lot of them.  The  should be thinned ruthlessly (the hardest thing for me to do!) so the blooms will be large.  I am always afraid I will remove a special color.....

Here is  another pleasant surprise.  I have been growing golden agastache from seeds from Kris for a couple of years now and it never self seeded.....this year after the worst winter in years look what I have!

See those tiny yellow seedlings to the left of the mother plant?  There are equally as many on the other side!  I will transplanting lots here and there for color and fillers.

The snowball bush by the back  door is in its green stage.  I sprayed it with dormant oil so I hope the aphids won't be so bad this year. Once you see them it is almost too late for control because the leaf curls so tightly around them.




8 comments:

  1. So glad to see you've got a bounty of Golden Jubilee. I just love that color. Mine do not seem to have survived our ruthless winter. Might have lost all the lavender, Cotton Candy agastache too. No sign of delphiniums either. We've gotten 2.5" of rain since Monday noon. Sheesh. Wish I could send some your way. Good thing I mowed the lawn Saturday. I see what you mean by your cedar bench. Doesn't look safe to sit on, but makes a nice garden object to grow around.

    Glad to see a new post from you, was wondering where you'd gotten to. Hope the GD visit this summer will be fun all around. Take care.

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    1. I have lost several things here. I know all the lavender is gone but they are easy from seed so I will do some more.

      We are still envious of your rain.

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  2. Glenda,

    Good to see you back, you've been real busy with company lately.
    Taking a nice break makes a world of difference.

    Temperatures are suppose to heat up the next several days, then it's back to severe weather come Wednesday through Saturday of next week.

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    1. We can do without the severe weather! It was 90 here yesterday....too much heat too soon.

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  3. I wrote a comment yesterday, then the computer crashed before I could get it posted. So, trying again....

    I wanted to tell you that two of my new irises are going to bloom! I'm so excited, I've never had new iris plants to bloom the first summer, can't wait to see the colors!

    Gosh, sounds like you're going to have a busy summer.

    We got a frost yesterday. I don't know the total damage for sure yet. Some things were covered but the temp gun said 28.

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    1. I am still waiting for Champagne Elegance to bloom and any others you might want. I am eliminating some beds and just waiting for the iris to bloom so I can label them before mowing it all down!

      We didn't get nearly that cold here.

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  4. I enjoyed looking around your yard and garden and seeing what is coming up or in bloom. I'm near St. Louis and it looks like things in my neighborhood are in about the same stage as yours. As cold as it was this past winter, I had gladiola bulbs survive and are sending up leaves now. I never got them to bloom last year. Maybe they will this year.

    That looks like a pretty snowball bush. Being a fellow Missourian, did you ever hear the saying that my mom, and now I say, that when the flowers on the snowball bush turn white we always have a cold snap, Mom used to call it Snowball Winter. There was another cold spell, I believe in April, when the blackberries bloom that she called Blackberry Winter. After this past winter, I have had enough winters of any kind for this year. I am ready for a nice spring.

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    1. Glad you stopped by! I have heard about blackberry winter but never Snowball Winter. It is in the 90's here so winter of any kind is a distant memory!

      Good luck with the glads; I never dig mine up and they last several years down here.

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