April 2020
April 2020
Friday 3 April
Finished mowing today. 14 ½ hrs. including hayfield and
cemetery which was very bad as I had a bad year mowing last year due to travel
and multiple breakdowns. I mowed some in March last year but fully mowed all
ending 8 May. The last mowing of the hayfield was done by John Leake as
hay---10 bales. The last mowing of the cemetery got lost. But the push mower
started easily!
No rain for the last week or so and I have been watering
pots and the new camellias.
The spring planted lettuce is now producing for salads. I
start with wild violets and then go to the ginko to get the still young leaves,
then the wild grape vine on the potager fence for young leaves, then mint
leaves, some leaves from the peas (no peas yet but blooms), small leaves of the
collards that are going to seed, cilantro leaves and some flowers, wild sorrel,
some arugula (wild and planted), curry leaves, starting to use sweet potato
leaves, parsley, sage, and I think that is it, each day for the salad. Add
olives, onions, feta, nuts from the larder and olive oil. The nasturtium are
not producing well.
Stuckey’s old red rose by the HVAC has burst into bloom.
Some nice blooms of Lamark (1830, Noisette) and a few Jeanne d’Arc (1858,
Noisette) The old pink by the well house and a few Chestnut roses (<1814, R.
roxburghii species, Chinquapin Rose, or Burr Rose). This rose was found by William Roxburgh,
assistant surgeon to the East India Company who found it in Canton, China, where
it had been grown for generations as Hoi-tong-hong. He sent it to the Calcutta
Botanic Garden from whence it reached England in 1820 and quickly traveled on
to America. There are blooms on the small Peggy Martin that I put out last year
on the south farm road fence.
The old pink cluster by the well house that I brought from
Alabama is seven sisters, a multiflora rambler from China, to Britain by 1817
by Charles Freville. It is getting buried in the mock orange. There is another
bush with a cabbage dark pink bloom that I planted but now have no identification.
I did well with roses at Belvidire in NC and pretty well in Gantt Alabama. I
brought several from Alabama but have not been very successful here. Why?
Stuckey planted a few roses. There is a nice Chestnut rose north of the rear
gallery. It is not in bloom yet. His red shrub by the HVAC is blooming nicely
this year. He also planted the pink climber on the potager fence, also not
blooming yet. Georgia Williamson reportedly had a large rose garden and a large
cooler in the garage to keep blooms.
The Lady Banks in the cemetery lives but doesn’t grow much.
It was a mature plant I brought from Alabama several years ago but it does not
thrive. The other roses in the cemetery have died except a small Hermosa (1840,
China)---a small compact China. Thomas Affleck of Natchez said in 1856, “Still
one of the best… and nearly always in bloom.” Mine just hangs on.
There is a field of yellow flowered weeds near where we feed
hay. I am trying to identify with my weed book. After picking a couple
specimens and looking through twice I think I have it---Corn Buttercup,
Ranunculus arvensis, Corn crowfoot, field buttercup, a native of Europe, found
in the upper South but down to the Mississippi Gulf coast.
One bright spot in the hot bed is a bright yellow iris, Louisiana
iris I think. Most LA irises are hybrids of about 4 or 5 species. I have put
some in the garden beds but they are too dry and I have now some in the
‘septic’ bog. (I need a better name for that.) Ogden notes they run about and
that is a good thing for me I think. My iris pseudacorus, yellow flag, at the
pond is fading, not as good this year as some years.
I think my Black Mission Fig is not coming out due to being
covered with a hill of fire ants. I have repotted. We’ll see but it looks bad.
It is one of five that I started last year. The others are all coming back from
the ground. That November frost again!
Monday 6 April
Now that my mowing is over I am working in the potager,
weeding, planting, also repotting some things: some dahlias, brugmansia, and
podocarpus that I am growing for the Lazarus House in Wilmington.
Monday 13 April
Storm last night with a lot of wind. Pots blown over. Cooler
this morning.
Last week I did a lot of weeding of the potager and planting
most of the beds. Harvesting lots of lettuce. Had a helping of snow peas
(edible podded peas).
The geraniums in the pots in the hot bed are bursting out.
The yellow iris continues and the snapdragons are reblooming. Two daylilies
bloom some. The Stuckey red rose by the
HVAC is having its best year ever. The Peggy Martin has several blooms. It has
not grown a lot in the past year so not a big show. The St. Joseph lilies have
faded. The indigo (Indigofera kirilowii) is putting on a very nice display. The
first purple glad (corn flag, Byzantine gladiolus) is in bloom. Most glads come
from Africa but these are scattered around Turkey and the Me3diterranean. They
are tough and thrive on heavy clay soils and may be seen in many gardens in the
South per Ogden. The kniphofia is in bloom a second year in a row in the hot
bed. Odenwald[1] says
they do not like a humid climate. Mine did not bloom for several years and
despite being in the hot bed it is not a red-hot poker, a more muted
yellow/orange.
Tuesday 14 April
It is chilly this am. 47°. The wild hogs have been at it
again. Dug up some daffadil beds and a huge hole in the NW corner. No getting a
mower over that. Armidillo digging can be mowed over, not hog’s. I have been
trying to level some with a rake and picked up the loose bulbs to replant
elsewhere, a whole 5 gallon bucket full. Will a light deter them? I googled.
They suggest it might if I bought their product. I have mostly heard of traps
and shooting. Will leave on the spotlight on the north side facing the problem
area.
I am still weeding in the potager.
Thursday 16 April
I found a bloom in the south drive bed that I can’t
identify. It is on a short stalk and with no leaves. The bloom looks like a red
amaryllis but a short stalk like an Aztec lily but the bloom does not look like
an Aztec lily. ?? I will follow the plant along.
Saturday 25 April
Just back from ILM. Still had some few azalea and camellia
blooms there. The crabapples had passed. Larry’s red cabbage rose in bloom. I
usually miss it. And they had crinums. Not at HG yet.
Here we had a big rain so most things are growing. Time to
start mowing again. Harvest today: lots of lettuce plus other odds and ends for
salad, snow peas and English peas and more fava beans than I have had in years,
green onions, collards, dewberries. The blueberries will be with us soon.
We do have some oleander starting to bloom and the magnolias
along the highway, even before we left last Monday.
Wednesday 29 April
Big rain last night, about 3-4 inches. I started mowing
Sunday and did 15 minutes before the front tire came off the rim. Still trying
to get it fixed.
So then I started painting the front lower gallery only to
be stopped yesterday with the rain.
The hot bed looks good with the geraniums. I got them
thinking they would do well with the dry summer. They are certainly good now.
The snapdragons may be ending but have provided a lot of yellow. There are 4
different daylilies blooming. The newer ones are really too short. There are 2
cannas about to bloom and a glad.
I have a bougainvillea in bloom and that is unusual for me.
The lantana have started on the drive bed.
The well house has the mauve hibiscus I brought from
Belvidire. There is the large climbing multiflowering pink rose. A nice
Noisette is in bloom. I really don’t know which, maybe Champney’s pink cluster,
or blush Noisette. There are more blooms on the chestnut rose. Stuckey’s red is
past its prime. There is a bloom on the Scotch rose which has never done well
for me here. The Jeanne d’arc near the bell is also in bloom.
The snow peas have slowed in the potager. I have planted my
three shishito peppers. Something got the others in the well house. I had a
great crop last year and we like them. I need more but am out of seed. The
lettuce is at its best right now.
Thursday 30 April
Got the tractor back late yesterday, ie. they brought the
new tire back and inflated the flat rear tire. At a cost of nearly $500!!! It
is just too much but what choice do I have. I can’t take the tractor anywhere
else since I do not have a trailer.
So when the wet grass dries a little today I will get back
to mowing. Yesterday I did an April fertilizer run for the camellias starting
with the Hollytone I had left. I finished up with left-over cottonseed meal and
also fertilized the new azaleas and roses.
I see magnolias in bloom in the park and the first color
(white) on the gardenias. A gladiolus is in bloom on the lower front yard,
Gladiolus dalenii. Ogden says these African irids are known as sword lilies, a
popular bedding flower since the mid 1800’s. The dalenii is known as the parrot
glad or Natal lily.
[1] Plants
for American Landscapes, Neil G. Odenwald, FASLA and Charles F. Fryling, Jr.,
ASLA and Thomas E. Pope.
[1] Plants
for American Landscapes, Neil G. Odenwald, FASLA and Charles F. Fryling, Jr.,
ASLA and Thomas E. Pope.
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