A Weekend at the Farm 06/12-13/10

This is Big Daddy Hydrangea.

Spotted a Painted Bunting today. They are so pretty! There was an inch of rain in the rain gauge. We always need rain.

• Staked my zinnias.
• Staked my Raspberry Wine Bee Balm and my Pringle Aster. Pringle Aster will get woody by late summer so it is best to stake it while the branches are still green and pliable. You can count on Pringle Aster to fall over if it is not staked.


• Picked lots of tomatoes. I lost about 10 of them to the stinkbugs, unfortunately. Caprese salad tonight.


• Pulled up some of my purple carrots for dinner. Also picked the blue popcorn (seeds my son gave me for Christmas). Bell peppers, jalapenos, and eggplants also went into the basket. Time to eat fresh veggies!


• Deadheaded my roses. The Rose Garden looks good. There are lots of roses blooming. I can see the beginning of black spot, though. I'll have to spray tomorrow.


• Weeded, weeded, weeded.


• Sprayed my zinnias for powdery mildew.


• The armadillos are being very uncooperative. They dug up my Bluebell bulbs, my Blood Lily bulbs, and some of my Elephant Ears.


• Worked in the Vegetable Garden for a bit. Between last weekend and this weekend there was a tremendous spurt of growth in all the vegetables. Some of the tomato plants had fallen over, the bean vines were climbing all over the eggplants, and, of course lots of weeds.
• Fertilized with fish emulsion some of my roses, elephant ears, asparagus, hollyhocks, many plants in the Star Garden, my blueberries, and everything around the pool.


• One of the sprinklers on a timer broke with the valve open instead of closed. Hard to say how long the sprinkler had been running - a long time it looks like.


• Drove into town on Saturday to get more bamboo stakes, fungicide, fish emulsion, and a new sprinkler timer.
• Sprayed the roses with black spot early Sunday morning. I need the fungicide to dry before the bees begin foraging. It would not be good if they carried it back to the hive.
• Cleaned the birdbaths.
• My husband killed two snakes by the pool. They were writhing on the ground together mating. I'd never seen anything like it, fascinating.
• Swam in the pool and sunbathed.
• Took a long walk around the place.