Drove up Sunday morning and returned home Sunday afternoon. Just needed to check on some things and throw down some seeds.
- Spread 20 packets of Dalhberg Daisy throughout the Orchard, the Star Garden, and the Long Border. Dahlberg Daisy seed is like dust. The seeds are so teensy tiny that you can't handle them. All you can do is open the packet and dump out the contents which is hardly anything. But they sprout really easily. I wish I could think of other very low growing plants that are so easy to grow from seed. I'm always on the look out for front-of-the-border seeds, but I don't know of any besides those.
- Spread an ounce of Lemon Gem Marigolds through the above gardens and the Rose Garden. An ounce of marigold seeds is a lot of seed. The germination success rate is 79%, but it is a lot of seed neverthless. I'm hoping to get some fall color by starting seeds now. The Lemon Gems are 60 days to bloom time. So that's about right.
- Planted 6 Lucky White Lantana which breaks my own rule about never planting anything at this time of year. I need some anchor plants in the Long Border, and I got impatient waiting for fall. Plus, next weekend I go to visit Max in Oklahoma and right after that I have surgery which will lay me up for quite some time. No time to spare! I pulled up lots of Verbena Bonariensis and Zinnias to give the Lantana room to grow. When the fall gets here I will plant some more large plants.
- I also planted 4 Powis Castle Artemesia in the Long Border. The white color will be very pretty in the Long Border which is all pastels. I hope they make it. I trained the sprinkler right on the new plantings, so they should make it. Most of the parlsey I planted two weeks ago was gasping, probably won't make it. I thought it was going to do fine, it looked fine last weekend. This weekend it was half dead. Summer is vicious around these parts.
- The Grass Garden needs some large plant replacements as well. I've lost some large grasses. When I arrived on Sunday I noticed that something chewed off a very large mound of grass right at the soil line. The plant was laying dead. It is a mystery to me what animal did that. That is not the first one that has been killed that way. I can't figure out what is doing it. There is no burrow, so it is not an armadillo. I don't think it is a mole because they eat worms. It is not a rabbit because they eat the tops of plants. Very strange. I have lost about 6 plants over the last year that way. Big plants!
- Watered here and there. Adjusted some sprinklers.
- Weeded in the Orchard. Cleaned up in the Orchard as well.
- Some of the Agastache I grew from seed are blooming! I planted them in the Orchard. That's a very rewarding feeling.
- Cleaned the bird bath in the Shade Garden and filled it full of water. It is a very deep bird bath so it will not dry out between visits. The birds can't bathe in it at first, but by the time Wednesday / Thursday come around half the water is gone and they can bathe. Running water in a fountain is the next thing on my (long) wish list.
- Sprayed herbicide here and there.
- Swam in the pool.
- Ordered some swiss chard, golden beets, and green bean seeds from Johnny's. I will plant the green beans in a couple of weeks to try and get a crop before the first frost.
Laura Bush Petunias bloom profusely in the heat of a Texas summer. This is the purple variety. Now a white and a pink variety are available. Seeds can be purchased in bulk at WildSeedFarms. In the spring, just throw down the seed (an ounce of seed is enough to cover a huge amount of land), and you will get plants everywhere. The plants in these pictures came back from seed thrown off last year's plants. I did not sow new seed this spring. Next spring I'm going to sow the white and pink varieties in my Long border and the Orchard. These petunias are great summer work horses, sort of like zinnias. They bloom in the hottest weather. Another plus is that deer and rabbits do not seem to like the vegetation. It never looks like it has been nibbled on.
