It's the end of the weekend and I'm battered and bruised with skin rashes and bug bites. Something got me on the underside of my arm when I was reaching into some salvia to cut it back. It's really been giving me fits, it itches like crazy, but not the mosquito or ant kind of itching (I'm an expert on those kind of bug bites).
- My husband's family came to Burton for my mother-in-law's 84th birthday on Saturday. We had a fish fry. It was fun. We swam. I played with the baby. She's so sweet!
- I finally planted some Black Seeded Moudry grass that I dug up several months ago and had piled in the yard. It had been sitting there for so long that it had rooted in the spot where I tossed it in a pile. I planted it around the pool in an empty space. I poked holes in the soaker hose with a tack because there wasn't enough water getting to end of the soaker hose where the grasses were planted. That worked really well! A little fountain of water is shooting up and falling down on the grass - better than no water at all. So I poked holes in the hose everywhere I thought that not enough water was getting to the plants. I'm happy with the results. I think that over time the soaker hose has sort of calcified and does not deliver water very well. Our well water is full of particulates and yucky stuff that is corrosive. Needless to say I don't drink our well water.
- I watered the Fringe Tree, the Mexican Buckeye that is not in a watering zone, the Big Daddy Hydrangeas, and the Desert Willow. I also watered the Butterfly Magnolia, but it is on its last leg, and I intend to dig it up in the fall and replace it. I'm tired of waiting for the damn thing to bloom, and it looks like this year it's going to give up the ghost.
- I fertilized the asparagus.
- I mulched the daffodil bed and one of the beds in the Shade Garden with Mojito Colocasia growing in it. I also mulched around some of the gingers I planted last spring. The mulch is nearly gone, only a few wheelbarrows of mulch left. And so much area left to cover!
- I cut back all the Tuber Vervain in the Master Bedroom bed. That was a nasty job because spider mites or some other juice-sucking insects had gotten to it, and it was crispy. It gave me a rash sticking my arms in there grabbing handfuls of it and cutting it away from the roots. It took a long time, too - about an hour of solid work. I had to haul away 3 wheel barrow piled high with debris and dump it in the woods.
- Worked in the Vegetable Garden for a while. I pulled up all the squash and cucumbers. The roots of the cucumbers were completely deformed from nematodes. I'm going to cover all the beds with black plastic sheeting next weekend and try and get rid of the nasty things. I'll plant my fall garden throughout the Orchard and other places or skip it altogether. I have to get rid of the nematodes. It's a waste of time planting a garden and having such a low yield. By the time the plants are mature enough to produce a crop, they wilt from the nematode infestation. Totally discouraging.
- I sprayed herbicide everywhere - the Circle, the driveway, the Rose Garden, the Vegetable Garden, the Long Border, the Orchard, the Infinity Garden, around the pool, along the Boardwalk, and the Star Garden.
- I moved some more Columbine seedlings that had sprouted in the paths. I'm moving them to the beds where I planted the Hostas. I give up - Hostas won't grow in Texas. It's too hot. I accept it. Colocasis, Sweetspire, Mock Orange, Columbine, Gingers - I will stick to those.
- My husband made a sculpture out of an old conveyor belt that his son found behind a shed in his back yard when he bought his house. It is pretty neat looking. He dug a hole, filled it with cement and stood it up. Looks like art to me!
- Weeded, weeded, weeded.
- Fertilized here and there.
- Everything looks good. Although July is very hot, it can be really pretty if you get a decent amount of rain. It's never enough, but we've had enough rain to keep things fairly healthy looking.
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