Josh, Amy, Koy and baby Cleo stayed with us on Saturday night. Lots of fun spending time with them. Cleo is just beginning to walk which is adorable to watch.
- Friday evening when I arrived, all I did was stroll around.
- Saturday morning I cleaned house - swept, mopped, cleaned the guest bedroom and guest bathroom.
- I mulched the front flower beds along the front of the house.
- I planted 6 Helen von Stein lamb's ear in the Medicine Garden. This variety of lamb's ear is superior to any I have grown. The leaves are bigger than other varieties, and it will stay around for years. The small-leaved variety seems to melt away in the hot, humid Texas summers.
- For the rest of the day Bert and I played with our little visitors.
- Josh and family left mid-morning on Sunday.
- I sprayed my roses with fungicide. I now have roses in the Rose Garden (of course), along the front of the house, several throughout the Star Garden, and 4 in the Orchard. So spraying for black spot takes some time.
- I have a beautiful French marigold plant that came back from last year, so I sprayed that as well - trying to avoid rust if possible.
- I also sprayed my Banana Shrubs with fungicide. They are getting some sort of ick - loaded with buds, but the leaves are getting mildew-y and spotted. I've looked on line, but I can't find any information about these shrubs being susceptible to any particular disease. Hopefully the fungicide will resolve the problem.
- I planted 3 Mexican Mint Marigold in the Star Garden for some fall color. This a fall-blooming perennial herb that has a scent and flavor similar to tarragon. It's nickname is Texas Tarragon.
- I planted 2 purple salvia greggii, one in the Rose Garden and one in the Star Garden. Greggii are very drought tolerant. The vivid purple color of this greggii is so pretty, when I saw it I wanted it (even though I have so many greggii that I feel like they are becoming like weeds). All of mine are red or hot pink which is why I just had to have this purple color.
- I sowed Candy Stripe Cosmos seed in half of the large area in the bed in front of the dining room window. Several weeks ago I turned the bed over trying to completely rid myself of the Four O'Clocks that were in that bed. I was able to get (hopefully) all of the bulbs dug out, but there are zillions of seeds in the soil that are starting to sprout. Four O'Clocks throw off a lot of seed. So I hesitated sowing the entire area with cosmos seeds in case I have to dig out the bed again. I'll see what I'm up against. That bed is against a western-facing wall, and the sun has not yet gotten high enough to cast any sunshine on that flower bed. That's another reason I'm waiting to sow cosmos throughout the whole bed.
- I watered in the Greenhouse Garden throughout the day. I have several new plantings in there. The timer is broken, it got a crack in it sometime this winter due to the freezing weather. I will have to replace it. I got everything pretty wet, but it's getting warm, so I need my sprinklers working on a regular basis!
- I planted 6 of the small variety lamb's ear near the Helene von Stein lamb's ear. I bought them before I stumbled upon the superior lamb's ear. Stuck them in the ground anyway.
- I loaded the wheelbarrow several times with decomposed leaves from a pile I made two years ago. Dumped it in the new corn bed I made in the Vegetable Garden.
- Weeded, weeded, weeded.
- Amy and Jeff came over late in the day. I wanted to show her my Purple Phacellia. It is a wild flower that showed up several years ago in my Vegetable Garden, and now I have it growing throughout my gardens. She had never seen it before. I will give her some seed when it goes to seed.
- My neighbor Eric brought me two scoops of horse manure in his tractor and dumped it outside of the Vegetable Garden. So I'm excited about that! That's like gold!
- Drove in to work on Monday morning.
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