Lisa Bonassin's Garden: July 2021

This is a little Hairstreak butterfly on a celosia flower head.

Arrived on Friday evening by myself. Bert joined on Sunday. It's my week to work at home so we will be here a nice long time.

I took a walk around first thing. My observations: There are lots of weeds, but the gardens have seen worse days around here. For July, it looks pretty darn good. I will be here for most of the bloom period for my Philippine lilies, and my gingers, and I will be here for my John Fannick phlox (they have a good long bloom period - I highly recommend this plant). The Montbretia are still floriferous. There are lots of pretty things blooming as a matter of fact. The crinums and cannas and rudbeckia are all blooming as well. The Vegetable Garden is a mess. The gate was left ajar, probably came loose on its own, and the armadillos have been in there rooting around. And it is very weedy in there. I wish I could afford a big load of mulch, but alas, a $600 expenditure is not in the picture right now. All in all though, things look pretty good. I dread going down to the Orchard. I'm sure it needs help. I will devote a day to it this weekend, and I will get it under control. There are hundreds of lilies down there that are about to bloom. And I need to check on my grapes. If I decide to harvest honey this year, this will be the week to do it. But with all the rain I will have to see if they can spare it. Rain is good on the one hand, but when there is too much rain the bees can't forage for nectar and all the pollen is knocked off the flowers. July and August - ughhh. We just get through it. That's all we can do.
Saturday. Straight out to the Orchard. It was as bad as I'd feared.
Jujube was coming up everywhere. What a junky fruit tree. It suckers worse than anything I've seen including peppervine - and that's saying something. I cut and pulled up jujube everywhere I worked.
I worked in the Satsuma bed first. I cut it down to the ground because it died in the horrible February freeze, I've been meaning to get in there and do that. The Sweet Autumn Clematis was trying to climb around the dead branches. I cleaned up the clematis vines that were snaking along the ground. Weeded out all the crabgrass.
I worked for a bit in the Celeste fig bed. A blackberry had taken over in there, so I cut it back low. I might try to move it in the fall over to one of the blackberry bramble beds, so I didn't try to pull it out. Weeded crabgrass that was in reach, Cut away plants leaning in the paths. Then I stopped there.
Cut back my native orange lantana out of the path.
I spent the most time in the Jujube bed. It is one of the largest beds, and it was choked with crabgrass and little native grass that's unfortunately been allowed to get a toehold in there. It has sweet little seed heads, but it might as well be a weed where it's growing, because I don't want it there. It's hard to weed in there because I am trying to avoid pulling up my young coneflower that is growing amongst the weeds. That makes it a painstaking task. As I mentioned earlier in this post, I don't have any mulch to lay down after I clean out the bed which basically makes the whole effort a bit of a waste. Maybe I can convince Bert to go and get one yard of mulch for me. That will only be $35.
In for a bite.
Back out to the Orchard. I weeded the peach bed. Trimmed lots of grape vines that had no grapes on them. It makes it easier to prune them in the winter if I cut away all unnecessary vines. I brought my leather gloves down with me, and I wove blackberry canes amongst themselves to keep them out of the paths. Pulled up lots of basil that had taken root in paths. It was so hot, and went in to the house about 1:00, cleaned up and took a nap.
About 6:00 I went back outside and spread Indian Peace Pipe nicotiana seeds from the plants in my mom's garden over to a bed where I had Hinckley columbine growing, but the voles have gotten most of them recently. I will try and go in a different direction. I cut away lots of rogue vines off plants. The morning glories, moonflowers and sweet autumn clematis had really gotten crazy. I cut some Colonial White verbena and white salvia away from my white yarrow because it was smothering it.
Watered my Two Winged Silverbell.
Dragged the hoses around in the Rose Garden.
That was it for Saturday.
Sunday. Back out to the Orchard.
I trimmed more grape vines and cleaned out most of the long narrow bed where the grapes grow. The muscadines are beginning to turn slightly blush.
I wrapped blackberry canes together to get them out of paths, and I weeded everywhere that I cleared paths.
I weeded the apple tree bed at the back of the Orchard. There is a rose in that bed that I'm going to move in the fall. It's on its last leg from neglect, but I think I can save it.
I weeded the crabapple bed. Pulled up ageratum. There wasn't much because of the work I did a month ago or so. But it's good I'm keeping up with it. It spreads aggressively. There is a rose in that bed as well that I'm going to move in the fall. Same as the other - barely alive due to neglect.
I weeded paths.
Watered the Sam Houston peach tree.
I cut and then poisoned the cut of some peppervine vines growing up into my blackberries. I cut away some dead blackberry canes.
I spent about 4 and a half hours down there working. It looks pretty good. Came in for a bite to eat and a rest.
I went back outside for a bit and weeded around my Cinco de Mayo rose, around the pink phlox in the Star Garden and around the mock orange tree. I was only out about 40 minutes, but I was dripping with sweat and my clothes were soaked through. July and August - ughh! (Did I already say that?)
I had a light bulb go off about all these truckloads of debris that I end up with every time I work outside. Erosion control is one of the options to maintain your wildlife management tax exemption. Online they suggest cedar feathers as a great thing to use in ruts. I can use all the debris I collect. Usually it is either too woody or too intermingled with weeds to go into my compost piles. So we dump it in the woods. It seems to me that it would be perfect for erosion control. I will have to check with Amy, but it would make me so happy to do that because I am creating all this debris no matter what. I could merge two important things together. I was dreading the idea of driving around and cutting cedar limbs and laying them on the ground. Hot work when I'm already doing a lot of hot work.
I made one more foray outside to spray herbicide in the paths in the Star Garden and one really bad weedy spot in an unfinished spot in the Star Garden. I sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden. And I sprayed the dayflower here and there in the Daffodil border and the Rose Edge Border.
Monday. Worked. Before work I went out and weeded the Harlequin Glorybower bed. I started weeding in the Dining Room bed. It was so dense that I used the shovel. I have a lot of Philippine Lily seedlings in there, and I didn't want to just yank them up. I'm going to move all the ones that I dug up over to the Shade Garden. Lots more to do in there.
I finally got out to the edge of the Shade Garden and pulled up all the vine that creeps along the ground between the Shade Garden and the driveway. It comes up easily. It makes little tiny gourds that eventually turn black when they are ripe. It will carpet the ground and start to wind around plants it you let it. I want the Shade Garden to be at its best right now because the gingers are blooming. So pretty.
Weeded in the Vegetable Garden for a very short time. The only thing in there right now is sunflowers and amaranth and some herbs. Asparagus of course, but it's all gone to fern.
I finished cleaning out the Dining Room bed. That took some work. I pulled up or cut to the ground most of the wild petunia. I've decided I don't like that stuff. It looks pretty in a meadow, but it's too floppy and the flowers aren't showy enough to be in my garden, certainly not to the extent that it's made itself at home. Did lots of weeding. I cut away an old chicken wire barrier that had been there so long that lots of plants had woven their way into it. That was painstaking.
After work I spent about an hour weeding and organizing. I pulled up ageratum that was crowding plants I like. I pulled up dried up brown eyes (hard to believe there are any left to pull up this late in the summer). I cleaned out one of the small beds in the hinterlands of the Star Garden (always a job well done feeling). And I did lots of weeding down the long path. Cut back my blue mist flower along that path so that it would not stretch into the path and would not crowd my Peggy Martin rose. Did some weeding here and there in other places, wherever I happened to be walking. I filled the cadet to the brim with debris.
I bought a famous gardening book by Elizabeth Lawrence, and it arrived in the mail today. Looking forward to reading it!
Tuesday. Worked.
Before work I worked in the garden for about an hour. I went out to the Water Garden and filled the water tank. I watered the Philippine lilies out there. The nicotiana seed I spread in one of the beds has sprouted. I pulled a bag of cottonseed meal out of the greenhouse I have meaning to spread, I hope it's okay, it has been sitting on the ground for a long, long time. Moved the sprinkler.
I cleaned out the Archduke Charles bed and planted 4 Bluestar Creeper groundcovers and 2 groundcovers that were also labelled as Bluestar Creeper, but they aren't. They are something different.
Weeded along the white mist flower hedge.
During lunch I cleared out space around a couple of my roses in the Star Garden. Ageratum and salvia and weeds had closed in on them.
I dug a hole to plant the Burr Oak that Connie Gwyn gave me. Filled the hole many times with water to give it a good start, and then I planted the little baby and surrounded it with a thick wire barrier. The last Burr Oak Connie gave me was dug up by an armadillo and it died. I won't make the same mistake again. Regarding oaks - I have a lot of post oak seedlings coming up in many places. I used to pull them up. But I've stopped doing that unless they are smack dab in the middle of my butterfly garden. The ones growing around the house now won't last forever. I read in my book about Central Texas natives that post oaks like sandy soil with lots of aeration. You might think you're doing them a favor when you put irrigation around them, but in fact, it compresses the earth, and they don't prosper under those conditions. Interesting.
I noticed some Mexican Buckeye seeds had fallen to the ground, and I decided to pot them up to see if they will take root. I put 2 seeds in 4 little pots. Watered them. If they root I will give some to Amy and Anne Thames and plant a few for myself.
I weeded the moudry grass bed. I've come across a copperhead in there before, so I was wary. I worked in that bed for about 20 minutes. And right at the very end when I was almost finished up, I came across one. A big one. Yuck. I feel bad, he was moving away from where I was pulling weeds, but I can't have them in here. Bert shot it.
I tied back Coral Vine that climbs on a goat wire arbor in the Star Garden.
Weeded in the very center bed of the Star Garden, the very first bed I ever built in the Star Garden. Before there was even a star.
I opened up the bag of cottonseed meal and whew, it stunk like ammonia. I'm not sure if I should use it, but I also hate to waste it. I spread it on several roses and my potted plants in the Star Garden. Yuck. It stinks.
After work I went outside to do some weeding. I went back to finish the bed where I found the copperhead. I pulled weeds and waded around in there, and damn it! There was that copperhead again. I guess Bert missed it when he shot. I called Bert over and we looked for it. It must have gone down a hole because we never could locate it. It will live to terrorize me another day.
I moved on to the Vegetable Garden. It's great weeding in there because you can see the dirt. You know there are no snakes. I weeded around my young sunflowers and my amaranth. I sprayed herbicide on the paths. There is only one bed in there, the 16 x2 bed that I still need to clean out and the bed where the Luffa grows. . Everything else looks okay. Come August / September it will be time to plant the fall garden. Everything is at rest right now except for the beds with the sunflowers and amaranth.
I don't know if I have documented the toad situation in any of my blogs, but it is astounding, and I don't use that word lightly - astounding how many toads there are. Hence the snakes! I have never in the 14 years we have been here seen so many toads. Everywhere I walk they jump around. Tiny ones, small ones, medium size ones. They are in the dry leaves, under plants, in the paths, in the grass, on the trails. They are everywhere. All day long they are present in everything I do all day long. It's really the most curious thing. I guess it is due to all the rain we have had in late June and July? It will be a phenomenon that I will never forget. It's kind of funny. I used to collect frogs when I was a little girl. I kept them in a bucket. Now, I can't stand to touch them. But I'm not scared of them, I just wouldn't want to hold one.
Wednesday. Worked.
Before work I went out to the Rose Garden to begin fertilizing with the stinky bag of cottonseed meal. I fertilize 3 beds then set the sprinklers on the 3 beds and water it in. Then repeat. It will take all day or I will do it in the mornings over several days.
I also did some weeding in the Long Border.
During lunch I continued on fertilizing and watering in the Rose Garden. I weeded in the Long Border while I waited for the sprinklers to run for seven minutes each time. I laid all the debris in the erosion that runs down the road adjacent to the Long Border. I think that is a good one to experiment on because it is heavily shaded and not much grows there. Bert is concerned about trying to mow with all that debris in the ruts. But I don't think he has a need to mow that area. I'm not on board with the concern about mowing. You can't mow a rut, and there is nothing growing in a rut because - obviously - everything has and continues to wash away.
I went over to the Vegetable Garden and pulled weeds in the few places that I didn't get to yesterday evening. I didn't quite finish, but I made good progress.
I pulled up a bunch of ageratum and planted 3 small Acanthus Benny's Gold. I have grown the native orange variety, and I didn't find it particularly floriferous. And I spreads pretty strongly. I looked up one day and I had flame acanthus everywhere I looked. So I pulled every bit of it up. But I'm going to try it again. I read that they bloom on new growth, so perhaps I should have been shearing mine every 30 - 50 days. I saw it in the nursery, in really small pots (therefore inexpensive). I'm a sucker for small plants that get big. I always think they are a steal. I'm patient, I have plenty of time to wait for plants to get big.
I weeded along the edge of the path where the double orange daylilies grow. I can't spray herbicide there because it might get on the daylily foliage, so weeds always accumulate there. I knocked that out in 15 minutes or so.
After work I went out the Shade Garden to work in there. That creeping vine was all over the paths inside the Shade Garden, so I pulled it off the ground and off the plants it was wound around. I cut away Sweetspire that was growing in the paths. I cut away Snakeroot that was leaning into paths. There aren't really any weeds in the Shade Garden because of the heavy oak leaf drop that falls into the beds and that I rake into the beds each autumn. It's a woodland garden after all, and the oak-ey, mossy look is perfect. I moved a big dead mossy branch that had fallen from a tree into the path. I just moved it into the garden, it looks natural and pretty there. I sprayed herbicide in the paths to get rid of the tiny snakeroot plants that pop up. And finally I moved ten or so Illustris colocasia from paths in the Shade Garden over to a bed in the Star Garden. I wanted to move more, but I got a bit tuckered. And I wanted to stake a few gingers that are leaning into paths. They are about to bloom. And there are a few ferns that I would like to move to the Orchard. I want to plant them under one of the plum trees where it it is really shady, but that will be for another day.
In the early evening Bert and I drove around and around the property looking and talking.
Thursday. Worked.
Before work I did some more fertilizing in the Rose Garden. Pulled some weeds while I was in there. Tied back some heliopsis that was leaning into my Gaye Hammond rose.
I planted some Philippine lily bulbs in the Shade Garden that I unearthed when I was weeding in the Dining Room bed.
Weeded a bit in the Star Garden around my Biltmore Ball Gown Abutilon.
During lunch I cut away most of the thick stems from my Rudbeckia Maxima. I didn't want the seeds to fall into the beds. I have too many of them as it is. As soon as the weather cools down the beautiful blue-green leaves will start coming up and making big clumps, but until then, with their giant stems removed, it has really opened up the garden.
I put all the Rudbeckia Maxima stems in my experimental erosion control spot. That's some good hard plant material. It won't rot quickly.
I weeded in the Royal Velvet camellia bed in the shady part of the Star Garden. My young camellias really took a hit after the February freeze. I'm not sure Royal Velvet will make it. There's only 2 leaves on it. I gave it a really good soaking.
I dug up one of the acanthus I planted yesterday in the Star Garden and moved it to the Rose Garden. I cut away lots of dead verbena in one of the rose beds, so I planted it in the open spot. I also planted 3 of the Fruity Pebbles lantana that I potted up several weeks ago.
We went to JW's for dinner.
Friday. Worked. Can it already be Friday? The week flew by.
Before work I potted up 3 Fruity Pebbles lantana that were growing in paths. I set them on the porch to harden up after the shock. Offered one to Deb and she was really happy. She has grown it before and loved it. She lost hers along the way and never found it again.
I dug up 3 clumps of Southern Wood fern in paths in the Shade Garden and moved them under the plum tree in the Orchard.
There is lots of camphor weed in the upper and lower sections of the Meadow. I waded into the top section and pulled up a bunch of it. More to do. I will probably spray a bunch of it with herbicide. But I was already in there pulling up this tall narrow weedy thing that throws off a lot of seed. So I pulled up camphor weed as well. It's easy right now because the ground is soft from all the rain. I couldn't do that in a dry summer. It would be way too hard to pull them out of the ground.
During lunch I went down to the Orchard and sprayed herbicide. I weeded a few spots that I didn't get to last weekend. Sweat was pouring off me with just that little bit of effort.
I need to start picking muscadine grapes, I don't know, maybe I can wait one more week. I see them getting red. I will check on Sunday right before I leave and pick what I can.
I sprayed herbicide on a lot of the camphor weed along the edge of the Meadow down the hill. Camphor weed is really aggressive. You really can't let it take hold. It has a pretty flower, but it gets really big and woody. And throws off zillions of seeds. You wouldn't think that a meadow would be hard work. But the amount of plants that can get in there and choke out good ones is daunting. And crabgrass - that's a problem too. The timing of when you have to deal with it, or it becomes bad enough that you notice you have an emergency situation is July.
I finally got out to the beds in the Circle Drive and cut some pepper vine that had taken hold on top of my Sweetspire. I cut it at ground level and poisoned the cuts.
I did a little weeding in the Hot Border.
Koy and Cleo arrived about 6:00 and stayed the weekend.
Saturday morning Debra and Connie stopped by to get some Fruity Pebbles lantana that I had potted up. Connie brought me seeds of a variety of Texas Vervain that I had admired in her garden several months back. I am very excited about them and have already spread them around in some of my gardens.
I gathered seeds off my Heliopsis and potted them up. I'm leaving them in the front bed under the sprinkler.
The girls and I swam and zip lined and drove around in the cadet. We left on Sunday early-ish because they had tickets with their parents for an Astros day game.

I have two of these planted in pots around the pool. Even when I am here for a week at a time I don't water them much. And they have done extremely well. I recall that the description on the tag said they were drought tolerant which is why I bought them. The flowers are unusual, but non-descript unless you bend down to look at them. The foliage is their greatest asset. They are perennial and winter hardy - I don't know how hardy that is. Frost tolerant is what the description says. But so far I am impressed. The foliage is supposed to get really colorful in the cooler months. Around the pool I am growing aloe varieties, sedum varieties - basically cactus-ey stuff. And I have a copper canyon daisy out there. Rain and occasional watering from me has kept it all alive. I will move the copper canyon daisy to a bed in the Star Garden in the winter after it blooms. Although copper canyon daisy is drought tolerant, it has suffered more than the aloes and sedums and the euphorbias.

Below, this is a weird little aloe, Piranha aloe that I bought back in March. It has of course been very drought tolerant. In the photo above you can see the pretty red flowers it makes. The butterflies really like them.

I don't remember the name of this sedum. But, like all sedums - I love it. This one has been with me for many years. I made it through the February freeze like a champ.