Friday morning shopping with Blake. Looking for a dress for her baby shower. We had lunch at PF Chang's, and then I headed to the grocery store on my way out of town. Stopped at Arbor Gate and bought 2 Thryallis and a couple bags of organic fertilizer.
- The obedient plant has finished bloom so I waded in there in my trusty rubber boots and started pulling a bunch of it up. It was taking over the middle bed of the original Star Garden. I was happy to see my Marie van Houtte rose was still alive despite being over taken by obedient plant. I made a wide berth around the rose which I planted in the spring, so it is still very small and has to be given some extra attention. Fertilized it and watered it - a little loving care for sticking it out all summer buried under obedient plant..
- Spent most of the morning in the Orchard. There is a fungus spreading in some of the crushed granite paths. It is very unsightly, and not affected at all by herbicide. I have sprayed it many times, and it does not seem to be at all affected by it. I raked the fungus into piles, dumped it into the wheel barrow and hauled it to the woods. I also used my hedge trimmers to cut back blackberry vines that were growing into the paths. I pulled weeds in the grape vine bed, and then I spread grass clippings on all the disturbed earth. Sprayed herbicide in the paths and along the fence line that encircles the Orchard. Weeded in all the beds.
- Cut back lantana around the pool that was getting pretty shrubby. One of my least favorite chores.
- This weekend I am watering all the beds in the Greenhouse Garden. It's so hot and dry, all the shrubs and trees are suffering.
- Pulled up raggedy, overgrown zinnia plants in the Star Garden and reseeded the areas with dried seed heads.
- Weeded, weeded, weeded, weeded - everywhere.
- Worked in the Star Garden for a long time on Sunday morning. I cut away plants extending into the paths, pulled weeds, pulled up old zinnia plants. I cleared out a bed that I have been looking at with dismay for a long time. It was choked with the weed I hate most of all. It has long (six inches long), thick roots, and it is a bitch to pull up. You have to dig way down under the dirt to get to a knobby place. If you don't grab onto that knobby place the plant will break away from the roots and become even stronger than it was. This weed is truly my enemy. Hauled 4 wheelbarrow full of debris to the burn pile.
- I tackled the African Hosta bed on Sunday. The armadillos have completely uprooted all my African Hostas. I have many, many hundreds of bulbs in that bed. I encircled it with wire flower bed edging that is about two feet tall. I know armadillos can climb over a two foot tall border, but I'm hoping that their blindness will make them move on when they can't easily get in. I gathered up all the uprooted bulbs and filled two grocery sacks full of them - one for my sister and one for Janine. I replanted zillions of them in the hosta bed, and I planted the rest in the new beds I built in the Greenhouse Gardens. That project was a bitch. Hot and unpleasant. But I will be happy about it next spring when I see all my new hostas in the Greenhouse Garden.
- Planted two Thryallis in the bed next to the new deck. It needed to be spruced up now that we have a pretty deck to sit on!
- Napped and swam on Sunday.
- LWanna came up on Sunday to work on Bert's computer.
- It's so dry. It hasn't rained in many weeks. I struggle to keep everything watered . It is the places on the outer edges of the gardens that are so dry. Hauling water 2 gallons at a time is not easy!
- I've been watching a huge woodpecker all weekend. He likes to go into the Shade Garden. He is over a foot tall. Really interesting-looking.
- Bumble bees were busy this weekend. They were all over the zinnias.
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