A Week at the Farm August 27 - September 5, 2016

This is Obedient Plant.  It is a late summer bloomer (actually, it's a fall bloomer, but fall comes early in Texas.  As soon as the weather lets up just a little bit, the fall bloomers start blooming.), so it is in its element right now.

Arrived on Friday, my last day of work with DCP.  I begin my new job the Tuesday after Labor Day. A new beginning.

• The Schoolhouse Lilies and the Hurricane Lilies are beginning to bloom.  And one confused Johnson Amaryllis has thrown out a bud.  Sometimes in the late summer when everything is gasping and then we get a steady week of rain, plants will bloom that normally bloom in the spring.  The Candida rain lilies are blooming everywhere as well.  Pretty little white flowers, I love them.
• Saturday morning I lingered in the house puttering around.  Eventually I made my way outside and spent some time trimming away things in paths.  I don't want to dodge around drooping plant limbs and branches all week, so that was my first job.  Everything is lush and healthy looking after all the rain.  I pulled lots and lots of weeds and trimmed the vines around the pointed arbor.  Everywhere I laid down mulch when I was last here still looks good - it's holding strong against the weeds. 
• I went outside after lunch for about 30 minutes and pulled up Mexicali Rose.  It has gotten out of control.  I pulled it up where is was intermingled with my oakleaf hydangeas, gingers, colocasia, and turk's cap.  Everywhere else I sprayed it with herbicide.
• Sunday morning, up early because I couldn't sleep.  Outside early to work.
• I spent the morning in the Star Garden.  I pulled wagonfuls of weeds and then laid down mulch.  I used three truck loads of mulch.  Made good progress!
• Swept, mopped and put down floor shine, cleaned toilets and sinks.  Napped.
• We had a late afternoon rain shower.  It was sunny and the rain looked so pretty and shiny.  It dropped the temperature considerably and it was really pleasant outside.  Bert and I went out by the fire pit where he was burning off debris - the fire undeterred by the rain.  He pushed me in the tree swing and I closed my eyes and smelled the wonderful smells of smoke, wet earth,  and almond verbena,   The dogs barked at the coyotes that were just beginning to howl and gather for their evening forays.
• Lobster bisque and salad with roasted beets and burrata cheese for dinner.
• Monday morning it was pouring rain at first light.  I sat on the porch swing with my coffee and watched the rain.
• Drove into town with Bert to drop off the Murano.  The AC went out when I was driving it here on Friday.  
• Made mushroom soup when I got home.
• I weeded then mulched the big center flowerbed and some surrounding areas. with a truckload of mulch.  That's the only work I did on Monday.  Napped and watched Game of Thrones after that small bit of work.
• Quail stuffed with cornbread hatch pepper dressing on a bed of beet greens in garlic and balsamic vinegar dressing for dinner.  Peaches stewed in brown sugar, vanilla, and orange juice with heavy cream for dessert.
• Tuesday.  The week is slipping away so quickly!
• I staked my Pringle Aster.  I always try bamboo stakes first, but they aren't strong enough.  The Pringle Aster that I had staked with bamboo had fallen over, so I propped it up with a 4 foot piece of rebar that I hammered into the ground.  We have a bunch of it, and it works much better than bamboo stakes.  I pulled up a bunch of perennial ageratum that was crowding my Gruss an Achaan rose.
• I spent about an hour tying and pruning my 3 climbers in the Star Garden (Veilchenblau, Cl American Beauty, and Climbing Pinkie).  I cut away dead branches, cut away branches that were growing wrong, and tied up a bunch of canes against their supports.
• Bert and I drove to Austin and had lunch at the Oasis on Lake Travis.  The last time we were there the lake was nothing but sand bars.  Now it is completely full and so pretty again.  We sat outside, there was no humidity - imagine - August and pleasant enough to sit outside thanks to the rains we have been experiencing (and huge fans situated all around the Oasis patios).
• When we got home I spent some time pruning and tying my Zepherine Drouhin climber that climbs up the cedar trellis.  Did a little weeding in the Long Border.
• Blew off the front and back porch with the blower.
• Sprayed herbicide on the driveway along the front of the house and in the Star Garden.
• Pulled a tick off Cosmo's ear.  But will she thank me?  Cats.  Grr.  Ingrates.
• Wednesday.  Three truckloads of mulch in the Star Garden.  I covered 3 of the beds that lead to the Rose Garden and spots here and there that I missed on previous efforts.
• Tied up some sagging perennial ageratum.  It is just about to bloom.  It is always so pretty in the fall.
• Fertilized my Banana Shrub, Sweet Olive, Bayse's Blueberry rose and Gruss an Aachan rose.  Mulched all.
• Wednesday, more work in the Star Garden mulching and cleaning up debris.
• Bert and I drove in to Round Top and ate lunch and did a little shopping.  We bought a piece of art from one of the galleries.  Pretty little copper leaf framed in a spotted wood frame, the wood is Australian (I've already forgotten the name of the wood). 
• Drove to Houston Wednesday evening because I had an early doctor appointment to get the stitches removed from my back and a hair cut appointment.
• Returned to the farm Thursday about noon.
• I worked in the Orchard all afternoon.  All the headway I made over several past weekends when I worked and worked and worked was not even noticeable.  Weeds everywhere.  I resolved to never, ever again be without a pile of mulch.  It is just not worth doing all the weeding without immediately mulching the area.  Too bad mulch is so cost prohibitive.  Boo.  I weeded, watered my young fruit trees, and pulled up spent zinnias.  I pulled off the flowers and dried seed heads and threw them in the beds so they will re-seed.  I spread a truckload of mulch in one of the beds I cleared.  I covered a good portion of one of my biggest beds (the Mayhaw bed).  And I made good progress weeding so that two more of my biggest beds are ready to mulch. 
• Bert and I went into Round Top and had a glass of wine at the Prost Wine Bar which is located in an absolutely beautiful old building that sits under an ancient oak tree, and we ate at Napolitana, another beautiful old building with a stone cellar where they used to make beer back in the day.  A very nice evening. 
• Friday.  I went to work in the Orchard.  I mulched 3 beds that I weeded yesterday.  I also cut away the dried iris fronds in the bed at the front of the Orchard and spread mulch over the bed.
• Made some Spanish soup. 
• Made Osso Buco for dinner.
• Pulled weeds here and there.
• Bert played golf in Houston and got back about 4:00.  He brought with him a painting we had admired at an art gallery in Round Top.  It suits us both - it looks like something "real" (in this case a fish) - so that satisfies his art preference-, and it is also abstract ( it is only the tail of the fish) so it satisfies my art preference.   We hung it above the fireplace.
• Saturday, I laid down one wheelbarrow of mulch over a bunch of rain lilies where the hard rains had washed away all the soil, and they were all exposed.  Pulled some weeds in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
• Headed to Conroe for Koy's birthday party.  One year old yesterday.  Big turn out - Amy's mom and dad, her two nieces and her brother Eric, Mark, Linda, Paul, Katie, Mom and Dad, Nancy (Lisa is in Missouri helping with her dad - sadly, fell and broke his hip and had a heart attack), Blake, Sam, and Mr H,.  Max and Chelsea were at an OU game, and Rita was out of state visiting a friend.  Got back to Burton about 4:30.
• Sunday.  Up early and right to work.  I mulched around all the Autumn Sage along the back of the house, the bed with the yellow blooming shrubs (cannot remember the name, it just won't come to me no matter how hard I try) and around the two Banana Shrubs and around the Angel Trumpet.  I fertilized and mulched the Climbing Pinkie rose and the bed with the Archduke Charles rose.  And I mulched here and there where I thought it was needed. Good work! 
• One of the things on my list of things to do while I was here was to dig up my Monbretias and move them.  They are currently in a spot that is too close to a path, and they lean over and block the way.  It is also not sunny enough in there current spot.  So I dug them up.  I have always heard that Montbretias multiply like crazy, but this is insane.  I must have several hundred bulbs to find homes for, no exaggeration necessary. They are a bit of a tricky bulb to find a spot for because they don't like to be dry.  They have to have some irrigation, I've found.  Well, tomorrow I will have to find a spot for all of them.
• Monday - my last day of vacation!  I was up early and out to the Orchard.  I laid down 3 truckloads of mulch, pulled lots of weeds and planted lots of my Montbretia bulbs.  I'll find a home for the rest of them next week.  I also trimmed some blackberry canes so I could make my way to the back of the garden.  I mulched the four roses that are down there, I had already fertilized a couple of days ago.  I sprayed herbicide.  It rained shortly after I sprayed, hope nothing disastrous happens!
• Cleaned the kitchen sink and toilets just before I left.