Weekend at the Farm July 29 - 30, 2017

This is basil.  I bought two types of basil this year.  I believe this is Siam Queen basil.  The flowers are extremely decorative, and the scent is very spicy.  I also grew purple stem basil.  That one was really gorgeous.  It has a large, rounded form with long spikes of purple flowers.  A real show stopper in the garden.  Both of them are pretty.  

Arrived Friday evening, left Sunday midday.  Hot.  Texas in July.

• It's that time of year when most plants are struggling.  
• I spend most of my time watering in the places where I don't have automatic sprinklers installed.
• Watered in the Rose Garden in the morning.
• I loaded three loads of mulch into the cadet and spread it across the Daffodil Border.
• Weeded in the Star Garden.  
• I spent some time in the Vegetable garden deadheading zinnias and pulling up the last three tomato plants.  I pulled all the bird netting off the goat wire arbor as well.  I spread zinnia seed in the beds.  And I cut back some Mexican Sunflowers that were getting really unruly. 
• Deadheaded my Giant Rudbeckia in the Star Garden and took a bunch of seed heads down to the Orchard.  I have an area in one bed that is kind of like a dead zone - nothing much grows there.  I spread the seed throughout the area.  First I roughed up the soil, then I tamped it down after I spread the seed.  The seed heads made a lot of seed - hundreds.  Hopefully come next spring I will have lots of seedlings.  Giant Rudbeckia is a perennial, so I'm hoping this solves my dead zone problem permanently.
• Watered in the Star Garden.
• Sunday.  Continued watering in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden.  
• I lost a couple more roses.  Lady Hillingdon is gone and Soncy is gone.  Maybe Julia Childs too, I will know for sure next weekend.
• I spent some time weeding in the Star Garden.  I filled the wheelbarrow several times with weeds and plants that were leaning into the paths.
• Sprayed herbicide - a little in the Shade Garden and driveway, the Rose Garden and here and there in the Star Garden.
• We left about noon to go home, get cleaned up and go to Mom and Dad's house.

Weekend at the Farm July 21 - 23, 2017

It is extremely hot outside.  I haven't been here for several weeks.  And when I have been here I have been unable to do much of anything because of time constraints.  There has been no rain to speak of, and I've lost several more of my roses which is very upsetting.  But I will soldier on as I always do.  I will replace the roses in the fall.

• Friday evening when I arrived I watered several roses in the Rose Garden.  But other than that I didn't venture outside - too hot.
• Saturday morning - up early.
• I spent the morning watering with my small-area sprinklers in the Medicine Garden, the Star Garden, and the Rose Garden.  In between moving the sprinklers I weeded in the Star Garden.  I started with the Star Garden because I see it all the time since it's next to the house.  It's best to get that cleaned up so I don't feel discouraged the entire weekend!  I weeded, cut away plants that were crowding other plants, pulled up several Mexican sunflowers that died from lack of water and then spread the seed everywhere, cut away plants leaning into the paths, deadheaded zinnias and verbena bonariensis and giant rudbeckia.  
• I vow to get a sprinkler system in the Rose Garden as soon as I get my bonus next spring.   No more of this extreme effort dragging around hoses.
• I worked until about 1:00 then went inside, just too hot to work.  
• Swam in the pool throughout the day.  The water is warm but not hot yet.  By August the water will be hot.
• Later in the day I cut back the Indigo Spires in hopes that I'll get a solid flush in the fall.
• Bert and I took a swim in the evening.  I love swimming at that time of day, everything is so still.
• Later we walked out to the road.  We saw a family of raccoons run into the woods. 
• Sunday morning, up early again.  I watched a pair of Painted Buntings at the feeder while I drank my coffee. 
• I began working in the Rose Garden - it looks horrible - dry, huge weeds in the paths and in the beds, and the roses are stressed.  I had to pull the weeds in the paths because they were too big to spray with herbicide.  I could spray them, but then there would be a huge dead weed there forever.  I pulled up dead verbena and other spent flowers.  And I watered.  Went in about 9:00 to eat and drink something.  I had already sweated buckets.
•  Back outside to the Rose Garden for another hour or so.  It looked pretty good by then, so I quit the Rose Garden.
• I planted two pots of gingers that a co-worker gave me.  I planted them in the Boardwalk Gardens near the White by the Gate Camellias.
• I noticed while I was planting the gingers that the white butterfly gingers nearby had bloomed and were on the wane.  That was disappointing!  They have the best smell - one of my top five favorite flower smells, and I missed the whole thing!
• Next, down to the Orchard to deadhead zinnias and spread the seed.  I did some weeding and cleaning up.  I could only stay out for 30 minutes at a time because of the extreme heat.  In and out, drinking water.
• I did some weeding in the back beds as well.  The baby Thryallis that I planted in that bed last spring are alive and well - still small but alive.  I'm a patient person, they will be pretty in a year or so.
• I had noticed several weeks ago that there were lots of dead twigs throughout the middle of my Franziska Krueger rose.  I cut all of them away.
• About 3:30 I went out to the Vegetable Garden and did some clean-up in there.  At this point in the summer there's not any point in trying to grow vegetables - way too hot.  I pulled up a couple of the tomato plants - the roots look like they are in good shape, no nematodes.  I'm wondering if all the sun they are getting now that we bulldozed is contributing to their healthiness.  Also, everything is well-mulched, nematodes don't like rich soil.  I picked some eggplants.  I did  lot of deadheading and spreading zinnia seeds.  My Vegetable Garden becomes a flower garden in August.  Mexican sunflowers and zinnias aplenty.  A half hour was all I could do before the heat drove me inside.
• All day the Painted Buntings have been providing lots of entertainment.  I counted 3 pairs at the feeder again and again.  So pretty!  I sat at the kitchen table and watched them through the binoculars.
• I fiddled with the sprinklers in the Rose Garden and the Medicine Garden.
• I sprayed herbicide in the driveway, the Vegetable Garden, the Orchard, the Medicine Garden and around the pool.
• Headed in to work on Monday morning.

Philippine Lily Blooms July 8, 2017

Philippine Lily Buds July 2, 2017

I have so many lilies in bud.  This is the result of years of patient seeding and waiting for the seedlings to get mature enough to bloom. And I'm still seeding.  Philippine Lilies make huge seed heads filled with seed.  I spread them all over the place, they sprout readily.