Weekend at the Farm August 25, 2018

This is Mello Yellow Hibiscus.

Charlie was with us this weekend.  Blake went to Chicago to visit a friend, and Mr. H and Sam had boy-time.  Charlie and I swam and took lots of walks, drove around in the cadet, played in mud, played in the sprinkler, and climbed into the fort and played.

• When he was napping I a had a little time to do some work.
• I weeded in the Star Garden.  I cut the seed heads off my Giant Rudbeckia and spread them in the big bed with the Satsuma.  After I gathered the seed I cut down the stalks and hauled them away.  Pulled up crab grass.
• Watered in the Rose Garden Saturday and Sunday. We are almost through with the challenge of July and August.  September is bad, but the days are shorter and therefore plants get a break.  I deadheaded zinnias, spread the seed, pulled weeds and generally straightened up.  
• I think this fall I'm going to re-do the decomposed granite in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden. I'm dreading it, but it needs it.  The last time I repaired the Star Garden was right before Josh's wedding, and I don't think I've ever done the Rose Garden.  It looks pretty sad.
• The butterflies are out in force.  Mostly Giant Swallowtails, the blue and black iridescent ones, and Gulf Fritillaries.  A few long tails as well.  September is the biggest month for sheer variety.  I have some really new, blooming stands of zinnias right now, and four or five stands of zinnias that will be blooming in a couple of weeks.  So, I'm ready for them.  The milkweed is blooming, but I've seen no Monarchs for quite a while. 
• I spent a little time in the Orchard (another area that needs crushed granite repair) weeding after I spread the Giant Rudbeckia seed.
• The seeds I ordered from Wildseed Farms arrived.  I ordered some for the gardens and some for the meadow.  I ordered the following:
• 1 pound of Texas/Oklahoma mix
• 1 pound of Red Drummond Phlox
• 1 pound of Tall Poppy Mallow
• 1 pound of Moss Verbena
• 1 pound of Standing Cypress
• Quarter pound of Bluebonnets
• 1 ounce of Larkspur
• 1 ounce of Corn Poppy
• Quarter pound of Purple Coneflower.

More Hurricane Lilies August 26, 2018

 I completely forgot that I planted some bulbs in my Black Seeded Muhly bed.

Weekend at the Farm August 17 - 19, 2018

Arrived on Friday morning.

• Friday.  I went straight to work in the Rose Garden watering and pulling weeds.  I also dug up the dead Belinda's Dream and turned the soil so that I could get all the Dayflower weed, my sworn enemy.  I spent some hours there working.  It was hot, but it's been worse.  I crawled into the Noisette bed and pulled Dayflower weed.  I began cutting away at the dead Lady Banks rose which was a sad task - I can't believe I lost her.  It is intertwined amongst the bed springs of an old bed, and it will be a chore getting her extracted from that.
• As is par for the course, some of the Mexican Torch flowers have toppled over in the Star Garden, so I hauled them away.  But the main part of the work was done on Sunday.
• I noticed that we have had a big needle drop off the pine trees near the Rose Garden.  I will rake them up this weekend and mulch in the Orchard if I can summon the strength.
• Saturday, up with the sun and after a quick cup of coffee I headed outside.  
• The Orchard was my first stop.  I brought my long leather rose pruning gloves, a rake, loppers, clippers and the cadet. My main goal was to clean out the dead canes from the blackberry beds. It's a chore I hate, but very necessary.  Blackberries grow on one year old canes, and after the fruit they die.  I was out there from 7:00 until about 11:30.  I cut out old canes from my four small beds of blackberries and the big one.  I carted four heaping loads of debris  to the woods and dumped it.  I weeded a lot as well.  I pulled vines out of the back blackberry bed.  There is a vine that comes back every year (because I always end up pulling it out after it sets seed - just can't get around to it in a timely fashion  for some reason).  And there are Poke Salad plants growing in the big bed (unfortunately), so I cut them out.  There is also a non-fruiting wild grape vine that insists on coming back every year despite my determined effort to eradicate it, so I pulled all of that out of the bed.  I pulled up spent zinnias and threw the seed heads into the bed.  The zinnia seeds that I threw on the ground when I cleaned out the bed where my avocado tree will eventually be planted have all sprouted.  I should have a good show in the fall.  Finally, I drove the cadet  over to where the pine needles were and raked up a truckload of them,  I spread them over all the beds I cleared out.  I didn't get the big bed finished, that will have to wait for another time.
• I went to the Vegetable Garden next.  It was a mess because all the Mexican Sunflowers (Tithonia) had toppled over under their own weight (which they do every year).  I topped a lot of them hoping they will get bushy.  I should have paid closer attention to them.  Fall is their bloom time, and I coaxed them along all summer, I don't want to lose all of them now!  They are the best butterfly magnets that I've ever grown.  I loaded the cadet twice with debris and dumped it in the woods.  I pulled lots of weeds and pulled up lots of spent zinnias.  I battled all the way to the back of the Vegetable Garden - the sunflowers were a massive mess - until I reached the armadillo hole.  There is an armadillo that has built a den that leads right into the Vegetable Garden.  He has rooted around in every bed and made a huge mess.  I wanted to block the hole with a big rock, but I was so exhausted from the work and the heat that I couldn't face the effort.  Tomorrow is another day.
• Sunday. I went out to the Rose Garden and mulched in all the areas where I pulled weeds on Friday.  The mulch pile is right next to the Rose Garden, so it was easy to load up the wheel barrow a half dozen times or so and mulch all the cleaned-up areas.  Pulled more weeds, but I didn't want to get bogged down in the Rose Garden because the Star Garden was my goal.
• I topped all my Mexican Sunflowers in the Star Garden.  Basically that means I cut about two to three feet right off the top of all of them to keep them from toppling over.  They grow to about 8 feet tall if they are not aggressively pinched back - which I failed to do this summer.  They sort of look like stick soldiers right now, but I expect them to leaf out and bloom in time for the butterfly onslaught in September.  Hauling away all those pieces of plants was a big job because it made for a lot of debris.  I also did lots of weeding.  And I took hedge trimmers and indiscriminately chopped away at anything leaning into the paths.  Then I raked it all up.  Deadheaded my Rudbeckia Goldsturm.  Major improvement.
• Next, I went to the back path to lay down chicken wire on top of the adjacent beds.  I documented most of that in my Snake in a Bucket posting.  From a work perspective, I weeded the beds, loaded the cadet with mulch and covered the area with mulch, then snipped the chicken wire so that it fit the area (around plants and bird bath), then hammered down the chicken wire with stakes.
• Showered and drove in to Brenham to get a new battery for the Mini Cooper.  It was dead on Saturday evening when we tried to drive it in to Round Top for dinner.  Then headed home to Houston.  Bert stayed to let the workers in on Monday for the crushed granite repair.

Hurricane Lilies August 19, 2018

Spots of red everywhere.  The most fun is seeing a flower pop up in a spot that I'd forgotten I'd planted one!  This year it was the area next to the Peggy Martin rose.  Six of them popped up, and I was pleasantly surprised at their appearance.

Snake in the Bucket August 19, 2018

We are getting the back path re-done with decompose granite while the guys are here to lay down the decomposed granite under the arbor (which we just had "straightened up" because it was leaning under the weight of the wisteria).  The armadillos are wreaking such havoc on the beds adjacent to the path, and therefore throwing soil all over the path, that I decided to make things difficult for them.  I mean, what's the use of getting pretty new paths of crushed granite only to have the cursed armadillos throwing dirt all over them before we have even paid the workers!  So, I got my wire snips, lots of chicken wire (that I have accumulated over the years for this very reason), a hammer, and my bucket of stakes (also accumulated over the years for the same reason).  Remembering the wasp nests that were in that very bucket several weeks ago when we cleaned out the Greenhouse, I kicked the bucket - prepared to run like hell.  No response, so I grabbed the bucket and all the other tools and carried them to my work area.  Goal:  Mulch, then lay down chicken wire and stake it into the ground with the stakes.  I was very nearly finished with the job when I reached into the bucket again and saw the snake!  It wasn't a copperhead, so Bert threw the bucket on the lawn to make it exit the bucket, and then he shooed it out of the area.  It was a bit of a heart stopper as any incident is where you stick your hand in a bucket 20 times before you see a snake curled at the bottom of it.   Very passive snake - it remained coiled at the bottom despite being kicked, carried and jostled.

 

Zinnias August 19, 2018

Philippine Lilies August 5, 2018

More pics of my lilies.  So pretty.

Big Bug on the Back Porch August 19, 2018

As big as my hand.  Not sure what it is, slow moving and clumsy.  But very big.

Semi-Double Althea August 11, 2018

I would have to do a little searching in my records to come up with the name of this althea.  I remember it has "chiffon" in the name.  Semi double altheas are my favorites, so pretty.  This shrub is still small, about four feet.  It has been pretty drought tolerant (or very forgiving) because it has not received any regular watering at all.

Bert's Wood Pile August 18, 2018

Bert rented a wood splitter and split all this wood on Friday and Saturday.  We both marveled at how hard it would be to try do something like this back in the day when all you had was an ax.  Even with the wood splitter this was hard, hard work!  Not to mention that all the wood was once dead trees that Bert cut down and then cut into sections, then hauled back to our house in preparation for splitting into logs.  We will stay warm this winter.  Bert loves to build fires.  In the winter we have a roaring fire every night we are at the farm.  Good man!