White and Purple September 21, 2019

Pringle Aster, Salvia, and Perennial Ageratum:

Days at the Farm September 19 - 21, 2019

 This is Moonflower vine.  The flowers open in the evening - this picture was taken at 7:00 pm.  Moths and other night-active insects are drawn to it.  I did not sow a seed for this vine.  It sprouted from a seed that fell to ground last summer.

I took Thursday and Friday vacation.  Dove up here Wednesday evening, Bert was already here.  Home on Saturday afternoon for Mom and Dad's 60th wedding anniversary at Tony's.  Gretchen, Keith and Beckett flew in for the festivities.

• I don't know if it was the excitement of being here or what, but I woke up at 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep.  I watched tv on my Ipad for an hour then got up at 4 and drank coffee.  I tried to go back to sleep for an hour, but I finally got up and got dressed.  I was outside before daylight.  What with the Airbnb guests and family obligations, etc., I haven't been here much.  So I think I was just wound up.
• I weeded wherever the urge took me.  I sat down here and there and weeded.  I stayed in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden all morning weeding and smoothing out the soil where the armadillos had disturbed it.
• I transplanted one of my red and purple cannas that the armadillos had uprooted.
• I watered in the Rose Garden - Houston is flooding grom Hurricane Imelda, but no rain here until about 3:00.  Then we got a pretty hard rain for about 30 minutes and drizzles after that.  I took what was left of a bag of fertilizer and walked around in the rain throwing handfuls down around all my new roses.
• I bought 2 3cubic bags of compost at Buchanan's.  I added compost to empty spots where my seeds did not sprout.  Sowed beets, turnips and kale in those spots.  I added compost to two of the buckets and sowed one of the buckets with parsley and one of the buckets with Swiss Chard.  I pulled up the okra, added a bag of compost and sowed cilantro, and more beets, kale and turnips.
• Next I added some of the compost to my wheelbarrow planter and two clay pots.  I sowed parsley in the wheelbarrow and Tickseed and Moss Verbena to the pots.  Also pulled weeds out of another pot and added some parsley seed amongst parsley already growing.
• My wonderful banana shrubs are in bloom and the smell of rip bananas permeates the garden.  It is especially pronounced in the damp, close atmosphere caused by the rain and clouds.
• The Candida rain lilies, hurricane lilies, roses, zinnias, ageratum, cannas, altheas, morning glories, and salvias are all blooming.  We have had better fall displays in the past (the drought-y conditions have taken their toll), but it is pretty nevertheless.  I love seeing the roses with all their red and gold new growth.  I sowed some Moss Verbena and Tickseed in the Rose Garden - I had some on hand.  I have not ordered my 2019 wildflower seeds yet.  I had really good germination last year when I sowed the seed in very late October / November time frame.  So, I might as well wait to spend the money if I'm going to sow late in the season.
• Friday - up at day break and out to the Orchard.  I brought my loppers, my long leather gloves, my oil can of poison, the rake, shovel, and cushion.  I spent pretty much the whole day down there weeding and generally cleaning up.  My coneflower is a major interest for me.  I have been spending time protecting it all year.  I started it from seed, and I spread the seed in the Orchard and the Star Garden.  I have been very conscientiously weeding amongst my coneflower.  It has been my special project.  It makes a wonderful flower, it is much-loved by the bees, and it is a medicinal herb.  The armadillos be-devil it, but luckily it has a long tap root and seems to be able to withstand the assault.   I also weeded the paths and other beds.  I cut away dead blackberry canes and, although I hated to do it - I cut down cow pen daisy that was thriving in my Scarlet Wave canna bed.  I really don't want those tall daisies re-seeding in my canna bed.  I cut away trailing grape vines.  I wove blackberry vines around each other to get them out of the paths. Deadheaded zinnias.  I stayed out there until about 3:00.
• Lots of pine needles on the ground in my excellent spot next to the Rose Garden.  I raked up a truck load and spread them in some of the spots in the Orchard where I weeded.  
•  When the sun got really hot, I moved to the Shade Garden and started working in there.  I cut back anything that was leaning into the paths.  I transplanted one clump of Southern Wood Fern from a path in the Shade Garden to a spot in the shady part of the Star Garden.
• I decided to drive around in the cadet and mow down the tall growth in the meadow.  I got stuck and had to schlepp home and tell Bert.  He pulled it out the next morning.
• Saturday.  Up and outside early.  I went back down to the Orchard.  It was a two-day effort to get it together down there.  I pulled more weeds, but mostly I laid down pine needles.  I raked up two more truckloads of pine needles and covered up all the spots where I weeded the day before.  I also tackled the big blackberry bed.  I cut and pulled out dead canes.  I yanked up handfuls of weeds.  I cut and poisoned a mustang grape vine that had snaked its way through my blackberries.  I got a lot of the Orchard mulched with pine needles.  That will keep the weeds down until fall is over.  I walked the outside of the Orchard and found (one of) the spot where the armadillo is coming in.  I nailed down the opening with a stake. 
• Adjusted the sprinklers in the Rose Garden because I have a new timer out there.  
• Sprayed herbicide in the Orchard. 
• Set out towels and soap for our AirBnb guests that arrive next Sunday. 
• Drove home for the party.

Weekend at the Farm September 8, 2019

Koy's 4th birthday party at the Museum of Natural Science then to Burton after that.  Lots to do in a short time.

• Still no rain to speak of, so I fed the bees some sugar water.
• I watered in the Rose Garden.  I lost a rose.  Boo.  On my To Do list is to get someone out here to run a water line to the Rose Garden and add a faucet.  I can put a timer on it and get a second set of zones out here.  It is too difficult to keep my rose shrubs watered which stunts their growth.  Also, perennial flowers won't live in the dry conditions either.  The only time the Rose Garden looks really, really good is in the spring when the wild flowers are in bloom and filling up the beds with their greenery and flowers.  It will be a lot cheaper than getting more automatic sprinklers (although the hoses running everywhere aren't very attractive).  Of course, July, August and early September can be discouraging months out there because it's so hot.  When we get through those months everything improves - including my attitude.
• Staked some zinnias in the Rose Garden and Star Garden.  I have lots of zinnia seedlings coming up, and I should have blooms by October.
• I weeded in there for several hours.
• Weeded in the Star Garden.  
• I planted three Snow Rose shrubs in the large bed off the dining groom windows.  Then I surrounded the area with chicken wire and staked it in and secured it with stakes around the bottom (to protect it from the armadillos).
• I sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden, Star Garden, and Rose Garden.
• The amaranth looks really pretty.  One good thing about the drought-y conditions is that hard rain usually knocks down my really tall plants.  Well, we are having no problem there...
• I spread two bags of compost in a bed in the Vegetable Garden and sowed some more lettuce seed.
• I never made it down to the Orchard.  Since I was not going to be able to clean up in there, I didn't even want to look!
• I know I did lots of other stuff because I was outside working from 7:00 until 7:00, but none of it comes to mind
• Organized the house for our guests next weekend - towels, soap, shampoo.  The maid will do the rest.
• Headed to work on Monday morning.

Hurricane Lillies September 8, 2019

 They are popping up everywhere, but this stand of hurricane lilies looks really pretty this weekend.

Grandpa Ott Morning Glory September 8, 2019

I have this growing in the Vegetable Garden.  No sense in letting a good arbor go to waste.

Amaranth September 8, 2019

Amaranth is a grain.  It has been cultivated for thousands of years.  And it is very pretty.  I have found over the several years that I have been growing it, that it's better to sow it in the summer rather than the spring.  The bugs in spring absolutely love it, and the leaves ends up looking like ratty swiss cheese.  But by the end of spring, those bugs seem to have disappeared, and amaranth's growth is much prettier and bug-free.