Mother's Day at my house in Houston with Bert, Mom, Dad, Nan, Lisa, Josh, Amy and the kids. Drove to the farm after that. Arrived about 6:30. Took a long walk about, but no work.
- Monday. Worked.
- Hand watered the plants next to the Greenhouse.
- I watched a Question Mark (so named because of the little question mark on the underside of the wings) butterfly emerge from a cocoon in the Rose Garden. It caught my eye because I saw it fluttering wildly. I thought it had been caught by a praying mantis or something, so I walked over to take a look which is when I saw that it was coming out of a cocoon.
- The Terminix guy was here in the morning and killed a coral snake under the arbor that he came upon while spraying.
- I sprayed herbicide on the path that leads to Mom's Garden.
- I sprayed herbicide in the part of the Star Garden closest to the house.
- And I sprayed the driveway and the Rose Garden.
- I pulled a salvia away from my little butterfly bush in the Rose Garden and staked it with chicken wire.
- Went down to the Orchard with the ladder and picked plums. But they were a sorry lot. I guess there will be no plum jelly this year.
- Weeded in Mom's Garden and tied back some rose canes on the climber.
- I messed with the fountain some more, got rid of the rocks at the bottom of the tank and put a small bucket upside down on the bottom. The suction cups will hold more successfully on the bucket than they will on the rocks.
- It's getting hot and the mosquitos are bad. It's not the hard slog of summer yet by any means, but it's coming.
- An armadillo dug a deep hole in the bed around the old dead tree in the Rose Garden. And voles have sucked under several of the plants I planted last week. Well, more zinnia seeds I guess. One of the zinnias that I've been nursing along in the Mom's Garden ended up being pale pink. It's a white garden, so I'm annoyed.
- After work I created more chicken wire barriers.
- I watered in the dry part of the Star Garden pretty extensively.
- Walked the Meadow for a long time.
- Tuesday. Worked.
- Weeded for a long time in the Star Garden.
- Did more watering in the dry parts of the Star Garden.
- Weeded in Mom's Garden for a bit.
- I am very pleased that Bert is re-building the Boardwalk. It is rotting in some places, and he wanted to tear the whole thing down and replace it with decomposed granite. That is a huge problem for me because he doesn't do the shoveling of the rock - I do! The Boardwalk path is very, very long, and the upkeep would be horrible. First of all - all downhill, so every time it rained really hard it would wash away the decomposed granite. And, we would have to buy some sort of edging along both sides of the path. The entire idea would have been expensive and extremely hard to maintain. Well, after some spirited debate, he decided to replace the rotten parts of the Boardwalk.
- Wednesday. Worked.
- After just writing on Monday how hot it's getting, a cold front moved in. Cold, rainy and cloudy. Suits me just fine!
- I began pulling up floppy poppies and pulling out ageratum. I'm basically clearing away both of those things from around my roses and other foundation plants.
- Bert found rats nests in both his cars. Last time it happened, it was a rats nest in my car, and it cost $700 to fix because they ate the insulation off the wires. Lots of critters in the country - wreaking havoc.
- Bert went to the dirt place and got me some mulch, about two yards.
- During my lunch hour I spread mulch. I came upon a copperhead underneath some Ox Eye daisies that were flopped over. I picked up the pile of daisies to spread mulch under them, and there it was. Bert shot it.
- I spread mulch in several beds, weeding and cleaning up as I went.
- Amy, Connie and I drove over to Connie's property to do some plant rustling. She has so many fascinating native plants! Of course all the great bunch grasses are growing there, but the most special things we found were zillions of liatris and even more zillions of Maximillian sunflower. Since liatris are bulbs, I dug up 5 big clumps and put them in the buckets I brought. But I'm not bothering with the Maximillian sunflower. I'd rather go back in the fall / early winter and gather seed. I prefer sowing native seed than trying to dig up plants. I mean, with as many Maximillians she has - talk about a target rich environment - I could stand in one spot and gather a thousand seeds. I'll take that any day over digging up one plant and hauling it over to my Meadow. Natives go into shock really easily. They aren't bred specially to survive a life cycle of growing in a pot, travelling to a nursery, unloading, sitting in the nursery for weeks, waiting to be purchased, then hauled home, dumped out of their pot and planted in the ground.
- Thursday. Worked.
- Over the lunch hour I cleaned out a bed in the hinterlands of the Star Garden and mulched well.
- After work I planted the liatris I dug up the day before with my plant friends. Watered them in well and also watered the Indian Plantains.
- Mulched around the Kordana roses that Amy gave me for Christmas.
- I walked and walked and walked the Meadow and all the gardens until dark. What a wonderful time of year.
- I sprayed herbicide on the Pepper Vine and Dewberry that is taking over in the lower part of the Meadow. That is potentially a real problem. I also sprayed lots of Beautyberry. It's pretty, but I don't want shrubs in my Meadow.
- Ann Thames sent me a text that hornworms were eating her Nicotiana, so I went out there where I have them planted and picked some off my plants. The ones that I grew from seeds have really been assaulted by caterpillars. I will try to protect the ones I got from her better than I have done with mine.
- Friday. Worked.
- Before work I pulled up a bunch of spent poppies and Tall Poppy Mallow in the Star Garden.
- I planted two milkweed plants and mulched around them.
- I went out to the Vegetable Garden and tied green landscape tape to tag some of the white larkspur so that I can sow the seed in Mom's Garden. I don't want to end up with pink or purple in there.
- During lunch I did some weeding and mulching.
- Walked the Meadow after work.
- Saturday. Koy and Cleo's recital in Houston, lunch afterwards, and The Arbor Gate after that.
- What luck, I found David Verity Cuphea at the nursery. I have had my eye out for that because it is a cuphea that will withstand our cold here in 8b. I bought 5 or so. Bought some more sedums and some bedding plants - red Profusion zinnias. It is rare that I buy bedding plants, but I thought I would put them in the front beds so that they look more organized than the Cottage Garden look.
- When I got back to the farm I worked in the Rose Garden for a couple of hours. I did some spot watering of all the roses. And I erected chicken wire fencing around some of the beds. The armadillos are out in full force leaving destruction in their wake everywhere. Pulled weeds and deadheaded the blue salvias and some of the roses. I also began pruning the Zepherine Drouhin climber at the front of the Rose Garden.
- Sunday. Straight out to the Water Garden to spot water around the hydrangeas, the Sea Foam camellia (which is slowly coming back from the freeze with a few leaves, they grow so slowly as it is), and the sweet shrub on the other side of the Greenhouse.
- Poisoned poison ivy sprouting up under the Mexican Buckeyes. I'm so damn scared of that stuff. I can't believe it's taken hold in those beds. I'm just getting over a bout of poison ivy, so I am particularly scared of it.
- Trimmed back the white petunias that were crowding my white salvias and white verbena.
- Did some general weeding in all the beds in the Water Garden.
- I spent about 2 hours on the front beds. I pulled up spent poppies, lots of brown eyed Susans, and zillions of ageratum. I cut all the spiderwort to the ground and pulled some of it up. I cleared out around all the roses and day lilies. I cut back dead canes.
- I came upon a copperhead under some day lilies in one of the front beds. But we couldn't find him again once Bert got there with the gun. I kept working in there, but I was very creeped out.
- I planted 5 Profusion red zinnias in one of the front beds. I mulched everything as I cleared.
- I spent about an hour in one part of the big bed in the Star Garden basically doing the same thing. I pulled up poppies, brown eyed Susans, ageratum. and of course - weeds. I planted a milkweed and 2 David Verity cuphea in that large space. Mulched everything.
- Worked in the Vegetable Garden for a bit pulling up Tall Poppy Mallow, Brown Eye, larkspur, and spiderwort. Pulled weeds too, of course. Began clearing out the narrow 16 foot bed so that I can sow grey stripe sunflowers.
- Amy and two of her and friends and Debra came over about 5:00 to see the gardens. They stayed about an hour and we walked through every one of them as well as the Meadow (or as Amy calls it - my small restoration project).
- As per usual, I walked the gardens all evening until darkness forced me inside.
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