At the Farm August 13 - 20, 2021

 

This althea is out in the Rose Garden.  So pretty.  It has bloomed all summer.

Arrived Friday evening after work.

• I watered the pots in the Medicine Garden, around the pool and in the Star Garden.  Watered in a few gasping places in the Rose Garden.  This is first time I have come back after a week and some of my plants were stressed.  What a great summer it has been.  I don't think it has hit 100 degrees one time, and rain has been plentiful.  
• Saturday.  I worked in the Greenhouse Gardens and Mom's Garden for a while.  Watered, weeded, cut away moonflower and morning glory vines.  I raked throughout the garden.  Much improved.  
• I weeded in the Vegetable Garden.  Straightened up tomato cages and trellises.  Cut away Four o'clocks leaning into the garden.  Pulled up a few dead sunflower stalks.  
• I am not at all happy with the grey stripe sunflowers that I sowed this year.  They are not sturdy and the flowers are not huge like I was expecting.  I almost wonder if they sent me the wrong seed.  They have been a big disappointment.
• This has been an interesting year for the amaranth.  I always wait until the tomatoes are pulled up to sow amaranth seed.  I find that if I grow it too early in the season the bugs ruin the leaves.  I followed my same pattern this year, but the bugs have really gotten to the leaves.  A lot of rain and a cold winter - who knows why?  But it is definitely different from usual.
• Took a truckload of debris to one of my erosion spots and dumped it.
• I only got 2 Mexican Buckeye seeds to germinate from the 6 or so pots I started three or four weeks ago.  So I gathered more seed from my trees and stuck them in the soil.  I will keep trying.  Several of my Heliopsis seed have sprouted in the pots I started last week.  Yay.
• I went down to the Orchard and picked muscadine grapes.  They are so maddening.  They don't come ripe all at once.  It's a chore to get a large enough number to make jelly.  There are zillions on the ground from animals or from getting ripe and falling.  But I can't seem to collect enough to make a difference.   There are still hundreds on the vines, so I will watch them like a hawk this week.  
• I cut away grape vines that had no grapes and were getting in the way.  I cut out some blackberry canes growing up into the grapes.  I am going to try and transplant them this winter, so I didn't yank them up.
• Out to the Rose Garden.  I planted 4 Cerise Queen yarrow in the Bermuda's Kathleen rose bed.   I saw a big stand of them blooming at the Arbor Gate a month or so ago, and I was so impressed with the show they made.  I'm going to give them a try.  I've never had much luck with yarrow even though it can be considered invasive.  Not for me.  It's usually one of my failures each season that I plant it.  I didn't have any water on the Bermuda's Kathleen bed last week, and all the Ox Eyes I pulled up and stuck in the dirt there all died.  No big deal.  I put the spiny red balls of unripe castor underneath all the yarrow.  I also planted a Pink Buttons Polygonum ground cover on the other side of the rose where it stays somewhat shady there between the tree on one side and the tall rose on the other.  They aren't particularly showy, and I don't know how well it will come back next year, but I'm giving it a try.  I also planted one next to the Greenhouse a moth or two ago, also a shady spot.  It is going gangbusters.  But I've never grown it before to see how well it will come back after a winter.    
• I pulled up lots of spent zinnias and threw the seed heads in beds.  I cut away basil leaning into paths.  Trimmed back oregano spilling into paths. 
• I bought 3 red bidens plants because I was intrigued.  Pirates Pearl is in the bidens family.  So I'm curious if I will like this variety too.  The foliage is purple-y, there are no blooms on any of them yet.  I pulled up a bunch of zinnias and planted them in the Carefree Beauty bed.  Castor parts underneath all.
• I planted 2 New Gold lantana in the Rose Garden - one in the bed around the old dead tree and one of them in the Old Blush bed.  Castor parts underneath.
• Planted 2 red firecracker plants in the Rose Garden, one of them at the entrance in the Carefree Beauty bed and one of them in the Bermuda's Kathleen bed, castor parts underneath.  
• I gathered seed off my heliopsis and sowed them in pots.
• I moved all my pots with seeds over to the Vegetable Garden where they won't be disturbed.  I had all of them in the front flowerbed so they would get water, but when I arrived on Friday evening many of them had been turned over by armadillos scratching around.  I don't know why I didn't do that in the first place.
• The Meadow Pinks are still blooming their hearts out along the trails and in the Meadow.  They are so sweet. 
• We drove around at dusk, but only saw one lightening bug.  They come out when it is darker, but we are already in bed by then.  When you work all day you're tired by the end of it.
• Sunday.  I set up a sprinkler on my zone 11.  It is on the fritz.  I'll have to get someone out here to figure out why.  
• Picked grapes.
• I spent the morning in the Star Garden weeding and culling.  I pulled up lots of leggy zinnias.  I removed ageratum crowding my Texas tarragon.  I pulled up ageratum crowding my altheas and my Mexican Turks Cap.  I took a truckload of debris to an erosion spot and dumped it.  I used to hate unloading my plant debris, I would always wait to see if Bert would do it for me.  But now that I have a goal for it, I enjoy doing it.
• I spent some time in the Vegetable Garden weeding and general tidying.  That nasty slime fungus has spread through most of the paths.  I hate that stuff.  Herbicide does not deter it.  Maybe I'll try a fungicide on it.  I haven't thought of that before.
• We had a soft rain in the afternoon, but it lasted for a long while.  What a great summer of rain we've had.  The beautyberry shrubs in the woods are all turning purple.  Most summers the leaves on the shrubs are withered and the berries don't have a good showing,  This year everything is still green and lush.  And usually by this time the wild mulberry trees have dropped most of their leaves, a defense mechanism to get them through dry weather.  But the trees are all still intact.  Such an interesting summer.
• When the rain stopped I went out and cut back all the Colonial white verbena in Mom's Garden.  It had grown way out into the paths.  I threw all the debris into the compost pile because it is tender green stuff and mixed in some oak leaves that I raked last fall.
• Went out to the Rose Garden and pulled up leggy zinnia.  Threw all the flowerheads in the beds.  I pulled up stuff that was crowding my lantanas and other plants.  The roses look pathetic.  I still can't believe much less understand why all the roses took such a hit after that freeze.  Roses shouldn't suffer from cold like mine did.  I will replace some next fall and winter.  I carried several armloads of debris over to my erosion spot near the Rose Garden.
• Monday.  Worked.
  
• During lunch I went out to the Daffodil Border and trimmed the trailing purple lantana away from the Daffodil Border.  I only want it on the Rose Garden side, I don't want it taking root in the Daffodil Border.  I also weeded where required.  Weeds aren't bad in that border because I mulch so heavily with leaves in the fall.  But there are always some.  
• After work I deadheaded zinnias in the Rose Garden and did some spot watering.
• Lots of Gulf Fritillaries, Monarchs, Sulphurs and Giant Swallowtails in the gardens.  Where are the Julias and the Zebra Longwings?  Will I ever see them again?  I will know they are rare and special when they do return, and I will rejoice most heartily.  I believe one of my most valuable lessons in life has been understanding that many of the things I witness in this special place are once in a lifetime.  And, I should mark them down because they won't ever happen again.  This season, it has been the frogs and toads.  Never, ever have I witnessed the frog phenomenon that we are seeing this season.  Frogs!  Every step I make is a frog experience this summer.  Frogs, toads, toads.  All of them are dirt-colored and trying to avoid my boots or my ruthless hands as I pull weeds.  Quite remarkable.  
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• Before work I worked in the Shade Garden.  I cut back snakeroot, ferns, bloodroot, camellia and gingers that were leaning into paths.  I cut to the ground the colocasias and sweetspire that were growing in the paths from underground stolons.  I hated to do it to the colocasias, but they would really fade if I tried to move them now.  They will keep coming back until I dig up the little bulb-things.  So they aren't lost forever.  I raked the paths.  I missed a couple paths, and I will have to go back in there again, ran out of time and had to go to work. 
• Sprayed herbicide here and there in the pool area, on the path from the back to the pool, the driveway and the Rose Garden.
• During lunch I finished raking the paths in the Shade Garden.  Dumped the debris in an erosion area.  
• Raked in the Star Garden and cut away plants leaning into paths.
• Picked grapes.
• Bert found a deer caught up in barbed wire on the far edge of our property.  We went out there to help the poor animal.  Bert cut away the barbed wire while the poor thing was struggling to get away.  I guess her leg was broken, and it was bloody.  She limped away.  She will suffer, but she is free.  I wish I had not seen such a sorrowful thing. 
• After work I sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden paths.  
• Watered here and there in Mom's Garden.
• One of the university teams, this one doing a study on lizards, is camping over by the fort overnight.  They look for lizards during the day and at night.  So we told them they could camp.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• Before work I took my coffee outside to move the sprinklers in the Rose Garden.  While I was there I cut all the oregano trailing into the paths in the Perl d'Or bed.  I cut off most of the flowers by doing that, but it looked a mess.  This oregano variety has most unusual-looking hot pink flowers, and the bees love them.  But a good shearing should encourage more growth.  Not that the oregano in that spot needs encouragement.  It loves that bed and has taken over.  I planted it because I had a real problem with dayflower in there.  I was hoping it would crowd out the dayflower.  And that seems to be working - so many of my plans don't work out, so I am very pleased.  I left the pile of debris right there to clean up later.  I want to go back there later today and rake some spots.
• I drove around looking for Frostweed to see if any of the seeds were ready to harvest.  I want to put some in the wild areas of my gardens.  It is an interesting tall perennial plant that produces white clusters of flowers.  Nothing too showy there except that it flowers in August which is always good.  But it will grow well in sunny or shady spots.  The most interesting thing about this plant is that the stems burst in a freeze and look like ice sculptures. You have to look for that early in the morning, they have disappeared by mid-morning.
• Picked grapes.
• Pulled up some wild petunia in the Star Garden.  It is a booger to pull up, very tenacious roots.  Mostly I just cut it away below the soil line.
• During lunch I did some clean-up in the Star Garden.  I pulled some weeds, and I pulled up some ageratum when I saw it was crowding something. Smoothed over soil where armadillos rooted it up (that would be a full time job if I was determined about it).  I cut the scraggly tops off of cannas.  And I did some more cutting on my Giant Rudbeckia.  Last time I cut them back, I cut them to a low level to get another (less significant) bloom cycle.  Now I am beginning to cut the stalks to the ground.  Soon they will start putting on their beautiful grey-blue growth.  I deadheaded some roses.  I cut or pulled up more wild petunia.  
• But mostly I watched butterflies.  Monarchs, Queens, Gulf Fritillaries and Giant Swallowtails were abundant in the Star Garden.  I have yet to spot a Julia, but I look for them ever day.  Sadly, I haven't seen any longtails or snout butterflies or zebra longwings.  But I am keeping a watchful eye.
• I went out to work for a bit in the shady part of the Long Border.  I pulled up a little aster pest.  I cut back some Indigo Spires salvia, pulled some weeds, pulled away some Cypress Vine crawling across cannas,  I cut down some cannas.  I pulled out some ageratum that was moving in on my altheas.  I cut back a bunch of messy Montbretia greenery.  You aren't supposed to cut back the greenery of bulbs.  You should allow the greenery to wither, however Monbretia are so aggressive that I cut them without concern.     
• In the afternoon we had a good steady rain for about 30 minutes.  Lots of thunder, poor Rocky dog was not happy.  Temperature dropped several degrees.  A great, great August so far.  I didn't harvest any honey this summer.  But if I can get motivated, I will harvest honey this fall.
• The college students left in the morning.  They sent me a note of all the species they identified - interestingly enough, they did not come upon any snakes.

-Green Anole 

-Six-lined Racerunner (whiptails) 

-Little Brown Skink 

-Texas Spiny Lizards 

-Gray Treefrog 

-Fowler’s Toad 

-Gulf Coast Toad 

-Narrow mouth toad 

-Leopard frog

-Cricket frog 

-Cliff chirping frog 

• Thursday.  Worked.
• Before work I picked grapes.
• During lunch I drove in to Burton to take a look at an althea to see if I wanted to take cuttings.  I took a couple of cuttings - it was a pretty double pink with a dark pink eye visible.  On the way home I gathered some Canadian Rye seeds on the side of the road.  I was actually looking at the Texas Vervain going to seed in this one particular spot right on the edge of town, but the seed wasn't ripe.  The Canadian Rye was nearby, so I gathered a bunch of that.  When I got home I spread it in the Meadow.
• I went down to the Orchard to do some weeding, but I got off task almost immediately.  I gathered seed off my Mexican Hat and went over to the Meadow to throw it in there.  I started stressing about the abundance of camphor weed (which is just starting to bloom), and I began pulling it up.  Of course, it's like spitting in the ocean, there is so much of it, but it made me feel better.  I tossed it all in a pile in the Meadow where it can rot and enrich the soil.
• I stuck my althea cuttings into soil.  I used the pot of soil that in which I put a recent cutting of oakleaf hydrangea.  It didn't make it.  The other one I potted up recently looks half dead, but it might make it.  Two out of the four oakleaf hydrangeas that I have tried to root have died and one looks peaked. 
• Collected Nicotiana seed and spread it around the Greenhouse Gardens.
• The Hurricane Lilies are popping up.  The Texas autumn begins.
• Friday.  Worked.
• Before work I set up all my sprinklers for the coming week while I will be in Houston.
• Moved my cuttings to the Vegetable Garden.  I'm hoping that they will get shade underneath the goat wire arbor that is covered with Grandpa Ott morning glories.  I've never watched that area closely enough to see if it is shaded all day or just part of the day.  Cuttings should not get any shade whatsoever.
• I sowed a few more Heliopsis seeds in a pot and put it in the Vegetable Garden.
• Added leaves to the compost pile from my big pile I raked last fall.
• Packed up and headed to Houston during the lunch hour.  Dinner at Nino's for Dad's 88th birthday.  I have Cleo for the weekend - a special weekend just with her.