It is my week to work from home. I took Friday as vacation and drove up by myself on Thursday evening. Bert joined me after golf on Friday.
- Thursday evening I watered a bit in places that looked really dry. Filled the water tank in the Water Garden.
- I went down to the Orchard and checked on the grapes. Not ready.
- The sweet autumn clematis is loaded with buds and blooms. It looks really beautiful. I didn't catch much of the wonderful scent. Once all the blooms are open it will be wonderful.
- Friday. I didn't feel well, so I didn't do much.
- I spent some time in the Water Garden tidying up. I cut down all the white zinnias and threw the seed heads in the beds. The moonflower vines were winding all around them, and there were lots of vines creeping along the ground. I cut all the low-growing vines away which made things look much more organized. Sprayed a little herbicide. I watered where I cut down the zinnias because the Pirates Pearl was struggling underneath all that mess.
- I spent a little bit of time in the Rose Garden. I planted 3 Fruity Pebbles in the Ducher rose
bed that I potted up last week. I started to mulch around them from my tiny pile of mulch leftover from my last big load, but it was so hot that I couldn't go on. Retreated inside for the rest of the morning. - Drove in to town and bought more herbicide, some bamboo stakes and a new sprayer. All of a sudden my old sprayer would not build up pressure, so I needed to get a new one.
- Sprayed the driveway and here and there in the Star Garden.
- In the evening I went back outside and moved some Fruity Pebbles lantana in paths over to beds. Mulched around them.
- I put some more stakes in my chicken wire barriers to hold them up better. Looks like the armadillos were just walking over the chicken wire where it was leaning down low.
- Spot watered in the Rose Garden and the Water Garden.
- Weeded as I walked.
- Saturday. I started in the back. I cut all the Black and Blue sage down to the ground. That's a big area and it's completely covered in that sage. I doubt I'll get a second flush before the first freeze because I waited a bit too long to get out there. Maybe, we'll see. I pulled some weeds although there aren't many in that bed. Pulled up some of the white Four O'Clocks that have gotten a foothold in that bed. Actually, I planted them there deliberately, but I no longer like them. I have been trying to eradicate them for a long time. Those gigantic bulbs are hard to dig out. I made a huge effort a couple of years ago to dig out all the bulbs, and I got most of them. But now I just yank out the plants before they have a chance to bloom and set seed.
- I filled the cadet with all the woody debris and drove over to one of our worst areas of erosion. I laid it down in all the ruts.
- Next, to the Rose Garden. I needed the wheelbarrow and it was in the Rose Garden partially filled with compost I didn't finish laying down the day before. I planted 3 white lantana, stuck a few castor seeds near them, and mulched them. Dumped the remainder of the mulch here and there. I sow castor seeds throughout my Rose Garden to deter voles. Perhaps it's my imagination, but I think it is working.
- Inside for some breakfast then back out again.
- I sprayed herbicide in another area of the driveway and a few spots in the Rose Garden.
- The Giant Swallowtails are abundant right now. Yesterday I saw a Buckeye. And I have seen many Monarchs. August is the really good butterfly month, and I am looking forward to the show.
- I emptied all the potting soil from the big pot in the Star Garden over into the the wheelbarrow in preparation for moving it over to the pool area. It just made it lighter for me to haul over there. I want to open up that path by removing that pot that partially blocks a path and by shortening a bed. That will open up that space and make it easier to walk through.
- I spent about 20 unbearably hot minutes untangling the hoses in the Greenhouse Gardens. What a spaghetti mess. And so heavy rolling them up and weaving them in and out of each other. But! Job well done.
- I worked for a couple of hours in the moist shady part of the Star Garden. One side is irrigated and stays pretty moist. The other side of the Star Garden is shady and dry. I pulled lots of weeds. I decided to cut back the Indigo Spires. I'm kind of over it with Indigo Spires. It is not in the right spot, that's for sure. Mystic Spires is a much better selection, more compact. Maybe this winter I will dig it up and move it to a sunnier location - there are a half dozen or so clumps. That's good, woody material, so I dumped it in an area with some really bad erosion where all the roots are exposed across the trail and deep ruts are underneath. Bert asked me to do it, so sounds like he's on board with my erosion control idea. I pulled weeds all around that area. I didn't get finished, but I was pretty done-in.
- Watered along the path in the Medicine Garden.
- Watered the pots around the pool.
- Inside during the hot part of the day.
- For a brief moment, not long enough to pour sweat, I walked around outside in the Medicine Garden and around the pool. Everything was verdant and lovely in the late afternoon sun slanting down through the oaks and throwing cool shade across the herb gardens. I filled my lungs with the earthy smell and was filled with a sense of well being.
- In the early evening I went back out and cleared out the Kitchen Herb Garden. And I kept going and finished weeding the rest of the back beds. They span the length of the house. I had not ever pulled up the brown eyes back there, and they were crispy brown things, easy to pull up. It looked really good when I finished. I dumped the pile in one of my erosion spots. Done for the day - into the house I went.
- Bert and I drove around the property looking for lightening bugs, but we never saw any.
- Sunday.
- I cut some of the white verbena in Mom's Garden and put it in water. They already have roots in the joints, so I probably can just plant them in the Rose Garden, but it's so hot to be doing anything like that now.
- Straight out to the Orchard. There was one bed at the back of the Orchard that I never cleaned out after the berries were done (and a few spots here and there, but mostly this one). I spent about an hour cutting dead canes, pulling them out of the bramble, folding them up and loading them in the cadet. With all that open space I was also able to weed in the path where crabgrass always takes hold. I raked out all the dried leaves from the dead canes. I wrapped the fresh new green canes around each other to get them out of the paths. I pulled up or cut away a few canes in the back of the Orchard that were growing along the fence line.
- Weeded in the Orchard here and there. I've already done a big mid-summer clean out in the Orchard, so not much was required, maybe 30 minutes.
- I pulled up lots of small blackberry vines that were sprouting in my iris bed at the entrance to the Orchard. Pulled some up growing amongst my gingers.
- Weeded along the lower portion of the Boardwalk.
- I got my oil can of poison and spent about 30 minutes painstakingly putting dots of poison on the large leaves of Mexicali rose wherever it was growing in the wrong spot. This very invasive plant makes pretty flowers in late summer, but you pay dearly for them. It goes everywhere by underground runners. It grows up amongst my Turks Cap, my gingers, my sweetspire (which can also be a big pain) and everything else that grows along the Boardwalk. I can't use a sprayer to kill it because it would hit plants that I like. So I dot the leaves with poison, just a tiny dot so that it will be gone before it reaches the end of the leaf and will not drip onto the ground. When I first got this plant from an online order - one tiny unassuming little plant - I planted it along the Boardwalk, and as soon as I had an offset I moved one to the Shade Garden. I'm so thankful the one I moved to the Shade Garden died. Ughh, I would hate trying to control it there too.
- All together I was out working in that area about four hours. Went in for a rest. I lost one of my long leather gloves while I was out there. I retraced my steps but never could find it. Very disappointing. I can't do anything related to the blackberries without both gloves.
- Bert moved the big pot over to the pool area. I re-filled it with the potting soil in the wheelbarrow. I planted a spider aloe, 2 sedums called 'Rock 'n Low Boogie Woogie' (you can see why I can't remember the names of these sedums that I plant), and 2 half-dead sedums that I pulled out of 2 dried up old boots. I had them planted in boots for most of the summer which was kind of cute, but the boots are coming apart.
- I fertilized all the pots around the pool.
- Weeded in the Vegetable Garden for a short time. I only went in there to look at my 3 luffa gourds that I am very proud of. Some animal will get them before they are ready. I don't get to harvest anything cool, the damn animals destroy it before it's ready. It's almost as if they know what I love the most and go after that.
- Monday. Worked.
- I planted 2 little gold snowflake sedums in a pot that I dragged from the Star Garden over to the pool.
- Grey and rainy. Maybe I will go ahead and plant my little verbena sprigs today that I put in water.
- I weeded the bed by the pool with the thryallis and the alocasias. There are a lot of tiny baby thryallis in there. I used some of my last little pile of compost to cover the areas that I weeded. Ran out of time only part done because I had to go to work. I'm thinking about putting some wedelia starts in there. I can dig them up from the Star Garden where I am constantly trying to get rid of that ground cover. But the area by the pool seems perfect for a groundcover.
- I saw a Variegated Fritillary on Sunday. It was out in the Meadow. Today I saw several Gulf Fritillary and a Queen. The Monarchs are plentiful today as are the Sulphurs and Giant Swallowtails.
- I drove around the property looking at my two small precious stands of Ironweed to see if I could collect any seed. But it was too soon.
- After work I did some weeding in the Star Garden.
- I spent some time in the Long Border in a space where the weeds were getting tall. I have avoided that spot because there are a pair of cardinals nesting in the cypress vine trellis. I'm wondering now if they left because it got increasingly difficult to fly out of there. The cypress vine grows quickly and has already completely covered the trellis.
- Tuesday. Worked.
- Before work I finished laying down mulch in the Thryallis bed next to the pool. I tried to avoid mulching over the little Thryallis seedlings. The soil in that bed is dense with roots because it was built around a cedar tree (and a few oaks, but the oaks don't create that root web). That bed will never support much of anything that likes rich soil. I doubt the little seedlings will make it, but it certainly gives me the idea to collet the seeds and pot them up. I just googled how to sow thryallis seeds and they will (of course) self sow, but if I want to pot them up the seeds should be green. That is interesting.
- I began clearing out the corner of the Rose Garden but ran out time.
- During lunch I finished weeding and clearing out the corner of the Rose Garden. I had a Fortune's Double rose in there, but it died during the February freeze. I assume it was already stressed or it wouldn't have died. I seeded that area with wildflowers last winter and had that show last spring. But now it is completely empty. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Maybe a little flowering tree. I need to be able to get in there to weed. Fortune's Double was very lovely, and I would have been very happy to have its once blooming flowers there for the rest of my time on earth. But it was a booger to weed in there. Fortune's Double was my thorniest rose. Now that it is gone and I can consider my next move, I want to be able to access that area. A small flowering tree and some pavers all around it might be the solution. The reason for the pavers is so that I don't have to do so much crawling behind the plant. A fence on one side prohibits me from getting to weeds by anything but crawling back there. So wide flat pavers will reduce the area back there that can get weedy.
- After work I spent about 2 hours outside. I spread a 50 pound bag of cottonseed meal on most of my hydrangeas and altheas and roses in the Shade Garden, the Water Garden, and the Star Garden. As I went along spreading fertilizer I weeded. I cut to the ground most of the wild petunia growing in the Star Garden. I cleaned up in places where the armadillos tore up the beds. Hand watered my new white lantanas and my Fruity Pebbles transplants in the Rose Garden. Hauled a truckload of debris to one of the erosion spots along the trails.
- Wednesday. Worked.
- Before work I weeded in the shady irrigated part of the Star Garden. The armadillos have really messed it up. Some of my large lilies have been unearthed.
- Lunch. I did some weeding in the Star Garden.
- After work I cleaned up here and there, ended up with a truckload of debris and dumped it in an erosion spot.
- Thursday. Worked.
- At lunch I potted up red lantana seeds that I collected off a plant in Houston in four pots with soil and vermiculite. I don't know if they will sprout, but I'm giving it a try. I potted up 3 White Colonial verbena that I cut a couple of days ago and have been keeping in water. The ones I put directly in the ground day before yesterday are gasping, so I put these in soil, and I am keeping them in shade for a few days.
- In the evening after work I took 2 cuttings from my oakleaf hygrangeas, dipped the cut in rooting hormone and put them in potting soil and vermiculite.
- I collected seed off my Heliopsis and scattered it in other beds in the Rose Garden.
- Deadheaded zinnias and threw the seed heads into the beds.
- Friday. Worked.
- Before work I dug up 4 Fruity Pebbles lantana growing in paths in the Rose Garden and put them in pots. I will keep them in shade for a couple days before I set them in the sun.
- Dinner at Manuel's. When we got home we took a drive around the property looking for lightening bugs. We saw only one.
- Saturday. I started out with the goal of raking in the gardens. But I got off the track almost immediately and just began weeding.
- I spent a lot of time in the irrigated shady part of the Star Garden. I decided to clean up the flowerbed edges where I had allowed various lilies to take root next to beds. So much so that you couldn't even really tell where the flowerbeds ended and paths began. I ruthlessly pulled up Ox Eyes and penstemon and rain lilies and Phillippine lilies. I saved the bulbs to plant later. I dug out the rock edging that had sunk down in the ground after many years and re-set it. I moved some woodland violet clumps that were spilling over the bed edging and re-planted them in the large Bulb Bed and over in the Medicine Garden. I cut back branches of pink Turks cap that were sticking out in the paths as well as branches of pink vitex and spicebush. I dug up most of the cedar logs that I use as edging and reset them. And, as always, weeded, weeded, weeded.
- I took all the Philippine Lily bulbs which were pretty mature and good-looking, and re-planted them in the Medicine Garden. I used all the small chicken wire enclosures already in those beds to surround then and protect them from the armadillos until they get re-established. First I yanked out all the pathetic Nicotiana that were in the cages. Another failed project. I carefully raised that Nicotiana from seed late last winter and early spring. Then I planted them in the Medicine Garden and surrounded them with chicken wire. They never did much of anything. Here I am in late summer yanking them up. Just another gardening failure. Oh well!
- Bert and I drove around the property, this time it was completely dark. Lots of lightening bugs. They are such a wonder of nature.
- Sunday. Our last day here. I started the day again with the goal of raking, but I soon got distracted. I went down to the Orchard to breathe in the scent of my clematis one last time and to take pictures of it again. I picked some muscadine grapes. They ripen maddeningly slowly. I wanted them to ripen this week while I was here, but no luck. Now, I don't want them to ripen until next week when I am here again. It's always a race to beat the deer and the raccoons to the bounty.
- I went to the Rose Garden to do a bit of watering, and I got so disgusted with the Bermudas Kathleen rose bed that I started clearing it out. It wasn't really weedy, but it was completely turned over from the armadillos. Also, I had allowed lots of Ox Eye daisies to start growing out into the paths. I pulled all of them up. I was resigned to just tossing them, but they came up in nice large clumps with lots of soil, very easy to re-plant in the bed in a better spot. I re-set them in the same bed. I rooted out some day flower. I sowed some zinnias. Then I pulled up all the chicken wire barriers and set them back in more securely now that all the plants were gone from the edges.
- I sowed zinnias in several more spots throughout the Rose Garden. I pulled up spent zinnias.
- I trimmed back the purple trailing lantana all along the edge of the Rose Garden, and while I scooted along the ground doing that, I cleared out the adjacent bed of the annoying ground cover weed (it is native, but I don't care - I don't like it). Pulled up young Mexican Torch sunflower seedlings. I have selected a few to grow, but I'd have a forest if I allowed all of them to grow. The ones I am allowing to grow are inside the cedar barrier that Bert made. Perfect for those giants that will eventually want to topple over.
- Set the sprinklers so that they will hit all my newest plantings while we are gone for the week.
- I planted the 15 or so rain lilies that I uprooted when I was working in the Star Garden the day before.
- I moved on to the Medicine Garden. I raked the whole garden (finally - I raked something). Trimmed here and there, weeded here and there. Watered all the pots in the Medicine Garden - sedums, alocasia, aloe, and comfrey.
- Watered all the pots around the pool.
- I put new sprinkler heads on the hoses in the Greenhouse Gardens, the kind that allow you to change the shape of the water. I like those best.
- I replaced a hose on one of the sprinkler heads in the Orchard that I noticed was broken.
- Dumped two truckloads of debris in erosion spots.
- Put away all my fertilizers, tools, stakes, poisons, and soil amendments. Headed home to Houston.
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