Time at the Farm August 29 - September 5, 2021

 

This is a picture of some hurricane lilies that just popped up.

• Arrived Saturday evening after Koy's birthday party.  Everything is dry.  There has been no rain.  And it all looks like that typical out of control August absolutely everywhere.
• Saturday evening all I did was water several places that were gasping. 
• I didn't fall asleep until 4:30, at least that's the last time I looked at the clock.  My insomnia is getting worse.
• Sunday morning, up early.  I went out to the Orchard to check on the grapes.  As I suspected would be the case, there were no grapes left on the vines except the sort of 'phase 2' grapes that are still small and green.  I weeded in there a bit while I was down there.
• I watered station 11 along the Boardwalk manually because the automatic sprinkler is on the fritz.
• I spot watered in the Mom's Garden.
• I spot watered in the Rose Garden.
• Messed with the compost - added some water because it was dry and added more greens and browns, tossed it around.
• I cut back plants in the Vegetable Garden that were leaning into the paths.  I pulled up some dead sunflowers.
• I spent some time in the Rose Garden.  I pulled up leggy zinnias.  I cut back my Indigo Spires completely.  I left some of it intact last weekend because the bumble bees were going crazy for it., but on Sunday I finished cutting it down to the ground.  Threw the seed heads in the beds.  Smoothed soil that armadillos wrecked.  Weeded.  
• I spent time in the Star Garden cutting away plants leaning into paths and weeding and watering dry areas.  I sprayed herbicide in the Star Garden in all the paths close to the house.  The pale yellow (beige actually - yuck) Celosia was loaded with seed.  I cut lots of it off and spread the seed in the Rose Garden.  It is a good summer plant no matter what color it is.  There is a red variety that comes back from seed every year in the Vegetable Garden.  The flower heads are always small and, as much as I feel neutral about the pale yellow variety, it makes a better show than the red.  But I plan to spread seed in the Rose Garden from the red variety very soon - late next week the seed should be ready. Celosia is a big-time host for nematodes.  That is its downfall.    
• Sprayed herbicide in the driveway near the house.  
• The boneset in the Meadow and along the trails is in bloom.  They bloom white flowers, and the butterflies love them.  The Frostweed is mostly in bud, but I gathered seed on a few seed heads that bloomed early in August.  I spread it in various beds in the Circle Drive and the Star Garden.
• I spent about an hour at the kitchen table teasing Basketflower seeds out of their fuzzy seed heads.  That was quite a chore.  I already did a bunch of that some weeks ago, but it's so tedious that i never finished.  I threw all of it out in the lower section of the Meadow.  It has the best chance to germinate down there since it is a bit of a moisture lover.  I also had a bag of Indian Blanket that I gathered at Connie Gwyn's house.  I put all of it in a kitchen towel and hit it a bunch of times with a mallet in order to break up the seed heads.  I sowed that as well.
• My luffa gourds are thriving, and I see 4 more out there.  No doubt, this has been a very fun plant to grow, a very fun activity for me.  The nematodes (so far) don't seem to be affecting the plant.  Maybe they are resistant to nematodes, I will know when I pull up the vine next month.  It is also still blooming profusely, and a major plus - the flower buds are really unique.  I walk out there several time a day just to look at it.
• I dumped all my debris is a new erosion spot that I am working on.
• Some of the pots of seeds that I left in the Vegetable Garden were, interestingly,  turned over.  That was probably a raccoon.  A squirrel would not have done that - they are too petite when they move around.  I had 100% germination of my Mexican Buckeye seeds that I sowed two weeks ago.  All 6 seeds came up, two seeds in each pot.  I cut away one from each pot.  Nothing has come up from my Heliopsis seeds, but they seem to take a while to germinate.  And some of those pots were laying on their sides not getting any water or sun.  The Feverfew seeds that I sowed in Houston last week have sprouted - very exciting!  I sowed them in peat cups.  Feverfew is an excellent medicinal herb.  It can withstand our winters, so I wanted to get some started, and I will set them in the ground in a month or so.  I sowed seeds in 36 peat cups.  Some catastrophe or another will befall them, so I am confident that I will not be trying to find homes for 36 plants.  But they will be a great addition to my Medicine Garden.  Bees do not like Feverfew flowers.  They will not nectar at them.  But there are other pollinators out there getting the job done.
• Monday.  Worked.
• Before work I went out and weeded in the Star Garden.  I also pulled up some leggy zinnias and cut plants away from paths.  
• Bert fished a dead rat out of the pool.  Living in the country...  It is a constant assault from nature.
• During lunch I went down to the Orchard and worked in the fig bed.  I cut back blackberry canes that have taken hold in there thinking that I will move them during the winter.  Maybe I will end up yanking them up, we'll see.  I pulled up spent Verbena on a Stick.  I deadheaded coneflower and spread the seed.  I cut down Jujube suckers.  And of course I weeded, weeded, weeded.  It was incredibly hot, and I didn't have sunscreen on, so I gave it up after that. 
• The wild ageratum along the trails is blooming, very pretty.
• I checked on the seed heads of the ironweed  that I spotted along the trail.  I want to throw the seed into the Meadow.  But it is still not ready.  
• Gathered seed from my Giant Rudbeckia to pass along or perhaps to seed my Meadow.  It is native. 
• My Veilchenblau climbing rose died.  That is the third rose I have planted in that same spot that has died.  It's very frustrating.  It bloomed beautifully this last spring.
• After work I went back down to the Orchard and did some more weeding.  I sprayed herbicide on the paths.
• Tuesday.  Worked.  
• Before work I went down to the Orchard to do some raking and weeding.  I spent most of the time on the long blackberry bramble at the front of the Orchard.  I pulled up lots of salvias that reseed there.  I don't need a mess of non-blackberry plants in there even if they are flowers.  Once I pulled those up I was able to clear out a lot of crab grass. Right when I was finishing up I came upon a copperhead (a small one).  It was up in the blackberry canes, not on the ground.  I am wondering if they climb up when they experience a lot of disturbance on the ground, because that is the second time I've seen one up in the blackberry canes when I have been weeding around them.  
• During lunch, down to the Orchard to pick up the piles of debris from the morning.  Dumped them in an erosion spot.
• Over to the shady un-irrigated section of the Star Garden.  Did a bit of clean-up in there, but mostly it just needed some water.  
• So, a EUREKA moment:  I set a trap in front of a fresh armadillo hole in the Star Garden (he made a den right in one of my flowerbeds, the little bastard).  I set it with the trap door facing out - I didn't know if he was in the hole or not, I was betting he was not - but he would make his way back there to the same hole eventually.  What I have read, and what I have observed, is that they come back over and over to the same holes.  So if he was in the hole I would know because he would have to push the cage out of his way to get out.  I checked it the next morning and the cage had not been moved.  I came by a few days later and there he was - trapped in the cage.  He was trying to get into the hole and walked right into the trap.  They are so blind.  Yay!  I got one.  Bert drove it to the top of the road and let it go.  Far, far away from my gardens.  I am of course totally STOKED about my success.  We have two cages, so I put each of them in front of different den holes.  I am going to try and catch some more armadillos.
• After work I went out to the Vegetable Garden and prepped a bed with lava sand, cottonseed meal and molasses.  Mixed it all in and sowed 3 rows in a 4x4 bed of sugar snap peas.  I'm trying to see if I can get a fall crop.  I'm going to sow one more bed in a day or so.  It's so damn hot, hard to fathom that I'm planting cool season seeds right now.  But with 7 - 10 days to germination and 60 days to harvest, we are halfway through November.  That puts us close to the first hard freeze.  I'm going to sow some in my buckets as well.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• Before work I went out to the Shade Garden and cut plants away from the paths.  It looks really good in there.  The toad lily and snakeroot will be blooming soon.
• Checked on my armadillo traps.  Nothing.
• I cut the stems and spread the seed of my Giant Coneflower in the Hot Border.  I didn't do them all because some of the seed is not quite ready.  But I made a big pile of stems.  The stems are about 5 feet tall.   
• During lunch I prepped another bed with the lava sand, cottonseed meal and molasses.  I seeded 3 rows of Sugar Snaps in a 5 x 4 space (which was alive with earthworms, very cool).  Did the same in one of my feed buckets. While I was in there I did some weeding and scooped up some of the gross fungus and threw it over the fence.  The morning glories are getting a bit brutish, so I made a note to go back in there and get them back in line. 
• Sprayed herbicide in the long path in the Star Garden.  It looks like I missed that one completely.
• Sprayed herbicide on the Rose Garden paths.
• After work I spent time in the Rose Garden pulling up leggy zinnias, throwing the seed heads in the beds.  I spread Polar Bear zinnia seed from a package I had on hand.  And I did some weeding.  
• Thursday.  Worked.  I can't believe it is already Thursday.  Time flies here.  
• Before work I checked my armadillo traps.  Nothing.
• Went out the the Rose Garden and worked for an hour.  I pulled up all the zinnias - or tried to - I have a lot of zinnias.  I will sow more seed soon.  Threw the seed heads in the beds.  I planted 4 Fruity Pebbles lantana that I had dug up out of paths and put in pots some weeks ago.  I dug up more of them from paths and potted them up in the empty pots.  Cut them back so they don't have to struggle and put them in the shade of the arbor.  I did some weeding.  I spent some time cutting basil away from other plants wherever it was crowding things.  All the basil came back from seed dropped the previous summer.  There are probably 40 huge plants out there.  This particular basil throws off really long seed heads, and the bees are crazy for it. Deadheaded coneflower.  I surrounded my new plantings with chicken wire.  I need to get in there and rake next and it will look pretty good in there.
• Friday.  Worked.
• Before work I raked the Rose Garden.  Pulled a few weeds.
• Checked on my armadillo traps.  Nothing.
• Throughout the day I spot watered in the Rose Garden and fertilized.
• During lunch I raked in the back of the Star Garden.
• I pulled weeds in the path underneath my double orange daylilies.
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.
• After work I spent time in Mom's Garden cutting back verbena, spot watering.  I pulled up spent zinnias.  I cut away unruly morning glory and moonflower vine.  I wanted to cut back the salvia, but it was really desiccated, so I watered it instead.  
• I transplanted 3 of my Mexican Buckeye tree seedlings into bigger pots.  
• Weeded in the Vegetable Garden for a bit.
• Weeded in the Star Garden for a bit.  Watered here and there.
• I see some Oxblood lilies are beginning to pop up in the Greenhouse Gardens.  
• I watched the Meadow for a while.  I see lots of native grasses in flower.  So pretty.  Switchgrass, Indian grass, little bluestem and various paspalums.
• Bert and I drove around the property for a long time looking at everything and generally just sightseeing and commenting on all the beautiful native growth along the trails.  I showed him the native lobelia growing in a low place on the property.  Beautiful purple flowers with a flower stalk 4 feet tall. 
• A very short rain in the afternoon lowered the temperature quite a bit, and we enjoyed the "cool" evening air.  
• Saturday.  I drove over to Jeff and Amy's property to walk around and look at the grasses that were blooming.  It is a stunning prairie restoration.  Really gorgeous.  But I figure the grasses growing on her property are all really good, native grasses.  And so when I see them growing on my property I can assume they are good grasses.  Therefore I can gather the seed at the end of the season and spread them on my small prairie restoration project.  Also, if I see similar grasses growing on the side of the road, I can gather them and sow them.  Last year I gathered up a bunch of seeds from the road that I thought were pretty and sowed them all over my Meadow.  Turns out it was Bahia grass (very bad invasive grass).  So that's why I am trying to be cautious.  After I left their place, I came back and walked my own Meadow.  There is no question that over the past - I think 4 years - since I have had my Meadow, there are many, many more stands of native grasses. They probably have just gotten to the level of maturity that I have begin to notice them.  No doubt most of them were already in the seed bank when we had the space cleared.  I have gathered seed over the years from both our property and the road sides, and I have spread it in the Meadow pretty faithfully.   But I think the vast majority of my grasses likely showed up on their own.  Crabgrass is my biggest enemy, and I need to work really really hard to eradicate as much as I can.  That's not an easy chore, and I find it to be a really daunting challenge.  Last winter I spread a pound of Maximillian sunflower seed and I didn't get a single bloom.  Not one.  The seed wasn't from around here.  It was from Fredericksburg.  That makes a difference regarding success.  But not one plant!  It might take more than one season for it to get tall enough for me to see it or for it to set blooms.  I'm patient.
• The hummingbirds are plentiful now.  They all dart around the feeders.  Bullies despite their tiny size.  They spend as much time chasing each other away from the feeders as they do drinking from the feeders.  And of course they are all over my flowers.
• Sunday.  Up before daylight.  Checked my armadillo traps.  Nothing.
• Straight out to the Vegetable Garden.  I pulled up some large basil plants and all my zinnias.  I did some weeding.  I prepped a large area (molasses, cottonseed meal and lava rock) right at the entrance to the garden and sowed a row of turnip seeds and two rows of kale seed.  And I prepped another bed next to my eggplant and sowed some lettuce seed.  Pulled up lots of dead sunflower stalks - what a terrible year for my sunflowers. Fertilized the asparagus and my eggplant.  
• Bert and I drove in to town to get a new sprinkler for the Rose Garden.  It wouldn't come out of error status.  Lucky break that I was here to notice it.   
• When we got back I worked in the Vegetable Garden for a while raking up fungus and throwing it over the fence.  Lots of pieces of decomposed granite in what I threw over the fence.  I will probably hear from Bert about the gravel in the grass when he mows. I did some more weeding.  Looks good in there.
• Watered in the Greenhouse Gardens and Mom's Garden.
• I swam in the pool and tried to enjoy part of the day in a relaxed manner, but I don't know how to do anything but work!  So I climbed out of the pool and went inside to make some soup.
• I cut back the Four O'Clocks near the back door and found an armadillo den in the middle of them.  Errgh.
• As it turns out, I can relax.  I went back into the pool then took a nap.  
• Watered in the Rose Garden with my new sprinkler system.
• Monday.  Labor Day.  Blake and the boys came up for a visit.  Molly stayed home with Mr. H.  She failed potty training, and frustrated Blake wanted to take a break from her little mini me.
• I checked my traps.  Nothing.
• Turned the compost pile.
• I spent about 45 minutes in the dining room bed cleaning it up.  I cut back all the Texas Pink phlox and the Rudbeckia.  Weeded.  Pulled up as much wild petunia as I could.
• Weeded in the Star Garden.  
• I used long pieces of rebar to stake my Pringle Aster.  The bamboo stakes weren't doing it.
• Took a long nap.  
• Tuesday.  Vacation.
• I staked some red amaranth in the Vegetable Garden.
• I spent the whole day cleaning nooks and crannies in the house.  The maid will get the big stuff.  I watered everywhere that was dry in preparation for being gone next week.  Airbnb folks arrive on Friday.
• Drove home in the late afternoon.