Arrived on Saturday with Charlie for our special one-on-one weekend. We road the zip line, played in the fort, took walks, splashed in mud puddles, threw rocks, built rock piles, played dice games that he made up, played hide and seek, he rode the little tractor, drove the cadet, we made Christmas ornaments, we made him a bracelet from a kit, and we collected caterpillars in a bug box I had. He went home on Sunday evening.
- Monday. Worked.
- During lunch I pulled up lots of spent ageratum in the Star Garden.
- I pulled up all the arugula in the Vegetable Garden that had gone to flower. This was the really skinny-leaved arugula that I don't like, so I pulled it up before it went to seed.
- I turned over a section of bed in the Vegetable Garden and planted an artichoke that I got at the plant swap last week. I had already cleaned up that bed and sowed kale and parsnips. And although they were coming up, a lot of the little Purple Phacelia was coming up too. I don't want to encourage that, so I turned the bed, planted the artichoke and then covered all the bare spots with pine straw to discourage any more unwanted growth.
- I also planted a little Aristolochia Fimbrata in the Medicine Garden. This is a little perennial groundcover larval plant (for the pipevine swallowtail butterfly) that I got at the plant swap. I have one growing in that bed that I bought earlier in the summer. This is a fun plant to grow with interesting flowers. I'd like to get a bunch more, they are expensive though which is why I snapped this one up when it was my turn to pick.
- After work I picked arugula for a salad for dinner.
- I cut away some morning glory vines in Mom's Garden.
- I continued pulling up spent ageratum in the Star Garden.
- I pulled up some basil on the wane in the Rose Garden. And I pulled up a bunch of straggly zinnias. Deadheaded them and threw the flower heads in the bed. I gathered seed from my Fruity Pebbles lantana and threw them in the Noisette bed.
- Bert brought home a bunch of plastic feed buckets that he picked up in the pastures where he was hunting last weekend. I'm going to plant my new roses in them - I'm fed up with the voles eating my roses. There are several spots where I want to plant roses in the Rose Garden.
- Tuesday. Worked.
- During lunch I planted a perennial artemisia that I got at the plant swap last week. I have two varieties now - one that I got from Connie and one that I acquired at the plant swap. I planted it in the White Garden. I also planted another of the prostrate fleabanes in the White Garden that I picked up from the swap.
- I dumped all the ageratum that I pulled up yesterday in an erosion spot.
- I pulled up more ageratum in the Star Garden. Most of it is gone, but I'll be pulling it up here and there for a while. There is a lot of it.
- I pulled out Wedelia from amongst my double orange daylilies.
- I have decided to reduce the size of a few beds in the dry shady part of the Star Garden to make the paths bigger and make the garden more inviting in those areas. There are 2 large beds that run alongside each other (remnants of Max's original garden). I have a lot of black seeded moudry grass in both of them. One of them has a blue Vitex tree in it. And they have various plants that come up from seed (Philippine Violets and red shrimp plant mostly). But they aren't particularly attractive, and they get really messy looking in the summer when the grasses spill over into the paths. I am also going to remove part of a long narrow bed in the sunny part of the Star Garden to make a bigger area around a bench that sits in there.
- After work I started turning over one of the beds in the Vegetable Garden that I had sowed with rye grass. I sowed it to make a green manure. Rye grass seed is a lot cheaper than compost. The grass has gotten long, and I want it to be good and rotted when spring gets here. I might have been a little soon, but in past years I have waited until it was three feet high, and it's really hard to turn and chop up. If you don't spade it pretty well the grass keeps growing despite being dug up and turned over.
- While I was in there I roughed up the soil in the bed where I pulled up the arugula and sowed rye grass seed.
- Did a bit of weeding. And I pulled up the rest of the red celosia and spread some of the seed heads in the Vegetable Garden and some in the Rose Garden.
- During lunch I drove in to Brenham and bought 4 really big bags of potting soil. I will use them to top off several of the buckets in the Vegetable Garden and fill as many as I can of the buckets that Bert brought me from his hunting trip.
- After work I topped off 3 buckets in the Vegetable Garden. I sowed 2 packets of sweet peas in the 3 buckets. I had a lot of seeds, and I stuck all of them in the buckets which means they will be totally over-crowded. Why should this time be different from any other? Well, if I get a bumper crop I pull some up.
- Thursday. Worked.
- During lunch I started working on a bed in the dry part of the Star Garden. As mentioned, I narrowed the bed to make the path wider on one side. I did that by digging up all the soil in a wide margin and pushing the cedar log into the space I created. I threw all the soil that I dug up in that bed and surrounding beds. Red shrimp plant had taken over in there, so I dug it all out. I also dug out quite a bit of moudry grass. And I dug out a half dozen or so tall Philippine Violets. Now the only things growing in that bed are red cannas, Illustris colocasia, some Ox Eyes, and a few grasses. I'm not quite done, but I ran out of time. I didn't attempt to find a home for any of it. All the dug up plants went into the debris pile.
- After work I went down to the Orchard and pulled up lots of basil. I ended up with a big pile just outside of the Orchard, all the basil is tall and woody. But until the last week or so it has still been a good source of nectar for the bees.
- Friday. Worked.
- During lunch I continued working on the bed I began the day before. I shortened it on both ends so that there is more room to maneuver around all sides.
- I also started on the adjacent bed, making it narrower and shorter. Again, I dug up lots of moudry and Philippine Violets. More to do on that one as well, but I ran out of time and had to get back to work.
- Saturday. At long last!
- I spent most of the morning in the Orchard. I pulled up the last of the basil plants. I cut back all the blue salvia in the Jujube bed. I pulled up all the swamp sunflower, it was completely done blooming and all flopped over. Looks like the voles had gotten in there and gone to town. I'm trying to eradicate swamp sunflower from that bed, so for once, I'm okay with the voles. I cut off all the Philippine Lily seed heads and spread them throughout the beds in the Orchard. That took a while because there are so many lilies down there. I put on my long leather gloves and pushed up the blackberry bramble in the back corner and staked it as best as I could with 4 metal rebars. I just wanted it up off the ground. I raked the paths throughout. Dandelions have made their appearance, so I pulled up as many as I could.
- Next I dug up a rose that was in the Orchard. It was spending most of its time being smothered either by wildflowers or blackberry brambles depending on the season. I planted it in one of the big feed buckets that Bert found last weekend. I set the bucket in one of the beds in the rose Garden, filled the bucket with potting soil and planted the rose. I think this rose is Baronne Henriette de Snoy. I will have to look back at my notes, but pretty sure that's right. I have had it with voles eating my rose roots. So I will give this bucket idea a try. I put doubled over chicken wire at the bottom of the bucket in case the voles try to chew through the plastic.
- Bert and I drove in to Brenham and ate lunch at a Cuban restaurant. And we drove around the country roads looking at houses. It was a nice time.
- When we got home I dug up the Beverly rose that I planted a couple of weeks ago and planted it in one of the feed buckets. Same routine: chicken wire in the bottom, potting soil, and rose.
- And in the third bucket I dug up Martha's Vineyard rose and planted it in a feed bucket. The huge Bachelor Button growing next to that rose had just died (the voles chewed it right off at the soil level), so I knew the rose was in jeopardy.
- So, we'll see how these roses do in buckets. These are big buckets. They certainly can't do any worse than they are now. I have one more bucket that Bert brought home. I will bring more potting soil with me next visit and dig up another one.
- Well, now that the weather has turned cooler at least the armadillos have gone quiet. One less torment...for now.
- Sunday. Headed home really early to make it in time for Charlie's 6th birthday party.
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