I took Monday and Tuesday as vacation and worked from the farm for a half day on Wednesday and took part of Wednesday and all of Thursday as vacation. October is so beautiful. The fall sunlight is different from the rest of the year. I hate to miss a moment of it, but unfortunately our place is rented out for the next 3 weekends. So time is precious.
I pulled up some of the artemisia in the Water Garden that Connie Gwyn gave me. I love this one. It is very low growing, like a ground cover. And so pretty and white. Artemisia loves sun and dry conditions. I planted a plug in the center bed of the Star Garden and 4 sprigs in the Rose Garden.
I dug up 5 or so plugs of Goldsturm Rudbeckia that were growing at the very edge of the Dining Room bed and planted them in the Rose Garden. This variety of rudbeckia blooms in the summer months after all the spring flowers are gone, and it's very hot outside. It will give the Rose Garden a pop of yellow right when it gets really hot.
I deadheaded Mexican Torch sunflowers in the Rose Garden. These beautiful giants (they grow 8 feet tall) are covered in orange flowers right now. The butterflies and the bumblebees are crazy about them. They are loaded with nectar. I always pull up the plants that germinate in the early part of the summer because they get so damn tall, and they bloom in the fall. Their branches are shearing off and they are toppling over way before their bloom time. I leave the plants that germinate in the late summer because their size is (slightly) more manageable through the fall. If you can stand the nuisance of them, the flowers are really pretty and the pollinators love them.
I cleaned out the center bed in Star Garden, the first bed I ever created here. I cut back the Pringle Aster. Weeded. I cut back the Mellow Yellow hibiscus, a low-growing perennial cold-tolerant hibiscus. away from the paths. I dug up a few seedlings from the path and moved them to the center of the bed. Sprayed herbicide. Raked.
I cut back lots of salvias in the Star Garden. I made some space and sowed some dark blue Larkspur and some Corncockle seeds. I cut back the Pringle Aster in the long bed in the Star Garden.
Cut back all the Turnera in the Rose Garden. I pulled one of them up, and it was such a chore that I wondered if it was a perennial. I googled it, and sure enough they are perennials, so I pruned the rest of them. I pulled up some of the chicken wire cages around my roses. Those cages were to protect the roses from deer. I hope I don't regret doing that. The Maggie rose was finally revealed after I pruned all that Turnera. It looks like voles have taken up residence around that rose, so I used the sprinkler water to soak the area and used my boot to mush down the wet soil. I disturbed a copperhead while doing that, but I let it go. No killing today.
I sowed turnips, marjoram, orange and red carrots and parsnips in the Vegetable Garden.
I planted a Calliandra Houstoniana in the Star Garden. I planted it in the wrong place. It gets really big. But I needed to plant it, and I didn't know where to put it. At least it's close to the house where I can watch over it the first winter.
Tuesday. Mom's birthday. We spoke on the phone. Our big party was on Sunday.
Outside to the Star Garden at first light. I sowed Ox Eyes and Black Eyed Susans in the Center bed.
I went back to the Vegetable Garden and worked in there for several hours. I weeded. This time of year is that very flat-to-the-ground weed that you have to pinch right in the middle to get the tap root. I used a forked hand tool to scrape at the soils and pull them up. I sowed more red lettuce, the last of a kale mix I had from last year, some red and gold beets, more carrots, more turnips, more parsnips, cilantro (in the buckets) and parsley. I hilled a lot of the planting that I did. I usually don't hill my plantings because I am already working in raised beds. But I did it this time. I cleaned out the beds that I am going to sow rye grass in. I laid down pine needles in some of the narrow areas where I will plant nothing, so I try to keep the weeds down.
I sowed dark blue Larkspur and Corncockle in the Rose Garden.
Pulled up some more basil plants in the Rose Garden to make room for seeds.
More hole digging and bunch grass planting along the line where the path will be in the Dry Garden.
Spot watered in the Rose Garden.
Sprayed herbicide on the driveway and the path to the pool.
Pulled weeds in the beds near the pool.
Wednesday. I didn't start until after noon, and it was a pretty hot day. Too bad.
I dug more holes, watered, fertilized and planted Blue Grama grass. Trying to get rid of two flats of Blue Grama plugs is not easy. All the Sideoats Grama has been planted.
I weeded in the Star Garden around the area where I planted the little Red Buckeye and sowed the Anise Hyssop. I sowed Corncockle and dark blue Larkspur in the area where I weeded. Deadheaded Goldsturm Rudbeckia on the other side of that path.
I staked some blue mistflower that was crowding a path. And I staked two big clumps of milkweed.
I dug holes and filled them with water to plant my 2 Strawberry Bushes - one is Euonymus myrianthus and one is nitidus. Both have gold fruits, not the red fruit which is more common. I planted them along the greenhouse. It stays pretty shady there.
Watered my Calliandra.
Inside for an hour or so.
Back outside and dug holes, etc in the Dry Garden. I'm determined to finish planting my grass plugs before I leave on Thursday. Normally it would be a simple 2 hour job to plant 3 flats of grass plugs, but since the soil is so hard and dry, it takes a long time to prep. Spot watered in the Water Garden while I worked.
I did some weeding in the Vegetable Garden. I planted 3 rows of winter rye (green manure) in the bed with the goat wire arbor. I sowed a row of parsley in my newest bed.
Thursday. We had to head home pretty early because we had tickets to the Astros game. Cleaned up all my tools and staged the house for our Airbnb guests.
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