Days at the Farm October 8 - 9, 2022

 

We drove up on Saturday morning and stayed until Sunday early afternoon.  Friday night was dinner with the Big Six at Il Braco.  Sunday evening at Blake's for the October birthdays.  We had a team come in and cook hibachi style for the family.  They clean everything up, etc. and the kids were very entertained by the knife show.

• Over the last week or so I have purchased a lot of shrubs and grasses.  The shrubs came from the John Fairy October trunk show.  The grasses came from Buchanan's.
• I planted the Pineland Wattle last week while I was here briefly.  
• Today I spray painted some lines on the ground just past the Water Garden where I plan to create a xeriscape garden.  It is very near Bert's crawfish burn pile, so he will have to move it.  He burns up the crawfish bodies every year at the end of the party in a huge bonfire.  That area is very valuable real estate around this property because there are no trees (no shade).  This garden is adjacent to a water source, but it will not have any regular water.  I dug 10 or so holes, filled them with fertilizer and water (many times).  The soil is dry and gritty.  The drought is still relentlessly present.  
• I had a flat of sideoats grama which is a native bunch grass of Texas.  I cut each plant into two pieces and planted them as a buffer between the Water Garden and the Xeriscape Garden that I am building.  The Dry Garden (not sure what I'm going to call it yet) will be the most unusual garden I've built because I am not amending the soil for many of the plants I am putting in.  I am planting small, drought tolerant, native trees / large shrubs, and I am hoping that beyond some handfuls of mycorrhizal fungi in the holes and plenty of water, they will do okay.  I dug a big hole, put in some handfuls of mycorrhizal fungi, lots of gallons of water and planted a Desert Willow.  I dug another hole, same process, but I haven't planted the tree yet.  I will put in a Guajillo in that spot. 
• Sunday.  I spent the better part of the day watering my holes that I dug.  I was trying to empty the tank in the Water Garden.  I put gallons of water on all my plants in the Water Garden and filled my holes over and over until the tank was empty.  I think that tank is 200 gallons.  I will have to confirm that.  I planted the Guajillo.  I made more holes and planted Blue Grama gas (native bunch grass) around the Guajillo.  I planted a Cat's Claw, same water and fertilizer routine.  Blue grama grass around it.  I planted Sideoats Grama plugs along one of the trails.  I'm trying to make paths using grasses as my edges.  And in this garden, I am not planning to lay down decomposed granite paths.  I'm just going to let whatever is there stay there.  For now anyway.  It is so dry over there that nothing is growing tall.  But maybe when the drought ends I will think better of that idea.  I know the bunch grasses will crowd out other plants / weed / crabgrass.  But if the paths get our of control I will poison them and lay down some mulch.  I would prefer to keep them natural.  It would certainly be less work.  When I can afford it, I will buy some very large boulders and some bull rock to make rocky beds.  And over time I will put in some additional drought tolerant native plants such as Copper Canyon daisy (fall bloomer), Texas Red Yucca (summer bloomer), and Blackfoot Daisy (summer bloomer).  One I get to those type of plantings, I will amend the soil.  I'm not necessarily locked in to the idea of only native plantings. it's more about xeriscape plants.  But I will try to stick to natives where I can.  I'm still looking around for large shrubs for the garden.  I will have a very large center space that will need something.  Something really special. 
•  Pulled weeds in the Orchard.  It looks really good in there.  Weed free everywhere.  I just need to go in there every time I'm here and maintenance it.  
• Weeded in the Vegetable Garden.  Sowed a row of red lettuce.  None of the lettuce seed I sowed last week or so came up.  
• Sprayed herbicide here and there where I missed last week.
• Pulled up some large basil plants in the Rose Garden in preparation for sowing seeds.
• Spot watered in the Long Border and the Rose Garden.
• Watered my roses in pots.
• Watered all my new trees - 3 Witch Hazels, Pineland Wattle, Senna, Parsley Hawthorn, Anacachoe Orchid Tree, and Two Winged Silverbell.  I like to name all of them so it will remind me not to forget any of them when I'm watering trees.  I will have to baby them for several years.  Growing trees successfully is not easy.  And a drought makes it a real challenge.