This is Obedient Plant. It blooms in the dead of summer, so it is very useful in the garden. Most things have given up the ghost by now.
It has been over 100 degrees for weeks and weeks with no rain at all. The Gulf Coast road trip with Nan, Josh, Sam and Koy, my surgery, and then a series of Airbnb guests have kept me from beginning my preparation for Max's wedding in October. Until now.
Friday morning before it got too hot, I began shoveling and spreading decomposed granite. I've had 10 yards sitting next to the arbor for weeks. I am concentrating first on the area around and near the pool. That is where most of the foot traffic for the wedding will be. I got most of the path in the Medicine Garden done where the infinity sculpture is.
I fertilized the little bit of St. John's Wort that I have left and watered it in. I used to have gorgeous stands of a tall variety of St. John's Wort - gorgeous spring flowers - all along both sides of the path in the Medicine Garden, but 2 drought-y summers in a row have all but made it disappear. I am going to try and bring it back since I have not seen that variety in any nurseries since I initially planted it many years ago.
I pulled up lots of basket grass along the paths because it is crowding out all my Selfheal. I wish I'd done it sooner, but at least the basket grass hasn't gone to seed yet.
I cut away Turk's Cap and Elderberry in the Medicine Garden that was leaning into the path where I was laying down gravel.
Watered in Mom's garden.
I pulled weeds here and there in the Star Garden, but I went inside before it got too hot.
I went back outside around 7:00 after the sun went down. I spread a few wheelbarrows of gravel, but didn't do much else. I stuck a half dozen or so seed heads of gomphrena in the ground in the Star Garden that I collected last year. I did that last weekend in the Rose Garden, and they have already popped up. When you plant a whole seed head about 100 seedlings sprout, so I have to cut away most of them.
Saturday. I wanted to get up at 6:00 but I slept right past that until 7:00. Straight outside to shovel and spread gravel. I began working in the area between the deck and the Medicine Garden. I put down 2 green strips that I had laying around and 4 pieces of flagstone that I got from Max. The side of that area closest to the Greenhouse needed some definition. While I worked, I spot watered in some areas. I watered 3 Beautyberry shrubs in the unfinished area nearby that were gasping. Might as well keep them alive.
I pulled up some chicken wire that I laid down some years ago across the beds where the Barbados Cherries grow. I was trying to deter armadillos. But, those areas really don't get a lot of armadillo activity since they stay mostly dry. I cleaned out the beds and planted 7 Gregg's Mist ageratum. Watered them in well (so here come the armadillos...)
I watered a neglected Beautyberry in the shady part of the Star Garden. I watered it with the hose connected to the cistern. So, I stayed over there clearing basket grass out of a bed because I knew I would forget about leaving the cistern hose running if I left the area. I fertilized the Firespike in that bed.
I did some first aid to my potted succulents in the Medicine Garden. I moved 3 pots to a shadier area, added some loose soil so that they would root fresh sprigs, and I fertilized them.
Bert and I drove to the Thames' place, and I bought 3 chili pequin and 5 Beebrush. I'm very excited about the Beebrush. Anne Thames thinks I'm crazy to be gardening in this heat. Well, most people would love their high summer gardens if they ever went in them. But it's so hot, most folks retreat to the air conditioning. I don't have that luxury this year. Max's wedding is driving me forward!
Then inside for several hours to avoid the hottest part of the day. Back out at 6:00, and I worked until 8:00. I dug holes for my smooth prickly pear plants over by the pool. Bert pulled out the dead Hawthorn shrubs that used to be there. I poured water into the holes to moisten the hard, dry clay in that area.
Next I went to the Star Garden to plant 2 Forsythia Sage next to the Firespike in the bed I cleared out earlier in the day. They are both fall bloomers, so that should be pretty. If I get motivated, I will dig up a clump of ferns from the Dining Room bed and plant it in that bed as well. That should be pretty - ferns, Firespike and the sage. This is the shady part of the Star Garden, and I don't spend much time in there, it needed some loving care.
I am going to make the area next to the back gate a bit bigger, so I pulled out the cedar edging of a bed that has never really done well. All the sprinklers miss that bed. I dug out the soil and threw it in the bed where the Forsythia sage was just planted. And I basically evened out the soil so that it was the same height as the paths. I will lay down gravel there and make a large-ish area to walk in un-molested by plant branches.
I spent some time pulling basket grass out of one of the nearby beds and cutting back white Turks Cap and Mystic Spires salvia.
I moved 2 pots out of the Star Garden. I put one next to the pool because it was a mangave. And I planted some fuzzy pink and green Wandering Jew that Anne Thames gave me. I've never seen it before. I hope it makes it, it was really striking in Anne's garden.
Sunday. Out the door by 7:00. I spread gravel for a bit.
Watered in the Rose Garden. I stuck some gomphrena seed heads in the ground here and there. I finally staked my little althea that has been laying on the ground for the longest time. I planted a Velvet Leaf Senna next to it.
I pulled up all the struggling zinnias in the bed at the front of the Rose Garden and planted 3 of the Beebrush. Watered them in well.
I planted the other 2 Beebrush in the White Garden. Watered them in well.
I got the 2 smooth prickly pear plants in the ground. Fertilized them and poured some water over them. Then I spread gravel over the whole bed so that they look very desert-y.
Watered in the White Garden.
Watered my St. John's Wort again in my pursuit of rejuvenating the gorgeous stand I used to have.
Fertilized my pinecone ginger.
I harvested seeds from Alamo Vine and sowed them in the White Garden. They have a red throat, but they are basically white. Alamo Vine has been a champion all summer long in the Rose Garden. The intense heat we have been suffering does not seem to slow it down. Very impressive.
I cut back to the ground all the Indigo Spires salvia in the Star Garden. It was after noon and extremely hot, but I got it done. Spot watered while I was doing it. I watered the white mist flower under the oak and several other beds.
Set up all my sprinklers. Put away all my tools. Dumped my debris in an erosion spot. Headed home.
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