Alas, my camera is not picking up the very different flower colors of the first 2 pictures vs the other pair of pictures. They are different stands of zinnias, and each of their colors to the eye is very different. Both are pretty, but the first one is really magnificent.
Friday morning before work I went out to the Rose Garden and gouged weeds out of the paths. Not easy to dig up crabgrass once it gets big, but all the rain makes the ground soft, and I use the end of my scissors to get down in there. Pulled up spent Brown Eyes and Tall Winecup.
I sowed some zinnia seeds in one of the beds in the Rose Garden.
Did some weeding in the Star Garden dining room bed. Looks much better. And one of the paths nearby - I trimmed back the Passalong Pink verbena so I can walk through there.
I had 5 yards of mulch delivered. When I weed the Orchard (which is a lost mess), I want to put mulch down or there's no point. Those beds are seething in weed seeds that want to sprout, so mulch is a must.
During lunch I weeded paths again in the Rose Garden.
After work until dusk, I cleaned out beds in the Rose Garden - that native grass that is a total pest in that garden, spent wildflowers and crabgrass. I pulled up peppervine.
I drove over to the trails where I saw the unusual plants in the wet spots last week. We have had so much rain this spring that I've been watching these low spots. Every rare once in a while we have a rainy spring, and a tall, rather grand wildflower with deep blue flowers blooms in the moist shade. I haven't seen it often enough to identify it by the greenery, so I will just wait and watch. I can't wait to show it to my native plant friends if this is what it is!
I drove over to where the beardtongue Penstemon was growing to see if I could collect seed. Penstemon has hard, round seed pods filled with teensy seed the size of dust. The pods were brown, so I cut them off and dropped them into one of the dry beds in the Rose Garden.
Saturday. I worked in the Orchard. I cut away some blackberry bramble, but I didn't get too much into that. I mostly weeded paths and beds. I loaded two loads of mulch into the truck and spread it in beds that I had cleaned out of weeds. I stepped all over it to mush it down. My main concern is to keep weeds from growing.
Nancy and Lisa came up around 10:00, and they helped me and Bert harvest the honey. We collected a little over 3 gallons.
Sunday. I worked in the Orchard for about 2 hours, then cleaned up and headed to Houston for Molly's 5th (Unicorn-themed) birthday party.
