First Hurricane Lilies of the Season August 13, 2017

I did a lot of work last year digging up Hurricane Lilies (Lycoris) and planting them all over the gardens.  I had so many that I gave some to my neighbor Debra.  They are precious - very expensive to buy, but fortunately they multiply rapidly as long as you're willing to put your back into it and dig them up.  They are starting to bloom and it's very gratifying to see them pop up all over the garden.  The bloom comes up before the greenery.  It looks really neat to see the tall stem with the spidery red flower on top pop out of the ground all by itself.

This one is growing right in the middle of some black seeded moudry grass.

  This one is growing next to some pink muhly grass.

Weekend at the Farm August 11 - 13, 2017

 This is Mellow Yellow hibiscus.  It reseeds.  This year in particular I have a lot of seedlings that sprang up in the paths surrounding the mother plant.

Took Friday off and arrived on Thursday evening.  Bert said there was a hard rain before I arrived.  He and I have very different ideas about what constitutes a hard rain, but he was right, I could tell it had rained hard - thank goodness, we needed it.

• Friday morning I took the cadet, the wheelbarrow, my long leather gloves, a garden cushion and clippers and scissors down to the Orchard to clean out the dead blackberry canes.  A heinous job by anyone's standards.  I worked on one bed that, for some reason, I have never cleaned out before.  I also cut away the long vines of my grapes that were reaching down to the ground.  Weeded.  Scooped up soil that the armadillos had strewn all over the paths and threw it back into the beds.  Cut away Moss Verbena that was leaning into the paths.  Raked up some of the yucky fungus spreading in the paths, it loves the wet weather.  That all took several hours.  
• Went inside for a cool-down and to re-hydrate.
• Back out to the Orchard.  I cleaned out another blackberry bed, not nearly as difficult since I had cleared it out last year.  I also cut some more long grape vines.
• In for lunch and a nap.  There is a meteor shower all weekend and I want to stay up late enough to watch some of it.
• I went back out for a short while after my nap and pulled some weeds in the Star Garden, but didn't get much done.
• Saturday I was up early.
• Went out to the Orchard again to clean out some more blackberry canes.  I focused on the other far corner of the Orchard, the large bed and the small one behind it.  I pulled up all the tall leggy zinnias to make way for the seedlings coming up.  I cut back the Montbretia yellowing foliage.  Weeded.  Scooped soil back into the beds that the evil armadillos had rooted out into the paths.  And I cut away dead blackberry canes in the small bed.  Pulled up leggy zinnias in various places throughout the garden.  Next I moved on to the long blackberry bed next to the Mulberry.  Got that one knocked out.  It was then that I noticed the bed at the font of the Orchard.  A vine had completely taken over the bed, it had covered everything.  Pretty startling, really, can't believe that I hadn't noticed.  I pulled and yanked and pulled.  There was also a huge poke salad growing in there which I know about.  I cut it away, I'm not strong enough to pull it up, the tap root is too big, so it comes back every year.   The grape vines had crept in there too, and a big beauty berry and a Turk's Cap, all too big for me to pull up without a shovel and whole lot of  "want to".  What a mess.  I worked on that as long as I could, but I gave out before I was done.  
• Swam in the pool.
• I cut back the leggy black and blue salvia and overgrown white Four O'Clocks in the back beds all the way the the ground.  Maybe I'll get another flush of blooms from the salvia in the fall, but I doubt it - it's never happened yet. 
• Whew!  That's all the strength I had.  I hauled four huge loads of debris in the cadet over to the burn pile.  I did a lot of clearing today. 
• Sunday, up early and outside.  Back to the Orchard.  I finished cleaning out the grape vine / beauty berry / evil vine mess.  I also spent some time cutting away the dead blackberry canes on the other side of the bed.  I trimmed back some of the Mexican Sunflowers and pulled up zinnias in the bed with my hops trellis.
• Bilski came out to the house and did some repairs on our well.  The water pressure was horrible.  It's much better now.  I fertilized and watered in the Rose Garden with my new water pressure.
• Bert and I messed with the sprinklers in the Rose Garden, one of them was hardly putting any water off despite the improved water pressure.  We replaced the valve and it works fine.
• I fertilized Veilcenblau and Climbing Pinkie and my snowball bush.  Watered them well.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Orchard, Rose Garden, Star Garden, Vegetable Garden, and Greenhouse garden.
• Pulled some more weeds here and there and headed home.

Weekend at the Farm August 5 - 6, 2017

Here are a couple of things blooming despite the drought.  John Fannick Phlox and purple zinnia.

Hot and dry.  We were hoping for rain, but as of Sunday afternoon it had missed us.  Blake and family came up for a visit for the day on Saturday, we had a very nice day.

• Cleaned house early Saturday morning - vacuumed, mopped  and laid down floor shine.  Cleaned bathrooms.
• Sunday morning up early again.  It was overcast in the morning so I was able to work a lot longer than I would have been able on a normal sunny day.
• I went out the the Rose Garden to start watering.  Bert came out there to repair the cedar posts that surround the Noisettes.  I had him cut a huge weed (basically a small tree growing in the middle of one of them.  I spent the next two hours dragging around the hose and trimming away at my Noisettes.  I cut away dead canes and dead twigs.  I cut and trimmed until I was able to pull the small tree / huge weed out from the middle of the rose bush.  I was wearing my leather rose gloves or I would have been very cut up.  I crawled in the flowerbed and cut away low-growing canes and pulled up all the day flower that was thriving underneath.  Day flower is the worst weed ever.  Succulent six inch long roots that don't want to be pulled out - it's like they are grabbing the dirt with all their might.  Every one is an effort to pull up and they colonize quickly.  Then I pulled up all the day flower growing around my two Belinda's Dream roses.  Made several huge piles of debris and threw it all over the fence onto the neighbors' property.  They can't see my trash pile from their house, but it is technically on their property.  
• Swam in the pool to cool off. 
• Went back out after lunch and worked in the Star Garden for a bit.  I cut some more seed heads off my Giant Rudbeckia and spread them in the Orchard.  While I was there I pulled up some leggy zinnias and pulled some weeds.  
• That was it for me, inside to rest and get ready to go home. 

Weekend at the Farm July 29 - 30, 2017

This is basil.  I bought two types of basil this year.  I believe this is Siam Queen basil.  The flowers are extremely decorative, and the scent is very spicy.  I also grew purple stem basil.  That one was really gorgeous.  It has a large, rounded form with long spikes of purple flowers.  A real show stopper in the garden.  Both of them are pretty.  

Arrived Friday evening, left Sunday midday.  Hot.  Texas in July.

• It's that time of year when most plants are struggling.  
• I spend most of my time watering in the places where I don't have automatic sprinklers installed.
• Watered in the Rose Garden in the morning.
• I loaded three loads of mulch into the cadet and spread it across the Daffodil Border.
• Weeded in the Star Garden.  
• I spent some time in the Vegetable garden deadheading zinnias and pulling up the last three tomato plants.  I pulled all the bird netting off the goat wire arbor as well.  I spread zinnia seed in the beds.  And I cut back some Mexican Sunflowers that were getting really unruly. 
• Deadheaded my Giant Rudbeckia in the Star Garden and took a bunch of seed heads down to the Orchard.  I have an area in one bed that is kind of like a dead zone - nothing much grows there.  I spread the seed throughout the area.  First I roughed up the soil, then I tamped it down after I spread the seed.  The seed heads made a lot of seed - hundreds.  Hopefully come next spring I will have lots of seedlings.  Giant Rudbeckia is a perennial, so I'm hoping this solves my dead zone problem permanently.
• Watered in the Star Garden.
• Sunday.  Continued watering in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden.  
• I lost a couple more roses.  Lady Hillingdon is gone and Soncy is gone.  Maybe Julia Childs too, I will know for sure next weekend.
• I spent some time weeding in the Star Garden.  I filled the wheelbarrow several times with weeds and plants that were leaning into the paths.
• Sprayed herbicide - a little in the Shade Garden and driveway, the Rose Garden and here and there in the Star Garden.
• We left about noon to go home, get cleaned up and go to Mom and Dad's house.

Weekend at the Farm July 21 - 23, 2017

It is extremely hot outside.  I haven't been here for several weeks.  And when I have been here I have been unable to do much of anything because of time constraints.  There has been no rain to speak of, and I've lost several more of my roses which is very upsetting.  But I will soldier on as I always do.  I will replace the roses in the fall.

• Friday evening when I arrived I watered several roses in the Rose Garden.  But other than that I didn't venture outside - too hot.
• Saturday morning - up early.
• I spent the morning watering with my small-area sprinklers in the Medicine Garden, the Star Garden, and the Rose Garden.  In between moving the sprinklers I weeded in the Star Garden.  I started with the Star Garden because I see it all the time since it's next to the house.  It's best to get that cleaned up so I don't feel discouraged the entire weekend!  I weeded, cut away plants that were crowding other plants, pulled up several Mexican sunflowers that died from lack of water and then spread the seed everywhere, cut away plants leaning into the paths, deadheaded zinnias and verbena bonariensis and giant rudbeckia.  
• I vow to get a sprinkler system in the Rose Garden as soon as I get my bonus next spring.   No more of this extreme effort dragging around hoses.
• I worked until about 1:00 then went inside, just too hot to work.  
• Swam in the pool throughout the day.  The water is warm but not hot yet.  By August the water will be hot.
• Later in the day I cut back the Indigo Spires in hopes that I'll get a solid flush in the fall.
• Bert and I took a swim in the evening.  I love swimming at that time of day, everything is so still.
• Later we walked out to the road.  We saw a family of raccoons run into the woods. 
• Sunday morning, up early again.  I watched a pair of Painted Buntings at the feeder while I drank my coffee. 
• I began working in the Rose Garden - it looks horrible - dry, huge weeds in the paths and in the beds, and the roses are stressed.  I had to pull the weeds in the paths because they were too big to spray with herbicide.  I could spray them, but then there would be a huge dead weed there forever.  I pulled up dead verbena and other spent flowers.  And I watered.  Went in about 9:00 to eat and drink something.  I had already sweated buckets.
•  Back outside to the Rose Garden for another hour or so.  It looked pretty good by then, so I quit the Rose Garden.
• I planted two pots of gingers that a co-worker gave me.  I planted them in the Boardwalk Gardens near the White by the Gate Camellias.
• I noticed while I was planting the gingers that the white butterfly gingers nearby had bloomed and were on the wane.  That was disappointing!  They have the best smell - one of my top five favorite flower smells, and I missed the whole thing!
• Next, down to the Orchard to deadhead zinnias and spread the seed.  I did some weeding and cleaning up.  I could only stay out for 30 minutes at a time because of the extreme heat.  In and out, drinking water.
• I did some weeding in the back beds as well.  The baby Thryallis that I planted in that bed last spring are alive and well - still small but alive.  I'm a patient person, they will be pretty in a year or so.
• I had noticed several weeks ago that there were lots of dead twigs throughout the middle of my Franziska Krueger rose.  I cut all of them away.
• About 3:30 I went out to the Vegetable Garden and did some clean-up in there.  At this point in the summer there's not any point in trying to grow vegetables - way too hot.  I pulled up a couple of the tomato plants - the roots look like they are in good shape, no nematodes.  I'm wondering if all the sun they are getting now that we bulldozed is contributing to their healthiness.  Also, everything is well-mulched, nematodes don't like rich soil.  I picked some eggplants.  I did  lot of deadheading and spreading zinnia seeds.  My Vegetable Garden becomes a flower garden in August.  Mexican sunflowers and zinnias aplenty.  A half hour was all I could do before the heat drove me inside.
• All day the Painted Buntings have been providing lots of entertainment.  I counted 3 pairs at the feeder again and again.  So pretty!  I sat at the kitchen table and watched them through the binoculars.
• I fiddled with the sprinklers in the Rose Garden and the Medicine Garden.
• I sprayed herbicide in the driveway, the Vegetable Garden, the Orchard, the Medicine Garden and around the pool.
• Headed in to work on Monday morning.

Philippine Lily Blooms July 8, 2017

Philippine Lily Buds July 2, 2017

I have so many lilies in bud.  This is the result of years of patient seeding and waiting for the seedlings to get mature enough to bloom. And I'm still seeding.  Philippine Lilies make huge seed heads filled with seed.  I spread them all over the place, they sprout readily.