Weekend at the Farm August 3-4, 2019

This picture is looking down on the top of an amaranth stalk.  This one, as evidenced by the pink-y tone of the leaves, is going to throw off pink seed heads.

This is the first time we have been here in three weeks.  We got back from Alaska last Sunday.  And, of course I had to work all week.  It was so good to be back in the garden.

• It didn't rain for the three weeks we were gone.  Before we left Bert accidentally left the water off in the Medicine Garden after he changed out a hose, and everything small was dead - my Columbine, etc.  The shrubs and trees were half dead.
• Dry, dry, dry everywhere.  So I started watering which is the usual activity in August anyway.
• I started early Saturday morning in the Vegetable Garden.  I pulled up the last of the tomato plants.  I usually pull them up sooner since they host nematodes.  As soon as they stop producing I pull them up, but I haven't had a chance until now.  I did lots of weeding (of course) and filled the cadet up full of weeds.  I fertilized the asparagus.  I raked, then sprayed herbicide.  I'm planning to get some compost next week or the week after to begin my fall and winter garden. 
• I sowed some more sunflowers, a packet of various varieties.
• The sunflowers are blooming.  The amaranth has gotten tall.  The morning glories that I sowed are all puddled on the ground even though I sowed them against an arbor.  Strange.  I stuck a tomato cage in the middle of them that they can climb.
• I weeded in the Star Garden next.  It was weedy, but not a disaster since I had worked so hard three weeks ago.
• I cleared a space in the long bed in the Star Garden and sowed some Heavenly Blue morning glories on a metal trellis.  I think I have enough time to have a show of them before the first frost.
• I sowed lots of zinnia seed in the Star Garden.
• I watched a Monarch butterfly lay eggs on my butterfly weed.  
• One of my La Marne roses has died.  And one is half-dead.  I dug up the dead one and trimmed back the other one.  Sowed zinnias in the spot where the rose had been. That rose was growing in a really large space, and I don't want to leave it empty for sowing flowers for springtime.  It will be too hard to keep weeded.  It's a really large area.  I'm not sure I want to grow roses, though.  La Marne was an excellent bloomer, one of the best I've ever had.
• Carol came over for dinner.  She got bit by a copperhead 3 nights ago.  On her heel.  That's my worst nightmare.  One thing I will say for her experience, it was dark and she was walking in Crocs to go turn off the hose.  She probably stepped on it or disturbed it pretty bad.  But she didn't see it. I'm terrified that I will see it strike and have not only a snake bite, but also a heart attack.  Because it will surely get me on the hand.  I'm always sticking my hand into vegetation. She said it felt like a wasp sting (which hurts really bad).  But when she got into the house and looked at it, she saw two puncture wounds.  And, her leg swelled up and got purple right away.  She drove herself to the emergency room.  She is 89 years old.  She's made of stronger stuff than my generation!
• Sunday.  I moved back and forth to the Rose Garden, the Medicine Garden and the Orchard as I continued to water.  But I spent the biggest part of the day working in the Orchard.  
• I weeded, weeded, weeded.  I spent a lot of time cleaning up the grape vines and blackberry vines.  The grape vines were draped all the way to the ground.  I cut them away so that I can see under them.  There are lots of grapes - green and half ripe, so hopefully soon I can gather enough to make jelly.  I think they need more than one week.  I wrapped and wove the blackberry vines around each other so that they were out of the paths.  And I cut lots of dead canes and pulled them out of the bramble.  It was cloudy today, so pruning my blackberries was not horrible like it usually is.  I cut my salvias down to the ground hoping to get another showing in the fall.  The bergamot was spent, so I cut it down to the ground.  Removed lots of dead vegetation.  I had the loppers with me, so I cut away a large-ish dead branch on my crabapple tree that has been bugging me for months.  I raked the paths.  Then I sprayed herbicide.  I fertilized a couple of the roses. I deadheaded my zinnias and spread the seed.  I spent most of the day working in the Orchard.  There are still lots of weeds and lots of clean-up as we head in to fall, but I made good headway.
• Bert replaced the boards in the 16 x 4 foot bed in the Vegetable Garden.  The sides are really tall now.  It will take a helluva lot of soil to fill it up, but once I've done that work I will be able to use this bed for all my veggies that grow under the ground like beets (which performed terribly this year), garlic, and onions.  
• I staked all my amaranth.  I have two varieties growing in the garden right now.
• The little agastaches that I planted before I left for Alaska have either been decimated by the voles or killed from lack of water.  The ones gasping look a little bit green at the bottom, so maybe if I keep them watered they will bounce back.
• After lunch I worked in the Star Garden.  A light rain started to fall, and because of it I was able to work until 4:30. I cut back some of my salvia, but I left some for the bumble bees.  They are crazy for it.  Weeded.  Spread seed from my Strawberry Fields Gomphrena.
• Bathed the dogs.  Bathed myself!  I was filthy, but I always am.
• Headed to work on Monday morning.

Yellow Butterfly Vine August 3, 2019

This is the first time I have grown this twining perennial vine.  I'm interested to see how well it returns next year, but it certainly seems vigorous.  I have it trained on a conveyor belt, and it has already climbed to the top.  It doesn't get its name from the yellow flowers, it gets its name from the shape of the seed pods.  A remarkable likeness!  It's blooming right now, and it's always great to have something blooming in the dead of summer.

Sunflowers in the Vegetable Garden August 3, 2019

I had several packets of sunflower seeds in my seed box that have been in there for years.  A month or so ago I sowed some in the Vegetable Garden.  They are in bloom and look very cheery.

Canna Bud July 14, 2014

This little canna bud was so pretty this morning.  I bought these roots at WalMart.  Don't know the name of them.

Double Red Althea July 14, 2019

I thought my althea looked pretty this weekend.

Weekend at the Farm July 13 - 14, 2019

This was out last weekend before our trip to Alaska.  It was particularly stressful because we have Airbnb guests arriving the second weekend we are gone.  Weeds!  And, wouldn't you know it, the pool sweep broke, and one of the automatic sprinkler zones stopped working.  But we did the best we could.  The pool sweep is repaired, we fixed the faulty wiring that caused the sprinkler zone to stop working, and I cleaned up as best I could.

• Saturday. In the morning I spent about 30 minutes pulling up the ugly tall weed in the Meadow. 
• I spent some time in the Star Garden weeding, but most of my time was spent in the Rose Garden weeding.  I watered in the Rose Garden and in some dry spots in the Star Garden. 
• Sunday.  I spent another 30 minutes or so pulling up the tall weed in the Meadow.  
• I sprayed herbicide on the ugly, invasive yellow flower in the Meadow that has popped up absolutely everywhere. I've written about it before.  It is very tall (four feet) with ugly, hairy leaves.  The flowers are not very pretty, but they seed prolifically.  And they don't lay down after they are killed by the freeze.  Real nuisances.   
• Next I went to the Orchard to spray herbicide.  I didn't intend on staying, but it was such a weedy mess that I spent about three hours in there weeding.  
• Did some more watering in the Rose Garden.
• Cleaned up and put away all my stuff (I usually leave my gloves and other stuff out on the porch, but I moved it all to the Greenhous since we are having guests).
• It doesn't look like much, but I worked my tail off!
• Prepped the drawers and closets for guests, and we drove home.

Four Days at the Farm July 4 - 7, 2019

This is a cerulean passion flower.  There are so many fantasticical-looking passion flowers, but this one is supposed to be more cold-resistant than most.  So I bought it and planted it on the front arbor.

Mom, Dad, Nan and Lisa for July Fourth.  Lisa drove back to work on Friday.  Nan, Mom and Dad spent the night .  We swam both days and ate lots of food!

• Wednesday morning before everyone arrived I weeded.  With the rain and Molly's birth (my inability to get to Burton and weed), there has been an explosion of weeds.  It is a pretty daunting task.  And we leave for Alaska in a less than two weeks.  I filled a wheelbarrow with a huge pile of weeds from the Star Garden.  
• I weeded in the Vegetable Garden.  The sunflower, amaranth and okra seeds that I sowed are about a foot tall now.  I pulled up all the larkspur that had gone to seed.   And I pulled up all the Mexican Torch sunflower that I saw growing.  I am done with those monsters. They are wonderful for the butterflies, but too difficult to keep upright.
• Nancy spent about 30 minutes helping me pull up the tall weed in the Meadow.  It was great to have help!
• I spent an hour or a bit more weeding in the Star Garden after everyone left on Friday.  I filled up two heaping wheelbarrows full of weeds and spent vegetation.
• Saturday morning.  Couldn't sleep.  Finally got out of bed at 5:00 and drank coffee.  Out the door and weeding by 6:30.
• I spent most of the day in the Star Garden weeding and tying back plants.  I filled up the wheelbarrow many times as well as well as the cadet with weeds. By this time in the year I'm not really pulling up spent wildflowers anymore, just weeds.  But I am still culling ageratum, so there was a lot of that in the wheelbarrows too.  I cut away plants leaning into the paths and generally cleared away those areas.  
• Next, I went to the Medicine Garden.  I used the hedge trimmers to cut back my St. Johns Wort.  I cut back many stalks of Hojo Santo.  I used the large leaves as "mulch" around some of my freshly weeded areas.  I did some raking and spraying herbicide.  I ran into a copperhead in the ginger bed in there.  I called to Bert to come and kill it, but I mistakenly called it a coral snake.  He won't kill one of those pretty little things.  He didn't hear me correct myself and call it a copperhead, so he never came to my rescue.  It remains alive to scare me another day.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden.
• I spent 20 minutes in the Meadow pulling up the tall weed that is so unattractive.
• The last thing I did was to cut back my Black and Blue Sage in the Bedroom Bed.  It is a large area, and it took a while to do.  There were still some brown eyed Susans in there, so I yanked them out.  Also pulled up any Four O'Clocks I saw in there.  I have them mostly eradicated in that area.  Hot work at 2:00 in the afternoon. 
• Showered and napped for about an hour.
• I tried to do a bit more, but threw in the towel pretty quickly.
• Sunday.  Up early again.  Ray brought their new dog, Josie, over to meet us.  We all chatted for about an hour.
• I started working in the Rose Garden.  I worked in there most of the day.  I cleared out 6 or so beds thoroughly, and some beds I only got out the big crabgrass that spreads out and crowds out.  By 2:00 I was pretty whipped, so I cleared out the weeds around my young roses so they wouldn't choke.  To be continued next weekend.  
• I cleared out the paths in the Rose Garden so that nothing brushes against you when you pass through.  I staked a few clumps of Standing Cypress.  I sprayed herbicide.  Bert mowed the Daffodil Bed for me.  I sowed zinnia seeds in areas that I cleared out.  We will have lots of pretty blooms in early August.  I watered here and there, and I moved the sprinklers.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Orchard and the Star Garden and around the pool.
• Lastly, I sowed Aurelia's Verde Amaranth, sunflower seeds, Nema-gone Marigolds and zinnias in the Vegetable Garden.  Pulled a few weeds too.  I like having things growing in the Vegetable Garden even when it is August, and all those things like the heat.
• I continued watering in the Rose Garden until dark.
• Drove in to work on Monday morning.