August 2022

 

The sky is blue, the fields in view, 

All fading green and yellow.

Come, let us stray our gladsome way

And view the charms of Nature.

The rustling corn, the fruited thorn,

And every happy creature.

 - Robert Burns, Song Composed in August

Weekend at the Farm July 29 - July 31, 2022

 

This is Heliopsis.

I won't miss July.  I'm glad it's gone.  One more horrible month and things will start getting better.  I got here Friday morning and worked from here.  Bert was already here.  It was just the two of us.

• Friday.  Worked.
• Did a little watering.
• We have lost 2 post oaks in the yard area.  It will be a hard job getting one of them cut down without hurting things surrounding it.
• We are bringing home 2 red rockers to throw in the trash.  They don't have any life left in them.  They lasted a long time - a decade - considering they only cost $25 each.  Sometimes you don't get what you paid for, you get better!   
• Saturday.  I spent the whole morning and into early afternoon in the Star Garden.  I dug out some cedar edging in a couple of places and reset them.  They tend to sink into the ground over time.  I pull them up and push dirt underneath them so that they make create a higher edge around the beds.  
• I pulled up lots of purslane growing in one of the paths.
• Spot watered here and there.  Hand watered some plants.
• Staked some blue mist flower and Texas Vervain (This is not the native Vervain, but some sort of cultivar.  Very pretty and cottage garden-like.  I got the seeds from my neighbor Connie.).
• I saw a copperhead, but I let it wander off without killing it. 
• Bert fixed several of my hoses that had popped off from where they were clamped.  Most of the original metal hose ends on my hoses have gotten so corroded that they have all been cut off.  Bert clamps new hose ends onto them, and sometimes they pop off.  Not often, but it happens.  I watered in a dry part of the Star Garden.
• Deadheaded for a while on my pink Vitex.
• I took my little electric hand saw down to the Orchard and cut away a bunch of branches off the dead apple tree.  I'm not sad about losing that apple tree.  I planted that before I really understood  about chill hours.  This was a Fuji, and it was never going to do right in this climate.  It died, and I'm glad to be rid of it.  Bert will have to come down to the Orchard and cut the trunk down.  The sprinklers are not working right down there, and many plants are dried up and crispy from the drought.  This fall and next spring will be a big do-over as far as planting goes.  So much death in the garden!  
• Sunday.  I went straight down to the Orchard.  I dragged a hose down there and watered while I worked.  
• I cut dead blackberry canes in 2 beds.  I got them all pulled out and piled up outside the fence.  Blackberries grow on new wood, so last year's canes have to be removed.  It's a horrible job.  In one of the beds peppervine has gotten hold.  I cut it down to ground level and poisoned the tip with Remedy and diesel.
• Pulled up dead black eyes. 
• Did some raking. 
• Weeded in the paths.
• Dumped debris in an erosion spot.  The blackberry canes have to be put someplace else.  I don't want them in the roads.  
• Dumped the blackberry canes and the apple branches I cut on Saturday next to a trail out of the way.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Orchard paths.
• I worked for about 4 and a half hours.  I'd say cleaning out the dead canes, cutting back dead vegetation, and raking to get the Orchard in pretty shape again is 3 solid days of work.  Six half-days in this heat.  I made some good progress.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Star Garden here and there.
• Watered all my roses in pots in the Rose Garden.  
• Reset all my sprinklers.
• Headed home to Houston about 3:00.

Turnera Elegans - Butercup Bush July 29, 2022

 Here is another plant that is doing well in these drought conditions.  I bought 5 or so plants a couple of months ago and planted them 2 beds in the Rose Garden.  They are doing much better than just hanging on, they are thriving.  They are very much loved by the big bumblebees. The down side of this plant is that the flowers close up around noon, much like morning glories.  It will re-seed, but I don't find it to be a strong re-seeder.  It is perennial in zones 9 and higher, but here in zone 8 it always dies in the winter. There is a deep yellow flowering variety as well that I have grown in the past, but I like the pale yellow with the darker yellow center and the brown eye a bit more that the yellow.

Rudbeckia Goldsturm July 24, 2022

 This is Goldsturm's time to shine.  It is in full bloom in the hottest part of the summer.  This plant spreads, and it is really easy to transplant.  If you're looking for something to bloom its heart out in July, this is the plant for you.  The drawback is that it goes completely dormant in the winter, and it is very slow to come back.  So, for example, it looks pretty now in the front flowerbed, but in the winter all the soil is bare - not too attractive. I'm going to move some of it to the Star Garden and the Rose Garden this fall so that I have more color in those gardens next July.

False Dragonhead July 24, 2022

 This is also called Obedient Plant.  The big bumble bees were all over these plants.  With just the slightest encouragement this plant will spread like crazy.  The drought has knocked it back quite a bit which suits me fine - I haven't had to pull it up.

Weekend at the Farm July 22 - 24, 2022

 

The drought is very bad.  I have lost many plants.  And many are just hanging on with very little life in them.  It is hard to keep up with the watering of places where I have always relied on rainfall for my irrigation.

• I worked from the farm on Friday.  
• I watered in the Long Border in the morning, the White Garden during the noonish hours, and the Medicine Garden in the afternoon and evening.
• Saturday.  Up early and outside to the Rose Garden.  
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.  Pulled out dead, dried up vegetation.  Watered.  
• One thing that looks pretty good in this drought with only the littlest bit of water encouragement is my gomphrena.  The Heliopsis did not fair as well, but it's still alive. Yarrow has been a disappointment (maybe only for this year due to the drought, I don't have enough experience growing it) this year because it went dormant in the heat.  I know most of it is alive, but it is not green.
• Pulled up the Dahlberg Daisy growing in the path and spread the seed here and there.
• I pulled up the last of the chicken wire surrounding individual beds in the Rose Garden.  The outside fencing is working really well.  No armadillo activity.
• In the late morning I worked in the Star Garden.  I watered wherever I saw a lot of stress.  I spent time in the shady part of the Star Garden.  I pulled up chicken wire surrounding one bed in the Star Garden.  The fencing around the outside edge of the Star Garden is not working as well as the fencing in the Rose Garden.  Not sure where the armadillos are getting in, but I haven't devoted serious time to finding the holes.  It's so so hot!  I did a lot of weeding in the beds at the outside edges of the Star Garden.  
• Sunday.  I worked in the Vegetable Garden.  A couple of weeks ago I pulled up all the tomato plants.  I turned over the soil everywhere I had buckwheat growing.  That's my green manure.  I feel good about that.  I sowed some giant sunflower seeds.  Fertilized my eggplant.  Weeded.
• Headed home to Houston about 2:00 so that I could run some errands.    

Red Celosia July 22, 2022

 This comes back from seed every year in the Vegetable Garden.  I spread some of the seed in the Rose Garden last fall, but it has been so dry that it did not germinate well although I do have some plants in there.  The flower heads are highly variable, all sorts of sizes and shapes.  The best ones are in the first picture.  I think if I bought seeds, the first season the flowers would all look like this the first year, but after that it would be a free for all.  One downfall of celosia is that nematodes love it.  Soon it will get weak and sickly-looking because of root knot nematodes.  But it's pretty today!