Passalong Pink Verbena August 24, 2022

 I bought this verbena at The Arbor Gate.  It has hung on really well during this very dry summer.  It does not seem to be susceptible to spider mites.  With the exception of Colonial White, Passalong Pink, and to a lesser extent Homestead Purple, verbenas are never blooming here in August. 

Luffa August 24, 2022

 This Luffa vine popped up in the front bed from some random seed that accidentally got into the flowerbed last year.  It's in full bloom right now, so I hate to pull it up even though it is totally in the way.

A Tree for My Granddaughter August 20, 2022

 My granddaughter and I planted this Parsley Hawthorn (Crataegus marshalli) together.  It will grow to about 25 feet (if I can keep it alive!).  It is native.  Dainty white flowers in the spring followed by edible red berries and beautiful bark and leaves that look like parsley make this a very special tree.  Bert will afix the sign to a post and place it next to the tree.

Day at the Farm August 21, 2022

Drove up on Saturday afternoon with Koy and spent the night.  Cleo, Josh and Amy were having a special day just with Cleo before she starts her first day of school.

• Koy and I planted a Parsley Hawthorn together.  This is a small native tree that grows to about 20 feet at its tallest.  It has pretty white flowers in the spring and makes red edible berries.  I will put a plaque under it to mark the occasion of her 7th birthday which is just around the corner.
• I fed the bees.
• It rained - not much, but it kept me from running around madly trying to water.  
• I sowed a bunch of Nasturtiums in the Vegetable Garden.  The seeds were from 2020, so I thought I'd better go ahead and use them.  The flowers and leaves of Nasturtiums are edible.  They should have plenty of time to bloom before the first frost.  
• My field pea cover crop is thriving. 
• All is right with the world.
• Koy and I left about 2:00 on Sunday. 

Day at the Farm August 10, 2022

 

I drove up on my work from home Wednesday and worked from the farm.

• My field pea cover crop is already popping up from the ground.  Adorable.
• I watered my little Two Winged Silverbell tree and took a close look at it.  It has dropped most of its leaves due to the dry conditions, but it is alive and about to put out some new leaves.  That is excellent. 
• In fact, I see flushes of growth here and there throughout the gardens.  The shorter days and longer nights are beginning to show results.  Yes, it is just as hot during the day, but there is less of it.  We are so close to the end of the hard Texas days.
• Bilski was here in the morning fixing the well.  The water pressure was weak.  They pulled the well cover off and pulled all the pipes up, fixed the pump and pressure gauge, added some chlorine and put it all back together.  I can tell a difference in the sprinkler system in the Star Garden.  I didn't check any of the other sprinklers due to time constraint

Weekend at the Farm August 5 - 7, 2022

 

Drove up Friday morning and worked from here.  Bert was already here.  

• We are dog sitting Mijo for Jess and Nathan while they go to her grandmother's funeral in California.
• Several of my sunflowers have popped up that I sowed 10 days ago or so.
• Watered along the Boardwalk where the sprinkler system is broken.
• Saturday.  I worked in the Vegetable Garden all morning from seven until noon.
• Weeded.
• I pulled up all the amaranth and threw all the seed heads behind the garden.  With decent rain next spring I should get lots of volunteers. 
• I cut back floppy celosia and tossed the seed heads into various beds in the Rose Garden.  I did that last year too, and I have celosia blooming in the Rose Garden this year.
•  I worked the bed to loosen the soil and sowed my field pea cover crop in the 32 x 4 bed in the Vegetable Garden.  Dragged the hose over there to water because the sprinkler system doesn't hit it.
• I worked the beds and sowed field peas in several other places through the garden.  I still have some left, but I don't exactly remember where I sowed all my sunflowers, so I put a pause on that chore.
• Spent some time in the large asparagus bed weeding.  Asparagus doesn't like crowding, so I try to be vigilant about keeping my asparagus beds really clean.
• I spent some time behind the garden where castor and Four O'Clocks are usually flourishing at this time of year.  I pulled up the old canes from last year.  I left the new castor even though the stalks are leafless and dry.  I cut down all the withered Four O'Clocks (I don't like them much).  I chopped away at the male grapevine growing along the fence.  
• Hauled all my debris to an erosion spot and dumped it.
• Helped Bert clean up the mess from a big dead limb in the Medicine Garden that he cut down.
• We got a little rain shower about 5:00 which was desperately needed.  It was enough to fill the rain buckets.
• I read online about the Nostoc algae that has invaded my decomposed granite paths over the years.  The literature suggests  applying a chlorothalonil or mancozeb based fungicide.  Or, an organic alternative is baking soda.  I used 2 half-boxes of baking soda that I had on hand and sprinkled it over several areas in the Vegetable Garden.  I will give that a try first, and if that isn't effective I will get a fungicide.
• Sunday.  Got outside about 8:00.
• I pulled up the rest of the Four O'Clocks behind the Vegetable Garden.  I guess because it's so dry, I am able to pull almost all of them up with the bulb (or tuber, whatever it's called).  I cut off the bulb and threw them in the fire pit.  Those things are hardy.  If I dump them in an erosion spot they will grow.
• Spent some time in the Water Garden.  I pruned my climbing rose (the name escapes me right this minute) and trained some canes across the goat wire fence.  I cut away dead verbena debris - there is a lot of it in this horrid summer drought.  Deadheaded Icecap rose.  Fertilized the 2 roses.
• Down to the Orchard.  I cut away dead canes in the 2 brambles nearest the entrance and one of the narrow beds .  Pulled up some patches of crabgrass.  Watered.  Raked.  
• I used my small electric hand saw and cut the male grape vine to the ground.  Poisoned the cut with Remedy and Diesel.
•  Watered my newly sowed (sown?) peas. 
• I made some sugar water for the bees and fed them.  They are definitely in distress, I wish I had fed them in July several times.  But I was in distress too.  The heat is, well, hot.
• Dumped the blackberry canes next to a trail.  
• Did some spot watering in the Rose Garden. 
• Arranged all my hoses in the Water Garden and the Rose Garden. 
• Sowed lots of Polar Bear zinnias in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden wherever the sprinklers will hit the soil. 
• Headed home about 5:00.  Bert stayed because we are having some major repairs done on the well. 
• It was a job well done weekend.   

Day at the Farm August 3, 2022

This is the tassel of an amaranth.

 I drove up Wednesday morning to drop Rocky off at the vet.  They are going to check his glucose levels related to his newly acquired diabetes, poor good dog.

• Worked.
• During lunch I sowed field peas in 3 places in the Vegetable Garden.  This is a cover crop, I will turn it under next month.  Peas are nitrogen-fixing, and when I turn them over it will condition the soil and nematodes don't like all that richness in the soil.  I'm determined to rid myself of nematodes the sensible way (I've tried various remedies - orange oil, crushed crab shells, elbon rye, and beneficial nematodes).  And the theory of the moment - my best estimate of the sensible way - is green manure and lots of it.  Peas don't like hot weather, but I just need them to sprout, they don't have to do much else.
• Watered here and there in the Star Garden.
• Watered a bit in the Rose Garden.
• Headed to Brenham at 5:00, picked up Rocky, then home.