As uninterested now as I am in the Four O'Clocks that persist around here, they did look pretty today. This large stand of Four O'Clocks is behind the Vegetable Garden. It was the middle of the day when I snapped these pictures, and normally there would be no flowers, but the day was very cloudy and the flowers never closed from the night before.
I took Friday as vacation and arrived about 9:00. The weather was cool and drizzly. We had a pretty good rain the day before, so I am happy about that. And also, I don't have to be desperately dragging around hoses to keep things alive. Thank goodness for fall.
Bert dragged a heavy scraper thing in several places around the Meadow. It flattened and pulled up debris and roughed up the soil. I sowed a pound each of bluebonnets, black eyed Susans, Mexican Hat and Red Wave Coreopsis.
I went by Debra and Rays to pick up my plants that I collected at the Native Plant swap several weekends ago. I was one of the winners of the contest for having the most plastic pots (which were donated to a native plant grower), and I won a Texas Red Oak. The tree was also at Ray and Debs, and Ray helped me get it over here to my place. It is a really big tree, very nice.
I pulled up ageratum which was spent and doing nothing but distributing seed everywhere. I dumped it at the low end of the Meadow where it tends to be a little more wet. It is a native blue mist flower.
I also dug up a lot of Henry Duelberg and dumped it in a low spot. Still lots more to do on that. It's one of those situations where I looked up one day and noticed that it was everywhere, taking over all my garden space.
Saturday. No need to get out early since the weather is so cool.
I planted a Roughleaf Dogwood in the Circle Drive beds. And I planted a Mexican Bird of Paradise in the Hot Border. I got both of those from the plant swap.
Cooked, did a bit of weeding.
Sunday. I spent the whole day in the Orchard. It's a disaster down there. So much clearing needs to be done. I pulled up weeds and crab grass, dead zinnias, a little white-seed-head grass that loves it in there, I pulled up ageratum, put ant poison down, raked. I spread Texas Orange Lantana seed in the Meadow. Every effort is an improvement, but it still needs a lot of work in there.
I planted 3 parsley in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
Headed home about 3:00.
The French marigolds in the Vegetable Garden looked very pretty this morning. I sowed seed in every bed. I will take note of when I sowed the seed vs when they were in full bloom.
These pictures were taken 10 days apart, the top ones are the earlier ones. The yellow flowers become more distinct in the lower section. I am loving this plant although unfortunately it seems to need staking. The stem of two of my plants have snapped off. If it goes as planned, the clumps will get bigger, produce more flowering stems, and prop themselves up against each other. That would be ideal. They have dark blue-green leaves, very pretty. The plants will die back to the ground each winter and come back in the spring, stronger each spring.
Honestly, not as GORGEOUS as I remember from the first time I grew this vine on this very trellis years ago. But really striking nonetheless. The purple tones in the stems, leaf veins, flowers and pods is very unusual. It has been a monster. I have cut it away from the trellis entrance a dozen times. I sowed these seeds back in April or so. I nursed them through the drought and the heat hoping they would be in full bloom for Max's wedding, but they put on their show a couple of weeks after that.
I have white mist flower planted in the Star Garden and the Water Garden. It's loaded with buds right now. The scent of the flowers is very unique. I'm not a big fan, but the insects sure are. Some of the plants in the Water Garden were started from seed. I just scraped up a bunch of the fuzz from the spent flowers and pressed it into the ground.
