Daylilies Survive

I have been trying  to keep  up with my  favorite blogs but haven't attempted to post.  My friend down south
who blogs as Seed Scatterer
did a post dedicated  to her daylilies.  So, I am copying her idea and  showing mine.  I can even remember some names.

Daylilies on the Farm 

The weather here has been wonderful recently.  The rains have stopped and the temperature dropped just a little.  Of course, that means the dew was so heavy I kicked up water as I did my walk-about with the camera.  Still no butterflies and very few honey bees.

These have survived with benign neglect if there can be such a thing in gardening.

This may be Bama Music it is in front of the screened porch amid lots of  variegated grass.

Fairy Tale Pink

 

Grape Magic (really more purple than this)

Indian Giver ( I moved this one so it had room to develop....not working will move again)

Not sure of this one.  Should be more pink but in my soil pink equals peachy.

My darkest red, Ed Murray,  meant to be planted  with gaillardia....yet  to happen.  Now surrounded by beggar lice and various other weeds.

The above two are Kwansa (called ditch lilies hereabout) I have hopes of planting them in my front  ditch where they can go wild.

  This is Leonard Bernstein in the bed outside the kitchen.  I have it in the cellar bed also.

 

Throwing this one in because it was next to Ed Murray and was so wonderful this year.  Up to my shoulder and long blooming.  I have no recollection of planting it here, but now have it in 4 places so I must have.

OK.  Enough.  This will be my last.  I think it is Pandora's Box.  I have more but will do them another time.

Errands await.

Blooming Today

Yesterday was a very hot and humid day. 

I managed to do  some weeding for a  couple of hours early (not early enough).

At last a sign that the butterflies do like this plant, butterfly weed, asclepias tuberosa.

  

This is the east end of the bed, there is another orange daylily further west that I should move to this grouping.



More daylilies have opened:

This is one of my favorite colors, Prairie Blue Eyes.  It was just a happy accident that the lychnis self seeded nearby.



and this one is Blueberry something and is next to some perilla which compliments it nicely.




This is a clump of unknown daylilies that I moved from the shop wall bed to the front of the house in the dining room foundation bed:

 

It is amid a bed of self- seeding annuals.  This is the seed pod of nigella damascena or 'Love in a Mist'.  I have the white variety.  I think the pods are as interesting as the blooms but they will self-seed even in the lawn.



I believe this one is Bama Music in front of the new porch near Jackmanii clematis.  (I won't lie; that is crab grass surrounding it).  I am  working my way to that bed........slowly.



I think this one is Fairy Tale Pink.  It is in the New Bed (now several years old).



For some strange reason I keep forgetting to take pictures of the yellows.....maybe today I will do that.

Others Blooming:

This is a darker version of salvia farinacea which has self-seeded for several years in this spot.  It may be due to the soil or hybridizing with others  of various shades, including white.


These are the ones at the end of the other bed that are much pales.  See the white one in the back  to the right.


This patch of rudbeckia (Prairie Sun) is next to the salvias.  It has also been self-seeding from a few years now.  I think I have lost the darker band of gold around the green eye  but it is still very pretty.



This is a pale yellow Buck rose right behind the salvia and rudbeckia.  They are too tall but maybe it will begin to grow again.

I see the volunteer squash is creeping up  on all of them. 



This is a phlox in the bed outside the kitchen.  I noticed that the bloom is somewhat variegated.......

I am throwing this one in to prove I did do some weeding (here with the string trimmer).  That is perilla wilting in the sun.



Garden

I take no credit for this squash since it came from the volunteer from last year's yellow squash:



But I did plant the carrots in the whiskey barrel:  This is just a sample but it is very nice and sweet.



BTW, I saw a half barrel at the local hardware and it  was priced $69.95!  Egads!  I sure never paid that for this one.

The rest of the garden is pathetic  this year.

Hay Time on the Farm

The crew showed up two days ago and we were jumping for joy!  This has been a hard year to catch a dry time between rains. They cut half of the 80 one day and came back yesterday to cut the rest.  Because of the 90° days and the breeze they were able to bale the east 20 yesterday and made a start on the other 20 late in the day.  They still have the 40 acres left that was just cut yesterday. 

They might be able to finish today.

This is the 20 acres east of the house.  I had to walk it yesterday just to see how it looked.

This is along the  road heading back toward the compound.



and this is closer in,



I couldn't resist taking this shot.  It is along the fence east of the house and the boundary fence of the hay field, 



Daylilies are starting to bloom.

This is a red buried at the south end of the cellar bed....it needs a better spot,



and  this is Mauna Loa in the hummingbird bed,

Lost Day - Soap - Garden

Not really a lost day. But it isn't how I wish I could have spent it.

My MIL is soon to be 93. She is still driving and quite well, I may add. She uses a computer, but barely. For two weeks she couldn't get on the internet. She tried two new modems, but nothing. So, yesterday I took her to Office Depot to get a new computer.....he talked us into going back home and bringing in the computer and modem......He beat himself out of a sale, but he gained world's of good publicity. I will never go back to Best Buy again! Then we dropped in to AT&T, her internet provider, and got the phone number for their DSL techs.

Back home where I spent maybe 3 more hours with the computer and the tech guy (India!). I was embarrassed at how many times he had to repeat things because I couldn't understand his accent. He was just a lovely person and very patient.
Long story, shortened a little; she now has internet service again.

I think she should have sprung for the new computer. You can make a pot of coffee just waiting for hers to boot up! So, from 10 AM until 4:30 PM, I worked on her computer. She felt so badly for using my time. They are wonderful in-laws and always have been but I was stiff from sitting in her tiny little office chair where the back hit the top of my hips.....still stiff this morning. I don't really have much hope that we can clean up her computer and stop the "error", send report messages to Microsoft. We only updated one thing and now I think it is causing compatibility issues. I promised to update things each time we visit. I hope it works for her. She used the internet very little or the computer for that matter.

We were under storm warnings as of 3 AM this morning but they have expired. I don't think we got any rain at all.

Today's plan is to cut down more malvas and hollyhocks that are now in the unsightly stage of rust. I also want to mulch and plant a hill of squash on the east end of the corn patch.

Soap

I think this is funny.....I have been making soap now a couple of years. The only fragrance I use is lavender and rosemary blended. I usually make goat's milk soap.
I am not fancy, it doesn't get trimmed or buffed and I don't use fancy molds. I have flops which are still usable.

Over this time, I have given soap to our daughter.....no feed back; I have given soap to my Sis in Iowa with some feedback. So, this trip home our daughter told me how much she liked the soap, especially the one with oatmeal but she used is sparingly because she didn't want to run out. Well, you know what Mothers do. I immediately went to my soap box and dumped almost all into a baggie for them!

When I got home late yesterday evening my Sis called and said "I am begging!". She told me she went to shower and her last bit of soap dissolved and she went to get more and was out! She asked if I had a good supply on hand; .... not now I said. She said they will be down after mini horse show season is over and I better have some made or mayhem will follow. All she cares about is that it better have lavender fragrance in it. She said I come out of that shower feeling pampered and in heaven. Guess what I am doing very shortly......maybe even this afternoon.

I will take pictures and post about making it.

Garden

New daylily blooms

This is Ed Murray. It is a very deep red that doesn't photograph well.



and I have determined this is Fairytale Pink,



My garden has now evolved into a "view-at-a-distance garden" because of the heat and lack of rain.

This is the end of the New Bed that is just north of the backporch.
Note: the seedling peach tree....that now excessively shades the red monarda. This winter I will prune the center out of the peach tree to open it up more. If the peaches are bad, down it comes. I planted the new sweet cherry just north and to the left or west of it.