The Sale Barn Again - a Rainy Day-Clematis and Lilies

Day before yesterday we got another 1/2 inch of rain.....on my recently tilled and dry garden.  A wonderful gift.

That meant yesterday was too wet to work outside in the garden so I made bagels....it doesn't take much to get me  cooking.  I am having two small ones with cream cheese with my coffee  right now.

From Blog May 2012

I was right at the stage of putting the dough in the bucket to raise when DH popped in the back door slightly wet from the showers and asked if I was  ready to go....Go where?  He had loaded a cow we wanted to sell and was sitting in the drive to go to the sale barn.  He always wants me to go with him. At first I thought I couldn't and then decided we could get  there and back in about an hour....the rise time.

Well, we almost made it.  The dough was just pushing the lid off the bucket  when we got back. It didn't hurt a thing.

Part of farm life is getting rid of animals that don't pay their way.....this heifer calved last year and we had to have the vet  with her.  He suggested then that she was probably damaged by the difficult delivery and we should move her on.....we did.  Mondays are Cow and Bull sale  day so off we went.  Next project will be rounding up more calves.

This is the first day of our 'cool down' and the high is supposed to be 70°.  A perfect day to work outside.
DH has promised to put up cattle panels in the new garden/orchard area and I will put the tomatoes back there.

I have all of the backyard garden tilled and will put peppers there.  I will also put pole beans and sweet corn  out....not all on one day!  but hopefully, this week.

I need to harvest the self-seeded cilantro and freeze for later salsa.  I also found several self-seeded basil plants and tomato plants.  That saves me some work.

Colorado Potato  Beetles showed up overnight on the potatoes.....I resorted to Sevin dust.  I suppose it is all washed off....I need to keep a close eye on that.  They can strip the plants quickly.  I wish I felt safe going completely au naturel, but certain pests are more than I know how to handle.

I am still fighting fireblight....cutting more limbs off the two trees most affected.   Now I see some of the papaver somniferums(poppies, annual) are curling over and turning black....looks exactly the same as the trees.  I am leaning heavily toward the idea of cutting down the pear tree that is so bad.

Flowers

The first of the lilies are blooming.  This one was recently rescued from being surrounded by weeds in the driveway bed.  It is Dani Arifin.



I see I missed a little cheet (on the right with the seed heads).

and the clematis, Harlow Carr,



This is a wonderful, vigorous clem.  The picture was taken on the garden side of the fence.  Most of the flowers on the garden fence bloom the most on the north side of the fence , the garden side, because the sun comes up and hits the fence first.  At first, I fought it and tried to tie various things to the other side, but it was a losing battle...then I thought OK, I can just enjoy the fence when I am gardening and sometimes that is a pretty long time.  I get to see dark pink roses and white and purple clems and soon white lilies while working which is very nice.  I think there are also two pink clems. 


Blog

I am trying to restructure the blog so finding things will be easier.  Bear with me while I do some trial and error working on this thing. 

Four days have slipped by me.....without posting.  I do jot a brief  entry in my written journal to try to keep track.

The most important news is the vet came Thursday and de-horned Willow's two heifers.  He also preg checked Willow and she is due for mid-August.  I thought I wrote on the calendar when we thought she was bred but I am not finding it.  I will take the vet's word and will dry her up  around July 15.

We sold some calves and were very pleased with the prices.

Mostly we have been just keeping up....mowing, some weeding, tilling and other mundane gardening chores.

We are both looking forward to next weeks promise of cooler weather.  Surely I can get the rest of the garden in.  DH will be setting cattle panels in the new orchard garden for the tomatoes.

We had the first humming birds yesterday evening so I put out a feeder this morning and already have seen two different birds.  They are late this year and I have seen no Baltimore Orioles yet.

In my daily tour of the yard this morning, I found more self-seeded foxgloves.   I hope I can keep these going for a long time.  I love the tall spiky look in the flower bed.



and more at the end of the porch,



I think the clematis are  more lush than last year.

This is the one behind the Buff Beauty Rose that I showed last week.
It is in full glory now,


This is a closeup of the nigella bloom.  I have a huge spread of these by the porch, all self-seeded.



Garden Pests:

I thought I had escaped potato beetles this year....not so.  Several plants were stripped so out came the Sevin.

Also the dreaded baby slugs have devastated the hostas and this was after putting out egg shells and  grapefruit halves.  I have now spread wood ashes around them.....I should have spread a light coating of sharp sand over the entire bed before they broke ground.  They are only 1/4 to 1/2 inch long and it is easy to miss them. 

Garden Disease:

Several of the annual poppies are curling over and dying....looks just like fire blight that I am having on some of the fruit trees.  My feeling is I should just cut down those trees affected and make my gardening life easier!