A Day in My Life

Yesterday was a busy one....errand day always is!  It is also  my least favorite way to spend  the day.

Yesterday was our hottest so far at 92° and very humid. 

Farmwise

After several delays due to breakdowns and rain, they finally finished this y ear's hay crop.  The last 18 acres got rained on but will be  usable.  He has yet to remove the bales from the field for us.

Brush-hogging is coming along with about 40 acres yet to do.  Young man is coming this evening to begin on that.

I have been very impressed with the re-growth in the cut fields.  I have actually be doing my 'used to do' work of spraying fence rows and actually getting out of the yard and onto the farm itself.  The east field is almost knee-deep in clovers again and could be re-cut.  We will just graze I think.  Max is finally talking about selling the cows and just buying calves to graze each spring then sell in fall before winter and hay feeding begins. I support that idea (so far).  We change our minds almost daily.

My BIL has had and is still ongoing some very serious health issues which made us start thinking very seriously about our daily farm chores.

Off the Farm

Errands began around l pm.  We had our regular grocery run, then my make-up store (Merle Norman), a farm supply store (of course) and another quick stop at a second grocery (I forgot an  item or two).  By the time  we got home we were exhausted.


Yard and Garden 

 I finally got the trimmer  started.  It seems if I follow directions, it floods the thing.  I waited some  time and tried again without priming the motor and it started right up. Be interesting  to see how it goes this morning.

I was able to do a little trimming but still have a lot to go.  Have you noticed I am not mentioning my yard crew?  That failed  as I knew  it would.  The young man who we have known forever still works for  Max and me when his time is available.  The other 'landscape specialist' (so-called) has better fish to fry. 
His method of edging is not going to be much of an improvement in my style of gardening.  I may look a little more  finished at the edges but maintenance is still required.  The permanent mulch thing isn't too successful here either.  I have very vigorous  perennial things such as violets,  lambs quarter, poke, plantain and maple tree seedlings that come up through the mulch.  I will  still keep the garden fence border mulches but will not edge it.  My best method is intensive planting.....so no weeds can survive.  Makes it easy to pull out the odd one amidst the flowers.

Gardening like life is an ongoing,  changing process.  Age is making me introspective and hopefully adaptive!


A few pictures more:

This is a Texensis variety of clematis that is now growing on the ground beneath the edge of the kerria japonica. 

 This is a cheap dahlia I got from either Lowes or Walmart several years ago and leave in the ground.  (not the Japanese Beetles appreciate it too)

 My Oakleaf Hydrangea which gives me a lot of bloom over a long time in spring.  The Limelight will follow later in the summer.

 This is just to show what kind of gardener I am.  This is laughingly called the herb garden with parsley blooming. (I do save the seeds).  Note the garlic seed heads near the trash can.  They must go!

 This is to show what I mean by intensive planting.  Edge of new bed with violets,  daylilies ,sedum, and salvia  farinacea right next to a monstrous clump of flags.  A couple of roses are close behind.

 My favorite combo this year:  salvia farinacea, rudbeckia, phlox , all self seeded. 

 May have shown this yesterday, but it got included with this group moving.  A stray phlox seedling,  much paler than the rest.  That is more ss salvia in front of it and is just to the right of the rudbeckia group.

 Just loved the yellows  and blues so included it again.

All for now.  It is 6:11 am and Max is ready for his oatmeal.

Have a wonderful day.  

A Productive Week

It's a beautiful Saturday morning.  We have just enjoyed a l.75 inch rain which was badly needed and it came after I mulched 7 bales of straw.  Perfect timing.  I like rain on the mulch to press it down around the plants.  I had watered before mulching so things should be in good shape waterwise for some time.

This is the row of strawberries.  There are lots of runners but the mulch is hiding them,



At the same  time I did the strawberries, I weeded the "potato row" next to them.  There are maybe 4 plants in that row!  I planted very late....hope to not do that again.  I also planted some cuttings from store potatoes that I dug up intact.  They must have been treated with something to keep them from  sprouting.  I did get one mess from graveling a plant.  I think it must have been Yukon Gold from the color.

Sweet potato row mulched



This is the end of the sweet potato, corn patch,  I mulched most of it.  I see I have missed a hill of squash and a tomato under the hoop.



The dill patch

Found several of these



Due to these butterflies,



I should have pruned this heavily but did not,  it is Shoal Creek vitex agnus castus or chaste tree.  This is what the swallowtail butterfly was on.



and last but not least,

tools of the trade,



Have a wonderful weekend.  Hope things are going well in your world.

P.S.  Yet to do,

Walkabout Saturday Morning June 18, 2016

I have had a productive day so far.  First of  all it  is just a little cooler and I went  about around 6:45 AM. so was able to get a lot done  without getting very hot.

I finished mulching the bed outside the kitchen window called the humming bird bed.  I used to have lots of tall red salvias that drew them.  Note to me:  check into  more seeds of red salvia.  I don't have a single  red salvia left.
It took 5 bags to get a good cover.  Then I watered it deeply.  It is amazing that weeds can still come through 6 inches of mulch!.  I didn't get a good stand of zinnias or cosmos from my  seeds but hope they will fill in.


 I thought the north side of the bed facing the camera was all in oranges and reds.............I forgot the phlox.


Nicotiana sylvestris is in full bloom here and several more are scattered about.



I will remember this as the year of dill!  It is everywhere and look what I found on one of the smaller plants,



I noticed this wasp working the  dill head.  Do they gather pollen?



I also mulched the rest of the Kerria Bed,



I stuck a tomato plant in here.

This our latest purchase for the farm and garden,



A new  and vastly improved Havaheart trap.  We set it with cantaloupe last night  hoping for the groundhog.  We did get a huge possum.  Will try nightly and see what we end up with.  the groundhog has dug another huge fresh hole under the propane tank!

I haven't been doing much cooking lately because of the heat and working outside.  I am heading to the kitchen now to make the 40-minute buns.  I am thinking hamburgers for lunch.  DH could eat them three times  a day.