Fall weather here for good?

Sept 16, 2012
This morning and yesterday give me hope that cooler weather is finally here.  It is 64 degrees and raining a nice straight down rain. Has been for several hours.
I am glad to have a reason to stay inside.  The house work has not been attended to in a couple of months.  My 45 year old vacuum cleaner (Hoover) is finally repaired. It needed a new switch. 15 dollars and good to go.

Yesterday, I trimmed back tree branches that keep on trying to cover the house and the street.  Never, Never, NEVER!! plant live oaks in the front yard.  They are 30 feet away from the house and not nearly far enough!!! Talk about live and learn.  They are about 15 to 20 years old now and just getting started.

With the hot, hot weather, the trimming had to wait.  Now, there are wet piles of branches here and there that will have to be moved.  My lovely green garden cart is standing out there in the rain and I am not fretting that the bottom will get soggy and rot the way the wooden carts did (do).  The cart/wagon has a mesh type bottom with openings about 2 inches.  The nice surprise? The wheels (just like wheels on little kids wagons have) are narrow enough to pull through my gravel pathways. This is the last gasp for the wooden one as it is falling apart.  I will use it to haul branches to the burn pile and might pull the tires off and add it to the pile.

I failed to mention before that this is from TSC Farm Store; the brand is Ground Work utility cart.

Fall,sort of

Ok, so two mornings were "fall like". I actually wore a sweat shirt for a while.  The temps were low 60's and highs mid 80's. Still dry however.
I took advantage of the cooler morning and redid the fencing around the cone flower bed. Doesn't look very good, but should keep the little buggers out. I really can't tell if anything has been nibbling on the plants.  The leaves get ragged looking.  It could be caterpillars even?
The reason for redoing the fencing was that in my frantic rush to "do "something!!" when I discovered rabbits had gotten inside the fence. I slapped up the landscape fabric and borders without too much planning. So, the make shift "gate" was such a pain to get opened and closed that I let the weeds get the upper hand.

My "fixing" the gate is not pretty since I used what was at hand.  I can at least get inside and tend to things.

Labor day 2012

Saturday September 3, 2012 Labor Day (joke) I worked harder  

I have solved the mystery of the mummified peaches.  It is brown rot, which is a fungus.  My suspicion all along.  The "stab" marks of many is from the oriental fruit moth.  The description of the small puncture and then turning brown bruises and finally mummified.  Whether the rot/fungus is a result of the moth I don't know.

I heard the weather forecast for the week will be in the 100's with "cooling" this weekend.  Could this be the beginning of cooler weather????

My husband and I took down a tree (sort of) this AM..  He hates, hates to take down a tree with green leaves on it. I, on the other hand can see next year and this tree needed to be gone.  It was the graft host of the Ranger peach tree that was so abundant this year.  The fruit of the "host" is about the size of a large plum.
When it ripened, there were hundreds and hundreds of small peaches on the ground.  I spent hours cleaning them up.

Never again!!!

The rest of this week will be in the 100's and no rain.  The weekend promises a break in the heat..................I can only hope that fall is officially on its way.!!

rabbit fence test and another problem

Today and the rest of the week may as well be full blown summer. Lows in the high 70's and highs in the high 90's.  The mornings are cool enough for me to do a bit of strenuous work (briefly) and mentally try to plan for fall and winter tasks.

Two issues to deal with right now; rabbit fencing and nut sedge invasion.
The rabbit issue is not going away, short of my sitting out in the garden all day and shooing them off or better yet doing away with them. Hasenpfeffer anyone? (Just kidding, not realistic either)

So, the plan is to use bamboo stakes and landscape fabrics on the first try.  The thought being that if they cannot see it, they might not want to jump the 2 foot fence to go after it????
I seriously doubt they are that dumb.  It makes me feel as if I am doing something anyway. The bamboo stakes are relatively cheap and so is the landscape fabric.
I have to think about the actual doing of this project before making a full frontal attack on all beds.

The bunnies are now going after the Mexican Petunias.  That bed is pretty well defined and should be fairly simple (all be it hot) to do.  It is small enough to watch for behaviors, such as them being dumb enough to not know what is behind the barricade.  Then, just watch and document what happens......................

Problem two; nutsedge, I have discovered they reproduce by rhizomes and seeds.  Unfortunately, the moles don't eat the rhizomes.  Plain weed killer will not bother this plant at all. This plant is not a broad leaf weed. It forms "grass" like leaves

This picture is not from my garden as I have powdery sand.  This is the clay soil in the north Texas area.

I have a gravel path in my gardens and they are full of this plant.  I have been pulling and scraping the plants off to no avail.  In fact, I find that I am only adding to the problem.  They have runner type roots and my disturbing them seems to activate more growth.
When the plant is young, its leaves are sharp enough to poke through landscape fabric, which is the base of my gravel path.

Nothing kills this stuff.  I am thinking of a buying blow torch.  Seriously, the current recommendation, other than pulling out while very young and tender to discourage further production down the road. Oh, pahleeze, my knees are screaming at me every morning as it is.
The other recommendation is a product called Image.  I am going to test it out on a heavily infested area of the path and see what happens.  The recommendation is to use a bristle type paint brush and paint it on.  It is quite expensive and will need at least 2 applications.  So, I am not "painting/treating" the whole area, just a patch and watch to see what happens.

More on this later.

Fall is on its way (joke)

Yesterday it felt like fall and then this morning the temp is 80 degrees and 80 % humidity at 7AM.

I fed the plants Thrive this morning.  The cone flowers finally look like they may grow and bloom.  The nibbled ones are putting on nice leaves (some mottled - have to check that out) and even though some of the older plants are dying back, things look hopeful for next season.
I may just have to live with fencing things in and the bunnies out in order to have my gardens back. The moles are another issue and will be quite expensive to drive them away from the gardens.

I read one blog that said the fencing should be 2 to 3 feet high.  Mine is 4 feet because I used left over stuff. I will have to buy some more wire fencing and it is not cheap. So, need to know for sure which height will work best.  At 2 to 3 feet, I can step over as opposed to the task of pulling rocks and edging AND 2 layers of wire fence to get inside to weed and feed.  It was all a stop gap measure in the emergency mode.  Not convenient by any means.
One more thing on my to do list for when the weather cools.

The Autumn Sage is coming along nicely after the compost and re-mulch job a while back.

Today has also been a verification of my choice to buy the smaller metal/mesh garden cart instead of the wooden cart I had.  The sides are a snap to drop, making loading heavy things much easier.  The sides are hinged and don't touch the ground, which is great for over sized bags.  Another big plus is the balloon tires. Pulling it through the sandy/mole riddled yard was a snap!
I am already thinking of other things to haul in it.

Salvia bed

August 18th,  (these 2 posts are out of sink, I don't know how to move this to the right sequence)
I spent the morning clearing the mulch from the bed, then the second morning, the 19th  applying compost and scratching it in a bit.  The mole trails did not get the hot pepper treatment. It was much too much of a job and probably not worth the trouble..........................
Anyway, when I got the compost down, I watered heavily.  I applied the mulch the next day over a landscape cloth again, and watered thoroughly again.
We had a cooler night and in the 90's today.

The pictures are of re mulching and the salvias after
pruning back to the greenest  part of the plants.
The leaves tell me that they are the newest part of the
plant and ready for the next spurt of growth.  These
will hopefully, fill out and be blooming in a month or
so.

The second picture is of the older part of the plant
and the newest growth.

T

We had lovely rain (not enough) two nights in a row.  The rain wasn't heavy enough to wet all the way down through the mulch...................but having watered earlier, the plants should perk up.

Rain lovelyRain

August 21, 2012
After weeks of 100+ temperatures, we are 72 degrees for the high.  It has rained, lightly, off and on, all day.  Too wet to work in the garden.  Just wanted to document for future viewing, that there was finally a break in the temperature and dryness.
The rest of the week will be back in the (normal average) 90's.
The heat wasn't as long running as last year when we had 70+ days of 100 degrees.  I have lost some plants and marveled at the survivors.  I have potted (cuttings and roots) plants that survived.  Hopefully, there will be several plants that I can put in the ground next spring.

I did spend some time today researching the soil amendment needs of plants I plan to use next year.  I have gathered the information in a file on the computer. (I do love my computer!!)

A gardener is an eternal optimist.  There is always next year.  Which, when you think of it is a very healthy philosophy.

I had a women tell me today that I don't look nearly 73.  I think it is the blessing of being able to fight and work with nature and have something I love to do every single day of the year. (And still be able to do it)

So, I am going to plan, starting today, for next heat season.  I have documented the problems of mulch this year and watched the pattern of the flowers that are surviving.  Next year will be better!!  Hopefully, I will document my ideas for future reference.

 This has been a quiet day with a time to think about what the gardens need.  Thank you God, for the down time, which was sorely needed.