Gardening

Man.  Once again a month has gotten away from me.  Here we are at the end of September.  Time continues to move way too fast.  Plus I've been busy on the weekends, which is when I usually post to this blog.  So blogging falls by the wayside when I have too much to do.

I've been gardening today.  Or at least puttering around outside, pretending like I'm gardening.  I pulled nearly all the mint out of the garden around my patio.  Mint tries to take over everything, so I have to pull it occasionally.  I love the smell of it though and the bees love the mint flowers. I also pulled lots of other plants that I have no idea what they are.  But they're not flowering, so they go.   I found this little blue flower in the first picture, a morning glory maybe?, hidden in the mint and I did leave it growing.  I also pulled up the remains of the sunflowers that grew from the birdseed.  I let them grow until they flower, because they're pretty, but it was time for them to go.  

Then I dead-headed all my roses and then drained and cleaned the metal tub out by the fence that's become a gnat-squito (Dad's name for these damned tiny mosquitoes that are about the size of and as aggravating as little gnats) breeding ground.  That tub is also where the birds like to drink, so I cleaned it out and refilled it, with the intent of flushing it out every few days.  

Then after all that, I planted two sages in between the shrubs around the patio - one on each side.  Those are in these two pictures of plants with purple flowers.  When I was in Colorado this summer I kept seeing this shrub that was flowering a gorgeous purple color.  It was such a bright spot in every landscape where I saw it, that I finally asked someone what it was.  It's called Russian Sage, and it's supposed to grow here in Texas too.  So yesterday I was picking up some potting soil at Home Depot to plant cat grass in (I grow the cat-kids grass every month or so), and I saw some small Russian Sage shrubs.  And right next to them were some small Texas Sage shrubs and it reminded me how much I liked the Texas Sage at my old house when it would bloom purple.  So I bought one of each type, and today I planted them on either side of the patio.  

I know it's probably not the ideal time of year to be planting things, but I figure, this is Texas.  If we get a freeze it probably won't be until January, December at the earliest.  So the sages should have time to take root in place and grow some before the weather turns on them.  We're still dry as a bone here though, so I'll have to be sure and water them a bunch.

I took pictures of the three peach trees today.  The one by the back fence is doing okay, but the other two are growing gang-busters.  I've but in some pictures from June and from today, so you can see how much they've grown.  The top picture is June on the smallest tree when it was almost half as tall as the fence.  Below it it today, when it tops the fence.  Then below is the oldest tree in June when it was just taller than the wall, and  the last picture shows it considerably taller than the wall.  

You can also see that they think they're shrubs, not trees.  When they drop their leaves this Fall, or before they put on new leaves next Spring, I'll try to trim them into some sort of tree shape.  That won't be easy for the one that was the smallest and it now the largest because it got mostly buried by the foundation guys and came back up this Spring as multiple limbs from the ground.  There's not really a central trunk there.  I'll have to see what I can do with that peach shrub.

The birds are unhappy with me because I was outside on the patio a bunch today, disrupting their feeding.  I did pull the hummingbird feeder today while I was out there.  I've been watching it this week and haven't seen any hummers at it for at least a week, so I guess they've moved on for the winter already.  I still have plenty of sparrows and finches though.  Some of them may try to stay through the winter.  

Anyway, That's what I've been up to today, digging holes and planting things and cleaning up.  It's been nice and decently cool in the mornings lately, although it was getting hot by the time I finished.  I like the cool morning time of year.  I could wish it wouldn't get up to 90-ish in the afternoons, but I can't really complain.  For Texas, we've had a cool summer.

That's all today.