Red Texas Star

Two blooms finally opened this morning. I've been waiting over a week since I noticed buds on the plants I have near the birdbath. The color is more red than the photo shows. It's an outstanding hibiscus and very easy to grow.

Today's my first day back to work after a week of vacation. It's been a great time. Gotta ease back into things slowly. The yard needs to be mowed. Weeds need to be pulled. Plants need to start finding new homes.

There's a 40% chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms again. It's 81 degrees. The high should reach the mid 90s, again.

Progress in the Backyard

Last December, the backyard was a blank slate.



Yesterday, I took this series of images and used an autostitch program to create the panorama. The fence isn't actually curved, the software did that.



Things are very different back there now. Three raised beds for the vegetable garden next year, paths and a meadow garden, and of course, the dead oak tree have all helped shape the back yard into something I'm very happy with so far. A few "constructive staring" episodes this summer and fall have given me more ideas. Once the wintersown plants start germinating, they'll be used to fill in beds that were created this summer.

Between my yard and the neighbor's property, there is a stand of trees I like to call "The Wild". There are a few huge oaks, some smaller maples, a few Magnolias, and what I believe are sour gums. These last ones turn bright red in the fall. They're very slow growing and could take decades to reach a noticeable size. Another panoramic was taken from where I spent most of my day cutting wood.



In the gully, I finished moving most of the brush to the other side of the stream. You can almost see the depression where water collects during heavy rainstorms. This is where I will be planting my bog plants this spring. I've got three trades of Hibiscus coccineus 'alba' underway now. Those should go nicely with my Red Texas Stars that will be moved from the perennial bed once the threat of frost has passed. There will be some effort required to kill off the existing English ivy and vinca major that has taken over. It will be a never ending battle.



Water collects in any depression. I moved a large log which left a hole. It filled with water quickly.



I'm considering heading out there today to do a little more firewood splitting. But it's only 18 degrees. The batteries in the hoophouse thermometer must be frozen. It's not registering on the indoor receiver this morning.

In the basement, the yellow/orange brug cuttings are sporting flower pods. This is the largest.



Now that I've noticed them, they'll surely fall off before opening. There are several others just starting to appear on other cuttings.



Off from work today, I'm not sure what I intend to do. I'll have another cup of coffee before I make any decisions.

12:34pm - I've split another pallet of firewood. Both pallets in the basement are full. Mom called this morning to discuss Saturday and people I don't know that have died in the past two weeks. My sister got the cotton from a Q-tip stuck in her ear and had to have it removed by a doctor. So nothing has really happened in their world lately. I'm going to have some lunch, run to Lowe's and pick up a new damper for the little wood stove I'm hoping to sell tonight, and then I'll be cleaning the house for the rest of the day. It's 39 degrees outside, 66 inside the hoophouse.

Sunday

Last night I decided not to take the Lortab before bed. I had taken one about 9pm after my parents left. All that hobbling around the yard had really taken a toll on my leg. It was badly swollen so I elevated it again and packed it with ice. I only woke up once during the night and slept til after 9am. The swelling was gone this morning but came back as soon as I started moving around. I still need coffee in the mornings.

From my bedroom window I saw something I knew I had to get a picture of. It's one of the wintersown Red Texas Star hibiscus that I moved from the perennial bed to the shrub island months ago. It's just over 4' tall. The other two are budding too.



I made my way out to the perennial bed for the Sunday ritual. I checked on the white guara I moved last week and had only watered twice before getting stoned by the lawnmower. I think it's a goner. I still have the pink. Hopefully a few seeds from the white one dropped before I moved it. If not, I'll try again next year.



I think this is one of the calendula seeds I tossed out earlier in the spring.



A Cherry Brandy rudbeckia bloom. This is the third and final plant to bloom. It's much closer to what they had advertised. It almost makes me want to take back everything bad I said based on the two earlier blooming plants. Almost.



The weedy underbelly of the front bed. The roses, salvia, lavender, etc are doing great. Other areas are overgrown and need to be revised again next year. I think my eucalyptus has died. The morning glory swallowed it at some point. The datura that popped up here (I did toss out seeds in February) has engulfed it completely. Jackie's spirea is still doing well near the garage door. It's bloomed a couple times since I transplanted it from Virginia.



And finally, the Sunday picture. In December, I'll put them all together into a slideshow to track the progression, seed to seed. I'm very curious to see what will be standing after the first frost in a couple months. Really? That soon? Ugh.



It's 74 degrees and mostly cloudy. Accuweather says we have a 30% chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Weather.com doesn't agree and says it will be sunny, well, now. We'll see who is right. Both agree that there's no more rain in the forecast until Friday.

Random bits

It drizzled most of the day yesterday. More rain in the forecast for today. It's 70 degrees and cloudy. The mosquitoes think they own the whole yard. We got less than 1/16" total precipitation. The soil is still dry in many parts of the yard.



I really like this variegated lantana. It finally started performing a week ago. Guess it does like the heat. I'll take cuttings this fall in case it doesn't return next spring.



Purple Althea.



White Althea. I need to remember to tag these. I plan to move the white ones to the white bed this fall.



I'm very disappointed with the white bed. It's not what I had envisioned at all. Very dry, hot, and needs constant attention. That'll change next year.



Gomphocarpus, aka Hairy Balls, is budding. I might get a few seeds. I think it's too late though.



The lavender crepe myrtle is budding too. I didn't expect blooms this year after moving it just a month or so ago.



Red Texas Star hibiscus is about a week away from blooming too. These were wintersown. I moved them into the shrub island in the back yard. They get more sun here.



What am I going to do with 16 Carolina Cherry Laurel seedlings? These things get up to 30' tall. Anyone want some? They make a great privacy hedge blocking out small skyscrapers.



Butterfly bushes, white crepe myrtles, figs, sweetshrub, and Confederate Rose. All were wintersown or grown from cuttings (figs). I'm giving away most of these to people around here. I can't use them. I'll take more fig cuttings this winter for next year's plant sale. The forsythia will be planted around the edge of the backyard this fall. I just need to clear out more of the periwinkle first.



Got plans for today. We'll see if I manage to get it all done.

Harvest

Today I harvested the biggest haul yet from the potager. Since mid June, I've been eating fresh tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers. All told, I've probably picked and eaten +/- 40 tomatoes of every variety, a dozen yellow squash, and a handful of butterbeans. I ate those beans right in the garden, raw. They were delicious. Hopefully I'll get enough for a 'mess' before summer ends.

Today I picked butternut squash, some more cucumbers, and a lot of tomatoes.



After having sampled all the varieties, I'll not be growing San Marzano again. These roma tomatoes are the mealiest, nastiest, blandest things I've ever eaten. Grocery store tomatoes are better than these sad things. My favorite is a toss-up between Green Zebra and Celebrity. The beefsteaks, while impressive in size, really haven't been all that tasty. Burstzyn is a good tomato too, but way too small for my appetite. It takes 6-8 to compare to the two cucumbers I chop, salt, and add a splash of white vinegar to. That's my kind of salad. Rutgers are just starting to ripen, and they're okay. I think all the rain we had this spring and the drought of the past few weeks has really taken a toll on the flavor and consistency of the fruits. I've been watering, but tap water only does so much for the veggies. It appears that even with 31 plants, I won't harvest enough to freeze or can as much as I wanted. I'll probably depend on my parent's huge plantings to get a couple 5-gallon buckets for that. I need a new plan for next year.

From other areas of the garden, I moved three Red Texas Star hibiscus plants that weren't getting enough sun. They're in the shrub border now. The vitex got planted too. I also moved the New Zealand flax into this bed. One loropetalum died, so it got tossed. I didn't have high hopes for it anyway. Poor thing struggled all summer last year, then nearly froze to death over the winter. Yanking it out and moving it when it was 95 degrees probably didn't help.

Vitex



Red Texas Star



A new double rudbeckia



The ugliest combination I've grown to date. The rudbeckia is brown, not orange. The camera lies.



I planted out the rudbeckia hirta seeds I summer sowed a few weeks ago. They had their second set of leaves and were starting to grow. Some went into the bed by the basement door where things seem to die as soon as I plant them. A few others replaced the dead geraniums near the mailbox. I pulled out dayflowers around the tree in the front yard and disturbed a yellow jacket nest. I didn't get to finish cleaning that area. Maybe this winter....

75 and sunny. Rain in the forecast Saturday and Sunday. I hope we get more than we did last night. While grateful, I need a lot more if I'm going to harvest any more tomatoes, squash, or cucumbers. The okra is blooming now.

January 28, 1986

It was a cool, crisp day and I was in the 8th grade. It was Earth Science class and all the students were watching as the first teacher headed into space. Obviously, there was a major malfunction as 7 NASA astronauts "slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God."



That night, President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation during what would have been his State of the Union Address.



That was 23 years ago.

Today it's 52 and foggy. Rain likely. I'm working through drawings from a new client trying to put together pricing and a schedule for a new project.



12:20pm - Three days ago I started some Red Texas Star hibiscus seeds on my homemade bottom heat contraption. Today I found at least a dozen seeds that had germinated. I moved 10 of them to individual containers. I want to raise these from seed and clone as many as I can. The Cherry Brandy Rudbeckia I started last week has disappointed me. Only one of 6 seeds germinated.