About this time of year I seem to run out of steam when it comes to the garden. But this is not the time to just sit back and wait for spring! No...if I do that the weeds will overtake everything and plants I don't want to go to seed (Lemon Balm, anyone??) will spread to their heart's content. My usual garden plan is to fill a grocery bag of weeds/clippings a day. It takes me anywhere from 5-30 minutes to do this. If I keep up with that, my work is really quite easy.Since school started back (2 weeks ago) I have been neglecting my yard duties. So I spent a couple hours working out back on Saturday. I cut back the Lemon Balm plant to the ground (2nd trimming for it this season). Also cut back: the Alaska Shasta Daisies. I WISH these would re-bloom. But no matter how much I dead-head, I never get them to last very long.
The sunflowers have lasted quite a while. They started blooming in mid-July, exactly two months ago. Next year I vow to plant more, as they really are quite cheery! I've been cutting many of the top-heavy old heads off of them so they 1) look neater, and 2) don't droop so much. But now I'm going to let several go to seed for planting next spring.
I stopped watering my pots a couple weeks ago as w
ell. I know they would still be looking great, but I just simply ran out of energy for them. Sadly, I have tons of little drip system hook-up spots all over the yard. I REALLY need to figure out how to hook up the drip systems to the system I had installed 3-4 years ago. I even have a fancy-schmancy timer for it all. My goal for this fall/winter is to get it all hooked up so I can actually use it next year. (HA! That was my goal for last winter...instead I painted the family room!)Speaking of family rooms, here is the view from our windows. This is one little bright spot in the yard that still looks pretty decent.
And this is just to the left of it, my shade corner that finally filled in this year.
2 comments:
I once let one lone lemon balm plant go to seed (I didn't mean to) and had lemon balm everywhere ever since. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that it's roots hang onto the ground with a vice grip making it very hard to pull up.
I have vowed to get my irrigation system in this winter too. I don't have one for all the perennials and vegetables, only the lawns. Which we're letting die.
I haven't had the lemon balm problems that I read about. But I really try to hack it back when it starts flowering. Which is too bad, because it's a pretty plant with a nice shape. And once I cut it back it looks kind of homely until it fills back in again.
As for the irrigation...I have no excuses. I have remote pipe thingies sticking up throughout the yard. I have all the tubing and parts. I've created drip systems before, but just not on this large of scale (which is really about 10 small systems). The stuff is here; I just need to put it together!
Post a Comment