One thing I have learnt. When you leave town for a month expect to come home to a lot of weeds in the garden and maybe the odd nice surprise. We arrived home last evening after a trip to England followed by a cruise into the Eastern Mediterranean. It is all very well having those rudbeckias and zinnias seeding in the gravel paths but you have to accept the weeds along with them....... and boy were they bad. How is it they manage to keep growing even when there is no rain and 100 degree days! It will probably take at least a week to get on top of them.
I was sure I had removed every Texas sunflower from the back bed but three are growing and stand about 4' tall- in just 4 weeks.
I even have rudbeckias in the vegetable bed.
The cage over the squash bed has been a great success. There is no sign of squash vine borer.
Tomorrow I will be roasting the Roma tomatoes to freeze for the winter.
The narrow leaf zinnias are putting on their usual dazzling performance.
The pomegranates are filling in nicely.
The garden has been full of birds enjoying the seed heads on the blanket flowers. Two geckos have moved into the house. We have had no success trying to remove them. Maybe they will eat the spiders.
One thing I have learnt. When you leave town for a month expect to come home to a lot of weeds in the garden and maybe the odd nice surprise. We arrived home last evening after a trip to England followed by a cruise into the Eastern Mediterranean. It is all very well having those rudbeckias and zinnias seeding in the gravel paths but you have to accept the weeds along with them....... and boy were they bad. How is it they manage to keep growing even when there is no rain and 100 degree days! It will probably take at least a week to get on top of them.
I was sure I had removed every Texas sunflower from the back bed but three are growing and stand about 4' tall- in just 4 weeks. 
I even have rudbeckias in the vegetable bed.
The cage over the squash bed has been a great success. There is no sign of squash vine borer.
Tomorrow I will be roasting the Roma tomatoes to freeze for the winter. 
The narrow leaf zinnias are putting on their usual dazzling performance.
The pomegranates are filling in nicely. 
The garden has been full of birds enjoying the seed heads on the blanket flowers. Two geckos have moved into the house. We have had no success trying to remove them. Maybe they will eat the spiders.
Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteMy weeds look worse than yours, and I have no excuse (except for the heat) because I was here the whole time.
Those pomegranates and white zinnias are particularly pretty!
Thanks Iris, It's nice to be home, even if the work is piled high.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could leave my garden for a month. lol If I did I'd be afraid to come back!
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks great despite the heat. I love Texas Sunflowers.
So you've been home since yesterday and you already have two posts up? I'm not surprised! :-)
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks great, esp. considering you've been gone for a month. Do you hire anyone to come over and check on things, or just set the timer on the sprinkler system and go?
I like the way you combined both colors of the narrowleaf zinnia. I'll have to try that next year. Still no pomegranates for my little tree, although the blooms were many this year.
Strange how those weeds manage to grow despite the conditions, isn't it? I think things look pretty good at your place actually. We used to get geckos in our house when we lived in Austin. Unfortunately the cats always managed to find them so they didn't stay there long!
ReplyDeleteSweet bay- Yes, I love the Texas sunflower too but the plant itself is a giant. If only I could get it to grow out in my native areas, but alas it wants to be where all the action is.
ReplyDeletePam-Well I was up at 4:30 am so I got busy downloading my thousands of photos from the trip. I thought my garden deserved the first go before I show off all the gardens we visited.
No one took care of the garden. The drip system is automatic so plants were watered. The only problem is that water always runs through the raised beds and feeds the weeds. We have tried every system but nothing really works to our satisfaction. The zinnias are absolutely full proof and I wouldn't be without them. I save the seeds from year to year as they are hard to find.
Jean- We don't have many geckos. In fact I have only found them living in the sprinkler control box. Lots of anoles and other lizards but few geckos.
Welcome back. You're gone for a month, and your garden looks better than mine, with me here to fight the heat and drought the whole time. Love those zinnias, too.
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks pretty good for being unattended for a month! Welcome back, and I look forward to your posts about the gardens you visited.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could leave my garden for a month and come home to such gorgeous self sown blooms.
ReplyDeleteLinda Carol and Nicole- Imagine how it's going to look with my being gone for the next 6 weeks!
ReplyDelete