On Friday morning the golden color from the dawn highlighted the seed heads in the middle pasture so everything had the golden glow. It was to be a cloudy cool day.
My helper friend arrived at 8AM and we headed out to clean out flowerbeds. He went around the house to finish the New East garden he’d started on Thursday.
After cutting down all the dead hollyhock stems, I got started on the New West garden. The crabgrass was about 8” deep in this bed. I was delighted to find that 10 of the perennials had survived and were doing fine.
I planted a petunia, begonias, portulacas, and English wallflowers in this bed. If we don’t get a frost until mid October, I will have flowers for a little while, I hope.
Next I finished cleaning out the East of Steps garden and planted some begonias and portulacas and lobelia.
My helper friend got this little garden cleaned out by the back porch.
Then he started at this end of the New South garden and worked his way towards me.
Once he’d made it to this end, I got some English wallflowers, verbascum, balsam, hollyhocks, and 3 tiny columbines and planted them. He just cleans out the plants he knows are weeds. I will have to go back through and do a more thorough cleaning later, if I get a chance. Last, I filled in the corner where the water from the downspout had washed it away.
He came around and started on the West of Steps garden. It had thyme and violets in it that had to come out.
I planted a begonia. In front was a portulaca, and in the middle a dianthus.
I had found the thyme and violets in the New West garden also, so my helper friend went and got a load of loam from the pile by the woodshed and he planted the thyme and violets along the walkway. I put stakes and string up to protect them from walking and mowing. I hope they take.
The South garden had been done a couple times over the summer so he just got the violets out and I planted 3 small hollyhocks and 3 begonias.
He moved onto the Fence gardens and pulled out all the tall weeds that had gone to seed, all the way to the 7th garden at the end.
In the 1st and 4th Fence gardens the New England asters are pink.
In the 3rd Fence garden they are purple. Some years I get a light blue.
Kousa dogwood fruit
Old North garden - volunteer squash
As I came around the house with a sled of weeds, I had plenty of room left in it so I weeded the mulch around the little sugar maple.
Small garden at dawn
I was exhausted at 11:30 when he had to leave. I went to bed and slept for 4 hours. My back was still in good shape after all that. I was careful to not do things to aggravate it.
On Saturday my neighbor and I are going on the riverboat again, this time with the lecturer Richard Little. He will speak about the geology that created the river.
