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[sheepdog 10]

Gads, I'm going stir crazy today! Been stuck on this stupid computer for hours. We stayed home from the swap meet because of the predicted rain. I only got outside for a little while this morning before the rain started. Managed to take a few new pictures of my flower bed I wanted to share with you all. Since I took the last pictures, all the orange Cosmos has started to bloom, and the bed looked fantastic for several days, with all the understory of pinks and purples and a bit of other colors, then when the cosmos shot up it got taller than the rest of the flowers and made a beautiful layer of orange over the rest of the bed. It looked fantastic until the rain started beating it down the past few days.

I went out a few minutes ago and took a quick tour around the place on the 4 wheeler, in the rain, guess I'd rather be wet than crazy. Bet I've sent off a hundred emails today, and I am definatly sick of being on the computer. I hate being stuck in side.

[jlhaslip 4]

Very nicely done. When/If they all come back, could you please post another shot?

Or will they come back again this year?

 

I assume they are perennials?

[demonboy1990 0]

sheepdog, good to hear your flower bed is blooming. it was warm yesterday I could of done with a bit of rain (lucky you) but so far today its not warm but is shining outside.

get off the computer for a while sheepdog take a walk, go shopping and get some sun (not trying to make a joke since it was raining in Missouri yesterday at least it was since you stated in the topic)

[sheepdog 10]

No, those aren't perenials. All are anuals, that have to be seeded back every year. We till up the bed every spring and I reseed it. Seed saving is a major undertaking around here. I could never afford to buy enough seed to plant a bed that big, it would cost many hundreds of dollars. I just made my first seed harvest this past week, it had been put off a bit too long as it was, but I don't like to harvest seed when it is rainy, but this week I had no choise in the matter if I wanted any seed. I did manage to pick about half of a small bucket of flower heads. It may be a good trick now to get them dry enough to jar up and save back without them molding from having too much moisure in them. And I found something I have NEVER seen before. We have had so much rain and it has stayed so wet, that the spent flower heads that I normally harvest for seed have actually got tiny baby plants starting to sprout out of the seed heads. I have to say it's pretty weird to see a plant growing right out of the flower! Sadly some of the flower heads were wet for so long, they are probably to rotten to save seed out of. Many of the plants on the outer edge of the bed have been beaten down by all the rain, and those at ground level are rotting. It is not looking like it's going to be a promising year for seed harvest at any rate. Surely it will dry up pretty soon. LOL, it better anyway, or I may start having a lot of trouble finding my dogs that are out in the back in large ground runs. The grass is growing faster than we can mow it. Tried all last week to mow but it is just too wet and it rains just enough every single day to keep us from mowing.

[sheepdog 10]

Well that monsoon we had finally slowed down, of course, when it ended, it really ended. After having it rain every day for over 2 weeks I found myself getting completely out of the habit of watering my plants. Nearly killed a couple of my hanging baskets! But I finally remembered and got back to my weather watching and watering. No serious damage done by my forgetfulness.

 

All in all it has been a good growing season. I planted pumpkins a bit late, but boy, they really took off. Most of the plants are dying off now, but last week a few of them still have blooms on them. I'd of been run over with pumpkins if I'd gotten them planted early. I actually just planted them as a kind of experiment, I put them where hubby had pushed up some of the gravel pile where the boys dump the wheelbarrow after they clean the gravel pens. I can safely say that dog doo makes some really good pumpkin fertilizer! And no, I have no intentions of eating them, I mostly wanted a bunch of them to see how well they would store over winter so I would have something to feem my chickens. I've heard they like pumpkins real well, we shall see. I'll have to count them and let you know just how many I do end up with. Sure hope the chickens appreciate all my hard work.

 

The flower bed is winding down now. The zinnia are just about done for. Because of all the rain I didn't get a chance to spray them for fungus, so they got ther season shortened a little. Right now about all I have left for seed harvesting is my cosmos. It worries me every year, doesn't ever set much seed early, but runs it rignt down to the last minute. I'm always afraid it's going to get frozen out before I get enough seed. Lucky it's pretty tough, it will even survive a few real light frosts. My seed harvest this year though is what really takes the cake. I have nearly 50 jars of seed!!!! I am just amazed! One really bad year I only got 7 jars! I use my instant tea jars, they hold almost a quart, so they aren't tiny jars either, and I pack them down pretty tightly too. It's a time consuming job hand shelling all that seed, but I kind of enjoy it, it gives me a chance to sit down and take it a little easy. I shelled seed for nearly 3 hours this afternoon. We had gone to the swap meet and I was tired from all that walking around, so it was kinda nice to be able to sit down and relax, listen to my mp3player and just take it easy for awhile. I did take down one of my small beds of the white cosmos I've been trying to get some extra seed from, and took a walk down the big bed on a seed gathering mission, but most of the time was just spent shelling and listening to music. Need a little rest once in awhile.