The first chore for the morning was to stake up this sunflower. The winds were strong and the rain made the soil loosen up too much. I have a steel post and a sledge hammer from my dad's old farm. With some acrobatic moves I got into the flower garden, standing next to the sunflower, and slowly pounded the post into the ground. I tied it back up straighter with some jute twine. I had to retie another one that was already staked but needed the twine tighten to correct a lean. I had more phlox on the ground from the rain and the wind and I am just going to wait to see if it will correct itself some.
My William Baffin rose still looks sick but it is putting out a few blooms at the top of it, Having all the dead canes removed helps to see what is still alive. I can see some leaf growth happening again.
When I was a kid the yucca was not grown in Iowa. You had to head west into Nebraska to firs see a yucca plant growing wild. Eventually people would dig and bring into Iowa these plants and they found that they like to grow in our state. People also bring in cactus that also does pretty well too. I had a neighbor who had wonderful yellow blooms every year on her cactus. Yucca are now sold in garden centers for accent plants in the gardens. My plant came from my old place which came from a neighbors plant from across the street. I took the shot as I could see this is putting out lots of new growth. It only did two shoots for flowers this year so maybe it will revive and put out more next spring. I have had up to five stems of flowers at one time.
The rains have made the blue spruce really fresh looking. It has a great color with lots of new growth on it. It has doubled in size in the past eight years. I really don't know what the full height of the it will be.
We have had strong winds for most of the day. It is from the north so it has kept us from overheating today. It did get up to 81 degrees in the afternoon. It is quite pleasant to be outside but we will get up to high heat tomorrow. I worked on a new tray bird feeder today but didn't get it completed. I use scrap wood and it has to be modified to fit on a metal railing of the deck. I am tired of my older feeder and it looks junky from a distance. I will keep working on it and eventually be feeding again in the same location of the deck. New and improved is a good thing Thanks for stopping in today.
Thanks for stopping by today.
