A Weekend at the Farm 03/27-28/10

Intriguing new growth of a rose.

• I finished laying down the crushed granite in the Star Garden. It looks a lot better.



• I planted some medicinal herbs in the Infinity Garden. I planted some horehound and sowed some horehound seeds that I ordered months ago. Horehound is best known for being the main ingredient in Horehound cough drops much used by settlers of the Old West. I planted Gotu Kola. This herb is said to slow the aging process. I planted some Lamb's Ear 'Helene Von Stein' which has bigger leaves than the kind I have growing now. Lamb's Ear has styptic qualities and was once used to staunch the flow of blood of small wounds. It was also used as a bandage material when cloth was scarce. I planted Nigella which is thought to be the Black Fitches of the Bible. And I planted another scented geranium, Lady Plymouth, which has a rose scent. I also sowed some French Sorrel seed. I planted a Vick's Plant. The leaves have a strong menthol smell just like Vick's Vaporub. When boiling water is poured over the leaves and the steam is breathed in it will clear up nasal congestion. Lastly I planted a Stevia plant. Stevia is used as the main ingredient in some artificial sweeteners. The leaves are extremely sweet when chewed.



• I planted 3 Agastache 'Tutti Frutti' in the Long Border. They bloom a soft rose color and grow to about 2 feet tall and wide. They are attractive to hummingbirds and bees. The leaves have a bubble gum scent. Certain types of agastaches have medicinal uses, but I don't know if the leaves and flowers of this particular cultivar have such uses.



• In the Long Border I also planted "White Profusion' Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii). I now have this plant, white Salvia 'Snow Nymph', and Lamb's Ear in the Long Border. I was happy to find this Butterfly Bush, I needed more white in the Border.



• I sprayed herbicide in the paths throughout the Vegetable Garden. It was getting pretty weedy.


• I planted some White Wonder and some Lemon cucumber seeds that my son Josh gave me for Christmas.


• I planted three more Ruby Grass in the Wave Garden.


• I dug up 10 or so seedlings of Dahlberg Daisy that were growing in the paths in the Rose Garden and moved them to various flowerbeds.


• I made a small flowerbed under a goat wire arbor that my husband erected yesterday at the top of the Long Border. The arbor makes a nice entrance to the Long Border. I plan to plant various colors of Morning Glories and Moon Flower there, maybe other things. I'm not sure. Hyacinth Beans are very pretty. We'll see.


• I fertilized some of the fruit trees with Cottonseed Meal. I ran out of fertilizer before I finished.


• I planted two Shasta Daisies in the Star Garden to replace the ones that died last year. I thought I bought Crazy Daisy, but I ended up with Snowcap. The two of them must have been sitting next to eachother, and I picked up the wrong ones.


• I planted three Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'. This plant was the perennial plant of the year in 1999. I have a lot of it. I threw seeds down in the Star Garden last fall and I can see tiny little plants growing. I love it.


• I sowed some seeds of a white cultivar coneflower ( I was given the seeds, and I don't know what they are specifically) and some White Lace Flower (Orlaya Grandiflora)



• I had a great idea regarding the Orchard. But it is too large a project to do myself. I want to get rid of all grass / weeds in the Orchard and build paths through the fruit trees. I will have the entire area around the paths filled with good soil and mulched out. And then I will seed the area with wild flowers. Now that we have this wonderful boardwalk down to the Orchard we need the Orchard to become a destination. It isn't very attractive right now, pretty plain. This will require irrigation. The area will need a sprinkler system installed.
  

This is Donalena Deep Pink Verbena.