A Day at the Farm 12/26/2011

Cold and wet.

• Planted 30 Oxblood Lilies that my sister gave me for Christmas. Their common name is School House Lily. They are often found growing beside the remains of old school houses and other long-gone public buildings due their ability to suffer from neglect and continue to grow and multiply. She gave me pink ones and red ones. The pink ones are a sport of the red ones, not sure how well they do as compared to the red ones. We will see. I planted some of them in the Rose Garden bed near the entrance, both at the front of the entrance and just inside the entrance to the garden.
• Planted 3 Crinum Powelii 'Roseum' in the Long Border, also bulbs that my sister gave me for Christmas.
• Planted a Viburnum macrocephalum Sterile in the Star Garden that I purchased on line from Martha's Secret.
• Planted 2 Double Pink Altheas that my neighbor gave me, rooted from one of her plants.
• Quick trip, looked around and left the same day. Crocuses are popping up from the ground. Seven Sisters Daffodils popping up. Spring will be grand!

A Trip to the Farm Dec 7-10 2011

Took 3 days off and went to the farm. Cold.

• Planted 200 Spanish Bluebells (hyacynthoides hispanica 'excelsior') Most of them were planted down the hill alongside the boardwalk where I already have 400 planted. It will be a beautiful spring.


• Mulched plants in the Wave Garden and the Long Border.


• Fertilized the Vegetable Garden with liquid fertilizer.


• Fertilized the Dianthus in the Star Garden.


• Finished a bed that I started last weekend.


• Transferred about 6 clumps of bearded irises to the new bed. I moved them from the Bulb Bed. I moved them to make room for my Big Daddy Hydrangeas.


• Moved 3 Big Daddy Hydrangeas from a bed that sits in full sun (by the dining room) to the Bulb Bed (that sits in dappled sun all day). They have been growing in the wrong spot for 3 years, so they were very heavy! I found a baby copper head in the wheel barrow after I lifted up one of the hydrangeas.


• Built a new bed in front of the gate by the shed. Planted 30 of the remaining Spanish Bluebells.


• Planted 6 Bluebells in front of the house next to the Franziska Kreuger rose.


• Pulled up all the chicken wire that I had staked to the ground in the Orchard. It was protecting the beds in the Orchard from the armadillos. Unfortunately, it is very hard to weed the beds so I pulled it all up.


• Planted two "Pink Cloud' Beauty Bush (Kolkwitzia amabilis) in the bed where the Big Daddy Hydrangeas had been. My mother gave them to me for my birthday. I'm very excited about them. They are dense, arching shrubs that grow to 10 feet with pink flowers with yellow throats. I don't know anyone that has these shrubs growing.


• Tried to move my Harlequin Glorybower tree to one of the new beds I built. I had it growing in a pot. My husband and I picked it up and put it in the wheelbarrow. But as soon as I started to push it forward it fell out of the wheel barrow and the little tree snapped right in half at the base of the tree. I was very upset! I planted the stub anyway. Hopefully it's a fighter!


• Weeded - always!


• The wildflower seeds are doing fine. Can't wait for the spring! Also the sweet peas I planted look very healthy. It was a good idea putting chiken wire around them. They are climbing up the wire and - no rabbits nibbling away at them!


• Still haven't shredded any leaves yet. But all the leaves have not fallen yet. I will shred some next weekend. I have to replenish my compost pile.


• Watered the lemon and tangerine in the Greenhouse.

New Arbor

It still needs to be painted, but it was built in a day. I'll be able to train a vine on it once spring arrives.

Weekend at the Farm 12/03-04/2011

Arrived Friday evening. Gray and rainy. Rainy is good! We need the rain.

• Built a new bed. Actually, it is an expansion of the bed where the 5 La Marne roses are growing alongside the driveway.


• Planted about 35 Narcissus Avalanche (the commone name is Seven Sisters) in the new bed, and I planted 15 more in the Rose Garden.


• Planted 100 Crocus Tommasinianus in the new bed also.


• Planted 25 Narcissus odorus Linnaeus (the common name is Bacon and Eggs) in the Star Garden.


• Began building a new bed, but my husband's saw gave out and he couldn't finish cutting down cedars for my flower bed edging.


• My husband built an arbor in the front of the house and the final gate to close off the yard to the critters. It's not totally cut off, of course. An animal can squeeze between posts in several places, and also under all the gates. But the yard is vastly more closed off than it was before.


• Weeded, weeded, weeded.


• Turned off all the sprinklers. It's supposed to rain again this week.


• Mulched in the Infinity Garden.


• Made smoked turkey leg and collard green gumbo with turkey we smoked and collards from my garden.


• Moved the lemon tree and the tangerine tree into the Greenhouse. It's supposed to freeze this week.


• The farmer that owns the land next to ours caught 5 hogs in a trap last weekend and there was one in the trap this weekend.
  

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