A Day at the Farm Jan 29, 2012

This is bronze fennel. With the cool weather and mild winter, the bronze fennel is really thriving. I let all of it go to seed, and there are fennel seedlings all around the mother plants and in other nearby beds in The Orchard.

Beautiful weather. Arrived Saturday evening.

• One of my roses is suffering from the tunnels around the root system. I noticed that it is dropping leaves and tilting over. I turned the hose on full force and pushed the hose into the ground around the roots. I poured water into the hole, and all the soil collapsed. Hopefully the varmints living in there will move on. I repeated this on several of my rose shrubs. Same thing, the earth collapsed when I flooded the tunnel.



• Mulched one of the boardwalk beds near the house.



• Sowed some triple curled-leaf parsley in the Infinity Garden.



• The parsley that I sowed two weeks ago in the Orchard and the Infinity Garden has sprouted.



• Filled in a flower bed with the last of the soil I bought a month or so ago. It just needed a little. My husband changed out the cedar log that was edging the bed, and it needed to be filled in.



• The crocuses and the star flowers are starting to bloom. Also, the Erlicheer daffodils are beginning to bloom.



• The Meyer lemon tree in the Greenhouse is in full bloom - smells wonderful! It's early for the lemon tree to bloom. Must be the mild winter and the warmth of the Greenhouse.



• Raked and shredded leaves. Got a large part of one side of the Boardwalk Gardens covered up in leaf mulch. Most of the leaves that have fallen from the trees are gone. It's strange how that happens. I guess they blow into the woods. I shredded a lot of them, of course.



• Cut away chicken wire from around the Prissy Miss Bearded Irises in the Orchard. Cut away chicken wire from the plants in the Bedroom Garden.



• Pulled up some lettuce in the Vegetable Garden that was about to go to seed. I didn't like that lettuce! So I certainly don't want it to go to seed and get more of it!



• Sprinkled Sevin Dust on the cabbages. I try to stay away from pesticides, but sometimes I have to do it. The caterpillars are really making it look ugly.



• Pulled weeds.



• Stopped by the Arbor Gate on the way home. The fruit tree sale was today. I wanted a Cherry of the Rio Grande and a Mayhaw. They didn't have either. The Cherry will be sold at their citrus sale, and the Mayhaw will come in with their new natives. I was excited to see that they had Tiger Lilies. I purchased one, I have been looking for them. And I purchased one Triumphator Lily. The Tiger Lily was an great find.