A Weekend at the Farm - February 10 - 12, 2012

Cold and wet. Arrived Thursday evening.

• Pruned the roses. Missed a couple, but almost all of them are pruned now. Didn't prune aggressively this year. Only tipped some of them. Cut dead wood and clipped crossing branches. I cut a good amount off of roses that were really leggy.
• Put lots of weeds in the compost pile.
• Pruned the fruit trees and grape vines in the Orchard. Also didn't prune the fruit trees too aggressively. Removed dead wood, pruned crossing branches. Lopped off the top-most part of the branches of the peach trees. They are getting too tall. But other than that, I pruned sparingly. They are in their fourth year, so their shapes are established.
• Had 5 yards soil and 5 yards mulch delivered on Saturday. Building more beds.
• Built one bed on Sunday. Dug up the weeds and turned the soil, lined it with cedars that my husband cut down. Hauled three trucks full of soil and poured into the bed.
• Went to the hardware store in Brenham. Bought some day lilies, Yukon Gold seed potatoes, and Picasso cannas. The cannas and the day lilies were in bags - super cheap. Thought I'd give them a try. When I got home I checked an online order that I made 3 weeks ago to buy some day lilies - they were the same exact day lilies! There must be thousands of day lily varieties, and I bought the same variety twice. That is really weird to me. Strawberry Candy is the name of the day lily.
• Moved a pink Morning Glory Tree from a spot in the Star Garden (where it was blocking a path) to the new bed. Also planted the Picasso cannas (yellow with red freckles) and the Strawberry Candy Day Lilies.
• Planted some peach butterfly gingers along the Boardwalk that I dug up from the garden in Houston. Don't remember the name of them, I bought them several years before I began keeping records of my plants. I planted several clumps near the house and several clumps near the Orchard.
• Started to prune the wisteria on the big arbor, but it looks like it's in bud. I would hate to cut off blooms. I will wait a bit longer.
• Made a Chard Gratin Friday night using the swiss chard from the garden. Very good!
• Saturday night made a salad using kale from the garden with raspberry infused vinegar, toasted pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and dried cranberries. Very good.
• Worked in the Kitchen Herb Garden. Pulled up lots of mint, cleaned it up and made it ready for spring - I need some sage, basil, thyme, parsley. It was overrun with mint.
• Planted the Yukon Gold seed potatoes in the Vegetable Garden.
• Mulched the front flower beds.
• Cleaned the ovens.
• Spread ant poison on beds that popped up after the rains.
• Cut back the dead debris on the Lantana around the pool.
• Saw on the weather station that it was going to rain, so I spread fertilizer in the Vegetable Garden, on all the roses in the Rose Garden, and on the camellias and azaleas.
• Saw a vole popping up out of the ground, pushing dirt out of his tunnel. Ran to the house and told my husband to grab his gun and come a runnin'. He shot the vole, stuffed him down into his hole and covered him up with the dirt that was piled around the hole. Good bye, vole. I won't miss you.