Weekend at the Farm March 11 - 13, 2012

This is Muscari (common name Blue Bottles) going to seed. Not only do Muscari bulbs multiply, they also drop seed.

Went to Masraff''s for dinner to celebrate Nancy's birthday and then headed to Burton on Sunday morning. Stayed until Tuesday.

• So many things going on! Spring is everywhere. New growth and buds on all the wildflowers, flowering trees, and spring perennials. The activity is deafening.
• I pulled up lots of chocolate mint and pennyroyal. It is taking over everything in the Infinity Garden. I had allowed it to grow into the paths thinking it would be attractive. I decided it just looked overgrown, so I dug it all up.
• Soaked some parsley seeds over night and sowed them in the Orchard.
• Planted some red veined sorrel in the Infinity Garden. Sorrel is a lemony-flavored perennial, and this particular sorrel is very attractive.
• I made some bread. It turned out pretty well.
• Planted three Triumphator Lily bulbs that I bought from The Arbor Gate. I planted them next to the plant of Triumphator Lilies that I purchased several weeks ago. The cluster of them should be quite a show in the summer to come.
• Planted three small Habak Mint plants in the Infinity Garden. Habak Mint has a silver cast to it (which I value highly in the landscape).
• I spent quite a bit of time working in the Shade Garden again this weekend. I dug up several beds to loosen the soil, and I planted clumps of gingers that I dug up from my garden in Houston. I also raked leaves and mulched a bit.
• I planted 4 tomato plants in the Vegetable Garden after turning the soil and adding shredded leaves and fertilizer. Hopefully the soil will be too rich with organic material to be hospitable for the nematodes this summer.
• I planted three Henry's Garnet Sweetspire - two along the Boardwalk and one in the Shade Garden. Loosening the soil in the Shade Garden is always difficult. I was glad to be finished with that chore. Sweetspire blooms long cluster flowers in the spring, and it likes shade. It also colonizes rapidly.
• I planted three Georgia Scarlet Bat Faced Cuphea in the Star Garden. The bees are really attracted to cuphea.
• Cut back the arugula in the Vegetable Garden. It had flopped over and looked very messy.
• Planted Jewel Peach Melba Nasturtium seeds in the Star Garden and here and there. I plant seeds everywhere and forget where I sow them. It's always a surprise when they finally grow up enough for me to recognize them and, ultimately, to bloom.
• Cut dead debris from one of the plum trees.
• Dug up a blackberry vine that had appeared by underground stolon amongst my cannas. There are countless plantlets of blackberries amongst the cannas! I will dig all of them up and plant them along the edge of the woods since I've run out of room in the Orchard. Eventually I will just have to yank them up and throw them away. Blackberries are very invasive.
• Sowed the following seeds: Moonflowers (on the arbor next to the Rose Garden), Chocolate Morning Glories (on the arbor in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden), Dacopo Light Blue Morning Glories (also on the arbors in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden). Summer will be beautiful if the voles, armadillos, and rabbits don't do me wrong.
• Sowed the rest of the pink Laura Bush Petunias in the Rose Garden, the Long Border, and the Orchard.
• Fertilized the Bulb Garden.
• Adjusted the sprinklers.
• Planted three Mexican Oregano in the Wave Garden. They make pretty pink flowers, and the plants have a very strong scent.
• Cut away debris off the arbor and trellis in the Star Garden.
• Harvested three cabbages, some asparagus, and some beets.