A Day at the Farm April 1, 2012

This is the Long Border, next to the entrance to the Rose Garden. It is at the height of its spring glory. Really lovely.

I went up by myself for the day because I knew the poppies would be in full bloom. I didn't want to miss the show.

• I planted some gingers that I dug up from home. I planted several clumps in the Shade Garden and several clumps in the Circle Drive. As always, quite a bit of work because of the matted roots that have to be dug out.
• Fertilized in the Shade Garden.
• Harvested some spring carrots, some parsnips, and some asparagus. We have gotten a lot of asparagus this year!
• Planted 3 Millionaire eggplants. It's probably a little too early to plant eggplant by a few weeks. They like it hot. But, they might as well sit in my garden instead of a nursery shelf.
• Planted 4 Comfrey plants in the Medicine Garden. Some common names for Comfrey are Knitbone, Woundwort, and Healherb. It is a good addition to my Medicine Garden, and I'm happy to have found it at Buchanan's Nursery in one of my weekly forays to the nursery during my lunch hour.
• I planted 3 Leucantha All Purple near the Triumphator Lilies. I can't understand why none of my Leucantha came back from last year. Really strange. I had some growing in the Long Border and in the Star Garden, and none of it came back after the winter.
• Finally, I planted 4 Catmint in one of the new beds. Catmint 'Walkers Low' has a silvery-blue cast to it which I admire very much. It grows in an attractive rounded form, and it has blue flowers. I think it is very pretty. It is an herb, and the leaves can be used to flavor meats.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Orchard and the Star Garden.
• Sprayed fungicide on the Hollyhocks. I had to cut away all the leaves on the Hollyhocks in the Orchard. They were covered in rust. It would be wonderful if someone would discover a cure for rust. It's pretty horrible.
• Pulled some weeds, but the summer weeds have not started growing in force yet, so this is a nice in-between time. It was hot today, though.
• Put tomato cages around the tomatoes.
• Made a lengthy inspection of everything. My seedlings of Rose Campion and Morning Glories are coming along.