A Weekend at the Farm June 29 - 30, 2013

Saturday afternoon baby shower for Kim and William.  Saturday evening headed to the farm.  Above, some of the results of my labor in the Rose Garden.

• Worked in the Rose Garden all day on Sunday.  I pulled up all the spent wildflowers.  I pulled weeds.  I cut back lots of Verbena Bonariensis.  I watered every one of my roses shrubs with the hose.  It is so dry.  It took 4 hours to water my roses. 
• The Rose Garden needs work.  It needs to be re-gravelled with crushed granite.  And the boxes either need to be re-painted or they need to be replaced with stone.  That would be the best alternative. And it would look prettier.  Expensive, though.  I would like to close off some of the paths and fill in the space with soil.  Right now I have a dozen or so raised beds all in straight lines.  I think it would be prettier if I made a few curving paths with flowerbeds lined in rock.  This winter I could dig up and move a few roses that would be in the way of this new design. And there are several spaces in the garden that have never been finished out. They don't look very good, so I could take care of that as well.  Of course one load of rock costs about $300, and I would need definitely two, probably three.  And I would need a load of dirt which costs $300.  And I would need a load of crushed granite which is about $400.  That's $1600 that I do not have.  And it's a LOT of work.  The work is hard, but it's free.  Guess I'd better go buy a lottery ticket and hop for the best.
• Conditions are extremely dry.  I spend a lot of time on Sunday watering my precious shrubs and my two new fruit trees - the Crab Apple and the Mayhaw.  I lost one of my altheas, died from lack of water.  It was in the Long Border.  Damn it. 
• The eggplants are starting to produce. Picked one, many more small ones on the plants. 

Above, Rose Garden debris for the burn pile.