Weekend at the Farm January 25-26, 2014

My husband hung a porthole from some metal poles this weekend.  We got the porthole from my sister.  It had been in a closet for years.  It's heavy!  The poles from which it is hanging should get less shiny and bright over time, or else I will spray paint them brown. 

• Went to town Saturday morning and bought the poles for our porthole sculpture and 4 green landscaping strips.
• Made a flowerbed around the bottom of the sculpture using the landscaping strips I bought in town.  Filled the bed with shredded leaves and soil I dug up around the property.  I've never done that before - I have always used good, store-bought soil.  I will have to amend the soil once I begin planting in that flowerbed, but at least it was cheap for now.  We placed the porthole sculpture near the Greenhouse.  I am expanding the gardens in that area. Some of the beds will define the horse shoe area on that side of the house.  My plan is to plant gingers, and that's as far as my plan goes.  I'd like to find some elderberry plants.  They tolerate shade, and they are edibles.  Since this is primarily my medicine garden, I like plants to be edible, medicinal, or utilitarian.
• Shredded leaves on Saturday and Sunday.  The pile is getting very big!
• Watered my new fruit trees - the apple, the mulberry, and the paw paw.  
• Fertilized my banana shrub and the Debutante Camellia.  
• Watered many of my shrubs.
• Weeded and cut away dead debris.
• All of the Bluebells have emerged at last - the ones along the boardwalk, the ones I planted near the house, the bulbs by the shed, and the bulbs under the Mml Franziska Krueger rose in front of the house.  The Chinese Sacred Lilies and the Erhlicheers are in bud.  The flowerbeds in the Orchard are green with seedlings of Larkspur, Johnny Jump Ups, Poppies, Black Eyed Susans, Mountain Garland,  Purple Tansy, Chicory, Moss Verbena, Corn Flowers, and Dames Rocket.  Spring will be beautiful!   

Weekend at the Farm January 18-19, 2014

 Winter in Burton.  Everything has gone dormant.  Only the bulbs and the Ox Eye Daisies are green.  In the photo above can be seen the flowerbed that I extended this weekend.  It sits on an upward slope, so I partially buried the cedar posts.  That meant that the bed was half full of soil before I even started filling it, it was a pretty quick job.

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Friday night my husband and I went to dinner at Etoile.  Saturday morning we went to Rice University for the annual fruit tree sale sponsored by Urban Harvest.  He couldn't believe that there were thousands of people there to buy fruit trees, standing in a line that wrapped around the stadium waiting to get in before the sale opened.  Crazy plant people.

• I bought a 3-in-1 apple tree.  That is 3 different apple varieties grafted on to the same tree.  Anna, Dorsett Golden, and Einshemer.  And I bought a Pakistan Mulberry.  The apple was bare root, the Mulberry was potted.
• Headed to Burton to plant the trees, have to get bare root trees in the ground right away.
• Worked in the Orchard after I planted the trees.  Watered the Crab Apple and the citrus trees.   Weeded around the fruit trees.  Cleaned up dead plant material.
• Extended a flowerbed near the front porch.  I'm planning to lay crushed granite down on all the paths in the Star Garden before the next Crawfish Boil.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden, the Infinity Garden, and the Orchard.  It's a little too cool for herbicide to be really effective, but the cool weather weeds were taking over.  I needed to knock them back a bit.
• Spent about 3 hours raking leaves and putting them through the shredder.  Added to my mulch pile 
• Cleaned the house - vacuumed, swept, shook out rugs, dusted, cleaned toilets.