Weekend at the Farm December 11 - 14, 2014

This is Archduke Charles rose, one of my newest.  It starts out as a pink blend, light pink centers and dark pink outer petals, then it darkens to red.

Took Thursday and Friday as vacation.  Arrived Thursday afternoon.

• Spent some time shredding leaves on Thursday afternoon.  I put some of them in the front beds where I planted the Ox Eyes last weekend.  I put the rest in the compost pile.
• Thursday I raked pine straw into piles on the trail next to the Long Border.
• Friday morning I raked pine straw on the trails and piled it into the cub. 
• I spent most of Friday morning cleaning out the flowerbed next to the house - pulled up Four O'Clocks that died from the cold, pulled weeds, repaired a spot where the dogs dig, and covered the area with pine straw.
• Raked leaves in the Star Garden Friday morning as well.  Piled most of them around the trees that are outside of the landscaped part of the side yard.  I don't like to get rid of leaves or burn them because they break down and help improved the soil. My husband likes to burn them, says they look messy.  Yes, they can look messy, but that's why I moved out to the middle of nowhere with no neighbors!  I can do what makes sense in my yard, not what looks right in my yard.
• Cleaned out the bed where the Pink Vitex is growing and mulched with pine straw.
• Vacuumed the whole house.
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.
• There are seedlings everywhere, spring should be beautiful.  
• Friday evening I turned over the soil in the lower section of the back flowerbed and surrounded the perennials with leaf mulch.  I will seed that bed with some of the remaining wildflower seeds I have.
• Went to JW's for dinner.
• Saturday morning up early.  Spread seed in the back bed.
• Raked and shredded leaves for a long while.  Turned off the machine to eat lunch and couldn't get it started again.  Boo.
• Started creating another path in Max's Garden.
• It was a warm day so I decided to spray herbicide, you never know how many more warm days we will have and herbicide doesn't work in cold weather.   Sprayed in the Rose Garden, the Orchard, the Star Garden, and the driveway.  
• I spent some time making paths in Max's Garden.  All the soil I shoveled out of the paths, I moved to some flowerbeds that my husband lined with cedar last summer. 
• Raked in the Vegetable Garden for a while Saturday evening.
• Sunday morning I shredded leaves.  I quit when it shut off due to a stick that got wedged in between the blade and the side of the machine.  I might pick it up later.  I got three, maybe four, truckloads dumped into the compost pile before I quit.
• My husband made another flowerbed space for me with cedar logs because I am working on breaking up a huge flowerbed in Max's Garden, and I need some place to put the soil.  As I create paths in this raised flowerbed I end up with a lot of good soil. 
• Dug dirt for a long time.  Dumped it in the beds I'm building. Hard work.  Made several new paths and transplanted several Autumn Sage and a Pink Muhly that were in the way.
• Fertilized the plants in the Vegetable Garden - celery, onions, garlic, broccoli, mustard, arugula, calendulas.
• Worked in the Vegetable Garden for a long time.  I moved all the tomato cages and stakes so I could rake behind them.  I cut back all the asparagus, spread fertilizer, and covered the beds with leaf mulch.  I had a lot of weeding to do in the big asparagus bed.  I really let that get away from me this summer.  I moved a half dozen Goldsturm Rudbeckia that had sprung up uninvited in the asparagus bed and moved them to the front flower bed.  Also fertilized the garlic and onions and mulched them.  I moved some Purple Phacelia that sprang up on its own in the Vegetable Garden last spring.  It was such a pretty plant, very low-growing (sprawling) pretty leaves, and very pretty little purple and white flowers that I didn't pull it up, I let it go to seed.  When autumn got here it was popping up everywhere!  So I dug a bunch of clumps up and moved them to various places in the Star Garden.  Hopefully they will survive their rough treatment - I find wild flowers do not tend to transplant well.
• Watered all the Ox Eyes I moved last weekend.
• Whew! I earned my keep this trip! Sunday evening - I'm beat. 

White By The Gate Camellia Blooms December 13, 2014

These flowers are so gorgeous!  They are the purest, most pristine white flowers - I am transfixed by their loveliness.

Before and After December 12, 2014

I cleaned out the flowerbed next to the house on Friday morning.  I pulled up all the Four O'Clocks that died back from the cold, pulled weeds, repaired an area that the dogs dig around in, and covered the whole area with pine straw that I raked up yesterday and early Friday morning.

Day at the Farm December 7, 2014

 This is White By The Gate camellia.

This is Debutante camellia.

My mother in law went into the hospital the day we returned from Disney World.  She died on Wednesday, December 3.  She will be greatly missed.  She was a Christian Scientist, so we only had a small service for her at our home.  Family on both sides were in attendance. 

• We drove to Burton on Saturday evening, we hadn't been there in two weeks.  All the leaves have fallen, the trees are bare.
• I shredded leaves on Sunday morning and filled the back of the cub cadet with the leaves.  I mulched with the shreds in the Rose Garden.
• The shredder stopped running after that.  We weren't able to get it started.  And all of a sudden it has a gasoline leak.  We loaded in on the trailer to haul it into the shop on Monday.  No more shredding for the rest of the day.
• I drove over to one of the trails we lined with left over rocks from the house construction.  I picked them up and loaded them on the cub cadet.  I used them to line the flowerbeds at the front of the house. 
• I spent a lot of time digging up Ox Eye Daisies in the Rose Garden paths and planted them in the front flower beds.  It should be pretty in the spring, and since they remain green all year long, it will be an improvement in those beds.
• I started the project of breaking the large flowerbed in Max's Garden into smaller sections with paths.  I dug a path, and I used the soil to fill in a bed that my husband outlined with cedar last summer.  It remained empty all summer, I never filled it with soil.  Finally finished it!  And I planted three clumps of Ox Eye Daisies on one side of it.  Not sure what else I will put in it, but I'm considering red Firespike.  I have pink Firespike in the Shade Garden that I grew from cuttings that I took from my Houston Garden.  I also have the red variety growing in my Houston garden, so I could get some cuttings from it.  That is a cheap option.