March 10, 2015

Bert and I drove up to the farm for the day.  Drove to work the next morning.  Didn't know when I would be able to get to Arbor Gate to buy some sedums for my pots around the pool, so I decided to take the day off.

• Stopped on the way at Lowe's and bought potting soil and more pots.  I only lack one pot now.  I need a big one, I want to plant a lemon tree in it.
• At Arbor Gate I bought sedums (colorful, perennial succulent ground covers that flower in the spring - Golden Japanese Sedum, Summer Glory Sedum Spurium, Gold Flakes Sedum, and Althoum Sedum), two Tuscan Blue rosemary plants, one rosemary (lost the tag, don't know the name), two Passionate Blush gaura, 2 Mexican Mint Marigold, two creeping thyme, one Buzz Midnight butterfly bush (a dwarf variety), and one Jeruselem Sage - all for my pots, and three tomato plants (Roma, San Marzano, and Beefy Boy).
• Turned the soil in three beds in the Vegetable Garden, added chitin (an organic fertilizer and supposed to deter nematodes), added Arbor Gate blend, and planted the tomatoes.  
• Prepared the soil as above in the long bed in the Vegetable Garden and planted two long rows of Blue Lake 47 bush green beans.
• Spread Nema-Gone marigold seeds in all four beds and spread some in the potato bed.
• Fertilized and turned the soil in the bed where I plant to plant my Scarlet Runner beans and cucumbers next week.
• I'm betting on the fact that it won't freeze again this year.  If it freezes I will lose everything I planted in the Vegetable Garden and have to start over.
• I potted up everything I bought.  I split the sedums and the thyme into two pieces so they would stretch further.  I have two pots left to fill.  I thought about planting some squash seeds into my two leftover pots but decided against it.
• Raked and turned over the soil in an area in the Medicine Garden and sowed some Borage and Valerian seeds. 
• Sowed Borage in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
• Pulled lots of weeds.  
• Bert and I walked round and round when evening came.  
• I counted 21 buds on my little old fashioned purple bearded irises that I dug up from Nixon Lake Rd two years ago.  I fertilized them twice this winter.  I think that made a real difference.