Saturday, March 4, 2017

Weekend at the Farm March 3, 2017



Friday afternoon was lovely, but Saturday was drizzly and grey.  Left early Sunday morning to go to Caracal for brunch - Nancy's birthday with the whole family.
  • I took advantage of the rain and fertilized the entire Star Garden.  The rain will water-in the fertilizer.
  • I planted 3 Powis Castle Wormwood in the Medicine Garden.  I love the silvery color of the lambs ear and the artemesia.  
  • I also planted 2 Greek oregano plants in the Medicine Garden.  Oregano are perennial, evergreen, they spread like a ground cover, they flower in the spring, and they are edible.  They check a lot of boxes for me.  Oregano is a great plant. 
  • I found 4 tiny (therefore inexpensive) Thryallis (Rain of Gold  Thryallis) shrubs at Arbor Gate.  I bought them and planted them in the flowerbed that borders the back of the house amongst the autumn sages.  I didn't pull up the autumn sages, but I won't be sorry to see them get crowded out by the Thryallis.  Thryallis are great bloomers in the heat.
  • I am down to the very last of my mulch, so every wheel barrowful is precious.  I mulched in the back bed and near the hydrangeas that I planted a couple of weeks ago because I can see my least-favorite weed (and they come up like a carpet) springing up.  I definitely need to order more mulch, but I will need to take off work to wait for the delivery.  
  • I planted some more of my Zebrina seedlings that I grew under the grow lights.  Mostly in the Orchard, but a few in the Star Garden.
  • I planted 2 Victoria Blue Salvia in the Star Garden.  I am going absolutely NUTS with the blue salvias this year!  Well, the blue farinacea salvias are great bloomers.  They bloom all through the summer - what else do I need to say?
  • I raked in the Vegetable Garden and around the entrance where leaves pile up against the gate.  I dumped them in the big piles I have been making behind the Vegetable Garden.
  • I pruned dead vegetation off of some autumn sages in the back garden and cleaned out fallen leaves.
  • I spread Nicotiana seeds in the Medicine Garden.  I can't wait to see them NOT bloom.  I have tried for several years to grow Nicotiana from seed.  No luck.  Maybe this is my year!  Many years ago I had some white Nicotiana growing in the Medicine Garden - I can't remember where I got it, but I know I didn't grow my start from seed.  I had a very large stand of Nicotiana, and I recall vividly that I was unimpressed with the smell when I bent over it and smelled it, until one evening I went outside and the entire garden was full of their unforgettable scent.  For several years after that I had a volunteer here and there, but never again did I have the healthy stand of plants like that first year.  Ever since then I have tried to grow it, but I have had no luck.  I bought some plants last year, but the caterpillars got them all.  When bugs eat your plants to the ground (eat them to death) that means you planted them at the wrong time.  That's my theory, and I expect that I am correct.  Anyway, one calamity after another has prevented me from having that wonderful plant in my garden again.  Ever hopeful, I have spread seeds again.  This time they are right underneath a sprinkler head where the seeds will get misted on a regular basis, so hopefully they will sprout. 
  • I noticed that I have lots of Buttercup Turnera seedlings in the bed where the Mrs. B. R. Cant rose is growing.  I'm very excited about that!  Such a pretty plant.  I had one plant there last summer, but I have no idea how that one, lonely seed ended up in that flower bed.  It flowered so beautifully!  Strange, though, because I haven't had Turnera in my garden for years.
  • The 500 Sweetness daffodils that I planted in the fall are beginning to bloom.  Very cheerful and lovely.  

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