Weekend at the Farm October 12 - 15, 2017

I arrived on Thursday morning, and I stayed until Friday around 1:00.  Drove back into town for Grandparents Ice Cream Social at Koy's school, and after that I went to see the play The Secret Garden with Nancy and Lisa.  Saturday morning I came back to the farm.  So much to do since I haven't been here and able to work for the last three weekends.

• I started in The Orchard.  I had allowed the crabgrass and several other varieties of grass to go to seed in there.  "Allowed" sounds like I did it on purpose, but I simply did not have time to get in there and weed.  I pulled all of that mess out of the beds, pulled up some leggy zinnias, cut back Henry Duehlberg salvia that was crowding other plants, cut away some dead blackberry canes, pushed all my new blackberry canes into the beds, weeded.  The butterflies are plentiful, although not amazing like last summer.  I don't have as many zinnias blooming this year.  One bed is loaded with zinnias, really pretty.  But I planted some perennials in the rest of the beds so that I don't have as much maintenance every year.  They are not as floriferous and therefore not as attractive to the butterflies.  I sprayed herbicide on the paths, they were a mess.
• Friday morning I went straight to work on the Rose Garden and Long Border.  I pulled up a couple of dead rose shrubs and weeded in a particularly messy bed.  Day Flower is such a scourge in the Rose Garden.  So hard to pull up!  I battle it every year.  I weeded in the Long Border and raked out the pine needles.  Deadheaded zinnias.  I liberally spread some California Poppies in the bed around the old dead oak tree in the center of the Rose Garden and in the corner of  the bed that I cleared out.  I have some really pretty, bushy zinnia plants in the Rose Garden that are covered with rosy red flowers.  So pretty.  The Rose Garden looks good.  Buttercup Turnera, roses, moss verbena, Fireworks Gomphrena are all in full bloom.  Sprayed herbicide here and there.  Reset the sprinklers. 
• Saturday I was here bright and early, arrived about seven after a rather harrowing drive in extremely foggy weather the entire way.  
• I went to work spreading hay over my meadow.  I worked on and off spreading hay throughout the morning.
• Puttered here and there. 
• Sunday, I spread more hay in my meadow.  Even if I don't spread anymore, I know I've done yeoman's work.  But I will work on it one more weekend.
• I spent about an hour spreading Philippine Lily seed all over the place.  This year I spread some in the Shade Garden.  I don't know why I have never thrown seed down in the Shade Garden - it's the perfect place for it.  Well, we will see how it does once all the leaves fall.  If the seedlings (which sprout pretty quickly once they are on the ground) get smothered by the falling leaves then my little experiment will have failed.  After all, one of the best things about the Shade Garden (which is a woodland garden) is that I don't have to weed in there.  The leaf drop keeps weeds from growing, it is nature's mulch.  I also spread some in the shady part of the Orchard, not shady, but gets a little respite from the sun in the afternoon.  And I spread some in the Circle Gardens which is where most of the lilies are, but if I don't deliberately place the seeds then they fall in the paths.  There are probably a hundred seedlings in the paths, and I just end of spraying them with herbicide because it's too hard to dig them up out of the rocks.  I also spread seed in a spot in the Boardwalk Garden.  So, the reward that comes with this task is about three to five years away.  That's how long it takes to get blooms on the lilies.  Gardening is the quintessential Long Game.
• I sprayed the roses with fungicide, but naturally too late, I already see black spot.  But I'm glad I did it, I always dread that job for some reason.  It is not a difficult thing to do, and it is not associated with "hot work".  Blackspot only shows up when the temperatures are getting cooler in the fall or warmer in the spring - both extremely pleasant times of year. I guess dragging out the sprayer and the chemicals, I procrastinate for sure.