Azaleas, Mexican Buckeye and Spanish Bluebells March 25, 2018

Some Flowers that are Blooming Now March 25, 2018

It is very early spring, but I have a few things blooming now.

 California Poppies and Larkspur

 Archduke Charles

 Drummond Phlox

 Johnny Jump Ups

 Ox Eye Daisies

 Ox Eye Daiies

 Paul Redmond Iris

 Paul Redmond Iris

 Lazy Daisy

 Lazy Daisy

 Madame Joseph Schwartz

Larkspur

Banana Shrub March 25, 2018

I don't know what sort of ick is on my banana shrubs - very disappointing.  It looks like the two at the back of the house aren't going to make it - spotted and mildewed.  I sprayed fungicide on all three again.  I sprayed them a couple of weeks ago, and the one in the Star Garden looks a little better, but the two in the back look worse.


Despite their unhealthy appearance, the ripe banana smell is very strong right now, and it wafts across the slight breeze and smells really good.

Views of the Rose Garden March 25, 2018

Views of the Star Garden March 25, 2018

Everything is greening up and setting their buds.

Long Weekend at the Farm March 23 - 25, 2018

Bert and I arrived Friday but we drove separately so I could drive in to work on Monday morning.  The painters were here already.  We are having the outside and inside of the house painted.  We tried to stay out of their way as best we could, but with the crawfish boil so soon we have lots of work to do.

• Friday.  I finished painting the fences and arbors in the Rose Garden.  I used a brown-tinted stain.  It really freshened up the look of the Rose Garden I think.
• While I had the ladder out from my painting task, I used it to weave my Climbing
  Pinkie through the conveyor belt it is trained on.
• I cut away my dead Climbing American Beauty rose off the conveyor belt it was trained on.  We all have our failures.  I wasn't able to keep that rose alive - lack of water when the well pump was messed up last summer. 
• Saturday.  I sprayed herbicide in the Shade Garden paths.  I did not get to them last weekend. 
• Most of the seeds I planted last weekend have popped up in the Vegetable Garden, but I don't think the corn is getting enough water, so we might not be successful.  If they have not popped up by next weekend Bert will have to change out the sprinklers.  The current sprinklers are set to water a smaller garden.  We expanded the Vegetable Garden in order to plant some corn, but I am completely inept when it comes to re-adjusting sprinklers.  I even you-tubed it, and I was able to expand the watering area, but not quite enough to get total coverage over my corn plot.
• I raked in the Rose Garden.
• I raked in the Orchard.
• I pulled weeds and spread a truckload of mulch in the Orchard. 
• The plum trees are loaded with tiny baby plums.  I'd BETTER get some plums this year.  The weather was perfect for them this year.  A late freeze after the trees bloom can wreck an entire harvest.  That has happened several times over the last few years, but not this year.
• I planted 6 Nicotiana in the Medicine Garden.  And I sprinkled them with Seven dust because last year I planted some and the worms decimated them almost immediately. 
• I weeded and spread a truckload of mulch in the Star Garden 
• I pulled up a bunch of my Purple Phacelia and threw it into sacks.  I meant to bring them home with me so that I could turn them over to keep them from just rotting.  But I left them on the porch.  The painters will probably throw them away.  If not, I expect they will rot.  What a waste!
• Went to dinner at JWs with Amy and Jeff and two friends of theirs Joan and Richard.  Had a drink at their partially finished house beforehand, and Carol joined us for a drink so we were able to visit with her for a while.
• Sunday.  I bathed Buddy and Sadie.  Cleaned toilets and sinks.
• I spread manure in a large area at the bottom of the Boardwalk Garden where the colocasias grow.  And I spread some manure around one of my White-by-the-Gate camellias that doesn't look too healthy right now.  Hopefully that will perk her up.
• I planted 3 Blue Bedder salvias in the Star Garden.
• I soaked some Moonvine and Heavenly Blue Morning Glory seeds over night.  I sowed some around the old dead tree in the Rose Garden and some under the arbor at the entrance to the Long Border.
• Watered here and there in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.
• A few of the Moonflower seeds I sowed last weekend have popped up.
• I picked more seed pods off the Moonflower arbor in the Star Garden and planted them on the other side of the arbor.  We should have a good fall show.
• I spread manure around my Graham Thomas rose and the four roses in the Orchard.
• The last thing I did on Sunday was spray herbicide on the driveway, the driveway entrance area, a few spots in the Rose Garden that I missed last weekend, and the path adjacent to the Long Border.
• Drove in to work on Monday morning after sleeping like I was dead (I must have been very tired!).

Ducher Rose March 24, 2018

This is a China rose, thought to be the first white china rose (and there are very few white chinas).  It was bred by Jean-Claude Ducher (pronounced doo-shay).  She looked very pretty this weekend.  I lost a lot of this shrub rose last summer when our well wasn't working right, but it has come back strong and has thrown off several new canes.