A Weekend at the Farm 10/28-30/2011

Monarchs on Blue Mist Flower.

What a beautiful weekend! Perfect weather (but no rain). I came up on Friday morning by myself, and my husband joined me on Saturday. Friday I didn't do much. Watched reruns on TV and laid around. Had 5 yards of soil and 5 yards of mulch delivered.

• Decided the spinach seeds I had were no good because none of it sprouted. So I bought another package and planted it on Sunday.




• Weeded the Vegetable Garden. It looks good! Everything is healthy looking.




• Picked some green beans. Next week all of it will be ready to pick. Fall is a good time to plant green beans because they ripen more slowly. In the spring, one weekend they will be too thin to pick, but the next week they will be too big to eat. Not so with fall plantings.




• The garlic has all sprouted.




• The parsley seeds I sowed two weekends ago has sprouted.




• Spent Saturday building a big bed in the Star Garden. The star formation is officially gone. I added more flower bed onto the plan and it is no longer a star shape. Now that the yard is fenced I am expanding. My intention is that the entire area become garden with gravelled paths wandering throughout.




• Spend Sunday building a bigger bed adjacent to the roses that line the driveway.




• Planted 3 Dwarf Flowering Almond shrubs in the bed I built on Saturday. Prunus glandulosa "Rosea" I'm excited about these shrubs! They are unusual, no one has them that I have ever encountered. In between the shrubs I planted 16 Grand Primo daffodil bulbs.




• In the other bed I seeded yellow yarrow, purple coneflower, and lance leaf coreopsis. The purple and yellow will be pretty together.




• Adding those beds was a lot of work! One is about 35 feet and one is about 25 feet, both are about 4 feet wide. Work! Used the rest of my compost.




• Deadheaded the roses.




• Deadheaded the white butterfly bush.




• Sowed Baby Blue Eyes seeds on the ground under the cedars and in one of the beds that leads to the Rose Garden.


• Sowed McKana's Giant Columbine seeds in the same bed where I sowed the Baby Blue Eyes.


• Adjusted the sprinklers.


• Read the book my sister gave me for my birthday - The Founding Gardeners. It is a book about the gardening passions of the Founding Fathers. Fascinating.


• Sowed California Poppy seeds in the Orchard in the Blueberry bed and one of the Blackberry beds.


• Mulched the Debutante Camellia, the Desert Willow, the Eve's Necklace, some of the herbs in the Infinity Garden, and various plants in the Star Garden.


• Watered here and there.


• Enjoyed the weather. Glorious.