A Weekend at the Farm Nov 21 - 24, 2012

This is Copper Canyon Daisy.  It is a fall bloomer, blooming its heart out right now in November.  The greenery is very pungent, I guess that's why it is said to be deer resistant.  Copper Canyon Daisy needs a lot of room for just one plant - it sprawls a lot!  It is very drought tolerant.  This is a good plant to put in a place that gets a lot of sun and doesn't get much water.  This plant will die to the ground in winter and will come up from the roots in the spring.

It was a long holiday weekend.  Arrived on Wednesday to clean house and cook.  Family arrived on Thursday.  Thirteen for Thanksgiving.  We ate outside under the arbor.  Very good day.

• Late afternoon Nan, Lisa, Nicholas, Nolan, Ashley, Allen, Josh, and Max and I drove to the deserted house that I have been actively obsessing about and went exploring.  At first everyone was nervous because the house looks like it is being lived in.  Creepy!  But eventually everyone got brave and we began exploring.  We went to the big barn first.  It was full of some very cool stuff!  It took my most, best inner person to keep from taking some of that stuff.  Old wooden barrels, a hand cart with a metal wheel, metal spoked tractor tires, an old metal tractor seat, car doors with the windows still in tact, etc.  Next we went to the small barn where we found interesting old bottles, a claw foot tub, lots of wood framed windows, a box filled with old papers, etc.  Then on to the chicken coop where we came upon a dog cemetery with 8 little crosses with the dogs' names spelled:  Peace, Rusty, etc.  Then we couldn't resist - Josh tried one of the windows of the house and it opened!  We went in.  Everything was in tact just as if someone had lived there one day and then was gone.  There was food in the refrigerator, china in the china cabinet, a beautiful quilt on the bed, a shot gun in the closet, photographs on the walls, dishes in the drying rack next to the sink, a beautiful silver brush set on the dresser, magazines from 2002 on the coffee table.  A life frozen in time.  Really poignant and eery.  A real-live mystery. 
• I had soil and mulch delivered on Wednesday so that I could do some work on Friday and Saturday.  

• I expanded the flowerbed next to the dining room window and the flowerbed just opposite of that one - the paths between them were too wide.  
• I expanded the flowerbed where I planted most of the crinums that Janine Snapp gave me.
• I added some soil to a few of the beds in the Circle Drive, just enough to sow the Philippine Lily seeds that I've been holding on to.  It is a dream of mine to have hundreds of Philippine Lilies in the Circle some day.  It is slightly shady there, and it will be the perfect spot for them.
• Watched butterflies.
• Enjoyed the gorgeous weather.
• Pulled up all the salvias and zinnias from the large bed in the Orchard and seeded it with red corn poppies. dark blue larkspur, Johnny Jump Ups, and corncockle.
• Placed a trellis in the middle of it and sowed some Royal Blend Sweet Peas.  
• Sowed some Royal Sweet Peas on a trellis in the Star Garden.  
• Sowed corn poppies in the Star Garden.  
• Watered the shrubs.
• Sowed Shirley Single Poppies in the front beds and around the Seven Sisters daffodils.
• Sowed Johnny Jump Ups in the front bed.
• Moved six or seven shovelfuls of Mexican Sedum from the Star Garden over to the Long Border and along the front of the flowerbed at the entrance to the Rose Garden.  Mexican Sedum is a great front-of-the-border plant.  It is evergreen, a very pretty chartreuse color, pretty succulent leaves, and it blooms yellow flowers in the spring.
• Fertilized all my bulbs that are emerging.  Bulbs should be fertilized just as they emerge and just before they bloom.  
• Watered here and there.

More pictures of Copper Canyon Daisy.