Four Days at the Farm Feb 7 - 10, 2013

We switched the goat wire trellis over to the Vegetable Garden and replaced it with this one because it is more attractive and taller.  I just planted a Veilchenblau rose next to this trellis.  Veilchenblau is a once a year blooming climber.  Some people don't like once-blooming roses, but in the space of two or three weeks each year, they will bloom more profusely than an ever-blooming rose rose does all year.
This rose blooms violet blue flowers (which is what Veilchenblau means in German.

• What a busy long weekend!  I pruned all the roses in the Rose Garden:  four Belinda's Dreams, Cadenza, the two Noisettes, Bermuda's Kathleen, Lafter, Chorale, Lady Hillingdon, Monsiur Tillier, Honey Sweet, Pearlie Mae, Heritage, the two Ballerinas, Mrs. B. R. Cant, Duchess de Brabant, Bailey Red, Graham Thomas, the two Dame de Couer, Chrysler Imperial, Ducher, Star of the Republic, Grandma's Yellow Rose, Iceberg, Valentine, Amazone, and Livin' Easy.  I'm not finished, but I'm almost finished!  I need to prune the four La Marne, the two Madame Antoine Mari, the Soncy, and the Mademoiselle Franziska Krueger.  The muscle in the palm of my hand is so sore!  And I have tennis elbow from the clipping motion.  Boo Hoo.
• I went to the Antique Rose Emporium on Friday and bought the Veilchenblau and a white Lady Banks rose.  I have the yellow Lady Banks rose at my home in Houston.  The yellow has no scent.  The white is said to have a wonderful smell like violets.  I planted the Lady Banks against the large three legged arbor at the Entrance to the Rose Garden.  Lady Banks roses get massively huge.  The canes can grow extremely long, with one cane shooting off another, and then a cane shooting off that one.  The canes can grow to fifty feet long and even longer than that.  These roses, when grown over a structure such as this arbor, can become like a green cave.  I can visualize my grandchildren playing underneath it like it is a secret hideaway fort. 
• I fertilized, mulched and watered the Mexican Buckeye that is farthest from the Greenhouse.  I'm trying to encourage more growth, it is smaller than the other two.  They are growing as a group of three, and I can visualize them ten years from now, twelve feet tall and splendidly covered in pink springtime blooms.
• Watered the Olive tree, the Fringe tree, and the roses I transplanted recently.
• I moved some Maxima sunflower seedlings that had sprung up in the front flower bed.  I moved them to the flower bed that is along one side of the Vegetable Garden.  Maximas are very tall, and the fence to the Vegetable Garden will help support them.
• My husband cut more cedar logs for a new flower bed.  I placed the new bed in Max's Garden in a sunny spot.  I only filled it with 3 wheel barrows of soil, so it is about 1/4 completed.  I want to add some shredded leaves.  I was going to shred some leaves - I had raked lots of piles of leaves in the Star Garden - but I didn't get it done.  It began raining on Saturday.  Wet leaves muck up the machine.
• Raked up piles of leaves at the bottom of the Boardwalk.  There are billions of leaves down there.  I will shred them next weekend.  I need them - lots of mulching left to do.
• Removed lots of dead vegetation - the gingers along the Boardwalk, the cannas near the Orchard, the cannas in the Star Garden.  
• Cut back all the Autumn Sage so they will leaf out well in the spring.
• Mulched a bit in the Orchard and the Rose Garden.
• Mulched some of the Spanish Bluebells along the Boardwalk.
• Fertilized the Anacachoe Orchid tree.
• I mulched the Mojito Colocasias.  
• Planted the Ox Blood Lilies that I rescued. I planted them next to one of the Hartlage Wine Sweetshrubs in the Green House gardens.
• Trimmed all the Pink Muhly Grass in Max's Garden.
• The unidentified bulbs I planted a month or so ago in the flowerbed with the Pink Clouds are sprouting.  They are some sort of Watsonia, I think.  I purchased them as Watsonia, but they don't look like the others.
• Trimmed back the Catmint in the Star Garden.
• Cut back the Indigo Spires Salvia in the Star Garden.
• Breathed deeply again and again of the wonderful smell of rain and earth, and daffodils.
• On Saturday night my husband and I drove out to the road with a sleeping bag, laid down in the back of the cub cadet and looked at the stars.  It was clear and cold, and billions of stars shone in the sky.
• Sat in a rocker on the front porch and watched the rain on Sunday.  
• Made several salads from the garden - rocket and dandelion greens.  Tasty.
• What a lovely time!