Four Days at the Farm February 7 - 10, 2014

 These are pictures of my Excelsior Spanish Bluebells popping up in various places, often the only sign of green in the landscape.

 The "sticks" in the photo above and below are Clerodendrun Bungeii.  They make a beautiful, three feet tall green canopy in the summer.

 Friday I did nothing but lay around and nap.  I was so tired.  And it was super cold!  Saturday I did a bit more work outside, made some soup, and cleaned the house.  Sunday was beautiful - cool and sunny.  Monday morning I drove to the Antique Rose Emporium to do a little shopping.  The temperature grew increasingly colder on Sunday.  We left around 3:00 to come home.

• Expanded a bed in the Medicine Garden.  I dug up the landscape edging and banged it apart so that I could pull the edging out past a big tree.  I added about three feet of width to the flowerbed and about 15 feet of length.  Filled it with dirt from the property and some of my compost.  Current plan for that area is ferns.  Not really wide enough to put anything interesting down.  I have 5 landscaping strips that I will use next week to make a bed that will begin to create that walking paths in that area.
• Pruned roses - Valentine, the five La Marne roses, Pearlie Mae, Lady Hillingdon, Living Easy, Honey Sweet, Soncy, Franziska Kreuger, Belinda's Dream, and Monsiuer Tiller.
• Pruned the grape arbor.  That took quite a bit of time.  I did that on Sunday when the weather was sunny and warm.  The bees were going crazy, they were so active!  I will feed them next weekend if the weather is nice.  I'm trying to build up the hive and make it stronger.  Rolled up the grape vines that I cut and set them in water for about an hour.  Then I tied them up in a wreath - not for decorating, but to use in the summer as plant ties.
• On Saturday I raked and raked and raked.  I didn't shred the leaves because everything was too wet.  Wet leaves clog up the machine.  I loaded them up in the cub cadet and dumped them in an area next to the Rose Garden that is edged in cedar logs.  It will keep the weeds down this summer, and if I need leaves I can shred them in the coming months.
• Cleaned up the Rose Garden and then messed it up again when I started pruning.
• Watered the Xmas Camellia, the Paw Paw, new apple tree and Pakistan Mulberry, and the poor half dead rose in the Rose Garden, and the Blackhaw.
• Went to the Antique Rose Emporium on Monday.  Purchased a Marie van Houtte.  She is a pink and yellow blend.  She gets really big - 6 x 6.  I planted her in the center bed of the Star Garden.  I was looking at that center bed and realized that I needed a center piece plant.  So I planted Marie van Houtte.  I had to dig up and move Amazone rose.  It never thrived where it was, and it was never centered properly in the flowerbed.  
• I also purchased Gruss an Aachen.,  This rose does not get over 4 feet tall, and it is said to be a great bloomer.  Pink, full and fragrant.
• I also purchased Fortune's Double Yellow.  I planted it just inside the fence of the Rose Garden, and I plan to train it along the fence.  You will be able to see it from the road when you drive by.  It is a stickery, copper and pink blend.  It is a once blooming rose. 
• Bathed stinky Rocky in the tub.  
• Ate salad from the garden - Red Sails lettuce and young mustard greens.
• Wandered round and round for hours looking at plants, pulling weeds.  This is the fourth weekend in a row where the robins were everywhere - cheeping and bathing and drinking at the bird baths.  So pretty.  Each weekend I expect to arrive and see that they are gone.  Lucky us!  They are so beautiful.