Weekend at the Farm September 27 - 28, 2014

  

My husband put up a small bat house that he built with Beckett when he came for a visit this summer.  The house faces south / southeast, it is about 12 feet up in the air, and it was mounted on a pole rather than on a tree.   That is bat heaven based on what we have read.   

Has fall weather begun or will we have more hot weather?  It's nice today, so I will enjoy  it without looking forward.

• I stopped at The Arbor Gate on my way to Burton and found some Blackberry Lily.  It's a great find!  I bought 2 containers of it.  I planted them in a large plastic bucket that once held fertilizer.  I got three of them from Albert Meyers, my husband's business partner.  He has a bunch of them.  I placed the container on a spot in the Star Garden that never seems to grow anything.  No matter what I plant in that area, nothing grows. Voles seem to think lilies are delicious, so I wanted to plant them in a container in order to protect them.
• I spent all morning on Saturday clearing the paths.  Lots of salvia, zinnias, cannas, Almond Verbena, hyacinth bean vine, and flame anisacanthus had grown into the paths - my husband's pet peeve.  Hauled away a bunch of debris.
• We went for a ride on Friday night, and the cub cadet tire went flat.  We barely got home without having to walk, and I was in flip flops, it was dark outside, we had no flash light, and I would not have liked that.  My husband drove to town and bought a tire on Saturday morning.
• Dug up  a Beautyberry plant that sprang up next to the Boardwalk and transferred it to a bed near the house (they grow wild all over our property).  It's a good spot for this plant because it is located on the edge of shade and sun.  I was looking for an upright-growing shrub that I could plant in that spot while I was at The Arbor Gate on Friday, and it hit me that I should plant something that I already had.  I have so many plants, and the majority of them can be split and replanted.  Things are pretty self-sustaining  around here - I could expand my gardens indefinitely and never have to buy anything ever again.  But, I would never have anything new if I did that exclusively - what's the fun in that?
• Mulched the rain lilies by the Vegetable Garden and around the Dwarf Flowering Almonds.
• Now that the Hurricane Lilies have quit blooming, I uprooted several clumps and pulled about 30 bulbs out of the clumps.  Planted them in the Circle Drive beds around the cedar trees.  In two or three years autumn will bring forth quite a sight in the Circle Drive area.
• Planted the Excelsior Spanish Bluebells that I collected after the heavy rains washed them to the surface last weekend.  I planted them along the driveway at the edge of the Shade Garden.
• The Rose Garden looks really good.  Lots of buds are forming for the fall flush.  Fall is such a beautiful time of year.
• The Vegetable Garden looks really good too.  Something is eating my Edamame seedlings, unfortunately.  Not sure what, I assume it is not rabbits because the Vegetable Garden is enclosed.  On the other hand, a lot of the rabbit wire has pulled away from the fencing, and they could be getting in through the openings.  The rabbits are definitely the culprits that are eating the green beans in the Orchard.  I guess I will put some chicken wire enclosures around them until they get a little bigger.  Rabbits don't seem to want to bother the mature plants, probably not as tasty.
• Spent a lot of time in the Orchard on Sunday morning.  I pruned all the Blackberry vines away from the pathways and hauled them to the burn pile.  Pulled up overgrown zinnias, weeded everywhere.  Spread three bags of grass clippings in several places to keep down the weeds.
• Covered some green bean seedlings in the Orchard with chicken wire to try and keep the rabbits away.
• Raked pine needles and mulched some of the roses in the Rose Garden.  
• Spread the fourth bag of grass clippings around the Soncy rose at the entrance to the Rose Garden.
• I'm still trying to eradicate the slimy fungus in the Orchard, so I sprayed herbicide on all the paths again.  And today I turned off the sprinklers, they don't come on down there again until Thursday.  I don't know, maybe water is working against the effectiveness of the herbicide.
• Adjusted all the sprinkler times now that it is getting slightly cooler.
• Bathed Buddy and Sadie.
• Planted 2 Brussels Sprouts in the Vegetable Garden.  I prepared the soil with fertilizer and chitin.  Chitin is crushed crab shell, and it is supposed to deter nematodes.
• Planted 2 Mustard Greens and 2 Collard Greens in various places in the Star Garden, the same as above, with fertilizer and chitin.  I surrounded all four of the plants with chicken wire enclosures to protect the small plants from the rabbits.