Two Days at the Farm June 6 - 7, 2016

I don't know the name of this hydrangea.  It was purchased in the grocery store as a tiny plant to decorate the table at Amy's shower.  I planted it, and here we are.


Arrived Sunday and stayed through Wednesday morning.

• I bought a king size bed yesterday and it was delivered today.  They brought the wrong size metal frame, and the box springs were damaged.  So I had them send it back.  I kept the mattress because we have to have something to sleep on!  We moved the queen set into the guest room, so so now people have something a little more tolerable to sleep on when they visit.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.  Weeds are everywhere because it has been raining so much I haven't been able to spray.
• I put several loads of white rock in the paths in the Star Garden.
• Cleaned the house, vacuumed everywhere.  Spent a long time in the laundry room cleaning the baseboards and wiping everything down, washed off the trash cans, moved all the containers lining the wall and cleaned behind them, cleaned the fridge.
• Washed the bed skirt on the queen bed before we put it back together.
• Tied back some Montbretia that were leaning into the path.  They are just beginning to bloom.  Their flowers are bright orange and they look really pretty next to my orange and yellow daylilies.
• My Mrs. B.R. Cant rose shrub is almost completely dead.  I don't know why it died unless the voles have tunneled all around it and left the roots without any water source.  I'll find out when I pull it up.  I will get a new one in the fall.  I love that rose.  Very floriferous and gets very large.
• Tuesday morning I hit the Orchard.  I weeded for a long time, several hours, and pulled up spent Larkspur and Bachelor Buttons and Blackeyed Susans.  Then I hauled two truckloads of compost down there and spread it over the beds where I had weeded.  I sowed Valerian seed and Red Garnet Amaranth.  I deadheaded zinnias.  I cut away all the new, green blackberry growth that was stretching into the paths. 
• Picked green beans.
• Tied back my Pringle Aster so it is no longer falling over onto my Gruss an Achaan rose.
• Weeded in the Star Garden center bed and spread compost. Seeded the area with Nema Gone Marigold seeds.
• I spent some time gathering Columbine seeds and spreading them in shady spots.  All the seed head heads are full of seeds, I turn over the seed head and the seeds spill into my hand.  There are already lots of little seedlings in the Greenhouse Garden due to all the rain.  It's a Columbine bonanza!  I will make sure they stay watered so I don't lose them. 
• Spent the remainder of the day in the Star Garden cutting away and pulling up plants that were crowding other plants (especially Obedient Plant which is not at all obedient) and deadheading.
• My double Tiger lilies are about to bloom, and the Philippine Lilies are four feet tall already, but not yet in bud.
• Bert spotted some Painted Buntings this week, but I never saw them although I spent quite a bit of time sitting on the porch watching the feeder.