Wednesday my granddaughter Cleo was born, my son's second daughter. It was a beautiful and meaningful day. Thursday morning I went to the farm. Bert joined me later after a dentist appointment.
- What perfect weather we had on Thursday, I stayed outside all day long.
- The yellow daffodils are beginning to bloom, and the paperwhites are going strong. I have bent down to smell their sweet scent a hundred times. The blue flowers of my Catmint look really pretty. Everything is starting to leaf out, we have had such a warm winter so far. I was surprised to notice last weekend that my Cadenza rose had tip rooted. I've seen my Peggy Martin rose do that several times, but never any other rose. Really interesting. I cut through the middle of the cane that was was the culprit so that now I have two Cadenza roses. I'll have to find a spot to plant the baby. All the daylilies are starting to emerge, their tufts of green are so pretty.
- I cut back my trailing purple lantana all the way to the ground and pulled some of it up. It really spreads!
- I raked here and there in the Star Garden. Most of the leaves have been cleaned up already and spread in the unfinshed areas of the Star Garden (to keep the weeds down). I also watered in the Star Garden.
- I pruned six autumn sages back by about half. I found about 5 babies under the canopies that had tip rooted last summer. I pulled them up without any special care and threw them in the rain barrel so they could get water. I might use some of them in the Orchard, haven't decided yet.
- I partially pruned back one of my blue Vitex and my pink Vitex. I didn't quite finish either of them.
- I cut some paperwhites and brought them into the house, something that I don't often do - I prefer to admire them outside. But they smell so sweet and I just love them.
- Friday. I loaded the cub with mulch and laid it down in the bed with my sweet little woodland violets. I also laid down some mulch in my bulb bed.
- Cut away the long lily stems that were dead and brown in the Circle Drive beds.
- I went down to the Orchard to plant two Mexican Honeysuckle. After I planted them (one under the Pakistan Mulberry and one under the apple tree) I decided to go after my grape vines. It took about 3 hours to prune them. Whew. I was glad to get that out of the way.
- Bert and I went to town to buy new toilets and a new kitchen faucet. Went to the grocery store and the hardware store.
- I cut away the dead debris of my peach sage and spread a load of mulch in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
- Trimmed my La Marne roses so that all the uneven branches were gone and they looked a bit more rounded. There are a lot of dead canes that need to be cut away, but I will save that for another day.
- I cut and pruned and trimmed for several hours in the Star Garden to clear out dead debris from winter. Did some raking.
- Saturday. Trimmed a few roses growing around the house.
- Loaded the cub with mulch and went down to the Orchard. I spent a lot of time weeding and re-mulching. There weren't a lot of weeds in the places where I had previously mulched, but I pulled them out. I weeded a few places where I have not mulched and then laid down mulch. I watered my young fruit trees. I turned over the soil and added compost to three spots where I planted three Henry Duelberg Salvias, three Jacob Cline Bee Balm and three of the autumn sages that I pulled out of the ground and tossed in the rain barrel yesterday. Mulched around my new plantings and watered. That took the whole morning. Henry Duelberg salvia is a Greg Grant selection. He found it growing in a cemetery next to Henry Duelberg's grave. I love a good story.
- Bert and I drove down the road to say hi to Jeff and Amy. They are starting on their house, just the dirt work going on now.
- I trimmed back another autumn sage in the Star Garden and uncovered another one that had taken root. They are almost pests.
- I cut away lots of dead canes on my two Belinda's Dreams. I should really cut them back, they are pretty leggy. But I didn't want to get into all that rose pruning this year. My plan was to skip the heavy pruning this year, instead opting for a little light shearing of each one.
- It was such a hot day that I took advantage of the warm break and sprayed herbicide in the Orchard, Rose Garden, and Star Garden. Herbicide does not work when the temperatures are in the sixties or below.
- On my way to go mulch my trailing lantana that I cut back a couple days ago I decided to mulch around my Ehamanii cannas. That led me to deciding to dig up my hops vines which grow nearby and move them to the Orchard. Hops are not aggressive at all, and I have other vines that like to spring up in that same spot. The hops can't compete. I gathered some compost along the way and planted my hops vines in the Orchard. Bert and I will have to figure out some sort of arbor for them to grow on, maybe a tripod of cedar?
- I transplanted a miniature butterfly bush from a pot into the ground. I think it will thrive better if it's in the ground. Mulched around it and around the trailing lantana that grows next to it - finally got to the lantana.
- I cleaned out some of the beds that are at the outer edges of the Star Garden, cut back my copper Canyon Daisies, trimmed my Cassia Tree (it gets so unruly) and finished trimming my two blue vitexes since I was in the area. Raked out the leaves, mulched the whole area and watered. Looks good.
- My mulberry tree has lots of tiny mulberries on it. I made Bert come out and look at them before the animals take them all. Grr.
- My Lady Banks is budding out. It's a once a year bloomer, so I really look forward to her flowers.
- I watered my stand of wildflowers in the Rose Edge border.
- Sunday I watched 20 back to back episodes of Scandal and rested.
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