Weekend at the Farm February February 25 - 26, 2017

This is my new Julia Child rose.  She is still tiny in stature, but the flowers really pack a punch.

I arrived Friday afternoon shortly after Bert. Temperatures dropped to the upper 40s and Saturday was cool and sunny.  Sunday, cool and cloudy - it never cleared off, but that's fine, much easier to work in that weather.

• Saturday morning the first thing I did was spray my roses with fungicide - for blackspot which they already have, but I can at least try to keep it from getting worse.
• I loaded the cub with mulch a couple of times and finished mulching my Mojito Colocasias along the boardwalk.  I also got about halfway finished mulching the area along the boardwalk where my White-by-the-Gate Camellias are planted.  I managed to get mulch around one of the camellias and the whole area around it - it's a big area.
• I made up some sugar water Friday evening when I arrived, and I fed the bees.  I'm determined to get some honey this year.  I haven't harvested for two years.
• Next I headed to the Medicine Garden.  I raked out the beds - so many leaves - and wheeled them in my wheel barrow over to the compost pile.  I have two huge piles of leaves that I'm building up for use later in the Daffodil Border (after my daffodils quit blooming I will dump the leaves in there to keep the weeds down).  I spent quite a bit of time raking.  
• I planted four lambs ear in the Medicine Garden.  I love the pretty white furry things.  
• I loaded the cub with mulch a couple more times and began mulching in the beds I that cleared out in the Medicine Garden.  It's a big area with lots of beds, so I didn't get finished. 
• I decided that the path straight through the middle of the Medicine Garden needs more definition.  So Bert cut down some dead cedars and I made borders with them.  It looks good.  I think we will need three more trees cut down in order to get the whole thing done. 
• Sunday.  I worked on the Medicine Garden for a long time.  I'm almost out of mulch unfortunately, so I won't be able to finish it until I have more delivered.  There are still a couple of car loads left in my mulch pile, but I will need that to keep the weeds down until help (in the form of 10 yards of mulch) arrives.
• I planted a bunch of seedlings that I started in peat pots under grow lights.  I planted them in the Long Border, the Rose Garden, the Orchard, and the Star Garden.  I don't know why I bother, the seeds I sowed directly in the ground last weekend have already sprouted.  And they look healthier than the ones I've been babying for weeks.  I guess I just do it for something to do during the winter.
• I raked up pine needles from under the pine trees that grow along the trails and spread them under the blackberry bramble in the Orchard.  Two loads in the cub cadet.  The pine needles are working to keep the weeds down really well in the places where I have already used them.
• I planted two Wendy's Wish salvias in the Orchard and two Blue Bedder salvias in the Long Border.
• I planted two aloe vera plants  in a pot in the Medicine Garden and two comfrey in a pot, also in the Medicine Garden.
• I spent some time raking in the Vegetable Garden and doing some general clean up.
• Transplanted an Indigo Spires from the edge of a bed in the Star Garden over to the Long Border.
• Watered here and there in the Rose Garden and the Medicine Garden.
• I fertilized all my fruit trees in the Orchard and all the roses in the Rose Garden.
• Looking good everywhere except the Boardwalk Gardens.  They need mulching.  I've done a bit, but there is a lot of area there, and it will take some time - and I need to get more mulch delivered!