Weekend at the Farm June 23 - 24, 2017

These are Jacob Cline Bee Balm.

I arrived Friday morning. I left on Saturday about 2:30 to babysit Koy and Cleo.  Brunch at M&D's for Amy's birthday on Sunday.

• Friday I loaded the cadet with the mulch that Bluebonnet Electric dumped at the front of the fence at the cul-de-sac.  I decided the quality was not good enough for my flowerbeds, so I decided to mulch the Daffodil Border with it.  I sprayed the weeds with herbicide and dumped the mulch on top.  I will do it in small sections because it's already too hot to work for hours at a time shoveling mulch.  
• I put on the bee suit and went down to the hive to see how the honey is looking.  There's lots of honey, so next weeken d I'm going to harvest.  Sunday, just for good measure, I put on the bee suit again and filled up the feeder with sugar water.
• I watered in the Rose Garden most of the day, and I watered in the Star Garden for part of the day.
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.
• I picked mustang grapes along the neighbor's fenceline and made grape jelly.
• Sprayed herbicide here and there.
• I walked around the cleared land spraying herbicide on the crab grass.  I don't want it to take hold.
• Picked lots of tomatoes.
• Sunday.  I was up really early, sat on the front porch with my coffee and watched the sun rise.  Listened to the birds waking up.
• I started working in the Vegetable Garden about seven.  I pulled weeds.  I deadheaded my sunflowers, anise hyssop, and zinnias.  Picked some more tomatoes.  Sowed some Juana's Orange Amaranth.  Basically just tidied up in there.  It started raining, but I was loving it - the temperature dropped and the rain was steady but light - I kept working.
• Next I went down to the Orchard and worked.  I pulled a lot of weeds, I had to do a lot of crawling around plants to get to the weeds, so it was time-consuming.  I deadheaded my zinnias and anise hyssop.  Cut away new blackberry growth that was leaning into paths.  There is lots of dead cane that needs to be cleaned up - I will tackle it next visit or the next one after that. I cut away a lot of grape vine that was touching the ground.  Basically just tidied up - about two hours.
• Spent some time weeding in the Star Garden.
• Sat on the porch with Bert for a long time watching the rain.
• Staked my Pringle Aster in the center bed of the Star Garden.
• Headed home about 2:30.