Weekend at the Farm January 6 - 7, 2018

Winter in the Star Garden.

Last week was very cold, but it's starting to warm up a bit this weekend with highs in the 50s.

• Saturday morning I loaded the cadet twice with mulch from the load Bluebonnet Electric dumped outside the fence to our place.  It's not great mulch, full of sticks, etc, but it's finally starting to rot a little.  I mulched my large bed in the back yard.  I don't really try to grow anything in that bed - I have a few bluebells and columbines, and last fall I planted some Lycoris bulbs that I dug up from a crowded bed in the driveway circle.   
• I cleaned out the Rose Edge Border which is mostly wild with Brown Eyed Susans, Mexican Sunflowers and a few daffodils.  I cut all the Mexican Sunflower seed heads off and threw them in the bed.  There wasn't much to do there so it didn't take long.
• Watered in the Rose Garden and ran the sprinkler system.
• Spread Butter Pat mum seeds in various places throughout the Rose Garden and a few in the Star Garden near the La Marne roses and in the Orchard next to the Satsuma.  If they sprout I will soon get a good fall showing of the pretty yellow flowers, time will tell.
• I pulled the frost cover off my Lider #9 Satsuma.  It won't get much below freezing next week, and if it does I imagine it will only be a quick dip below freezing.  Satsumas can take some cold, so it should be fine.
• I transplanted my Gruss an Aachen rose from the Star Garden (where it was being smothered to death) to the Rose Garden.  Mulched around it, pulled up coreopsis that would eventually crowed it.  I have one more rose to move this winter - a Cadenza seedling that sprung up near the mother shrub.
• Turned over the compost pile.
• Sunday, did lots of little odd jobs.
• I raked part of the Star Garden and dumped the leaves behind the Vegetable Garden to make a new compost pile.
• Did some more watering in the Rose Garden.
• I moved four big Ox Eye Daisy clumps that I have let alone for a couple of years, but they are totally in the way sitting right in the big fat middle of a path.  I moved two to the La Marne bed in the Star Garden and two to the Long Border.
• I raked the path adjacent to the Long Border.
• Transplanted two more clumps of Ox Eye Daisies from the Star Garden paths over to the Long Border.  
• More raking.