Weekend at the Farm June 9, 2018

Tomatoes from our garden.  Sliced tomatoes with salt, pepper and olive oil, Caprese salads, and BLTs all weekend.

Arrived Friday early evening.

• Saturday up early to beat the heat.
• I deadheaded some of my blue salvias, and I cut my Blue Bedder down to the ground.  I've never cut a plant back to the ground so early in the season, but it was spent.  We'll see how it does.
• I weeded in the Star Garden around the La Marne roses.  I cut back all the coreopsis and pulled up more Nigella.  Scraped all the seeds to the ground.  Manured the La Marne nearest to the house.  Mulched in the spot where I weeded.
• The goat wire arbor in the Vegetable Garden collapsed under the weight of the birdhouse gourd vine.  It took both Bert and I to lift it and prop it up with a board.  I also have several cantaloupes growing on the arbor.  Obviously these goat wire arbors can't handle all that weight.  Well, we just have to get through this season and then we can work on an improved design.
• The racoons got into the corn and ate some of it.  At least they don't waste it.  Every kernel was eaten on the half dozen they ate.   When they go after the fruit they take a bite and leave the rest to rot.  So I picked some this morning for our dinner.  It's so exciting!  Corn!  And it looks just like the grocery store corn
• Robert Knight and his associate came by Saturday morning to look at the arbor.  It is being pulled over by the wisteria.  We agreed on a solution, and they will come back with an estimate to repair it.
•  Watered in the Rose Garden and Star Garden.  Everything is really dry.
• I cleaned out the back bed.
• For dinner we ate some of our squash, tomatoes, basil and corn.  That felt really good!
• We drove out to the cul d sac and watched the night sky for a long time.  There was a breeze and the mosquitos are not out yet.  
• Sunday I worked in the Rose Garden all day.  I pulled up most of the brown eyed Susans and carted them over to the meadow and threw them on the ground in various places.  I will see the fruits of that labor next year when they seed the meadow.  I did lots of weeding in the Rose Garden and mulched all the places I weeded.  I cut away dead wood on the Noisettes and cleaned up the paths around the Noisettes.  Watered in there all day.  Sprayed herbicide.  It was hard, hot work.  
• The racoons ate more of the corn over night.  Hmm.
• I trimmed my grape vines in the Orchard again.  I'm committed to keeping them trimmed so that my grapes get better sun and so they are not so tedious to prune in the winter. 
• Watered the pots around the pool.
• I flooded the house when I was handwashing a bra.  I forgot I left the water running.  By the time I noticed the entire bedroom, bathroom, Bert's closet, and part of the living room was flooded.  That took a long time to clean up.
• Did the final picking in the Vegetable Garden.  Three more tomatoes and four ( ! ) eggplants.  I already have eight eggplants in the fridge...
• Headed to work on Monday morning.