Four Days at the Farm Feb 15 - 18, 2019

 These are some of my Philippine Lily seedlings.  They are three, maybe four years away from being mature enough to bloom.  I have little patches of these throughout my gardens in various stage of maturity.

So excited to have a block of days here!  Bert drove up on Thursday afternoon and I joined him after work on Thursday.

• Friday morning I sat on the front porch in the rocker and drank coffee, listened to the birds singing.  The weather was cool and the time passed very pleasantly. 
• I cut up some Yukon Gold seed potatoes for planting in a couple of days.  They should set for a while and cure before planting.
• Friday morning as I walked around the gardens, I noticed three little buds on my Paw Paw tree.  The flowers appear before the leaves.  Hopefully I will get more than that, but I'm excited about it nonetheless.  I'm determined to taste paw paw this year.  Last year the racoons got them before I could pick one.
• I worked from early morning until 2:00 spreading crushed granite in the Rose Garden.  I didn't get as far as last week.  Although the weather is beautiful today, it was easier to work in the cold rainy weather of last weekend.
• I sprayed herbicide around the pool, around the sculpture in the back and the Star Garden.
• That was it for me on Friday.  I was tuckered out.
• Saturday - cold and cloudy, which was perfect for continuing on with my granite project.
• I finished the Rose Garden, well, except for the path in front of the Rose Garden, the area leading up to the Rose Garden, and the path along the Long Border.  I can tell I'm going to run out before I completely finish, and I want to get the Star Garden going before I run out of time.
• I worked from 8:00 until 3:30.  I had to quit when the wheel barrow broke.  The wheel comes off the track sometimes.  Bert will fix it in the morning.
• Throughout the day I weeded in the Rose Garden and watered the various beds.
• I pruned a few roses.  Since most of the roses are new and tiny (I replaced 15 last fall), I don't have a to make a big push to get them all pruned this month.  I caught a break there.  I still have to prune the roses in the Orchard and the various roses in the Star Garden and around the house as well as the handful of mature roses in the Rose Garden.
• Jeff drove over on his tractor to help Bert pull a dead tree over that was leaning over the Greenhouse.  Then they came over to the Star Garden to pull over a dead tree in there.  I told them it wasn't a good idea.  The tree was hardly noticeable amongst the other trees, and a dead tree is great for birds and such.  It came crashing down right on top of my banana shrub and the bench and my hydrangea and one our bottle trees.  Not anywhere close to the spot they were trying to pull it.  Ergh.  I didn't make a scene, but I was pretty pissed.  Ironically, I just blogged about my banana shrub because it was loaded with buds.  Now, half of it has been sheared off.
• Tuna with dill from the garden, and beet greens and swiss chard from the garden for dinner.
• Sunday.  Back outside to start putting down gravel in the paths of the Star Garden.  I laid down gravel from 8:00 until 4:00.
• I also pruned a couple of roses - Marie d'Orleans and Cramoisier Superior.  
• When I came upon Ox Eyes or Philippine Lily seedlings, I dug them up and moved them before I laid down gravel.  
• I fed the bees some sugar water.
• I planted a flat of Phlox subulata  Drummond's Pink in the Rose Garden.  I know they don't like to stay damp, and I planted them in the Rose Garden, so they certainly won't stay damp.  We'll see how it does.  I'm always wanting low-growing plants for the space below my roses. 
• Bert and I walked the Meadow before the sun set.  Hog activity nearby, but not in the meadow this time.
• Mustard greens from the garden for dinner.  
• Monday - my last perfect day before going back to work.  Weather was gorgeous.
• The first thing I did was cut my three vitex back.  I pruned them back very hard, in fact I had to have Bert use the chain saw on a few limbs.  I saw some vitex in a small plot at the movie theater I go to sometimes.  They were pruned really hard and in bloom, the blooms were really showy because they were so close together.  I realized that I have not been pruning hard enough if I wanted mine to look like that.
• I cut my red shrimp plant in the Star Garden down to the ground.  Nothing died back due to the warm winter.
• I cut my Elderberry in the Medicine Garden to the ground.  The debris filled the cadet completely, dumped it in the woods.
• I planted Yukon Gold potatoes in the Vegetable Garden.  I planted lots of them, about 50.  Last summer the voles really got to my potatoes.  So I am planting enough for both of us this year.
• I also planted 1015 onions. Lots of them, maybe 50.  
• I cut 3 sections of sugar cane off my mother plant that were growing roots and planted them next to her.  Some day soon I will be saying "Why did I ever plant sugar cane?" because it spreads so fast.
• Fertilized the asparagus and the new plantings of onions and potatoes.
• I planted 3 prostrate and two regular rosemary plants in the Medicine Garden.
• Pruned my Archduke Charles rose that's next to the house. 
• Next I worked on the Kitchen Herb Garden.  I dug up all the lime balm out of the top section of the garden.  Lime balm is one of those plants where you look up one day, and it's the only thing in the garden because it has completely taken over.  I pulled up a whole wheel barrow full of lime balm and dumped it in the woods.  I planted 3 Greek oregano plants in that space.  I need mulch now!
• Throughout the time I've been here this week, I have peed in the Rose Garden, maybe 10 times.  I've always heard that deer don't like the smell of human urine, I'm desperate enough to try anything.  Bert even did it a few times - he's a team player.
• Headed in to work on Tuesday morning, happy and content after 4 beautiful days at the farm.