Weekend at the Farm November 2 - 3, 2019

 I thought my sassafras tree looked pretty this weekend.

Drove up early Saturday morning.  Bert went hunting with Will.  Blake and family came up for the day.  We had beautiful weather, took a walk, built a fire, had lunch.

• Sunday morning.  I decided to plant the bulbs Amy gave me last weekend.  They have already sprouted, and they needed to be in the ground.  We don't know what they are, but I suspect they are Lycoris.  Based on that assumption, I planted them along the path that leads to the shed -  which is crappy / un-medicated soil, but they are okay with that.  I did put some mushroom compost in the trench I dug, so I gave them a little boost.  There were a lot of bulbs in the bag, maybe 40.
• I dug up a red / purple leaved canna that was growing in the path, and I transplanted it to a bed in the Star Garden.
• Cut back all my Pringle Aster and dumped them in the lower Meadow to see if any of the seeds will take root.  They are native, although we don't have any around here.  We have all sorts of asters, but not this particular variety.
• I planted two White Mist Flower shrubs in the Ehrlicheer bed.  I re-panted the bulbs that I dug up.  That bed looks good once a year - after that it is kind of weedy and messy.  So I decided to plant a few things in there that will take up space and have interest at a different time of year - they are fall bloomers.
• I planted a Beverly Eleganza hybrid rose in the front bed, and I am already regretting where I put it, but I'm not going to dig it back out and move it.  Too much trouble. 
• Planted a Gorizia rosemary in the dry part of the front bed.  Hopefully it will survive and take up some space there.
• I drove to the Antique Rose Emporium about 12:30.  I bought 2 altheas:  Minerva (a very old althea) and Blueberry Smoothie, 3 May Night salvia nemorosa, and 2 White Mist flower shrubs. I planted one of the altheas in the Long Border and one of them in the Rose Garden.  I planted the nemorosas in the Rose Garden around the althea.  The white mist flowers will be planted another day.
• I had a sackful of Ehrlicheer bulbs that I dug up last summer.  I planted them all around a tree in the Star Garden.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Daffodil Border.  I allowed a very bad grass with a seed head to take up residence in the Daffodil Border last spring.  By "allowed", I mean that I didn't handle the infestation before the daffodils emerged.  After that, I couldn't spray or else I would have killed my daffodils.  I tried pulling it up, but there was way too much of it.  The spraying and a layer of leaves should help, although I don't think I've seen the last of that grass.
• Sprayed fungicide on the roses.  Of course it was about two weeks too late.  I already see blackspot.
• I spread compost here and there.  Around some of my roses and in several places in the Star Garden.
• Wherever I spread compost in the Rose Garden, I prepped the bed and sowed seeds:  Moss Verbena, Cornflower, Spurred Snapdragon, and red poppies. 
• Bert won't be happy about this, but I sowed half a pound of red poppies next to the Orchard.  It will look pretty if he doesn't insist on mowing it down.
• I also sowed half a pound of Dwarf Plains Coreopsis at the bottom of the slope in the Meadow.  It is the wettest spot, and this variety of coreopsis likes to be wet.  I have never tried to grow it, it is an expreriment.