Weekend at the Farm January 10 - 11, 2020

Above, a few pictures of the Star Garden in winter.

I took a half day of vacation and drove to the farm.  Bert was already here.

• Friday the weather was warm, windy and rainy.  I did nothing except pull a few weeds.
• The voles seem to have taken up residence in my Cadenza bed.  They chewed all the roots off at soil level, and it is dead.  That rose has been here from the beginning, one of the first roses that I planted.  I'm really sad.  The voles have eaten all the wild onion planted in that bed, and I assume they also killed the small rose I planted there last spring.  I assumed it was lack of steady water when my new rose died, but now I suspect voles.  I guess I will plant more roses - but will they be killed as well?
• I dug up several dozen Philippine Lily seedlings growing in paths in the Circle Drive, and I planted them in the Shade Garden.  I did that last weekend as well.  I'm excited about the show that I will have in a few years.  It will take about 3 years to get the first bloom.  As I have written many times, gardening is the quintessential long game.
• I dug up several Ox Eye Daisies growing in paths and moved them to various beds in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.
• Just to be sure I was right about the voles in the Cadenza bed, and to make them go away and take up residence somewhere else, I stuck a hose straight down into the dirt.  It sank about four feet, easier than cutting butter.  I ran the hose for five minutes into the nest area.  And I did the same in the spot where the other rose was planted.  I cut back the dead rose (it might make it if I fill in around the hollowed out area because a couple of canes are still green and there are some roots around the base.  I added compost around what is left of the root ball.  Go Cadenza!  I'm rooting for you (pun intended).
• I planted a Red Rocket Rusellia in the Rose Garden.
• I planted two Skeleton Leaf Goldeneye in the Long Border.  They were on sale - pretty scraggly looking.  But they are native, drought tolerant, and get large.  The Long Border doesn't get regular water.
• I loaded the wheelbarrow with compost and conditioned the soil in the bed next to the Greenhouse.  I planted two native bunch grasses there.  I have two bunch grasses in the bed opposite, so now I will have a little path of grasses back there.  I expect them to be quite drought tolerant being native prairie grasses.
• I drove to the Antique Rose Emporium and bought two roses. Dr. Grill and Old Blush.  Old Blush is a well known Southern favorite.  It is a profuse bloomer.  I have grown it before at my house in Houston.  The flowers are not good for cutting, they don't last long.  I think there is an inverse relationship between quantity of flowers and how long they last after cutting.  Just a theory of mine.  I don't know anything about Dr. Grill except that it was introduced in 1881.  I can't find anything about Dr. Grill in any of my books of old roses other than it is angular and short on foliage, so I might have chosen badly.  Angular means it shoots out long branches in every direction.  That serves me right for not doing research before I purchased.  I planted Old Blush in a central location next to almost-dead Cadenza.  I planted Dr. Grill at the back of the garden.
• I dug up 3 Henry Duelberg salvias from the Orchard and moved them to the Rose Garden.  I planted two of them around Cadenza.  In case she dies, I will have two salvias ready to take over and fill the spot.  I planted the third one next to Perl d'Or.  I'm trying to get some perennial color in the Rose Garden so that something is blooming in July and August.  It is too hot in high summer for roses to bloom.
• I planted an orange Miss Huff lantana in the Rose Garden as well.
• Bert cut down some big yaupons in my Meadow clearing with the chain saw, and I dragged them to the debris pile.  I really think I'm crazy bothering with all that.  But it does look pretty in there...
• Sunday.  The robins have arrived!  They are at the bird baths and all over the grassy areas.  Their singing fills the cold morning air.  So cheerful!
• I cut away Philippine Lily stalks in several beds.  That is one drawback of the lilies.  They leave a stalk that is quite persistent about staying upright.  Of course, even if the stalks fell over I would still have to gather them up.  Most of the seeds that were still in the pods floated off on the slight breeze when I cut the stalks.  Some of them will take root in random spots (hopefully spots that aren't in paths).
• My Georgetown Tea rose in the Orchard is dying, much the same as the Cadenza in the rose Garden, so I went down there and ran the hose down the deep vole hole underneath the rose.  I cut the canes back dramatically to a place where the canes were still green.  Perhaps it will survive.  I planted Georgetown in January of 2016, so losing this rose is a blow.
• I drove out to the road and shoveled up a bunch of rock.  I laid it down in the path that leads from the back door to the Boardwalk.  I laid it down in a small area that washes out in heavy rains. 
• I did some more cutting and poisoning of yaupon in my Meadow woodland clearing.  Hauled it to the debris pile.
• Cut away dead canes on my Peggy Martin.
• I went back to the woods where I threw the spider lily bulbs that Debra gave me.  I dug them up and planted them in 3 places in the Star Garden.  That is the last of them.
• I planted 3 thyme plants in the Kitchen Herb Garden.  Two lemon thyme and one Mother of Thyme.
• Weeded the Back Beds.  There was a nasty creeping weed with deep roots taking over in there in several places.  I needed to handle that ASAP.  My neighbor down the road loves this plant and recommends it to her clients (you can't buy it in a nursery, you have dig it up in areas where it grows naturally), but I don't.  The flowers are yellow but insignificant.  I grow native plants if they are showy - either their flowers or their form and leaves, but I don't grow natives just because they are native.
• I pulled weeds in the beds that are in the shady part of the Star Garden.
• Pulled weeds in the Rose Garden.  
• The weather was absolutely beautiful.  I didn't do any more work, I just wandered around looking at every flower bed in great detail.  And I walked the Meadow looking at all the tiny wild flowers.  The birds were singing, and I wandered around until dusk.
• Drove in to work on Monday morning.