Saturday afternoon Oliver's birthday, to the farm after that. We returned Monday evening, I had Monday off for Martin Luther King holiday.
- Sunday cold and sunny which was wonderful. I bought a bag of fertilizer on Saturday morning so that I could fertilize my seven camellias. I fertilized all of them (I have no idea if now is a good time to fertilize, but I made the assumption it was fine. They are evergreen and they are expending their energy now on blooms. It seemed to me like the right time.)
- While I was wheeling my bag of fertilizer around in my wheelbarrow I spread some around my dear little Eve's Necklace tree. To my delight, it had sprung up from a seed off the mother tree. I dug it up - I believe this was last summer - and planted it in the bed next to the pool underneath the pretty Post Oaks that bend over the deck.
- I also fertilized my Sweet Olive in the Star Garden.
- I pulled weeds here and there.
- I spent a couple of hours in the Vegetable Garden. The asparagus finally went dormant. I cut it all down to the ground and hauled it away. I raked and pulled weeds. The winter broad-leaf weeds are great for the compost pile, so I threw all of the weeds in the compost bucket that I'm working on. Fertilized the asparagus. Asparagus is a heavy feeder. I straightened up all the goat wire and other wire frames that I use in the spring garden.
- The green metal screen that Blake gave me has been laying on the ground in the Vegetable Garden, so I finally set it up in the Orchard. I had an old gate propped up in the Satsuma bed in the Orchard, but it finally rotted apart. So I pulled that out and put in the screen. It is very heavy, sold iron. I need a structure in that bed because I grow vines on it. I have an Alamo vine and some hops vines. And occasionally I sow other seeds on it.
- I dug up five or so Philippine Lily seedlings from paths and moved them to beds.
- Weeded in the Rose Garden.
- I planted 4 Italian oregano in the Rose Garden. It makes a good ground cover, and it blooms. I've never planted it in the Rose Garden, but I thought I would give it a try. It is pretty drought tolerant - or at any rate it does not like to sit with its roots wet all the time.
- I planted one last Mother of Thyme in the Kitchen Herb Garden. I won't plant anything else in there for the spring and summer season. The parsley seed that I spread in there has all sprouted, and it has made a bright green carpet in several places.
- The robins are still here. They are noisy, cheerful birds. Endlessly entertaining to watch. They don't eat at the feeders, preferring instead to eat live insects. But they bathe in the bird baths and drink at the rain barrels. I poured fresh water in all the bird baths.
- I brought in some kale from the garden and made a salad for dinner.
- Monday. Colder than Sunday but also sunny. I staked my Sweet Peas in the Star Garden with bamboo sticks. I already had a decorative trellis around them, but being more decorative than functional, they needed a few more places on which to climb.
- I moved three clumps of sweet woodland violets that were growing in paths over to the Medicine Garden. That's a good place for them because the leaves and flowers are edible. I surrounded them with compost. I added compost to the Violet Bed in the Star Garden because there was a space about a foot wide where no violets had creeped in to. I made it a little more inviting. I call that a Loving Spoonful.
- I sprayed herbicide on the driveway, in the Rose Garden, the Vegetable Garden, around the pool, alongside a fenceline of the Star Garden, around the back beds and the Star Garden.
- I hand watered my new plantings by the Greenhouse. And I watered the spider lilies that I planted last weekend.
- Weeded in my Milk and Wine crinum bed.
- Fertilized the Banana Shrub in the Star Garden. Fertilized in the Daffodil Border. I used up the whole bag of fertilizer that I bought last week.
- I got up on the ladder and cleaned all the light fixtures in the kitchen and over the bar.
- I laid down plastic shelf liner on a long shelf in the laundry room and all the drawers in the master bathroom.
- I spent some time in the Circle Drive garden picking up fallen tree limbs, cutting away Philippine Lily stalks and spreading the seed, and picking up dead ginger vegetation. Cutting away lily stalks is a lot like woman's work - its never done.
- Wandered around the gardens for several hours and then we drove home.
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