Day at the Farm February 9, 2020

Cleo and Koy spent the night on Friday, then Cleo's birthday on Saturday.  Work party Saturday night then to the farm later that evening.

• First thing in the morning, I filled the cadet with compost.
• Then I pruned all the roses in the front flower beds.  Cut away some dead vegetation while I was in there.
• I used the truckload of compost to side dress my Black and Blue salvia in the Back Bed behind the master bedroom.  I also cleaned out a lot of the fallen leaves that were in there.  Leaves make good rot, and sometimes I put the compost on top of the fallen leaves.  It is also serves as another layer of armor against the weeds.  But I wanted to inspect the bed and really "get at" the trouble spots, so I scraped out the big chunks of leaves with my hands.  Pulled weeds.  Cut my 4 Thryallis down to the ground.  Still more work to do, but I moved on to other activities.
• Bert and I drove down the road a ways where I spotted some paper whites growing in the ditch.  It took some effort, but I managed to dig up a clump of them.  They were really deep in the ground.  I got about 11.  I planted them in the Hot Border (adjacent to the Vegetable Garden).  I am on a quest to make some improvements to that bed.  Last week I laid down a bunch of compost, moved some Rudbeckia Maxima over there, and planted some African Hostas.
• Next, I dug up some of the spider lily bulbs that Debra gave me.  I had thrown a handful on the other side of the path out behind the house, but I didn't recall doing that.  I thought I had found all of them and planted them all over the past several weekends.  Bert spotted them last weekend.  I dug them up and planted them in the Hot Border.
• I finished spreading compost around all the plants in the Hot Border. I'm very satisfied with that work.  Very happy that I improved that bed.  
• I watered the beds around the Greenhouse.
• I put all my tools away. but I kept piddling.  I finally put my gloves back on and cleaned out the bed by the air conditioning units. I cleaned out a lot of leaves and cut away Montbretia dead vegetation.  I pruned my Archduke Charles rose which grows in that bed.  
• I moved around weeding and scraping leaves out of beds that were circling all the seedlings - Rose Garden and Star Garden.  In the Star Garden I yanked up lots of asters that were getting out off hand.  If it was the gorgeous fall asters (that I have some of), I would have encouraged their steady march.  But it was the ones that are less special.  I worked until 6:30, absorbed in my work.  At one point a soft steady rain fell, but I kept working right through it.  The sky fell dark or I would have kept going.  A really memorable evening.