At the Farm During the Coronavirus Pandemic April 27 - May 3, 2020

These are nasturtiums growing in the Vegetable Garden.  The leaves and the flowers are edible.

• Monday.  Worked.
• Drove in to town during my lunch hour and bought some chicken wire, stakes, a couple of succulents, and some potting soil.
• I potted the succulents in some pots that Bert brought from the Houston house.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• After work I spent some time in the Rose Garden.  I planted two milkweed and a gomphrena.  Spread some zinnia seeds.  Mulched.  I surrounded one entire bed with chicken wire.  And I surrounded one of my milkweed with chicken wire.
• Wednesday.  Worked
• Went out during my lunch hour, the maid was here so I left her to clean the living areas.  I cut back all the moss verbena and Homestead Purple verbena on both sides of the path along the Noisette bed.  I weeded in the Noisette bed.  Pulled up lots of wild carrot and day flower.  Staked some lollipop verbena.  Deadheaded some roses.  I dug up some basil that re-seeded in the paths in the Vegetable Garden and planted them in the Rose Garden.
• After work I went back out to the Rose Garden.  I moved some more basil seedlings from the Vegetable Garden to the Rose Garden. Sowed some zinnia seeds alongside them (in keeping with my horrible habit of crowding plants).  I cut back verbenas that were stretching into the paths.  I cleaned out verbenas from the Carefree Beauty bed a bit and sowed some zinnia seeds.  Trimmed away some dead branches from the Noisette.  Spread some mulch over the zinnia seeds and around my basil seedlings.
• We had a hard rain last night, so no watering by hand was required.
• I cleared away a space of spent Love in a Mist (I'm not going to let it all go to seed this year) and planted another of the Mystic Spire salvia that I bought when I went in to town last week.
• Weeded here and there.
• Thursday.  Worked.
• I cut back by half all my iris greenery in the Dining Room bed.  It was leaning over on top of itself and into the path.
• Friday.  Worked.
• Watered here and there.  
• Moved more basil seedlings from the Vegetable Garden to the Rose Garden.
• Drove to the feed store in Carmine with Bert.  Bought some cottonseed meal to fertilize my roses.
• Planted the last of the Mystic Spires salvia that I bought last week at the nursery. I planted it in the Rose Garden.
• Most of my day lilies in the Rose Garden, the front beds, and the Orchard have buds.  That will be the next show of flowers in my gardens.
• I picked some Sweet Peas from my vines and put them in a vase next to my work space.  Their scent was wonderful all day and reminded me of my mother.
• Saturday.  I started in the Vegetable Garden.  I pulled up all the kale, the bugs were starting to get to it.  I kept the tender tops for a salad.  I cut all the leaves off it for the compost pile, and the thick stems I discarded.  I also pulled up six or so beets and put the leaves in the compost pile because they didn't look pretty enough to eat.  Went in to the kitchen and cleaned up the veggies and put them in the fridge.
• I worked on my compost piles.  I turned the one that is on the ground.  I put all my new greens into the pile in the bucket I'm currently building.  Layered it with oak leaves that are piled up along the back of the fence from last fall.  Job well done.
• I pulled up all the corncockle in the Vegetable Garden.  It was almost done blooming.  Partially covered the bed with horse manure that Pam and Eric brought over in exchange for us letting them use our mower.  I had a packet of Loves Lies Bleeding amaranth in my seed box, really old, the date on the packet was 2016.  I spread it over the spot where I pulled up the corncockle just to see if it will germinate.  If not I will plant something else.
• Covered the kale area with manure, turned over the soil.
• Tied up lots of larkspur waiting for it to go to seed.  Tied up some tall poppy mallow, it has a few blooms left that will be pretty.  I'll pull it up within the next several weeks.
• Pulled some weeds and did a little more straightening up in the Vegetable Garden.  Moved on to the Orchard.
• Mostly what I did in the Orchard (because it's in really good shape) was pick blackberries and pop them into my mouth, and spread Maedell poppy seeds around the various gardens.  I didn't have a great showing of her poppies this year, so I took the wonderful round seed heads and spread them around all the beds in the Orchard.  Next year will be a good year for Maedell poppies.
• I sowed some Jacob's Cattle Beans in the newly manured area where I pulled up all the kale.  And I sprinkled marigold seeds over the area as well.
• I cut back all the spiderwort in the front bed.  It was almost done blooming, and I don't want anymore seedlings.  It is very pretty, but I have enough.
• Went down to the Orchard and picked a bowl of blackberries.
• Laid in the hammock for a long time.  The weather was so pleasant.  I face-timed with Josh.  He was in Anacoca with Amy visiting the girls.  Danni had built a hen house and had some chickens.  Very interesting, and I really want some chickens, so I was very curious.  Josh sent me 20 or so pictures of it.  
• Sunday.  I began first thing cutting away all the dead limbs on my Harlequin Glorybower.  I think in the fall or winter I will cut it down.  I'm over it, and I want something that flowers better.  It is very scraggly-looking.  Perhaps last winter I could have cut it back severely, and it might have put on a big show of new growth, but I didn't think about it in time.  And I don't even know if that would have worked.  Not sure what tree to plant, I'm thinking something native, of course.  Perhaps a Two Winged Silverbell.  Or another Red Buckeye.  The one I have in the back is spectacular, but rarely noticed by anyone but me because it is off in the distance.  The leaves on the Red Buckeye are really pretty, so when it stops blooming it still is very interesting.
• I took my oil can of poison with me and cut down some yaupon along the barbed wire fence at the back of the property.  I do that occasionally to keep the yaupon from growing uncontrollably and clogging up the neighbor's fence.
•  I worked in the Rose Garden for about an hour.  I cut away verbena that was growing practically on top of my young Belinda's Dream roses.  Hand watered the little basil plants that I have been moving from the Vegetable Garden over to the Rose Garden.  And hand watered some of my zinnia patches and Grandpa Ott morning glories.
• I fertilized all the roses in the Rose Garden with cotton seed meal.  It is a secret of mine to buy  50 pound bags of cottonseed meal at the feed store for $25 with no tax.  Much cheaper than organic fertilizer at the nursery. 
• I moved a little hand cart that Bert built some years ago.  It has been sitting out in the field on the other side of the pool, not really very noticeable but really cute.  I moved it to the Medicine Garden and put some of my potted succulents in it.  Looks quaint.
• I filled an old leaky watering can with potting soil and sowed some zinnia seeds in it.  I will have to cull all but one once they germinate.  And I filled two clay pots with soil and cut some pieces off of some of my succulents.  Stuck the ends in the dirt.  I will keep them moist and get two new, cute pots of succulents.  They root really easily.
• Amy came by to see my wild mulberry trees so that she can identify them on her property.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Shade Garden and part of the driveway.  I stopped when Amy got there and I never finished.
• Laid in the hammock for a long time listening to the birds calling to each other and napping.  What a life.