At the Farm During the Pandemic May 5 - 11, 2020

You can really see the Verbena on a Stick in this photo.  This photo is looking into the Rose Garden.  Maybe I have over-done the verbena, but it is an amazing butterfly magnet.  If you want to entertained by the insect world, this is the plant to make that happen.

• Monday.  Worked.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• Sprayed the Star Garden here and there with herbicide.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• Sprayed the Rose Garden with herbicide.
• Thursday.  Worked.
• I trimmed the grape vines again, trying to get rid of all the non-fruiting tender vines trying to reach everywhere.  Its' only a theory, but I'm hoping to keep those cut back so that the grapes get more sun.  I am working on getting a better crop.
• Pulled weeds here and there.
• The plums on my wild plum are getting a bit bigger.  I'm pinning all my hopes on the wild plums since my large plum crop failed from the late freeze.
• Tied a few plants back in the Star Garden.
• Lucas was here today with his crew.  He worked on all our sprinkler heads and also put in another station in the Star Garden so that we would have better coverage.  He also ran pipe out to the bottom of the Rose Garden and the shady part of the Star Garden and put in faucets.  The shady part of the Star Garden was not there when we got our initial sprinkler system, and we couldn't afford to put in a sprinkler system in the Rose Garden.  Now it's too late to put in a system in those gardens unless they tear up all my beds.  But with a faucets in those spots I can put automatic timers in with some hoses.  It's not pretty, but prettier than before.  The hoses are still strung everywhere, but they are in less intrusive places.  Also, now I have four sprinklers in the Rose Garden when I used to have three.  And I have two hoses in the Shady Star Garden when I used to have one.  Yay!
• Friday.  All I did was water in the Rose Garden and cut away some rosemary that was growing into the path of the Long Border.  
• I drove to the mail box, my zinnia seeds had been delivered.  Tomorrow is seed-sowing time.
• Bert and I walked out to the Vegetable Garden and I picked some asparagus and the first zucchini of the season.  The heavy winds today had caused the tomatoes to lean over.  We will work on propping them up in the morning.  Several poblano peppers have formed.  We love poblanos stuffed with cheese and baked in the oven,  Lots of jalapenos too.  Flowers on the eggplant - I'm only growing one this year - we can only eat so much eggplant.  And lots of green tomatoes on the vine.  Hopefully the birds let us get our fair share.  The beans I sowed last weekend are just popping up.  And the old amaranth seed that I sowed last weekend are sprouting - the seed packet was dated 2016, so I wasn't sure if it would sprout.  No cucumbers yet, but flowers are blooming. 
• Saturday.  In to Carmine with Bert to buy a bag of cottonseed meal.
• I sowed lots of zinnia seeds in the empty bed where the Fortunes Double grows.  Spread some mulch.  Put up a chicken wire barrier across the front of it.  Watered it in.
• I dug up a bunch of hurricane lilies in the front bed of the Circle Drive.  Called Debra to see if she wants some.  Smoothed the soil.  In one section I planted about 30 African Hostas that had sprung up in the path under the Paw Paw tree.  I sprinkled lots of Beutyberry seeds off one of my shrubs into the bed as well.  And in the sunny spot I sowed a bunch of zinnia seeds.  That bed should get more water now that the sprinkler head was adjusted.  Laid down chicken wire across the seeds and staked it down.
• Planted 10 of the hurricane lily bulbs in the Rose Edge Border.  I'll probably plant some more.
• Carol stopped by in her Model A car.  
• Did some weeding in the Rose Garden - always.  
• Bert set up and adjusted all the hoses using the new faucet by the Rose Garden.  He was worrying to death the cardinal sitting on her nest in one of the rose shrubs, poor thing.
• Debra came by and took 20 or so of the bulbs, and I planted the rest in the Rose Edge Border. 
• Spent some time adjusting Rose Garden sprinklers. 
• Weeded.
• Sunday.  Max, Julia, Luke, and Blake and her family came up for the day to spend Mothers Day with me and Bert.  We had a nice day.