At the Farm During the Pandemic February 8 - 21, 2021

 

This is our rain chain, frozen solid.

• Monday.  Worked.
• I pruned the roses in the front beds.
• I spent time in the Kitchen Herb Garden which had basically turned into a mint garden.  I pulled up mint for 20 minutes and didn't finish.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• I pruned my Mutabilis rose in the Star Garden.  It becomes a monster over the spring, summer and fall.  
• Spent more time in the Kitchen Herb Garden pulling up mint and doing some general weeding.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• I pruned my Perl d'Or and Cramoisier Superior in the Rose Garden.  Snipped a bit at my Maggie that grows nearby. 
• Pruned the 2 little white roses (their name is escaping me this red hot moment) outside the dining room window.
• Cold and drizzly on Wednesday.  The weather is supposed to get extremely cold Thursday through the end of the week - well below freezing for several days, very unusual for this part of Texas.  Bert removed all the timers from the outside faucets, they always break in cold weather.  And he wrapped all the pipes that are exposed, etc.  We won't be here, we have Airbnb guests through the weekend until Tuesday.
• I hope I don't lose all the blooms on my daffodils - they are full of buds.  I have no idea how these Sweetness daffodils will perform in these temperatures, nor the paperwhites for that matter.  
• I picked lots of kale for a salad.  Kale likes cold weather, but I thought it would be a good idea to harvest some before the extended freeze.
• Airbnb guests left early - husband is a fireman and got called in due to the weather emergency.  We drove up here on Sunday.  Extreme cold, ice and snow for five days.  I definitely won't have daffodil blooms this year.  The greenery basically looks like jelly.  They will come back next winter, but I'm sad that I missed a year.  Not sure what I will lose permanently.  I don't cover anything up - if a plant can't make it on its own in bad weather, I will just plant something else.
• Saturday Feb 20 - I pruned all the La Marne roses in the Star Garden.   In the Rose Garden, I pruned my Caldwell Pink for the first time, I have had her for 3 or 4 years.  She is a very twiggy rose.  I pruned Louis Philippe, 3 Belinda's Dream, and Mrs. Dudley Cross. And I pruned some of my small roses which doesn't take long, I just do a few snips here and there.  The sun was shining all day,  and the cold weather felt great.  Hard to believe we had single digit temperatures just a couple of days ago.  
• Sunday.  I went out first thing and pruned my grapes.  I got almost finished.  It's a bit of a project.  It will only take one more hour, but the bees started getting pretty active.  I will go out there first thing in the morning one day next week and finish.  The only area remaining is directly in front of the hive.  
• I pruned Archduke Charles in the Star Garden.  In the Rose Garden I pruned Le Vesuve (my thorniest rose), Valentine, and Ducher.
• I cut back a thryallis in the back yard.
• I cut back my Pam Puryear Turks Cap along the Boardwalk. And I started cutting back my red Turks Cap but didn't finish. 
• I moved 4 clumps of Inland Sea Oats from the dining room bed over to the Shade Garden.  They got so big a messy last year in the dining room bed that it was literally creepy getting in there to weed.  Maybe I will leave one there, but the rest need to go.  
• Spray painted the green bird feeder and the wire butterfly in the Shade Garden with red paint.  I decided to put some red accents in the Shade Garden.  Bert put a new bench in there with red legs (the old one rotted from the constant sprinkler water hitting it).  It was actually kind of an interesting coincidence - Josh was the one that sat in it when it collapsed.  The Shade Garden is dedicated to Josh.  I painted a little wooden bird house attached to a tree red, and we moved an old red barbecue grill in there to re-purpose as a planter.  I am planning to put one more red thing in there, some red wine bottles, probably just upside down stuck in a clay pot.
• I used up the last little bit of wood stain painting a big spot on the front arbor that I couldn't get to last year.  The Ballerina roses were blocking one of the posts.  Now that I cut the Ballerinas down to the ground I was able to paint that post.  And I stained 3 pieces of fencing in the Rose Garden that Bert replaced a couple of weeks ago.