At the Farm During the Pandemic March 8 - 11, 2021

 

My husband built this adorable gate for one of the entrances to my newest garden.  So cute, I love it.

• Drove to the farm on Monday during my lunch hour.
• After work I planted an Icecap rose, 3 licorice plants, and two Silver Frost  sedums in my mom's garden.  I've never grown licorice plant.  It is a silvery furry ground cover.  Generally, I would say that silver plants don't like the humidity here.  But I wanted to try this plant.  I've never grown it before.  
• Watered in the Rose Garden.  Watered in my mom's garden.  Watered in the Vegetable Garden.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• Before work I planted 4 tomatoes:  Old German, Carmello, Champion, and Mr. Stripey.  Pulled up all the turnips to make room for one of the tomatoes.  I will cut them up and throw them in the compost pile.  If I don't cut them up they want to keep growing.
• I clipped dead vegetation away from my calendulas (pot marigolds).  They have sprouted leaves along the green joints.  I am pleasantly surprised, I thought they were dead after the extreme cold.  I knew they liked cold weather, but it looked like 7 degrees for 3 straight days was too much for them.
• I cut dead vegetation off my kale.  The kale also looks like it is going to get a second wind.  I will probably save a few of those plants, but not the whole plot. 
• During lunch I planted the last 4 tomatoes I bought:  Brandywine, Champion, Blue Ribbon, and Pineapple.  I amended the soil with my own compost.
• I cut back three big clumps of Holly Fern in the Shade Garden.
• I filled my repurposed barbecue lid in the Shade Garden with potting soil and planted some impatiens, Creeping Jenny and foxtail fern.
• I cut back the dead vegetation on my Giant Ligularia.
• Watered here and there.
• After work I turned over the soil and sowed 4 long rows Kentucky Wonder green beans.  
• I turned over the soil and sowed a row of zucchini seeds under the goat wire arbor.  And a few in the really tall bed.
• I added potting soil to two pots in the Vegetable Garden and planted basil in both of them.  It is not Genovese, but it is very similar.
• My potatoes are all coming up. Always a thrill.   My carrots have sprouted.  I sowed some carrot seeds a couple of weeks ago to see if I could get a few more before the hot weather sets in.  The grandkids love to pull up carrots.
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• During lunch I sowed packets of white "Pearly Gates" morning glories and Moonflower that I had soaked overnight, and some Black Eyed Susan Vine "Alba" in my mom's garden.
• Bert and I drove up the road and I dug up 20 or so Paperwhite Italicus that are growing in the ditch.  These are some very old-timey Narcissus.  I planted them in Mom's garden.  They are winter bloomers.  They bloom in early February.  I was very happy with myself that I did that.  I've been wanting them for a long time.  Italicus Narcissus have pointy petals.  They are very distinctive.
• After work I sowed Polar Bear zinnias (white) and Snow Nymph seeds (white) in Mom's Garden.
• I planted all but 4 of the paperwhites in Mom's Garden.  
• Along the border of that bed I planted some little Australian Violets, a ground cover.  The flowers are sweet little white and purple blooms.  They are evergreen.
• I planted a couple of silvery sedums around the water feature in Mom's garden.
• I sowed a packet of crook neck squash in the Vegetable Garden.
• And I added fresh potting soil to a pot in the Vegetable Garden and sowed a zucchini seed in it.
• I planted a Mother of Thyme plant in another pot in the Vegetable Garden.  
• And I sowed some French Marigold seeds around all my tomatoes.
• In the Long Border I planted 3 John Fanick phlox in the spot where my huge Rosemary died due to extreme cold.  All my Rosemary will have to be replaced. I have a patch of this phlox in the Long Border already, and it is a really good bloomer, a pretty long season for a perennial.  While I was in the Long Border I cleaned up dead debris for a bit. 
• Thursday.  Vacation day.
• Ironed a new bed skirt I got for the guestroom and put it on the bed.  I got a foam topper for the mattress and put that on as well.  That bed is not comfortable.  Hopefully that inexpensive solution will be successful and I can get more time out of the old mattress.
• I got to work right away in the Star Garden. I laid down all the pine straw that I raked up from the Vegetable Garden when I  sowed my green beans.  I spread it all in the Dining Room bed.  At some point soon I will have to put chicken wire around the whole bed because the armadillos love that bed.
• I spent a couple of hours cutting back dead vegetation in the Star Garden and pulling weeds.  
• I watered in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden. 
• Hand watered in my mom's garden.
• Next I worked on the Medicine Garden.  I cut to the ground my Biltmore Ballgown Abutilons and one of my Barbados Cherry shrubs.  I dug up a big Rosemary that's been there since the beginning of our life at the farm.  The freeze killed it.  I planted a small one in its spot.
• I spent time in the Kitchen Herb Garden.  I planted 2 thyme, a rosemary, and 2 marjoram.  I cleaned up in there a bit - straightened up a few of the landscape rocks, weeded, pulled up a lot of mint and tried to scrape away tiny weed seedlings beginning to form. 
• I planted 2 thyme in a pot in the Star Garden.   
• I planted 3 Hens and Chicks in a pot in the Star Garden.
• I planted 2 lysimachia in the old toilet sitting out in the yard.
• I planted an aloe vera and some Green Acres sedum in a pot in the Medicine Garden.
• I planted a Green Acres sedum in the old watering can in the Star Garden.
• I planted 4 bronze fennel in a pot in the Star Garden.
• I planted an amazingly colorful plant called a Piranha aloe and another amazingly colorful sedum-type plant (there are so many amazing plants in that group, I can't memorize their names) and a Green Acres sedum in a pot that sits around the pool. 
• Watered all the pots in the Star Garden.
• There were 4 Narcissus Italicus left that I did not plant on Wednesday.  I got those in the ground next to the others in my mom's garden.
• Next, I spread 100 pounds of cottonseed meal (fertilizer) around all my fruit trees. I did a little weeding while I was there, but by that time I was pretty worn out.  I watered my fig and my new peach.
• Drove home to Houston.  Airbnb guests for the next 4 days.