Week at the Farm April 12 - 18, 2021

• Vacation the week before the annual crawfish boil.
• Monday.  I cut back the rest of the Holly Fern clumps in the Shade Garden.  Always wary - all the dead vegetation provides good hiding spots for snakes.  I also cleaned up the paths alongside of the Sweetspire.  It spreads by underground runners into the paths.  Sprayed some herbicide to get rid of the zillions of tiny snakeroot sprouts.
• Sprayed herbicide here and there.  I don't like this herbicide, I don't think it is nearly as effective as what I used to use.
• I spent a good part of the day pulling up all the spent Purple Phacelia throughout all the gardens.
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.
• I spread decomposed granite throughout the Rose Garden, trying to get rid of the remaining pile before the party.
• I watered in the Rose Garden throughout the day.
• Bert went to Leroy Shroeders and bought a a yard and a half of mulch, so I spread mulch in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden.
• Watered all the pots around the pool and in the Star Garden.
• Watered in the Greenhouse Gardens.
• I spent some time in the Medicine Garden pulling up Horsetail reed and elderberry growing in the wrong spots.
• Tuesday.  I used chicken wire panels and bamboo sticks and erected little walls to keep plants from flopping over.  This was a very good task, I get a pat on the back for this one.  I am staking BEFORE the plants fall over.  I did lots of them in the Rose Garden, the Star Garden, and the Orchard. That will be really helpful soon because everything is just about to explode.
• I did lots of weeding around my large plants - salvias, giant rudbeckia, white mist flower, altheas, and roses.  I don't want my large plants to get crowded out.
• I did some more spreading of decomposed granite, again in the Rose Garden.  I pulled up lots of Homestead Purple Verbena in the beds in the Rose Garden and threw it away (which is a heart-breaker, but I didn't have the time to find a new home for it).  I spread decomposed granite over the disturbed areas.
• I finished mulching mom's garden.  That took some time because I had to do a lot of it by hand since many of the plants are still so tiny.
• I planted 10 or so little Dahlberg Daisies in the Rose Garden.
• I weeded a bit in the Vegetable Garden, but it is in pretty good shape right now, so not much required.  I cut away flowers that were crowding the vegetables.
• Wednesday.  More of the same work.  Did some raking.  Cleaned up all my piles of debris.  Weeded, weeded, weeded.
• I worked in the Dining Room flower bed pulling weeds and cutting back the little snow rose shrubs.
• Bert cut down the Harlequin Glorybower tree in the Star Garden that died.
• Thursday.  Our new refrigerator was delivered.  I cooked all day for the party.  No gardening was done.
• Friday.  Cooked all day.
• Saturday.  Crawfish Boil party.  We had an excellent turnout.  I guess people really wanted to get out of their houses and just not be alone!