Time at the Farm May 3 - 6, 2021

 What a delicate, lovely grey iris.  I think this is the first year it has bloomed.  I remember ordering it, but I do not ever recollect it blooming.  The hard February freeze of 2021 has created some fascinating results.  

• Monday.  Arrived at about 8:00 am and worked.
• The only thing I did was spray herbicide in the Vegetable Garden.  
• After work I walked and walked and walked.  I examined everything with the utmost detail and noted where I would work this week.  There is much to do.  It is both exciting and overwhelming.
• Tuesday.  Worked.
• Before work I managed to get  few chicken wire barriers erected before the rain came.  The sky turned black and it poured rain for most of the morning.  Poor Rocky dog was terrified.
• After work I set up some more barriers.  
• I began pulling up poppies.  There are still blooms on the plants, but they are almost done and flopping over onto other plants that are my large shrubs and perennials. I will sow some zinnias here and there in the empty spots, but mostly the effort just cleared out the required space needed around each of my shrubs and perennials.  And I pulled up lots and lot of perennial ageratum.  Ageratum is a bully and must be handled as such or you will look up one day and it is the only thing growing in your garden. 
• I spent time in the Rose Garden weeding.  It looks very organized in there which is what I need to get to in the Star Garden now.  Now that the spring wildflowers such as the poppies and Love in a Mist are fading, it is time to mulch. 
• I had a few bluebonnets that grew in the paths and I didn't have the heart to pull them up.  The seeds have dried out, so I pulled up the plants and threw the seeds in the beds. 
• I walked the Meadow for a long time.  The Eastern Gamma grass is seeding out.  I have maybe 16 or so thriving clumps.  And I have one little group of Canadian Rye grass that I am proud of.  I spent a lot of time gathering seed last fall / winter, and I hope that I will continue to see the native grasses appear and flourish over time.  I am dedicating a lot of effort to it.  I see a lot of Beautyberry out there, and although I love it in moderation, due to the many seeds that drop, it will never grow in moderation.  So I will have to take my poison and start getting rid of it, especially since I don't own a tractor. I don't think I will ever be able to do a winter mow-down of my Meadow again like we were able to do last winter.  Carol passed away, and that is the end of that.  I think of her all the time.  She had a long and wonderful life, but still gone too soon.
• The hummingbirds are battling madly outside the windows all day long, often banging into the windows in their mighty struggle to protect the feeders.  Very amusing.
• Another Cardinal family has built a nest in the bedspring at the entrance to the Rose Garden where the Veilchenblau rose is trained.  I worry them to death every time I work in there.  The male sits on a branch and chirps frantically the whole time I am in there.
• The wild mulberry trees are fruiting right now.  I can pull down branches with my rake and pick them off and eat them.  They are very good.   
• Wednesday.  Worked.
• Poor Sammy broke his arm in two places while climbing on the monkey bars at school.
• I went down to the Orchard with my leather gloves and wound blackberry canes around each other to get them out of the paths.  The canes for next year's berries start shooting out everywhere, and last yeas growth has all the green berries on them.  They won't be ready to pick until June.
• I weeded while I was down there and staked a couple of things.  The amount of growth down there in just a couple of weeks is amazing.
• During lunch I got my shovel, lots of newspaper and my tall rubber boots and went out to the ditch on Sandtown and dug up some Indian Plantain.  Because of all the rain it was way too wet!  I could hardly pull the plants out, the mud was sucking the plants back in and they were heavy.  I managed to get 3 dug up and gave up.  I was covered in ditch mud. 
• After work I made several more chicken wire barriers and weeded.  I tied back some poppies leaning into roses.  And I pulled up some poppies that were done for.
• I dug up some potatoes, pulled up some carrots and parsnips.  We ate the carrots for dinner.  I will make a stew with my parsnips. 
• I bought a decorative red lantern to hang in the Shade Garden now that I have lots of red accents in there.  Bert hung it at the edge of the garden where the sun can hit the solar panel.
• Thursday.  Worked.  Last day here before going to Houston for Mothers Day weekend.  And we have Airbnb guests here.   
• Before work I planted the Indian Plantain in the ground at the bottom of my meadow where it will the most wet.
• I sowed more zinnia seeds in every spot in the Rose Garden that looked like I'd never sowed so far this season.
• I sowed zinnia seeds in the Star Garden as well, but there is not much room until the poppies and brown eyed Susans are cleared out.
• I had a beautiful mound of bee balm in the Star Garden, and I see that a vole has pulled the whole thing under.  Damn. 
• I vacuumed in all the weird places that Brenda never gets - under the bar, under the armoire, all inside the study closet, inside a couple of drawers, the grate that pulls the air into the air conditioner, behind some baskets we have sitting on the floor and between and behind the washing machine and dryer and behind all the things that sit on the floor in the laundry room.  Spiders, dead stuff, spider eggs, webs - gross.  Washed the trash cans.
• I drove down the road on Sandtown to a large patch of Indian Plantain and dug up 6 clumps.  I stopped by Amy's house and gave her 2 of them.  I planted the other 4 next to the ones I planted in the morning.  The ones I planted in the morning looked pretty sad.  I'm not sure any of these will make it.  Better moving them in May than in August, but it still might be too hot.  I dug up ones that had seed heads, so hopefully even if the plants die maybe the seed will take hold.
• Shifted the sprinklers around.  
• Tied a few plants back.
• Headed home to Houston after work.  Airbnb guests on the weekend.