A Week at the Farm November 20 - 28, 2021

 

This is Perl d'Or rose.

Arrived at work on Friday evening.  Bert was already here.  I have vacation all next week.  The weather will be cool all week.  Very poor planning on my part, I should have had some mulch on order for delivery so that I could start work on my fall list of maintenance activities.  But alas, I never even thought about it.

• Saturday.  I watered the Kidneywood and Tenaza tree by the Shade Garden and Vegetable Garden.  
• I sprayed herbicide on the back paths, under the arbor and in the large space next to the pool.  If I don't get the winter weeds knocked out now it will get too cold for the herbicide to be effective. 
• I dug up my Dr. Grill rose in the Rose Garden and planted it in a feed bucket.
• I dug up Carefree Beauty and planted it in a feed bucket as well.  It had been completely overtaken by purple gomphrena.  I could hardly find it there was so much gomphrena leaning over it.  It was leggy from being buried so I snipped off all the ends.  It should be much happier.  I had 2 growing in that bed, one died from vole attacks.
• Ray and Debra stopped by to ask about a tree in our back yard that has wonderful fall color.  It was my sassafras tree.  I have a seedling coming up nearby, so I offered it to her.  It's skinny, but it's about 4 feet tall - worth having.  She's going to come by some time after Thanksgiving and dig it up.  
• I raked in the Rose Garden for a bit and dumped the leaves in the Daffodil Border.  Watered here and there.
• Drove out to the road and dug up a bucketful of rock to fill in spots where I shortened those beds last week.  I still have more to do out there, but I have enough time to do it little by little.
• I turned my compost piles.  One of them was alive with ants, so I poured a couple of gallons of water into it.  That will get rid of them.  About an hour later I turned the ant infested pile again.  
• I raked up leaves along the edge of the arbor where Bert blows fallen leaves.  I dumped 3 wheelbarrows of leaves into the Daffodil Border.  Did more raking in the Greenhouse Gardens, but more to do there.
• I drove down the road and dug up another bucketful of rocks to continue filling in where the beds used to be.  Feels like I strained a muscle.  Bummer.
• Took a nap.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden and along the Long Border and in the front along the front beds.
• Did some more raking in the Greenhouse Gardens.
• My wheelbarrow of parsley looks really good.  I have been ruthlessly looking for and pulling up anything that is not parsley.  I want a perfect bed of parsley in the spring for my caterpillars.  Last year I let wildflower seeds take hold, and the wheelbarrow was a mix of parsley and other plants.  My caterpillar activity was not nearly as good as the first year.  This is year three for my little science experiment.
• Sunday.  I went straight out to the Rose Garden and planted 75 Naples Onions next to the Noisette.  
• I sprayed herbicide along the sunny side of the Circle Drive beds.  And I sprayed herbicide along the Daffodil Border.
• Did some dead wood pruning on the Noisette.  Working that closely to it while planting the little flowering onions made me notice how much dead wood was in there.
• Raked in the Rose Garden some more.  And I raked along the driveway edge where Bert blows leaves off the driveway.  Dumped all the leaves in the Daffodil Border.
• When I raked near the Homestead Purple Verbena in the Rose Garden, I pulled it up and cut it away from the paths.  I planted all the cuttings in various places in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.
• I did some raking in the Star Garden.  And I fussed around with the beds I'm decreasing, but I didn't really make any headway.  I am waiting for Bert to cut the cedar edgings to fit the smaller beds, but his saw broke while he was cutting down a tree.  So I will have to wait until Monday for the part to be replaced.
• I cleaned the white bench in Mom's Garden with Clorox and 409 mixed with water and a sponge and some elbow grease.  Looks much better. 
• Collected some seeds from my Fruity Pebbles Lantana and scattered them in a bed in the Orchard.  
• Napped.
• I did more raking in the Greenhouse Gardens.  Dumped all the leaves in the Daffodil Border.  While I was in there I cleared fallen leaves out of several of the beds where my Columbine seedlings are trying to thrive.  I also threw down lots of Nicotiana seeds in those beds throughout the last summer, so I will try to keep them cleared out.  No seed will grow where leaves are thick on the ground.
• I raked in the Vegetable Garden as well.  
• This is an important time of year for me.  Raking up the fallen leaves and spreading them in various gardens is an important part of my gardening regimen.  I can't buy enough mulch to cover all my beds.  It would be cost prohibitive.  Leaves and pine needles are my mulch in many areas.
• Spot watered in the White Garden. 
• Monday.  Grocery store first thing to get my Thanksgiving supplies.  Twelve adults, six kids.  Our contribution is turkey, pork roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, mustard and collards in ham (only because I have so much of that growing in my garden - it's not part of our traditional dishes), 2 cakes, muffins and some of the appetizers.  Also picked up some more potting soil to fill one more feed bucket.
• I worked on the beds that I am shrinking.  Bert cut the cedar edging to fit.  I finished digging up the soil from the areas where I shortened the beds.  I threw it all in other beds.  I dug up lots of rock from the road and laid it down in my new paths.  Still more to do there.  Lugging rocks is heavy work.
• I dug up another rose in the Rose Garden - Iceberg - and planted it in a pot. 
• I cut 3 big handfuls of a pretty sedum overflowing the sides of a pot and pressed them into the soil of one of the roses I planted.  It might not make it through the winter.  Some of those sedums I plant make it through freezing temperatures and some don't.  I can't remember if this one will or not because I buy so many varieties.  But a ground cover on top of the soil of those potted roses will help trap moisture. 
• I puttered around in the White Garden deadheading roses, pulling a few weeds and clipping plants that were crowding other plants.  
• I did some more raking and dumping leaves into the Daffodil Border. 
• Watered my sweet peas in the Vegetable Garden that I sowed a week or so ago.  They are just beginning to pop up.
• It was a beautiful day, sunny and cool.  Really a perfect day.   
• Tuesday.  Cold and sunny.  Thanksgiving is supposed to be a very rainy day.  Too bad.
• I made my gravy stock and some pea soup.
• I cleared out the area next to the greenhouse that has gotten a bit overgrown.  There used to be a bed in there, but I long ago quit messing with it because it was too hard to water.  Now some Beautyberry shrubs, Snakeroot and Poke have taken over in there which is fine.  But it's gotten a bit weedy.  I raked in the Medicine Garden and dumped all the leaves in there after I pulled up all the offending weeds.
• I turned over the soil in one of the beds in the Vegetable Garden that I sowed with rye.  The rye was pretty long.  I chopped up all the grass and will let it rest for the remainder of the cold season to make green manure.    
• I spent time in the Rose Garden just puttering.  I spread seed from my Red Shades yarrow.  I don't know if these many yarrow cultivars come back true from seed.  I googled it but couldn't find anything helpful.   Pulled a few grasses popping up in the corner bed.  
• There isn't really much to do right now in the gardens.  It's that wonderful time of year when the weeds are gone and the weather is beautiful.  I just walk around and do a touch here and there.
• Wednesday.  Baked.  Went to dinner with the Thomesons and the Gwyns.
• Thursday.  Thanksgiving.  William and family and Cleo and Koy spent the night.
• Friday.  Bert went hunting.  Spent part of the day with Josh, Cleo and Koy.  The girls and I gathered lots of peppers in the Vegetable Garden for Josh to take home.  Rested for a bit after they left.
• Did a bit of mulching in the Rose Garden - the Zepherine Drouhin and some of the roses I put in the buckets.
• Spent some time in the White Garden.  I collected seed off my Mexican Buckeyes and threw them at the base of the smallest tree.  
• I cut away all the bottom leaves of my collard and mustard greens and threw them in the compost piles.  Also gathered lots of Hoja Santa leaves for the compost piles.  Turned the piles. 
• Mulched the Marie d'Orleans and Beverly roses in the front beds. 
• Laid chicken wire down on the ground in the Rose Garden because I heard deer don't like to step on it.  We'll see.
• Saturday.  A total bust.  Rained all day long with no stopping.  Cold also.  I tried to go out for a bit despite the unpleasant conditions to do some mulching.  But I didn't last long.
• Sunday.  Rain is gone, but the sky was steel grey all day long, and it was cool.  
• I sowed some Moss Verbena in a spot where I thought I had already sown, but it either never sprouted or I was mistaken.   
• I spread mulch all morning in the shady part of the Star Garden.  I mulched around my Pearlbush, both my little camellias, my double red althea, my snowball bush and Veilchenblau.  And I spent a lot of time weeding and mulching in spots where I cleared.  I mulched most of the Bulb Bed that wasn't covered up in white mist shrubs.  I mulched around the white mist shrubs really well last year, so that will have to do for next year as well.  I reset some of my cedar log edgings as I went along mulching.
• I gathered seed from my Country Girl mums.  One stem happened to be brown, so I cut it, brought it inside to dry out then broke apart the flower heads just to look at them.  I have hundreds of mum flowers in the Rose Garden to deadhead, I just wanted to check out the seed.  I have spread seed in the past, but nothing much came of it.  I'm going to get more serious about it now because I want more mums in the garden.  They are so pretty in the fall.  In a week or so I expect they will be ready to harvest - the stems need to be brown.
• The Rose Garden looks really pretty right now, so verdant and healthy. 
• Spent 30 minutes or so putting away the last of the Thanksgiving decorations and gathering stuff to take back to Houston.
• I went down to the Orchard and spent a couple of hours mulching in there.  I weeded then laid down mulch.  I pulled up lots of pink salvia.  I did some raking.  A lot more work to be done in there.  But what I did looks good.