At the Farm December 5 - 10, 2021

 

Arrived Sunday morning.  Our cars were loaded with stuff for Christmas - presents, folding chairs, a new folding table, and all of my china.  Plus all the normal things we bring like food, a flat of plants and a bag of potting soil, clothes, etc.

• Leaves everywhere!  And raining down constantly.  Bert blew all the leaves from around the pool.  I will start raking again in earnest on Monday.  
• My neighbor Debra left me some plants by the front door.  Yarrow, some little bunch grass plugs (I think it's Cup Grass), an artemisia and a little native Fragrant Mimosa seedling. 
• I did some spot watering in the White Garden.
• I did some spot watering in the Rose Garden.  I hand watered all my roses in buckets.  I raked the walkway along the Long Border and dumped all the leaves and pine needles in the Rose Edge Border.  I pulled up or cut back all the Four O'Clocks along the walkway of the Long Border.  Mulched a few of my roses in buckets and around Caldwell Pink. 
• Watered all the pots next to the pool and in the Medicine Garden. 
• I planted a flat of Sweet Alyssum in the White Garden. Cut back some white salvias  and cleaned up some white black eyed Susan vine that was creeping along the ground.
• I raked some leaves into piles in the Greenhouse Gardens.  And I raked leaves out of a few beds where I have sown Nicotiana seeds.  
• Monday.  Worked.
• Messed with the compost piles.  I layered more greens in between the leaves.  The green cooks the browns.  You need that to help break the leaves down more quickly.
• During lunch I did a little raking and cleared leaves from an area in the Medicine Garden.
• I pulled up some red shrimp plant that had taken root in a few beds where it was not wanted. 
• I shot holes in a feed bucket that Bert brought back from hunting last week in preparation for planting a rose.
• I dug up Madam Antoine Mari and planted her in a bucket.
• After work I raked up leaves and dumped them in the unfinished part of the Star Garden and the Rose Edge Border and the Daffodil Border.
• Tuesday.  Worked.  
• Before work I dug up Heritage rose and put her in a pot.  Heritage has a wonderful scent, one of my best smelling roses.
• During lunch I raked and dumped leaves in various places  - the unfinished parts of the Star Garden, the Daffodil Border and the Rose Edge Border.
• I had Bert shoot holes in the bottom of 2 more feed buckets in preparation for digging up 2 more roses.  After that I will have only 1 more bucket that I am going to use to dig up a Sweet Olive in the Star Garden that has hung on faithfully for a decade, but it has never done well.  I have decided to give it a fighting chance by potting it up.  These feed buckets look pretty ugly.  But with some silver pony foot or some sedums draping over the edges, they will for the most part be hidden from view.  Plus over time they will sink a bit.
• I used the contents of one of my compost buckets in the Vegetable Garden.  Then I added browns and greens to it to start a new pile.  After work I dug up Madame Joseph Schwartz and moved her to a bucket.  A few Country Girl mum seedlings came up with her, and I planted those in one of the beds in the Rose Garden.
• After work I dug up my Gaye Hammond rose and put her in a bucket.  I'm all out of potting soil now.
• I mulched all the tubs that were not mulched yet.
• I spread mulch around the asters that I dug up and moved last week when I shortened some beds.
• Wednesday - already!  The week is flying by.  I worked.
• Before work I planted the five white yarrow my neighbor gave me.  I planted them in Mom's Garden (the White Garden / the Water Garden).  I also planted the artemisia she gave me.  It is the same variety as one I already have in there that I got at the plant swap a month or so ago.  So I planted it next to that one.  I'm hoping for a large stand of them next spring and through the summer.  I just love artemisias.
• During lunch I raked leaves and dumped them in the area I cleaned out recently near the pool.
• I pulled weeds in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
• I sat in the Rose Garden for a while watching the butterflies and bees and the myriad other insects that were flitting about.  We still have not had a freeze, and all the gardens are beautiful.  Everything takes on such a special beauty in the last days before winter.
• After work I did more weeding in the Kitchen Herb Garden, and I mulched a good part of it.  I really smushed down the mulch - I don't want any weeds to break through.  More to do there.  There are only a few parsley seedlings that came up from last year's harvest, some chives, mint and my adorable perennial, native chili pequin growing in my herb garden.  That's it.  I need to get some herbs!
• Bert walked around the gardens with me just before darkness set in, and then we took a nighttime ride around the property. 
• Thursday.  Worked.
• Before work I walked around the Rose Garden for a bit.
• During lunch I finished mulching the Kitchen Herb Garden.  It looks so good even though there is almost nothing growing in it.  It is a sea of perfect, black mulch.
• I raked a truckload of pine needles and dumped them next to the Vegetable Garden.  I will probably use most of them in the Orchard underneath the blackberry brambles, but I don't have time to do anything this week. 
• Did some raking and loaded up the truck.
• After work I emptied the truck, but I did nothing else. 
• Friday.  Worked.
• Watered the buckets in the Rose Garden.
• Headed home during the lunch hour.  Spending the night at Blake's to watch the kids, Cleo's recital on Saturday afternoon, Lights in the Heights at Josh and Amy's on Saturday night.  Back here on Sunday to decorate the tree.