Arrived after work on Thursday. Bert was already here.
- Friday. Worked.
- Using my new little chain saw I worked on clearing the trail adjacent to the Long Border. The yaupons were crowding in on that trail. I poisoned the cut on every yaupon I cut down. Threw all the debris in the fire pit, not sure how my husband will feel about that, but he won't hesitate to make his feelings known about it.
- I watered here and there in the Rose Garden. The voles ate all my yarrow in one of the flowerbeds. I spread gomphrena seed heads in some of the beds.
- Planted another Rosemary and 2 sage plants in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
- Saturday. Cold and windy.
- I raked all morning and dumped leaves in the unfinished part of the Star Garden and along the Boardwalk.
- I watered all my pots. All the vegetation is dead, but wetting the soil will protect the roots. I watered my Kidneywood and my little native Tenaza tree in the Shade Garden.
- Nathan and family arrived about noon, and we all played for the rest of the day.
- The wind blew down a huge dead cedar on the other side of the shed, and all of us helped gather up the broken limbs and throw them in the fire pit. It fell right on our trailer, lots more work left to do on that chore.
- Sunday. Nathan and family left before lunch time. I went to work in the gardens. It was sunny with no clouds in the sky. I was able to take off my hat and jacket. The weather was very fine.
- I raked 4 truckloads of leaves and dumped them all along the Boardwalk. Maybe 3 more truckloads of leaves along there and I will be happy about heading into spring with a good layer of mulch along the Boardwalk. There are a few places that I want to mulch with real mulch that will have to wait a bit longer, in particular my White by the Gate Camellias, my gingers and one small Oakleaf Hydrangea.
- I watered all the pots in the Medicine Garden and around the pool. I watered in Mom's Garden and all my potted roses in the Rose Garden.
- I sprayed herbicide in the Star Garden, the Medicine Garden, and a few spots in Mom's Garden.
- I was looking very intently at some sweet alyssum that I managed to kill in the space of a few weeks after planting, but I thought I saw some green. However it was white yarrow that is spreading throughout that space. Many people have told me that yarrow is invasive. I have never been able to keep it alive. Perhaps my sorry streak has ended.
- Monday. Martin Luther King holiday. A more beautiful day would not be possible. Cool and sunny without a cloud in the sky. Perfect. I wondered, as I often do, what other people do on a day like this? Shopping? TV? I feel lucky beyond measure.
- I weeded along the back beds for a while.
- I decided to plant my new camellias - Anacostia and Professor Sargent. I have been hesitant to do it because the long range forecast is predicting very cold days at the end of January. I'm not sure how anyone can predict that so far in advance, but I work for an energy company, so there are people who make it their business to know those things. Camellias don't like it below 10 degrees. All but one of my camellias made it through winter storm Uri when it was only 7 degrees for an extended period of time - not a dip and then back up, but 7 degrees for several days. I did not protect them with blankets, etc. Although all but one survived, the new ones were pretty hard hit. And camellias grow soooo slowly that it will take years before they make any sort of visual impact in the garden. Despite all that I decided to plant these two new shrubs. I planted them in the irrigated, shady part of the Star Garden.
- I planted Professor Sargent in a bed next to a cedar tree that only had Philippine lily seedlings in it. That was a chore because cedar trees spread an extremely dense web of roots along the surface of the soil. I spent a lot of time digging out a hole and shaking out the soil from all the root mats that I dug up. I made a deep and wide hole, and then I filled it up with many gallons of water to get the soil wet way down deep. Well done me. I planted Professor Sargent.
- I was going to plant Anacostia in the spot where Royal Velvet camellia is growing now. It was my hardest hit camellia, and if not for the 3 leaves on it, it would be mistaken for dead. I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to plant Anacostia in the bed next to my sassafras tree. That decision meant I had to root out all the americanum in that bed (that is a crinum variety, and I might have the name wrong). Every couple of years I get in there and dig all of those out, but eradicating americanum is very difficult. I was forced to dig out all the wonderful red amaryllis in that bed as well in order to pull up all the crinums. I threw all the crinums in the fire pit - I don't want those to take root anywhere. I planted Anacostia and re-set all the amaryllis. That took about 3 hours, but it was time well spent. I probably won't get any blooms on my amaryllis this spring, but the crinums needed to be gone.
- I spent about an hour clearing the trail adjacent to the Long Border. I cut down 3 truckloads of yaupon and threw them all in the fire pit. I poisoned all the cuts with my diesel / Remedy mix in my little oil can. Bert was burning off some of the cedar tree that fell on Sunday, so it was a good time to do that chore.
- Watered in the Greenhouse Gardens.
- Raked the paths in the Greenhouse Gardens and dumped the leaves around one of the Mexican Buckeyes where some weeds want to live.
- I raked up a truckload of leaves along one of the trails, got the truck stuck in reverse so Bert had to help me get that straightened out. I dumped the leaves along the Boardwalk.
- I worked in the Rose Garden for about an hour, just doing a little weeding and puttering about.
- I watered in the Daffodil Border.
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