Drove to the farm before work on Wednesday and worked from home.
I prepped beds with mushroom compost in the Vegetable Garden. I planted 3 red cabbage plants, 2 mustard greens and 4 Brussels sprouts. I sowed several rows of wrinkled kale. Thinned all my seedlings that have popped up.
Deadheaded my Mexican Sunflowers. They are so pretty now.
We had a couple of inches of rain on Tuesday, so that is great news.
All of my milkweed pods have burst open. I gathered the silky threads and the seeds attached and spread them throughout the beds in the Star Garden.
Sowed a packet of red poppies in the Rose Garden.
I watered my new trees around the Rose Garden even though it had rained.
The butterflies are everywhere. So, so, so pretty. The blue mist flower is beginning to bloom. They love the blue mist flower nectar. Monarchs, Painted Ladies, Gulf Fritillaries, Queens, all kinds of swallowtails, sulphurs and lots of the small brown ones.
The corncockle has sprouted and all the Moss Verbena has sprouted that I sowed. The Larkspur is emerging. All the Tall Poppy Mallow, Coreopsis and Brown eyes that self-sow are up and going strong. Spring will be beautiful. The weather is beautiful. All is right with the world.
After work I went outside and watched the moths flitting around the blue mist flower that had been covered with butterflies only a few hours earlier.
I pulled up basil and gomphrena in the Rose Garden so that I could sow seeds. I sowed Johnny Jump-ups, pom pom poppies and Ox Eyes in the Rose Garden.
I pulled up some white salvia in the White Garden and planted a flat of Sweet Alyssum all along the border edges. Fertilized and watered.
My Mexican Mint Marigold is beginning to bloom. I really love that pop of fall yellow. And the anise scent is wonderful when it moves in the breeze or you brush against the leaves.
I stayed outside listening to the the crickets and Cicadas until darkness fell. It gets dark early now, and we haven't even gotten to daylight savings.
Thursday. Up before daylight. Out the door at dawn (which sounds a lot more enterprising than it really is since it's getting light later now.
I added some mushroom compost to one of my newest vegetable beds and planted 2 collards. And I planted one in a feed bucket. I did some weeding in there. The parsnips have popped up, they are the last seeds to emerge. In the Vegetable Garden right now I have asparagus (which is always there because it's a perennial), cabbage, collards, mustard greens, lettuce, parsnips, red and yellow beets, red and orange carrots, brussels sprouts, cilantro, parsley, dill, and kale. I sowed some marjoram because I absolutely love it, but it has not made an appearance yet. The seeds are like dust, I'm always surprised when seeds like that germinate. It seems like they are fighting all kinds of odds to live because the tiniest impediment could snuff out their growth.
I worked in the Rose Garden for a bit. I pulled the chicken wire enclosures away from 2 roses in buckets. Sprayed fungicide for black spot, as usual a few weeks too late. Weeded. I pulled up 3 huge Mexican Sunflower monsters that had fallen over. And I staked several more that were leaning over. Deadheaded Mexican Sunflower for a long while. They bloom profusely, and spent flowers can really weigh the plants down. The flowers aren't as big as the yellow sunflowers we all know and love, but they are large. I did some more clearing paths. I raked here and there. Water my new trees near the Rose Garden - 3 With Hazels, 1 Parsley Hawthorn, and one Huisache. The Rudbeckia that I dug up last week and moved to the Rose Garden are healthy. I'm not surprised, the weather is cool now so all transplants will be successful. Deadheaded roses.
Watered my new trees in and near the Dry Garden. I don't like that name 'Dry Garden', but I'm afraid it's going to stick. Guajillo, Cat's Claw, Pineland Wattle, Desert Willow, Anacachoe Orchid Tree, Two Winged Silverbell. I have a Retama and a Senna nearby, but the Senna is getting irrigation and the Retama loves to be dry, so the recent rain was enough.
I went down to the Orchard to sow seed, and the leaf cutter ants have really made an entire village in there. I put poison down on every hill entrance and wherever I saw trails. I will have to keep on top of poisoning the entrances until they are driven out. The queens (they have multiple queens in a colony) live about 20 feet down in the earth and could be at least that far from the entrance holes. My poison might move them, but it won't kill them. Ant bait is the only thing that will kill the queen. The ants carry the bait down to the nest and turn it into fungus. Fungus that the ants make from plant matter is the only thing leaf cutter ants eat. I'm a bit hesitant to bait them because once the queen and her army die, the massive maize of tunnels will collapse. And I will be left with a cavernous hole. I have managed once successfully to kill one of these communities, and I was filling the hole with debris and dirt for months. It was a huge hole that I could literally stand in. I don't really want that mess right in the middle of my orchard. They are a fascinating pest. They can completely defoliate a fruit tree in 24 hours.
I sowed Black Eyes, Moss Verbena, and Horsemint in the Orchard. I did a little weeding.
Dumped 5 bags of mushroom compost into the 2 arbor boxes in the Rose Garden that Bert repaired recently. I will plant new Ballerina roses in them next week.
I spread a pound of Black Eyed Susan seed and a pound of Horsemint seed in the Meadow.
Headed home around 2:00 and stopped by the Antique Rose Emporium. I bought 2 Ballerina roses and an Echantress rose.
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