Weekend at the Farm November 18 - 20, 2022

 

I was going to work on Friday from the farm, but I forgot my computer at work.  I guess I walked off and left it on my desk.  I didn't know it wasn't in my bag until I got to Burton.  So I took the day as vacation.

We have already had a freeze, but it was a brief one because some plants are freeze damaged and some are still fine.  I won't get any green beans this fall.  I knew I planted them late, and if we had an early freeze I'd get no beans.  And that's exactly what happened.  The time got away from me, and I didn't plant them early enough. 

I spent the whole day cutting back perennials and pulling up annuals in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden.  I don't cut back the freeze-dead debris off of perennials that I really value.  It helps insulate the plant from hard freezes.  But for salvias, I won't miss them if I lose some (and I doubt I will).  I pulled up almost all the gomphrena and cut a bunch of the seed heads off onto a cookie sheet to dry.  That's not really necessary.  I could just throw them into the flowerbeds and they would germinate in the spring.  I still might do that.

I sowed seed in most of the places I cleared out.  I sowed Johnny Jump Ups, Ox Eyes, California Poppies, a package of pom pom poppies, dill and parsley.  Dill and parsley like cold weather, and they will be great larval food for butterflies in the spring.  Everywhere I sow seeds I stick a bamboo stake in the ground, or I forget where I sowed seeds.  That is a new idea, I have never marked my seed beds before, and it's a very good likelihood that, in the past, I have re-sown many seed beds.

All the Mexican sunflowers were killed by the freeze.  I got so much enjoyment out of them this year.  I spent time pulling some of them up.  Many more to go.  The trunks of Mexican sunflowers can get 3 fingers thick, so it's a chore.  

Saturday.  Cold and rainy all day.  It never poured but it never stopped lightly raining all day.  

I drove to the Antique Rose Emporium with my neighbor Amy.  I bought a polyantha rose called Sweet Pea, 2 packets of larkspur and a packet of poppies.  The man there said we had been the only customers all day - not surprising since we were shopping in the rain.  Sweet Pea rose is perfect as a container rose which makes it perfect for me since I am only growing my new roses in feed buckets.

I did nothing else all day, too rainy to be fun.  Sometimes I work in the rain, but the rain was too steady.

Sunday.  The day started cold and sunny.  I had Bert drill holes in the bottom of 2 feed buckets so that I could plant my new rose and move a few roses.  I filled the buckets with potting soil, a bag of mushroom compost and some of my compost.  I planted Sweet Pea rose in one of the buckets.  My daughter in law, Amy, gave me 3 Kordes miniature roses a couple of years ago.  I planted them in the Star Garden, but I planted them in a terrible spot.  The Mexican Turks Cap, Mexican salvia and butterfly weed soon over-shadowed the poor things.  So I dug all 3 up and planted them in one of the feed buckets.  Not sure I did them any favors since I  crammed them all together, but at least the will get some direct sun.  

I raked pine needles in my good spot next to the Rose Garden and mulched Enchantress, Sweet Pea and a few of my other roses in pots.  

I spent time cutting down the salvia in the Noisette bed and cleaning out around the Noisette.  There is a certain weed that starts growing in the late fall around that rose, so I scraped it all away (which is easy when the weed is still small) and mulched around the rose with a thick layer of pine needles.  

I used my little electric saw to cut down two thick Mexican Sunflower trunks and some old rose canes.  

I roughed up the soil in the Noisette bed with a shovel and spread Johnny Jump Ups, California Poppies, blue Larkspur and some purple poppies.

I cleared out another area in the bed that encircles the old dead tree and spread some California Poppies and Johnny Jump Ups.  

And I spread some Larkspur and Johnny Jump Ups in the Ducher bed. 

I did a little raking in the Rose Garden, not much.  

We caught 2 mice in traps in the laundry room.  I left a door unlocked when I was here last, and it blew open while we were gone. It's possible the door was open for several days.  Some mice got in - they chewed a hole through a bag of Lays potato chips.  Gross.  But I think that's all - no raccoons and hopefully no snakes since it was cold. We have set out more traps to see if there are more mice, but I have a feeling we got them all.

Cleaned up all my equipment and headed home.