Day at the Farm December 11, 2022

 This is Debutante Camelia.

I just drove up for the day on Sunday to bring up Christmas stuff.  There is a lot to haul up to get ready for Christmas.  Last night was Josh and Amy's annual Lights in the Heights party.  Fun evening!

It had rained hard the night before.  There were 3 inches in the rain gauge, so that's good.  All my seedlings were pummeled, but they will bounce back.  I picked leaves out of my seed beds.  I have good stands of Columbine seedlings in the Greenhouse Gardens, and I'm very happy about that.  I love those beautiful flowers.  I sowed McKana's Giant, and the color combinations are striking in that variety.  

All the daffodil bulbs are up, and I have buds on the Italicus paperwhites.  Hardly any of the daffodils bloomed last year because of the weird, extreme freeze we had right when everything was in bud. I have hundreds maybe even thousands of Sweetness daffodils in the Daffodil Border, and I have paperwhites growing everywhere.  I so, so, so don't want to miss another year.  

I cut down the blue mist flower.  That took a while because they get massive.  I threw all the debris into the Meadow.  It's native, and the butterfly display on them in the fall is so amazing that, if some of them spread seed, I will be very pleased.   The flowers are all brown, most of the seed is possibly not ripe, but some will be, I'm sure.  Watching the butterflies on this plant when it is in bloom is like watching a National Geographic show. 

The Star of Bethlehem bulbs I planted last weekend are already popping up.  The greenery is sturdier than I thought it would be for such slender, tiny little bulbs.

I pulled up grass growing in the Daffodil Border before it gets out of hand.

I hated to leave, everything right now feels like such a miracle.  But - home I did go.

Day at the Farm December 7, 2022

 Archduke Charles looked pretty today.

I drove up for the day and worked from the farm so that I could haul up some china and crystal for Christmas dinner.  And I missed the garden.  The miracle of all the little seedlings is so entertaining.

I had 75 bulbs to plant which only took 20 minutes or so.  I had 50 Geranium tuberosum and 25 Ornithogalum dubium  (Star of Bethlehem).  The Geranium bulbs are perennials, not the same as the cheerful red geranium in pots, these are different.  I'm just curious about them.  Both of these bulbs were really inexpensive, so I bought them just for fun.  I planted all of them in the Rose Garden.  Gave them a good soak.

Picked leaves out of my seed beds.

Headed home after work, it was already dark.  That's my least favorite part of the winter months.  All the dark hours.

Thanksgiving Week November 22 - 27, 2022

This is my sassafras tree.  They have very pretty fall color.  In the last couple of years I have started to have a lot of offsets show up in various spots near the mother tree.  Very interesting.  I have had this tree for more than a decade, and it just started suckering.  

I worked on Monday, volunteered at a food pantry on Tuesday morning then headed to Burton after that.  Cooked on Wednesday.  Thursday - the Big Five(Lisa was sick), William's family, Nathan's family, Max and Julia and Amy Thomsen for Thanksgiving.  Friday cleaned up, otherwise a dead day except I walked around making notes about what I wanted to do on Saturday and Sunday. 

Wednesday.  I pulled up some Passalong Pink verbena that was rooted in the paths and planted some in the back bed and some in the front bed.

I pulled up some of the Connie Gwyn artemisia growing in the path of the Water Garden and planted it in one of the beds of the Rose Garden and in the center bed of the Star Garden.

Saturday.  Two inches in the rain gauge from a storm during the night.

I started in the Orchard.  I sprinkled poison on active leaf cutter ant piles.  I cut back all the salvia.  Did some weeding.  Raked.  And I planted 3 Becnel's Smith fig trees that Lisa W gave me a couple of months or so ago.  These figs are rare Louisiana heirlooms, supposed to be very productive trees.  Lisa grew them from cuttings.  It's hard to find space for fig trees because they grow to be monsters, as wide as they are tall.  But in the end I planted all but 1 in the Orchard.  If they survive, they will grow into the paths and become nuisances, but that's a big if.  My record of success with fruit trees has not been stellar.

I planted the fourth fig tree that Lisa gave me behind the Vegetable Garden.  I feel good about getting them in the ground.

Sprinkled baking soda on a few fungus spots in the Star Garden and the Orchard.  

I dug out a clump of red Firespike and planted a Pink A Boo camellia.  I planted the clump of Firespike nearby in an open spot.  Now I have In The Pink, Anacostia, Professor Sargent, Pink A Boo and Junior Miss in that area.  I have re-named it the Camellia Garden.  Before, I called it: the irrigated, shady part of the Star Garden.  So, Camellia Garden is an improvement.  I'm thinking of getting one more camellia and planting it where the pink Turks Cap is currently growing.  That bed could use a face lift.  But they are so expensive that I think I'll wait until next year.  

I  planted sprigs of Passalong Pink verbena in several beds in the Star Garden.

I removed some dead canes from my Archduke Charles rose.

Pulled up 3 Mexican sunflower giants in the Vegetable Garden. 

Next, I worked in the Rose Garden.  I finished cutting down all the salvia and the Fruity Pebbles lantana.  I dug up 40 or so Lycoris bulbs from a bed in the Rose Garden and planted them in a row in front of the Rose Garden fence that faces the driveway.  They needed to be thinned, they didn't bloom well last fall.  They were piled on top of each other they were so crowded.  I moved some Passalong and Homestead Purple verbena from one place to another.  I planted a little plug in one of the Rose boxes and some in the Long Border.  Dug up some Verbena Bonariensis from a path and moved it to a bed.  Deadheaded my roses.  Raked.  Weeded in the paths, the beds are clean.

Over the last 4 days since I have been here, I have examined with the utmost intensity all of my seed beds to check for germination.  I sowed a lot of seed last weekend.  They are starting to pop up - it's so fascinating.  I also spend a lot of time picking leaves out of all the seed beds that I've started.  They will smother the seedlings if I am not vigilant.  

Sunday.  Last precious day at the farm.  Sunny and cold.  So beautiful.

Will gave me a square bale of hay.  I spread it in one of the blackberry beds where Cleaver weed wants to get really bad.  I also raked up a truckload of pine needles and spread it in one of the narrow blackberry beds.  First, I roughed up the soil and uprooted as many baby Cleaver weeds as I could.  

I used my claw rake to weed in the Vegetable Garden between the rows.  Purple Phacelia takes over in there.  Why did I ever think that was pretty in there?  I love it in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden, but in the Vegetable Garden it is a pain.

I dug up some more Lycoris and planted them along the front of the Rose Garden.  I started to run into some rock, so I gave up on that spot and planted the rest of them (15 or so) in front of one of the Witch Hazels along the drive way.

I dug up some Schoolhouse Lilies in the bed where they are pretty hidden by other taller plants, and I planted them in drifts along the driveway in front of Zelda's tree.

I sowed 2 more spots in the Rose Garden with California Poppies.

Put castor seeds in some vole tunnels.

I walked the Meadow and spread Inland Sea Oat seeds that I collected from the Dining Room bed.

Headed home about 4:00.