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.