Arrived on Friday at noon with Bailey pup and Sadie dog. Worked from here the remainder of the day.
Saturday. Bailey and Sadie were with me every step of the day.
I raked the ashes where we burned off the yaupon in the Meadow. Then I spread native grass seed that Amy gave me for Christmas. This seed was gathered from around here, so that's the best kind.
I cut back my Pearlbush because if looked dead. The wood looked pretty green everywhere I cut, which was confusing. A seedling nearby already has a couple of blooms and some leaves, so I assumed last year's drought got the mother shrub. Maybe it will sprout from the roots or the part of the trunks I left in place.
I cut down some dead limbs on my Snowball Bush.
I pruned the pink Vitex and one of the blue Vitex,
The Southern Crabapple in the Orchard is dead, all but one branch. So I cut away all I could without Bert's help. I will have him cut away the part of the trunk that is dead and leave that one branch. I don't have anything to replace it with, so I might as well leave it there and see if it will prosper with all the death cut away.
I'm extremely pissed to see that the pomegranate tree I planted a couple of weeks ago looks dead. Everything else I planted looks fine. I can't believe I lost it due to lack of water with all the cold weather and rain. But I don't know what else it could be.
I worked in the Vegetable Garden for quite a while. I planted 5 tomatoes, sowed a packet of lima beans that Koy gave me for Christmas, sowed some lettuce seed, and some cucumber seed. That involved weeding and turning soil. Fertilized the tomatoes. Raked and cleaned up. I cleared out other beds and pulled up as much Purple Phacelia as I could. Threw all the soft green weeds into the compost pile. Weeds are good green compost if they haven't gone to seed.
I planted 5 Pirates Pearl, 3 Mexican Oregano, and 5 Skullcap in the Rose Garden and the Star Garden.
I planted 3 miniature Joe Pye Weed in the Dining Room bed which is the bed in my gardens that stays the most wet. Joe Pye likes water. Weeded in that bed for a while since I was there. Cleaned up some iris debris.
Sunday. Bailey and Sadie were with me every step of the day.
I cleaned out the bed in the Medicine Garden where the Turk's Cap and the gingers grow. And I cleaned out the bed where the Cemetery Iris grow. Dumped all the leaves behind the Vegetable Garden.
Turned the compost piles.
I planted a couple of Creeping Jenny in some old tennis shoes of mine and set them near the front gate to the Star Garden.
I planted 3 Mexican oregano in a dry part of the Star Garden.
Planted 3 Comfrey in the Medicine Garden.
I painstakingly emptied one of the feed buckets in the Vegetable Garden into a wheelbarrow. Then I hauled the dirt and the bucket to the Rose Garden. Then I filled the bucket up again and planted a rose. That was hard. Drawing a blank on the name, but it is a yellow and pink blend.
I spent quite a few hours in the Rose Garden sowing seeds. I sure hope we don't have a freeze because none of these seeds are winter hardy. I sowed Cockscomb, Balsam, zinnias, Cleome, and Cosmos. I raked the paths. I set up the sprinklers. Did some spot watering.
Next, I sowed seed in the back bed where the Black and Blue salvia grows in half the bed.
I never got to the Orchard or the Star Garden. I had big plans to seed all the gardens, but I couldn't get those done.
Watered all my little trees that I planted last year. I might have lost one of my Witch Hazel, I'll give it a little more time to see if it comes up from the roots.
Spot watered in the dry part of the Star Garden.
Everything is greening up. Spring is here. The Purple Phacelia is in bloom, my earliest spring bloomer, although Colonial White verbena is giving it a run for its money. The plum trees are flowering too. All the altheas have tiny little leaf sprouts of bright greenish-yellow. So pretty. My Cranesbill bulbs are beginning to emerge. Yay. I have seen Tiger Swallowtails, Red Admirals and Sulphurs.
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