Weekend at the Farm February 16 - 18, 2023

 

This is a Sweetness daffodil.

Friday I was working, but I did a few things during the lunch hour.  Mostly, I weeded chickweed in the rose Garden and the Star Garden. 

After work I cut back all the purple trailing lantana in the Rose Garden.  One that is cut back every year and out of the way, I can look at the Peggy Martin rose trained on the fence and see how to get her organized for bloom time.  What canes to keep, what canes to completely get rid of, which canes to trim.  And I can tie her to the fence in places.  Peggy Martin is so easy to work with.  Extremely vigorous with very soft, pliable canes.  And she will tip root all over the place, so you have lots of roses to give away or spread to other locations.

I planted a pack of 5 daylilies that I bought at Home Depot  I planted them in one of the planter boxes in the Rose Garden.  Five for fifteen dollars, that's the best deal going.  The big drawback is that you don't know the name of the daylilies in the bag.  But cost outweighs that.  Daylilies are pretty drought tolerant after they get established.  So I'll give those a try in the arbor box.  I planted 2 Ballerina roses in the boxes last winter, and they both died.  I couldn't keep them alive without any rain to help out.

Saturday was cloudy and cold, not a pretty day.  Blake and Josh and family spent the night.

Before they arrived I picked up all my debris that I accumulated the day before and dumped it in an erosion spot on the other side of the property.

I cleaned out the front beds taking particular care to remove weeds and pull up wildflower seedlings that had sprung up around my yellow bearded iris.  I pulled up dozens of brown eyes, and it kills me to do it.  But, I will have more brown eyes than I know what to do with come May.  And the iris are so special, I don't want to discourage a single bloom.  

After that I worked in the Rose Garden raking and pulling weeds.  In the paths, when they are small I scrape the ground with my boot and uproot most of them.  So I did a lot of scraping.  If you do that, you don't have to spray.  I dumped the leaves in the Long Border and the Daffodil Border.  

Charlie and I planted his tree - a Pawnee Pecan.  He was very excited about it.  He kept saying, "My very own tree."  So sweet.