Weekend at the Farm March 8 - 9, 2019

I stopped at The Arbor Gate on Saturday morning on the way to the farm.  Bert was already here.

• Dr. Bill Welch and Chris Weisinger were giving a lecture on southern plants at The Arbor Gate that morning.  Dr. Welch was roaming around with the owner of the nursery collecting plants to use in his lecture.  We exchanged "good mornings" when we passed each other in the aisles.  Oh how I wanted to tell him that I have every book he has ever written, and he has had a huge influence on my life (that sounds very dramatic, I know).  But the moment passed, and I didn't seize it.  It's always like that with me, though.  Given the choice of speaking to someone and passing them by, I will always choose to pass by.
• I bought some plants although I should not have - I need to save for Alaska!
• I stopped and bought some compost and potting soil as well.
• I began pulling weeds in the Star Garden as soon as I arrived at the farm.  
• I planted two Mystic Spires in the Star Garden.  They are less unruly (more compact) than Indigo Spires but just as floriferous. 
• I dug out a dead forsythia in the Star Garden.  I want to replace it with something tall, not sure what yet.
• I planted some ice plants in some old boots.
• Sprayed the roses with fungicide again.  Just trying to keep the deer away.
• I fertilized all the roses in the Rose Garden except for the Ballerinas, so I will need to go back and hit them next weekend. 
• I fertilized all the plants in the front bed.
• Sunday.  I packed up my wheel barrow with my loppers, clippers, trowel, herbicide, fungicide, rake, scissors, seat cushion, and leather rose gloves and headed down to the Orchard.  I fertilized everything except for the small blackberry bed in the back, ran out of fertilizer.  I'll have to come back and hit that one next weekend.  I pulled large weeds out of paths, and weeded pretty thoroughly in the beds, particularly around my daylilies.  Pruned back the four roses.  Sprayed herbicide in the paths.  Sprayed the roses with fungicide.  I put on my leather gloves and shifted around the blackberry vines as best I could to get them out of the way of paths.  Cut a few tree limbs with my loppers.  I stayed out there from about 8:00 until 1:30 working.  This is all in preparation for next weekend when I will have more granite and can lay out granite in the paths.    Looks much better in there already. 
• I bought an agastache and 3 salvia nemorosa May Night, but I couldn't decide where to plant them, so in the end I didn't plant them.  I left them for next weekend.
• I amended the soil in the big bed in the front of the Vegetable Garden and planted 5 tomatoes.  And I planted one tomato in the narrow bed where the goat wire is.  I also planted 2 Siam Queen basil in the narrow bed.
• I added potting soil to one of the big plastic pots in the Vegetable Garden and sowed some Nicotiana seeds.  I also planted some Buckwheat seeds that Lisa W gave me.
• Sowed some Bella Nicotiana seeds in the shady part of the front bed as well.
• Pruned a couple of my La Marne roses.
• Drove in to work on Monday morning.

Three Days at the Farm March 1 - 3, 2019

First day of March!  I call that the first day of spring although it is technically not.  Lots to do.  We arrived on Thursday evening, pretty much went straight to bed.

• Friday morning.  Bert and I took a walk, lots of hog activity in the Meadow all the way up to the pool between the Boardwalk and the pool.  That is almost at the house.  Bert drove around, and they have been rooting all over the property.  They are probably living in the low part of our land by the bridge.  Everything around here is wet - it has been an extremely wet winter.  Not good from a hog perspective.
• I started out in the Star Garden laying gravel, just long enough to finish off the remainder of the pile nearby.
• I continued on, laying gravel in the Medicine Garden with the big pile near the arbor.  I worked for about four hours raking then dumping gravel then spreading it.  It's cool, and I can work like a robot in cold weather I always say.  I moved six or so columbine seedlings from paths into beds as I went along.
• Pruned Franziska Kruger rose.  
• Worked on laying gravel until about 3:00.
• During rest periods I started cleaning out the Shade Garden.  This was relatively simple because Bert had already blown the leaves out of the paths, so no raking was required.  I just had to snap off dead branches of Snakeroot.  I filled up the cadet with debris.  I didn't finish, but I'm about halfway done.
• I started pruning the grapevines.  It was a little bit less difficult than past years because I made a point of cutting the long vines throughout last summer.  I worked on that for an hour, perhaps more.  I didn't finish, but I made progress.
• Saturday.  Cutting the dead debris away from the perennials was on my list today, but we are going to have hard freezes for several days.  Plants do better through the winter if you leave that dead vegetation on the plants.  So, I took that chore off the list.  The cold snap is a blow.  All the fruit trees are in bloom.  It will be a sorry year for fruit.
• First thing in the morning I started laying gravel in the Vegetable Garden.  Raked, pulled up the weeds that were too big to cover with the gravel, spread gravel.  I ran out of gravel before I was completely finished.  So close!  Two more wheelbarrows of gravel would have done it.
• We went to Jeff and Amy's house for a bonfire party.  Joan and Richard were there.  Dinner and then sat by the fire.  I brought collards from our garden.  Jeff and Amy had never had collards before.
• Sunday.  Last wonderful day here.  Bert saw hogs coming out the woods headed towards the house.  He pulled out his semi-automatic rifle and strafed into the bunch.  He got one little one.  Poor little piggy.  I hate them until I see one lying dead.  Then I feel sad.
• I dug up several dozen Philippine Lily seedlings from paths in the Circle Drive.  Now is the time they make a charge in growth, so the little ones that I passed by several weeks ago when I was transplanting them, have gotten bigger and worth moving.  I planted them all in the Shade Garden.  Then I spent some time cleaning out the Snakeroot debris.
• I pruned Mutabilis rose.  Mutabilis is one of the roses that I find confusing to prune.  Mrs. BR Cant is another one.  The canes grow in all directions, and I don't really know where to cut so that the rose form looks pretty.  They end up all crooked-y.
• I finished pruning the grape vines.  
• The Orchard is an absolute mess.  Next weekend I will start tackling it
• I planted 3 Mother of Thyme, 1 Corsican Mint, 2 Sage, and 2 Lovage in the Kitchen Herb Garden.
• The weather cleared up, and I took the opportunity to spray the roses with fungicide.
• I planted a Giant Ligularia in a bed leading to the Rose Garden.
• Weeded for a while, but the cold drove me in.
• Headed home to Houston late Sunday afternoon.

Pearlbush and Freesia Laxa March 2, 2019

Not a fabulous display this year for my Pearlbush this year, but respectable enough. The little stand of red flowers in front of it is Freesia Laxa.  The freeze that is coming the first part of the week will knock back the greenery of these little bulbs, but nothing permanent.

Cemetery White Iris March 2, 2019

These are another harbinger of spring.  One of my earliest plants to bloom are the cemetery whites.  With these exception, my love affair with bearded iris is over.  I've tried for years to grow them.  The only one that performs for me is this old-fashioned one.  The new fancy bearded iris do not perform for me at all.  Every once in a while I get a bloom, but not often enough to cede valuable space to them all year long.  Victoria Falls is one notable exception.  They do pretty well down by the Orchard.  Probably because they have no competition at all.  Iris don't like competition / crowding.  In my garden you have to be tough enough to fight your way to the light.

Before and After - Laying Down Gravel in the Vegetable Garden March 2, 2019

I was short a couple of wheelbarrows to finish the Vegetable Garden, and I left a spot undone deliberately because we are going to put in another raised bed.

Before

After

Before and After - Laying Down Gravel in the Medicine Garden March 2, 2019

It's hard to believe that a run down mess can turn out so pretty in just a few hours.  It's hard work, but also great fun to see the change.

Before:

After

 

Homestead Purple Verbena March 2, 2019

Verbena is a harbinger of spring, one of the earliest plants to bloom.  It will continue to bloom through March.  Then it's done until fall.