More Pictures of My Coral Delight Camellia January 26, 2020

My little camellia is blooming it heart out.

Day at the Farm January 26, 2020

Above, a picture of some of my sweeties, about to bloom.

I spent Saturday night at Blake's to babysit.  Drove to the farm Sunday morning.

• Mostly what I wanted to do was sow my carrot seeds.  I had a new pile of mushroom compost delivered on Friday while Bert was here.  I dumped a truckload of compost in the long bed nearest the Meadow.  Turned over the soil, smoothed it out.  Sowed 2 packages of Scarlet Nantes carrots.  I had enough room to plant the cloves of the 2 remaining garlic bulbs I bought last fall.  I also sowed part of a package of dill and sprinkled a few red corn poppies around.
• I got a bin out of the shed and used it to help me stir my compost buckets.  I am making small batches of compost in some large feed buckets that Albert Meyers gave me.  I dumped the feed buckets of compost into the bin and then dumped them back into the feed buckets.  That mixed everything up really well.
• I side-dressed the woodland canna in the Shade Garden as well as some Philippine lily seedlings that I planted in the Shade Garden last year.  That little part of the Shade Garden always stays dry.  
• I spread compost in the bed where that Coral Honeysuckle was growing - it died, not sure if it was due to being dry or due to voles.  I planted another Coral Honeysuckle in that spot.
• I planted a Sweet Autumn Clematis on the screen that I set up last weekend.  I have always wanted a Sweet Autumn Clematis.  I think I will regret where I planted it, in fact I already think I will move it next weekend when I am here.
• Drove in to work on Monday morning.

Weekend at the Farm January 19 - 20, 2020

The paperwhites have begun blooming.

Saturday afternoon Oliver's birthday, to the farm after that.  We returned Monday evening, I had Monday off for Martin Luther King holiday.

• Sunday cold and sunny which was wonderful.  I bought a bag of fertilizer on Saturday morning so that I could fertilize my seven camellias.  I fertilized all of them (I have no idea if now is a good time to fertilize, but I made the assumption it was fine.  They are evergreen and they are expending their energy now on blooms.  It seemed to me like the right time.)
• While I was wheeling my bag of fertilizer around in my wheelbarrow I spread some around my dear little Eve's Necklace tree.  To my delight, it had sprung up from a seed off the mother tree.  I dug it up - I believe this was last summer - and planted it in the bed next to the pool underneath the pretty Post Oaks that bend over the deck. 
• I also fertilized my Sweet Olive in the Star Garden.
• I pulled weeds here and there.
• I spent a couple of hours in the Vegetable Garden.  The asparagus finally went dormant.  I cut it all down to the ground and hauled it away.  I raked and pulled weeds.  The winter broad-leaf weeds are great for the compost pile, so I threw all of the weeds in the compost bucket that I'm working on.  Fertilized the asparagus.  Asparagus is a heavy feeder.  I straightened up all the goat wire and other wire frames that I use in the spring garden.  
• The green metal screen that Blake gave me has been laying on the ground in the Vegetable Garden, so I finally set it up in the Orchard.  I had an old gate propped up in the Satsuma bed in the Orchard, but it finally rotted apart.  So I pulled that out and put in the screen.  It is very heavy, sold iron.  I need a structure in that bed because I grow vines on it.  I have an Alamo vine and some hops vines.  And occasionally I sow other seeds on it.  
•  I dug up five or so Philippine Lily seedlings from paths and moved them to beds.
• Weeded in the Rose Garden.
•  I planted 4 Italian oregano in the Rose Garden.  It makes a good ground cover, and it blooms.  I've never planted it in the Rose Garden, but I thought I would give it a try.  It is pretty drought tolerant - or at any rate it does not like to sit with its roots wet all the time.  
• I planted one last Mother of Thyme in the Kitchen Herb Garden.  I won't plant anything else in there for the spring and summer season.  The parsley seed that I spread in there has all sprouted, and it has made a bright green carpet in several places.
• The robins are still here.  They are noisy, cheerful birds.  Endlessly entertaining to watch.  They don't eat at the feeders, preferring instead to eat live insects.  But they bathe in the bird baths and drink at the rain barrels.  I poured fresh water in all the bird baths.
• I brought in some kale from the garden and made a salad for dinner.
• Monday.  Colder than Sunday but also sunny.  I staked my Sweet Peas in the Star Garden with bamboo sticks.  I already had a decorative trellis around them, but being more decorative than functional, they needed a few more places on which to climb.
• I moved three clumps of sweet woodland violets that were growing in paths over to the Medicine Garden.  That's a good place for them because the leaves and flowers are edible.  I surrounded them with compost.  I added compost to the Violet Bed in the Star Garden because there was a space about a foot wide where no violets had creeped in to.  I made it a little more inviting.  I call that a Loving Spoonful.
• I sprayed herbicide on the driveway, in the Rose Garden, the Vegetable Garden, around the pool, alongside a fenceline of the Star Garden, around the back beds and the Star Garden.
• I hand watered my new plantings by the Greenhouse.  And I watered the spider lilies that I planted last weekend.
• Weeded in my Milk and Wine crinum bed.
• Fertilized the Banana Shrub in the Star Garden.  Fertilized in the Daffodil Border.  I used up the whole bag of fertilizer that I bought last week.
• I got up on the ladder and cleaned all the light fixtures in the kitchen and over the bar.
• I laid down plastic shelf liner on a long shelf in the laundry room and all the drawers in the master bathroom.
• I spent some time in the Circle Drive garden picking up fallen tree limbs, cutting away Philippine Lily stalks and spreading the seed, and picking up dead ginger vegetation.  Cutting away lily stalks is a lot like woman's work - its never done.
• Wandered around the gardens for several hours and then we drove home.

The First Yellow Daffodil of the Season January 20, 2020

I think this is either St Keverne or Trevithian.  I'm not certain and too lazy to research.

Pretty Vegetables and Herbs in my Vegetable Garden January 20, 2020

Cilantro

Winterbor Kale

Parlsey

Collards

Collards and Corncockle seedlings

Coral Delight Camellia January 20, 2020

I just planted Coral Delight a couple of weekends ago.  These are the first blooms, so I've haven't seen the flowers until now.  They are pretty although I think I prefer the fuller flowered camellias like my Debutante and my White by the Gates.

Emerging Bulbs January 12, 2020

The paperwhites already have buds forming, but the rest of the bulbs will bloom around March time frame.  Too bad, Bert and I are usually the only ones here in March, and no one sees the blooms of the hundreds of daffodils that I have planted over the years.