Last week was my birthday and my boyfriend gave me a few gifts. He bought me the Dubai chocolate I had been wanting to try. It was so delicious and creamy. He also bought me some Italian food including my favorite, tiramisu. It was also delicious and creamy. He also gave me two new rose bushes. We don’t know what color they are. We went to the farm on Saturday to do some work. On Friday, the winds had been very high in Oklahoma. Many trees and branches were down. The ash trees which had been damaged by the emerald ash borers were especially affected. The people across the street from our farm had serious roof damage. Many of my bulbs were coming up and I even saw a few crocus flowers. One of the peach trees also had two flowers. We spent a lot of time cleaning up but I still managed to plant more seeds. This time, I planted the following seeds: Giant morning Glory, Purple tomatillo, Walter tomatoes, Bunching onions, Dill, Caraway, Marigolds, Ashwagandha, Wormwood, Dandelion, Thyme, American Persimmon, Hummingbird mix, Shade wildflower mix, Bell peppers, Utah tall celery, Star anise, Evening primrose. I have also started more seeds indoors in trays. I moved the tomatoes, tomatillos, bunching onions, peppers, and herbs into larger containers. I started many flower seeds in the trays after removing the first set of seedlings. I also found a mystery seedling with my pepper plants. I think it might be grass but want to find out. I can’t identify it yet but will wait and see. I found some new trees at the farm that were also blooming, a Bradford pear and an Oklahoma plum. They both have lovely white flowers. I know the Bradford pear has a bad smell but I think they are beautiful. I also checked on some old flowers planted by the farm’s previous owners. There is an overgrown Iris patch and the biggest rose bush I have ever seen. We put out a bunch of fertilizer for the fruit trees on Saturday but didn’t fertilize the old roses or irises. I want to learn how to divide up the irises so they can have more space. I want to learn more about pruning and caring for roses also. This old rose bush seems to be doing amazing without any care from us for the past 5 years. It is at least 10 feet by 10 feet in size and is about as big as our SUV. I am not sure if I should prune it or leave it be. They are old fashioned roses so they only bloom once a year. But when they do, they are spectacular. I hope to get a picture of them in bloom this year. Last year, my boyfriend bought me one rose bush for my garden, a pink knockout rose. Unfortunately, someone came and stole half of my knockout rose bush. They also took my wild ginger. After noticing the rose bush had been cut, we also noticed that it had black spot. I am hoping to do some research about how to treat black spot and save the bush. We planted the two new roses in front of my bulbs garden but I fear they might be taken, too. This week, I cooked lamb Rogan josh and chicken stir fry . I used AI to make recipes with the ingredients I had. These were both pretty good. Of course, I also made corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day. It turned out great this year. I haven’t drawn much this week as my spring gardening obsession takes over. There is still a lot left to be done this year. We need to finish amending the soil, building trellises, and complete the drip irrigation system. The drip irrigation is about 2/3 complete so far. I hope to go to the farm this week again to get more done but I don’t know if it will be possible. It is getting quite hot here in central Oklahoma and I would be very surprised indeed if there was another freeze. The weather is so nice lately that I wish I had time to enjoy it more. Hopefully the nice weather will continue for the rest of the month. I love taking photos of the garden in spring and hope you may enjoy seeing them as well. This blog has extra photos. 📸
Lisa Ledbetter 