What's the meaning of this sentences with 丛, 纷纷扬扬 and 飘来飘去?

Question

I'd like to understand this sentence well: 这天，农夫又来到田边巡视庄稼， 发现芦苇丛中的芦花纷纷扬扬，在空中飘来飘去.

1. 这天，农夫又来到田边巡视庄稼 - I understand this part, no need to explain.
2. 芦花 - it is probably reed's flower?
3. 芦苇丛中 - what's the meaning of 丛 here?
4. 纷纷扬扬 - what's this? Google Translate says 纷扬 means "flourish", while 纷纷扬扬 according to him means "one after another". I don't understand. And, if it means "flourish", how is it different from 开花? One is more common or more formal or what?
5. 在空中 - does it simply means "in the air"?
6. 飘来飘去 - Google Translate says it means "float around". Is ...来...去 a common scheme which has the meaning of "around"? Could you give some other examples with this phrase?
7. 飘 - what does it mean, is it "float"?
8. I'd be interested in a translation of the whole sentence too.

Answer 1

丛 just means "thicket". What did your dictionary say?

纷纷扬扬 is a fixed expression meaning "fluttering (of leaves)" exactly as the rest of the sentence describes. A good dictionary should include fixed expressions like this. The first part 纷纷 does mean "in succession", but it's not usually useful to try to break down fixed expressions to understand the literal meaning.

在空中 is in the air, yes.

X来X去 means "X back and forth". E.g. 走来走去

飘 means float or flutter. Have you tried looking things up on https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary ?

Answer 2

芦花: - it is probably reed seeds being shed, not actual flowers. Ask a botanist.
Those brown parts of some types of reeds are called cattails. People like to cut them and use them for decoration.
芦苇丛中: these plants grow in clusters, 丛
纷纷扬扬: look it up anywhere: scatter scatter spread spread
在空中: - does it simply means "in the air"? Yep, just that!
来去: come and go, to and fro also: 来来去去
飘来飘去： floating here and there
飘：飞扬 fly up

这天，农夫又来到田边巡视庄稼，
That day, the farmer again went down to his fields to inspect his crops,

发现芦苇丛中的芦花纷纷扬扬，
he discovered that the reeds were shedding their seeds,

在空中飘来飘去.
which were floating off in the breeze.

Apparently, papyrus is a reed, which was used in ancient time to make paper. You can even make a roof from reeds!! And Pan's pipes were made of reeds!! Pretty useful stuff!