Puttering. Leaves, bulbs, moving perennials. 11.1.14

No pics this time.

I raked leaves from big maple.  It's about half done dropping leaves.  I used them for mulch for a dozen trees and shrubs. Good timing.  The grass clipping mulch had many small seedlings sprouted.  Now those are buried under leaves.

I did a 3-way move in front bed.  Buddleia Blue Chip should only be about 3 feet tall, but I did not account for 3 foot spread.  I moved that to a different bed with more room.  Next to it was a small Stella D'Oro daylily.  There are several yellow daylilies in the front bed.  I moved it to the location where I had a brick red Chicago Apache daylily, moved Chicago Apache to the location where the Buddleia was, and planted Spring bulbs in the spot where the Stella D'Oro daylily was.  It's nice to plant things that I was growing elsewhere.  Kind of like a gift from friend or relative, but it was from me.  I like the Chicago Apache, the flowers are big and showy, but it was in a spot where it was difficult to see.  It will show up better in front of the sunroom.  The bright yellow of the Stella D'Oro will show up better there. 

Finally, I planted more bulbs.  Sale at Fred Meyer and Lowes. 

Daffodil / Narcissus King Alfred 8 bulbs planted as one cluster
Daffodil / Narcissus Jetfire 18 bulbs planted as 2 clusters
Daffodil / Narcissus Ice Follies 18 bulbs, planted as 2 clusters
Allium Purple Sensation 6 bulbs, planted as 1 cluster. 

Total = 50 bulbs, so fall 2014 total is 214.  It's not as difficult as it sounds.  Digging with a shovel for planting clusters, instead of individual bulb digger or trowel for each bulb, is much easier.  Plus this was extended over more than a month, and largely as breaks from homework.

In the Spring, if I am able, I want to move a couple dozen clumps of Hyacinthoides and maybe a dozen clumps of Narcissus, from Vancouver house to Battleground.   Both are not liked by deer, rabbits, or voles.   Moving the clumps when they are about 3 to 6 inches tall, digging deep and taking the clumps intact, they move nicely and bloom the same Spring like nothing changed.  Plus they look established like they were there a long time.

New Year's Tradition: Pruning the Grape Vines

I don't know how it started. Each year within a few days of New Year's day, I prune the grape vines. This year, new year's day was not possible, but yesterday was close enough. Pruning in Spring, after the sap starts to flow, leads to dripping of sap as it continues to run for a few days or week. That doesn't happen with mid-winter pruning. Plus, it's a nice chore to do for puttering meditation.

Most years I have gone with a combination of spur and cane methods, since I wasn't sure which was best. Last year they were quite productive, and it didn't seem to make much difference whether it was cane or spur pruning. I think that they may have over-grown the arbor, so this year, it's all spur pruning.

It's interesting how soon the trunks developed a gnarled, established look. I like that.

My approach with the spur pruning was to leave about 4-6 inches of growth from 2008, and remove the rest. That means that I removed about 95% of last year's growth. I left 2 to 4 buds in most cases. Most grapes seem to bloom from buds forming on last year's growth, and most from the first few buds on the cane. If I'm wrong about that, then this will not be a productive grape year. But I think that I'm right. We'll see.

This arbor has 3 vines: Interlaken (my favorite), Canadice (the most productive) and Venus (a nice change of pace).

I was more aggressive with Canadice, since it was too productive. That meant that the grapes were smaller, and there were too many. I left more of the Interlaken, since it is my favorite. Two vines would have been plenty on this arbor, but I wanted 3 varieties.

Over the gate, Price grape. Also very tasty, larger grapes in smaller bunches. Price has not been very productive so far. Squirrels eat the flower buds. In 2008 I added some screening, which deterred the squirrels somewhat. I'll have to do that this year as well.

Price was also pruned mainly as 2 to 4 bud spurs. Last year it was too unruly, so I was more aggressive this time.

The prunings were chopped into pieces about 3 to 4 inches long, and applied as a mulch around some shrubs. Last year, I did the same thing, but then applied compost on top of the grape vine mulch. That resulted in numerous small grapevines growing from the chopped pieces. This time, I'll leave the chopped vines on top so that I don't get unintended starts.

Puttering.

Today was a chance to putter around the growing greener yard. Nice, chilly late winter morning.

- After debating for a day, I checked the weather-channel predictions, and planted this Hardy Chicago fig. It was grown from a cutting last Winter. Reading the tag, I started the cutting 1/10/06, from a 2-node cutting (similar to the ones that I started about one week ago). I did add some home made compost to the hole, along with eggshells and soil from a more improved part of the garden, mixing with the soil in the hole. It's mulched with some leaves, but later in the Spring I intend to add some more compost plus a top layer of bark mulch. The top bud is pruned off to encourage branching. I hope that the buds havent swelled to a vulnerable point yet. I'll have to watch the predictions and cover it if a hard freeze is anticipated.

- some of the perrenial tops are pruned and chopped for the composter. The yard looks a bit cleaner. There are more that need trimming.

- 3 more bags of Starbucks grounds are added to the tomato bed.

-Lettuce is "winter sown" in an outdoor container. The lettuce seeds are about 1 year old. They should still be viable (according to one site, lettuce seeds can survive 5 years if stored properly); not much lost if they are not. The container is left exposed on the back (southern exposure) deck. Onion seeds, apparently, last only one year. I threw in some bunching onion seeds which, if they grow, great, but since they are from 1995, they may not. Later, I also winter sowed some radishes and spinach, also 1-2 years old.

At last, a day with a little 'life' to balance 'work'. It's been a hard few months, and I worked without a complete day off for the past 2 weeks straight through, so I took the weekend off. No homework done this weekend either.