Saturday, March 17, 2007

Garden Log March 17 2007

Geranium Overwintering Experiment. These are scented leaf geraniums. The brown sticks were kept "dormant" in the garage. The smaller, but leafy plants were cuttings taken from the plants behind them, last fall, and kept in the bathroom windowsill with minimal watering. Unless the "dormant" ones start to do something, I think I know which method "wins" for these varieties.
Back Yard, Strawberry bed and Chinese Chive Barrel. The Chinese chives were fertilized wtih granular "Alaska fish" fertilizer, then about 1/2 inch leaf compost added. The strawberries were thinned to about 1 plant every 18 inches or so. The thinnings were planted elsewhere. The daffodils add character and in the summer, the strawberries fill in when the daffodil leaves die down. There are some iris bucheriana. Slugs love it. The white spots are Sluggo which claims to be safe and organic, and works very well. I added some overwintered Tradescantia pallida for color, and some variegated "society garlic" Tulbaghia violacia for color and in hopes of deterring pests (even in the truck that plant is stinky! like garlic only more so)
Some overwintered Chinese Celery among the heirloom potato onions. I think there are finally enough potato onions to start eating them in large amounts at harvest this year, instead of saving all of them. I though they were dead - only a few grew last fall. Now it looks like they are all alive.
Even more daffodils, These are in about their 3rd year. Next to them is a daphne - barely seen flowers, but they make the entire yard smell like fabric softener. Yum.
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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Spring Daffodils

No such thing as too many daffodils to tell us Spring is here.

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Monday, March 12, 2007

Church Ladies (unidentified place and date)

Probably Quincy, Illinois, 1920's or 30's. I'm only guessing that it's a church.
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"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most" - Mark Twain, via thinkexist.com

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Overwintered Geraniums and Spring Gardening

Here's the geranium as it came out of the pot. This one was left in the garage without watering. Most of the scented-leaf ones look REALLY dead-looking, brown and crunchy. One, a "pine scented" (more like turpentine) does continue to have green leaves. They were all cleaned up and watered. We'll see if they grow.

In another container, a wooden planter, was a zonal geranium , a geranium called "Vancouver Centennial", the pine scented geranium, some sweet alyssum, and a Tradescantia pallida. I cleaned this up as well, but left them all in the original container. I watered it and will leave it outside. The zonal and the Tradescantia look alive, in addtion to the pine scented geranium.
Planted.
Pruned, watered. Since it's in the 60s today, I think it is OK to leave outside now.

Other gardening:
Ning planted a short growing cattail for his pond.
Ning planted seeds for ornamental grasses, in flower pots.
A rose (Golden Showers)was moved.
A large bunch of Miscanthus sinensis zebrinus was moved from the back yard to the front, where it will have more room. Last year it grew to about 8 feet tall (the label stated 4-5 feet). It went into the spot vacated by the Golden Showers rose.
A new rose was added, this one a David Austin rose, variety "Fair Bianca". As with hybrid teas, I like some English roses, and others just didn't perform. I hope this one does, since I haven't had a lot of luck with white roses (JFK, a hybrid tea, was a fungus magnet and died, Glamis Castle, another English rose, didn't perform well at all. There wasn't room for the old garden rose, Mme Hardy, and anyway it only blooms one yearly (although I would have kept it in a larger yard).
An Anigozanthos (Kanga red and green) was potted up. I didn't want to yhet but it kept drying out too fast and wilting.


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Thursday, March 08, 2007

Spring Flowers

Daffodils are starting to bloom.

The amaryllus might seem out of place, but it chose the time more than I did. This is its second or third year.Posted by Picasa