[gardeners] Lurkers come out
Seyfried,Alice (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 13 Oct 1997 10:25:16 -0400
Hi everyone!
I'm another transplant from the Gardens-L list. I live in London, Ohio
(zone 5b-6, depending on which side of my house you're on at the moment.
My husband and I (all right, he did most, I mean all, of the work), tore
down our rose garden this weekend. I used to have about 25 hybrid teas
which I inherited when we bought our house 6 years ago. They were
beautiful when we moved in and the former owner really took wonderful
care of them. Unfortunately, they suffered from "Alice-itis" (i.e.
procrastination, and neglect) and two babies (PJ and Danny) in the last
4 years. You see, I'm a very lazy gardener and anything I put in my
gardens has to flourish on it's own or it gets replaced. I love to
plant new things and design new beds. I love the thrill of finding a
new plant that I've never tried before. I love digging in the dirt and
watching my plantings bloom. I hate winterizing, maintenance and
pruning; three things hybrid tea roses can't live without. Over the
last few years, they've slowly declined and many have died. Only 3 of
them bloomed this summer and because I never pruned them, they only
bloomed a few times. Part of me feels this incredible need to apologize
to all gardeners for being so neglectful of my roses, the other part of
me says "tough, rip 'em out and put something else in." Fortunately,
that's also what my hubby said. So out they came.
The garden is a square island situated on the diagonal in my back yard.
It receives a good many hours of sun per day, so we're going to make it
a vegetable garden in the spring. Hubby is going to get a load of llama
manure this week from a friend near by. We'll till that in and let it
sit for the winter. Is llama manure good stuff? We also plan on
tilling all of our falled leaves into the bed this fall. Should we add
some general fertilizer, also?
Thanks!
Alice in London, Ohio (zone 6)
seyfried@oclc.org