[gardeners] Saturday in the garden
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 27 Feb 1999 18:32:17 -0600
Miz Anne, Sleepy Dawg, and myself spent most of the day in the garden. I
tilled the west fence line planting area and then planted New Zealand
Spinach, Black Spanish Radishes, bunching onions for this fall, and
Purple Hyacinth Beans.
Miz Anne was busy tending to the flower beds in both the front and back
yards, moving some Calendulas to make room for something she will plant
tomorrow. In the front she is still fighting the oxalis in the flower
beds next to the house so spends a lot of time with a screwdriver
digging. She also fertilized several of the plantings in front.
I planted my Rosemary, var. "Tuscan Blue", in the herb garden this
morning and also put the lemon grass in the ground. Some volunteer basil
was transplanted to another area and a LOT of epazote was pulled out.
Suspect we'll be pulling epazote all spring.
Miz Anne moved the blooming terrestrial orchid into the house from the
greenhouse so we can enjoy the blooms without having to go outside.
In the afternoon we visited a couple of garden centers and came away
with some new anvil pruning shears (SOMEBODY tried to cut wire with the
old ones!) and a 3 foot tall sweet kumquat. I'm still deciding where to
plant the kumquat, someplace where it can spread.
After the trip to the nurseries I trained the Dorman Red Raspberries to
the top of the four-foot high hurricane fence and pruned them at that
height. The last of the Jerusalem artichokes were dug and then
replanted, so far there has been no explosion of those. The biggest
Mayhaw tree got a good pruning also, they are really bad about
suckering. This is their last year unless they bloom and bear. I intend
to root them out and purchase a variety I saw advertised in Texas
Gardener.
The seedlings are growing rapidly and are doing well in the greenhouse.
It's so warm here the door stays open all day now and soon everything
will have to be moved out to keep it from cooking. The Tumbler tomatoes,
planted in hanging baskets, will be moved outside tomorrow and hung
around the patio area. The plants are tall enough now that they will
start bending over the edges of the baskets soon.
About the time we decided to quit this afternoon a small rainstorm moved
through and more is expected. We hope to get the green beans and a few
other seeds in the ground tomorrow but we will see.
Hope all are enjoying themselves on this weekend.
Life is indeed good.
George