Re: [gardeners] State of the list, and other things
penny x stamm (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 22 Nov 1999 00:06:50 -0500
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Good evening, Gardeners! George, My reaction to your statistics
about the health of our list is a resounding hurrah! for the continued
relationship amongst the group. Your daily (we wish) data sheets on
the health and happiness of the Shirley clan and environs is surely
the cement which glues us all together. In the words of an old friend,
may you live long and prosper...
As to gardening, we have had about 10 consecutive nights of 23-28 degrees
(extremely unusual this early) and were caught absent-minded about
blowing out the underground water supply lines. Therefore we have
chosen to make a test of this winter, and not do the job at all. All
direct
faucets have been turned off indoors and left open outdoors. The
Toro lawn sprinklers will have to sink or swim. The Netafim shrubbery
and flower bed soaker lines are self draining. So we shall see..!
We are enjoying a 3 day warmup and I spent 7 hours outside today
planting the last of the spring bulbs and adding mulch where needed.
What a joy to feel that mild air and smell the earth again! Since I feel
strongly that the evergreens require watering until everything freezes
down solid, the better to survive the drying winds of winter, I turned on
the system today and gave all zones an hour of drip irrigation.
Did I tell you that 2 weeks ago the big winds tore a giant limb from one
of my neighbor's 60 ft white pines, and it landed right smack on top of
my prize blue spruce...? It turns out that since this was an act of God,
and I did not call my neighbor to scream that the limb was in fear of
falling, I must pay for the entire rescue and removal to the tune of
$525... My hubby is totally having fits, and no surprise at that ...
There are almost no leaves left on the raspberries or the roses.
Yet today I picked 7 ripe raspberries off the canes, and found 5
healthy roses in full bloom. The late planted gladioli held their own
thru the freeze, and are now showing color! Our autumn leaf color
is admitedly stunning, but I'll wager that we have close to forty
32-gallon pails full of fallen leaves to pick up -- what a job! We are
composting some, bagging some for composting next summer,
and disposing of some. No question but that autumn is 10 times
busier hereabouts than spring.
Penny, NY
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