[gardeners] Letting go for the winter
Terry King (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 8 Oct 2001 08:25:53 -0700
I broke down my barrel pond yesterday. We have had night time temps in the
low 20's this past week so it was time. I always have a hard time letting
the pots on my deck go in the fall. I've been covering some at night and
bringing other inside. My Gartenmeister and varigated fushias are just
starting really look good and bloom so they are now in the house. DH has
been away all weekend and I don't know what he's going to say when he comes
home to find a 1/2 barrel with my fish, lysmanchia, houttyunia and confetti
pennywort along with my pot of canna and all my fushia pots in the house. I
grouped the barrel, my scented geraniums, cannas and Gartenmeister fushia in
front of the sliding glass door. If I disappear after today you know he
locked me a closet. Wait, we don't have closets, so it will probably be the
dog house. <just kidding> Of course he's used to me doing things like this.
I think I'll need to set up a grow light over the pond even though its in
front of the glass door my experience has been the plant won't receive
enough light to keep from getting leggy by Feb. I still need to find a
place to put my two pots with the Firecracker hardy fushias, two kinds of
ipomea vines and lotus vines. I'll probably have to set up my grow lights
again upstairs.
If the sun comes out today I want to get the bulbs planted and the flower
beds cleaned up and mulched for winter. I also need to get the 7 lbs of new
garlic planted that I just picked up from Filaree Farm. Two years ago I
lost all my garlic when we had a sudden early freeze in Sept. (14 degrees
with no warning and few lighter frosts) while my garlic was still hanging in
an outside shed. This year I'm replanting my two reliables- Spanish Roja
and Romanian Red and I'm trying Chet's again as a softneck as it did do well
for me last time. I'm also trying two new varieties - Killarney Red and
Carpathian, both hardneck rocambole types.
Terry
E. WA. zone 4