Re: [gardeners] Letting go for the winter

Bargyla Rateaver (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 10 Oct 2001 12:59:40 +0100 

why do people live in COLD country?  when there is california

Terry King wrote:

> 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

--

Bargyla Rateaver
http://home.earthlink.net/~brateaver