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Post by Mari on Feb 27, 2020 18:30:31 GMT
I only know of white asparagus. It's called the white gold in Dutch here since we apparently sell a lot of it abroad.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 28, 2020 2:21:17 GMT
White asparagus is very rare in these parts. Usually it is the standard green, which is what my first four crowns, the Mary Washington variety, are.
The second set of six crowns, which I planted in to two larger pots, are called 'purple', but look reddish to me.
All the potted asparagus crowns are in pots on the picnic table. I should surround that table with one of my show cages, so I'll have a cage of asparagus, but without the awning attached, as yet.
Anyway, I'd also picked up some six-pack starts of impish pansies, so I measured those out on the asparagus pot tops. In the two larger pots with the purple crowns, I tucked a cluster of gladiolus corms deep in the center.
I got the soil amendment to the fenceline, but did not manage to turn it in. So, tomorrow has that task, plus planting the sweetpeas in the result.
Then, I can concentrate on pruning down the grapes.
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Post by Mari on Feb 28, 2020 8:07:29 GMT
I Like the sweetpea blooms, but dislike their long stalks. I've got them in my garden and have been trying to eradicate them for 3 years now but they always come back.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 28, 2020 16:16:42 GMT
I don't care about their long stalks, I just love the fragrance. I'm hoping to get enough blooms, on long stalks, to pick a bouquet for the kitchenette table.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 28, 2020 22:27:57 GMT
Another exquisite day in temperate rain forest paradise. Sunny and warm with California weathers.
I got the row turned over next to the back fence, the compost added and turned in and then trenched. The seeds are down and covered with compost. Sweetpeas!
I started the pruning of Cecile, but pooped out in the midst of that task.
Of course, I'd also finished out planting the last of the gladiolus corms to surprise me sometime in June or July...
'Tis nap time.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 29, 2020 5:42:26 GMT
Later that same day, after dark....
It rains....how perfect.
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 2, 2020 18:11:33 GMT
Two days later and it is still cool, damp, and overcast. It isn't raining at the moment and there's no standing water, but everything is damp, like from fog.
An indoor day. Doing the laundry.
If Swimmer shows, we'll prolly go for breakfast at Jam.
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 4, 2020 23:57:43 GMT
Today was another clear sunny day, if a mite cold.
My gardener came by for a couple of hours of weeding and I directed her to the berry patch in the back, between the mosaic patio and the birdbath. I tried planting raspberry canes in there, but they didn't like it and up and took stroll to nearby, but different, locales. The canes where I planted them seem dead.
So, last summer I started plugging in strawberries at the edge of the mosaic. I did a halfhearted job of weeding the creeping ranunculus out and it was a mess. I knew that the strawberries would be traumatized in the process, but better now than once they're putting on bulk for flowering and fruiting. Strike while the plantlings are resilient.
'Tis done, and more. I am smug.
Later in the day it was warm enough to sally out myself. So, I finished the gross pruning on Cecile. She'll require some fine pruning, but the difficult portion is over.
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 5, 2020 2:11:42 GMT
The grape vine is down from the front of the shed.
The jonquils are blooming.
The stars are out tonight.
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 7, 2020 0:27:12 GMT
It rains. I rushed out before they started and scattered the last of the viola seed and the basil seed, so it is on the ground.
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 9, 2020 22:07:26 GMT
Well, in this afternoon's anti-climatic surprise, I finished off the fine pruning on Cecile. She is ready for the new season.
Next up, chopping up the now mostly dislodged grape and freeing up the rhody and camellia being grape abused.
The thing is, my yard debris container is full. Tomorrow is collection.
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Post by JoeP on Mar 10, 2020 11:42:01 GMT
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 10, 2020 15:30:08 GMT
Yes? Are you having a problem with my usage? For me, it was an "anti-climatic surprise" because the weather, being warm and sunny after a miserable day of rain, was against type. Against the usual climatic conditions. Was that wrong?
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 10, 2020 15:34:14 GMT
Frost!
On the compost! And the sage!
But the day dawned sunny, with only a few wispy, high clouds.
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Post by JoeP on Mar 10, 2020 16:18:48 GMT
Yes? Are you having a problem with my usage? For me, it was an "anti-climatic surprise" because the weather, being warm and sunny after a miserable day of rain, was against type. Against the usual climatic conditions. Was that wrong? That was an "I see what you did there" blink
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 27, 2020 22:37:31 GMT
Inside looking out.
I like my full size daffodils, but they are sparse. This propels the desire to interplant all my cannabis pots with bulbs of tulips, daffs, and hyacinths. The tops should be pretty much gone by the time I set my cannabis plants in.
Oh, speaking of hyacinths, my massive overplanting of woodland hyacinths is about to bloom.
The grape is still unpruned.....**sigh**
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Post by Mari on Mar 28, 2020 15:35:14 GMT
We finally took out the entire back garden for its big transformation. I saved a tearose. Hopefully it'll survive the transplant. Other than the tree and a big skimmia we dug up everything else to be removed. It will be replaced with wild flowers and grass. I will also finally realize my fruit corner with a blueberry, two different raspberries, tomatoes and lots of strawberries. <3
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Post by Kye on Mar 28, 2020 15:49:40 GMT
Sounds lovely, Mari!
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Post by JoeP on Mar 28, 2020 15:55:50 GMT
I hope you are taking progress photos!
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 28, 2020 18:31:14 GMT
YAY! I like that you are doing the berry corner. Me, too!
Of course, I have given up entirely on tomatoes. I'm still fostering the surviving raspberries (two kinds now in two very different locations) and my various masses of strawberries, front and back. Those are, for the most part, Hood berries. I might have had to plant a few Pugets, but they're close in flavor.
No blueberries for me. All that space taken up by roses.
And, your tea rose should do fine. I had a neighbor who used to accuse me of shuffling my roses around 'just for the hell of it'. For such fragile shrubs (with regards to insect and fungal attacks), they are very rugged and robust about being moved around. I had a friend who had an ancient one, with a huge root burl, that was 'in the way' of reconstruction plans. He ran over it with the backhoe several times before digging it up (with the backhoe), setting it aside, and then replanting it a few feet away from its former location. It is now flourishing and actually happier because it gets more sun. So, fingers crossed.
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 28, 2020 19:10:00 GMT
So...Today, I get an FB Messenger message from my next-door neighbor, Joel.
It seems that he and his partner, David, have decided that there is just too much acrimony and bad blood with their neighbor on the other side that they have decided to put their place on the market and relocate. They have the capacity to move almost anywhere, as David is a pharmaceutical representative (PhD in molecular virology, no shit). So...I finally get decent neighbors in the house next door and the other neighbors drive them out.
My gardener massage therapist neighbor is incensed as well. Things will not be friendly in the neighborhood for some time.
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Post by Mari on Mar 29, 2020 8:22:36 GMT
My tomatoes did too well last time. Because of my pregnancy I couldn't eat them so I had to give pretty much every passerby some just to get rid of them. It was ridiculous how many tomatoes 2 small plants can produce!
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Post by Mari on Mar 29, 2020 8:25:00 GMT
I did transplant the rose to a more shadowy spot, but it will be very much in the picture. In its previous spot I hadn't even realised I had a tearose because of all the other overgrown shrubbery. It should still have 6 hours of full sun I think.
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Post by JoeP on Mar 29, 2020 11:17:59 GMT
My tomatoes did too well last time. Because of my pregnancy I couldn't eat them so I had to give pretty much every passerby some just to get rid of them. Whereas this summer ... oh ...
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Post by Mari on Mar 29, 2020 17:31:39 GMT
Yeah, I know... the good thing, or not, is that those tomatoplants died when they decided to bloom right before a frost, so I'd need to get new ones. I doubt I'm lucky enough to get another pair of super producers. And if I manage to luck out once more, I'll just start a stall in my front garden to get rid of the surplus
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 31, 2020 18:50:02 GMT
Tomatoes! In March, in the nether regions?
Now that is what I call optimism!
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 31, 2020 18:57:02 GMT
My bleeding hearts are abloom.
I have germination of something or other in two of the pot pots. I'm hoping they're the violas and not invasive weeds. Time will tell.
Still nothing clear on the sweet peas. And, I still have two packets of sweetpea seed to sow. I think they'll go next to the back stoop...maybe to block the view in to the back from the duplex neighbor. That would be nice, but I think I still need to think about tall hollyhocks in that space.
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Post by Mari on Apr 2, 2020 15:06:05 GMT
Tomatoes! In March, in the nether regions? Now that is what I call optimism! No no, my tomatoplant was blooming early December... so I doubt it survived that little error in judgement. I'll get new ones when my fruit corner is finished in May or so.
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Post by tangent on Apr 2, 2020 15:16:42 GMT
Tomatoes are very difficult to grow in temperate climes without a greenhouse. I managed to grow a variety one year that was fairly hardy but they had to ripen before September to stand a chance.
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Post by whollygoats on Apr 2, 2020 22:09:02 GMT
Speaking of invasive weeds, I notice that the space I cleared in the 'center' of the back garden by removing the last of 'the lawn' is showing its first signs of new life.
Once I'd cleared the area, I laid down a layer of compost as a mulch. Contrary to what happened with the potpots, this surface was not protected in any way from weedseed being liberally strewn throughout. This is most clear now. Some regenerative plant, which seeds which readily germinate after a rainfall, is busily propagating new progeny. En masse.
If I get some decent rays, I can drag my sorry arse out there and put my hoe to work.
PS - I think I'm gonna call that area 'The Crossroads'. Because that's what it is. Someday, I'll have rhubarb at the crossroads.
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