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Post by Mari on Feb 9, 2018 19:03:23 GMT
It's still Winter, but the crocusses are up as are my snowdrops. We're having -10 this weekend though, so I wonder how long they'll last.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 9, 2018 19:22:48 GMT
It's still Winter, but the crocusses are up as are my snowdrops. We're having -10 this weekend though, so I wonder how long they'll last. I had some that got entirely ice coated...at least 1 mm thick...and they thawed and survived. For a while.
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Post by Mari on Feb 9, 2018 21:10:00 GMT
We'll see. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 10, 2018 2:14:10 GMT
I spent my day doing pruning.
I finished up on the Japanese snowbell along the Ho Chi Minh Trail that I'd started working on with the neighbor.
Then I went back to the grapes on the arbor. I'm now about 2/3 done. It involves a lot of climbing up and down a ladder I must needs move around the arbor the grapes, and the star jasmine, are growing on.
Daffodils in the garden. They are the miniature 'Tete-a-tete' daffodils which are early, but still....
And then the wrens came to visit.
While the wrens were here, they attracted a couple of hummingbirds.
I have a white primrose out front and violets in the 'mater patch.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 12, 2018 2:03:38 GMT
Still pruning.
Today I worked more on the grapes. I spent most of my time snipping up the prunings so that they fit in to the yard debris bin.
Still not done with the grapes.
Have yet to start on the roses.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 12, 2018 20:25:16 GMT
Roses...I started the roses. I'm not done. I've three left; two in the back and the rosa rugosa alba in the front. The latter will be extra work because I'll have to dig up and prune some roots which seem to want to 'go for a stroll'.
In the process, I see I will have to lift one floribunda rose because I have an iris rhizome trying to cross the bud union.
I did my online research to find out about care and maintenance of the raspberries I planted last year. It seems some minor pruning is in order.
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Post by Mari on Feb 13, 2018 17:56:14 GMT
You've sure been busy these days!
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 13, 2018 18:13:58 GMT
Makin' yard debris while the sun shines!
....And my body is paying for it.
Pulling semi-attached grape vines down from fifteen feet up over the rhododendron has 'left its mark'.
Good thing I'm scheduled for another massage on Thursday.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 13, 2018 18:14:43 GMT
Of course, despite taking precautions, I garnered several punctures from the rose bushes.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 26, 2018 20:03:18 GMT
Gazing longingly out the windows at the ladder still propped up against the garden shed. Grape pruning as yet unfinished.
It's too cold and damp.
Even to plant the new canes I brought home.
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 7, 2018 16:47:39 GMT
I got the new canes in day before yesterday. That's what I accomplished Monday.
Yesterday, I took in my tax info to my preparer. I took that opportunity to stop at a nursery outlet. I picked up a new Daphne odora for next to the back door, a box of rhody food, a tub of tete-a-tete tiny daffs, and a fistful of seeds. The seeds include blue morning glories, white alyssum, and johnny-jump-ups. The trip out to make those two stops was it.
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 13, 2018 21:24:31 GMT
I got the fistful of seeds in to the pots I'd shuffled around and prepped with a topping of steer manure and bone meal.
The mix of alyssum and violas went in to the pots positioned for future cannabis plants, while the morning glories went at the east end of the balcony, and the experimental basil plantings went in to the pots shared with other, perennial plantings. I still have four smaller empty pots for the basil crop. I also have four large pots, currently with iris, which will be cleared for basil, come late May.
The grape is pruned.
The raspberries are pruned as well as I know how at the moment.
The daphne is as yet unplanted.
The rosa rugosa out front is as yet unpruned.
I'm thinking now is the time to obtain more strawberries for the eastern front. And more rhubarb. I want rhubarb.
I also need to figure out what to do about slugs. Slugs are back.
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Post by whollygoats on Mar 30, 2018 2:28:29 GMT
Weeding. In earnest. So much so that the squatting and kneeling required engendered hip soreness, along with the usual arm and hand soreness.
The rosa rugosa is pruned, but for one remaining cluster of root prunings. It's 'big shovel' work. I'm not up to it, yet.
Obtained another rhubarb root and planted it. Both (last year's and this year's) are doing well. I'm trying to 'clean out' the nearby invasives before they get established.
I got some more strawberry starts in, but I may have delayed a mite too long before actually plugging them in. I don't know if they will take.
The alyssum is up!
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Post by whollygoats on Apr 6, 2018 23:08:52 GMT
The bleeding hearts have started blooming.
The last of the narcissus are in bloom.
The katsura is leafing out. The honeysuckle has successfully leafed out.
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Post by Mari on Apr 8, 2018 7:27:58 GMT
My narcissus are finally blooming, but some died in their buds.
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Post by whollygoats on Apr 11, 2018 2:45:27 GMT
Argh!
Open season lion hunting has begun and I'm leaving town for a month.
I managed to take down ten to twelve of them on the front slopes today, but I KNOW there are other, less mature specimens lurking in the ground cover, just waiting for me to leave.
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Post by Mari on Apr 11, 2018 16:26:35 GMT
I'm fairly sure you don't mean the feline sort of lion...?
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Post by Kye on Apr 11, 2018 17:16:17 GMT
I think it's the floral sort of lion.
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Post by whollygoats on Apr 11, 2018 17:21:00 GMT
Nope. No felines were harmed in the prosecution of this initiative. It was the dandy kind.
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Post by whollygoats on Apr 12, 2018 13:43:51 GMT
The lilacs are about to bloom.
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Post by Mari on Apr 12, 2018 17:58:14 GMT
I wasn't aware there were floral lions. Good to know! Oh wait, dandeLIONS. Never mind. Silly me.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 3, 2018 4:07:45 GMT
So...Phew....
It has been a challenge, sitting around enjoying all the floral beauty of my garden. Late May and early June in my garden is splendiferous.
I'm counting my iris by the number of stems I deadhead. I'm 100 plus and still have to clear away the late bloomers. I still have one, tucked back in a corner, where the bud has yet to open.
I put most of my tomato starts in today.
For the record, they are:
- San Marzano, a paste tomato - Gill's All-Purpose Tomato, billed as a slicer - Pineapple Tomato, a slicer - German Giant Pink Tomato, a slicer - Amish Paste, a paste tomato - Oregon Spring, billed as a slicer.
Five of the 'mater starts went in the ground in the 'mater bed. The sixth, the Amish Paste, was plugged in to the undedicated pot sitting in the midst of the eastern fence iris bed.
I have two melon starts, one Minnesota Midget, the other Charentais, cantelopes both, awaiting the final bloom of an iris to be planted.
I have five pairs of Genovese sweet basil and two Hungarian Hot Wax peppers in pots outside the back door, along with established sages, marjoram, curry, rosemary, a little Sicilian mint,and lots of catnip.
I'm still looking for both delphenia starts and cannabis clones.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 3, 2018 20:01:34 GMT
I finished with the tomato planting and got my melon starts planted.
The melon planting had to wait until one of my deep purple iris had faded completely, as it required shuffling the iris.
I spent most of my garden time today lifting those iris rhizomes I was either moving or excising from the garden entirely. The challenge, of course, is to keep them reasonably marked so that they can be color sorted as they are lifted, aiding in the gifting of the lifted rhizomes. Most folks are reluctant to take free rhizomes if they don't know what color iris they are going to get, so tagging when they are blooming for later extraction is the way to go.
I lot of dirty work clearing away for where plants are going in, or back in.
Then there was the work of generating a potential acquisition list of rhizomes I want to introduce in to the garden. Mostly whites, pinks and yellows. Now I wait for the mid-season 'sale' flyer and see if any of my selections are on that list....
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 5, 2018 19:41:53 GMT
So...Today was the day to rush about and try to find the missing links....cannabis and delphinia.
Cannabis - 2 clones each of 'Gorilla Glue #4' and 'Purple Punch'.
Dephinia - 2 starts each of 'Pagan Purple' and 'Guardian White'.
Plus, as bonuses (bonai?), I picked up a hefty pot of pink dianthus for each of the purple & white delphinia pairs: 'Georgia Peach Pie' and 'Coral Reef'. The former is very light, almost white, with pink trim, while the other is red with white trim. They both smell wondrously dianthian....carnations.
So, I found both and paid too much for both. And then some.
I still need to go back for more of both, but today I am planting pot in pre-prepared pots!
I also got a follow-up call from my daylily provider, because their system did not process my PayPal request. So, I finished that up over the phone with a Visa payment. The new daylilies will be arriving in the next few days.....More color spots for those shady corners!
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Post by Mari on Jun 6, 2018 14:12:02 GMT
My tomatoes have outgrown their guiding sticks.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 6, 2018 21:05:38 GMT
Don't I wish?
Mine are still dealing with transplant shock.
I got my last crops in today.
Two more cannabis clones: 'Pineapple Kush' and 'Jack the Ripper'.
Finished off the third delphinium pot with three separate colors, blue, pink, and white with black bees, plus interplanted alyssum. Should be 'color spots'.
Now, on to moving part of the Chinese iris to its new home and feeding the acid-loving shrubs...
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 9, 2018 0:20:18 GMT
No need to water anything soon. Rain today. Good decent downpour.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 10, 2018 16:46:37 GMT
I harvested a handful of raspberries today.
I harvested a handful of strawberries, out front, yesterday.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 10, 2018 19:30:07 GMT
I got my daylily fans yesterday, too.
Scads of them. I shall be plugging them in shady spots all over the gardens.
Western Front.
Under the Strawberry Tree.
Along the Ho Chih Minh Trail, under the snowbell tree.
In the 'Mater Patch, on the shady shed side.
And, back behind the lilac.
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Post by Mari on Jun 12, 2018 6:13:49 GMT
Harvesting is daily, but a handful is still out of my reach. One a day is more like it.
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