Posted on 04/18/2008 8:31:09 AM PDT by Gabz
Taking an early morning walk this time of year is a singular treat, like Dorothy stepping out of Auntie Em’s house into the color and sound of Oz. The same things that are always there, only instead of Winter‘s drabness, Spring’s full and glorious color. Each walk is accompanied by a symphony of birdsong, a riot of color bursting everywhere. Fallen jasmine blossoms scatter themselves on the ground like the famed yellow brick road, and blooming things pop up everywhere like the fabled Munchkins.
And then, as if the colors and sounds aren’t enough, just to add a little spice, spider webs and silk threads abound. A nice, soothing walk interrupted by a moment of terror as an invisible spider web smacks you across the face. Frenzied panic as you claw at the strands, trying to get them off, as if each strand is composed of skin eating acid. Your heart is pumping, your adrenaline is flowing, because some spider, somewhere, manufactured those invisible strands. It’s not the spider webs themselves we object to—it’s every human’s fear of the monster in the closet. If there’s a spider web, then it stands to reason that somewhere close by, possibly on the very strand stuck to your face, is the spider that spun it.
To top it all off is the humiliating thought that a fellow human is watching you do the spider dance, snickering while they sympathize, glad it‘s not them. Your dogs are laughing themselves silly, watching their human leap and scratch at an invisible assailant. Heads cocked to one side, they seem to be asking the canine equivalent of—“Do you have fleas? You need a bath?” Isn’t it wonderfully amazing how our clothes reflect the changing seasons? My youngest son, even at four years old, was a very opinionated clothes horse. He told me in no uncertain terms what he wanted his Easter outfit to be. Since I was going to be the one making the outfit, we had a little more leniency in choices. He wanted Peter Rabbit grass green pants, and a matching vest and tie, so off to Wal-Mart we went. He was very specific about what he wanted on his vest and tie. If I remember correctly, we found the perfect print, a V.I.P. print by Cranston Print Works. Either someone at Cranston had been listening to a child describe Easter, and April, or they were very much in touch with their inner child.
My son informed me that the fabric for his vest and tie had to have green grass, daffodils, Easter eggs, bunnies, chickies, robins, and other assorted critters and Spring flowers. That’s about the most inclusive summation of Spring I can think of. The colors were matchless, too. Peter Rabbit grass green, sunshine yellow, browns and pinks and blues and whites—all the colors that best describe Spring, printed on a single piece of exactly right fabric. We couldn’t have custom designed a more fitting tribute. Needless to say, my son’s fourth Easter was a great success. Hope your Spring is as happy and colorful and perfect as that one was!
April isn’t just colors—it’s sounds. The earliest spring peepers croaking from every ditch—if frogs are a measure of health, then our area should be winning awards! Some nights you can barely hear yourself think for their welcome racket. Whippoorwills—their distinctive cries are never so loud as right now. The Great Horned owls are sending out their mournful hoo-hoo’s, serenading us late into the night. The sounds of tillers and tractors, and the first strains of lawn mowers add their hum and buzz during the day like a well orchestrated symphony.
Time to get ready for some serious gardening! A few start earlier, and some wait. If your ground is ready and the temperature is right—go for it! The very worst that will happen is another cold snap and you’ll have to start over. If not, then you’ve got an excellent head start!
Many good reports came back on the Crista tomatoes, the ones resistant to Tomato Spotted Wilt. Keep in mind, this is not the wilt that lives in the soil and causes a perfectly healthy plant to look as if it’s had boiling water poured on it just as it starts to bear. TSW is the one that stunts the plant, or kills it outright. There is another variety that some people had success with last year, one called Amelia.
Good reports back also on the straw bale gardening! Many people tried it and seemed very pleased. Less weeding, less disease and insects. Keeping the straw bales watered seemed to be the biggest challenge! Whether you’re doing plants for squash and cukes or starting your own from seed, remember to keep the stems dusted with some kind of pesticide. It will help keep the squash vine borers from getting a toehold.
A few other reminders for this month: Don’t forget to fertilize your lawn and shrubs, but do remember to wait until the end of April or first of May. Done too early, fertilizer can cause the grass to be too tender and green. If we get another cold snap, the tender shoots will be harmed worse. If you’re going to put out warm season grass seed, end of April is a good time to do it. Bermuda and Centipede won’t germinate until the soil temperature is around seventy.
Azaleas don’t need to be fertilized until after they’re done blooming, but other shrubs will benefit from some liquid fertilizer— both regular and acid kind, mixed with some Epsom salts, equal parts of each. Then when you do your lawn, they’ll be ready for the granular fertilizer. The liquid fertilizers and the Epsom salts give them a little bit of a jump start and help to correct the soil ph, especially if the shrubs are close to the foundation of your house.
Get out there and go have some gardening fun!
Not sure about feeding. I think when danger of frost is past so that the frost doesn’t get tender new growth.
They should be fertilized when they first start showing buds in early spring. Unless they are showing problems they may not need fertilized at all, just adding some compost around the plant would probably be sufficient. Azaelas are not heavy feeders like roses.
“Any good info on growing blueberries in the midwest because the ones I put out last year don’t look healthy”
Well first year isn’t very successful anyway. If they are still alive this year then you did way good. Pat on the back. My hunch is that they will be better this year.
nothing else is blooming tho and even the buds on the trees have been slow in developing due to the cold weather we've been having........
Ah, thanks then. That makes it a bit easier.
Pruning azaleas should be a mortal sin, IMO.
OTOH...NOT pruning forsythia should be too! LOL!
I normally wouldn’t prune them, but I’m trying to help them recover from when the previous (idiot) owners pruned them like boxwoods. That and they fact that they’re growing onto the deck.
But I won’t prune the forsythia. I’ve got it along the woods in the back. The larger and more unruly the better.
An apartment complex nearby has a 90 feet long forsythina neatly trimmed as a hedge row. When the dark mulch is put down, the contrast of the green grass, the mulch and the yellow bloom is very striking.
Every year, it reminds me of Catherine Hepburn in On Golden Pond saying in that shaky unsteady voice of hers...."The forsythias are in bloom!"
Oh...maybe so. These are pretty young.
I just don’t care for the manicured look. I like them wild and out of control-ish.
The fig tree cutting that Garden Girl sent me arrived this morning! It is a beautiful cutting about 1 foot tall with a small root ball that was still nice and moist. It has three small but well developed newly green branches each with some beautiful leaves. The leaves looked great. I never expected such a nicely developped cutting! You should have seen the "WOW SMILE" on my face when I saw it.
It was planted in about 15 min. after receving it. I wanted to get it planted before the rains get here this afternoon!
She also sent me the April 2008 issue of the paper, "Newport Voice", where her monthly gardening colum "In The Garden" appears.
Thank you very much Garden Girl. And Gabz thank you for taking the time to do this Weekly Gardening thread.
My tomatoes are out in the garden and three of them are flowering. They are only about a foot tall. Should I let them just bloom or should I nip them in the bud untill the plant gets bigger?
Home grown tomatoes. Yum.
We used to use plastic or canvas and “build” a shield around citrus and other fruit trees. Use rebar or something to drive into the ground and then attach a 2X2 or PVC pipe and make a frame for the shield.
If the temps will be in the low 20 range, and additional blanket (or a light bulb on the inside of the enclosure if it is close to an outlet) helps to keep them from freezing. All you need to do is raise the temps to 32 or more.
We have over 30 tomato (and some patios in pots) plants in the garden. Some have golf ball sized fruit already. I planted about 25 seeds in a bucket thinking maybe 1/2 would come up, and every one came up. I gave several of those away to my neighbor.
Of course, we bought the patio tomato plants. Then the wife ordered some heirloom plants and we got a double shipment. That was another 20 or so plants. Cucumber plants have runners starting, strawberries are yummy already and pepper plants are going crazy.
I was really wanting to do straw bale gardening this year. It seems like an easy way to expand without more raised beds or renting/buying a tiller. It would also be a fun experiment. This is one thing my DH is opposed to, as he thinks it will look bad/messy, especially as the summer goes on. I don’t think it would look bad, but I’ve never done it, so I can’t say. Even if it does look bad, oh well, it’s the back yard. If he doesn’t want the bales, I guess he’ll just have to help me with tilling or raised beds :)
My tulips are blooming and looking really nice ... not much else blooming just yet, although pansies from last year looking great.
Oops, forgot to ask if there was any particular pesticide you (or anyone else) can recommend for squash plants. I had problems with insects with several squash plants last year.
I thought about buying a natural spray with neem oil, but don’t know its effectiveness. I would rather not do tons of chemicals, but some chemicals is better than no squash, so I’m open to recommendations.
Wow, I have 3 peony seedlings coming up. They’re volunteers. I never thought of trying to get them to germinate. I’ll have to try this yer. Deer don’t bother them so they’re a good thing.
Here is a organic tip for a slug and snail deterrent for emerging plants. I bought a large bag of crushed oyster shells at the big feed store here and spread a thick layer around the plant. It's long lasting and rain does not affect it here plus it adds lime to our acidic soil.
Thanks for the tip - I have the material for that and will get cracking. If your screen name indicates your birth year, it’s the same as mine.
If the plants are too tall, you may want to make sure as few of the tender growth is tied away from the cover. If you have a fireplace, one more thing you can do is to put hot coals into a METAL bucket and put that under the cover as well. Just make sure ashes cover the coals.
And yes, that is my birth year.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.