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Posted on 04/07/2023 6:00:01 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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I always mean to plant Azalea. We have three varieties that can withstand our cold temps in the winter; I need to give them a try. :)
Not sure what is is/was, but I bet you know...:)
The ‘tragedy’ was that the man who first bred the Stargazer Lily was a little mentally slow, or eccentric, or kinda crazy - I forget!
He sold the patent to some unscrupulous person for $10K, back in the 1970’s I think?
His family spent Big Money getting that wrong corrected and it took many years, but they finally did get him a price that was worth that particular flower. :)
Gosh, I forgot how hot it was last spring. But now that you mentioned it, I do recall the horrible temps in the greenhouses. We are planting like crazy, been transplanting perennials the last few days. Potted up 4 1/2” geraniums for 2 weeks before that. Everyone in my family survived the bad weather with no wind damage. Was a tense week for all. 😬
Bought some new seed starting mix, Miracle Grow. Evidently it’s water repellent. Tried bottom watering the cell trays for several hours and they weighed the same, feather light. I’m watering from the top for now and plan to repot as soon as seeds sprout and get true leaves. Got some Promix instead and will pot up into that.
Nice weather, not too windy for a change. Going to burn off leaves today and get a couple of high tunnel frames welded up tomorrow using the first one that’s already done as a template. I’ll be installing the two end frames first and those will take longest with all the measuring and making sure they’re squared up. The in between ones will go pretty quick.
Discovered a local nursery. She doesn’t have much for veggies but has tons of flowers and ground cover. Nothing I need right away but eventually I do want to do some landscaping and make thing purty around here.
Picked up a peach tree and blueberry plant and plan to get more. Walmart I went to had Redhaven peach which I believe are the standard with all others being called early or late based on redhaven iirc. I’m hoping a different walmart will have a different variety. If not, I’ll just grab another redhaven. Either that or try Lowes.
The blueberry is Duke which I’d never heard of which is why I only got one. One website says best for freezing/cooking/canning. Will see if other stores have something different.
“90s last summer in April”
and stayed hot. Seems like I nursed my poor tomato plants for months while the fruit wouldn’t ripen due to the near 100 degree heat. I was just trying to keep them alive and it’s a good thing I had mulch. My buddy up the road was watering his bare soil garden every day, sometimes twice a day. I was watering twice a week, moving the trickling hose from plant to plant. Took a good hour to do it.
I ordered and planted 20 lily selections from this grower last fall. Superior quality. One bulb was the size of a softball. I am sure the flower will be spectacular.
www.TheLilyGarden.com
PS-thanks for the Lily types hotlink
💐
Those books look very interesting!
🤓🌱🌷🌻
Before he passed away in 2015 my dad grew an abundance of daylillies.
Decades earlier it was azaleas, rhododendron, forsythia, holly, etc.
But when he passed 80 years old, wrestling with huge shrubs with
80+ pound root balls became a bit much - so he went with the smaller plants.
I remember you mentioning that. It was tough sledding last year for many of us.
Thank goodness I know where the Piggly Wiggly Produce Department is, and the local Farm Stands in ‘off years.’ ;)
You’re going to love them all. Also, ‘The Earth Moved’ is amazing - explains how much we depend upon Earthworms for, well, pretty much everything!
I’m on #3 of her ‘Kopp Sisters’ books; my Mom & Aunt love them, too.
I will look for her books at my favorite thrift stores. Glad you like the Kopp Sisters books, was gonna ask if you had read them. Always looking for some good books.
I planted some spaghetti squash seeds that I got from a spaghetti squash and they popped up today!
One left. I have them starting in the house.
They’ll likely need to go into a bigger pot before they go outside.
I’m thinking of getting a lattice to let them grow on as they will be in big pots on the deck.
WwwoooHhhooooi!
Seed starting mix is notorious for repelling water. Some folks add a tiny bit of dish-washing soap to the water; it acts as a surfactant. Others open the bag of soil, pour in a quart of warm or hot water and let it soak in. Or you can do both! When I use bagged soil, I pour it into a bucket, add water, mix it around a bit and let it sit. If necessary I’ll add a bit more water. I’ve never tried the dish soap trick. Whatever you choose to do, it’s always easiest to dampen the mix before you put it into those tiny seed-starting trays.
Yep, that's it. Realized it when I opened the bag of new stuff yesterday which is moist. Seen people in videos wet it before filling trays but the only reason ever given was "it's easier". The stuff I used was last year and dry and that's how I put it in the 72 cell trays. I had thought of wetting it first but I'm working in a tiny room indoors and didn't feel like doing all that shuffling stuff around. Going to top water them repeatedly today until the trays actually have weight to them. Once they're saturated one time they should be fine.
There's only two 72 cell plastic trays and the rest are 32 cell Jiffy Pot cell trays and those bottom watered just fine because the tray material soaked up water readily and transferred to the mix via all that surface area. I was actually going to get Jiffy Pellets but all they had was 72 cell tray size.
I'm tossing the 72 cell plastic trays after I'm done with them this year. Don't like them that small even for lettuce and what not. All that potting up is just more work. I'm going to start using whatever sizes needed to go direct into the ground. That or start making and using soil blocks. Come to think of it, half the videos I watched were people using those and the mix has to be wet for that.
I finished the landscaping work on the east side of my pond dam yesterday. I need to pick up some clover and grass seed at the feed store today and broadcast that on the sore spot then mulch it down with some old hay. Probably wouldn't hurt to toss a bag of pelleted lime on there too.
I've got a mountain of seedlings in the greenhouse waiting on the weather. The "official" last frost date for this area is April 12, but I'm not falling for that malarkey. Over the years I've learned not to plant frost-sensitive plants outdoors before May 1st, and some years that isn't late enough.
I've also gotten into the habit of tossing the tail end of my salad greens seed packs into a small tupperware bowl for storage and forgetting what all I put in there. Now I've got a ton of this stuff, which is quite delicious, growing in the greenhouse and I don't know what it is so I used Google Lens to figure out that it's broadleaf mustard/mustard cabbage. lol
Looking for inexpensive soil mixes for carrots in a tub. Our regular garden soil has too much nitrogen. I can live without growing potatoes and beets but I would like some carrots. I will have compost available. I know about the pH between 6 and 7 is the best. Would just sand and compost work?
I ordered the first 3 Kopp Sisters books. Ebay had them. Got hard cover books, 3 for $10 plus $6 shipping. Not bad. 3 bucks a book. 🤓
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