Still a long ways to go, not to mention a lot of money. Nate and I used my tax refund and our economic stimulus check to buy a new toy to help out. I'll get pictures up of it as soon as its dry enough to use.
Until then here's a column to help you get caught up. This is from May 28. Obviously by now, it has warmed up and I'm getting my plants in.
Column 5/28
If you’re a person in the business or hobby of growing anything outside, it’s been a hard year to do it. According to one of the local weather guys, mid-May is usually the last frost of the year. And yet, frost was predicted again Tuesday night. Some people have fallen victim to Jack Frost. One ambitious person I see often set out all her tomato and vegetable plants. They are now sitting limp and black in her garden. My mother-in-law is the opposite. Every slightly fragile plant she has purchased is inside her house. Her hanging baskets, which she bought a month ago, are still hanging in the greenhouse she bought them from, awaiting warmer weather.
I got ambitious this past weekend and started getting ready to plant. My landscaping has been in the preliminary stages for several weeks now. I’ve been collecting garden tools and supplies, even using some. I raked and got rid of weeds from flower beds. I hauled in rocks from the fields to make borders and the start of a rock garden. I even convinced Nate to bring me a skidsteer bucket of top soil to create a small vegetable garden on the south side of our house. Until this past weekend, I avoided buying any plants. I collected a few along the way: a geranium won as a door prize, a petunia from Jacob for mother’s day, some little columbines from my mom’s garden and a small hanging basket from kid’s day at a local greenhouse. But, ever being the bargain hunter, a buy-two-get-one-free plant sale lured me in over the weekend. My new front porch has five openings. To fill it up I would need five hanging baskets, a purchase I was trying to figure out how to finance. Thanks to the sale, raiding my mother-in-law’s garden shed for five used but perfect condition baskets, and a large bag of potting soil, I was able to create five baskets for the price of one basket at the garden center down the road.
However, I do admit getting Nate to install the hooks for the baskets looks to be a project all by itself. While my baskets might take a few weeks to get caught up to the store bought ones, I think deep purple and white wave petunias will be just as pretty if not more so than anything I could have bought. Although I swore last winter I would not grow anything edible this year, temptation won out and I also picked up some tomato and green bell pepper plants. A few jalapenos and I’ll have the makings of fresh salsa later this summer. I’m also scouting a spot for a pumpkin patch.
So far, I have yet to put anything in the ground. I’d barely finished my baskets when Nate came to tell me there was a chance of frost. So Monday and Tuesday night, I grouped all the plants that could possibly be fragile and covered them with a sheet, tucking the ends under the heavy baskets. We can’t cover the many acres of corn just emerging from the soil, but they have a built in defense. Corn plants will come back even if frozen as long as the growing point is still below ground, which is about the fourth leaf collar. While this weather seems to be contradicting the global warming theory, it does make it a little frustrating if you like to work outside. Tuesday night I looked over the bundle of plants and wondered: Will it ever warm up?
No comments:
Post a Comment