Spring Break - what garden chores can I do?

Help! - starting tomorrow, I don't have to be back in class until Mar. 26.

What kinds of garden chores can I accomplish during the next 10 days? For example, can I start my dahlia tubers in pots? Can I start painting the fence? Can I build the trellis for the climbing roses? What kinds of things can realistically be accomplished in the N.E. at this time of year?

Tell me everything YOU would do . . . so I have an idea of what might be accomplished :-)

Note: most of the snow is melted, but soil is still muck as it absorbs all the snow melt. I hope to plant the sweet peas weekend of April 7 (yep, I know I will have to still offer some protection).

Thanks a gazillion!
Seandor

Have you checked out the weather forcast for our area? We're supposed to be getting more snow!!!!! So that doesn't leave us with too many chores to do outside, does it!!!

My Dad was an ol' fashioned Yankee who believed that you buy the best that you can afford and maintain it to last as long as possible. I remember at about this time, my Dad would clean and sharpen all of the gardening tools. Dad would keep a bucket of sand with old motor oil mixed in it. When ever he was done doing anything in the garden, he would rinse off the tool, shake it dry, plunge it in the sand/oil mix and then hang it up. Dad said it would reduce rusting and help to keep the edge sharp. He would at this time take the lawn mower apart and give it a tune up (change the oil and the spark plugs, sharpen the blade).

You know how Yankees are, they have their own way of doin' stuff. But boy, in retrospect, Father Knew Best!!!

Carol

That's a great idea! Meanwhile, I just checked - I have little bitty petunias and coleus growing - maybe in a week or so I can transplant them into little pots.

Are you doing a vegetable garden? You can start tomato seeds and pepper seeds.

You're a bit warmer than me, but here are my early season jobs.
**cut back winter interest perennials,grasses
**prune trees and shrubs for structure or shape
**remove winter protection
**clean up of beds and lawn

our next warm up I should be able to start on some ofthose

You could come here and I will demonstrate for you and you can practice in my yard ;0)

I just came in with the mail and I can see that the perennials need cleaning up (I don't cut back daylilies and such in the fall...I leave the foliage for some winter protection. but now the new shoots are poking thru and it's time to get rid of the dead stuff).

it may be too cold to paint, but you could build that trellis if you can stand the cold.

So I am in the lecture hall - students are writing an in-class assignment, and I read your posting Grampapa and burst out laughing. Of course, all the students look up and want to know what their loony prof is laughing about . . . .

I think if you just give me some directions, I will give it a shot and report back to you my level of success or failure :-)
Cheers,

Seandor :-)

Well, right now I'm babysitting about 100 little tiny creeping thyme seedlings. have you tried starting any yet?

No Gram, I haven't had the time. ;^)

Seandor, I would defer on this to Al (who is the uber tuber on dahlias) but I would think starting your dahlias in indoor pots would be good. Trellis building is good. I would hold off on painting the fence untill after this weekend, then look for a warm spell.

If I could make a point for the environment, I used to do what Carol's Dad did with the bucket of sand and oil. I then learned to leave out the oil. The sand removes just as much dirt without the oil. If you want to oil your tools do it directly. This way you are not ultimitely discarding a pail of oily sand into the environment.

The seeds never arrived, Grampapa. That's a good idea Dave47.

It's a good time to sow annual poppies in situ! I buy an ounce of California poppie seed every year and throw them all along the edge of our gravel driveway. Looks swell.

I have LOTS of these seeds - but I had no idea I could sow them so early! Great idea. We are also going to germinate a bunch and put them into little paper pots and give them to all the neighbours. :-)

Seandor, I saw on your profile that you are working on a fragrant garden. What fragrant plants do you have so far? Here are some that I have that I love:

Shrubs:

Clethra alnifolia - smells great - literally fills the garden and blooms last a while. Also very adaptable - shade to sun and will grow in wet areas.
Viburnum 'Mohawk', V. judii, V. 'Cayuga'.
Roses, of course - can't remember all the varieties.
Gardenia in a pot.
Jasmine in a pot.
Lilac.
Brugmansia in a pot.
Fothergilla 'Mt. Airy'.
Lonicera 'Serotina' - not aggressive like Japanese Honeysuckle

There are more for sure.


Perennials:

Some of my daylilies
Hosta 'Aphrodite', H. 'Royal Standard', H. plantaginea
Lavender
Oriental Lilies - some are too heavy for my liking, but fragrance is very subjective.
Geranium 'Ingwersen's Variety' - leaves give off nice fragrance.
Melissa (Lemon Balm) - fragrant foliage.

Again, I am sure there are more but this gives you an idea. My favorite fragrance of all the above is either the Hostas or the Viburnums.

Victor

Hey Victor - I have been considering fragrant hostas for along the fence - I am such a rookie - what do you recommend? I was looking at Shady Gardens web page (their name was something like that) and they indicate which hostas are fragrant - I really liked the look of the Venus and Aphrodite hostas. How do yours grow? would you recommend I get these?

I have ordered a viburnum Mohawk - same as yours - it arrives in May. I expect it will be very tiny.

I have a lilac that I can Ron, after Ron Weasley because of its unusual colouring - supposedly it will have pale yellow blossums.
I have lavender - but it arrived half rotten, so I will see what survived and make cuttings.


I also have a gardinia arriving this spring - but no jasmine yet. Eight roses - all selected for fragrance.

Anyway - this will be the first season for the garden - I am open to all suggestions. Please wish me luck.

Currently I am potting up dahlias - maybe some of these will sprout. Darn, I do wish spring would come soon!

How are your gardens/ garden plans coming?

cheers,
Seandor

Hi Seandor,

I don't have Venus but Aphrodite and the two others I mentioned are growing great and the fragrance is wonderful. Be sure to place them where near a window where you can appreciate the scent at night, when they are the strongest.

Herbs are great for aromas as well. Be sure they're in full sun with very good drainage. That's very important for lavender also.

That's why I like Clethra - it's easy. Most plants can't stand 'wet feet' but it's no problem for this one.

My garden is about ten years old now so I get to enjoy some maturity. But I have some new areas and some replacing to do. I removed our primary shade tree to make way for my solar installation so quite a few part shade / shade plants will have to be moved.

I was very disappointed the other day to find that most, if not all, of my koi have died. Very surprising since they are three years old, about 12 - 15 inches and have survived colder winters. Real bummer. They are very pretty to watch, though they are very aggressive and eat a lot of the pond plants. I will probably go with goldfish from now on.

Good luck with your garden!

Regards,
Victor

I have the H. plantinginea, Like it because it flowers so much later. I can't smell very well and don't really fragrant garden on purpose. I can smell my Dwarf Korean and Miss Kim lilacs though. I do laught when people always walk by my cosmos on the corner and smell them - even I know they don't smell any ;)

I start dahlias early, 5-6 weeks before planting. I have a hard time keeping them growing straight up and down if longer than that. They get moved outside in May for better light until it's warm enough to go in the ground.

My plans are shaping up - I'll have some new beds and new plants. I am a specimen collector and don't intentionally have 2 of anything.


Al

How many kids, Al?

One of each.LOL

Okay . . . so I order one of each type of hosta I want - then propogate them, right? where do you recommend I get the fragrant hosta?

If Plant Delights sells the hosta you're looking for, they usually sell hostas that can be divided at least three times. Or you could drive to Blanchettes or Seawright nursery in Carlisle, MA. Blanchette's is a fantastic nursery. Seawright's has many great field grown day lilies.

Thanks watersedge I will check these out - Where is Carlisle Ma in relationship to Springfield or Boston? Sorry - new to the area - I only recently convince DH that Conneticut was south of us!

Hop on the Pike to 128N to Rt3N then 4-5 exits up. It'll take a little more than an hour but they're both fantastic and unusual nurseries, especially Blanchette's. You can find plants there that are at few other nurseries in the country. Leo Blanchette looks gruff but its all show.

For the money, I'd go with Royal Standard. It'll probably be a lot cheaper. It smells just like a lily. Which should suprise no one since it's in the lily family. I've used it as a cut flower but I can't really recommend it as such. It sure perfumes the room nicely, though.

Thanks watersedge . . . DH and I will have to check it out.

Day One of spring break

Today I - potted 17 morning glories that had germinated in those little peat pellets. I put them in paper pots which I have pieces of knittin wool trailing out the bottom like tails. I read a thread by the container people about drainage and apparently have a rope or string wick away excess water is the most effective way to drain containers - so I thought I would skip all the steps of potting into little pots - then mid-size pots, then large pots, and go directly to large pots. Still have about 8 seeds still germinating.

Then I "repotted" dahlias. I planted the tubers I had saved from last fall (did most of that incorrectly, so we will see what actually survives in spite of me!) Well, planted really isn't the correct word. They have been placed in flats and have the top surfaces visible. According to the thread on the Dahlia forum, I should see sprouts from viable tubers - then I can take cuttings and make more dahlias to share with others (assuming that ANY actually sprout). Once we have sprouts, then I will put them in real pots and place them outside on the blacktop driveway during the day and bring them in during the night. I did this last year starting in April - six weeks later we planted the dahlias in the garden and by the end of June we had dahlia flowers. Amazing plants - they bloomed until October. If only they had a fragrance . . . something for plant breeders to work on :-)

Here is a picture of one of my favourite dahlias from last year. I started with 2 tubers - I have about 8 started - hopefully one will survive!

This pink dahlia has smaller flowers than the dinner plate dahlias - but it looks FANTASTIC in flower arrangments - and the flowers really last. Alas, no fragrance, so I often pair it with Casa Blanca oriental lily

Seandor - if you decide on Hosta Plantaginea, the mother of all fragrant hosta, please let me know. We have hundreds of them.

We have a bed of them on both sides of the French doors and the perfume at night is delicate and divine.

Very nice, Pirl! Must be wonderful with all of them. Someone compared the scent to lilies but not to me. Fragrance is a subjective thing but I find lilies much heavier and muskier. Hosta fragrance to me is closer to honeysuckle. I adore it. By the way, the experts have re-classified Hosta. It is no longer in the Lily family but in the Agave family! Go figure.

Pirl, I definitely Hosta Plantaginea at the top of the list - there are lots of places to put these - especially at the base of the verandah - we often sit out front in the summer evening. :-)


are there any special tricks to growing these?

Day 2 of Spring Break: St. Patrick's Day.

Started the day at 9 am by shovelling the verandah and clearing front sideway. Why? Can't you guess? Just in case the letter carrier brings me more seeds to plant!

Just in case, he doesn't bring me more seeds . . . I am going to do the income taxes.

Everyone else - you might want to either shovel or pay local kids to shovel. Apparently there could be rain later today - then freezing termperatures tonight. Anything not shoveled might need an ice pick tomorrow.

We are lucky . . . we have a heavy duty snow thrower (old though) that was given to us a couple of years ago. DH starts it up after the snow stops falling. He does our yard and the sidewalk in front of our house and the two neighbours to our right. When we first arrived, another neighbour with a snowblower did the same for us. It's that kind of neighbourhood. We are very lucky.

Some shade is appreciated but not mandatory if the Plantaginea are planted with a lot of compost. Otherwise they must be the easiest plant to grow. I agree the smell is much more like honeysuckle but they don't attract the bees as much.

And I would want to attract bees around my verandah because ......?

Sorry, my point is that though you'll see a few bees it's nothing at all like honeysuckle where you can hear the bees from ten feet away.

Actually, I kinda like buzzer-bees - especially the large bumble-bees - but I have a brother who is very allergic to their stings. He is not likely to visit often - but . . .you never know. :-)

Oh! I gotta tell you this! When my eldest was four, she caught a whole bunch of bees in a quart canning jar while visiting my mom . . . then we had to think about how to release a swarm of very grumpy bees!!!

I decided the safest bet was to put them into the fridge for a short while, then once they cooled down (literally and figuratively) we gently released them in a safe, but sunny spot. :-)

Spring break day 3:

No seeds arrived in the mail . . . sigh. Got the income tax done. Have five more morning glories to plant. Have made lots of little pots with coloured paper. I have put some "love-in-a-mist" seeds in a blue paper pot and califorinia poppy in a peach paper pot. I want to see how the pots (especially colour) holds up. I want to sow a bunch of these plants and give them to the neighbours.

Daughter wants me to read her philosophy text on Marx and translate into English.

Too cold to go outside and retrieve pots (real ones - not paper!) to clean for spring.

Sure wish I had seeds to plant . . . . some are supposed to be on their way, but they haven't arrived yet.

So desperate to plant something, I took cuttings of the vinca major and some varigated ivy plants and started them in little paper pots after dipping them in rooting compound. . . .

This message was edited Mar 18, 2007 4:59 PM

I love Groucho Marx. Best philosopher ever!!

Absolutely - Groucho rocks! (though Marx and Engels can be interesting, if you can slog through the English translations of the original German . . . )

Victor - love your humor!

"I love my cigar but sometimes I take it out of my mouth"

That's the one that got him in trouble, Dave! I love, "Those are my principles, if you don't like them - I have others." And "A man is only as old as the woman he feels." One more - "Alimony is like buying hay for a dead horse." There are so many more!

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening but this wasn't it".

Another great one, Pirl.