Preparing for next year 2008

He, he... you 'Kilzed' it.

Primrose Sue...hold out for brick. Start with handmade ones embossed with "Primrose Sue" and negotiate down from there.

Great looking stone wall!

I got my "growing room" set up in my bedroom. My DD #1 who works for the "council for alcohol and substance abuse" kids me about what I'm growing under my lights. So far I've got a few cuttings of coleus, geraniums, bacopas, petunias, sweet potato vines and million bells. I also dug up begonias, petunias, tricolor sweet potato vines, geraniums, bacopas, and a vine ; cut them back and planted them (swished them in insecticidal soap also)!! I don't know how any of these will do as I've never done this before but I'll find out!! I also planted creeping thyme seeds between my stepping stones a few weeks ago and they had just germinated and haven't grown much so I'm digging some of those up, potting them and bringing them inside to grow for the winter - gee that sounds backwards!! LOL No idea how that will turn out either - another experiment!! Lots of experiments to keep me busy for the winter or everything could die soon and I'll have no projects for the winter - _:( Eleanor

p.s. How can a pic of something so bright come out so bad? It was such a dark photo I had to turn on the light on the shelf with no plants and edit the brightness on the finished photo.

Eleanor:

You did great editting the photo for light. I wouldn't worry.

You certainly have a lot of 'winter subjects' to command and to keep you busy during the cold months. I envy you.

Looks great, 'Eleanor the Seedmaster'!

Looking good, Eleanor.

Anna and Taelar planted tulip, crocus, and daffoldil bulbs yesterday. I think Taelar has caught the gardening 'bug'. Sammi, who's fifteen, doesn't like getting her hands dirty - yet.

There's still so much to do and so little time left! My head is reeling from all that's still left to plant and what's still got to be cut back or separated.

Eleanor . . . On wheels too, that is a nice touch. I grew under 6 tubes last year (one 4 bank, one 2 bank) and you can get a lot of stuff under them. Having lights comes in handy for trades. Neighbor offered to rototill my garden last spring and it was nice to be able to give him a dozen and a half heirloom tomato seedlings he couldn't buy in a store.

So you have this one in your bedroom. Where is the next rack of lights going?

:-)

Perhaps you've heard of the company below but I hadn' t. Just got a heads up about Thomas & Morgan's seed discount seed outlet:

http://www.valueseeds.com/?page=1

Shipping is two bucks. Lots of seeds for 99 cents, some for 49 cents. Click on the "growing guide" as well as the page listings. Not everything there is available but much is. Dahlia Double Extreme seeds are 25 for 99 cents.

pirl, you mention "dunking" the whole plant in an insectidal soap solution (before bringing plants inside )....what brand of soap do you mean?
Or could I spray with an insectidal soap spray Instead?
TIA,
Emily

I don't know the brand name and it's in the garage. Probably Agway has it - give them a call so you don't waste your time. You could spray but you do want to get the entire leaf surface and dunking is quick and easy. Have one sheetrock pail for the tops and another for the pot and soil. Dip the top first (heads down) then the pot (bottom down) and leave it out for an hour or so to dry off.

just found this thread - as usual, busy keeping up with the watched threads keeps me from finding the new ones.

I have a light setup in my basement too. I used to propagate african violets down there, but I think I'll concentrate more on my coleus, begonias and starting certain seeds for next year.

My prep for 2008 consists of figuring out what did well and will be repeated, versus what will not have a return. What did well versus what I need to change for it to do better.

Since coleuses are so colorful I find this is a great time to take photos of each one and decide where I'd like to plant it for fall color next year.

This was the first year I bought Coleus from Rosy Dawn Gardens and was very happy with the results. Have to review them in GW. Lots of variety. A bit pricey when you start buying a lot but hopefully my cuttings will cut down on what I need to order.

Pirl, how did your Delphs from Graceful Gardens do? Mine did okay, but far from 100% success.

Thanks for the tip on Rosy Dawn Gardens. I'll have to view their site.

The sunnier the spot the better the Delphiniums did - a few still blooming for the third time. As the hydrangeas grew by leaps and bounds they shaded some too much. I'll try and move them this week to the sunshine. Only one is a goner.

How is it that I just found this thread now . . . have I been in a time warp? Anyway, I have been working on this since July.

This weekend I planted out : Blue Pigmy delphiniums; Oriental Blue delphiniums; Candy Mountain Foxglove, Apricot Beauty foxglove. These were "summer-sowed" by me and are still quite small, so not sure how many will survive the winter. I planted them quite close, and will thin them in the spring if necessary.

Today I ordered more lilies - some for the front gardens and some REALLY tall ones for along the fence in the back yard.

I have also sorted all my seeds for winter sowing, and I am trying to think how to afford a LARGE inside lighting system since I will never have a green house as long as I live where I do now.

Also - spent most of the vacation designing a dream garden for the terrace - I hope to show the plans to those attending the RU and get some constructive criticism.

Cheers,
Michaela

We cleaned out most of one bed yesterday and cut back the iris in that bed. We watered alot, since it has been so dry lately.

There were more daylilies to plant, and we even planted out a purple-leafed kale for some color interest in the front garden.

It was a busy garden weekend, and will continue to be a busy garden week!!

When do things stop blooming - I mean it's now Sept 24 - I still have Dahlia's blooming, wonder of staffa aster, wax begonias, some petunias, the impatiens, roses, veronica, cornflowers, etc. The mums haven't even started. Will we still have some blooms 3 weeks from now?

You should have blooms until frost. Keep deadheading. Roses can go to December without a problem.

The impatiens will notify you, loud and clear, of your first frost.

Okay - I am confused about the roses - in the paper this weekend it said to NOT deadhead the roses now, but to let it go into dormancy . . . is this correct? I will deadhead everything else :-)

That's because dead heading roses encourages new growth. At this point there is not enough time for the new growth to harden off before freeze. It will continue to bloom without your help.

Darnitall, Victor!
Did I ruin my rose bush by bringing in some beautiful roses for the dining table today?

Absolutely not! Roses are much tougher than they're given credit for.

Whew!!
Thank you.

I don't follow the rules set out in newspapers. There are too many errors and we still have almost two months before a frost that doesn't stop the roses.

But you are two full zones warmer than Candyce, Pirl.

OK. I think of us as all one big happy family........maybe a few exceptions!

Happy family but a very large geographical area! Hard to believe some individual states have their own forum. I think that's a bit much.

California?

Yes and FL, GA and MI. There is also one for both Carolinas.

Florida has two time zones and the weather from the Keys up to Jacksonville and Tallahassee is so totally different that they probably have two or three zones there. Maybe it's true for the other states as well.

Come to think of it, New York has many zones!!!

FL has three zones. NY has four.

Just 5, 6 and 7 for us, Victor?

And 4.

You can see I'm scatterbrained tonight, sorry!

We're all entitled sometimes!!

Your roses will be okay like Victor says they are tough. I usually stop deadheading mine about six weeks before ave first frost. I figure that should give them time to start the chemical change for dormancy. If this year is like last year, they will be all confused anyway no matter what you do. LOL

Okay - deadhead the roses tonight - what about Wonder of Staffa aster? Does anyone know if the seed is viable? Or would saving the seed be a waste of time, and just deadhead for more flowers?

Your asters will spread underground and you'll probably have a much bigger plot of them by next spring. I doubt if the seeds will germinate.

oh rats! Spent a lot of time cleaning the seeds while DH read the first chapters of Sharpes Rifles.

How do you figure out the average first frost date?