Gardening Do's and Don'ts

Ditto that sentiment! You would have come home to a yard full of noxious weeds..

Hey, Holly. Thank you for the plants. My lingonberry is blooming!!!

Hi Kathy. I'm glad it is happy in its new home. I'm going to get more starts of that going for next plant swap. I never should have taken so many baby plants home right before school started. A few are actually in the ground and the rest, well, lets just say I now have many other priorities. I came home this evening absolutely wiped out and fell asleep for a few hours. Now I have a new wind, but it is too dark to go out and plant, even for me who is known to plant things by the light of the moon.

I know what you mean. I have lots of work work to do and I don't want to spend my evenings doing it after working all day. Sigh. And I think this may last for awhile.

At least it's going to be warm and dry this weekend and I'll have some time to myself. We set a record today they say - 87 at SeaTac. It's downright balmy at my house tonight.

katie, if gardening feels like work right now, give it a break for awhile. sometimes we just garden ourselves into a corner.

Thanks, SK.

No, it's not the gardening that feels like work -- it's the actual work-work that I bring home that feels like work. :-D I'd rather be outside working than doing the rest of the stuff that I didn't get done at the office. OTH, I'm happy to have a job . . . how else would I feed my gardening needs??

Ah, I see. Yes, being self-employed, if this glorious spate of shiny weather doesn't break soon, I will starve & be foreclosed upon.

Here's a big DO! DO decide at 3 p.m. that you are going to hit that "closing shop everything must go" nursery sale even though it's an hour away & probably picked clean by then. I came home with TWO HUNDRED PLANTS for $66. And yes traffic was Saturday-awful on Hwy 101 but the sea was glorious.

Nice haul. What'd you get?

I finished my indoor chores in the morning and was able to spend the rest of the day outside. I can hardly move. But I hauled many whellbarrows full of weeds and ripped out sod to the cardboard I've spread on the lawn where my new garden will go. I need more cardboard!! And I almost have a continuous grass edge on the bed that runs along one side of my back yard (an acre). That was one of my goals for this summer.

I'm just a little bit tired and hungry . . .

Katie, I have about 50 moving boxes that I can't really offer to someone else because they've been rained on. Shall I break them down & save them for you?

I got a bit of everything at the nursery, from hebe to dodecatheon media (MAJOR SCORE) to flats of woolly thyme to Kaffir lilies to erysimums (?) to gallon lavenders to Cuban oregano (MAJOR SCORE). Sure wish I could figure out how to disburse this stuff to you all, because I'd go back in a heartbeat & load up the truck again. The 4" perennials were 4 for a dollar & gallons 2 for $1. Only problem is, the tag situation is in disarray at this point so I'm kinda guessing as to variety & bloom color on some things.

Suweeeeeet. But when would we see each other so I could pick the boxes up from you?

I love dodecatheon. And Hebe's, too. Sounds like more than the standard stuff. Good for you - planting tomorrow?

Well, I have to drive to Port Angeles on Friday or Saturday, possibly stopping in Westport to meet up with my fishing-fool of a dad. Are you near I-5?

"Fishing-fool of a Dad." I like that.

Hmmmm, you'll probably want to take off around Olympia and drive up the peninsula. I'm farther north and to the east of Seattle. But thank you thank you for the offer. There may be another gardener you'll be passing who wants that cardboard - there's nothing like it for starting a new bed.

Fishin'-fool lives in Wenatchee. Everyone keeps saying that I'll want to take I-5 rather than the scenic route so we shall see. Once I have the title in hand for the Airstream I'm delivering, I'll be mapping my route to maximize exposure to fellow DG'ers. The handoff is expected to take place on Saturday morning if the title arrives.

Oh, okay. Well keep me posted. If I can (I work M-F in downtown Seattle), I'd love to meet you!!

This message was edited Sep 20, 2009 6:22 PM

Don't ever expect that you can visit Pixydish (or her neighbors) and leave without your arms full of plants. hehe.

Thanks, Melissa! :)

Note to self: Plant only one pie pumpkin vine next year as there are likely to be several volunteers as well. I have harvested more than 100 little pumpkins this afternoon, way more than I need even if I give one each to the kids in my class. I know that several free pumpkins will not offset the cost of a ferry ticket, but if anyone has a yen to go for a ferry ride on one of these beautiful Fall days you are welcome to stop in and take some of these little orange sweeties home.

This message was edited Oct 5, 2009 8:27 PM

Forgot to add picture. I have 3 or 4 times the number of pumpkins in this wheelbarrow, wayyyyy to many. Pumpkins pie...pumpkin soup..pumkin bread...pumpkin fritters....pumpkin pickles (those are actually pretty good, pickled with cinnamon sticks).

The perfect photo for fall! That's a nice looking crop!

That's a great photo, Holly.

Those are beautiful pumpkins, and the perfect postcard shot for Autumn. :)

Ditto! Very pretty.

Holly, What a gorgeous pumpkin collection! I have several of those same kind of "only plant one" notes to myself, but always come spring find myself thinking "but what if it doesn't make it and there aren't any volunteers?" Then you end up with eight cherry tomatoe plants in pots when you are the only one in your house who eats them!

Zucchini!!!!!

Yes, zucchini too.
RJ, it is hard to imagine someone not liking cherry tomatoes. Yep, it is the 'what if?' factor that gets me every time.

DON'T "add depth" to your soil by digging and amending below grade in heavy clay. That creates a mud-pond.

DO make a raised bed and, if necessary, dig a ditch to drain downhill from it, first.

I made a 'pricking out fork' by bending one tine completely out of the way, then bending the outer two remaining tines up and out a little, and the middle one down a lot. Now the middle ones goes deep _under_ the seedling's root, while the two side ones keep it from falling off if my hand shakes.