Gardening

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Greenhouse opened yesterday.  Transplanted pansies for 4 hours.  We've got the onions up and seeding all the lettuces, swiss chard, cool season stuff.  Left some of the plants in the greenhouse.  Seeds went home with people to get started.

I'm with a gardening group.  Opening of the greenhouse kicks us into high gear for the season.  We have 5 acres sleeping that will come alive sometime in March.  I'm the labor not the brains in this group.  The flower girl in this party.

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I have toasty toes!    Finally, my feet were freezing working in the garden.  Like those plastic type boots.  Just hose the mud off of them but, there is no way to keep your feet warm when it starts to get cold.   

Got myself a new pair of boots from Redwing.  Waterproof and something in the toe for added warmth, actually strength but it holds in the heat.  Not sure if I can do a ladder lace with these eyelets.  I prefer that so I don't have the pressure on the top center of my foot and your boot doesn't come off until you take it off.    Oh happy day, new boots. 

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OMG!  We're putting up QR codes all around the garden.  I'm writing all the narratives for the 24 codes.  I got a "loving those" on the scripts from the other project lead.  Yeah, I'm just lighting matches and throwing them into the wind here and this one took.  I come up with the best ideas when I'm gardening.

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One of our visitors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8YeYWdlwaQ

Think that's what you'd call a ninja turtle. 

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Balmy 80 degrees in the greenhouse.  Transplanted coleus and coneflowers.  Having a hard time getting lettuce to germinate at home.  Think they know how cold it got.  Nice and warm in the room but everything seemed to stop when the cold hit. 

Pretty sure I'm going to have to cut my crepe myrtle down to the ground.  Here we grow them as a bush.  The cold weather frequently kills the tops.  I had just got mine up to 6 foot trees with mild winters the last couple of years.  I'm not going to bother pruning them until I know they lived.  Left canna bulbs in the ground too.  Probably lost those but I have a couple hundred I dug up.

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And all the sudden it's spring!    I can tell, where don't I hurt?  Always in such great shape by the end of the growing season and so out of shape at the start.    The secret to that is get those muscles warmed up and don't stop.  And a well, worn in pair of work boots.  Why do I ever take these off? 

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I got all my cool season crops in.  Rather they are in containers.  I do what they call a salad bowl, crops so you can cut your own salad.  I have to bring the containers into the garage each night so the critters don't get them but it works out pretty well.  Amazing how much better stuff tastes right from the garden. 

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I have been watching so many webinars on native plants I now feel guilty for planting exotics.  I'm still doing it but I feel bad.    I'm going to switch over.  I'll collect seeds this fall and start growing natives.  I do like birds, bugs and butterflies.

[cineater]

What is going on?  We've had very poor germination this year.  Normally we have bunches of stuff come up but we're getting only a few seeds to germinate from a packet in some stuff.  I'm not even getting marigold seed collected from the parks to do any good.  My friend said Baker Seed company is sending extra seeds "due to poor germination rates".  Is something going on with pollination?

We have a big wig at the demonstration gardens we call Mr Evil.  He tries to trip us up, complains and spies on us from his office to catch us messing up.  I'm pretty over protective of my team and the gardens so when the garden that he first sees out his window because available, I took it.  It's in the shape of a butterfly and for it's spring look I'm planting a bunch of leaf lettuces in it.  They blow in the breeze and look like the butter fly is taking flight.  That's idea behind it, first year I'm trying it.  I'm demonstrating what's called a "Salad Bowl" planting.  Or what's known amongst some of the team, the message to be seen from his window, EAT ME! 

[cineater]

Harvested my first salad.  I'm using blood meal around the plants and the bunnies and squirrels have stayed out of the containers.  The cats on the other hand seem to think there is a fresh kill in there and are always checking them out.  I have one unprotected bed in ground at the garden with blood meal, so far it hasn't been attacked.  Have to reapply after every rain.  Not something I would do with our actual pantry beds, chicken wire for them.  Would need to much product for those and I'm not sure about putting that much nitrogen in the beds.  Says it works to deter moles, no it doesn't.

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OMG, I propagated a pear tree from one of the pruned off canes.  Just nicked up the cane, put some rooting hormone on it and stuck it in a bucket of my home made potting soil.  It's budding out!  If I knew that was going to work I could have grown a whole grove.

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I'm glad with prices going up at the grocery store I'm growing some of my own produce and I have friends with chickens. 

We're in mid plant sales.  Lots of people ordering veggies.  I'm able to convince people to trying growing stuff in containers.  The whole country saw an increase last year in vegetable gardening and it looks like the interest is there again this year.

[cineater]

Aw, the greenhouse shuts down tomorrow and all remaining plants get composted.  I'm not allowed to come up for that.     I would find homes for all the leftovers but they don't want to do that for sales reasons.  As it is, I have around 1200 plants hanging out on my driveway.  Most will go into my beds at the garden, some for the parks and a few for gifts.  Next week is get my garden beds ready for planting with a goal for mid month having everything planted.  It's fun but it's a lot of work.

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When I said harvest the leaf lettuce, I meant cut off the outer leaves and leave about 3 leaves.  Show up this morning and its been cut to the ground.     It was just starting to look so cool.  I had originally planted it so it would make the butterfly shape look like it was taking flight.  It was suppose to be for show but then I got feeling guilty because it is food and I let them harvest it.  It's okay, I was going to rip it out in a few weeks and put in a summer design.

Love my beds at the garden!  I'm a heavy leaf mulcher and those weeds barely grow in them and they pull right out.  I can dig in the soil with my hands.

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Woohoo!  I have the day off, not that I wanted to.  Week one down.  I put in well over 500 plants, seeds and bulbs.  Dug out the path around the greenhouse and put down fresh wood chips.  Damn, I out did myself, looks so good.  The miniature garden got 216 plants in it.  It's going to catch your eye.  I have one of my personal beds that needs a quick clean up and another bed I'm caring for this year I need to throw some bulbs in and then my obligations to my beds are done. 

Week two is getting the whole garden in order.  I have to put on my overall lead hat.  I rarely do this but that invasive weed in the Perennial garden is getting Round Up.  You can't dig that shit out and it's spreading around the property.  I get to play with the trimmer too.  I've put a call out for the rest of the membership to come weed on Saturday.  There's a couple of gardens where the leads haven't checked in yet and they are in terrible shape.  There's lots to do on the property that's under nobody's care.  I generally hit that.  The building opens from covid restrictions on the 17th and the gardens need to be up to speed.

I'm pretty much at the garden from 8:30 to dark with a short lunch break in the afternoon.  This is fun!  Yeah, I had to retire.  It interfered with my gardening.   

[cineater]

Okay, this is getting a little annoying.  I had a medical issue that got me started on weight loss but I've also been on my feet and moving since March.  I'm down so much my pants constantly need to be pulled up.  Okay I can deal with that but today, wait I probably shouldn't say that but, the rest that goes along with pants won't stay up either!  And because my hands are always dirty I can't do anything about it.   

I'm fully up to speed and kicking it.  Daylily path dug out and fresh wood chips put down.  Last night while trying to mulch the plants I found I could no longer lift the wheelbarrow.    My wheel barrel limit for the day is 19.  No way am I finishing the perennial bed tomorrow.  There will be a week 3.  We had 5 people on that bed this morning and only got a third of it done.  I only have two gardens to help get up and going and a the tool shed area to weed.  I have 5 flats of plants left.  Once that's done, I have a gift certificate for a massage and I'm getting my nails done.  I'm going back to being a retired, old lady.  You know one of those gardening women you see with a straw hat, a basket of flowers in their hands and not a spot of dirt on them. 

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Yes I am a little bit over the edge.  Think it's all the sun. 

We are a demonstration garden so yes, I am putting that poison ivy plant on display.    It gives me too much trouble and it's dead!  I'm going to put an inground metal collar around it so it can't spread that way and will have to keep in pruned back but I think it's a pretty good plant to show people.  Everybody always misidentifies that and it freaks them out.  Plus it will teach me to have patience and slow the fuck down, really pay attention to what I'm doing.  You know, if that is possible. 

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   There's only so long that yellow rain coat can keep you dry.  The clothes start soaking it up and after several hours, you're just wet.  It was kind of nice gardening in the rain.  Way better than hot and humid.  Almost too muddy to get in the car.

Working my ass off but this is fun.  Gave it up at 11 because I had some appointments but I need to finish up tomorrow.  We're getting summer weather after that.  All the lettuce is going to bolt.  It's kind of fun to weed.  I don't get to do that very often in my beds.  Round Up didn't touch the mugwort weed.  Next time I'll cut off the top so the plant soaks it up better.  The Perennial Garden was covered in it and it's going to try to jump into the Native Garden.  It spreads by rhizomes so there's no getting all of that out of the soil.  It would just creep out of a black plastic cover.  It's chemical warfare with this stuff.

[cineater]

That's a wrap.  107 hours in 18 days, gardening boot camp is over.  The gardens are off to a good start.  The leads can take it from here.  I'm back to my gardens/beds and on lawn care.  I've planted a few eye catchers around property.  Just have to wait for them to grow up.

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Learned Counsel is coming tonight to do a building inspection.  They haven't been on campus since covid.  Could have given me a heads up so I could be sure the property was looking good for the VIP's.  Then again, doesn't phase me.  We are show ready.  Somebody tell them they need to do some remodeling on that building.  It's making our gardens look bad.