Preparing to Work in the Garden

Now that we are all set to head to the garden, lets do a little fertilizing.

Lining out daylilies

By the storms missing us last night, I was able to get outside and dig and line out a couple of daylilies.

This is from a bed I started lining out last fall. This bed will need to be totally reworked.
The first video is the digging and dividing and the second video is of lining out.

Do you like weeding ?

Well actually on a day like today, I like weeding.  A nice warm south wind blowing on a partly sunny day.

When there is little blooming in the garden other than a few daffodils and a few marsh marigolds. So peaceful.  Only the sounds of the wind blowing through the trees, the birds singing and crickets chirping.

 The soil slightly damp and cool to your hands.

How could you not enjoy weeding when you look back and see the results if your labor.

Since I do not wish to be doing this again when it becomes hot outside, and knowing that pulling those weeds

has disturbed many weed seeds that are just waiting to sprout, I spread some Trefland in the bed. Knowing there is a rain moving in tonight or tomorrow morning, I want have to water it in. Now I can stand back and anticipate June bloom.

This makes five of the seven beds I have cleaned out that are in the picture of my heading.

Transplanting tomatoes

Yesterday and today I have transplanted over 150 tomatoe plants and 48 broccllie plants. Started more tomatoe seeds in the house.

March winds in Feb

I certainly hope that no one had any serious damage from the storms that swept through yesterday and last night, Only mild damage here and certainly nothing like the diaster in New Zeland.

The straighet line winds thankfully                     

only lasted about 10 minutes. Powere flickerd

on and off several time but we never completly

lost power. A very fast moving storm. I do have some damage to the roof .   This shingle blew off the east end of the house and is laying at the back door about 25 ft away.     

Then there are limbs down all over the lower side of the drive. Well that is where my onion bed is located. This limb was sicking in the bed about two inches deep.

                

Then there has been this old dead pine tree out      by the road for some time. The power company had topped it and rather than cutting it completly down they left three fourth of it standing. Now it is laying  in my yard for me to clean up  What a mess                          

How did this happen

How in the world did this happen. After removing at least 40 potted plants from the greenhouse

for program auctions I have very little room for my tomato plants. They are ready to go in cell packs.

 

 

One bright thing today was this te-tiny daff blooming, a sign that spring is here.

Bring New Life to an Old Bed

This is an old seedling bed that I had in 2005. The seedlings were all removed year before last. I took the frame out from around it and moved it to a new spot. So now lets get some new life in this old bed.
First thing I have got to get all the weeds removed .

Once the weeds are removed we need to get a little more life back into the bed. This is done by double cutting the soil. I just used a hoe to pull the soil back. Even though the closest tree is 30 ft. away are further you would not believe how many tree roots there is in this bed.

WOW after about an hour of all that digging we need to get some form back to the bed. All the clods are busted up by hand and the bed is then raked level.  Then a little clean up around it.

I have decided to use this bed for my spring onions as it is to wet to plow the garden right now.
So furrows were made and fertilizer added and covered. Then the onions were planted.
Goodbye to an old bed, goodbye to the manicured nails I had all winter and hopefully goodbye to a few pounds I gained this winter.

By the time the onions are ready to pull the bed then can be refurbished with some soil conditioner and will be ready for planting of daylily seedlings by fall. This bed held 66 onion plants. Red and Texas Sweet.
Here is the finished bed after about five hours of hard labor. But it will be worth it in a couple of months. Now all I need is a good hot bath and someone else to cook dinner for me.

First Scape Jan 13th

Well this is Texas Blue Eyes  sent to me in Oct. Was cut back to about 1 inch and here it is
today with a scape coming on it. It is sitting in my South facing kitchen window.

Mobile Hemerocallis Society Meeting Jan 23rd.

I headed south on Saturday to the Mobile Hemerocallis Society, While others were headed North
to the MWS. I was expecting warmer temps while I knew the ones headed to Nashville were
going to see snow and ice. Well to my surprise it was cold in Mobile too.  Got up Sunday morning
to a frost on everything. I sure wasn't prepared for that. But the day turned out to be great.
Temps warmed up close to 60.

It was great to see Fred Manning again (acting president of the MHS) Although I didn't know any of the other members I met a great group of people. Very interactive which makes one feel right
at home. I even aquired a new recipe for a great snack from one of the members. 

For those of you who don't know Fed Manning he is know on the Lily Auction as Spunky1.
Here is a picture of Fred with my lovely equipment technician  and granddaughter Brooke.
As well as a picture of the group. 
A big thank you to the Mobile Hemerocallis Society for the warm welcome.

Birmingham Dayliy Society Jan 16th meeting

I had a great time on Jan. 16th at the Birmingham Daylily Society. A super nice bunch of folks.

It was great seeing old friends and making new friends. I was really pleased to see members

from the Central Alabama Daylily Society

there also.

This is Morris and Becky Parr and myself.

The Central Alabama Daylily Society will be

hosting our fall regional.

Mera Crews came with Morris and Becky
Mera is working on gathering all of Linda Agin's
introductions and has quite a few of them already.
Mera and Me:



I had headr of Mr. Joe Langdon and got the opportunity to meet him,


My lovely granddaughter Tiffany who assisted me
in loading , unloading and setting up for the program
                                                                                  

Tiffany and David Allison seam to hit it off as they were probably the only two Alabama fans
in a room full of Auburn fans. Well that was until Morris and Becky got there.

Looking forward to going to Mobile this weekend. Maybe it will be some warmer there.

We had snow flurries tonigh. I am so ready for spring.

Video

Please scroll down to the post of A New Year with Daylilies to see the video on planting of the
sprouted seedlings.  Or click on  "A New Year with Daylilies" in the menue to the left. I want to keep the theme going right on through so all the information will
be found in one place.

Soil mix

Before planting the seedlings I wanted to tell you about my potting soil mix.  First off there are many soil mixes but I have found this to be successful for me. I use the Pro-Mix BX. for my seedlings. I sometimes incorporate about 1/3 Evergreen soil conditioner in it, for drainage purposes. The Pro-Mix is not readily available here in my small town, so I have to have either the local feed and seed store or the Co-op in Columbus, Ms order it for me. The Pro-Mix BX with Biofungicide is composed of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss (75-85 % / vol.); Dolomitic & Calcitic Limestone (pH adjuster); Endomycorrhize (Mycorise Pro); Macronutrients; Perlite (horticural grade); Micronutrients; Vermiculite; and a Wetting Agent.  http://www.growersupply.com/prprbx.html.  Not the cheapest thing on the market but with mixing in the soil conditioner it really goes a long way.  This is just what I use for the seedling trays.
I will use the soil conditioner with mini pine bark nuggets for the gallon or larger pots. More on that later.

Snow and seeds

Well we have three inches of snow this morning and here in the south we are pretty much stranded as we have no snow plows. I decided to check on the seeds and have posted an updat with pics. Scroll down to Jan 3rd posting.

Tip for today

Though I would throw out a tip for the day that I found useful.I have three cats and they love digging in my raised beds to use as a restroom. Then my sons dogs will come and did a very large hole trying to did up the cat's business. I found that spreading used coffee grounds on the beds will stop the cats digging, therefor also stopping the dogs digging. Coffee grounds also provide a slow release nitrogen. I understand that if you have a Starbucks that they bag there ground and set them out for customers on a first come first serve basics.

I don't have a Starbucks near me and I don't drink coffee. Only my husband. So about two tablespoons of grounds per day is all I have.

This is Princess, and  Ity Bitty.Couldn't                

get Duchess to be still long enough to get

her in the pic.
They are all just what I call barn cats
and great hunters. They constantly bring
me mice, moles and even a rabbit every
once in awhile.                  

Beluga Whales

                                       Though I would post this video of Beluga Whales
                            made with my Olympus camera at the aquearium in Atlanta GA.
                              If this works well, I will be adding videos of garden visits this
                                                                   coming season.

                                                                  Hope you enjoy it !