Garden Journal
GARDEN JOURNAL
November 2009
Sunday Nov. 1: Planted 106 hardneck garlic cloves and 46 softneck cloves. Planted them 3 inches apart, around 2 inches deep. Covered them with a layer of composted manure and layered around 6 inches of mulch on top of the bed.
I then made the birds yearly winter brush pile over the bed. When I find my camera, I’ll take a picture and post it.
Thurs. Nov 12 Was just getting ready to sit down after a long day of painting when Mike (my young gardening assistant from next door) knocked on the door and asked, ” got any work to do?”. I really needed to plant my heirloom spring bulbs, so I said, ” as a matter of fact I do”. So out I went. We got all the bulbs planted and layered compost on top of the beds in the front yard. I was actually glad he came over and the task was accomplished. It has been a warm November so hopefully the bulbs will have a chance to root before the ground freezes. I usually plant bulbs in October but we had been so busy painting I had been too tired out after work to do the job.
Sunday Nov 29 Finished hauling the bark mulch pile from next door onto the area in the backyard I want to make into new bed next year. [ Earlier this spring we hired someone to mulch last winters birds brush pile. He had almost a full load on his truck already and I asked him what he was going to do with the load. He said I could have it if I wanted to. Of course I said YES! So he dumped the entire load on the driveway of the empty house next door. The pile was HUGE. One of the neighbors asked if he could use some for his rose bushes. Then another neighbor asked to use some. I told them, help yourselves! Over the summer between me and the neighbors the pile dwindled down some. By the time I got to taking what was left it had composted quite well.] Here are a couple of pictures
My yard on left inside fence
This is what he dumped on the driveway
December 2009
Thurs Dec 3
Ordered some heirloom spring bulbs from Old House Gardens. Ordered some Dahlias- edible bulbs, flower petals and Cannas- one species Canna indica ( aka Indian shot) is edible -fruit and bulb. I have never grown either because you have to dig up and store the bulbs indoors over the winter. Too much work!! But I have a plan! I’m going to plant them in containers so I can just bring the containers inside for winter. That’s easy enough.
Fri Dec 4 After work mulched the new side bed with composting straw mulch. Most of the plants have not shown much growth in the bed except the primroses. Even the chameleon plants did not grow too much(certainly haven’t taken over). It will be interesting next spring to see what plants survive (if any), remember, there is not much soil over the sidewalk.
Mon Dec 7 First snowfall, just dusting more or less.
Wed Dec 9 Last night is snowed a small amount, by morning it had turned to rain. The temperature dropped and now it snows lightly off and on. The wind is really whipping as this storm is coming through. I think maybe all my plants will be totally frost killed with this storm. I had some annuals that were still green with blooms on them. Tough little plants. These plants are in the front of the house so they are protected from the west, which is the direction most of our weather comes from. That’s why I like to have a brush pile for the birds. I feed them out back and they get the full brunt of the storms.
I want to start a windbreak with some tall narrow evergreens behind the fence. There are some junipers that might fill the bill.
Please feel free to share tips, solutions or ideas that have helped you. Thanks