Thursday, February 12, 2009

Preparations

Today's the day to prepare the perennial bed for planting.

Photobucket

The weatherman was right for a change. We got a huge thunderstorm last night that lasted all of about 15 minutes. The line of storms moved east across the state at 60mph. This is the same storm system that caused all the tornadoes out in Oklahoma earlier in the week. We had wind gusts up to 48 mph according to the Charlotte news stations. I haven't seen any wind damage yet.

Yesterday, I made it to the landfill for a single load of wood mulch. I did the daylily beds along the driveway retaining wall. I did the rear beds against the back of the house. I moved the fragrant tea olive from in front of the white bed to a spot near the other one. I also mulched the paths in my veggie garden.

Today, I need to pull back the rest of the leaves that have been covering the perennial bed all winter. I need to do some weeding. I want to throw out some of the fertilizer my dad brought up this weekend. It's a tobacco fertilizer meant to produce strong roots and lots of blooms. He also gave me some nitrogen fertilizer (34-0-0). Not sure what to do with that yet. My "lawn" grows too fast as it is. I've already moved everything that I thought needed to be moved from last summer. Shasta daisies have been divided, hibiscus were divided or moved, and a few Stargazers were moved from the front bed.

Some of my wintersown plants can be put out now, too. They've been out there in the cold and warmth since they were sown, so they should be able to handle any freezing temperatures we get over the next month or so. I'm trusting the people at GardenWeb on this. I've got hollyhocks, cupid's dart, and trailing carnations that I know will be planted out before Monday. I may get to the dianthus "Sweet William" if I have time. Not sure where I'm going to put 100+ plants of the same type. Any extras, I may pot into containers for the anticipated plant sale this spring.

But first, coffee. It's 43 degrees and sunny. I'm going to wait another hour before even thinking about getting dressed.

Happy birthday to Laura and Abraham Lincoln.

2 comments:

Jean Campbell said...

Will you plant corn in your veggie garden? That's the only use I can think of for nitrogen, unless you have some foliage that you want to 'green up' quickly at the expense of blossoms.

Any place you put compost that isn't completely 'done' could use some extra nitrogen, as the decomposition process uses nitrogen.

Sweet William makes a good edging plant with tall companions.

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

I'm doing the three sisters method in the veggie garden. So the corn will have the nitrogen created by the beans. I might still use it just to jump start it. I had problems with corn last year. I think it was the hard clay. This time, I have plenty of decayed leaf mulch from the landfill to plant in.

I added some of the nitrogen to my compost bin. After a year, I sill don't have any usable compost. I hope that kicks it up a notch.

I put the Sweet William in front of the arbor on both sides of the path. I put dianthus Pinks Maiden in clumps along the edges of the path and along the top of the wall in the front bed. Now I have trailing carnations that need to go somewhere.

I'm starting to think I may have overdone it with the wintersowing just a tad. LOL.

But I want a beautiful garden, and I want it NOW!