A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 Garden Chores (part 3)

Wow and I didn't think we would have enough for part two. You all always suprise me.

I received my water-keep today but I'm going to wait until the ground dries out some before I mixed them into the shade bed. Hopefully they will help keep it moist enough that the christmas roses will be happy there.

Well the tomatoes are looking very very happy. It is still raining and the back parking lot looks pretty much like one big lake with a landbridge to the dumpster. I hope that doesn't get submerged because I hate getting my feet wet when I empty the garbage.

The three tiger lillies I planted yesterday are looking very happy too. I never thought to have lillies but I'm glad I got these. I love the flowers.

Other than that one zinnia fell over from the excess rain. I proped it up against another one and hopefully that will keep it happy and alive. One of the miniature roses fell over too. It doesn't seem to be broken or anything it's stems are just way small compared to the size of the blooms. I'll keep an eye on it. I don't know how I would rescue it if it needed it. But I would probably try something.

now I have to see about the mums.

All the mums are planted in this summers tomato patch. I'm not at all sure where I'm going to put the tomatoes next year. I think the spot I had mapped out for them got filled with something else already. Oh well, something will present itself lol. I guess it's time to watch some tv and then get ready for bed. I'll see you all tomorrow.

And it's tomorrow lol.

The landlord decided that he wanted some tomato cuttings so I made some up for him this morning. I added the waterkeep to the compost I used for his cuttings so we'll see how much of a difference that makes to how much it needs to be watered.

The mums don't seem to be suffering from transplant shock at all. The plants were really really rootbound so I'm hoping they will be ok.

The old tomato cuttings loved the heavy rain we had and are looking great. I'm very pleased with them.

Hope you all have a good day today.

Well the old tomato cuttings look just fine this morning. Two of the new ones look dead and two look like they are going to be ok. It's early days yet so we will see. I went out to mix the water-keep in with the shade flower bed I've been working on all year and wow what great soil. It's so soft and deep and crumbly I just love it. Without being able to do the chicken poo and cardboard it took much longer and I had to pull the weeds the hard way but I'm pretty sure that the christmas roses are going to be very happy there.

It's rather amazing that I can always use more compost/potting soil than I have but then I am reclaiming the garden one foot at a time. I have started to come across the rest of the shaded area of the second tier. I don't expect to finish that area until sometime in the spring but it is weeded and now I'm beginning to loosen the clay and move it towards the front of the tier and add grass clippings and partially decomposed grass clipping in the back. It finishes decomposing very slowly but I have time fortunately and I want to see how it will hold it's shape without any support.

Well I brought two of the tomato clippings inside. We'll see if I have bleached the spidermites into non-existance or if they are going to munch my tomatoes into non-existance lol. So I still have 6 outside. Two that should be almost rooted and 4 that are pretty new. Those are for the landlord. Hopefully they will do alright. I know he has some kind of bugs in his plants down stairs I just don't know what kind they are. That's why I don't trade with him.

Sounding good, TK! Keep us posted on how they do once they are indoors. I've never thought to bring them in...

Well I don't have a sunny place in back for them cause the building is in the way most of the day and I'm afraid it may get to cold. The east facing windows though should be good if the bugs are gone. Lord knows I've tried.

I'll keep you posted.

Sounds like you're working hard there.

Tomatoes indoors - never thought of that one. Guess it's ok as long as you can keep the root alive.

Bugs, bugs . . . grrrrrr! But we gotta' have them or we'll put the environment off balance.

Well it would be nice to have big sized tomatoes next year and supposedly this is the way to increase yield so I will see. I feel very fortunate that they rooted.

Cuttings are a very new thing to me and I'm just thrilled when they don't wither and die. I have a bunch of questions to research about what I do now that that part is taken care of. The first one being how do I restart my ticker for the cuttings I took yesterday? Can anyone help me with that? I am such a lost cause lol.

The barberry cuttings bit the dust without being the slightest bit shy about it. They just dropped their leaves and said no way. Grrrrrrrh.

I wish the guy that owned the variegated wieglia(sp) spoke a word or two of english but he doesn't so all I can do is hope that plant survives so I can see the pretty flowers. The druggies and malingerers are destroying his pampas grass and he is just letting weeds overgrow the rest of it. It is so sad. I've tried to communicate with him a few times but he is busy with the restaurant and doesn't appear to be interested in talking.

TK - sent you a PM...

Hey the timeline reversed itself that's great when it gets to day 8 I know it's time to let the tomatoes dry out and find their sunny location for the winter.

I planted another mum in the tomato patch this morning very early. I think it's going to be a bronze color but I'm not going to swear to it until one of them opens. I thought I bought white ones and got the violet ones so this time I'm waiting until it blooms lol. I love the mystery.

Well I didn't turn the compost today but I did rake up a bunch of leaves so it wasn't to bad. I still have to get out there and pick them all up and put them in the compost bin.

It's been a busy day.

Hope you all had a good day.

There the leaves are in the compost pile woohoo. I got it done.

The second set of tomato cuttings are comming along pretty good no wilting which is a good thing. They seem to enjoy doing this in the cooler temperatures.

The second shade bed got a dose of compost today which is a good thing.

Other than that I've just been admiring the mums.

Well yesterday while I was waiting for a friend I planted some christmas rose seeds. Hopefully they will do well but from reading about them I'm assuming they are difficult to germinate. Hope you all are crossing your crossables for me lol.

So today is day one of their two weeks of 70+ weather requirements. After that it's 4 weeks of mid 30's temperature and then it's in the garden for the winter. that is one strange plant lol. Hope it grows for me. I have enough for one more attempt if this doesn't work.

Well I planted some wild daisies in my garden today. They were growing in the mechanics weed patch this moring and so I took one clump for me. I doubt he would mind he never pays the slightest attention to the area so I got myself a small slice of them.

A young lady at church had mentioned that when she moved here her's had died and what I wanted was a clump of them for her. But the clump came out bigger than i expected so she got a clump and I got one too. I certainly wasn't just going to let it die they are way to pretty for that. I hope they don't mind the transplant.

They will probably not even wilt.

I took some pics of some wild flowers while I was out at my farm yesterday...have no idea what they are, and have never seen them before. Need to put them in Mystery plants.
I have a lot of wild flowers in my yard. I keep a little shovel in my truck all the time...for "those" occasions!

tk...I wish you lived closer, sounds like you and I could really do some "garden things" together I carry a small shovel behind my truck set and tons of plastic grocery bags under the seat, never know when you just might need to dig something up! LOL

Well I have a trowel but no truck are you sure I can join the club? I'm just teasing a little I do that. Sounds like a plan to me. But without a car or money you all are going to have to move closer to here lol.

I got the daisies that have the yellow centers last time but now I see there are some with purple centers that seem to hang down. I want to try and get some of those too for the garden. I'll ask him tomorrow if he minds.

Good luck tk...I know you can convince him LOL!!!

Wow! You and your landlord seem to have come a long way these days - didn't he hold up the shootin' match by not letting you use certain areas in the beginning of the season? I seem to remember you (or somebody else) talking about it.

Your landlord oughta' be done with it and build you a greenhouse - ha ha! I have fantasies of finagling to get a sun room built onto our apartment here at the back of the building. It gets lots of sun there in the mornings and would be a swell place to grow - also somewhere to sit reading in the winter as the snow falls all around me.

Wow that sounds pretty Carly. I don't think I'll try and convince him of that though lol.

I did get some of the purple daisy type plants today. Some went in the garden I bet that's no suprise and I potted some up for a friend that loves daisies. Hopefully she will be at church today and I can give them to her.

Other than that all I did was shovel some dirt up into the space where I want to put the canna. I actually found one canna seed pod that had developed what looked like seeds. I gave it to the landlord to try and plant. My next plan is to take the finished compost put it over where I want the canna to winter mix it in with the soil that's already there and then transplant the canna. I hope the landlord will understand that I will put some of the canna back into the container next spring but that I don't want to leave them there during the winter because there is a chance they would freeze and die. Well I hope you all have a really great day.

A lousy coupla' days here - Sat & Sun rain and cold. We might get a break from it Tuesday. The weather people are saying it all depends on what that storm is going to do - Wilma . . . it seems after she's finished with Florida, she'll be heading up the coast for Atlantic Canada. But first she'll actually join with Alpha.

Rain is about all we'll get in Ontario - I don't think we'll get anything that big in the way of a storm.

I want to get back out there cleaning my plots. The lack of light is making me sleepy.

Fingers crossed for you tk...hoping the best for your seeds

thanks comfrey,

I got a set of the canna transplanted out back where the rain spout empties out. Hopefully that will be a good place for those and the tiger lillies.

I was teasing the landlord about needing more space. I don't think he was amused. But he did bring me another load of grass clippings so I need to be nice to him. Also I want some shelves made and he goes to lowes for me so I need to be really nice.