GreenWise Gardening 2016
"I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden."
– Ruth Stout
2/17/16:
So it seems to be spring. Not officially until March 20th, but I doubt we'll get any more cold wintery weather; temperatures have been up into the 70s on some afternoons. Plants that I remember as early-March-blooming varieties are decked with flowers already: first the pale pink and now the magenta camellias, yellow narcissus bulbs, and Bermuda buttercups (oxalis pes-caprae). The buttercups pop up all over town, every year, after the rainy season. Is it a wildflower or a weed? I think that depends on where you find it growing and if you think it's attractive. I do.
My rosebushes are sprouting new leaves again. I had just cut these back for winter a month ago. This year I want to coax them to bloom profusely and for a longer season, but hadn't thought I'd need to pay much attention to them until at least March. But now I'm getting out the fertilizers and bug repellents once more.
This past weekend I pulled up a lot of wild leeks to make space in my planter boxes, then re-seeded the cilantro, dill and basil. From reading lots of gardening articles online, I've discovered that some gardeners use copper strips to repel snails. So I'll look for those during my next trip to the garden store, then experiment with this method to protect my herbs, lettuces and flowers.
Clicking on the small images below will bring up a full-size version.
Narcissus.
Snails have chewed the cyclamen.
Bermuda Buttercups.
Indoors, my mushroom growing kit has worked really well! They appeared after 6 days of watering, and are quite noticeably bigger every day. I'm looking into other edible little "crops" I could start inside the house without special equipment such as grow lights. Microgreens maybe?
Oyster mushrooms.
Sturdy pots in useful sizes.
Repotting fuchsias & geraniums
to a hanging planter.
Another project I've started on is re-potting root-bound plants, and replacing old wooden pots that are falling apart. These have been part of the container garden on this property since before I moved in 15 years ago. I have gradually replaced plants that died out, reconfigured the layout now and then, and slowly invested in more plants and pots over time. My overall interest in gardening has definitely increased during the past two years. The more I pay attention and learn, the more excited I get about being the caretaker of all these green growing things.
