Gardening 503 - Gathering Momentum

May I make a prediction?

When a project starts with an impulsive and thoroughly unnecessary purchase of goods that lack the goods, the only way to salvation lies in the purchase of other unnecessary replacement goods as soon as the original goods have been suitably disposed of.

Quick Review

Purchase of impulse goods - Check
Goods lack the goods - Check

Actually, a lot of good came out of the initial purchases.

• Backyard clean up
• Installation of raised bed (using unnecessary purchase from last year)
• Honest assessment of original bed of flowers in front yard - Bed of flowers planted in 1993 disappears on its own in less than 2 decades! ;)
  
• Discovery of fraction of front bed that is actually empty - A good 2/3rds amounting to around 60 sq. ft.

And even more good news. All the plants (the vegetables, the fruits, the flowers) got planted. That took some good hot work in the sun. It is a pity that only a quarter of the plants will show signs of life. 75% off, ha! I will have to keep track of the fractional yield to know how I ought to feel about my shopping predilection? Naw!

What can possibly go wrong? Plenty if you ask me. For instance, on an impulse I stopped at Strawberry Blossom, a plant store we used to visit quite often when Anand and Sheila lived in Haskell. It is a nice shop and it was on the way to their house. We haven't been there in years and it must be my famous nose (bargain hunting variety) that must have made me head there.

Can you spell "Bonanza"? The empty garden had met its match. I came home with 21 perennials, enough to keep me toiling right through Sunday. But the garden was going to look good again.

Here are a couple of teasers to pique your interest - Zebra Iris & Perennial Sage

More later. Ciao!

Gardening 503 - Part Deux

Some good did come out of t after all. The backyard got a thorough cleaning, the raised bed got installed even if it isn't very much raised at all.

The vegetables (cucumbers and some more peppers - mercifully on the sweetish side this time - green bell peppers, sweet banana peppers and some cubanelles to round out the sweetness) are in and occupy half of the enclosure.

The perennials seem okay though the planting is yet to occur. Most of them are shade plants meant for the North side adjoining the driveway. The only exception are the Peruvian Daffodils that require full sunlight. Talking of daffodils reminds me of the daffodil bulbs that came out of the ground when I dug for the raised bed. Their provenance remains up in the air. Maybe they can be near the Peruvian kind in the front.

The fruits seem iffy at best. The best part of it all are the "herb pots" though how easy they will be to use remains in question. It also is not clear that getting 6 of them was such a great idea! Maybe I will fill the other half of the raised bed with the strawberries and see if any of them do anything.

Overall, given everything else that line up in the expenditures column, it seems that I ought to worry more about what will survive and how much time I want to spend on the garden. The only perennials doing well are the ones from last year - the day lilies and the dahlias. That leaves 2 other sections that need to be dug up and replanted.

Oh, well! All's well that doesn't end at all! :)

Gardening 503

If you want it done right (or more likely never), do it yourself, I always say!

So what's on the agenda as far as gardening goes?

It is a smorgasbord of delights, principally because I love shopping and can resist a bargain only as much as a chocaholic can resist a Chocolaterie's aroma. So what happened?

It all started with perfectly good intentions. I have planted vegetables (lots of kinds of hot peppers and sweet bell peppers, a few egg plants and beans and some okra) on the south side of the house in pots and the hose is lying in a messy tangle. I went to Home Depot to pick up a hose organizing thingummabob to hang on the patio. I picked that up before I did anything else so I wouldn't forget the primary purpose for the visit. So score one for the old man and the memory!

Then I figured the roses I bought last season which refused to die despite my active inattention and the hardships of winter deserved better. So I picked up enough curved scalloped pieces to make a circle big enough to hold 3 rose plants. Well and good, time to go home, right?

I was heading to the checkout counter when the "75% off spring bulbs!" sign's siren song weaved its deadly spell over me. What is the problem, you wonder?

The Problem

2 blueberries
2 raspberries
6 ceramic pots with holes, enough soil and 10 strawberries per pot (I once hunted for one of these pots and was willing to spend $20 to plant some herbs)
10 assorted Astilbes
8 Peruvian Daffodils
9 Arum Cornutum
6 pink Lily of the Valley

You see what I am talking about? This is on top of the vegetables I picked up from Corrado's yesterday to plant in the raised garden bed for which I bought pieces of wood last spring. So my work is cut out for me!

Wish me luck! Ciao!