( - promoted by Fong)
 Good morning, and enough already! Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
The weather this week was strangely familiar - lovely weather on Monday with the high breaking 70°; a cool down on Tuesday; on Wednesday - my day off - mid-week snow making it too wet to work outside.
Again.
Shit.
It wasn't a ton of snow - just enough to get everything wet again. And to weigh down the top-heavy, just-bloomed hyacinth. On Thursday I went around and picked all the hyacinth which were lying on the ground.
What else could I do? It was too wet to bury the soaker hose. |
 More of my antique daffodils are starting to bloom. This beauty (and it is stunning IRL) is Irene Copeland, another Old House Gardens purchase. OHG also has the story of the Copeland daffodils - Irene, Mary and Mrs. William Copeland. Ohhh, and when you clink the link, be sure to go down to the bottom of the page and see the legacy of daffodil breeder W.M.F. Copeland - I can't wait until "Brassicala" and "Dorchester" are on the market. Of course I'll have to find a place to put them - I seem to have conquered my problem with narcissus bulb fly - my daffodils are coming back and multiplying grandly. I don't know if it was my killing them when I saw them; the application of granular insecticide during their egg laying season, several years worth of applying parasitic nematodes to (hopefully) attack the grubs, or my ruthless digging and eradication of any clump of narcissus leaves that didn't produce a flower. Cross-fingers that the problem is gone forever - but it also means I don't have die-off leaving open spaces for new types of daffodils!
 I also have tulips of various types starting to bloom - this is a new type of species tulip, tulipa humilis violacea, or red crocus tulip. It is a pretty little thing - more of a rosy purple than "red", and I look forward to it multiplying. I planted a bunch of new tulips last fall, so I'm really looking forward to tulip season this year.
Since the weather was crappy - and because I'm already a week into the grace period on getting my car registration renewed - one of my chores this week was getting my emissions test on my car. The testing station is really close to a great nursery, so I stopped at Dardano's on the way home.  Good thing, too; they had 20 lb. bags of bone meal. Although I do spread bulb food and compost each year on the bulbs, it's been several years since I've remembered to get bone meal; I think an application every few years helps keep the bulbs going, and I've noticed that some of my older hyacinth aren't as full as they could be.
The weather is supposed to be decent this weekend, if a little cool today. That's OK - a touch cool and cloudy is perfect for finishing up the tilling and laying the soaker hose. Sunday is forecast to be gorgeous, getting up to 75° - so by the end of the weekend, I should - finally - have the damned snap peas in the ground.
And of course I'll have helper pooties.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your gardens? |
