mY gLORIFIED pOTTING sHED - pART 2

We came from here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/962373/

Im going to have to resume tomorrow. Its been a very long day. Things just did ot go for me as I had planned.

But in our last portion of the thread, Happ was telling us about her maybe making the big leap! So Happ, tell us whats going on and I can catch up with you and my end tomorrow!

While we are waiting for Happ, I am going to move right along here and catch up on a few things while I pot some things up...

Things did to go as I had hoped yesterday in that I was not able to play in the greenhouse. We have a very old mare at our ranch and whose time is coming to go to rainbow bridge and I have been having to deal with that. Right now she is just having some senior moments in that she has trouble getting up when she lays down but this is not good because a large animal, once it gives up the right to stand is done. They cannot lay for long periods of time. She is not sick, just very old and frail and so my husband and I are going through the ordeal of preperations which has been really hard.. she has been a wonderful companion for nearly 3 decades.

But on a cheery note, I received in the mail some well packed and beautiful Peruvian lily bulbs from chuck7701 and I have nothing but good to say about these bulbs in how they were packed and how they arrived. For once, the post office was kind! His bulbs were packed in some dry peatmoss in a ziploc baggie and boxed and arrived perfect for planting and I got them immediately potted up.

Just look at these beauties!

(NOTE: I want everyone to know that as I get things going here, I will show you them and if something comes in that arrives in less than perfect shape, my intention is not to insult anyone in how it was packaged but is to also discuss those shipping problems so we can all learn from when things go badly in shipping and to improve on means to do better. I for one have shipped plants out and have had a few unsuccessful shippings so things do go wrong not intending them to do so.

And while the post office is a great scapegoat.. they are not always the blame either!)

This message was edited Mar 21, 2009 2:26 PM

So, well, ok now, last I left off with beautigirls lovely dafs, I had to set tem off to the side and they actually went back to the refridgerator box and all how she packed them. Time did not allow for me to get to them so here we are were those left off.

Beautigirl packs her bulbs superbly for spring transplanting to me. She takes a damp papertowel and wraps the bulbs only leaving the leaves on the bulbs. We should not cut the leaves on the bulbs transplanted in the spring because the bulbes need the leaves to process them for food value to grow on later. So take a look at that picture below.
I have had these bulbs for a couple of weeks in my fridge as said and they are looking good. After planting now, these dafs are going to die back and so their pots will be showing empty tops until they return growing in the pot sunk in my garden someplace next spring!

I recycle the old nursery cans. I use gallon pots and put about 5 bulbs into each pot, dependign on the mature size of what ever variety.

Bulbs like chuck7701's above, those went 2 in a pot because they were so nice and large.

So off we go....lets get beautigirls daffs finished today!

her bulbs unwrapped....

I am using garden soild actually from my garden to pot these bulbs with. My soil is quite poor and sand, but the dafs love it here.

So ok, in potting these up, the soil on my potting bench is bone dry to a powder. Not that I like it that way, just that I have not brought hoses out of winter storage to wet it down and the soil was what I loaded here at the end of the season last fall and to which has dried in the greenhouse due to the nice heat the last few days. Today it is 85 degrees in here.

I take a nice selection of a few bulbs, pot them up and they are done. I am not going to get all hung up about watering these pots now. They are going to go out on my patio, sit in a bucket of water for a few minutes to get the powder dirt on the bottom to quit sifting throught the pot holes and then sit on the benches there and as I get more into my watering routine will start to actually water them later on. For now, they can be very happy sitting in their pots left dry and to let their leaves burn down for their natural feeding.

There you go, spring transplanting of dafs!

All I need now are pot labels and off they go to the
holdign bench.

Taking a hike around the garden, some of my bulbs out there are already starting to grow. These are beautygirls bulbs as I raise them in my garden.

The idea is that those nursery cans will one day make it easy for me to find and lift these bulbs again for division and the cans keep the moles and critters from tunneling in to destroy them.

My understanding of the moles and voles is that they are not actaully eating the bulbs, but the tunnels creat air pockets and that is what does the harm to most bulbs as most bulbs are toxic to a critter if it eats them. Least thats what I have been told and seems to be true.

And the potio!! LOL! Patio of pots! Holding area!

Ok, we had a question on MILKY SPORE! no it does not harm pets.

It is a powder and when applying it you do not want to in hale it. But once it is applied it is harmless to the rest of the environment,

How iit is applied is by using a cardboard tube. I am going to be putting some down later this week and can run through how its done.

Try going to www.milkyspore.com and see what they have to say about it.

ok....first bloomer here

I know I would love the greenhouse just spending the hard earned money!

I worked on Saturday so no time to play. Sunday I took all my plants in my solar room outside and washed them off. Fighting spider mites on the brugs and elephant ears. Also found out I had a few scale on a standard tropical hibiscus, so I cleaned all that stuff up. Some the pots are huge and very hard to get back in once they have been watered but I did it. Suppose to have severe thunderstorms tonight the rain and snow on the weekend so I couldn't leave any thing outside. Almost all the perenials are up due to the 70 degree weather. Going to have to watch March and April that nothing gets frozen back. Even my oriental lilies are up.

Already saw where deer were munching on my daylilies......darn it. Always had a outside dog but no longer. I may have to get one. They keep the deer away.

I have never had a problem with deer on dayliles! And beleive me we got deer here. They dont even seem to bother what days I got out in the woods. Guess they like the farmers corn better!

Poor you on the little peskies. Have you tried a little malathion? Ever so often we get white flies on the hose plants. I usually end up dumping them, but a lilttle bug spray works too. Last year we seemed to be a haven for fleas. I hope that cold winter we had took care of that because boy, that sure was a first..

Well, I think if you get the greenhouse, it wil pay for itself if you are an avid gardener and you will find yourself trying things you did not do before. Lot will depend mostly too on the outdoor space you have for any gardening and if you do outdoor plants like annuals too.

I found that it was acheap deal for me to order plug trays on certain annuals than trying to start them by seed. I got more bang for my buck especially in the hard starters like impatiens. I would always lose tones of impatiend tryign to start them myself. Having to heat the GH was costly and thne I discovered sources for plug trays!

Its cold here today. almost feels like it could snow again.

Found a lone scillia? Well least that is what I think that pink thing is!

And a few dafs...

Well, today we spent cleaning up some garden beds. Got the potato patch tilled and still need to do the veggie patch. We spread seed on part of the east pasture, spread a little manure, dragged the pasture, got hay in and did some odds and end cleanup and maintenance.

Bloom of the day, my giant crocus.

I did get some more plants in but will have to do them tomorrow.

Well, today we cleaned of some beds again. Burned some brush and did a little push mowing on the beds to tidy them up.

Tidied up the red honeysuckle and another vine and looks like the honey suckle has some strays to dig.

Pulled some asiatic bulbs out of the garden that were in stray pots which I will have to repot. I think they are orange or yellow. Perhaps both.

The parcels of plants I got in yesterday were bulbs so I put them off to the fridge to do later. We need to bring some potting soil up to pot those.

Got another notice that a parcel of plants has arrived and will have to get them tomorrow.

Well, it would figure after spening a couple days cleaning off the flower beds we would get this.......1/2 inch and some more coming...ugh SNOW!

There goes my lovely dafs in the garden. Hope they do not get hurt too bad. Its not supposed to last, but still, do not need it.. so much for spring in my zone.

Guess I am just gonna pot up some more stuff anyway and do some updating.

DIRTYGIRL71 sent me some glorious plants and so I will work those up!

Soz you've got snow again mate!

We had rain, freezing rain, and then snow. The daffs were just big frozen green things. Today sun is out and daffs don't look too worse for the wear.
Went to the home show, but didn't buy the greenhouse yet. Really didn't like the guy that was selling them. I walked away actually mad. Don't think if I was selling something that cost that much that I would try to annoy the customer. Could and probably will order off the internet now. Usually try to buy close to home, but....not in this case. Flower show was a bust, short of some beautiful orchid plants there wasn't anything to speak of and seeing we had to park 8 blocks away and it was freezing , buying orchids wasn't possible.

terriulture, how is your weather?

Hi Happgarden! It's been cold and raining most of the time!
Sorry to hear you had to contend with such a baffoon at the show. What a shame, if only his manner had been pleasant, it might have been a different story!
Good luck with getting your new greenhouse from somewhere else soon!

Yes, mate terri, we got snow!! UGH!, but horray, it is not lasting. So Hap, if you got freezy stuff, there is hope for my blooms yet!

Something I might suggest on that greenhouse thing Hap is contact the manufacturer. You might get a deal if you inquire to be a sales rep. telling them if you buy, the newbie will be a display model. And infact, perhaps they may even have a display model you might purchase for less. I dont know so much if it might help to tell the manufacturer that your sales guy at the garden show was a jerk, but you could simply tell them you saw one at a local garden show and are inquiring. As for you being a rep, it does not take any sales, just show off the model, pass a few brochures and well, if ya get a sales, whoo-ra!

We were a sales rep when we got ours waaaay back in time there and well, it was no big deal. Was rather fun actually. I beleive now the manufacturer of our model is no longer operating.. he was a small guy, more than likely retired so our breed is not available anymore, but heck, the one you are looking at, its worth a try, who knows how much you could save.. I think we saved like half. But jeez louize! Its still a money maker for us in the plants we have raised.

Well, yesterday I got plants in from DIRTYGIRL71 and they were glorious! Here is her wonderful packing! She even sent pots!!

Ok, I cheated.. I unwrapped DIRTYGIRLS plants in the kitchen in the house, then took them to the GH to pot up!! And brought them back to the kitchen. They are not going outside to the GH yet...

Shall I dare say.. snow snow go away? Your darned tooten!

She send me some lovely pansy (violas), a baby sunrose, some plumbago, a couple of dianthus, blue salvias, peace lilys, the pots and a pack of seed!

The cute lil brown pots she sent I am gonna put herbs in them later. But here the plants are .. all potted up to go under my lights in my livingroom!

If t was not for the fact I am still going below freezing at night here, I would put stuff out in the GH, but I am not wanting to loose anything to frost if I can help it. And I am certainly not starting up any heater our there. That is too expensive. I can buy plugs started cheaper and make more off them then running a heater. My general last frost date here is around the 19th of April so things go in the livingroom or whatever table I have set up for lights for started plants I get or seed I am starting.

Oh, and yesterday, I booted the bucket of aussies outside from the livingroom....they shocked, but will be fine hoping the roots do not freeze in the bucket as that is all I care about on them for now, what leaves they forced will drop anyway and they will sport newbies once planted.

Well, the sun is up and it looks like the daffs will be ok here from the snow. They are a wee tad nipped but should make a full recovery. No pickings today. The buds are too tight.

I think I will pot up some lily bulbs today. We had an area of the garden that I had cleaned up a few dayas ago and those need to be re-potted and I also got an order in the fridge that I received from AG_EDDIE who sent me some lovely stargazers and a couple other oriental bulbs!

Well, here I am again.. potting up! AG_EDDIE sent me a glorious parcel full of stargazer bulbs, Mothers Choice oriental lilies, and some Oriental lilies called Robina.

I need to first lear my potting bench of some bulbs I removed from our garden. I am not sure what they are, but they are either orange lilies or yellow. Seems to me they were in a mixed patched there so I probably ought to pot them up individually so when they bloom I can seperate the colors and get them back in the garden in proper groups.

I potted up the yellow and orange asiatics and got 12 #300 nursery cans of them.

On the aisiatics and oriental bulbs I plant them deep into these containers as they get a nice staulk later and also when I go to plant these into the garden I will be sinking the cans and all into the dirt for easier lifting later.

Moved them out to the holding area.

Now for AG_EDDIES! Wow what great packing and great bulbs he sent! There are the stargazers, the Mothers Choice, the Robina! All very nice!

He sent 36 stargazers and as I am short of potting soil I am potting them two bulbs to a #300 and will have 18 cans when through in holding.

On the Mothers Choice, there were 6 bulbs so those went to 1 bulb per #300 and to holding.

The Robina bulbs he sent are staying in the greenhouse. They had shoots on them that were nice and green and I am going to keep them in here until the weather gets better and the threat of freeze and snow are gone. Like maybe until April 19th!

Thanks AG_EDDIE for packing those bulbs up so nice! I cannot wait to see them growing in the garden here!

Well, also on my list of to does was to move beautygirls daffs out from the holding area to their rightful place in the garden.. I will have to plant them in another day.

Looks like I am gonna have to get on the move and divide some Stella de Oro daylilies to put one each in between her daff bulbs to continue the border edging of our dogleg! Gads, I need a bunch of daffs and Stellas yet to complete that project!

Well, thats it for today outside. Now I need to update my garden journals!

1.5 inches of rain today....we are very wet. No gardening today.

Tomorrow then......





maybe








if it's not raining! I'm enjoying watching you work!

Terri, tag along anytime, I enjoy having you critique me! I am off to the cafe again.. dang that chocolate! It beckons me!

Ok, yesterdays 1.5 inches of rain left the place totally saturated and pon puddles everywhere. If it was sunny and 75 I would not mind so much the water.. but it is 50 and sunny making soggy boggy around here no fun for gardening in. None the less, it is great for the pasture and the garden.. just not the gardener!




Dump the rain gauge... Be about all I will be able to do other than slog out and pock some more daffs for the cutting flowers.

Why do you dig up your lilies? I planted lilies in a pot, hope I didn't mess up because I didn't plant them really deep. Plan on transplanting them into the garden as soon as it warms up. They are one of my favorite perennials. Coleus is becoming one of my favorite annuals.

Hi Terri, we came to London one time and really enjoyed our selves. Standing at the bus stop and looking at the map my husband and I were discussing where we were going when a sweet elderly woman who was standing there said, "Sweeheart, you are doing a really good job, but you are on the wrong side of the street." I was looking at the map and watching the traffic but in my American brain I was not dawning on me. I just busted out laughing and thanked her. One thing I have always wanted to know about is when we were coming in from the airport on the train, I saw a lot of little garden rooms with beautiful small gardens in front of them. There were bunchs of them in a row and then a little farther we would see some more. I am guessing they were each privately owned and belonged to people who lived in the city? I wasn't a very big gardener back then.

Weather is still cold and rainy here. We get an early warm up to tease us and then Mother Nature takes it all back. I haven't started any seeds yet, still have lots of bulbs to get started. Maybe next year I will do the seeds.

Well, on occassion we dig up the lilies because sometimes they are in a place they have spread to and do not belong or they become too thick. The patch we just dug up were in pots but the pots heaved this winter and so we had to straighten out the bed. I have seem some of my tigerlily bulbs get as big as melons and so those monsters need to get a bigger pot! Seems those bulbs thrive near the dog park.. hmmm.. a little doggie do will do it! LOL! yuk, but true!

Tiger lilies have a tendency to be that way because they get the little bulbets on their staulks and they will go every where. I pot most all of my bulbs so to as to keep the moles and voles form invading their space and destroying them. The critters do not eat them, they just tunnel near them and the air pockets cause them to die.

Feels a tad warmer this morning. Not sure what the temp is, but I ran out in my "shorts" to take the dog out.. it is supposed to rain again so I guess I will be spending another day either doing house house work...dread dread.. or updating my garden journals.. to which I need to get caught up on some swapping. Think I will put some long pants on.. its not thaaat warm. Long about the 19th of April, that is when I can get to serious gardening around here usually the threat of snow is gone, but I have seen snow on Mothers Day.. I sure wished I got my taters in two weeks ago before all this jolly rain.

This is good, I found free seed packet templates that you can print off the Internet yesterday... check it out!

http://www.blossomswap.com/envelopes.html

I love coleus. You can take cuttings on them to make new plants. Regret though in my garden, any annual has to be potted..I am pretty much a perennial planter due to the tide! Its one of the disadvantages I have living on a flood plain. Its a garden of survival of the fittest. That is why too I have so many daylilies. they do well here and so do my daffodils. My soil is poor too so I have to go with the plants that grow best in that condition.

LOL!! I am so laughing.. the wrong side of the street!! Too funny! And I just bet, most Americans in London or other places down under or over do it all the time! They come here and do the same thing! Old habbits die hard! Hey terri, wheres that paper daff arrangement you are doing???! These inquirying eyes must see!

Here is one of my orange tigerlilies. The lilies are not where I originally planted, but them and another plant I have that grows rampant is my tall garden phlox. Those are like plants I care less on where they pop up! Just let them do their thing. My garden is not at all formal. Some of the other plants I got that I also allow to run rampant are spiderwarts. I have golden rod here and achillea... now those two I wish they were not so prevelant. My DH refers to them as weeds. I keep telling him, weeds are just plants that are out of place.. well his theory on the golden rod is that they need their own planet. LOL! My margarites are spreaders too. Now those animals have spread all over in our driveway....along with the achillea.

I have great luck with oriental lilies and the other one, but I planted a bunch of tiger lilies and they did not come back so strong at all. I was disappointed. It was partly my fault because I am not sure they got enough sun on the east side of the house, but was surprised on how fast they disappeared. I never saw any signs of varments under the ground and everything around them was fine.

Like you I love daylilies. I just found out last year they will grow in the watergarden, so I bet they are good for the flooding areas. I have had one growing in water all winter long, just as health and happy.

They say our last frost date is April 15, but I beg to differ with them. I truely don't think we are frost free until the 1st week in May and I have seen it as late as the 15th of May. This morning we had hard heavy frost.....I am ready for spring.....

Well another half inch rain. sigh....

Hi Happgarden,
Those little gardens you saw were probably allotments. These are community sites owned by the councils and rented to plot holders. I have an allotment, I grow veggies and flowers! there are 40 plots on our site.
LoL the wrong side of the road!

Sorry Blossom, my daffs flopped.
Hope your weather improves soon!

Wonderful weather today.. got some backforty yard work done!