(Via Snappy's Gardens Blog)

Posted by admin to allotments on 2008-03-08, 22:24:00

The photo yesterday from the Bottom of the Allotment plot looking up. The compost bin to the right belongs to Mr Saddiq, the guy who wons the first third of the plot!
At the top left is the most enormous bramble bush that runs for eighty foot across.
Blackberrys must be in abundence later in the year.There may be Blackberry wine started off this year.
Gardners need good imagination to see into the future, and how a piece of land or soil will look with cultivation.
I think it faces southeast, and was very windy yesterday.My days off will be split between seed sowing and clearing the Allotment plot.Hils called it the Wilderness!
Under the grass/brambles/weeds is a dark clay soil.I felt it betwen my fingers yesterday.One long thirteen hour shift to go before I can take my tools and make a start!

(Via Gardening Question of the Day (from the Old Farmer's Almanac))

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-03-08, 20:00:00

Can I use the ashes from coal in my furnace in my garden? Lonny Cashman (answer).

From The Old Farmer's Almanac.

(Via Snappy's Gardens Blog)

Posted by admin to polyanthus on 2008-03-08, 15:19:00

A late Saturday post before bed, and another long day tomorrow. I had planned a day at the forgotten plot, but was so tired after two hectic days at work that i have delayed it untill my next days off.
Hils took me to a nursery in Swillington, where we spent two hours wandering around plant heaven, and all manner of garden sundrys.
I came back with a modest collection of plug plants for sixty pence each, two Herbs for £1.10 each, a bird seed bell for the garden birds, and two Eryngium bulbs for the butterfly border.
The plug plants were six Million Bells trailing plants, Two Bectopa Snowflakes, Two Fuschias, and one Geranium plug plant.
With Cats help (She is out from hospital and better now) I made the four tier greenhouse in the living room, then moved it outside. All my seedlings have now moved into the greenhouse.
I planted eighty four cells with French Marigold seed tonight.I have the first photo of the Forgotten plot (Allotment) today. I took Hil's up to see it.
I walked the edges of it. It is about thirty feet long, and twelve feet wide.We met one half of the couple who bought Fifty pounds worth of Manure which is stacked at the far end of the Allotments by a tap.
The plan is for me to start monday to clear the Allotment, one third at a time. It is overgrown with grasses, brambles, and tall dried red weeds.I need to clear the paths down the edges and think how to make the plot into four beds...
The photo is the Polyanthus Blue Shades, I love the variety of colours from dark blue to white to dutch porcelin colour. The flowers are held above the leaves on stalks, like the Harlow Carr Candalabra Primulas from last summer.
I will recharge the Camera batterys for Monday.Enjoy your weekends wherever you garden.

(Via An Iowa Garden)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-03-08, 14:35:00

Not all flowers can be beautiful, or fragrant, or striking. Some are just... well, what would you call it... hmmm. I once watched a honeybee circle this little flower, eyeballing it for five minutes, then fly off in puzzlement. This plant is Asarum caulescens, a type of wild ginger, and asarum flowers aren't meant for bees anyway; most of the species have their flowers very close to the ground and are fertilized by beetles. This particular asarum flower is puzzling to me too, as the flowers are held on upright stalks off the ground, and seem too small to be fertilized by all but the smallest beetles, so I can't imagine what it would be attempting to attract. I do know its foliage (along with several other species of asarum) is critical to the existence of a beautiful butterfly, a type of swallowtail (Luehdorfia japonica) that is considered the national butterfly of Japan. In its native range in the mountains of Japan, Asarum caulescens is the prime plant eaten by the caterpillar of this butterfly.
Apparently Asarum caulescens is very closely related to our North American native ginger, Asarum canadense. Both have somewhat fuzzy, heart-shaped leaves that are deciduous, and so both are pretty hardy compared to the evergreen gingers which, in our midwest winters all too often become wannabe-evergreen gingers. The evergreen gingers, of course have now been assigned to their own genus (hexastylis).
I believe that some gingers can be self-fertilizing, and maybe this odd little flower just doesn't care a wit whether it attracts a pollinator or not. I know it didn't do much for the honeybee.

Picture of Luehdorfia japonica butterfly: http://www.tolweb.org/Luehdorfia_japonica/65404

(Via An Iowa Garden)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-03-08, 14:35:00

Not all flowers can be beautiful, or fragrant, or striking. Some are just... well, what would you call it... hmmm. I once watched a honeybee circle this little flower, eyeballing it for five minutes, then fly off in puzzlement. This plant is Asarum caulescens, a type of wild ginger, and asarum flowers aren't meant for bees anyway; most of the species have their flowers very close to the ground and are fertilized by beetles. This particular asarum flower is puzzling to me too, as the flowers are held on upright stalks off the ground, and seem too small to be fertilized by all but the smallest beetles, so I can't imagine what it would be attempting to attract. I do know its foliage (along with several other species of asarum) is critical to the existence of a beautiful butterfly, a type of swallowtail (Luehdorfia japonica) that is considered the national butterfly of Japan. In its native range in the mountains of Japan, Asarum caulescens is the prime plant eaten by the caterpillar of this butterfly.
Apparently Asarum caulescens is very closely related to our North American native ginger, Asarum canadense. Both have somewhat fuzzy, heart-shaped leaves that are deciduous, and so both are pretty hardy compared to the evergreen gingers which, in our midwest winters all too often become wannabe-evergreen gingers. The evergreen gingers, of course have now been assigned to their own genus (hexastylis).
I believe that some gingers can be self-fertilizing, and maybe this odd little flower just doesn't care a wit whether it attracts a pollinator or not. I know it didn't do much for the honeybee.

Picture of Luehdorfia japonica butterfly: http://www.tolweb.org/Luehdorfia_japonica/65404

(Via Country Gardener)

Posted by admin to Winter, drought, precipitation, snow, snow pack, storms on 2008-03-08, 13:28:00

Today's snowdrift in front of our hoophouse
We tend to get our hopes up for an early spring when the calendar hits March, and the past few winters have lulled us into thinking that the "real" winters of yesteryear were no more.

No so this year: we're getting record amounts of snow. Today's headline in the Toronto Globe and Mail says it all: "Old Man Winter pumps up the volume." We've had snowstorm after snowstorm, and the current one is about the biggest of the season. Some are calling it "the winter from hell."

It certainly is that for snow removal budgets, and there is now so much snow that a quick thaw could bring serious flooding to parts of Ontario.

(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-03-08, 12:12:31

Now that you have planted your flowers, foliage, or vegetables in their containers, you need to know how to care for them. Just like your outside garden, container gardens require nurturing to keep the plants productive and healthy.

(Via Girl Gone Gardening)

Posted by admin to Flowers, Sasha, Winter, animals, blue, brown, leaves, rocks, roses, seeds, spring, summer, veggies on 2008-03-08, 11:20:00

25*, feels like 15*, 45% humidity, NW 10 mph wind, partly cloudy, FLOOD WARNING Spring is close. I know it now. This morning I woke to that change in the air, that indescribable smell that wakes me every year when the spring switch is thrown. And though the day is most certainly NOT spring like, there was that smell. It's close. It's coming! Speaking of smells, I also got a whiff of summer as

(Via gardenauthor)

Posted by admin to greenhouse floral display, signs of spring on 2008-03-08, 06:50:00

Shutterbug's serving 'Pleasant Under Glass' today... hurry over before it's all gone!