Flower Pictures

After the Spring Bulbs are gone, I'm offerring a cascade of pictures of them.  Just to share and remember.

A Surprise Storm

It's one thing to have a 40% chance of a thunderstorm and quite another what we had here this afternoon.

I am glad I took pictures of the first 2 daffodil blooms and a few new crocuses before the storm.

 Because they aren't there now...

The rain started a bit sooner than forecast, but that was no great surprise.  Maryland, being between the Appalchians and the Chesapeake Bay east/west, and the northern and southern weather patterns, is considered one of the trickier areas of the US for weather forecasting.  We get unexpected swirls from all directions.

I was appreciating that there would be some rain; we have had only about 1/2" so far this year.  So I was watching the first few raindrop.  Then the hail came down!

We don't get hail often here and it is usually the size of peas when we do.  It falls straight down, bounces around oddly and lasts about 5 minutes.  The hail around here is usually the size of peas; this stuff was grape-sized.  Not much compared to what some people get elsewhere, but surprize is whatever is more than you are used to. 

Today, we had a hail-blizzard!  I've seen snow going almost sideways in serious blizzards before, but I have never seen hail do that.  The hail didn't bouncely politely of the roof; it smashed into the windows and doors.  It was so heavy (briefly) that it just looked like a thick fog outside (moving rapidly sideways).

The sound was deafing on the side of the house facing the wind and I am hoping that when I can see it in the daylight, there is no dented or broken siding.  It was exciting in an odd way (meaning I couldn't stop it, so might as well observe it for the experience).

And then the power went off.  It came on a few seconds, went off a few seconds, and then went off for 3 hours. 

It wasn't yet dark enough to need candles, but I did go around the house and collect battery-powered stuff in case it lasted a while.  I have several radios with rechargeable batteries,  a couple lights that operate off cigarette plug in cars, 2 portable battery packs with plugable outlets, several maxlite flashlights, and even a crankable emergency radio.  And multiple-wick emergency candles.  We do sometimes have hurricanes here.  And I always make sure to have dry wood and a couple bags of charcoal for cooking outside if things get bad for more than a day. 

I am SO boy-scoutish...  LOL!

The radio said we had wind gusts up to 60 mph and heavy hail.  There was a possible tornado reported nearby, so the wind gusts made sense.  I don't keep a rain gauge up in Winter so I don't know how much precipitation fell, but in the 30 minute storm the drainage easement was running higher than I have seen it for years.  I a thankful for 2 things about that.  First, that I raised the level of my lawn around it by 2' 3 years ago, and second, that I got the County out here to clean the imbedded debris in the storm drain at the end of the easement.  Otherwise, the street would have been inundated!  Even so, my front lawn near the street had standing water a foot deep.  Even a storm drain has finite draining capacity.

There is temporary damage.  The only 2 first 2 daffodil flowers were crushed, I think most of the crocuses are beaten down.  Perhaps most sadly, I lost a few 100 saucer magnolia buds that were about to bloom due to the warm weather of the past weeks.  I'll take heart that so many are left.  And the unopened daffodil buds seem undamaged.  Flowers are fragile; buds are tight and tough.

The deck...

The new edged front island...

The backyard...

Keeping to good thoughts as much as possible, the hail will melt slowly into the ground.  The ground needs water. 

The power came back on in time for me to re-heat a pre-cooked frozen meal (pulled pork with jalapeno peppers in roasted tomato sauce with noodles) and M/W sweet potato and a big tossed salad.  Good thing too, because I was staring at a can of beef chili and considering using the hibachi to heat it...

What irritates me the most (aside from the loss of the saucer magnolia buds really) is that I was JUST going to the basement to plant my tomatoes and peppers and cole crops when the power went out. 

And stranger?  It is dribbling hail.  Just started as I typed the last sentence...

Last Gardening

I've done about all I can do outside until about March.  The ground finally froze (it got down below freezing for several full days and nights).  The surface will thaw and refreeze for a few weeks, but I can't do anything useful with that.  I thought I was done 2 weeks ago after I cleared off all the garden debris and filled the framed beds and planted 250 daffodils.

But I discovered that 450 crocus bulbs that I ordered last year and never got around to planting because I wanted to make wire cages to plant them in to protect them from the voles and squirrels were still solid and seemingly sound after sitting in my garage for the whole year.  So I set about planting them everywhere I could think of.  Some 150 went into a bed I plan to move hostas to next year.

Most ended up in containers, though.  I used to grow Yukon Gold potatoes in 4 large plastic bins, but the grocery store started selling them, so I stopped.  I just buy them now.  That gave me 4 bins.  And several years ago, the County switched from hand-carried recycling bins to bigger-than-trash-can sized ones, so I had 3 of the old ones.

I filled them all with 4" of topsoil/compost mix, planted extra daffodils, covered those with 2" of soil, planted crocuses on top of that and added another 2" of mix on top of that.  So I have about 100 daffodils and 300 crocuses in 30 sq ft of those.  Hopefully they will grow and I can reharvest them in Late Spring for more permanent locations (in wire cages for the crocuses).

I don't know if they WILL grow after sitting around for a year, but I know for SURE they won't if not planted.  

Spring Bulbs

I always order too many Spring bulbs.  I'm overly ambitious (well, that's better than being underly-ambitious), and estimating the number needed is always tricky.  So this year I had ordered bulbs to add to an existing bed.  Some of the same 2 varieies I planted last year to enlarde the are, and a new variety for a 3rd section. 

It turned out that the additional bulbs of the existing varieties used up all the space and I had 150 of a 3rd variety to plant.  "Somewhere"...

I love daffodils!  They are truly perennial.  There are hillsides in Washington DC where Lady Bird Johnson had them planted in the mid 1960s!  Nothing bothers them.  Voles and mice won't eat them, insects don't bother them, and their spot would have to become either a swamp or a desert to kill them naturally.

But they are just combinations of yellow, orange, and white.  So they can be a bit boring.  I wish some geneticist would make daffodils as colorful as tulips and hyacinths.  But they haven't, and some daffodils are getting better over the years.  Some have fancier flowers, some have contrasting colors, some bloom earlier or later.  I have to admit they are pretty good plants.

But still, I had 150 of 'Hillstar' to plant "somewhere.  Where, where, where?

And it hit me.  The front border of my main flowerbed has always been a problem.  Nothing I put there seemed to last.  My last attempt (planting alternating blocks of yellow and purple crocuses with a space left every foot for Summer annuals didn't work.  The voles ate them all.  And I have tried some perennials that never seemed to look right and died anyway.  The soil seems fine, BTW.

AHA, space to plant the Hillstars!  The planting was relatively easy.  My drill auger went down easily into the soft improved soil.  But still, it meant kneeling down to set the bulbs in the holes, backfilling with 50/50 topsoil and compost mix, sprinkling some 2-6-6 slow release organic fertilizer, raking over the augered-out soil across the top, and watering deeply to hydrate the bulbs so that they can slowly grow roots over the Winter before blooming in April. 

I came up 8' short of the border!  Darn.  But I ordered another 25 and they arrived in 3 days and I got THOSE planted.  Which left me with extra bulbs of Hillstar and one other from the main bed. 

Before I explain what I did with those, I should mention that I had 500 crocus bulbs I never got around to planting last Fall.  I intended to make wire cages to protect them from the voles.  But by the time I finally made cages for tulips and hyacinths in the main bed and got them all planted last year, the ground was frozen and I was worn out digging in the bad soil (rocks, tree roots, clay).  The tulips were buried in wire cages and in great soil and came up wonderfully this past Spring.  I never saw a hyacinth.

Because of that, I carefully dug up one of the hyacinth cages.  No easy task.  But I finally cleared off the top of one and the tops are hinged with wire so I could open it.  I pulled out several.  They were hard and healthy, and had roots growing.  Why they didn't send up shoots and flowers is a mystery to me, but I rebuyied them and will hope for blooms next Spring.

So I just set the boxes of the crocuses in the garage and left them.  Last week, after most of my regular garden shut-down chores were done, I thought of those crocuses.  I brought the boxes onto the tool bench.  There were  few leftover hyacinths.  They were like paper husks, utterly dead.

But the crocus bulbs were all hard solid and no signs of mold.  Well, I hate to waste living things.  So I thought of what I could do to give the crocuses and leftover daffodils and chance to live. 

I keep stuff.  Not "hoarder keep stuff" just useful stuff.  So I looked around.  What I wanted to find were cat litter boxes.  Something shallow to grow the crocuses in and harvest the bulbs next Fall when I found a good place.

What I realized was that I had 3 old recycling bins and 4 old storage bins I used to grow potatoes in.  I used to grow Yukon Gold potatoes in them before they became readily available in the grocery store.  And they were filled with rich soil!

So I wheelbarrowed all of them to my patio.  The cinder block wall is a perfect height for gardening work.  I dumped all the soil out into 35# kitty litter tubs (very useful as buckets),  put 4" of soil back in the recycle bins, set in the extra daffodils and added 2" of soil and sprinkled 2-6-6 fertilizer on top.  Added another inch of soil and crowded in crocus bulbs 2" apart.  Covered THOSE with 3" of good soil and sprinkled on a slight amount of fertilizer.  Added another inch on that. 

I filled 7 tubs and used up 300 crocus bulbs (of 500).  Watered them well. I'm hoping for a great container display in Spring and to be able to plant them someplace permanent next Fall.

I STILL have more crocuses.  I will be planting them in 6" black pots just to see if they grow.  I'll stick the pots in my veggie garden to give them some "normal" temperature and rain/snow.

Hope springs eternal...conditions. 

Error, Error!

Oh wow, I almost made a BIG mistake in cutting out pieces for the crocus bulb cages I am making.  Drawing diagrams on paper, I had it pretty well set so as to fit the cutouts as efficiently as possibly.  The 1/2" wire mesh isn't cheap.

But, as part of my plans, I built a wood form to use to bend the wire over.  The form needed to be 8"x6"x4".  I had fun cutting some scrap boards, running the pieces through the bench planer for utter flattness , gluing them together, and then sanding them smooth this afternoon.  Perfect 8"x6"x4" blocks.

But, um, something didn't look right...

You remember those school tests where they showed you a folded shape and you had to decide what it looked like when unfolded?  I was great at those.  Except this time!

I got one side off by 2"!  I had the small ends of the cages diagrammed at 4"x4" and they needed to by 4"x6".  If I hadn't actually built the wood form for bending the wire mesh around, I would have cut all the pieces the wrong size.

Look at the end of this; it obviously isn't 4"x4"...

I was lucky that there was a series of events that led me to see my error.  I had to take the roll of 3'x50'x1/2" wire mesh and unroll part of it.  The roll is held tight by some wire that has to be cut away.  And it was rolled under tension, so when I cut the last wire, it sort of exploded.  Which I was expecting, but not quite the way it did it.

I'm not stupid, I wore goggles as I cut the last wire.  You never know quite how these rolls will suddenly unwind.   It's a guy thing.  You KNOW its gonna get you somewhere but not just WHERE.  Fortunately, I heal very fast.  Ever get shots or give blood?  They slap a bandage right on you.  I don't need them.

So I had to flatten it to be able to cut the sections off in the size I needed later.

So while the wire mesh was being forced to flatten (a common problem with stiffly rolled material), I went to change the laundry from the washer to the dryer and start a new load.  And THAT got me to taking out a frozen steak to thaw for dinner, which led me to feeding the cats, which led to me checking my email, which led to me getting back downstairs...

Where I looked at the wood block form I realized that I had a dimension wrong.   Not on the wood block; on my wire mesh cutting diagram.  I just spent 30 minutes redesigning my cutting pattern on the wire mesh. 

Sometimes you just have to build shapes in reality to make sure they are right!

Crocuses Border

While I was oredering spring floering bulbs (daffodils, tulips, hyanciths) for the new plantng areas, I also had the great idea of replanting the border to the older flowerbeds along the property line.  Sure, why not?  Like I had nothing else to do.  I get myself in these situations where work seems easy when I'm looking at plants online and "gee, how hard could it be to do that"?

ARGHHH!

So...  I used to have a border on the old flowerbed with alternating 1' sections of yellow and purple crocuses.  The voles ate most of them the first year.  But one section survives (for reasons I do not know).  So I want to replicate the gorgeous look of the row of alternating yellow and purple crocuses, but protected from the voles.

The solution is 1/2 "galvanized steel mesh wire cages buried just under ground.  OK, that requires building the cages, digging up the soil, and filling it back in.  It could be a lot worse.  At least THIS soil is well aged and loose, so digging it up is easy.

The real work will be making the cages.   But I am pleased to say I have solved that.  In design anyway.  I planned the cages 8" long, 6" wide, and 4" deep.  But then there was the problem of cutting the shapes out from the existing 3' width rolls of 1/2" wire mesh I bought. 

Well, I started drawing out shapes of unfolded cages.  You remember those IQ or SAT questions about "what is this shape unfolded"?  I got those every time.  Easy Peasy...  So I sat down with graph paper and started laying out the  shapes foldable into cages.  And because the stuff is a bit expensive and I'm cheap, I kept playing with shapes until they worked out with NO wasted material. 

Took an hour of updating software to get the sketch to scan, LOL!  My printer/scanner drivers always seem to be out-of-date...

I'll try to clean this of on some drawing program, but it basically means that I (or you) can make twelve 8" long x 6" wide x 4" deep cages from 5' 4" of 1/2" hardware cloth.  But it means I found a layout of mostly foldable parts and some few ends that need to be wired in place to make cages with NO WASTE! 

And I've made a form for the bending out of scrap 2"x6"x8" wood.  Its simple enough.  Cut a nominal 6" wide 8" long and screw and glue supports under it.  Or just screw and glue 3 stacked onto each other. 

If you have questions about that, email me at cavebear2118 AT verizon DOT net.

My plan is to have an 8" cage, 4" space for an annual plant like a marigold or zinnia, then another 8" cage along the entire 75' flowerbed edge.  So I'll need 75 cages for 75'.  12 cages per 5' 4" = 64' of the cage mesh, and I have 150' of it.  The rest will be used up in 18"x18" cages for the tulips and hyacinths in the new areas.

It all comes together, see?  :)

With apologies to The Beatles:  

"And, in the end,
The flowers you grow
Are equal to the work you do... "

Or to put it another way I read once,  "If you like bacon, you need to get down in the mud and keep the hogs happy".  Meaning that whatever you do, you can do it poorly or well.  Poorly lasts a couple years.  Well, lasts a lot longer.  Doing things well takes less work in the long run.