Working in the Garden

February 19, 2011 at 6:53 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Garden Chores, Gardening, Roses

“Working in the Garden”, a copyrighted post, was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana

Today was a great day to work in the garden. It was sunny and mild with a high temperature of 73 degrees. It was great to get out in short sleeves and work in the garden.

I did a lot of clean up work – cutting back winter damaged plants, cleaning leaves out of entry garden, raking up fallen camellia flowers, etc. I also moved tender plants from their protected area and placed them around the garden. Most of these, I placed in semi shady spots until they get used to being outside then I’ll move them to sunnier areas.

I also used the sunny, dry day to fertilize the cool season annuals I had planted in the fall. When I planted them, I added a little slow release fertilizer, but it is used up by now. With the warm, sunny days we have been having, these annuals need a shot of fertilizer about now. Of course, I only fertilized the cool season annuals since it is too early to start fertilizing anything else.

One chore I had been wanting to get to for a few weeks now was finally accomplished. I cut back all my ornamental grasses. I wait to do this in the spring rather than the fall. I think the grass comes back from the winter better and faster when pruned in the spring. The purple fountain grass, that I grow in containers placed in urns, was looking wild and really needed cutting back.

 

 

I have had two urns of purple fountain grass for years marking the entry to the side garden. This year the containers seem overgrown and will need to be divided. That job will have to wait until we have had a few more weeks of warm weather. At least they look neater with a “hair cut.”

 

 

After I finished with the clean up chores I had planned to do today, I went on to planting my White Out rose. I had bought this last fall and decided to wait until spring to plant it since I wanted to place it where another rose was and that rose should be dormant to transplant. Well, today was the day, but before I could plant it, I had to dig up an Iceberg rose first. Then, of course, it is where to plant the Iceberg? I finally decided to put the Iceberg in a large container, and then planted the White Out rose. By then, I was tired and ready to call it a day.

I love days like today. Nothing can be better than sunny, bug-free, pleasant days spent outside in my garden.