RE: How you do you assuage spring fever this early?
- To:
- Subject: RE: How you do you assuage spring fever this early?
- From: M* D*
- Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000 08:44:09 -0800
- Importance: Normal
Hi Gene,
Here in the pacific northwest heavy winter rain is always a problem,
especially for plants that require excellent drainage like Delphiniums and
Penstemons. Folks who say they always lose these plants to cold weather I
think are instead losing them to poor drainage and they drown. I have been
using fir bough "teepees" over these plants for several winters with good
success. In cold weather it creates enough dead air insulation to protect
crowns from cold and the fir boughs shed the water away from the crowns
also. Be sure to bait for slugs under there though - especially important
for the Delphs - because those nasty critters will eat the new shoots off to
ground level and you will never realize your Delphiniums had ever broken
ground. Because I have heavy clay soil and lots of rocks, sometimes it is
better to build a flower bed up than to try to dig down, but it is amazing
what several years of composting will to for soil tilth. I am out of
homemade compost now also, but I intend to buy a load of mushroom compost
and start spreading it around the whole place starting very soon. Just need
to finish potting up Allium bulbs for the nursery first. Is there anything
you can do to stop the soil erosion that is occurring uphill from you?
Would talking to the contractor about the problem help? Hey! Let the good
times roll :).
Marilyn Dube'
Natural Designs Nursery
Portland, Oregon
Zone 8b
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-perennials@mallorn.com [owner-perennials@mallorn.com] On
Behalf Of GeneBush
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2000 4:43 AM
To: perennials@mallorn.com
Subject: Re: How you do you assuage spring fever this early?
Hello Marilyn,
Well, yesterday I worked outside all day repairing the damage caused by
our
torrential rains of last week. We finally got our rain with a vengeance.
I had created 4 new raised beds that terrace up the hill from the
entrance
gate to the mid level in the garden. The construction on the road further on
up
the hill at my property line changed the flow of water and it all came
straight
for my garden. Darn near washed out my beds and new plants. There is now a
new
rock retaining wall, new soil and plants back in place. Placed evergreen
limbs
over the beds as I am out of mulch for the year.
Just one good time right after another ;-))
Gene Bush Southern Indiana Zone 6a Munchkin Nursery
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