Good morning, and things are just buzzing. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
Last Saturday morning as I wrote garden blogging I was bemoaning how long it would be before I could expect to see crocus blooming — only to discover a couple that had popped open by Saturday afternoon. As the week has gone on, Denver's been hanging in the 40s and 50s, and more crocus blossoms are scattered across the front beds. Tuesday morning was a shocker, though. Technically, there was a forecast that included a chance of snow but the blooming crocus somehow knocked that information straight out of my head. When I woke up and found my car covered with a thin layer of the white stuff I was, like, seriously bummed.
Temperatures immediately shot up, the snow disappeared well before noon, and by Friday we'd gotten into the 60s. And today — whoo hoo! — 70s! To be followed by spits of snow tomorrow. Ah well.
Before we get on to the main event, a couple of bits of business.
First (and sorry for forgetting it last week, and forgetting who posted the initial link and request for posting), a request for input from gardeners. Project BudBurst is a national campaign which is asking for the assistance of gardeners:
Join us in collecting important climate change data on the timing of leafing and flowering in your area through Project BudBurst! This national field campaign targets native tree and flower species across the country. With your help, we will be compiling valuable environmental and climate change information around the United States.
So, gardeners, throw in your trowels and lend a hand.
Second, garden-blogging regular Morrigan made a boo-boo when ordering seed from Territorial. She'd meant to order a pack of Poppy Joe's Basil. Instead, she wound up with an ounce, which is, by her estimate, 14,900 too many seeds. In her e-mail she says:
Instead of returning them and waiting for the refund and the packet of same, I thought I'd offer them to the SMG crew tomorrow for a small (very small — $1.00! through PayPal) amount to defray the cost of mailing them out. But, I've become addicted to sleeping in on Saturdays and I'm already an hour behind you, so by the time I make it bleary-eyed to the computer most of the regulars have already read, commented and gone out on their Saturday's business. So, if you could possibly do it, would you tell your readers that some great basil seed is available for minimal cost and all they have to do is email me - my email addy is in my profile.
Finally, I have a shitload of Nicotiana Sylvestris seed I collected last fall. If you want any, e-mail me at my profile e-mail addy, or if you're one of the Denverites who expressed an interest at the last blogger's bash, you can drop by and pick some up (although I'll mail to you, too, if it's more convenient). Plant nicotiana sylvestris once, and you'll never have to plant it again, as it produces millions of seed. I let it volunteer in my veggie patch — it fills in areas that were planted with earlier-season crops, and lends some great late summer/early fall interest to areas that would otherwise be fallow.
OK, that's enough business — but we have a lot of busy-ness here at Casa de Frankenoid today, before the weather turns on us.
Last Sunday, when we had some gorgeous weather, I pulled up my old soaker hoses in the main front flower bed and replaced it with a no-kink variety (manufactured by Gilmore) I had stumbled upon last year. Oh, man is that stuff nice! Let it warm up a bit in the sunshine, and it is so easy to get a smooth soaker hose line running through the beds. Now I have to reel up the old, kinky soaker hose into tidy bundles. Still have some hose to replace (the stuff in the side-bed is at least a decade old, and is starting to spring some leaks).
And yesterday a new garden toy arrived: the low-rider cart I ordered from Lee Valley. I assembled it with Zasu's help (of course), although the parts list left me somewhat confused. There were 4 washers, and 4 screws, that weren't included in the packing list, and to which there are no references in the assembly instructions. Hmmmm.
In any event, the thing will, I think, do exactly what I need it to do. I like the design because it means that I can just rake garden debris and mulch straight into it and — this is an important point — preliminary testing indicates that it will fit in the narrow passage way between our house and the house to the west of us. And that means that I don't have to wheel it through the back gate, down the alleys and around the house to the east, then to the front of our house to load debris, all the while running the risk that when I retrace the route to dump the load of debris in back, I'll discover the back gate is locked because the Mister got a bug up his ass about it being unlocked and, of course, forgot to check if there was a reason the back gate was unlocked (can you tell this has happened more than once?).
So today I'll be raking up and hauling winter mulch out of the front yard. At least, that's what I'll be doing after the rest of the day's busy-ness transpires. This morning, sometime between 7:45 and 9:45, our new freezer and refrigerator will be arriving, and I envision great possibilities for clusterfuckery. I mean, somehow we have to juggle removing the stuff from the old appliances and keeping it cold; moving the old appliances out of the way to where they can sit until this afternoon while awaiting pick-up by their new owners (we're giving them to a couple of the Mister's co-workers); then supervising the installation of the new appliances. Oh boy. This is gonna be fun.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your gardens?