Archives July 2007

It’s well past the 4th of July which is the date we target as the end of annuals. This year we continued to sell them into the middle of the month especially to summer residents who are looking to fill a spot. As a matter of fact we will stagger some of the marigolds and zinnias as well as some of the potted vegetables just for the people who come up late.

Anyway by this time of the year the herbs in-the small pots are choked up and trying to blossom. SO today we went around and trimmed everything back as well as dead headed what is left of the geraniums, essentially tuning up the plants. They also suffer from being stuffed into small pots so we intend to put some of them in larger pots and if nothing else we can keep them over for propagation starts next spring.

Strange though the zinnias in the ground around the herb garden are doing very poorly while the ones we potted up are doing fine. The only difference is the potted versions get more attention and are watered consistently while those in the ground are more or less left to fend for themselves. A smattering of water now and again is no enough. They really need a deep soaker, which we had the past weekend so we will see how they fare.

The perennials continue to sell at a marginal rate. The weather was so good this weekend that we only sold a few and Jenessa who works in the outdoor plants at Lowes said they were very slow the past 2 days so we don’t feel too bad.

The one thing that does make us feel bad though is the fact that the big box stores are getting the mums in already. Here is is almost the middle of summer and they are getting ready for fall. They will not let us forget for a minute that the warm weather will only be with us for a while before the snow flys.

Nobody is forcing us to live here but we sometimes like to gripe.

Now that the annuals, save the geraniums are all finished, things have wound down to the middle of summer chores. Keeping the perennial starts watered is number one followed closely by keeping the bedded perennials watered. We can get some hot days and its surprising how fast a gallon plant can dry out.

And it’s not just from evaporation. Plants breath, that is take in atmospheric gas, separate it into what they need and don’t need, then utilize what they do need and give off waste gas. This is one of those things I learned in high school biology. You know one of those things I would never use in real life?

Strange enough plants have tiny openings on the under sides of their leaves where they breath.
The point is when the plants give off gas they also give off moisture. Not exactly like humans or other animals but it’s the same idea. And this contributes to how fast a plant dries out. And conversely how much and how often we have to water.

Many of the hosta are blooming, primarily those in the shady garden. Those in pots are not blooming but they do look nice. We had a problem with snails in the hosta just as we had them in the lettuce. Coffee grounds seemed to work for the lettuce and so we are trying that on the hosta as well.
But that’s a topic for another day.

We have finally taken almost all the annual flowers down for the season. We were left with just a few marigolds, dusty miller and portulaca. We will keep some of the gazania daisy and geraniums until they are gone but for the most part the annuals are done for the season.

We also have finally figured out the ebb and flow of business with the respect to summer residents. We live in an area that has a huge influx of residents and they come back in several waves.
The first group to return are the snow birds. This group is primarily retired people that live in another place for the winter and return north for the summer. Snow birds come back by tax season and get their gardens planted by normal standards. In by Memorial day unless cold weather is threatening. This year was like that and we only got the village flowers out a few days before Memorial day. I guess a few people were nervous.

The next big group comes up when school gets out and they are made up of working people with children in high school or college. They return by the end of June and the beginning of July.
There is another group and they trickle back as they can. These are the weekenders who have cottages and camps through the area.

The snow birds are easy to grow for because they fall into our normal growing pattern. They buy the same times as the local residents. The other 2 groups are a bit more of a challenge.

The later group wants annual flowers and some vegetables later in the season. In the Past we simply tried to keep the annuals dead headed and in the small 6 packs but the roots get bound and the plants suffer. It is hard to keep a plant hydrated in the small packs and they are too crowded as well.

The solution is to simply start a crop of annuals about a month apart. This way the later crop is in selling prime for the end of June. There is a good market for the later annuals and this year customers were looking for them even this week.

Oh and by the way the caterpillar is changing. He attached himself to the plant and look what happened.

$1000 greenhouse + backhoe = $50.00 greenhouse equals how to ruin a greenhouse.

For the past week or so I have noticed a boat trailer parked by the side of the road that we take when we go to Alex Bay. Friday I noticed there was a car in the driveway and so we stopped to ask about the trailer.

We have a 1951 Feathercraft deluxe runabout which has a trailer but we also have a 1961 Lyman and a 57 Chris Craft Continental and they do not have trailers. So we are more or less looking for trailers.
When we pulled into the driveway we were greeted by a young lady, the lady of the house as it were. She was stepping out of a travel trailer and went over to turn off the generator that was situated near the travel trailer.

It turns out the young couple recently bought the house and land at a tax auction and they were living in the travel trailer with their 2 young boys and a German Shepherd dog.

Anyway she said the trailer was $30.00 but for an extra $10.00 they would throw in a boat motor. We looked at the boat trailer and sadly it was in such poor shape that I would not have taken $30.00 to remove it from the side of the road. But I was intrigued by the motor.

The young lady led us into the back lot where the boat motor was stored in the middle of a field. It turned out to be an old 16 hp Oliver out board and it was complete. I figured the prop was worth $10.00 so I agreed to the price.

On the way back to the car we passed a pile of rubble with what appeared to be some pipe protruding from the sides. They looked like greenhouse hoops. Hey, I said, those look like greenhouse hoops. Yeah she said, with out much emotion, my husband cleared off the land and there was a greenhouse but we could not get anyone to come and take it down so he knocked it down with a bobcat and we are going to have the fire department burn everything.

After looking at the pile we determined we could salvage at least 5 of the hoops and offered him $50.00. Long story short, well too late for that, but after spending about 4 hours sawing, digging, prying, sweating, cursing and getting rained on we had the hoops home. That would give us enough material for a 30 foot tunnel for baskets next spring.

It’s too bad though, because if he had advertised the thing for sale he could have sold it for and easy $500.00. Not to mention the benches, and multitude of pots, flats, trays and the like buried together with tires, trees and tons of sod.

By the way we are posting the progress of a swallow tail butterfly caterpillar we found on some fern leaf dill. Seems they like it and there we 2 but by the time I got out to get them one was gone. I will post photos each day until the butterfly emerges. This is the first photo.