 |
Garden journal entry |
 |
first seedlings installed, and ready for more! |
March 30, 2024. Quick, I need to post before a full year goes by between my ramblings! Alas, the summer of 2023 was no better (worse, in fact) than 2022: unrelentingly hot and dry, sapping all my desire to engage productively with my ornamental garden (I kept the community farm plot going, to have at least a few okra to show for my efforts). I didn't even collect any seed from my garden last year, so that I had fewer varieties to start indoors over winter – but by the time December rolled around at least the memories of drought despair were starting to fade, and I did pursue my usual seed-starting activities with left-over seeds, augmented in late winter with shipments from the NARGS seed exchange. Which meant that recently, I needed to clear out room in my seedling nursery area to accept the new arrivals, some of which are starting to outgrow their seed pots. The first order of business is always to move any overwintering plants into permanent positions in the garden, a task that can take quite a bit of time. Not so this year: very few of last year's seedlings had survived. I suspect that most of them were done in by the summer drought, but we had a significant freeze in January as well, which may have killed off a few tender ones. In any case, the majority of the survivors were various rain lilies, which have proven amazingly resilient to anything Texas has thrown at me over the past seven years – and which are easy to tuck into various spots that can use an occasional color pop. A few days ago, all survivors had found new homes. Since I can't seem to keep my agave seedlings alive, I decided to further elevate one of my nursery beds by heavily amending it with sand, hoping to provide the well-drained conditions they require (although I can't be sure it's winter wet that's been killing them – those tiny seedlings are so hard to keep track of through their first year of life). Yesterday and today, the first batches of seedlings found their home there, and of course I'm optimistic that this year the weather will be friendlier, and I'll be more diligent in providing the conditions these young plants need to survive. Wish me luck! |
Last modified:
September 09, 2009
Contact me
|