Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
12/10/99 - The unseasonably warm weather continues. In cleaning up the flower beds by removing leaves that still blow or fall there, I notice the green shoots of bulbs and perennials pushing up. They are being deceived by the warm temperatures, and will be nipped as the thermometer drops. Fortunately, this won't interfere with spring growth. It is the late freezes in spring, coming after the plants have pushed up, that do real damage. This is one reason why it is best to keep beds clear, since leaves or any kind of covering encourages early growth. The lawns back and front look very green; the warm weather and rainfall have been good for them. This autumn I spread a dried seaweed conditioner that also seems to have helped--I try to fertilize in the fall rather than in the spring, when the grass grows fast enough anyway to keep me busy mowing.
I moved my begonia and Star zinnia seedlings from the heating pads to one of the tables over which I have suspended flourescent "work lights." I have this light connected to a timer, so that it turns on and off automatically mornings and nights--a useful device when one's memory is as bad as mine! Sometime during the next week or so, I am going to plant impatiens seeds. There is a fine line between getting plants started too soon (so that they become tall and "leggy" before the last frost is over and outside planting possible) and planting early enough so that you have plants that are flowering or ready to flower when you are able to set them in the garden.
For this week's picture I couldn't resist showing one more photograph of blooming flowers, even though, as I write this, no flowers are left in Gertrude's garden. These white, daisy-like flowers are chrysanthemums, differing from those pictured here in the 11/26 "Weekly Diary" in that they are ones that were bought in pots and then planted in the garden. If you do buy 'mums and succeed in getting them to root and grow, the proper procedure is to trim them two or three times between spring and mid-July. This will keep the plants short and bushy with flowers held upright instead of "flopping" gracefully as these have in the photograph. I didn't follow proper trimming procedure, but they are beautiful, aren't they?
12/17/99 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
12/3/99 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
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