Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary

3/16/01 - Finally, some pre-spring weather so that I can get started working in the garden. Today (Saturday), I got my trusty kneeler and bucket and began clearing the driveway beds. At this time of year, you really have to do this by hand, because the bulbs are pushing up so that using a rake can damage them. A couple of hours before lunch and a couple after enabled me to get a lot of this work done, but I still need a day or two more to finish. Snowdrops are blooming everywhere and some crocus, daffodils have buds, and the tulips are up. The rains of winter uncovered some of the iris corms, which I recovered with soil from the edges of the beds. I found buds on the winter aconite, some tiny larkspur seedlings, and what I hope are money plant seedlings, since those in the basement garden haven't done much yet.
On, Sunday, I took a definite step towards spring: I opened the outside cellar door, put the plastic cover in place, and moved six flats of my plants onto the steps. I put the flats--Star zinnias, begonias, and snapdragons--on wooden blocks so that they would not rest on the cold cement, and gave them a good watering with the sprinkling can. When the sun goes down, I will close the doors over the plastic cover, and keep the door into the cellar open to keep the cellarway warm. No wind Monday and sunny and warm. In the morning, I continued clearing the beds in the back garden. I found that most of the chrysanthemums that I had planted in the front of the rockgarden had survived--these are the ones that I bought last autumn to put into the circle bed in the front garden. After lunch I spread some lime on the lawns. Rain Tuesday, but I was able to scatter some grass seed on bare spots in the front and back lawns; today, Wednesday, I finished "spring cleaning" the front beds--now only the north side of the house and the back rockgarden are left to be done.
This week's picture shows you the arrangement of flower pots that I have made on the terrace and in front of the fence that curves between the terrace and the garage. I mentioned the three new pots in a recent "Diary"--they are the larger ones on the terrace. I put the two old pots on the driveway flanking a window box raised on bricks. The small pot on the corner of the terrace should be just right for the heliotrope (heliotropium) that is now in bud in the glassroom. I have red geraniums (pelargonium) now blooming that can go in the centers of all of the large pots, and plan to put blue browallia and white Star zinnias (agustifolia) around them. I will begin planting these before the end of the month, since I can protect them by covering the pots with plastic bags in case of frost.

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