All things green

For years I have been looking for a way to keep my feet dry in the greenhouse and garden.  A lot of water gets sloshed around in the greenhouse  and my feet often  get wet and stay wet all day. The same is true out in the garden on a morning covered with heavy dew .

I’ve tried slip-on boots, the type that go over your shoes… they are too heavy to wear all day.

Galoshes are out of the question, for the same reason.

Disposable over boots are OK, but the don’t hold up to a lot of walking.

Wellington’s (known as “Wellies” in The British Isles) keep my feet the driest, but they are a little heavy and rub against my leg at the top of the boot when I walk.

This week the answer to my dilemma  arrived via UPS… a pair of “LawnGrips” garden shoes.

I opted for the short-top, non-steel toed model.

When I first put them on, they felt tight and uncomfortable. I was  disappointed because the advertisement claimed that they had a roomy toe area and gave your feet plenty of space.  I immediately took them off and planned to send them back.

The next day however, I decided to give them another try.  Low and behold, after about 15 minutes of walking, the shoe material started to relax and conform to the shape of my foot.

They turned out to be a very comfortable shoe, today I even  forgot that I had them on.

These LawnGrips kept my feet dry in the greenhouse and outdoors in the slushy mess we call snow.

The bottom of the shoe has a tread pattern with rounded edges that minimizes the sticking of mud  and debris to the bottom.  This avoids the biggest complaint I have about hiking boots in the garden…all of those tiny tread spaces tend to pick up and hold mud.

Like any product, it is not perfect and has it’s “Archilles  heel” :).  The top of the shoe has a stretchy porous material where the tongue is located. This allows water to get in if a direct stream of water hits that spot.  It’s a minor problem under most conditions.

So far I have not needed the put in an extra insole despite walking on the concrete greenhouse floor all day.

They are not available in stores yet but can be found at a number of vendors on-line.

They set me back about $85 , but if they hold up for the rest of the season, it’ll be well worth it.

Bob

“…you make lemonade”, the old proverb goes.

Does the same principle apply when Bob gives you lemons from the greenhouse?

The lemon trees have been providing us with lemons for a couple of weeks now.  There are too many for us here to use so the best thing to do is to start giving them away.

I picked a 1/2 peck this morning…

These lemons are a bit larger than the ones you see in the produce department.  They are tastier too. The variety is ‘Beares’ and they seem to be quite happy in the greenhouse.

Maybe, a slice of lemon in a cup of hot water will go down better than lemonade on this cold and damp winter’s day.

Bob

Today was a great day to take out some plants and spray them off.

If you have house plants that are infested with  pests such as spider mites, mealy bugs or scale, a good rinsing will go a long ways towards cleaning them up.

Tomorrow is predicted to be very mild as well, so, take those plants outside where you can spray plenty of water without being concerned about making a mess. 

The stream of water you use must be strong enough to knock off the bugs but not so strong as to tear or bruise the leaves.

Citrus trees have very tough leaves and seem to be able take quite a bit of pressure. Others plants however, are more delicate. Start with a fine spray and increase the pressure if needed.   You’ll have to judge it yourself.

I use a 3-hole nozzle that puts out a very fine, yet strong stream of water that knocks off just about everything without damaging leaves.

Take advantage of this January thaw while you can.

Bob

Judy and I traveled to Florida a couple of weeks ago. One of the places we visited was Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota.

While we were there I bought an Orchid for the greenhouse as a souvenir. Instead of potting it, I decided to put it up onto one of the orange trees.

Orchids are epiphytic plants, meaning that their natural habitat is up in the branches of trees. The tree is only supports the plant but doesn’t provide any nourishment for it.

I needed a way to firmly attach the orchid without damaging it.

Regular twist ties and Velcro strips first came to mind, but then I remembered something I had acquired in the summer; a roll of Rapiclip Soft Twist Tie.

This Twist Tie is a foam rubber coated wire that is very soft and pliable and very easy to work with. I paid five or six dollars for this 16′ roll.

You can see here how it gently, yet firmly it holds the orchid to the tree.

This spot gets daily misting from the overhead misting system so my souvenir from Florida should be very happy there.

Bob

I have a few days between Christmas and New Year to take advantage of the fact that the north greenhouse is empty, now that all of the poinsettias have been given away.

One of the jobs I have been wanting to do for a while is wash the inside of the glass on the greenhouse.  It is covered with algae, mildew and other assorted nasty looking stuff. 

Since the peak of the roof is 15 feet from the floor, I bought a telescoping window brush handle to reach the top without having to stand on a ladder.  I tried using a stream of water to rinse off the dirt but, it just sticks to the glass.

At one time I used an expensive window concentrate to wash the glass. After running out of that stuff, I found out that ordinary liquid dish soap works just fine. Also, since dish detergent contains a rinsing agent and, I use RO water to rinse the glass, they turn out sparkling clear.

If I didn’t have access to 300 gallons on pressurized purified water for rinsing, I’d have to sqeegee  all that glass… now that would be a huge task!

The worst part of this job happens when you are washing the roof and skronky water  runs down the pole and  your arm  into your arm pit…yuck!

Look at the difference between a washed pane of glass and the adjacent unwashed glass.  How much light do you suppose  is lost to all of those dirty panes of glass?

The plants will certainly appreciate the effort and the rest of us don’t have to look at all that grime.

Bob

Have you seen the Amaryllis for sale at the stores? They are a bulb which is quite large that either come in a box and must be planted or are pre-planted.

Large blooms of red, white, or pink are the common colors at the “Big Box” stores. In the catalogs there are some unusual varieties. For example; white with streaks of red or green, pink blotches in the middle of the petals or my favorite; white petals edged in a fine line of red, called ‘Picotee’!

Any of these colors of Amaryllis make great presents since they are sure to bloom. Over watering or under watering makes no difference right now. Amaryllis bulbs, at this time of year, will bloom no matter what is done to them.

Some have two or three blooms from one bulb, and the blooms last for a long time. So, if a present is needed for your eighty-five year old aunt or anyone else who is hard to buy for, Amaryllis bulbs are the answer!

Bye for now,

Judy

It’s been a while since I last posted an article here, but that doesn’t mean that things have slowed down in the garden and greenhouse.

Christmas is just around the corner, so for us that means Poinsettias are the focus of our work.  Actually, the poinsettias have been in the greenhouse since September.  As a result, here in the greenhouse, Christmas has slowly crept up since that time. We’ve watched them grow from small, green cuttings to full colorful plants.

 We’ve been so used to the greenhouse being full of Poinsettias, that it’s hard to believe that they will all be gone soon. 

Some of the plants have already been given away last week.

Many people are not aware that there are different Poinsettia varieties, just like there are different varieties of tomatoes.  Through the years, plant breeders have developed varieties for not only color, but, also growth habit (short or tall), leaf shape (smooth or lobed), maturity date (early, mid, or late) and other characteristics.

One very important development in  Poinsettia breeding is the ease of production.  The old varieties needed to be covered with a black shade cloth during a period of their life cycle.  Any light, even from street lamps at night, could cause the crop to fail to bloom.

Fortunatly, this is not as critical anymore.

This year, we are growing three varieties of Poinsettias.

Premium Red is our main crop, we have about 150 of those.

Sonora is our white variety, there’s about 40 of them.

Marblestar is a pink and white variety.  We have about 50 of those.

  of Almost all of our Poinsettias are grown in 6″ pots, except for a couple  dozen 10″ pots.

In two weeks time the greenhouse will be empty of Poinsettias except for a few that we will continue to grow. A couple will be saved for taking cuttings for next year’s crop, while a few more will be left to grow into larger plants for Christmas of 2008.

Bob

Planting all of those daffodils, tulips and other bulbs was a big job. The last step in the process was to cover all of those holes, which we did last week.
In a prepared flower bed, this is easy, you just rake your garden soil over the bulbs and that’s that.

We rarely have that luxury because most of our bulbs get planted either in sod or in ground cover. That means we have to haul in some topsoil to cover the bulbs because much of the existing soil gets lost under the ground cover or grass.

After the soil has been spread, I work it in with the back of a steel rake. Using the toothed side is impossible because it snags the grass and ground cover (Periwinkle in this case).

This may be the last year I personally operate the auger for drilling the planting holes, my wrist and finger joints just can’t take the abuse anymore.

Next year maybe I’ll hire someone younger and just supervise.

Bob

Can you believe it? I ordered over 10,000 flower bulbs and that still wasn’t enough to finish the project I had in mind.  I still need about 500 more to finish off the perennial garden.

Luckily the supplier has enough of the variety in question and will send them right away.

Meanwhile, while waiting for the bulbs to arrive, we started another fall project, emptying all of the flower pots and containers.

I always like to save the old potting soil to use in the vegetable garden as a soil conditioner.  I also compost all of the stems and leaves.

 Here we see some of the pots that have been emptied:

The compost bins are in the background.  The potting mix goes into the center bin, while the plant material goes into the two remaining bins. 

I always like to use fresh mix in the pots when planting in the spring, since potting mix is sterilized and free from disease and weeds.  On occasion,, when I run short of fresh potting mix, I will dip into the compost bin and use some of last years potting soil.  So far, I have not had a problem doing this (except for the occasional weed seedling that pops up)

This is a fairly big job to do, especially during this time of the year when there are bulbs to be planted.

There have been years in the past when we waited a little too long in the season to start this job… it’s no fun digging out partially frozen soil from clay pots.

Fortunately, with the warmish weather we’ve had, this project was completed on time.  No frozen mess this year!

Bob

This year we are planting a little over 10,000 bulbs for flowering in the spring; Tulips, Daffodils, Grape Hyacinths and a few others.

Over the years we have tried several methods and have tried several types of tools.

This photo shows a few of those bulb planting tools:

On the left we have our all purpose garden trowel, it is fine for planting a few dozen bulbs in prepared garden soil.

 If you have more than a few dozen bulbs, the hand bulb planter (2nd from left) makes digging the planting holes quite a bit easier. 

A more expensive, but handier bulb planter (2nd from the right) has a built-in mechanism that helps you remove the soil from the planter.  You just squeeze the handle and it opens the digging part to release the soil to easily cover the newly planted bulb.

Next we have two versions of the “step-on” planter. These allow you to dig holes while standing.  Since your feet can apply a lot more pressure, you can use these to plant directly into sod for “naturalizing” daffodils into an area.  The blue colored planter works fine in light, sandy soil, but will bend under heavy use in denser soils.  The red colored step-on planter is virtually indestructable…your feet will give out before this tool will. One drawback to these tools is the problem of soil sticking to the inside of the digger and not easily releasing.

All of these previously mentioned tools work fine if used where they are suited and you don’t have a whole lot of bulbs to plant.

Since we plant thousands of bulbs each year we have to bring out the heavy artillery:

The gas powered auger!! G-R-R-R-R!!!

Until we acquired this beast, we really did use those manual tools hanging on the garden shed door.

This machine is almost essential for  the number of bulbs we plant around here. 

It is great for planting into sod, as it cuts right through the leaves, roots and all.

Watch out if you hit a rock while drilling at full speed!  It can jar you so bad that you think your fillings will drop out!

This auger bit has drilled many thousands of holes and has hit gobs of rocks.

Look how the shaft has been twisted backward, causing the metal to form an “S” shape.  This gives you some idea of the force involved when the bit strikes a rock.

 I have other bits that are so worn that the point is gone and will only dig a small ”V” shaped hole.

Here is our set-up in action.

That’s me planting bulbs on a drizzly day.  Note the metal can on my belt.   This is where I carry the bulbs to be planted so I don’t have to bend down to pick up a bulb after every hole.

I drill a hole with two hands, then pull out the auger and grap a bulb from my holder and drop it into the hole.  Later I come back and rake the soil back over the holes.

This jobs goes about four times faster if you have a helper placing the bulbs into the hole as you drill.

It’s a big job, and exhausting, but the rewards in the spring make it all worth while.

Bob