Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
vgking

March 2006 Garden Journal

vgkg Z-7 Va
18 years ago

Well it's beginning to look like Spring around here. Daffodils are now blooming and the tulips and hyathints, sp, bulbs I planted last fall are breaking thru the ground.

Yesterday I started to weed and thin out the strawberry plants (now that's a job) and removed all the old dry asparagus stalks from last year. Placed about 4" of good compost over that bed and have high expectations this season #4.

The fruit trees are looking alive with some swelling buds now, it was about 75F here yesterday, a good day to take off from work early and get things going...

Comments (7)

  • wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
    18 years ago

    Well, man, you are ahead there in your balmy climate. Some inside starting this month and some outside next month. Early crocus are blooming [purple small ones]........no corn tasseling yet though!
    I spent a night in Richmond once...very hot.

  • vgkg Z-7 Va
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Yeah Wayne, it can get pretty hot here. In fact it's supposed to be in the 80's here this weekend. Now that's a bit too warm for me this soon as it'll spur my fruit trees into blooming and we have 5 weeks to go before last avg frost date.

    I finally finished my strawberry beds yesterday after work. All thinned out, weeded, fertilized, and mulched with pine needles. VgQn will have her hands full with preserves, etc. Today I will get to pruning back the grape vines and adding compost around them too. I can see the peach buds swelling up now, the 80s temps this weekend will no doubt force them to start blooming.

    Won't be long before I shop around for broccoli seedlings to set out. The spinach I planted last fall looks kinda puny but I have hope for it, gotta weed it soon. Lettuce seed and onion sets to go out soon too. Glad I have my new deep well on line as it's already a bit dry here...

  • aka_peggy
    18 years ago

    Hi fella's,

    I put all my early starts in a makeshift coldframe yesterday. Before this year is out, I'm gonna have me a "real" coldframe. I started seeds of fresca strawberry (among others) and only 7 in 24 germinated. Also seeds of yellow wonder strawberry took forever to germinate w/only 25% of seedlings. What is it about strawberries? Anyhoo, I wound up ordering more seeds of fresca and presently waiting for signs of life.

    I'm about 150 miles north of Vgkg and the daffs here are just beginning to bud. In another week I expect to see flowers, yippee!! I pruned several fruiting trees and brought the branches inside to force. My house is filled with flowers just now. Here's an orchid that just flowered this week, Dendrobium kingianum. The flowers are actually very tiny but the plant is loaded with these clusters...And smell!!! Whoa!
    {{gwi:3912}}

    Happy spring!!

  • vgkg Z-7 Va
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Very Pretty Pic Peggy!
    Well the weatherman has lowered his 80s expectations back down into the 70s this weekend and that will last thru next Tuesday. But...last nite the local weather dude was saying that the "bottom will fall out" later next week and he expects a cold wave to hit. Ugh, just as my fruit trees are showing some life. Hope he's wrong as usual.

  • ellen_
    18 years ago

    greetings, well, not feeling the best last year, I didn't do a lot. But the action is going this year.
    I put the early tomatoes in an APS24 so hopefully they'll be ready by mid-April for the WOW's.
    I also started about 64 onions, 60 hot peppers and some lettuce. All are coming up. I got them started faster on the heat mat. We were away at the end of February, so I was able to speed things up on the mat.
    Next week, I'll start the sweet peppers. The rest of the tomatoes get started the last week of March. It's good to get things growing. I'll be doing more in April., as it will be time to bring out the cold frame, dig up beds as well as work inside.
    Garlic is up, weather has been very changeable, so I've pulled some leaves off of it, but tomorrow we're supposed to get thunder storms and snow showers by Wednesday, so things are still unpredictable.

  • vgkg Z-7 Va
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Well with some snow/rain expected all day tomorrow I planted the spinach, lettuces, onions, and broccoli over the weekend. Will be starting the tomatoes indoors this week. Peaches are blooming now and the Asian pears are budding up. Looks like some regular pears are putting out buds too so hopefully no late freezes to come. A little wet snow won't hurt tomorrow and we need some moisture as it's pretty dry out there.

  • cochiseaz8
    18 years ago

    March has been the most brutal month so far,,, 78* at the start , then 55 mph winds, then cold, then snow with wind, then even colder, complimentary wind. I'm trying my best to harden the fancy schamcy old imports from the Med, (tomatoes) but wind-burn is killing me, (and them), The pablano's from the yucatan are looking so good. 1 yr, old tepins (sonoran) are nearly ever bearing. The herb garden never went down, we had fresh parsley, thyme sage tarragon, basil, celery greens, rosemary, oregano all winter long,,, what a treat!! But how dry? I dug approx 1 ft down yestarday.... it's like talcome, dry as a gin martini on the spots that haven't had attention, coupled with some lime contaminaion from recent cement work... I'm breakin' out the gypsom and sulpher, and the best looking top notch kitchen compost I've got... hell or high water, I'll have me a garden, merry spring! now get to work!!! darlene

Sponsored
Virginia Kitchen & Bath
Average rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars151 Reviews
Virginia's Award Winning One Stop Kitchen & Bath Remodeling Resource