More Gardening

[botias]

It was a beautiful day today, sunny and warm. I spent most of it gardening. I planted dahlias. This could be glorious in a few months time. Or maybe not. Dahlias are a departure for me. They have no purpose but to be beguiling to the eye, huge and extravagant and lushly colored. They do not have scented foliage; their names are not bandied about in Shakespeare or the Bible; they are not edible; they do not attract beneficial insects, repel pests, or even form interesting seed pods for dried arrangements. Also, they are grown from tubers. I have been gardening for a few years now. Since... 1996 if you don't count my childhood efforts. I have yet to successfully grow something from a bulb. This is a bit embarrassing since daffodils run feral on nearly every roadside; the 'Star Gazer' lily was born and bred here. So, I planted dahlias, and glads, and tiger lilies.

I'm getting back into the groove. For a while yesterday I puttered about, but then I began to get down to business: tearing things out that never really worked, or were past their prime, or the magic was gone, or that I liked very much, but there just wasn't room for three.

Gardening is... very, very bad for the soul. Its lessons:

1. Take chances
2. If it's too much work, it wasn't meant to be
3. Don't settle, there's always a more exciting plant at the nursery
4. Be ruthless
1. Eradicate undesired species
2. Cull the runts and excess
3. Cut them back hard, lest they get unruly
4. Kill all your enemies; destroy them where they hide, great and small: mercy is never rewarded
5. That monarda you grew last year is an annual, and that's why it's not coming back, silly.

Comments

[cheezey.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, those lessons are all so true. Gardening is something you definitely learn by trial and error, despite reading about stuff in advance. There are always catches or little things not covered. Like, what happens when your dog up-ends your temporary greenhouse with all your must-be-started-early-inside seedlings into the lawn in the middle of April. Or, what happens when your fat cat sits on your plastic germination dome tray that you set in your bay window and crushes it? (Yes both those happened my first year of trying to grow stuff, needless to say all I had to show for it was a late purchased nursery tomato plant and a couple of sunflowers that survived the dog carnage because I found the seedling with root ball intact.)

Dahlias are pretty. Good luck with them! What zone are you in? I think you're warmer than me, so that might've affected your luck with daffodils if you're in a really warm spot. I've got a friend in Florida who has to refrigerate any daffodil, tulip, or hyacinth bulbs part of the year to get them to survive.

[botias.livejournal.com]

I've three children so I have been trying to mentally prepare myself to be serene in the face of seedling disaster. One upended tray, or a 3yo who decides it needs 'weeding' = the end of 72 seedlings and possibly a few weeks/whole season of garden time, but of course, it's only to be expected. Last year, I was the one who ultimately upended a tray.

I'm in zone 9 (Does a little dance) and tulips would have to be dug and refrigerated. I can't blame it on the climate though. Daffodils run wild everywhere, escaped from cut flower farms, and lilies are farmed commercially around here. I just... can't seem to plant them at the right time in the right spot or something. All previous attempts have resulted in only a small percentage of bulbs coming up, and those performing very poorly. I'm off to my usual tricks with the daffodils I planted, by putting fall bulbs into the ground in the spring and hoping for the best. :P But my recent batch of dahlias, etc., has gone into the ground promptly and at the proper time of year, so if the slugs don't eat them to the ground (a big if, as I am a bit lazy for true diligence, and too granola for even mild chemical controls) I should see some results from my bulb planting efforts this time. *crosses fingers* Thanks for the good wishes.