The Freeze that Wasn't and Working in the Rain

Magnolias

Nature, gardening, and life are fickle. My own thoughts on the freeze that wasn't were dire. I took pictures of all the beautiful flowers that were going to be toast in the next few days with the thought that I would have before and after pictures for this blog. Well, that didn't work out; nature gave us a double scoop of chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream instead (you see how my mind works). No hard freeze, no dead blooms, no happy perennials cut down to the ground in a black mass. Nature winked at us, fooled us mere mortals, laughed at our panic. I think I did more damage trying to cover up one of my favorites (tree peonies) than the cold did, and I would have to say, nature is whatever it's going to be and that's something we, as gardeners, will always have to work around. 

One of the new greenhouses

On to something more predictable: how our new greenhouse space is coming. The second greenhouse ribs are up and one of the end walls is up and painted its robins egg blue. I love it, and soon it will be as comfortable to me as our old space was. It has been a flurry of excitement here at Morningside: people and friends coming and going, energy flowing from plants and people, soft music playing, the sound of the nail gun and skill saw. We are all helping each other with whatever we are doing. Each to our own tasks, which are all very different. Travis is finishing up the carpentry work and painting on the greenhouses, George and Billy are madly potting up the huge plugs George has grown, and me trying to pull a retail area together out of the chaos. We're moving the plants outside the greenhouses so we can pot up more plants, and I wonder when we will have time to plant up our new huge garden space that, at the moment, looks like a giant pile of dirt with a very pleasing sweep around the garden center area. When we get that planted it's going to be spectacular.

Daffodils

A few thoughts on your garden:

After the daffodils have bloomed don't tie the leaves up. Leave them to die back just as they are. It may not look as tidy, but it's so much better for the bulbs.

Remember on these rainy and post-rainy days: Don't work clay soil when it is wet, as clumps will form that can take a whole year to break down. If you decide to work in your garden anyway, stepping or kneeling on a board or stepping stone keeps the soil from becoming compacted. I try to stay out of the my garden for a few days after a rain except around the edges. Well folks that's it for now. I can hear little plant voices calling, "Mama come watch us grow...."