A great way to wind up the gardening year is to return to Six on Saturday, a weekly gardening series The Propagator in the U.K. hosts. I’ve been away for a few months, but this friendly group of gardeners is nothing if not welcoming! Visit his site, and view the comment section for more garden projects worldwide.
ONE – Wind destruction has occurred before at Coppertop taking out some trees, but while I was visiting the east coast on December 14, a massive windstorm wreaked havoc here. The greenhouse was a casualty. Thankfully it was mainly empty, which added to its ability to get airborne and end up in the orchard. It looks like a giant hand spun it like a top. I took the below photo standing on the greenhouses’s gravel pad. We’ve begun the both fun and frustrating job of selecting a new greenhouse.
TWO – I must admit it took me until this week to finish planting all my tulip bulbs for 2019. In these pots and other wine barrels is a riotous, fabulous mix of hundreds of orange and purples, and doubles like white Mt. Tacoma and pink Angelique, plus the AlaSka blend, a Parrot Blend, and the French Blend which are pictured. Oohlala! Every wintery post needs a spot of color. Almost all of my tulips are from Colorblends. I snapped the photo before I finished covering all pots with wire mesh to foil the squirrels.
THREE – An amazing amount of water has been flowing into our pond due to heavy rains. Soon pond grasses and other plants will be cut back in preparation for their late spring emergence. The stream is rushing and its joyful sound accompanies all outdoor, post-storm cleanup.
FOUR – I haven’t mentioned our new rose garden since I first dreamed it up and wrote about it here:Â New Bed: Stop And Smell The Roses. The turf is removed, and the large bed is dug, amended with many truckloads of compost, almost half planted with nine of the eventual 20 baby bushes and climbers, and mulched. The obelisks have arrived and are awaiting early spring assembly. The bed isn’t very exciting yet, but I have big hopes for this space.
We do have a rose mystery on our hands: One of three Golden Celebration rose bushes has gone missing since planting. Perhaps the winds carried it off into the forest? Well, yesterday I think I saw it uphill in the pond, stuck in the grasses. So weird. Time to rescue and revive it.
FIVE – Germination is the name of the game down in the shed. Lupine have shot up, as lupine do. Joe Pye Weed is currently in last place with nary a sprout in sight, and delphs and salvias are slowing putting on the green.
SIX – I’ll start and end this post with the windstorm, which downed trees and blocked roads all over the area. We lost many branches and small trees, especially in the wild areas of our land. A large hemlock tree landed on our perimeter fence. For the first time, deer have access to my growing zones. Good thing it’s winter and nothing’s too appealing!
May 2019 be the year each of us fulfills a few more of our dreams, be it in the garden, in the community, or in our personal life. See you in the New Year!
Leave a comment