is my thumb green?
Want to find out how I’m doing in keeping this small planting of Montauk Daisies alive? Do you want to track your own gardening exploits? Are you tired of hearing me wax poetic about Ravelry and want to try something similar, but are more comfortable among the earthworms and bees than sheep and rabbits?
I just discovered folia. While I’ve not yet spent much time on the site (or any site recently, there is just so much to do!) it reminds me a good deal of Ravelry. But with plants and sun instead of the sticks and string.
You can follow my exploits here and in time we’ll see if my thumb is green. I hope that if you have a garden you join me at folia and help me learn more about the site and gardening in general. It could be a fun adventure.
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3 Replies to “is my thumb green?”
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Montauk daisy’s are perennial, and as the name suggest, native to montauk (ny) so they are hardy in this zone.
starting now, and extending to thanksgiving, plant bulbs.
Daffadills naturalize (that is they will grow, come back and multiply!)
Tulips.. the fancier the tulip (parrot, multi color, etc) the shorter the life span (the fancy colors are the result of tulip mosaic virus.. make pretty tulips, but the virus eventually kill the bulb)
Darwin HYBRIDs (simple flowers, single colors (narrow range of colors) will last YEARS
Squills naturalize too, and are lovely in clusters.
Hyacinths want lots of food and care to have BIG showy flower heads.. but they too come back for a few years
crocus (you can plant 1000 and in the spring, 1000 look sparse!) naturalize too, (plan on planting some every year for the next 10 if you want a display!)
and most look best planted in clusters (unless you have time and energy(and money) to plant 1000 in a field of ‘soldiers’
bunches of 5 or 6 (a dozen bunches) look better than a single row.
and layer.. dig a big deep hole. add bone meal and compost (or other soil enrichment) plant some tulips (6- 8 inches deep ) Add some soil and bone meal, and plant some squills or other small bulbs.. add some soil, and plant some other small bulbs (crocus and snow drops.)
then the same patch of earth will have flowers from february (snow drops) march (crocus) to april (squils) to may (tulips!) the hole should be about 18 inches round –and almost 12 inches deep to start (bulbs like good draining soil)
i sold my house some 10 years ago, and new owners tore it down (and rebuilt a new house) but they took extra effort to save my garden –(so who cares about the house?!)
in the spring, they are other bulbs to plant..some are not hardy (gladiola) but some are.. PERENNIALS are the best!
(and make a map! and buy a loose leaf binder to keep track of plants (save labels/reciepts, and care info) —
a garden is a big investment of time and money.. but it can make your house worth more, and it will make it a pleasure –year round.)
(and think about perennial foods.. fennel, dill, some other herbs, asparages, blueberry’s, raspberry’s–even roses (rose hip tea is lovely! are great additions to a garden.. some, like fennel, are good ‘back drop plants” tall and lacy, its looks pretty in a flower bed, and taste great in salad– horse radish too it a good perennial (and make passover special to have your own home grown stuff!– the arrow shaped leaves are pretty too.. you can plant it in ‘fill in spots’ between other flowers just for the pretty foliage)
I’m a East Quogue girl, so I plant what I know. That the daisies are super hardy gives me hope, but I’ve killed bamboo so we’ll see if my thumb is still black or if reintroduction to nature has returned it to the green of my childhood.
I love daisies – any type of daisies – so I’ll be hapy if yours do well.