Golden’s Garden
By Wm. Golden Reeves
A new growing season is ahead of
us and we can tell by the new seed catalogs that are starting to
arrive. Most of us receive our first catalogs the first part of
December mainly the catalogs we ordered from last year. This year has
been no exception for me and I have already sent in my orders and
received them back with only a few items back ordered. Most of the
catalogs that come from now on will be the ones that my name was sold
to see if they can entice me to order from them.
The fall harvest this last year
was the best ever. From my Granny Smith apple tree I was able to pick
35 five 5 gallon buckets full of apples. I also was able to pick
Calvile Blanch, York type H, Sperry Pippin, Arkansas Black apples. My
Golden Delicious apple tree was loaded as well and with the amount of
thinning I had done earlier in the year the apples were larger than I
had harvested any other year. With the long fall weather we had I was
able to leave the Granny Smith apples on the tree until they were
ripe.
I was able to get my garden and the
lot ready for winter and had time to re think what I could do to make
thing better or easier for me when spring comes. Each year I clean
out the sheet composting material from the walk ways in the garden
and place it on top of the planting beds. Then I fill them with yard
waste and then till the tops of the beds by doing this I have been
able to not only build up the beds but enrich the soil. This is a
system I have been using for the past 20 years. If I do not have
enough debris from my yard then I look for bags of leaves to make up
the difference in filling the walkways. Some times in the fall as it
was this year I had a pile of compost that was starting to stink
because of all of the green material I had placed in it. So that was
placed in the walk ways as well.
I over wintered some petunias last
year in the green house with out any heat other than what the sun
provided. I am trying some of my larger plants this year to see if I
can have the same success. My Rosemary plant was too large to invite
in to the house this year but fits in the green house. I took a
number of cuttings just in case it would not survive and all of the
cuttings have taken root. I have been saving run off water from the
house to keep the plants watered but need to make sure when the
buckets are full I get them in to the green house before they freeze
solid.
I have tried cuttings from verbena
again this year and no mater how I try it seams as though they all
ways end up having aphids on them. I sprayed for them and then moved
them from the basement into the green house as well to see if I can
get rid of the aphids with out affecting the other starts. With new
tomato plants started on the same rack it is difficult to try to
control an out break of aphid.
A friend brought a new kind of
Impatiens plant from back east and wanted me to try and start some
new plants for her. They have a green white striped leaf and a bright
hot pink blossom. From the mother plant I have taken most all of the
starts I can and hoped it would sprout more starts but so far that
has not happened. I have five of the new starts from that plant that
are growing very well.
Last fall I started a number of
Pepper Mint Patties geranium then transplanted them in to gallon
containers. I have them wintering in the basement window where they
can get some sun. I will be able to start taking cuttings from the in
mid January I want to increase there numbers quite a bit more before
spring comes. I took cuttings of all of the other geranium I have and
left the old mother plants in the beds to freeze. Other years I have
brought at least one each of the mother plants in to the house to
over winter.
With the snow coming down I think
I need to go clear the drive way again at least with the planting
area in the basement I can see what will be when spring comes.
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