Wednesday, January 14, 2009

How's your garden doin'?

Winter weather can be rough on gardeners in the Northern reaches and who have played in zonal denial. That would be me. Before our recent Snowpocolypse I covered some plants (Hebes!) with sheets and tucked a few pots into the garage. Here's how that went:
Overwintering tender succulents

Right. So I anticipate plenty of "open opportunities" in the garden come this spring. Onto other gardening news...

I'm in training to become a Master Gardener. I've wanted to do this for years, and it's a somewhat intense 66 hours of classes followed by 66 hours of volunteering in the community. But in the end, I know it will give me a better knowledge base for my writing and gardening advice, and credible knowledge based on research. My first class was last week and the nicest surprise occurred at lunch, when Master Gardener "Bemused", commenter here at Lelo and a friend in real life too, showed up in person to make sure I'd have someone to have lunch with on my first day. How nice was that? Master Gardeners are just like that I guess. My Master Gardener binder is huge, but already I'm learning so much.

Final note of gardening update today: we have overwintering hummingbirds in the garden. I heard them today and saw them yesterday. After all of that snow, it really is a miracle.

9 comments:

Flower gyrl said...

I've got a lot of herbs. Thyme looks indestructible. The Italian parsley was damaged, but we've cut it back, and it appears to be coming back. Yeah! My scented geraniums are toast. Thanks to your column I visited Heirloom roses and planted a few babies this fall. They don't look so great, but the nursery staff assured me the roses can handle the snow.

I've got a passionflower that looks dead, but it has surprised me before. I'm thinking if I cut off all the dead vines it can start anew in the spring. Wise apprentice Master Gardener...let me know what you think of that strategy!

Anonymous said...

That's exciting new about the master gardener schooling. Do you plan to use your new skillz for fun or profit?

bemused said...

Lelo, that surprise lunch was just as fun for me! You're going to love your training and being an OSU Master Gardener (I do). It's such a great opportunity to talk plants all the time with fellow hort-fiends, learning and sharing as you go. When I do that at home, I lose my family's attention at the mere mention of anything plant related. Their eyes glaze over and they're gone.

Flower gyrl, I hope you don't mind me stepping in. I'd wait until spring to do anything about your passion vine - or anything else looking the worse for wear in your garden, provided we're not talking about broken branches (those should be given a clean cut). When you start seeing green buds in spring, check the plant over and make cuts just above the new buds. Yeah, it's kinda ugly to look at brown plants but if you cut to where it's green now and we get more nasty weather, you could be exposing that nice green stuff to cold damage.

LeLo said...

Flower gyrl, listen to bemused! Wait. Just sit on your hands and wait. Your roses should be just fine. As for your passionflower....we have one too, and every year it plays with us, making us think it's muerte. But it's just a late bloomer, meaning it's late to come back to life. Sometimes it's not until May that it start to show its green leaves again, so definitely be patient with it. I'd suggest to not touch it yet. It's such a tease.

TylerinCMYK-I hope my new skillz will help provide both. You never know what the world has in mind for me...

Bemused-You are the best and are so well respected and liked by everyone I talk to. Thank you my friend!

Anonymous said...

You are so amazing and wonderful. I can't wait to hear the great things that you learn!

I haven't even checked the damage out there, but I have a suspicion that my Gardenia is probably toast.

bemused said...

Lelo, thanks for your music-to-my-ears words! I needed that today. I'm feeling a bit stressed and blue, despite the gorgeous sunshine. I need to be more like my cat; find a sunny, warm spot in the house and soak it up for awhile, to-do lists be damned.

Flower gyrl said...

Thanks to Bemused and Lelo for the guidance. I'm on crutches right now, so that does help slow me down from any wanton pruning. I shall patiently wait until April to get to work.

Hope everyone's spirits are perking up. It is sunny, and we are going to have President Obama sworn in very soon!

Renee said...

All my green died! I had a lovely veggie bed of spinach, favas, arugula, etc. But they were not match for 18" of snow. The trees, shrubs, vines and perennials all look fine though - many with new shoots forming.

I am exploring some serious advanced education as well, which I've been keeping on the DL all winter (hence why I've blogged less than usual). The possibility of researching plants, design and landscape history sounds intoxicating.

Cher said...

Ooh, how I want to do this. Color me jealous. One day, my friend, one day...