Tag Archives: white birch

The Start of Garden Work…

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It was beautiful outside, so I did some garden maintenance in the front yard. I first cut down and removed all the dead Sunflowers and Zinnias. Our dog Kelly accompanied me in my chores as our neighbor’s kid kept trying to call her. Kelly pretty much ignored them, because she was busy cutting the grass.

I tried to pull as many weeds as I can and cleaned up the Swiss Chard, Rudbeckia and Mums. This was worth two 5-gallon containers of composting materials.

My mom wanted to pull up the Dahlias in the front planting area, which hasn’t been divided in I can’t remember how many years. This was no easy task because the tubers were huge (like grocery potatoes) and they were intertwined with out White Birch tree’s roots. They were also Dutch Iris and Columbine that we wanted to save, so I had to carefully dig these up and put them aside, until we can replant. It started getting dark, so I could not finish. Those Dahlia tubers were really stuck in the Birch’s root, and I’ll have to tackle this later.

I also collected all the plant labels that were in the planting beds. I washed the dirt off of them and place them away for safe-keeping. Which reminds me, I want to get some black plant labels for my seedlings.

Now, I have a blister from cutting the Sunflower and Zinnia into small compostable pieces. and my back is sore. Gosh, I feel old… hehe :)

Quick Response + Rose Stumps + Gardening Thoughts…

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I wrote an email to White Flower Farm last night asking if they knew what varieties of Coleus my coworker purchased from them… and this morning, I got a response with the names. They are Black Magic, Peridot, Bronze Pagoda, Garnet Robe and Rattlesnake… Now I’ll update my previous entry and my flickr page to reflect this information.

My Mom finally cut down the Roses in the front yard to about a foot from the stump. There were a few flowers left, but nothing significant. Our front yard looks so bare now.

As I was watching A Gardener’s Diary before bed last night, I saw this gardener who grew Clematis through one of her bushes. It made the illusion that bush was flowering. That gave me an idea. How it would look if we grew Clematis next to our White Birch tree in the front. Would it enhance the tree with flowers or would it look too weird. Hmm???… My Mom doesn’t really like the Birch tree, but we can not chop it down because of our city’s municipal code prohibits it.

I was also thinking about making a make-shift grow-light thingy-a-gig in my room like my LiveJournal friend, lblanchard. Just a small one… maybe I can take one of my old aquariums, replace the light with a warm white fluorescent bulb and add mirrors on the sides to intensify the light. I’ll add gravel or stones the the bottom with just a little bit of water to add some humidity. Hmm?… That’s an idea… Lemme research that on Google…