The Case of the Missing Cannas

Cannas are multi-talented plants. I appreciate them not only for their flowers (my hummers love them) but also because of the exotic foliage that they offer. They also come in various heights, which gives my garden layers of the WOW factor.

In my zone 5B garden, I am instructed to dig up canna bulbs each year before the first frost, but I never seem to get around to it. I live in the middle of the woods so my gardens are actually in a microclimate which allows them to come back after mild winters. This year, however, my cannas, dahlias and glads failed to return.

A few weeks ago I went to a garage sale that offered large, healthy canna bulbs for only fifty cents each. I purchased six of them, and planted them in the ground as soon as I got home. A few days later I wandered around the garden to find that the cannas had all been dug up and stacked neatly beside the empty hole! I replanted them immediately and went on my merry way, thinking that perhaps a skunk, possum or coon had been playing tricks on me.

Tonight I went outside while the baby was sleeping, and to my horror I found just an empty hole. There weren't even any canna carcasses to be found...not a root, shoot, or skin!

I have no idea of the guilty party, but I do know that if I find a critter lurking around my cannas next year I'm going to have to kick some butt. (Of course, it could be my bah-humbug husband playing tricks on me!)

shel

Mulch vs. Rocks - The Great Landscape Debate

I tend to be very outspoken when gardeners ask my opinion on whether they should use mulch on soil or rock with landscape fabric when creating or redesigning garden areas. Instead of yelling "NO ROCKS!!! STAY AWAY FROM THE ROCKS! NEVER USE ROCKS LIKE THAT!!! DOOM ON YOU! DOOM ON YOU!" I try to calmly point out the pros and cons of each and let the questioner come to their own decision, but I admit that I can be rather theatrical when pointing out rock cons.

ROCKS - Pros

*Rocks are cool (but not in the temperature way).
*They never need replaced.
*You can get everything from white marble chips to tumbled river rock to pea gravel to lava rock.
*They are successful at keeping the moisture in the ground during dry spells.
*For the first year or two, rocks used in conjunction with landscape fabric will be weed-free.

MULCH - Pros

*Mulch breaks down, and therefore adds nutrients (especially much-needed nitrogen) to the soil.
*You can get mulch in many colors, sizes (chips to nuggets), and wood types.
*Mulch keeps the moisture in the ground.
*A proper layer of mulch will keep the garden weed free.
*It does NOT attract termites contrary to the rumors. If you read up on that, do an advanced google search using the domain .edu or go to uiuc.edu.
*If you have a garden walk or guests coming over just throw a sprinkling of mulch on the beds to make them look freshly groomed and remarkable.
*Mulch bags are easily handled. Even when wet, I can carry two bags of mulch.
*You can get mulch in bulk.
*Phone or Electric services will occasionally offer mulch for free when they are cleaning lines in the area. (Note - I have a huge mountain of wood chips in my front yard, behind some bushes so that no one can see it, that I will be spreading on my gardens this year. ALWAYS age fresh wood chips at least one year before spreading it on your gardens. If you sit on it long enough, it turns into a beautiful and nitrogen-rich compost.)

MULCH - Cons

*Mulch must be replaced each year. The first application should be approximately 4" thick (not touching the stems of the plants, however). Subsequent years require only a top dressing of mulch to make it look good and work properly.
*If you leave a bag of mulch sitting at the edge of the garden and forget about it, a baby garter snake may take up residence inside the bag and scare the s*** out of you when you open it up a few weeks later. Yes, I'm speaking from experience here. No harm was done to the snake, but I ruined a good pair of shorts that day!)
*Unless you spread Preen over the freshly mulched area, you can still have the occasional weed pop up.

ROCKS - Cons
*Dust particles are everywhere. They land in the cracks between the rocks and create tiny pockets of soil. Weeds LOVE to germinate here. You won't notice this for the first year or two, but after that it's all downhill.
*If you have rocks and landscape fabric, it's next to impossible to plant NEW perennials or annuals in that bed. You're stuck with what you have.
*Removing rocks from an area is a back-breaking, time consuming experience.
*Disposal of the aforementioned rock is difficult, unless you'd like to bring it over to me and drop it into my rut-filled driveway. Please.
*Rocks add absolutely nothing to the soil. Soil breaks down because plants use the nutrients, so you must use a liquid fertilizer to spot-treat if you want good blooms, root systems, etc.
*Face it...rocks are heavy. You can get a truck load delivered, but be prepared to have Ben Gay applications for days after distributing the rock. You'd better be in pretty good physical condition to shovel those babies around.
*Bags of rock are available, but ditto on the heavy part.
*Bags of rock also tend to rip. It's a pain in the patoot trying to clean up the spill when it happens on the lawn.
*Rocks soak up the heat from the sun. This can be good in the spring, but deadly in the summer and during breaks in the weather in the winter months. (Heating the soil causes plants to heave, which is one of the leading causes of plant loss.)
*If kids play in the rocks and happen to throw them onto the lawn, and you happen to run over them with the mower, the rocks can cause great damage to windows, the skirting around a trailer, or the eye of your pet dog...again, speaking from experience.
*If you use too many rocks, you'll cause the Earth to go off of its axis and we will all die. Okay, that's where I tend to get a little theatrical.

I love to see rock WALLS, or decorative boulders strategically scattered around for the zen aspect, or even football-size rocks used as a border around a bed. Rock Gardens are beautiful, but there is a combination of boulders of various sizes, as well as pea gravel, for this special garden.

Rocks DO have their place in the garden, but, in my opinion, they shouldn't be used as mulch.

I'll get off my high-horse now!
shel

Annuals Out My Ears

I still have tons of double impatiens, rex begonias, and Waves to plant. Today (since we didn't go to Morrisonville) I went to mom & dad's house and planted some of the impatiens and left left the nicotiana and some begonias for mom to use in a planter.

Tonight I am totally exhausted as I haven't slept well since Phyllis' passing so I didn't have any energy to put the annuals in the ground. Perhaps in the morning I will be able to at least do a few containers.

In the meantime, I will cut the top 4" or so of the leggy impatiens, dip them in a rooting hormone, and stick them in a soilless medium. This will give me even a bigger crop to plant and share with friends, and will make the original impatiens bush out and become full.

I look forward to a day at home so that I can start my Phyllis garden, which will be filled with nothing but purple flowers.

shel

Phyllis A. Klinger - Her Life and Death

At 12:15 this morning, Phyllis A. Klinger, my mother-in-law, passed away at the Taylorville Hospital. Unfortunately, we had left an hour earlier, and were not at her side. My heart bleeds to know that she was alone.

Phyllis was an excellent mother-in-law...she never interfered with our private life, hosted Thanksgiving dinners that were delicious beyond belief, and was incredibly easy to buy presents for.

In the past, she collected apple items for her kitchen. Recently her passion turned to Campbell Soup stuff. I had a blast looking for the familiar red and white can in unique situations..did you know they made a porcelain Campbell's Soup Christmas tree? Yep, she had it. Phyllis was passionate about the color purple, and loved just about anything in that color, except for lavender. I could never go wrong with purchasing for Phyllis.

I loved to hear the stories that Phyllis liked to tell, even though I'm not from Morrisonville and had no idea of whom she was referring to. She loved to stay abreast of the latest news from Morrisonville, Taylorville, and the surrounding towns.

Before I married her firstborn, Phyllis was a teacher. She dedicated many after-school hours with projects that would make the lives of "her" kids better. At the funeral home today, as we were making arrangements, one of the sisters (Kara, Kristy, or Kayla) told a story about how Phyllis used toilet paper to "tie" one of her problem students to a chair after she had done yet another destructive thing to the classroom. The original story was hilarious...I left out a lot in translation here. The girl ended up learning her lesson, grew up to have two children of her own (hopefully as ornery as she was) and be a productive member of the Morrisonville area.

Phyllis has been in and out of the nursing home in Taylorville for quite a few months. She was diabetic, with septic ulcers on both legs. I didn't know that she had been in renal failure for quite some time; she was very closed-lipped about things like that. The infection in her legs had pretty much overrun her body, making it impossible to bring her back to our world. I could look into her eyes, clouded over with agony, know that she wanted the pain to stop whatever the cost. It was hard to feed her ice chips, pat her shoulder, tuck in her blanket, and keep up a positive attitude. All that I wanted to do was yell at the nurses (they were only following doctor's orders and protocol, I know) for not being able to give her more morphine or change to a drug that would ease her pain.

On the whine side, I just have to say how unfair her death is. There were people that had been in the nursing home for years, minds and bodies gone, just waiting for their hearts to stop. Some wandered the corridors, singing songs and calling out for long-gone spouses, having no idea of even being there. Others sat in their wheelchairs, heads draped forward as they slept the sleep of the forgotten. Phyllis was still mentally alert, and, up to that point, only slightly out of whack physically. She used a wheel chair due to the condition of her poor legs, but was able to feed herself, go to the bathroom, and roll around to catch up on the happenings of her "neighbors". My selfish side thinks " WHY HER?????" In my heart, I know that she is in a better place, and, most importantly, out of pain.

Phyllis, I love you. You will be missed.

shel

Counting my Money Before It's Hatched

Yesterday I spent all afternoon in Lincoln giving my resume to any business that I am even remotely familiar with. (Not Auto Zone, as I don't know my cam shaft from my rear end.) After depressing hours on my feet, dressed in a professional manner...terribly uncomfortable...and smiling my fake confident smile, I was ready for some good news.

Jessie brought Bryan to me at Wal-Mart so that I could bring him home for the weekend. Foolishly, I drove the Honda Civic instead of the van. We made the exchange and then I was on my merry way.

The portable greenhouse that was set up in Goodie's parking lot called to me as I tried to drive past it. "We're Making Deals", the sign beckoned. Although I had less than $20 in my pocket, I had to pull in. Good thing I did! The lovely young saleswoman was in a VERY generous mood. Annuals were $1.59 each, buy one get one free. The majority of the plants looked marvelous and weren't root bound, so I started packing in Rex begonias and double impatiens. Then the gal advised me that it would be cheaper to buy a flat for $8.99 and she'd give me one for free. To make a long story short, I ended up with four flats of+beautiful double impatiens and yellow, orange and red Rex begonias, a big planter overflowing with Wave petunias, four ten inch hanging baskets of ivy geraniums, two large tomato plants, and a few odds and ends. Out of the original $20, I came home with $4 plus some change!

Poor Bryan was surrounded by flowers as I tried to pack everything into my already loaded Civic. He probably got dizzy from the scents.

My original plan was to sell all of these plants at Farmer's Market this morning. It's held on the square in Clinton, and costs a mere $10 to participate. Last night I made price signs, cleaned up the geraniums, loaded everything into the van, and prepared to leave bright and early this morning. Unfortunately, rain started falling sometime in the early morning, and it hasn't let up! With both Bryan and baby Gabriel in my care today, I was unable to go sell my wares and make some extra money to pay for gas and groceries for the next week.

My mother always told me not to count my chickens before they were hatched. Guess I should have listened to her!

shel

Vegetable Garden Blues

I pulled into the driveway at my parent's home today and noticed that the veggies in the 8'x4'x12" raised bed (built on their concrete drive) had grown dramatically in the three days since I had last seen them. The tomato plants did not get confined to cages, so they are lazily drooped over the sides of the box, their bright yellow flowers weighing them down. At the opposite end of the rectangle the two cucumber plants have engulfed the garden and have started climbing up the wall of the trailer. Green onions are ready to be enjoyed, as are the leaves of the three sage plants. In short, my mom and dad's veggie garden looks spectacular.

I schlumped my way through the shaggy lawn to my garden as soon as I got home, eager to admire the future bounty. What the HELL???? My tomatoes look just as scrawny as the day I planted them! Onions, which were planted at least a week before I planted at mom's, have tops that are already on the ground while the white part is still puny and tasteless. One zucchini plant has a bloom, but the plant is only about 2" tall so I have no idea if it will actually produce or not. All of my plants look stunted and pathetic.

I have to own up it my garden failure. Last fall I didn't till....didn't this spring, either. I haven't added organic matter, fertilizer, or mulch. Due to the extreme rain we have had this spring, I didn't water. I have never had the soil tested. In other words, I'm a failure as a Master Gardener! I didn't do anything right!!!! (Excuses are abundant...too much rain, was out of state, mom had eye surgery, took care of grandkids, and on and on.)

My plight is my own fault. The garden gets too much shade, so I will try to trim back branches that I can reach. I will add fertilizer and compost to the soil to try to get nutrients to the hungry plants, and top with mulch to help control moisture and temperature swings of the soil. It may be too late to do much for a summer crop, but I hope to clear out the failed plants and plant cold weather crops for the fall when the time is right.

The veggie garden is in the low part of the yard, and we had too much rain this year, so I will get wood to build a raised bed for next year. By doing that, I will be forced to add new soil, compost, sand and manure. The soil will be able to sit all winter long and "cook". Maybe in the summer of 2010 my garden will provide a plethora of vegetables!!
shel

Sticky, Sticky Weather

MAN, it's miserable outside. I've been inside with the kids most days. The flower and veggie gardens are doing well enough as we have had an incredible amount of rain in the last few weeks, but the people are wilting as soon as they step out their doors. What did we do before air conditioning?

Tonight I went out to put water in my 250 gallon horse trough holding tank for two of my koi, watered a few of my hanging baskets that tend to dry quickly, and pull a few weeds. Within 10 minutes I was a soaking mess. I certainally hope that it dries up and cools off before Saturday as it is the garden walk for DOVE in Clinton.

Tomorrow I'll babysit for little Gabe again, so mowing will have to wait until evening. I hope it cools down by then!

shel