Hello Everyone.
NOT FOUND: plant lady.jpgI wanted to keep this month pretty simple to allow y’all to figure out exactly where you’re at as far as your budget for outdoors etc. I am doing just that right now. Am I going to have hoed rows? Raised beds? Or a greenhouse?
I was looking at greenhouses you build yourself on line, compared to purchasing them and I will say the larger ones I would construct myself and the smaller I would buy. Now since it is just March and still a little early (in my opinion) to set out summer veggies I was thinking and doin’ some plannin’ to construct a mini “starter” greenhouse nursery. Just big enough to put my seeds in so they can sprout and to buy some plants small now then set them out when it’s time and when they are fully mature. I priced at work a roll of 3 mil plastic and some 1” X 2” and 2” X 2” lumber etc. on the small stuff less than $20 you can have a safe little temporary nursery so you don’t have to deny yourself of getting the garden started now. It’s soo much fun and it’s so hard to wait sometimes especially when you’re at the store and you see others buying already. Or your neighbors come home with it. So go ahead start your seeds and buy the plants if you want to build a little nursery greenhouse.
Meanwhile we can get the area or areas prepared for planting. Buy a bunch of manure and spread it out in the area to be gardened. Doing this now will allow a lot of the acidity to leach down thru the soil avoiding a hot bed. Add some sand and perlite too. This greatly improves drainage and keeps the soil aerated and from compacting. Please don’t buy the soil amendments, soil & plants and do it all in the same day. Prepare first. Also from your feedback and sharing last year a lot of us had quite a bit of plant fatalities right after planting. So this year I emplore everyone to get a gallon of B-1 ($4.50) mix it at the rate of 2 lbs. per gallon water and pour in the store bought or transplanted plants BEFORE you set them out. Also pour a little into the soil where they are to go. This will make all the difference with transplant shock or speed up the root establishment. Since the dormant spray from Lily Miller has been taken off the shelf, the replacement is Ortho Max Garden Disease Control. You can mix that with Volck oil for the wintering bugs and larvae in the tree and bark or you can mix it with malathion for present insects including the coddle moth. The Garden Disease stuff works wonders for peach leaf curl.
By the way, I want to say thank you to James a fellow reader and new friend of mine for sharing with me that he puts moth balls in a panty hose sock and hangs it from the tree and he has not had peach leaf curl for 3 years. Cool huh? And also I need to say Laura you are beautiful and the sweetest. Clay shared with us that he uses long funnels to get water into hard to reach places. Thank you Clay!
Well folks, I’m on my third day of not smoking. I just got home from work and I think it’s safe for me to go to sleep! Please feel free to pray for me.
Your Plant Lady