2 March 2012 Gardening Log

Today was the 2nd day this year I worked in the garden.  Several weeks ago there was a beautiful day and I started the cleanup in Bed A-1, but today I spent about 3 hours.  The 49 degree finished off any remaining snow.

I was surprised to find one bright yellow crocus blooming and lots of crocus, daffodils and tulips already pushing through the dirt.  Some of the tulips had already been nibbled by bunnies. Out can the liquid fence.  I sprayed every bed with bulbs.  The mixture is a bit of a slurry and I had to clean out the sprayer several times.

Bed B-1 and C-2 got the full treatment. I removed dead leaves, weeded and resettled some rhizomes that had suffered frost heave.  While much of the garden looks good, I am a bit worried.  This winter was a roller coaster of snow and thaw and the soil has been wet more than frozen. As a result some of the rhizomes were a mushy mess.  One that I do through clearly had some small borers.  Two rhizomes in a lower bed actually were moldy.

Now that liquid fence is applied, the next application will be insecticide with Merit.

I looked for a low nitrogen fertilizer with little luck and settled on bone meal.  That will be applied soon.