25 December 2018
The Christmas present exchange between me and Our Kathleen had a touch of O’Henry about it.
I would love to have sent the same Liquid Wisdom teapot to Montana Mary but have a long and sad history of fragile things getting broken by the time they reach her.
We had already celebrated Christmas on Christmas eve, so I spent the afternoon potting up plants for my Memorial Day plant sale.
A terrible disappointment: The Eryngium, grown from seed from a reputable big name seed company, that was supposed to be Miss Willmott’s Ghost, have all turned out to be just an ordinary eryngium (and this one is blooming in winter).
I am sad. I still desperately want Miss Willmott’s Ghost. If anyone can bring me a real one, I will take that person out to dinner at the Shelburne Pub!
I have had a potting soil situation. I bought the same brand from two different local stores. One shipment is normal looking and dark. One is extremely red and barky.
So I bought some from each source and mixed them, two parts good to one bad (at least, I think it is bad).
What do you think about that, fellow gardeners?
26 December 2018
Along with potting up starts, I did a little project. The patio I made in January of 2011 had pavers at the edge, with the water boxes that were later installed. I suddenly realized those pavers no longer served any purpose and took them out.
I crammed in some sod so that it can be string trimmed right to the edge of the boxes and will no longer be a weedy mess.
From the free wood pile by Jessie’s Fish Co, Allan brought home an armload of plastic venetian blinds. He had asked me months ago if I wanted them for plant tags. At that time, I was tired from work, had no intention of having a plant sale, and said no. I had been regretting that no and was thrilled the slats were still there.
I am keeping track of the time I spend on this project, and the soil, and will divide that by any profit I make to see if this is a worthwhile thing to do after we retire. (I have dreams of a plant stand at the Saturday market.)
Allan got round to photographing a gnome (made by Wendi Peterson at a Basket Case Greenhouse winter workshop) in a downtown window.
27 December 2018
I continued on a doomed mission to remove as much Ficaria verna (lesser celandine) as possible from areas of the garden where it is taking over. It no doubt came from plants I brought from my mother’s garden. It goes dormant in summer, so during the time when I was taking plants while we had her house for sale, its tiny corms hitched a ride.
I am unlikely to win this battle. I do love the bright yellow spring flowers.
I debated cutting down more dead perennial growth with The Toy, but what is left still looks beautiful to me.
We had made a trip to The Planter Box to get some pots back; I have been donating all my extras back to them before I decided on having a plant sale.
The only hen that has made no chicks is my favourite one that I bought for about $8 last spring:
After dark, I took a break from daily reading to watch just one episode of Gardeners’ World. I know if I go down that rabbit hole, my reading plans will end for the winter so I must resist. But…just one…
I trusted my memory so can not tell you the location of a garden right by the sea…
with a wonderful greenhouse…
…where the gardeners mulched with seaweed.
They said it helped to repel slugs and snails.
I wept with the tenderness of the visit between Carol Klein and Beth Chatto, one of my all time favourite inspirational gardeners.
30 December 2018
We’d had more rain. and now I had a semi-squally winter afternoon for more potting up of plants.
This time, I worked partly in the greenhouse making cuttings. Wish me luck; it would be wonderful if these take. I was advised in a workshop of yore and by my friend Ann to use perlite. I had one small bag of the stuff, but found it hard to stuck the cuttings in so I made a mix of half perlite and half seed starting mix.
I used santolina (green and silver), escallonia, rosemary, hardy fuchsia, red and gold twig dogwood, and a few other plants.
Maybe the ones in the lower right should have fewer leaves (olearia, just an experiment).
Skooter chose to not help out in the iffy weather.
31 December 2018
We had ice! Definitely a reading day.
My plant sale stash is growing, but no more will be added till the weather warms up again. We did not dip down into the 20s so I did not have to cover these.
I learned this month that while planting in the ground is not a task I enjoy, I love potting up starts and making cuttings. I found myself wishing that I had kept my previous home, which was zoned commercial, so that I could have had a weekend nursery.
Wishing you a belated happy new year as I finally got around to writing this on January 17th!
Next: some of the reading of late December.
A happy new year to you both too. The Christmas presents looked well chosen.
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Thank you, Mr T. The gifts would go well with a drop scone or two.
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We get G&B Organics down here too. That was an unusual bag you got, and looks like it had some sort of moldy stuff in it. The price of G&B went up significantly here this year, too.
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It’s a little under$10 a bag here.
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$15.99 here
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Lovely photo of the greenhouse lean-to! And the evergreen gnome is adorable.
Skooter has the right idea to curl up in a warm spot. I’d like to do that too.
Boo hoo! Sorry to hear Montana Mary missed out on a lovely teapot. But better that than to receive it broken. A trip to pick up one on person seems called for.
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That’s a great idea!
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Tis an adorable tea pot in person, adds Our Kathleen.
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🙂
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Happy New Year! Better late, than never. 🙂
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Thank you!
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I buy the Kellogg soils (i.e. GB) for the garden center at the company I work for . We don’t carry their regular potting soil, we carry their Blue Ribbon Organic potting soil.We sell truckloads and truckloads of their soils and have never had a quality issue. I would go back to the nursery where you bought it and have them check a couple of bags and if they have a full pallet that is bad they should contact their Kellogg rep and get it picked up and credited to them with their next load.
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Thank you!
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The red potting soil looks like it has uncomposted sawdust mixed in with it?
Your lean to greenhouse is calling out for double decker shelves! I am so envious!
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Yes, I think it is raw sawdust.
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I can not stop looking at the spot where the Gladiolus papilio are, even though I know it is still winter. I waited for a while, but started watching once the daffodil starting coming up.
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I have one daffodil blooming already since last week. The Gladiolus p that I potted to haven’t emerged at all, either.
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It is early.
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Womens March this Sat Jan 19 at 2pm at 12th & Exchange = Heritage Square in Astoria! Hope you and Allen can attend with everyone there! thanks Deb PS attaching poster on it and thanks!
—————————————–From: “Tangly Cottage Gardening Journal” To: debwells12@charter.net Cc: Sent: Thursday January 17 2019 4:31:14PM Subject: [New post] the end of December 2018
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Tangly Cottage posted: “25 December 2018 The Christmas present exchange between me and Our Kathleen had a touch of O’Henry about it. I would love to have sent the same Liquid Wisdom teapot to Montana Mary but have a long and sad history of fragile things getting brok”
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It was on my calendar originally with this lingering ear problem and 30 mph wind predicted, I’m staying out of that sort of weather. I did promote it on FB.
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I love your greenhouse lean to! You are off to a great start for 2019. You will be well stocked and prepared for the plant sale.
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Thanks!
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