Green Elephant
I went to the Green Elephant today. =D I met Karee (strawberry lady) again, as well as the nice guy that always gives out honey. =D And I intended to get rid of some plants but all I got rid of were wood hyacinth/spanish bluebell bulbs. Instead I came back with an entire trunkfull of stuff. =D
Of course, it's been raining here nonstop for days now. (Welcome to Seattle!) We were all soaked at the swap and carrying around umbrellas. And when I came home I was trying to garden with an umbrella. I gave up on that quickly and relied on my heavy, wool sweater -- I love wool -- and a water-resistant jacket.
So, while I was out trying to figure out where to put all these plants, I hauled a load of things recently killed by the frost up to the compost heap. And was ecstatic to find that the compost apparently had started ginning since we've been getting rain and I suddenly had an entire wheelbarrowful of the stuff. =D Mmmm, black gold. =D
(I'm doing a lot of =D today. I think I'm in a good mood.)
Didn't actually end up planting anything. It's too wet out; the dirt would just make clumps and dry that way. Not a good thing. So instead I potted up the bareroot stuff I got, labeled what didn't have labels -- except for this one mystery plant ... I wrote down the name I was given, but Google and my Sunset Western Garden book both have no idea what it is -- and put everything on the porch to stay wet.
I also wandered through the garden long enough to dig up my dahlias. There was a very knowledgeable woman there talking about to store and grow them, and Karee and I were both absorbing knowledge.
Oh, I guess I also dug up the elephant garlic. Damn stuff still hasn't split. Well, 3 out of 4 heads didn't split. The 4th actualy did, and it was also the one that made flowers this year. I am going to try an experiment and leave two giant bulbs in the ground over the winter and keep two inside. If the ones left outside split, that will confirm the theory that they need to chill properly in order to split.
(Picture doesn't show it well, but the head with the long stem actually does have 4 cloves. Whereas the other one is a single onion-like gigantic clove.)
Of course, it's been raining here nonstop for days now. (Welcome to Seattle!) We were all soaked at the swap and carrying around umbrellas. And when I came home I was trying to garden with an umbrella. I gave up on that quickly and relied on my heavy, wool sweater -- I love wool -- and a water-resistant jacket.
So, while I was out trying to figure out where to put all these plants, I hauled a load of things recently killed by the frost up to the compost heap. And was ecstatic to find that the compost apparently had started ginning since we've been getting rain and I suddenly had an entire wheelbarrowful of the stuff. =D Mmmm, black gold. =D
(I'm doing a lot of =D today. I think I'm in a good mood.)
Didn't actually end up planting anything. It's too wet out; the dirt would just make clumps and dry that way. Not a good thing. So instead I potted up the bareroot stuff I got, labeled what didn't have labels -- except for this one mystery plant ... I wrote down the name I was given, but Google and my Sunset Western Garden book both have no idea what it is -- and put everything on the porch to stay wet.
I also wandered through the garden long enough to dig up my dahlias. There was a very knowledgeable woman there talking about to store and grow them, and Karee and I were both absorbing knowledge.
Oh, I guess I also dug up the elephant garlic. Damn stuff still hasn't split. Well, 3 out of 4 heads didn't split. The 4th actualy did, and it was also the one that made flowers this year. I am going to try an experiment and leave two giant bulbs in the ground over the winter and keep two inside. If the ones left outside split, that will confirm the theory that they need to chill properly in order to split.
(Picture doesn't show it well, but the head with the long stem actually does have 4 cloves. Whereas the other one is a single onion-like gigantic clove.)
posted by Quakey at 6:19 PM
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