Cleaning the Garden

The first warm days have come after a particularly bitter winter( temperature as low as 16 degrees Fahrenheit in the city).  I covered many plants and brought all I could in, even my pencil plant, but suffered heavy damage to plants who seldom experience temperatures below freezing.

All my plants are outdoors once again.  The hanging baskets have suffered from feline predation while inside; the spider plants no longer have spiders.   The tricolor dracaena has a flat-top courtesy of whichever cat climbed into my office.  The office is off limits, but even with the doors closed some of my cats can squeeze between frame and door.  The house is  97.  Its entitled to have some sagging doors. The only casualty was the avocado plant that was hidden behind the sanseveria and did not get watered.  Even the ficus did well this year.

Photo by briweldon

Outside was a disaster.  My yellow jasmine (texas nomenclature) or primrose jasmine (jasminum mesnyi ) is now two-toned with a top layer of tan, dead branches over the budding green ones below.  I will trim the jasmine in a week or so when I can see which branches will flower or not.  The nandina which is at least 60 years old did just fine.  The cane is putting up shoots from the ground.  The sanseveria on the south side of the house have frozen to the ground. Those I covered on the east side have some damage, but will recover.  The cacti are just fine, but the cereus is dead. The parent cereus is alive and well in a pot.  My salvia and my "I don't know what you are" plant( purchased two years ago at a thrift shop sale and unlabeled) are fine. My herb garden is fine, but I need to plant some basil and cilantro soon.  Basil doesn't make it through winter and cilantro gives out in the heat. All together I am happy with the survival rate.

I have removed obviously dead cane and trimmed the lantana to about two inches tall..  Lantana must be cut back or it gets too leggy to be attractive.  The lantana already has green leaves showing next to the ground.  I will save the cane to use as stakes in the garden and put the lantana trimmings out for the brush and clippings pickup.

I need to start preparing the vegetable garden.  I did not plant last year because I assumed I would lose the house.  Since I am still here, I will tempt fate and put in some vegetables.  Tomatoes need to go in first to ripen before the heat comes.  A few radishes and maybe carrots might be fun.  I have some decisions to make.

Gardening at over 100 -- Degrees, that is

I planted a garden this year with little regard to practicality. I planted vegetables that I wanted to eat including artichokes and eggplant. Of course, I have tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and okra. I did not do a lot of homework. I had gardens in the past and usually had fairly good success. I should have been more deliberate and studious.

I planted artichoke seeds late last year. Some plants came up and did fine through the winter. I did not have a freeze this year. Growing up, it always froze in the winter, usually several times, but in the last ten years freezes have become rare.

Anyway, the artichokes grew rapidly, and I soon discovered I had planted them too close together. I transplanted as many as I dared, trying to space them far apart. Most of the transplants made it, even the one I put in the midst of the parsnips.

All was well until the temperatures climbed above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and stayed there day after day. Despite my watering, my artichokes began to dry up. Soon, the plants were infested with black aphids. I don't use pesticides. A Ph.D. in chemistry makes me too knowlegable about the dangers of poisons whether man-made or natural. I washed the aphids off: they returned. I tried soap and water and washed some more. The soap and water was successful. The aphid numbers were greatly reduced, but the artichokes continued to decline.

I went online to research artichokes. Okay, a little late, but at least, I was trying. Artichokes don't like high temperatures. In high heat conditions, they go dormant. We had record breaking high temperatures (as high as 106) day after day. My artichokes were definitely unhappy - their leaves curled and the whole plant lost color.

So, I must wait. Either my artichokes have gone dormant (I hope) or they have died. All I can do is wait for cooler temperatures to find out. Whatever the outcome, next year I plant in partial shade.

Photo by flickring