Saturday, May 31, 2008

Red Mulch Update


Those morning glories are still working at making an appearance in both of our gardens so they continue to sneak their way between any little crevice that they can to hide from our weeding tools. This one actually hid long enough to bloom and it is a beauty...now to fight it again next year...they really look quite harmless and we really actually like them, but I think they could take over the world if we let them.

The red mulch has been in place now for a few months so it is time for an update. We have both removed several of the tomato automators because we are finding that as the stalk of the tomatoes grew it seemed like the plastic would cut into the stem eventually. Not wanting to cut off plants at the ground we just removed the plastic. Also noticed that the red seems to fade to a dull orange in the sun and didn't notice much difference in the plants that had the red automator and the ones that didn't have anything.

On the strawberries we experimented with 2 different red plastic mulches and found one to be holding up really well and keeping its color while the other is fading to a dull orange. We need to do a little more research on where each one came from and the brand. You can see in the picture where we butted the two up side to side and it seems obvious that the plants on the redder side are a little bit bigger. They had a few more berries on them also, but I took the picture after we harvested them. It is still a little early and the weather has been playing tricks on us going from cold to HOT to cold again so we will have to see how things look in a few more weeks.

We found a few nice surprises in our gardens today one of which was the Magda squash were ready to pick. We will eat them tomorrow night with our trout we caught Thursday. We both had some pretty plants blooming and growing from last year and after a little pruning and dead-heading they are looking fabulous again. In Michael's garden there was the carex 'Frosty Curls' growing next to a beautiful little pink dianthus...great combination! (I think he planned it that way...not!) In my garden there were some ranunculus bulbs that finally started blooming and the soft yellow ones were looking perfect by the centranthus and the 'Sarah' lavender (among other things). This is sometimes my least favorite section of my garden, but today it was my favorite!

I already mentioned the 'Magda' squash that I am so excited about because I love the way they taste, but another bonus is the beautiful mottled look of the leaves. I think they are really beautiful for a squash plant...but, that is just my opinion. The picture makes it look as though we had just dusted them, but we didn't that is just how they look.

Happy Gardening!
Ferne

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are the healthiest looking plants and oh my goodness how much work you have done. I'm impressed. I enjoyed looking around.

Anonymous said...

Hey Ferne,
i do like the look of your Magda squash. Where did you get the seeds from? Thanks for visiting my blog today.
Shirley

Joe said...

How have those strawberries been? Every time I've tried to grow strawberries, they get destroyed by squirrels and slugs.

That morning glory is beautiful!