Daffodils

Planting daffodils

Select a site that offers full sun or part shade. Most daffodils tolerate a range of soils but grow best in moderately fertile, well-drained soil that is moist during the growing season. Many of the popular species prefer neutral to acidic soils.

• Plant bulbs 1-1/2 to 5 times their own depth. Where winters are severe, make sure there is at least 3 inches of soil covering the bulb.
• Daffodils will tolerate some crowding but prefer to be spaced 3 to 6 inches apart.
• It may help to sprinkle a little bulb fertilizer in the hole during planting.
• Resist the temptation to uncover spring-flowering plants such as daffodils and tulips. You can loosen mulch, but the shoots will still benefit from protection against cold, drying winds.

What to do in the garden?

To all our fall garden enthusiasts!

Here is a list of what our garden needs in the fall to give us better results in the next flowering season!

Please pick what you'd like to do and communicate it through this blog.

This is the best time to fertilize your lawn if you only do so once a year.

Plant hardy spring-flowering bulbs such as tulip, daffodil, hyacinth bulbs, snow drops and crocus corms. Consider covering with chicken wire to deter animals. Don't be too quick to cover them with mulch or it may attract animals. Wait until the ground freeze.

Water trees, shrubs, and evergreens until the ground freezes. Apply a layer of mulch around these plants to help reduce winter injury.

Finish seeding your new lawns by the middle of the month.

Remove weeds, debris, and dead or diseased plants, as well as plants that had disease problems this year. Insects and diseases can overwinter in these plants.

Look for slug egg masses under mulch and destroy.

Cut perennials to the ground.

Be sure to remove any leaves from your lawn to help reduce lawn problems; use as mulch for plants or shred them and add to compost.

Clean up lawn and garden. Remove any dead or diseased plants, leaves, and twigs. Remove all debris and dead plants to prevent overwintering of certain garden pests.

Fall Updates

Hello,
Wanted to let people know a few developments and start thinking about the future.

We planted about 10 daffodil bulbs on the western side of bed No. 1. There's a sign on one site and fencing around the other to prevent anyone else from mistakenly digging them up. (I found some bulbs, hopefully from a previous year that never germinated in one of those locations.) We'll try some more bulbs also next time we go past a garden store. Daffodils are for part shade to full sun, so let's hope that's a good enough spot works.

We also did some weeding, composting and seeding in bed 8 a couple of weeks ago and, encouraged by how quickly the grass has sprouted there, tried the same steps on the western end of bed 9 just today. Perhaps Quixotic to think the grass will take root this late in the year, but it seem like that spot gets good sun.

Bed 13 is virtually entirely weeds. I think it is too late in the year to try to dig it all up and re-seed. Maybe something for the spring. We also should think about taking on the lawn strips out front in the spring as well.

We've begun to use part of bed 3 as an area for yard waste and cooked compost. Am willing to work with others to build a holding pen for both of those over the winter.

blooming tonight

credit: Richard Sussman

credit: Richard Sussman

Epiphyllum oxypetalum

Family: Cactaceae
Belle de Nuit, Lady of the Night, Queen of the Night, Night blooming Cereus

This special cactus grows in tropical rainforests and has large wide meaty leaves. The flower is huge, white, and nocturnal. Blooms at night hours, hence the name. 

If anyone would like a cutting of this contact A4.