Well, I am one tired girl. I have been going strong for days and not sleeping well for the past week. Today is a stay-in day and time to get my homework done. We get our final this week. Yikes! It is a take-home two week exam, but the mid-term (a one week exam) took me 10 hours to do and the final is again on everything over the past 15 weeks. So I suspect it will take me some time to complete, plus we will have our "regular" homework--this week it is on citrus. Next week's lecture is on veggies. Just the veggie chapter alone is over 100 pages, plus the veggie homework will be on the final as well.
I have been helping to get things ready for the home garden tour. I worked one garden which had a outdoor bedroom and lots of rock waterfalls. It was quite lovely. It sits on over an acre and I learned that I am sooooooo thankful for the small lot I have. I always wanted five acres to garden. Way too big! I would go nuts!
Yesterday, I pulled out Mexican Primrose that had taken over an entire large bed in the perennial garden at the Master Gardener Garden. My back was already sore from pulling out stubborn weeds in my own front yard. So, I was only able to do that for about two hours and then went and transplanted a bunch of plants into larger pots for the plant sale (we will have over 3000 potted plants for sale during the home tour). Did that for two hours and called it a day and came home and worked in my yard (back yard this time) for an additional three hours.
I built a raised planter for my herbs (it will contain 10 different herbs--all in their own containers) and transplanted into larger pots my three antique roses. This will be their last transplant until they go into the ground. They all started as bands. Portland from Glendora is taking the longest to get leaves (finally--now it is taking off) and it had the smallest root system (although I suspect not for long). Then I redid my drip for the new plantings (raised bed and for the three roses I transplanted). I refreshed several of my existing container herbs and put them in new containers for my raised bed. They really needed the refreshing.
I am thinking of planting buckwheat in a pot in my raised herb bed to attract beneficials. I am trying to remember, however, if they consider it to be an invasive plant in my area. I don't want to be pulling out seedlings forever as a result of the planting. I do that now with asparagus fern (lord I hate that plant). As soon as I find the mother plant, it and I are going to have a little chat. Because the raised bed is not deep, I can't get anything for beneficials that gets too big or needs a bigger container for its roots. I was going to grow bronze fennel, until I saw its size. Yikes!
When I left the Master Gardener Garden, I walked by their roses and they are all in full bloom! How can that be? I have had only one bloom so far (Candice) and there are tons of buds on my roses. Sequoia Gold is just covered as is Peppermint Parfait. My lovely Vick's Caprice has the most adorable LONG sepals you have ever seen. They are so lovely. Plus, I am loving the bright lime green foliage on him. He is gorgeous next to Occhi di Fata which has purple leaves and stems at the moment. Love the contrast.
My citrus trees have lots of new growth (watching out for citrus leaf miner---hate that bug!) and I have buds on all of them except my Yuzu and Australian Finger Lime at the moment. Can't wait until the citrus are in bloom and have that fabulous scent. We grow so much citrus here that when I had someone come from the east coast to do a training for my staff, they stated that the air smelled so good here. We told her that the citrus (oranges) were in bloom and for her to take a drive down certain streets to see them in "action". She was from New Jersey and had never seen (or smelled) citrus blooms before. She loved seeing the orange and mandarin groves. Well, what she could see of the mandarin groves (they cover the trees with a cloth so the bees won't pollinate them--so they don't have seeds--people prefer their produce to be seedless). The mandarin groves look like white long tunnels as you can't see any of the trees that are underneath them.
I still have one more raised bed to build, for my veggies, but that will have to wait until after the homework is done and the rain has stopped. I decided to build a pre-made plant stand for my succulents and orchids on my front porch. I was warned not to try to put it together by myself, but I put stuff together by myself all the time and figured if I went slowly, I would be OK. Well, it came with NO instructions (thank goodness for the internet--although the pictures were awful and it had no written instructions). Took me five hours to put the blessed thing together and I declared that analytical geometry was much easier than putting together that blessed thing! I invented new swear words! I will never buy anything from that product line ever again!
Still have the rose seeds to get down in the raised bed that is finally vacant from my new baby roses (the ones I just transplanted). Also have the seeds to start for my veggies (have to get that planter built first). Plus feed all my plants/trees again--last one until the fall). I want to get some coffee grounds from the Starbucks up the street and put those down as well. Hopefully it will cover the smell of that Neem seed meal. UGH! That stuff REAKS! It smells like rotten burned garlic with a hint of rancid peanut butter lightly laced with cinnamon. The smell gets into your nose and it won't come out. You smell it for at least 24 hours after applying it. It is truly awful. We shall see if it makes a difference or not.
OK, off to get some breakfast and then onto my homework. Hope everyone has a wonderful day.
