Because I’m, well, me, I’m going to kick this thing off with a rant. Gardening, to me, is about shooting from the hip and feeling my way through things. Obviously, it takes some background information to succeed like this (botany, for example). But with the basics in place and some experience under my belt, it works. (I do realize that other people want different things from gardening. There are surely as many reasons as there are people.)
So it has taken me about a decade of gardening to even get to the point where I keep a journal about my efforts, recording varieties purchased, successes, failures, timing. But what has pushed me to the edge today (besides the wind, which I’ll get to) is amendments. I am definitely NOT interested in pulling out a calculator. It is completely antithetical to my entire gardening life. Alas, I spent a good hour (or two?) today measuring beds and calculating inputs. I even have a spreadsheet, for cripe’s sake!
What brought me to this sad state of affairs is chlorosis:
Chlorosis is a yellowing of new growth, owing to a mineral deficiency; generally iron, but possibly magnesium, manganese, etc. The strawberries above are most likely an iron deficiency. See the dark veins?
But my Blue Plumpago is probably short of manganese, since they’re prone to that:
No dark veins (click the pic to enlarge).
My soil here in McKinney is heavy (clay) and alkaline. Most plants like a pH at least a little acidic, some like it very acidic. So having alkaline soil is not conducive to the most efficient uptake of what minerals are present. That would be true even if the full range of minerals were there, which they most likely are not in my new garden. We moved in last August, and both of my big beds were, until quite recently, grass. On top of that, they were most likely subjected to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. So besides adding compost several times a year, I need to amend the soil with organic supplements to bring everything into optimal balance.
Which is why I’ve wasted so much time this week purchasing and planning for applying these amendments:
Garden-Ville 7-2-2 fertilizer (good for the entire lawn and garden)
Nature’s Guide lava sand (for a range of trace minerals and improved soil structure)
Garden-Ville greensand (for iron)
(All purchased at Shades of Green, in Frisco. Excellent, excellent garden center that sells only adapted and native plants, and employs very knowledgeable and committed staff. Not to mention having a spiffy website. Annoying; but spiffy.)
OK, so I’ve made my calculations and I’m finally ready to spread this stuff, in preparation for planting my first batch of fall seeds. I get outside and realize that it is STILL windy. Its’ been more than a week and we’ve had winds between 25 and 50 mph every freakin’ day. What’s worse is that every day the forecast at weather.com says one more day of wind. Then the next day it says one MORE day. Then the next day . . . I’m about to go out of my mind. It blew over our 7 ft high sunflower that JUST bloomed. It blew our shade umbrella over the privacy fence into our neighbors yard; again. It’s been completely dehydrating my poor tomato plants, and has left them all leaning into one side of their cages:
(sob) I’m so over this wind. [You can see my friend the Mockingbird, who likes to hang on the cages, at the top left. The white rectangle behind the tomatoes is a sign promoting the McKinney Farmer's Market, which I heart.]
Now the cursed wind is preventing me from spreading these damned amendments and getting on with my life. Cursed and damned.
Are we relaxed, yet?
