- Author: Mari Moore
Published on: April 22, 2016
I was looking through my email to see when I last sent an update and I couldn't find it!! I can't believe how time gets away. And, I'm embarrassed to say, I just stopped typing to go out and sit on the patio for a while and just take it all in. It's just too nice outside to miss it. Here's what's been happening in a nutshell as they say.
I have been out at the Demo Garden at Patrick Ranch off and on all week for the last couple of weeks. It is just beautiful out there right now. The gardens are moving right along with the intermittent rain and sun. They just love it. I love it. We have been working on getting the irrigation system up and running. That includes checking the lines, getting the schedules from the garden managers and setting it up on the controller, adding new valves for the new gardens and checking the old valves from last year. The controller has been a challenge but I believe we've got it licked although there is one or two functions that may still apply when the time comes.
The weed situation is the same but somewhat controlled. The Berm Garden has yet to be developed so is a treasure trove of weeds. For Monday (tomorrow), I'm hoping to get the mulch down in the All Star Garden as the weeds are fairly contained. We have been adding some plants as we get them and for the Nut Festival, I simply put some plants in gopher-basket lined holes, pots and all, until we get the correct flower color and can swap out the correct color for the ones that are there for now. Easy-peasy. We'll put the original plants in a better location color-wise.
We will hopefully, be working on the containers in the driveway circle soon. The pots will need holes drilled into them and then we can hook them up to the irrigation and see that they work correctly. They will remain that way until we have the plants to plant. So far, the plants that have been suggested are: Cistus (rockrose), Carex, and the one that looks like we'll actually plant is Zinnia-crystal white. This plant can really take the sun and will bloom until the next frost season. We should hopefully have these in by this month as the planting season is coming to an end i.e. the nice, cool weather and the rain to get them off to a good start. I think that's just about it.