2019 Garden Fair | weekend update

Garden Fair! Construction is finally done at the fairgrounds, so all the exhibition spaces were back. However it seemed like fewer people and vendors. I guess the past 2 years have taken a toll. Met up with Janet who, based on my stories of previous years' crowds, also thought it seemed sparse.)

But the Farministas were back! I got the usual Robeson and Sungold plants! Plus 2 dill starts! $18 (tomatoes $6 each (price hike!), herbs $3 each, no discount for multiples).

On my way out, I gave Janet directions to NM Plant Co (she was looking to get many many geraniums). Then I headed to Big Orange, got some new gardening gloves and 2 bags of mushroom compost. Swung by Plants of the Southwest, but didn't get anything. Need to get a new straw bale for tomato mulch.

Last stop was Waterwise, ended up with:

• 2 Salvia pachyphylla "Mulberry Flambe"
  
• 3 Callirhoe digitata Winecups
  
• 2 Echinacea purpurea "Pow Wow Wild Berry"
  
• 1 Salvia greggii "FlowerKisser™ Dark Shadows" (purple)

This year's cultivars all sound like nail polish colors, or maybe fruity cocktails. I plan to put them all in the front sidewalk bed.

Weeded the side yard, and some of the back yard by the shed. Then had to get ready to meet friends up at MoIFA for the big Girard exhibition preview. Drinks and buffet dinner afterwards at SFI.

2018 Garden Fair | weekend update

Oh, hi there! This is Taylor, our new dog. She very much enjoys being in the backyard, digging holes in the “lawn” and the east bed, under our bedroom window. The crossed bamboo stick barrier that I put up there last summer to keep Cheyenne out provided zero impediment to her. I've acquired an expandable willow trellis thing to use as edging/fencing in an attempt to keep her out of there.

Also, Taylor had some ... disturbing? poops Saturday morning, so we hot-footed it over to the vet (she is doing well, got a wide-spectrum gut-bug killer and is on a week of colon-soothing pills). I ended up missing prime tomato-buying time at the Garden Fair while waiting at the vet (Bram missed helping set up for Free Comic Book Day at Big Adventure Comics as well). Luckily, my in-laws were there first thing and picked up the requisite Sungold and (lacking any Robesons available for purchase) Black Krim tomato plants for me. They refused to disclose the price, extracting only a promise of tomatoes as repayment. Hopefully the row cover I ordered will thwart any Curly Top Virus-spreading bugs.

I did, however, go over to Waterwise on Saturday to get (in retrospect, probably too many) perennials for the east bed:

• 5 Penstemon pinifolius
• 3 Penstemon "Dark Towers"
• 3 Sedum spurium "Dragon’s Blood"
• 3 Salvia nemorosa "May Night"
• 3 Agastache "Desert Sunrise"
• 3 Agastache rupestris "Glowing Embers"

Why do all these cultivar names sound like they're from a Dungeons and Dragons campaign?



Dug in 2 bags of mushroom compost, and set out the pots. Will attempt to plant them after work sometime this week. Need mulch — gravel, preferably.


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to-do list - spring 2012

Hey hey! It's spring again! Time to do stuff:

• prune back yard chamisa 3/26
• prune front yard chamisas 4/1
• deadhead back yard perennials 5/6
• deadhead front yard perennials 4/1
• prune sage 3/26
• get some mushroom compost 3/31 + add to raised bed 4/1 + south-facing bed 5/6
• run out south-side rain barrel(s) to the apricot tree 3/31
• run out back rain barrel to south-facing bed 5/6
• un-upend front rain barrel 3/27
• set up soaker hoses + sprinklers 4/1
• buy strawbale for mulch 3/31
• hit backyard bindweed with Roundup 4/6
• buy 3/31 + sow grass seed
• buy 3/31 + plant chives 4/1
• buy 3/31 + plant thyme 4/1
• buy 4/30 + plant basil 5/6
• buy + plant dill
• buy 4/30 + plant flowers for front container 5/6
• buy more tomato cages 3/26
• buy 4/28 + plant tomatoes 5/6
  (2@ Robeson, 2@ Sungold from the Eulalio's Farm ladies at the Garden Fair)