Developing this blog

Just added a site meter, to see if anyone other than I am reading this thing.

Amazing that so many bloggers blog even when there's no audience! I might be among those ranks and don't even know it.

So I hope the site meter will tell me how much I should keep trying to keep this blog going. Many people blog to vent their spleen or some other self fulfillment thing, but I do it to share gardening info. You silent team members, I hope you read this!

Emailed In

Even though there are several people who are set-up to post to this blog, none of them has. Why?

There's a way to send an email to Blogger.com and the content of that email will be posted. It's conceivably more convenient than opening the Blogger content tool. Those of you, Dear Readers, who would like to add posts to this blog, but have not signed up, please do leave a comment to this post to let me know that you'd like to contribute.

To Gravel or Not to Gravel, that's the question

Mulching is another mystery to me. When I first started gardening, I put down loads of bark mulch because I heard that it helps to retain moisture, makes your beds look neat, leeches beneficial elements into the soil, and I've seen it on commercial flower beds. Then I read that citrus should not be mulched because the bark might rot.

A friend gave me LOTS (I mean a pickup truck bed-full) of red lava pea-sized gravel. Wouldn't it look nice at the base of roses, and keep the roots warm? What a mistake. My Eglantyne, described by David Austin as one of his most satisfyingly robust cultivars, nearly died. But the Gardenia Veitchii right next to it, started to bloom right away and kept blooming, for two years so far. Was it the gravel, or sheer chance? Should I use the gravel elsewhere, around other tropical plants such as gingers and passionflower? Will it kill the volunteers that spring up around the hedges? What other plants like to have warm roots?

Fertilizers

One nurseryman I asked told me that all fertilizers are the same, except for their percentage of Nitrogen, Potassium and Potash. And of course other trace elements such as iron. Remembering my college chemistry, it made sense.

I started out using Miracle-Gro which I believe was 10-10-10. Dissolve in water, spray onto leaves, every two weeks. That was tedious, and I didn't see much difference before and after feeding. Then I just sprinkled the granules around my plants -- still no difference.

Moved on to liquid boosters. No effect at all. Tried Peter's 12-55-6. That seemed to have some effect, but mixing and spraying was still tedious.

An experienced and successful gardening friend recommended fish meal. Yuck, the very idea, the smell...

Then I went to El Real Nursery in Santa Clara. I think they survived on landscape design and installation. The Daphne I bought there only had leaves near the crown and had moss on its soil! But Daphnes are special so I bought it anyway ($32 for a 2 gallon plant). Then I noticed that their in-ground lemon tree was absolutely busting with fruit, as are their other in-ground plants. So I asked what they used. They recommended E.B. Stone Organics Ultra Bloom. The formulation is, surprisingly, 0-10-10 -- nothing for leaves, a little for flowers and a little for roots. Their citrus food was really low in all three ingredients (already threw out the box so can't report that mix exactly). The granules should be sprinkled on the soil every 3 months, not much work at all. Wow, was I impressed with the results! My lemon tree is busting with fruits (hum, why is the lime tree not doing as well? It got fertilized too). So until I stumble upon something better, I'm a convert. Not all fertilizers are the same.

This Spring's Killer Black Spot

Boy, wasn't this wet cool Spring a killer for black spot? My entire garden was affected; some of my roses, including the defiantly robust Eglantyne still has not fully recovered. Spindly branches with tiny flowers, no leaves on the lower branches... Even my Lavandura Intermedia was affected maybe not by blackspot but by something that isn't good. All its inner, lower leaves turrned yellow, then black. It might still die! Should I prune drastically? I did that to my kumquat and it died anyway! Oh don't get me started on my anxieties about my citrus plants!

Oh yeah, I did the neem oil spray, the Ultrafine oil spray, removing all the affected leaves, even considered something recommended by Yamagami Nursery for $20... eventually used a very dilute chlorine spray. Maybe it was purely fortuitous timing or the chlorine worked, but the black spot seems to be finally defeated. Bleached my gardenia (which lives next to the Eglantyne) but it got over it in a week, thank goodness.

How guilty do I feel to read (now) that black spot doesn't blow in the wind, but the spores were already on the plant since the previous season? I thought f'sure that spraying it frequently should 'wash' it, but now I find that it is distributed by water spray! Duh!

Better start studying up on how to help my roses recover.