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Yahoo!An amazing amount of gardening can actually be done from the comfort a chair. I regularly sit in a chair somewhere in the garden and just have a good long look at things. Observation is the key to success in many endeavors, and gardening is no exception. Getting your hands in the dirt does wonders for eliminating weeds, but sometimes taking a step back from the action can bring another level of reflection.
Your indoor recliner can be just as revealing sometimes. That's where I peruse all the seed and plant catalogs that come in the mail. Many of the seed companies have wonderful Web sites these days, but, for me, there's still nothing like the soft light of my floor lamp over my shoulder and the glossy pages of colorful flowers and vegetables to leaf through. I'm soon turning down the corners of pages and reaching for the marking pen to circle my favorites.
The other chair that I use in gardening is the office chair in front of my computer. Surfing the Internet is a great way to learn all kinds of things. You can identify that funny looking insect and decide whether it is a threat or not and, if it is, how to foil it. Ordering seeds online means that they will arrive in your mailbox a little earlier; not quite instant gratification, but very satisfying. You can see a number of pictures of a tree or shrub and decide if it really will fit in your landscape. If you are so inclined, there are plenty of opinions and observations that other gardeners have posted to share, too. So try some armchair gardening now and then. There's nothing like the new perspective it can give you.
April Tips
- Start planting warm season plants. Vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant; and ornamentals: ageratum, marigold, nicotiana, phlox, and zinnia
- Spray geraniums with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) the day before the full moon and again a week to 10 days later to catch the first batch of budworms as they hatch.
- Don't cut down the foliage of winter-flowering bulbs. It is still feeding the bulb for next year. Merely tidy up by tying or braiding the leaves together.
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Virginia Hayes, curator of Ganna Walska Lotusland, will answer your gardening questions. Address them to Gardens, The Independent, 122 W. Figueroa St., S.B., CA 93101. Send email to vahayes@lotusland.org.
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