Dayton "Dirt" - April 13, 2012

No doubt the freeze on Saturday morning, April 7th did a lot of wide spread damage. At the nursery, the low temperature was 27 degrees just before sunrise. Our frost covers blanketed our stock that had some tender new growth. These “breathable” covers will protect tender growth and flowers as much as 8 degrees below freezing. Other plants were under cover of our movable roof greenhouse that we closed at night in order to trap the previous day’s heat. Another aspect of our frost control is that we must drain our irrigation system to prevent any smaller above ground pipes on valves from breaking when the temperature falls below 30 degrees. How well I remember April 8th of 2007 when temperatures during the night fell to 19 degrees with 35 mile per hour winds after an unusual warm up in late March and early April. The nursery is just about set up now except for the perennial house and annual flower house that will be open at the end of April. Tomorrow is a big day with our seminar on Clematis that is back by popular demand. Debra Hardwick is our Clematis expert. She has more than 300 varieties and 900 plants in her garden in Delaware, Ohio. Debra attracts a big crowd as her presentation last year attracted nearly 80 participants. The cost of the seminar is $5.00 which includes refreshments with the talk beginning promptly at 11:00 am this Saturday. Be sure to bring lots of questions as Debra has the answers with her years of experience with this wonderful genus of plants. Don’t forget that today is the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, born in 1743. While Jefferson is known for writing the Declaration of Independence, support of public education and promoting freedom of religion, he was quite the farmer and gardener as well having planted over 1000 fruit trees at his home, Monticello, and his extensive perennial flower gardens. His hope was that America would be a land of largely self-sufficient farmers tending their crops on their own land. How so much has changed! Tom