Hello from the warm Cates kitchen in East Vassalboro,
We finished planting our glad bulbs on May 31st, the earliest date ever. This was largely due to the presence of Elisabeth’s 16-year-old German nephew Friedrich (Freddy), who said when he arrived, “I’m here to help you, not to do touristy things!”
As usual, we said in 2012 that we would have to cut back — and, of course, we wound up with perhaps 50 more varieties of glads than we’d had in 2011.
July was hot and dry. Our son Chris, always concerned for his aging parents, often said, “Dad, you aren’t working outside in the heat today.” (Our daughter Margaret established a rule whereby I wasn’t allowed to work in temperatures that were higher than my age minus five.) Well, I may be aging, but I don’t give up easily. The solution: up at 5 AM, in the field at 5:30, about three hours of weeding in the cool of the morning. I came down from the field with muddy hands, realizing that the heavy morning dew was saving the glads from serious heat damage. A new flame weeder was also a help in weed control.
Our flower and bulb harvest were both successful. The bulblet harvest was the best we’ve had in recent years.
This catalog lists more varieties in the heirloom and the younger lists than last
That’s already more than I intended to write, but there’s still room to say, “Happy gardening in 2013!”
