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Running late

OMG, it’s Memorial Day Weekend and my garden is as barren as the Phillies’ bullpen!

What self-respecting Master Gardener has bare beds, empty pots, unclipped hedges and weeds running amuck this late in May!

While my Master Gardener colleagues are exchanging leftover seedlings, I’m frantically dialing catalog nurseries in search of those now out-of-stock plants I should have ordered back in February and March.

emptyflowerpotwithwebresized.jpg Between my paying job (they actually expect me in the office Monday-Friday during Spring!), my Master Gardener duties, and parenting (a.k.a. Dad’s Taxi Service), the season has nearly gotten away from me.

I should have taken a week of vacation dedicated to planting and mulching like Inky garden writer Ginny Smith.

Several years ago I found myself similarly garden-less, with the Independence Holiday fast approaching. Any annuals and perennials remaining by that time at nurseries in South Jersey were less than desirable. So I packed up my wife and then-toddler, and drove north to a lower USDA Hardiness Zone - - where the planting season wasn’t as advanced - - hoping to find fresher selection. First to northwestern Connecticut and then on to Vermont.

I’m serious!

With gasoline at 3 bucks a gallon I don’t want to repeat that road trip.

Enough stalling. It’s out to the yard!

P.S. - I'll be back next week with gardening info you can use.

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At 7 years old, John Holtz got turned on to gardening when he turned under his Dad’s lawn to plant a patch of Jersey tomatoes. He’s been passionate about gardening ever since. John is a Master Gardener with Rutgers Cooperative Research & Extension. He is active in the Garden Writers Association and the American Public Gardens Association. He and his family are planted in South Jersey.


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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on May 26, 2007 12:02 PM.

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