Friday, May 20, 2011

Gardening Time In Nanaimo

Is Gardening Time Finally Here?

Years ago an old time Nanaimo gardener told me to wait for the 24th of May or when there was no more snow on Mt. Benson before I bothered planting. His opinion, based on his years of experience was that until then the overnight temperatures and ground temperatures were simply too cool to encourage plant growth. I have followed his advice over the years, and must say I concur with his conclusions. Of course it means sometimes, my neighbours gardens look more colorful with their fresh annuals, but overall come mid summer and fall their gardens are looking a little tired while mine is still going strong.

Right now, the local nurseries and large retailers are literally bursting with gardening stock they really want to move, and the recent improvement in temperature means gardeners will be out in full force this weekend. While things look great for the next few days, the 14 day outlook is still for below normal temperatures and very little sunshine is in the forecast. This means, that while it is not going to be cold enough to damage plants, it is not going to be warm enough or sunny enough to encourage much in the way of growth. In fact, those lush full baskets hanging in the local greenhouses, have been grown inside and force fed fertilizer so they have the appearance that encourages sales.

Bedding plants put in the ground right now, will probably look pretty much the same in three weeks as they do the day you plant them. No frost, means they will not die, but cool temperatures and little hours of sunshine means they won't be putting on any new growth either.
Personally, I will not be worrying about getting my hanging baskets out for another two or three weeks, and most likely even a bit longer for planting my annuals in the garden, and unless I miss my guess in two months, my garden will look just as good, if not better than all the early birds flocking to the garden centres this weekend.

allvoices

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