Well the hot, dry weather has finally hit causing us to bring in water from Van Hyning run to insure we will have enough water for irrigation. The water from this creek is not as good quality as our collected rain water but the water should cause no problem as it is mixed with the greater quantity of better water.
This week we have started on a variety of cuttings (Azaleas shown below) that will be rooted into 4½” pots or deep flats filled with a mixture of half sifted Canadian sphagnum peat and half medium grade perlite that will aerate this mixture and prevent the cuttings from rotting. The floor tables, tools, flats, rooting bench, floors and sides of the greenhouse have been sprayed thoroughly with ammonium chloride to kill algae and pathogens. You might say that its like being hospital clean.
Then, three American elms were finally installed in place of the sickly red oak. The new trees should reach 50 feet tall in 20 years and gain another 25-50 feet in another 20 years or more with a 50 foot spread of this characteristic vase-shaped tree.
Another chore is to tie into one of the underground water lines to add another sprinkler to the outside of the Cravo house as trees and shrubs there have typically gotten too dry because the lack of overlapping sprinklers. Similar was the case when the north side of the Cravo outside would not water as the situation was similar. The solution was the installation of 5 new sprinklers with what we call whiz heads and results were fantastic in keeping plants wet and healthy.
Well goodbye for now and enjoy the extreme heat and it won’t seem like it will last.
Tom