Planning

Wisteria blooming during an impromptu visit to the Green Bay Botanical Garden this last summer.

Planning.

I confess, I prefer to be a doer, rather than a planner. In so many things planning is important. Each day my Handsome Son has been home from college, I do ask him, "So what's your plan?" Me, though, I am plan-less. Spending your time substitute teaching does that to you . You have your scheduled days, and the day you work, because you are always on-call. (For those of you following along, the chef gig did not turn out in very quick fashion, let's say they weren't paying me on a regular basis for time worked, and leave it at that.)

So back to subbing.

Along with my son and others, I have come up with these things I plan to do this year:

Road trip to Quebec City, Canada
Grafting class at Olbrich n Madison
Some electrical wiring work here at the house
Study French, to make the road trip more fun
Start my chosen annuals for bedding and baskets
Have a great garden walk
Have a great vegetable garden with family
Re-roof my rental's garage
Paint the rest of the exterior of the rental
On-demand publish my cookie book
On-demand publish a book I vanity published for dad about the building of the Springwater Volunteer Bridge, a project he lead and built with volunteer help.
Put together a garden journal of the plants in my garden-- this desire a result of my labeling fetish as a result of the coming garden walk.
Continue to work on my book on creating garden art.

I'll probably add to this list, but it is a start, and where my interest lay. So while there will be a lot about gardening and plants, there will also be tidbits here on these other items which interest me.

Continue on, all! And, today... try to stay warm as it is predicted to be the coldest day of our winter.

Making Wisteria Bloom

This time of year, it's nice to take a moment to look at the structures in your garden. I came across this garden arch serving as an entrance to a vegetable plot. Covered with a fairly young wisteria vine in bloom, it was a nice touch. The gardener who placed a wisteria on this trellis knew what they were doing.




Notice how they have braided and twined the wisteria vine on itself, stressing the plant. Girdling part way around some of the main stems would also help accomplish this stress. You can wait a long time for a wisteria to bloom, or you can help it along. If waiting is not your style you could try the sure thing and plant a nice clematis like 'Betty Corning' or a honeysuckle vine.