Lang Gardens

1.30.09 Gardening at night...

Not much today. Finally got my blackberries into the ground. Two Brazos plants, two Kiowa bareroots. I pressed my luck with both of them, buying them last Saturday and not getting them into the ground until tonight. That's almost a full week of waiting for the plants, not acclimating for the bareroots. I hadn't planned on it taking so long, but they couldn't go into the ground until the fence was finished. That happened yesterday, but I didn't manage to plant them until today.

three of my lovelies! there's one more off to the left of this camera shot. can't WAIT for fresh berries...mmm...berries...

All four still looked ok, maybe a little worse for the wear. The Brazos have a few crispy leaves and one of the Kiowas lost a little nub of new growth, but I think all will be well. Aside from the minor damage, the Kiowa roots were still nice and supple and there was plenty of green and new growth on both. I'm very optimistic. I think all four will do quite well. I had to mess around with their arrangement in the garden though. The gas line is buried surprisingly shallowly and I found it in my first dig. I marked it with one of the gas company flags, then back filled the hole, changed location, and dug again. Once I got each of the plants in the ground, I marked the gas line behind them with the same gas company flags from when they came out to mark the line, and I'll leave them in place. They won't be very noticible once the blackberry bushes grow, and it'll be helpful to know where they are. Fingers crossed that we won't need to though. Yikes.

see, see? marked the gas line. talking to the Kiowa as I water it in. gonna need to stake this one up so it grows straight. they're supposed to have berries the size of ping-pong balls!

this one's a Brazos. it might give fruit this year. if not, next year for sure. fingers crossed. blackberries fruit on two-year old canes.

giving the other Kiowa a pep-talk...and a heart-felt apology for keeping it out of the ground so long. (insert sad face here)

So, I dropped those four babies into the ground and watered them in really well. By the time I was finishing that up, my hubby was getting home from shootin' hoops and I sweet talked him into shootin' some pics of me and my gardening at night. We let the doggies out front for a few minutes, and little Nola got mouthy! She has quite the bark on her for such a skinny little thing. A little boy kept wandering past the house, and Nola had a message for him! The dogs don't know quite what to make of the front yard, what with all of the stakes in it, and the mound 'o' mulch, and all of the new smells - construction, street, roosters crowing, plants they're not allowed to pee on...