Friday, January 05, 2007

Catmint Freed

The Winter Solstice was just over two weeks ago, and I haven’t done a scrap of winter sowing. I’ve done but a few hours of gardening chores: I reraked the leaves onto the established and new beds and I FREED THE CATMINT!

I caged my first-year-from-seed catmint last May with Plant Defenders to save them from being uprooted by my felines. Over the course of the summer, the plants happily grew through the bars and even bloomed. I’ve been waiting for the foliage to die back, so I could cut it and remove the protection, but our mild winter has made the process slow. Last week (on another mild day!), I finally trimmed off the mostly dead stems and removed all 18 cages. (That is Yoda in the photo.)

Can you guess what Mr. Tibbs and I found at the base? Fresh, green catmint nubbins. The cage and dried foliage created a cozy nest for new growth. It will probably be blasted by the winter that I still believe is coming, but that shouldn’t keep the plants from resprouting in the spring. In the meantime, Tibbs is enjoying the fresh greens!

12 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Glad to hear that Mr. Tibbs is enjoying the fruits of El Nino! *grin* What did you think about the catmint during the growing season? Was it worth all of the work?

10:00 AM  
Blogger Maggie said...

please share your winter sowing with us. what all are you sowing now? i need to learn all i can. i'm in way over my head. :)

3:36 PM  
Blogger Kasmira said...

I'll let you know if the catmint was worth the work this spring. I THINK it will be. They should make a nice hedge around my Julia Child roses.

Maggie - as soon as I actually wintersow, I WILL share. Ack, I've been so busy with theater that I have barely had time to do my laundry!

6:58 AM  
Blogger LostRoses said...

Kasmira, I normally enjoy seeing the green rosettes of my catmint all winter long, which always amazes me. Can't see under the snowdrifts at the moment though! Catmint is always one of the first things to bloom in my garden and keeps it up until frost, which makes it a favorite of mine. I bet you'll have a lovely showing in the spring!

9:21 PM  
Blogger Hanna said...

I have some plants that are greening up too and today it is snowing like the dickens. I am afraid that they will be killed. :(

9:02 AM  
Blogger Marc said...

I just found your blog and WOW it is good. I can't believe I just now found you because you've been blogging since way before I even knew of blogging! I live in Northern Kentucky and work in Cincinnati, so I really like your local photos. I'm looking forward to viewing and reading more!

4:22 PM  
Blogger Eric said...

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11:00 AM  
Blogger Eric said...

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3:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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9:38 AM  
Blogger Sylvana said...

I was going to try some winter sowing, but all my milk containers are white (to protect the milk quality, the milk packagers have been using opaque packaging). What else do you use? I could use ice cream buckets.

9:34 PM  
Blogger Kasmira said...

Hi Sylvana - I think you could still use opaque containers. If they are outside, they still get plenty of light. You could try posting your question on the wintersowing forum on GardenWeb, too. There are lots of experienced winter sowers there!

7:06 AM  
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3:49 PM  

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