Getting Ready for Summer

Good Afternoon Daylily Friends:

It has been very, very cold here in Marietta, Cobb County, Georgia. I say this in a "relative-sense." I realize that it is much colder in other places where daylilies are grown, but I live here where it has been 15 degrees or less, every morning for the past four mornings. Now, this is toooo cold! Diana bought a temperature guage that she placed outside on the porch. Inside her kitchen window she has a unit that shows the temperature. I'm showing what it looked like on Monday morning. It was 15.2 degrees outside, it was 60.2 degrees in the house, and these readings were made at 7:32 a.m. I started watching the news on television, and it also charted the temperatures. Although the City of Marietta is not shown, it is located just above Atlanta. Nobody likes cold weather. It is just more than can sometimes be tolerated. I can also add that there is better than a 60% likelihood that it will snow here on Thursday, and perhaps again on Friday.

Well, even though it has been very cold, I am not slowing down in getting ready for this coming Summer. I decided that the trees behind my barn were just taking too much moisture from the soil, and that this causes my daylilies there not to bloom as well. The pine tree is very tall, and it has roots that are close to the surface of the ground. I do not know how much water the tree absorbs, but I do know that it is too much. Also, the pine tree has a split in the middle. It will eventually break at the point where the split exists, and my harm my barn. This is another reason for removing the tree. A third reason is that Diana reports that it causes too much shade on her summer garden. So, the pine tree has to go. Adjacent to the pine tree is an oak tree. The oak tree also has roots that take too much moisture; however, many of these roots are deep in the soil. I decided to keep part of the oak tree, but to trim its branches and somewhat limit its height. I am showing several pictures.

The last picture that I am showing is of the completed work. I left the trunk of the pine tree in place so that Diana can use it for one of her outside potted plants. I also kept another part of the pine tree to use for putting another potted plant. The oak tree, although considerably trimmed, will fill out with leaves in the spring, and will look quite nice. I also would note that my 300 foot well is behind my barn. The limitation of the tree roots should somewhat help to keep my "well-shaft" somewhat better protected.

So, the winter time continues to be a time to work toward the coming beauty of the summer time.

Bill