Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Flower of the year


Simple flowers are shown to striking effect on this Echinacea 'Pink Parasol'. I had already decided it was my flower of the year for 2007 before Thompson and Morgan elected it as their choice for next year's flower of the year promotion. So it would seem that at least I shall be ahead of the game when planning next year’s garden campaign. The plant a hardy perennial flowered in it’s first year but has put on a better show with a little more maturity. Flowers of 3” + have appeared in the second year. It does make a good cut flower but for now I prefer to see it in the garden.

Of course what I would really love to see, is this particular flower growing prairie style with other suitable varieties across our finca, the problem is the soil is so poor even tough plants struggle. Therefore we are going to have to generate as much compostable material as possible, from the planting areas we have already developed if we going to be able to improve our soils fertility. Green manures and catch crops will have to play a part in the process too. Animal manures are gobbled up by the crop farmers who really seem to relish a little muck spreading. We always seem to be down wind of the spreader too


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