Jimmy's Master Garden Talk

 

We had guest speaker, Jimmy the Southern Backwoods, Ultra Country Boy, Master Gardener at our last meeting discussing how to prepare one's garden for winter. Jimmy's accent was so thick that my pal, Joy, and I scratched our heads through half his presentation trying to decipher his talk. Incidentally, "Muskies" are muscadine grapes. "Harvey" is "Hairy Vetch"--a cover crop, which is great for putting nitrogen into the soil. And the list of butchered plant names grew endless. 

Protip for Jimmy and anyone else wanting to put on a presentation: not a good idea to start your talk with, "Y'all can just Google this stuff, that's what I did." Especially when you--or Jimmy--then digress for ninety minutes. 

I'm not making fun of Jimmy, as much as I'm amused by how Southern and country Jimmy truly is. I haven't run into a Jimmy-type since the season of my life when I hung out with people in West Georgia. But that's for another blog... 

Anyway, Jimmy is an amazing gardener who has abundant crops. At this point in his horticultural life, everything is done by instinct. Even though he suggests we Google what he's discussing (even his 789,361 tangents) he does know what he's talking about--even if the Yankees in the room forgot their Southern to English Dictionary.  

However, I take exception to one teensy comment Jimmy was willing to live and die on. He said it will be a colder than average winter. We can expect several feet of snow. Ice storms. Minus zero weather conditions. First, I sure hope he's wrong because I haven't managed to upgrade my wardrobe to that kind of weather just yet. In the almost four years I've been here, I've only upgraded my clothing to a week of 20 degree Fahrenheit weather.  Second, all indications I see from Google, Polly my weather nerd, and other sources I hold near and dear, is that it will be a warmer than average winter. Given it is still in the high 80s in the afternoons right now, I'm not thinking we are having ice storms by Thanksgiving. Plus, with Marty out of work, I'm not buying a generator this year in the event we are without power for a week (that happens around here). But what the heck! Maybe this is the universe's way of directing me back to Arizona after all. 

A couple of take-aways from Jimmy's talk that I found useful--in case you are preparing your winter garden. Wash out your pots in a dish soap and bleach solution to take out any diseases. Done today. Clean and sanitize your gardening tools. Sand the handles and add a layer of linseed oil to the handles. Remove rust from the blades and sharpen what needs to be sharpened. Monday's project. Any garden beds you aren't planting cover crops (like Hairy Vetch), add at least four inches of mulch. That will be Monday's project.