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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 4, 2024 22:19:41 GMT
What a great idea to ask for that, Cheery! We all know there is never enough compost.
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Post by bjd on Apr 5, 2024 9:05:21 GMT
A wisteria growing inside a plane tree And the garden bed I dug out last October
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 5, 2024 14:26:00 GMT
That bed is really filling out, Bjd. I hope you'll keep showing it month by month. The wisteria is so perfectly placed, it looks as though it was planted deliberately. At least thirty years ago, maybe forty, I noticed that a tree across the street from my grandparents' house had another tree growing out of it. And then I came across a photo of it on the web, taken many years later. Here is that picture, taken on July 4, 2020. www.flickr.com/photos/auvet/50091591758
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Post by bjd on Apr 5, 2024 15:42:39 GMT
That bed is really filling out, Except for that redbud right at the front. The two other trees we planted in October are doing well, this one just isn't doing anything. I scratched the bark a bit and it seems alive but it has no leaf buds nor blooms. And I have to finish pulling out those weeds on the right hand side. Your cedar/oak is amazing. How can two such different trees grow so closely? I assume my plane tree is partly hollow for the wisteria to have found a place inside.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 5, 2024 18:33:12 GMT
I wonder if you cut the non-performing redbud way back & maybe top dressed it with some compost scratched into the surface around it, would it decide to start doing its part? You could even dig it up & scrutinize the roots before replanting the well-cut-back little tree. I did that to a sickly, non-growing camellia I was given & it's responding nicely.
You must be right about a host tree being partly hollow to allow another to grow inside. I remember all those years ago when I saw the baby tree seeming to grow on the older one that it was a fluke & bound to die. Guess not!
I have another memory about that tree & the others on that stretch of sidewalk, also from many years ago. I was walking there on a sunny day when I noticed that the leaf shadows seemed particularly sharp and distinct. As I looked at them, I saw that each leaf shadow looked like a little kid's sandwich with one perfect quarter-moon bite taken from it. Finally it occurred to me that I was witnessing solar eclipse.
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Post by bjd on Apr 5, 2024 18:54:38 GMT
Bixa, I think the non-performing redbud would die if I cut it right back. It's a young tree bought in October 2023 at a local nursery. It's a multi-trunk and one thin branch broke off with strong wind (or the kid next door's ball!). It was alive and had leaves when we bought and planted it so I don't know what it's doing. In any case, it's too late in the season to plant anything else now so we'll wait and see what it does.
I did put compost, mulch and even threw on some fertilizer. The very tips of some of the branches looked completely dry so I cut them off. We'll see. Patience is the hardest part of gardening for me.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 6, 2024 11:46:09 GMT
bjd - I wonder if I could get a little Wisteria from my garden center and plant it in the stump of a Plane tree in my garden? The stump is hollow so I could ram compost inside....
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 6, 2024 11:47:38 GMT
Don’t see why not tod.
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Post by bjd on Apr 6, 2024 16:19:20 GMT
You would need something to hold it as it grows, Tod. Wisteria can be really big and needs a support. This google maps is a street in our town and, although it's the wrong season, what you see along that wall is wisteria. wisteria on wall
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Post by bjd on Apr 13, 2024 8:10:01 GMT
I'm waiting for that sweet spot between the time the heavy dew on the grass dries and the temperature gets too hot (28° this afternoon) to mow the grass. It's really long with various weeds clumping in places and I need to trim the edges.
And my redbud is finally showing tiny leaves about to sprout. I think it was perhaps just too young to flower and since the leaves come out after the blooms, it's just beginning to leaf out. It's only mid-April after all.
We had a lot of strong wind and heavy downpours at the beginning of the week and most of the petals were knocked off my tulips.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 13, 2024 8:35:13 GMT
I’m not familiar with redbud bjd. I thought you meant Photinia but obviously not.
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Post by bjd on Apr 13, 2024 10:12:26 GMT
Mick, redbuds are cercis canadensis. Mine, Red Force, should eventually be like this They bloom before they get leaves, which here are dark reddish. Photinias here are usually hedge plants.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 13, 2024 10:17:55 GMT
I’ve got that in my front garden bjd! It’s the variety Forest pansy just coming into bloom. Once it’s over I’ll prune it back as it grows a lot each year.
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Post by bjd on Apr 19, 2024 7:27:55 GMT
Why or why do weeds grow so much better than everything else? I spent the last two days digging weeds out of garden beds. Not just "weeds" but clumps of grass. I finish in one place and they have sprung up elsewhere. I know I need mulch but can't find anything that looks right. What I found in bags is chunks of pine bark and used that in the bed I dug out to make a path. Wood chips would have been better but can't get those in bulk. We bought a wood chipper but the pieces are not very small.
So I have been putting most of the weeds and grass I pull into the compost pile and will use that to cover the beds after they decompose. Unfortunately, there are seeds in there so the weeds will grow back. It's not the most attractive look but it's the best I can do.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 20, 2024 15:44:24 GMT
My hibiscus, which languished in my mother's room at the nursing home for at least 5 or 6 years and which I brought home wilted and abandoned a few weeks after she died (because they would not let me recover anything before then), and then which I nursed back to health and actually got it to bloom again, is now living its final moments. I'm pretty sure that it is my fault because I pruned it excessively when it created too many leaves on weak stems, and it never forgave me. Now one branch after another is dying, and there are almost no leaves left. I cut off all of the dead wood, just to make it easier to dispose of it in the coming days.
I don't know what I will put in that pot next. Definitely not a hibiscus.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 20, 2024 16:34:25 GMT
So I have been putting most of the weeds and grass I pull into the compost pile and will use that to cover the beds after they decompose. Unfortunately, there are seeds in there so the weeds will grow back. Bjd, ideally the compost pile will function well enough to either kill those seeds with its heat or rot them out of existence. Fingers crossed!
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 20, 2024 16:37:30 GMT
Now one branch after another is dying, and there are almost no leaves left. I cut off all of the dead wood, just to make it easier to dispose of it in the coming days. Kerouac, why don't you go ahead & dump it out of the pot so you can see the roots. If they're doing well (unlikely) you can put what remains of the plant into a new, smaller pot & wait to see if if wants to try again.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 20, 2024 18:03:07 GMT
In an apartment with limited light levels a hibiscus can only last so long.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 20, 2024 19:20:38 GMT
That's exactly what I think. About 15 years is frankly amazing, especially since my principal window faces north.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 20, 2024 20:22:26 GMT
Then you done good.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 20, 2024 20:46:46 GMT
I do love a hibiscus... Lovely day today but we had visitors so I couldn't get into the garden much. My sister went home with a few spare plants that I'd grown from cuttings or seed...this has freed up some space in the GH Good job too because another sister is taking me to a big Garden Centre on Tuesday
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 20, 2024 21:00:02 GMT
For various reasons my plans went West but I was able to sow seeds of the rare succulent Whitesloanea crassa my Welsh cactus friend brought back from China.
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Post by bjd on Apr 25, 2024 9:15:18 GMT
Yesterday's crappy weather sent me to the garden centre. I bought a couple of blue flowering sages and some small lantana plants. Of course, they force the plants so they will bloom early and tempt buyers but I know the sages will keep going till late fall. I also bought 3 centhrantus (valeriane) plants to put in the hottest part of the garden. They will bloom before the sedum does.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 25, 2024 11:41:33 GMT
Still waffling about when (or if) to plant some nice specimen shrubs on the Sanibel lot.
Hurricane Ian inundated our area to a depth of 6 feet with salt water and left a 2- 3” thick layer of slimy muck covering everything. Most of the plants - except the palms - died, and we have been unable to deal with the yard while tending to repairs on the house.
It’s been 17 months since the hurricane, and rains have somewhat moderated the hostile growing environment. So we COULD buy some nice plants and shove them in the ground, BUT…. We aren’t here long enough in the spring to water them until they are established, but the fall - when we have a couple months to pamper them - is the beginning of the dry season.
We don’t have an irrigation system, and native plants are supposed to be able to thrive without irrigation, once established.
Meanwhile the vines that I pulled and poisoned are coming up in multitudes (probably from the seed crop) and are looking quite healthy. I know what I’ll be doing for the next week!
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