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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2015 23:15:45 GMT
My cornichon seedling is wanting to make a break for it...
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Post by htmb on May 5, 2015 0:00:33 GMT
That's great!
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Post by tod2 on May 5, 2015 7:27:34 GMT
Wonderful photo of a plant clinging to anything in it's grasp! Is it about to be planted outdoors then....and get it's wish
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2015 23:18:45 GMT
Tomorrow we are headed out to the island and I am taking seedling with me to be planted: dill, cornichons, flageolets, zucchini. I'll pick up a couple of tomato plants to put in the ground. I have a wisteria seedling and walnut seedlings to pot up. I'm worried because we haven't watered for a week, although it's rained on and off in that time. The soil is so poor and sandy and fast-draining and I could use a couple of tons of manure and compost. Oh well. I'm looking forward to seeing all the animals.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2015 19:58:16 GMT
Out Dabinett apple tree has major problems: late budding and about only 20 leaves, which we found out is a consequence of inadequate chill hours. Our warm winter is the culprit. We may give it another year and hope something changes, but it doesn't bode well. Climate change is a bitch.
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Post by Kimby on May 28, 2015 18:49:04 GMT
I'm digging in for my battle for supremacy with the rodents in my perennial rock garden at the lake cottage. I've several new weapons in my arsenal: 1/4 inch hardware cloth (a 10' long roll of heavy screening 24" wide, with 1/4 inch openings), blood meal, animal repellant granules, and mulch.
AND I bit the bullet and bought 17 more perennial plants and ornamental grasses. This time I bought the $3.99 4" pots, instead of going for the larger (more expensive) plants. (If I'm going to feed the voles, they get burger, not filet mignon!)
I dug the holes about 6" deep and inserted a 8" tall cylinder of screen, then planted the yummy rootballs inside this protective cage.
The blood meal was recommended as a source of nitrogen that deters mammalian pests because it smells like predation to them (right!). The pellets smell awful to me -like rotten eggs. I mulched over each planting area and sprinkled more blood meal on top.
Hope it works! I still have to worry about heavy rain, wind, hail, frost, snow and drought. But I hope the plants I put in Memorial Day weekend will be alive and growing when we return in a few days or a week.
I still have 7 or 8 plants yet to install, because I ran out of good dirt to amend the rocky poor soil on site, and I ran out of planting spots as I realized thst some of my "dead" plants may be trying to re-sprout from the roots. And other planting spots turned out to be unsuitable because when I plunged the trowel in, I went in up to my elbow! Gophers (ground squirrels) had excavated out a cavern below where I used to have a gorgeous and huge Gaillardia (blanket flower) and a Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan)! Rather than condemn a new plant to death in an active gopher den, I plugged the tunnels with fist-sized rocks, filled the holes and tamped the dirt down good. If the gophers are still using these dens, I hope it will be obvious when I return.
Wish me luck!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2015 5:17:56 GMT
Figs coming along... Pumpkins almost ready. Delicata squash.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2015 4:05:41 GMT
It looks like a little paradise, Cheery - maybe a paradise for slugs!
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Post by Kimby on Aug 15, 2015 6:01:07 GMT
Score for the summer so far: gophers and voles 8, drought 2, deer 1, Kimby 7.
On the bright side, some of the Gaillardias and Rudbeckias that looked so nice last year, but became vole food this year, re-seeded themselves, and these "volunteers" seem to be hardier and less attractive to rodents than transplants from pots.
I may have to try seeding all future plants directly in the "garden". Which with a short growing season may be tricky to time right.
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Post by Kimby on Sept 6, 2015 2:58:30 GMT
About the only things that did well in my rock garden are Artemesias (3 kinds), a lily, and Russian sage, Plus the self-seeded Gaillardias and Rudbeckias. And a LOT of grass clumps? Which I have to pull and thin and cut down to reveal the remaining perennials.
The voles and gophers took a toll again. The blood meal and rodent repellent pellets and spray had no noticeable effect. The plants I set inside screening are mostly gone. But from the top, it seems:, grazed on rather than uprooted. Maybe they'll come back from the roots next summer.
I collected seed heads from some pretty native plants and will try planting them instead of tasty nursery-grown stock.
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Post by bjd on Sept 6, 2015 5:09:11 GMT
I admire your stubbornness, Kimby. As I look around my garden and see that flowers I plant don't grow too well and things that re-seed or just arrive from god-knows-where do fine, I am becoming more and more discouraged. Sometimes I feel I spend my time cutting bushes that have grown too much, pulling long grass out of flower beds and clover out of the "lawn". And this is a small city garden.Even my gaillardas seem to have pooped out and are being taken over by some kind of wild strawberry plants that we can't eat because neighbouring cats pee on them.
I don't know how you and Lizzie stay so enthusiastic about gardens you don't even live in full time. I have been away a lot this year and it shows, both in the garden and my enthusiasm for doing anything.
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Post by Kimby on Sept 6, 2015 12:59:09 GMT
Perhaps it's BECAUSE I'm not here all the time that I'm excited to visit the rock garden each time I return. And the shortness of my visits - and the short growing season - gives me incentive to work on it when I AM here.
The urgency is abating a bit, though, 5 years post-construction, as the barren dirt recedes behind a tufted carpet of bunch grasses, some of which is from seed we scattered to revegetate the building envelope. Soon I'll have to decide whether to dig out the grasses in the rock garden or give in gracefully and redirect my creative impulses elsewhere.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2015 13:28:42 GMT
I am planning on taking advantage of all the goodies at several of my favorite nurseries out on Long Island. Almost everything (because it is the end of the growing season there for many things that thrive here almost year round) is slashed down to 50% off, everything from live plants to seeds and bulbs. I always come away with some cool acquisitions.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2015 2:09:44 GMT
I am toying withe idea of making a labyrinth in my rear garden, a heavily shaded area. Nothing too elaborate. For meditative purpose. I think I will use Mondo grass. We'll see...
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Post by whatagain on Oct 31, 2015 7:17:27 GMT
We are fortunate to have two gardens.
One in Belgium, one in southern France. We are taking care of the house for about 10 years now and the garden starts to look nice. Strangely enough the french garden is better tended than the belgian one - maybe because albeit we're less there we spend more time in it and the weather being much nicer we can definitely sepdn whole days tending it.
I'm looking forward to seeing it, october has been rainy as hell, so the plants must be in quite a good shape - what we planted last year should ahve survived and after the summer draught we should see some dramatic changes. I'll try to understand how to post images when I'm back.
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Post by Kimby on Oct 31, 2015 13:06:11 GMT
I have in a fit of ill-advised optimism purchased three bags of spring bulbs (daffodils, Dutch iris and crocus) that I now have to get in the ground before winter. What was I thinking?!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2015 15:35:51 GMT
Kimby, we all succumb to these impulses , cut yourself some slack. i bought a couple of dozen paperwhite narcissus for indoor forcing a couple of weeks ago.
Do have a problem with varmints nibbling on your bulbs? My mother always had problems with rabbits, squirrels and deer chomping down on her tulips etc.and yet, she continued to keep planting them.
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Post by Kimby on Nov 2, 2015 2:09:20 GMT
Do you have a problem with varmints nibbling on your bulbs? My mother always had problems with rabbits, squirrels and deer chomping down on her tulips etc.and yet, she continued to keep planting them. We'll find out. I've not planted bulbs at the lake - where the vole infestation is - before. The tulips I planted at the Missoula house almost 30 years ago were decimated entirely by deer in two seasons. They sure looked nice till the deer got them. Only one clump still flowers, protected by green garden fencing. I still have 3 vigorous clumps of daffodils and lots of crocuses surviving from that initial optimistic spurt of bulb planting. (Which produced about 6 wheelbarrow loads of rocks, BTW, from 30+ holes..) I'm hoping the voles will leave the bulbs alone. Wish me luck!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2015 15:13:07 GMT
Yes, good luck. And from what I read in the weather thread, now SNOW!!!! EISCH!!!!
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Post by Kimby on Nov 2, 2015 19:35:16 GMT
Yes, the rock garden has disappeared under a blanket of white this morning. If it melts this PM, perhaps I'll be able to dig some holes....
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Post by Kimby on Nov 8, 2015 5:20:41 GMT
Well, it took ages, but the bulbs - 9 daffodils, 18 Dutch iris and 60 crocuses - are all safely tucked in their dirt beds, and I'm hoping some will survive the winter and the varmints to bloom next spring and hopefully for years after.
About half went in at the lake cottage, though i had to shovel snow to get at the dirt! When I ran out of spots to plant more, I brought the rest home and waited for the snow to melt so I could plant the rest. Today was a very nice fall day, and I created a bulb garden at the base of a couple big pine trees. Could be pretty nice come spring. Something to look forward to...
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Post by mossie on Nov 8, 2015 15:36:33 GMT
I shall have to recite the old sowers rhyme again
One for the rook
One for the crow
One to rot
and one to grow
Hope you have better odds
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Post by htmb on Nov 8, 2015 20:53:46 GMT
Back when I had a yard, I really enjoyed working outside. My specialties were more of the pushing the lawnmower and trimming back the overgrown plants variety. It's nice to live vicariously through the efforts of others here.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2016 13:48:41 GMT
Love your "old sowers rhyme" Mossie, thanks!!!
This year we anticipate making some major landscape changes (as well as some major house work). (When this will actually happen is contingent on when our property in NY is sold).
First off, some major tree work. The Live Oaks are so thick with branches that are shading out way too many areas. The price of this will be quite a bit.(if one ever wanted to invest in a small business here, it would be an arborist. Always in demand and recession proof).
Along one side of the house a row of different species of camellias.
A few more heirloom roses, some climbers included.
Some alterations in the lemon grove,perhaps replacing a couple of the lemon trees with some Persian limes (we have one). I will donate the lemon trees to the community garden. (I'm seriously considering doing away with the blood orange because the yield is so paltry because of the opossum and the tree it self is huge, taking up a lot of room where something more productive could go).
A small brick patio just outside the breakfast room in the rear of the house.
Eventually, a salt water swimming pool...
Oh, hiring a part time (3 days a week) gardener.
Retiring from my own small garden business.
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Post by breeze on Jan 1, 2016 14:57:46 GMT
casimira, that all sounds wonderful. Do you ever take photos? I'd love to see what your garden looks like.
How the heck will you move lemon trees? Sounds like a big job.
Like you, climbing roses are on my list this year (again). The local nursery I like did not have any climbers last year the two times I managed to get there, and honestly, local nurseries all have the same poor selection so maybe I should go to a catalog.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2016 15:13:35 GMT
At present, I am camera less but, hope to acquire another one soon. There is a thread in here from the earlier days of this thread called "A Gentle Plea For Chaos" which has some pics of my garden. And then the more than occasional pics in other threads, What's In Bloom, Tropicana, Vines Glorious Vines, are by and large taken in my garden.
I would highly recommend using the Antique Rose Emporium (out of Texas) for at least a reference guide and or ordering from them directly. I've always had good luck with them but, roses that I have seen in local nurseries here that are from there often look sickly but, I attribute that to poor care on the part of the nursery rather than the source.
Let me know how it goes as I may have some other resources for you to peruse.
As to the removal of the lemon trees, my plan is to radically prune them, taking care not to do anything to destroy the roots, (the foliage will grow back) and hiring local manpower, highly supervised by myself, balling the roots, and moving them into prepared spaces in the community garden. I can even prune some of the roots, as long as they have a healthy root ball, they will be fine). They may not yield the first year but, they will by the second year.
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Post by breeze on Jan 1, 2016 17:23:42 GMT
Thanks, casimira. I will look at the Antique Rose Emporium. I will be cautious, because I ordered from a warm-climate nursery once and their shipping season was during the end of our winter and, wouldn't you know, we were working when UPS delivered the little plants and they froze on the porch.
I hope to be able to follow your lemon tree saga.
I think I have checked out your chaos pics but this is the season to indulge in looking at photos, so I'll enjoy looking at them again.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 12, 2016 22:19:49 GMT
So thrilled to see crocus greens shooting up from the new bulbs I wedged in just before winter clamped down on my yard. Can the daffodils and Dutch iris have survived as well?
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 14, 2016 14:17:16 GMT
This sunless area is going to be a fern garden. Off to the garden centre shortly to check out the ferns.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2016 13:29:22 GMT
What gorgeous soil Mick. Like Devil's food cake!!!
What kind of ferns are you considering? A variety or just one?
I used to belong to a small club, the Fern Society and we would go on Fern Forages from time to time. They are so easy to care for as well and soooo Victorian.
As a child I recall falling in love with a Maidenhair fern at my Grandmother's house which she had in a lovely pottery flower pot.
(BTW, there is a fern thread in here somewhere. It never got much action but merits rejuvenation)
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