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Post by lugg on May 12, 2023 19:51:42 GMT
My rate is reasonable..... Oh Mick if only I lived closer I would snap your hand off
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Post by mickthecactus on May 12, 2023 20:02:03 GMT
My rate is reasonable..... Oh Mick if only I lived closer I would snap your hand off Weeding is difficult with one hand though..,
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Post by lugg on May 12, 2023 20:07:43 GMT
Weeding is difficult with one hand though.., And with two in my garden
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Post by bixaorellana on May 13, 2023 4:51:04 GMT
I have to announce a personal thrill. After a recent move, I now have an alarming amount of grassy area to deal with. I say grassy area instead of lawn because it long since went over to weed grass and plain old weeds. Since some sections were over a foot tall, it was well past time for me to confront the issue. As I perused the options on Amazon Mexico it occurred to me that I have not actually cut any grass in at least 15 years. Musing on that made me remember how much I loathe ******* with string trimmers, with gasoline cans, and with those hateful pull strings on mowers. I briefly contemplated electric mowers, but knew it wouldn't take me long to run over the power cord. Accordingly, I ordered a manual push mower, the sporty Poma 14, by Truper. It had lots of glowing reviews and every person who bought one seemed compelled to make a video, whether of a skinny woman in flip flops using it, or a five-year-old child, or a happy man accompanied by a voice-over. So it came yesterday evening. This morning I actually abandoned my coffee to go put the thing together, then went out in my nightgown to try it out. Oh, clever cutting device of man's desiring! It works! As one reviewer put it, in Spanish, it goes through grass like a hot knife through butter. After putting on real clothes I tackled the back forty and the little champ performed like, well, like a champ. I maneuvered it back & forth, thinking that the only thing lacking to make my happiness complete would be to have someone videoing me.
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Post by bjd on May 13, 2023 5:54:57 GMT
Have you moved again, Bixa?
When we bought our house in Toulouse, my husband didn't want an electric mower so we bought a hand mower sort of like that. Of course, we had a fair amount of grass and I was the one doing it and after a few years, I bought an electric mower. Anyway, those are fine if the grass is not too long or clumpy. And, of course, very ecological.We gave the hand mower to our son. Those hand mowers last for years.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 13, 2023 6:15:21 GMT
Yes on a move, Bjd -- I'm overdue on making a thread about it.
The grass is in fact too long and clumpy, but I persevered. I think I'll get a sickle to clean up some edges or clumps where things are out of control. After this initial tackling of the long grass and some sickling, it should just be a matter of not letting it get too long again.
Encouraging to hear that the one you all had is still in operation.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 13, 2023 7:03:09 GMT
I think I would have used a strimmer on it first before mowing. I've used electric mowers for years without any problem. You just need to plan it so that you mow away from the cable all the time. Too many people mow lawns like hoovering the carpet rather than doing it in a logical progression. Hedge trimmers and me are a different matter altogether....
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Post by bixaorellana on May 13, 2023 7:24:49 GMT
Rather obviously, I don't have a string trimmer, so using one or not is moot. As for an electric mower - - why, since I'm delighted with my new low tech device?
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Post by bjd on May 13, 2023 7:42:13 GMT
I think there is a minimum size before you use a power mower. I see people using thermal (noisy, polluting things) or electric mowers when they have about 50 or 100 sq m of grass. Hand mowers are fine as well as good exercise. As I said, the only downside is that the grass has to be reasonably short. It's hard when the grass gets too long. And indeed, hand mowers last for years -- there is nothing to break down.
On another subject, this year some of my peonies finally bloomed -- some that I had brought from my previous garden and others than I have planted or moved. Of course, peony booms don't last long anyway but we are getting a lot of wind and some heavy downpours these days. Poor flowers are losing their petals and the heads are almost lying on the ground.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 13, 2023 7:51:18 GMT
Rather obviously, I don't have a string trimmer, so using one or not is moot. As for an electric mower - - why, since I'm delighted with my new low tech device? Sigh....
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Post by tod2 on May 13, 2023 8:09:09 GMT
A long overdue task was tackled by my garden man this week. Two plants had grown so large it was displacing the veranda tiles. Chopped it out but I think it will be like Arnie - and "I'll Be Back"! With the bed cleared I came back from the nursery with some Coleus for shade area and lots of mixed petunias that will appreciate the sun. The bed all cleared and composted to the hilt, we went ahead and planted it up After a month:
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Post by mickthecactus on May 13, 2023 8:43:38 GMT
That’s a show and a half tod. My compliments to your gardener.
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Post by bjd on May 13, 2023 11:06:57 GMT
He mixed the coleus and petunias together? I thought coleus preferred shade.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 13, 2023 15:16:08 GMT
I am rooting for your peonies, Bjd. It must be misery to see them being abused by the weather.
I'm pretty sure that coleus can take lots of sun as long as it get lots of water.
That space really will turn into a showstopper, Tod.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on May 13, 2023 21:34:15 GMT
I've got some teeny tiny coleus seedlings in my greenhouse fingers crossed they get as big and beautiful as yours bjd
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Post by tod2 on May 14, 2023 11:49:34 GMT
bjd - The only way I could cover all of the bed of soil was to plant "Shade plants", aka Coleus , in the shade of that brick column nearest the patio drainpipe and then plant Petunias and Vinka in the full sun part of the flower bed.
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Post by tod2 on May 14, 2023 11:52:45 GMT
This is one of my mixed pots around the pool.
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Post by bjd on May 14, 2023 17:06:37 GMT
Nice colours, Tod. I am always impressed when people make such lovely containers.
I spent hours this afternoon enlarging another flower bed. I think this will be the last one. It seems like a good idea before I start and then after about an hour of pulling out weeds, knocking soil off the roots of the grass and the weeds, I begin to wonder why I started. I bought some fuchsias this morning which are supposed to take any exposure and ordered 3 hakonechloa online for the shady area. It is getting a bit late in the season for planting but it hasn't been too hot and we have been getting some rain these days.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on May 14, 2023 18:01:24 GMT
Lovely container arrangement tod!
Today I planted some onion seedlings in a big old recycling box (we got them from the council, but they stopped using them a few years ago in favour of plastic bags...). The potato leaves are showing through the compost now so I'll probably be adding more compost soon. I planted a thalictrum in the flower bed, it had been lifted last autumn and overwintered in the greenhouse. My dahlias are sprouting, so I'll need to refresh the compost in their pots. I've got some lilly of the valley in a pot that seems to be doing ok..not sure where to plant them in the garden. Anybody know what sort of position they like?
None of my nemesias have survived, the colocasia and ginger lily are both kaput 😟 I have a yen for a zantadeschia aethiopica....but they're £27.99 at the garden centre!
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Post by mickthecactus on May 14, 2023 18:46:09 GMT
I’ve seen lily of the valley in total shade and total sun growing ok but my feeling is they prefer a bit of shade.
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Post by bjd on May 14, 2023 18:49:48 GMT
I have a bunch of lily of the valley that was here when we bought the house. They are under a big camellia and a rose bush, so basically shade with some late afternoon sun in summertime.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 14, 2023 21:29:38 GMT
Muguet des bois <--- that used up pretty much my whole supply of French. I know it because of the Coty perfume, which I loved when I was young. I would love to have some lilies of the valley growing. I have a large & awkward planter in the front of the house. It encompasses the lid to a cistern and some raging idiot put big white gravel all in it, then closely planted a whole bunch of variegated Duranta (the ugly yellow & green one) all the way around the perimeter, snugged right up to the wall of the planter. I got all of the stupid gravel I could out of the thing & pulled out & threw away the scraggly Duranta bushes. I had a little bit of good soil, so managed to make some mounds & get a few things planted there. Then I made contact with a nice man who is selling me some absolutely beautiful leaf mold. The planter is now filled to the brim with the good soil & has been planted with some plants I brought to this house from my other one, plus some herbs & ornamentals I got yesterday at a plant nursery. It went from something I loathed to something that gives me pleasure.
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Post by bjd on May 15, 2023 5:59:40 GMT
If I may, Bixa -- it's usually just called *muguet*. Glad to hear that you are able to do some gardening.
Speaking of herbs, my basil plant seems to be dying and going yellow.
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Post by tod2 on May 15, 2023 9:00:57 GMT
Speaking of herbs, my basil plant seems to be dying and going yellow. Mine has given a profusion of beautiful leaves , put up long stalks and flowered. Now it is looking brown and withered so today the gardener is cutting it back, leaving a few stumps and hopefully after a good feed of some fertilizer it will perk up again. If not I'll have to buy some more.
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Post by bjd on May 15, 2023 11:51:56 GMT
I usually cut off the basil flowers as soon as they appear. In this case though I removed the plant and replaced it with a new one.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 15, 2023 17:01:50 GMT
I just repotted my basil plant outside on the kitchen railing after allowing it to luxuriate in the kitchen for two weeks. I will soon know how it likes 1) being repotted 2) living outside.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 27, 2023 15:47:59 GMT
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Post by bjd on May 27, 2023 18:24:27 GMT
I couldn't see it, Bixa. I was told to subscribe.
While I am here, the tips of the leaves of most of my irises have turned brown. Is it too hot? Lack of water?
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Post by bixaorellana on May 27, 2023 21:59:36 GMT
re: iris leave tips ~ Sounds like sudden sunshine after an overcast day or two. re: NYT article ~ those lowlife weasels! Why do they offer this sharing feature to their subscribers if it doesn't work? Humph to them. I feel emboldened to share some of it via time honored copy & paste. Here are some highlights ~ What Makes a Garden a Work of Art? Piet Oudolf Explains.By Margaret Roach May 24, 2023 There is a transcendent quality to the gardens of the Dutch designer Piet Oudolf, which overtake us with the sense that we have arrived at a place where we would like — and very much need — to spend more time. Drawn into the complex textural mosaic of muted colors, we can exhale.
Even when his landscapes sit against the backdrop of an urban setting, as many of his best-known works do — the High Line in New York City, for example, or the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago — we feel ourselves enveloped in nature, our craving for it fed.
And yet, Mr. Oudolf is quick to point out, his work is the art and craft of garden making. It is not ecological landscape restoration. His medium is naturalistic, yes, but it is not nature.
Nature impresses upon us “the greatest feelings,” he said in a recent conversation. “And I think that’s what you want to do in a garden as well.”
In his gardens, the Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf creates complex textural mosaics of muted colors. This one is at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, an international art gallery in South West England. Credit...Richard Bloom
Mr. Oudolf designed the plantings for Noma, a restaurant in Copenhagen.Credit...Liv Linea Holm
A late-season moment at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, in England.Credit...Claire Takacs
Taking a cue from the wilder parts of nature, Mr. Oudolf incorporates grasses — including purple moor grass (Molinia litoralis) — into his designs.Credit...Piet Oudolf
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Post by bjd on May 28, 2023 6:00:29 GMT
Nice, although I can't imagine maintaining anything like the little grass paths and circles in the Somerset garden. He does use lots of grasses. I planted two pennisetums last summer but they froze this winter. Obviously I chose the wrong ones.
A neighbour I occasionally chat with invited me to see her back garden on Thursday. Totally invisible from the street because their house fills the front yard (just gravel) from one side to the other. It was lovely, a real secret garden with jasmin fencing all around, trees to mask the neighbours and some newly-built housing. The flower beds were various shades of green with bushes and foliage. Her husband had totally redone the grass recently so it was really bright green and smooth.
She then came to see mine, which is the front of the house. Kept saying,"You don't imagine there is anything so nice from the street." even though our gate is low and not solid. Of course, it was just luck because many gardens are at the nicest at this time of year and my flowerbeds are crammed with what I planted and what has reseeded. I was pleased because it's good to get gardening compliments from people who garden.
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