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Post by mickthecactus on May 28, 2023 6:42:40 GMT
Yes it's very satisfying.
My veg garden is in the front and it's a good source of comments.
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Post by tod2 on May 28, 2023 13:53:27 GMT
Fabulous glorious photos of might I say the unusual garden! Maybe I should seek our more grass varieties to put in my garden.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jun 3, 2023 10:20:23 GMT
Looks like I’ll get a bumper crop of strawberries this year.
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Post by bjd on Jun 19, 2023 11:15:03 GMT
Since we have a some rain lately, I decided I could plant something. I ripped out a tree lupin which took up a lot of space and only gave a few half-hearted flowers in the second year it has been in the garden. I replaced it with a blue salvia.
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Post by lugg on Jun 19, 2023 20:26:22 GMT
Looks like I’ll get a bumper crop of strawberries this year. Do send some to me please Since we have a some rain lately, I decided I could plant something. I ripped out a tree lupin which took up a lot of space and only gave a few half-hearted flowers in the second year it has been in the garden. I replaced it with a blue salvia. Love to see pics Bjd .
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Post by bjd on Jun 20, 2023 6:50:03 GMT
Your wish is my command, Lugg.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jun 20, 2023 6:55:43 GMT
I like that.
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Post by bjd on Jun 20, 2023 7:15:21 GMT
Thanks, Mick. That flower bed was supposed to be mostly blue and white, but on either side of the new salvia there are yellow dahlias. They were squashed by the tree lupin. I also pulled the gaura which invaded it.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 20, 2023 7:53:18 GMT
I like salvias too....must take some photos of mine. That's a beauty bjd
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 20, 2023 19:36:12 GMT
Beautiful blue on the flowers & I love those dark stems. That variety gets fairly tall, doesn't it?
The deep blue of the Salvia next to the silvery gray of the Artemisia & the lovely white lilies is a wonderful combination.
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Post by lugg on Jun 20, 2023 20:21:26 GMT
Thank you Bjd - that is so lovely ; also love your white lilies
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Post by bjd on Jun 21, 2023 7:38:12 GMT
That variety gets fairly tall, doesn't it? I don't know. I planted one like that last year and it's not especially tall. There is one I have read about that becomes a large bush, salvia guaranitica I think, but I don't think this is one.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jun 21, 2023 11:43:30 GMT
I was pruning back shrubs at work this morning. Here are the before and after pictures. It’s an evergreen Magnolia.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 21, 2023 18:24:20 GMT
It should survive.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 21, 2023 23:24:51 GMT
Looks a lot nicer now.
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Post by bjd on Jun 29, 2023 9:27:59 GMT
I find that there are a lot of plants getting sick this year. Everything started off well, but some of the new monarda turned white (mildew?), a couple of boxwoods are turning brown and losing leaves (is that blight?), lots of blackspot on rosebushes. Perhaps it's the weather? It hasn't been too hot and we even had some rain. All the invasive plants are doing well -- gaura, escholtzia, nigella -- but much of what I actually planted is not.
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Post by bjd on Jul 4, 2023 11:02:38 GMT
Speaking of sick plants, this morning I had to pull one of the two boxwood balls I planted a few months ago. I saw there were sick branches (blight?) and tried to remove them but it was just getting worse. So I dug it out and put it in the garbage, not in the compost. I hope the other one survives although I see a few brown leaves on it. Is there anything to be done, other than not planting boxwood?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 4, 2023 15:56:35 GMT
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Post by bjd on Jul 4, 2023 19:06:03 GMT
Thanks, Bixa. I have already looked at substitutes for boxwood but it's not the right time to plant. I also planted a couple of small round pittosporums which can also replace boxwood. There is also a bush called myrsine africana that looks like boxwood. It's not very hardy but mine survived the winter.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 4, 2023 20:13:53 GMT
We have a couple sickly looking box bushes...OH insists that they're fine. I've been hunting for some Japanese Holly for a while now.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 4, 2023 20:47:12 GMT
This past winter was tough on a lot of plants. Our “new” boxwoods flanking the garage didn’t survive their second winter. Yet the 3 well-established boxwoods along the front walk look great.
We took the receipt for the dying boxwoods back to Home Depot, and they gave us credit towards two new upright boxwoods. (We had complained about and photo-documented the tiny rootballs and chopped-off roots that the plants had when we turned them out of their pots to plant them, and they said to give them a chance.)
The new ones look quite nice. Hope they continue to do well.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 4, 2023 22:53:49 GMT
I just looked up Myrsine africana and am in love with it!
It's thrilling & admirable that you all went up against Home Depot and won, Kimby!
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Post by bjd on Jul 6, 2023 15:59:21 GMT
I just pulled a ton of gaura. I had planted a couple a few years ago. Despite pulling, giving away, taking to the dump, they were still invading everything. They ceratinly do well here but were falling over other things I had planted. When it's cooler tomorrow morning, I'll pull the weeds that were growing underneath.
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Post by bjd on Jul 7, 2023 8:22:03 GMT
This morning I went out at 7:30, pulled a ton of weeds and any remaining gaura plants along the west wall of our house. I think I might put in one or two vertical evergreen bushes in the fall to add a bit of height to the flowerbed but that has to wait until late fall. So to fill the empty space, I put in a bunch of leaf mould/almost compost and threw in a packet of zinnia seeds. It's late to be sowing seeds but if they grow they will last until about November.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 7, 2023 17:18:25 GMT
That's a lovely idea! And if they do grow, they'll be leaving lots of nice little seeds in the compost to come up in the flowerbed later.
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Post by bjd on Jul 8, 2023 5:21:30 GMT
That's a lovely idea! And if they do grow, they'll be leaving lots of nice little seeds in the compost to come up in the flowerbed later. I expressed myself badly -- I threw the zinnia seeds into the empty space in the flowerbed not in the compost.
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Post by bjd on Jul 14, 2023 6:00:31 GMT
This morning I went out at 7 and dug out the second of my boxwood balls. Put it in the garbage bin in a bag rather than taking it to the dump for green stuff. So much for buying boxwood. I saw that in the States they have been working on breeding blight-resistant boxwood (Better Boxwood), but I haven't seen it here.
I don't think I managed to pick up all the fallen sick leaves but won't be planting any more boxwood anyway. And we haven't had rain for a few weeks so the ground is really dry too. We started well this spring but now everything is either sick or droopy.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 14, 2023 6:09:32 GMT
This evening I went out at insect o'clock in order to transplant blackeyed peas. I had put a bunch of seeds in a row & all but a couple came up instantly and are pretty robust. According to what I read online, blackeyed peas hate being transplanted, but we shall see. I want lots of blackeyed pea plants, plus couldn't bear to let any of them go.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 14, 2023 7:52:08 GMT
Stapeliad seeds come up in 48 hours but instantly is something else. Did you have to stand back?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 14, 2023 16:34:15 GMT
Ha ha ~ just about! When I checked them this morning, many were cringing in the full sun. I watered them again, then made each wilty one a little tent from an hoja santa leaf.
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