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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 24, 2023 4:14:08 GMT
Yesterday & today I had that kind of dumb luck with timing that we always hope for, but seldom get. Yesterday I finally made myself tackle the planter against the wall in the patio that is the entrance to the house. Some moron planted bunches of the hateful yellow variegated Duranta all along it, smack up against the inside of the outer edge. This was also done on the planter against the carport wall and all around the grave-shaped raised bed in the front patio. Not content to do just one stupid, ugly thing, the dirt in the planters is quite sunken and covered with large white quartz gravel. This is of course is naturalized with weeds such as artillery plant. I'd already ripped out all the Duranta from the big bed, which I filled with good soil & planted appropriately, and from the side patio bed. But I never dealt with the sunken dirt, gravel, & weeds in it. Instead I lined it with potted succulents, including some larger ones set inside on top of the gravel. This actually looked quite nice & hid most of the ugliness, but I knew it was there. Anyway, I hurled myself at it yesterday and got out all the weeds, plus by dint of digging and sifting in the dirt like a dog, removed most of the gravel. This is what I'd had to do in the big bed, which is how I knew it was a horrible job & why I'd put it off for so long. I got it down to blank slate state, cleaned up all the mess and dirt, and went off to shower. Right after I dressed, the doorbell rang. It was Pablo the dirt man asking if I wanted another two sacks of compost. Yes indeed! He went & got them, then emptied & spread one of them in the newly cleaned bed. It was the perfect amount to fill it just right. What a treat to see that sad blank space filled with good soil. So the plan today was to wait until the sun was going down to plant the bed, even though I hate that thing of racing against the dark while being bitten by pterodactyls. Instead, there were lots of threatening clouds today, so I was able to start earlier. I transplanted a quite large Thalia dealbata and a well-grown Holmskioldia sanguinea 'Aurea' into it, along with a bunch of " St. Joseph lilies" and a couple of chiltepin ppepper plants. I had just finished the bed, cleaned up all the mess, put up my tools, & swept & hosed the patio when the sky opened & gave everything the best kind of soaking. Two days of great gardening luck ~ I'm grateful!
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 24, 2023 6:46:34 GMT
Well done!
I’m not familiar with Duranta or the artillery plant.
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Post by bjd on Jul 24, 2023 7:45:39 GMT
I'm not familiar with any of those plants but the compost delivery and the rain must have felt great.
We are getting a dribble of rain at the moment but not nearly enough to do much good.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 24, 2023 17:45:26 GMT
Thanks, Mick! Bjd, it was great to get both those things. It apparently rained all night & is still at it, with no end in sight. Artllery plant has many names - - I think creeping Charlie is one - - but it's a rampant pest, whatever you call it. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilea_microphyllaThere are many different Durantas. I very much like the green one with its abundant drapes of intensely blue flowers. I posted pictures of it in my previous patio garden at some time. It replaced its yellow cousin which had done nothing but grow up an up and up. Here is the yellow one, probably with no mention of its hateful, sneaky, needle-like spines. mygardenlife.com/plant-library/Here it is growing in the back 40, smack up against a 9-foot wall - - Here is the driveway bed followed by a closeup showing how close to the edge the Duranta is planted and the gravel and weeds occupying the bed - - Here are the two front patio entrance beds, both of which had been planted exactly like the driveway planter. In the left you can see the Chinese hat and the Thalia planted yesterday - -
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Post by tod2 on Jul 29, 2023 9:53:35 GMT
What a gorgeous entrance! All your plants look very happy Bixa.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 30, 2023 19:23:30 GMT
Awww ~ thank you, Tod. It's a very benevolent climate.
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Post by bjd on Aug 6, 2023 9:18:27 GMT
It hasn't been too hot and it rained for a while last night so this morning I went out and dug weeds and looked at the flower beds to decide what to keep, what to move elsewhere. I planted lavender this year but it got too big and the flowers are not a nice dark blue, so I will either take them out, or move them to the back of a place that just had some weeds.
I have been making a list of what to do in the fall since I discovered that some things got too big, others didn't have enough sun and a few plants just haven't grown at all. I feel like enlarging one of the flower beds at the front of the garden but will have to add lots of compost there since the soil in front of it isn't even good for grass. It's sandy and dries up in no time, whereas there are places not far away where the soil is black and rich.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 6, 2023 10:04:35 GMT
My Snapdragons doing well in full sun.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 6, 2023 17:13:29 GMT
Wow - - they sure are! I love the name snapdragons for those flowers. The name here is perritos - - little dogs.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Aug 6, 2023 17:49:05 GMT
Lovely display tod. When my siblings and I were little we would pick off a flower head and squeeze the base so that we made the flower open and close...making them 'talk'
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Post by bjd on Aug 7, 2023 6:31:54 GMT
We used to do that too, Cheery.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 7, 2023 21:02:48 GMT
Tsk. We did it too, but we didn't take the flowers off the plant.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 8, 2023 13:07:47 GMT
Not sure this is the right place for my query, but…
Are there any IRIS experts out there?
I am trying to figure out why my irises grow healthy green blades but almost no flowers.
I thought I was doing everything right when I planted them, but maybe my efforts were misguided.
I was gifted 18 corms of 6 varieties, all award winners.
I dug out 6 planting spots about 2’ in diameter in my lake cottage rock garden and mixed in used potting soil to lighten up the soil and add organic matter.
I planted 3 corms in each hole, keeping them near the surface, not deep like tulips or daffodils.
I fertilized with bulb food and maybe bone meal (can’t remember).
Then, because it’s hot and dry all summer and cold and windy all winter at the lake (6400’ elevation), I mulched the planting spots with shredded bark.
During the season I’ve watered on occasion, fertilized with bulb food and treated with various deer repellents, including blood meal and coyote urine.
Am I babying them too much? Are they unhappy because of the mulch? Maybe I need to pull the mulch back before the summer growing season?
Each year only one corm of 18 has sent up a flower stalk. Now there is so much foliage that I wonder if I need to divide them already.
Anyone with irises that are happy willing to share their method with me? I really want to have gorgeous blooms that last several weeks. Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 8, 2023 17:51:12 GMT
I’m not an Iris expert at all but reading between the lines I wonder if they’ve had it too easy with all that feeding. Suggest treat them mean, keep them keen.
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Post by monetsmum on Aug 8, 2023 18:48:40 GMT
I'd remove the mulch and let the sun get to them. Avoid nitrogen based fertilizer as that only creates more leaf growth.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 8, 2023 20:54:34 GMT
I only used the blood meal because it was said to repel deer and rodents. Didn’t even KNOW it was a fertilizer, and all nitrogen at that.
I think I’ll leave the mulch in place til spring when the snow is gone. No more blooms expected this year.
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Post by bjd on Aug 14, 2023 7:19:53 GMT
I foolishly got tempted into buying a couple of hebe plants the other day. It was only Lidl so not expensive but it has been dry and we are leaving for two weeks starting next weekend. Oh well. They were really rootbound too so I don't know it they will survive.
Given the look of my irises this year, I'm certainly not an expert either, but I did see that sun has to hit the rhizomes for them to flower.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 16, 2023 12:50:08 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 16, 2023 16:18:00 GMT
Really pretty & cheerful, Tod! What a nice thing to do.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 19, 2023 0:53:55 GMT
GIANT dutchman's pipe -
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 21, 2023 11:49:05 GMT
The flower baskets are perfect tod2.
Dutchman's pipe or Day of the Triffids, bixa?
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Post by bjd on Sept 7, 2023 6:26:47 GMT
On our recent trip to Canada, I was struck how green and lush everything was on the way to Ottawa from Montreal, compared to here where it has been dry again. We spent almost all our time at our son's house, in the countryside on the shore of the Ottawa River. He has done a lot of gardening and putting in new flower beds and planting trees in the past few years. I took away a few lessons: I can't grow phlox despite trying several times. They live in what is rated hardiness zone 5 and have massive phlox beds, so obviously the plants prefer colder winters. And I was amazed at the giant hydrangeas paniculatas and oak-leaf hydrangeas everywhere, in just about every garden I saw. They had mostly turned pink and red. I struggled to water mine and it has just gone brown, so obviously another plant to avoid in our climate, especially if we continue with hot dry summers.
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Post by bjd on Sept 13, 2023 7:47:13 GMT
I popped over to Lidl this morning. Their first flower bulbs went on sale (buy 2, get one free) so I bought some tulips and daffodils. The tulips rarely come back so I prefer to buy them cheap. Much too early to plant, of course.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 13, 2023 8:12:11 GMT
Bixa, looking back I realise that my post responding to your garden pics had failed (broadband problem)! I love your driveway beds, very welcoming and the back garden shrubs are glorious!
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 13, 2023 14:25:12 GMT
Thank you, Sweetie. You must come see them in person!
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Post by fumobici on Sept 14, 2023 4:59:32 GMT
On our recent trip to Canada, I was struck how green and lush everything was on the way to Ottawa from Montreal, compared to here where it has been dry again. We spent almost all our time at our son's house, in the countryside on the shore of the Ottawa River. He has done a lot of gardening and putting in new flower beds and planting trees in the past few years. I took away a few lessons: I can't grow phlox despite trying several times. They live in what is rated hardiness zone 5 and have massive phlox beds, so obviously the plants prefer colder winters. And I was amazed at the giant hydrangeas paniculatas and oak-leaf hydrangeas everywhere, in just about every garden I saw. They had mostly turned pink and red. I struggled to water mine and it has just gone brown, so obviously another plant to avoid in our climate, especially if we continue with hot dry summers. One thing you almost never need worry about in Eastern North America is it ever being too dry! Hot, dry Summers? Hot?, sure; dry?, never.
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Post by bjd on Sept 14, 2023 7:49:41 GMT
Actually, my son and his wife bought their house in 2012 and he said that summer was extremely dry. But you are right that it rarely gets like what we have more and more often. We were there for 2 weeks and it didn't rain once during that time. The view from their front porch:
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Post by bjd on Sept 26, 2023 15:58:55 GMT
I decided that one side of our front garden was boring. The side I usually see has been changed quite a bit, with new flower beds and planting. The part on the other side of the driveway looked awful: we had planted an apple tree which never grew and finally died this summer. The soil is terrible and nothing much grows in it. So the other day I decided to not just extend the front flower bed, but to dig everything up. Everything in this case being mostly crab grass and couch (or bermuda?) grass.
It went well at first because it was really dry and the weeds just came out. Not a worm in sight, so definitely not good. I have been working my way towards the house and it is getting harder because there are these clumps of grass with thick blades and big roots, plus the other weeds. On the other hand, there are lots of worms.
We will add a lot of compost, the garden leftovers that we have been making into mulch and I'll buy some horse manure. I am designing it in my head and want to plant a couple of trees and some bushes but first have to work on the soil. I paced it off -- it's about 15 metres long and about 5 across.
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 26, 2023 16:15:31 GMT
That’s a decent sized bed.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 27, 2023 17:52:01 GMT
What a view!
I really need to get the bubblewrap up in my greenhouse, and tidy up the flower beds, put my dahlias to bed etc...but I just can't be bothered! Today's excuse is that there is a storm expected this evening...
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