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Post by bjd on May 28, 2024 8:50:42 GMT
An update on the bed created last October. Yesterday I cut back the French lavender bushes, the nigella has taken over and the new dwarf butterfly bush (buddleia) is starting to bloom. I was disappointed with the alliums, most of which didn't bloom. ![](https://i.ibb.co/5j3rkqB/20240528-101613.jpg) ![](https://i.ibb.co/Gncs3zW/20240528-101645.jpg)
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Post by tod2 on Jun 18, 2024 13:39:46 GMT
Bixa you must be so thrilled to have the space to grown all those wonderful green plants! I can see they are well cared for and living off the most perfect diet of nutrients and water. You deserve a medal young lady!
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 22, 2024 9:36:13 GMT
My buddleia has gone potty and is taking over the raised bed swamping out all the other plants. Next week it's supposed to be sunny so im hoping that it will be covered in flowers (lots of buds on it)...then it will be cut down and transferred (gawd knows where)..so that the other perennials in the bed have a chance to grow, I'm always making this mistake..I plant what I think will be a small, pretty thing and it GROWS...strange that....
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Post by mickthecactus on Jun 22, 2024 10:07:02 GMT
Buddleia can be a bit of a thug.
Look at all those growing by railway lines!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 22, 2024 15:52:15 GMT
Long may it thug! Even though it can do too well in some gardens, it's so pretty in all the wild places it colonizes.
I recently pulled up a Salvia leucantha & transferred it to the back yard where it can add to the sprawl of the rosemary bush.
I planted that Salvia last year because I know it well & thought it would make a good screen for the garbage can, which is in direct sightline from the front door. It did well, too well. It got lots of sun in that spot, but I think it really needs all day direct sun to keep it from lolling all over the place.
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Post by bjd on Jun 26, 2024 7:03:39 GMT
I like all salvias and that one looks really nice. I learned yesterday that rosemary has been put into the salvia family. We have been making lots of leaf mulch. This morning I went out to spread some around trees and in bare spots to cover the soil. It's certainly full of weed seeds but when it's hot it's probably better to protect plants than to worry about weeds. There are always loads of them anyway. The recent increase in warmth has made lots of plants bloom but has also caused powdery mildew early on the monarda and my chitalpa tree. The latter usually doesn't get it but this year it has few flowers and the leaves are whitish.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 26, 2024 17:32:29 GMT
I learned yesterday that rosemary has been put into the salvia family. !!! I am trying to get my head around that! At least it's easier to pull weeds from leaf mulch than when they've planted themselves in bare dirt.
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Post by Kimby on Jun 28, 2024 23:47:00 GMT
Aren’t salvias in the mint family. Rosemary should be a mint. Right?
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Post by bjd on Jun 29, 2024 7:01:45 GMT
" Salvia is the largest genus of plants in the sage family Lamiaceae, with nearly 1000 species of shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annuals. Within the Lamiaceae, Salvia is part of the tribe Mentheae within the subfamily Nepetoideae ." (Wikipedia)
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Post by bjd on Jul 2, 2024 19:03:31 GMT
Since we have been having some rain and it's not too hot, I decided it was alright to move a few things even though it's the wrong time of year. I transplanted a black-leaved crape myrtle that hasn't grown in the two years since I planted it. When I dug it up, the rootball was the same size as when I bought it.
I also moved a few irises because I decided they were in the wrong place. They bloomed and looked nice but now all the leaves have brown fungal spots on them so I moved them to the back of a bed and put some nice verbena in their place.
And I have been pulling out gaura which grows like a weed and invades everything.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 4, 2024 15:05:38 GMT
Irises. When we go to the lake, I should have blooming irises! The buds were coming up in at least three of 6 clumps. This is a huge improvement over years past when I got ONE bud stalk from 6 groupings totaling 18 rhizomes. The leaves grew like mad, though.
I’m thinking I did two things wrong. I used blood meal liberally as a deer repellent (too much nitrogen) and I mulched them well with shredded bark to prevent hard freezing (it gets into the -20’s F each winter).
This year I pulled the mulch back in April, and have only used slow-release bulb food pellets. So far so good.
But now the problem is probably overcrowding. I know you have to divide irises and it’s now been 4 years since I planted them. But how to divide? Do you have to dig out the ENTIRE clump and carefully break them apart, and replant 3 or 4 in the original location, moving the rest elsewhere? Or is it possible to thin them out without starting over?
And WHEN do you divide? I think it’s in autumn, but do I wait till bloom is done and leaves begin to yellow? Or after the first frost, which comes early at 6400’ elevation in Montana?
I’m so new at this, but since irises and daffodils seem to be the ONLY plants the deer ignore (mostly) I want to keep my irises thriving. (Once I get them to thriving.)
Thanks for any advice.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 4, 2024 15:46:50 GMT
Kimby, have a look at the RHS site Irises:Dividing. Regret I can’t give you the link but it tells you what you need to know.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 4, 2024 19:00:50 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Jul 6, 2024 13:21:07 GMT
That would be good advice for my primary home, and I have used the extension office there, mainly for identifying plant pests and diseases.
The cottage is in a more rural area where the population can’t support our own extension office, so there’s a tri-county extension agent whose office is located in a town we never go to.
Wouldn’t hurt to give him a call though. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 20, 2024 21:17:29 GMT
Yesterday my sister took me to a garden centre.. I haven't been for weeks! My planters were looking pretty rubbish, partly due to the weather but mostly (imo) down to the awful peat free compost! Nothing really looks healthy...everything is smaller aside from a few french marigolds and one or two of the dahlias. It's so disheartening when you've put in the work and the result doesn't reach expectations. I bought myself a geranium (Rozanne), an orange dahlia and a few yellow daisy things...they've perked up my pots
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 21, 2024 6:14:41 GMT
Agree with you 100% about the poor quality of peat free compost Cheery. I do still get some peat based compost but it’s not cheap.
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Post by bjd on Jul 21, 2024 7:08:43 GMT
Since peat is a non-renewable resource, I don't know whether it's even sold in France any longer. It will certainly eventually be phased out elsewhere too, unless it runs out first. So it shouldn't be cheap.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 21, 2024 8:48:55 GMT
And it comes from Northern Ireland.
I did write some time ago to Gardeners World about the poor quality and suggested it would make a good subject for an item,
No reply...
Some of the peat free is hardly cheap - £24.99 for 40L in one case.
The best I have found Cheery is Homebase own compost which is at least a decent consistency.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 21, 2024 19:20:37 GMT
I understand the need for us to stop using peat, but it must be possible to at least sieve the peat free compost to remove the huge chunks of wood and straw. I don't have an issue with using peat free compost, but the quality of what is available here is shocking.
My sister gets some peat free stuff that's made by a small company, that's lovely and she tries to remember to get me a bag when she goes to the nursery that supplies it..but it's a bit out of the way. On the whole the worst I've had recently is the New Horizon organic peat free mp compost, Jack's Magic and B&Q's verve were ok, but don't hold moisture, or nutrients and were useless for growing on young plants.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 22, 2024 23:24:17 GMT
Gosh. I've bitched and moaned all these years because of having to buy mystery potting soil, i.e., whatever the person from whom I'm buying threw together. In my envious mind, you all were glorying in reliable, reasonably priced, nutritious & fluffy soil from garden centers.
All that envy, wasted.
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Post by bjd on Jul 23, 2024 5:14:43 GMT
Cheer up, Bixa. The only gardening videos I systematically watch are those of Jim Putnam and he claims that "fluffy black soil" you buy from garden centres has been treated and fluffed up but is in fact less good for your garden than compost, wood chips and other organic material that breaks down and feeds your soil. It's jus that it makes the flower beds look nice.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 23, 2024 5:42:27 GMT
Ha! Good to know. I always had a sneaking suspicion that their chiffon-like fluff was more for working fast on tv & getting stuff to look good, but I figured that was just sour grapes on my part. Vindication is good.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 23, 2024 12:42:07 GMT
I bought some wool based compost once, terribly expensive but delightfully rich and fluffy. My plants loved it. Too expensive now tho...
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 28, 2024 10:11:08 GMT
Here’s a new one to me , Farfugium japonicum “wavy gravy “. Saw it in the market and although not pretty it’s very unusual. A perennial which has yellow daisy like flowers in late autumn and winter which is a real bonus. ![](https://i.ibb.co/7SrtJg8/4-D43-FEF8-D6-C3-44-CF-B408-68-FE61-F64-FB9.jpg)
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 2, 2024 4:51:21 GMT
Each stem clearly wants plenty of its own space.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 2, 2024 15:58:19 GMT
It looks so dainty in the pictures, but I just looked it up and those leaves get really big!
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Aug 8, 2024 17:41:51 GMT
Interesting plant Mickus...very sweet. I was at another Garden Centre today with one of my sisters. It was in Ibstock if youre interested..lovely place. Nice, healthy plants. Reasonable variety considering the time of year. I bought 2 heleniums, one for my sister and one for me. Also bought a zamioculcas zamifolia 'raven' a brilliant houseplant (an ignora-plant...seems to cope with anything) not seen this dark leaved variety before...and some nice, soft houseplant compost so that I can divide and pot on my clivia (as the actress said to the bishop) ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png)
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Post by tod2 on Sept 3, 2024 10:15:52 GMT
Down south here Spring has sprung - 1st September - and I was in doubt whether to plant any new stuff as we will be away for three weeks and will not reap the benefit of vegetables like spinach that grow at an alarming rate. So, I hit on the idea of planting something which will get started these two and a bit weeks before we leave and only produce when we return. Out came every packet of tomato seeds I've ever bought. Some in date some long out. I mixed all the varieties together. So those that want to make me happy may do so and the others turn into fertilizer.
Here is what I have planted: Roma VF Marmande Ailsa Craig (By kind way of Mick and still in date until 21st Sept) Raf - green skin Floradade Window Box Red - Heirloom Clear Pink Culinary blend tomato seeds - mixed variety
Sun is out and it might reach 33C - Seeds resting in their damp little pots. Wish me luck!
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Post by bjd on Sept 7, 2024 19:39:34 GMT
The weather hasn't been too hot and we have been getting rain so I moved a few plants around. Re-reading this page, I see I said the same thing in July!
Anyway, I think the redbud I planted last year got too much sun -- the leaves were really pale green instead of dark and felt crisp. I put it in the back yard where it will get less sun. I had also planted three stipa tenuissima grasses but one got so big it kept falling onto the front path and getting walked on, so I moved them to the side of the house. And a weigela with dark leaves I planted this spring was growing fine but surrounded by too much other foliage so the lower leaves turned green, so I moved that to beside the grasses.
It has been a strange year in the garden. Until July we had some rain but then in August, even though it wasn't really hot it was very dry and quite a few of my new plants burned on the side facing the sun. Since they are mostly not deciduous and quite small, I don't think they would look very good if I have to trim back the burnt sides. I guess I didn't give them enough water.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 7, 2024 20:04:08 GMT
That's a lovely selection tod ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png) Jeffrey's 'gardening' continues..his technique being 'cut it down, rip it out'. Today he removed two box pillars that we've had either side of the path to the little shelter at the back of the garden. They started off as little box balls in 1994, grew into big box balls, then when they got too big he started shaping them into rectangles (I always trimmed them when they were balls but he took over a couple of years ago) ..then they started to deteriorate a bit, not the dreaded box blight but something similar affecting the branches inside more than elsewhere...we didn't find a culprit insect, but Jeff decided that they had to go. So he took them out.
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