BS: Gardening, 2009

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 06:51 PM

Ain't that first rose a blessing to see, maeve?


The first animal I ever skinned was a groundhog. (roadkill.) The first wild game I ever ate was groundhog. (Killed but not mauled by the dog. Their hides make great drumheads, Barry. But the biggest groundhog ever was would still be too small for a bodhran frame. (And they are the hardest animal I've ever skinned. They like to hang onto their hide, even in death.)

I kinda like groundhogs that are not anywhere near a garden. Really smart and courageous animals. They won't pick a fight, but, as maeve noticed, if they can't avoid it they are fierce.

We had groundhogs down along the creek at the old house. The young ones were pretty easy to trap in the box traps - unless they had seen another one caught in a box trap. Then they wouldn't go near it.   

If you do not get the adults out of there, there will be a new litter every spring to contend with. Cement in the hole may not work. Like I said, they are fabulous diggers and will simply dig out somewhere else.   I suspect you have one den. They always have at least 2 entrances to their burrows. They are also territorial and are not likely to nest closely together.

If, on the otherhand, you have gophers - I haven't a clue. Never seen one up close and in person.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 06:00 PM

I got half of the tomatoes planted and rebuilt several raised beds. I'm staking most of them this year, rather than using wire cages.

The big news is...(Hran roll, please)****************************

The first rose is in bloom. Its a fragrant, blushing pink single shrub rose in our hedgerow. The wonderful scent made it worthwhile to weed out the witchgrass from beneath it! It's the first time it bloomed so early.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 01:46 PM

Wow! I complain about snails taking out a row of beans in a day, but a groundhog is major devastation!

Dogs are still a pretty good answer. Either scare them away or confront them.

The plumber is here replacing the thermostats and top valve on the water heater. It has been dribbling scalding water out in the side of the house, and I realized the moisture wasn't the typical amount from my condensation pump from the heat pump on that side of the house. The ground is really wet and very hot because the thermostat wouldn't turn off. It probably came close to cooking my Texas star hibiscus, we'll have to see how they do this summer. Anyway, the job is about finished and we'll have reasonable water temperature in the house now. The way it was, it was like having a 50 gallon insta-hot tank. The cost of replacing these is about half of replacing the entire tank, and I'm taking the gamble that the tank will last a few more years and make this repair worthwhile.

It's such an annoyance, when I'm struggling to make an efficient water delivery system for the yard, which is a big draw as the season progresses, only to realize that elsewhere it has been just running out at will, and I've been paying to superheat it to boot. Water and Electric bills next month will be high.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 11:50 AM

Let's see... 9 more posts set this morning + 5 yesterday = 14 posts...

37 minus 14 is, ahhhhhh, 23 posts to go + 4 twelve foot gate posts = 27 posts to go...

Hmmmmmm??? This project is going to take awhile...

But this afternoon I'm going to actually do a little, yes, gardening!!! Going to plant my seigie azalea and plant all the seedlings in the veggie garden and hopefully get it mulched...

And maybe get the maure on the asparagus patch...

Nice to take a day off...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 08:12 AM

As Janie suggeste a large box trap is the best answer...

Now here's the tricky part... What to do with Mr. G-hog once you have him trapped??? Hefre in Virginia it is against the law to take him off and release him... But that what I do anyway with racoons and groundhogs... I just make sure that I put trap and all in the back of my Toyota station wagon so that the cops don't see me transporting said animal in the back of the pickup truck which has no tailgate....

Shy of that, the .22 is next best and fast...

But a groundhog in yer veggie garden even for one night means an entire 30 foot row of beet demolished... These animals will go thru yer veggie garden like Grant thru Richmond...

Si I trap them... My trap is about 4 feet long with a 18"X18" opening... That's the size you need...

Animal shelters will sometimes lend them out to you...

Apples, peaches and just about anything that has a sweet odor will work as bait...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 07:46 AM

Barry, check your PMs. Woodchucks/groundhogs are very aggressive when cornered. We have dealt with them effectively without fences or guns, but it takes some planning.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 02:56 AM

Humph... you spend hours getting the garden to look nice for company, and when they come over, they say it's too hot to go outside! Ah well.

Next door over the back fence have been pruning. They replaced the rest of their fence (my back fence is their side fence) over the weekend and have taken out a lot of big shrubs that blocked the light. They have also pruned my trees that overhang the fence, which I'm having mixed feelings about. Firstly, they should have asked me if I minded and secondly I'm pretty sure it will improve my light more than theirs...

But I did manage to get my hanging baskets up (swallow nest variety) and now I'm off to the garden centre to find liners and plants to put in them.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 01:13 AM

My dogs would love to take on gophers or a ground hog. Not that I encourage it, but they're outdoor dogs who patrol the grounds, and if something like that turns up, they make sure it stays away or they kill it.

This evening I finished the work on the newest bit of the veggie garden. I put my soaker hoses on a Siamese fitting to split the water two directions for good coverage. I repaired the longest piece of a soaker hose (hit with the mower a couple of years ago--I kept the parts for just this kind of use) and arranged it around the new area in a way that the curls in the hose won't kink. I ended up with a good arrangement and I tossed coastal hay over the top for the time being just to make it look finished. I'll pull it back and put in seeds this week. I'm planning more onions, some leeks, and probably come cucubits that I'll let grow out over the lawn to get a larger growing area (and kill some grass while they're at it. Good!)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: GUEST
Date: 31 May 09 - 11:13 PM

Thanks Janie
I'm not about to go through all that fence stuff & digging. I might just wait till they go to bed then pour cement down their door I ain't feeding anyone or thing that didn't come in the house across the welcome mat.

Barry, on another computer

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 31 May 09 - 10:46 PM

We don't have gophers around here. I googled them and could not determine if you are likely to have them in New England or not, but I tend to think of them as midwestern and western animals. Big holes suggest groundhogs to me, but google images of groundhogs and see what you think. They are not generally aggressive toward humans, but have vicious bite - don't go sticking your hand in a groundhog hole.

If they are groundhogs, you might try box traps baited with apples. They are pretty smart and can be hard to trap. They can also get into about any garden unless you go to a lot of trouble to bury metal chickenwire or turkey fence. You have to dig down about a foot and bend the bottom of the fence into an L shape, facing outward. The flat part underground will need to extend outward from the fence line at least 2 feet, and 3 feet is better. As you can tell from the burrows, they are fabulous diggers.

Hate to say it, but a .22 bullet through the head is the only sure control. If you have fenced backyard and a decent dog that has the run of the yard, that may help deter them or encourage them to move on if the dog can't actually catch them.

Lastly, groundhogs will occasionally turn up with rabies. I don't know how common rabies is where you are, but it is quite common here. They are not often carriers, but it can happen.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Barry Finn
Date: 31 May 09 - 10:05 PM

Janie, Bobert, they could be groundhogs. Are they just as bad?


I don't own a gun

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 31 May 09 - 08:49 PM

Bobert- Besides what I freeze or dry for winter, we sell veggies, veggie seedlings, perennials, sustainably-grown wildflowers, spring bulbs, herbs, and home-grafted fruit trees at our farm stand. Down the road is a food pantry, up the road t'other way are neighbors who could use help with food.

I reckon 30 will be enough for now.

m

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 31 May 09 - 08:19 PM

Janie,

Have you considered acubas... I think they will flourish where yer new house is... A little morning sun or late afternoon sun and they are good to go... The gold dust is real nice and need almost no direct sinlight at all to thrive...

Barry,

Get the gun... Groundhogs are vegetarians and will eat anything and everything that is green... But they are aslo very smart and know when yer out to get them...

maeve,

30 tomato plants, pray tell??? Whatja gonna do with 'um??? Too mnay to eat and too many to can unless you can day and night...

Everyone,

Never got the asparagun fewrtilized 'cuase of a blasted party we had to go to... Politics... Did get the first 5 of the 37 posts set before the party... Gonna use up a couple hundred rocks before this little part of the adventure is over settin' the posts...

Ya' know that I been so busy of late that I haven't gotten the first cannibus seedling started... Better get on that, too...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 31 May 09 - 06:04 PM

Are they gophers or are they groundhogs, aka woodchucks?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Barry Finn
Date: 31 May 09 - 05:52 PM

Do I need to be fearful of Gophers? I got at least 2 "BIG" gophers living out back in a deep hole that looks like a cave when I peer into it. They're even set up with a TV, shower, recliner the whole works. They seem to like the neighbors yard better though. They go to where he had his trees cut down & they seem to love where they grinded the stumps & left all the waste-wood.

I don't know if I have to now fence the garden off?

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maire-aine
Date: 31 May 09 - 04:47 PM

Hi. I mentioned this in the declutter thread, but not here. I decided this year that I'd have a local nursery come in and fix up my yard once and for a while. It had gotten too far out of control for me to clean it up by myself, but hopefully I'll be able to manage it after they're done. The crew is supposed to arrive on Tuesday (altho it's supposed to rain), and they'll start in the back. Lots of "weed" bushes and grapevines. The grapevines never have produced any grapes, so they're just a nuisance. And so many ferns that it looks like Jurasic Park. They are also going to build me a raised flowerbed along the sunny side of the house.

This afternoon I surveyed the garden to identify the plants that I want to keep, so we can dig them up and set them aside, then I'll replant them later. I dug up several poppy plants (they're done flowering) and some red beebalm. Got a few more things to dig up tomorrow, if it doesn't rain.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 31 May 09 - 04:02 PM

The shrubs are all out. I left the azaleas and two of the boxwoods, at least for the time being.   Have no clue what I will eventually do along the front of the house, but it looks better bare than with things as they were.

It is a marvelously beautiful day here.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 May 09 - 02:19 PM

The bush beans are beginning to flower. Some tomato fruits are beginning to grow. When I thin carrots now I have some big enough to eat. I have to trim the oregano back and dry some, it's spreading out. I'm still working on the drainage arrangement with the soaker hoses, but it's getting better.

I'm out of the amendments I use (lava sand, green sand, etc.) so I'll pick some up today. I have a couple of vitex branches growing into the path that I have to prune--I know there are preferred season for pruning, but this thing grows so fast and it gets in the way in a couple of areas, so I'll prune it back. I'll bring in a few blooms for a vase in the house--it smells wonderful.

Yesterday I read an article about potting soil. The material used in the pot isn't what my Dirt Doctor guru recommends, but the discussion of how to use a wick to get the water to stay put better or drain better was interesting. I always seem to have to struggle, it's always too dry or too wet. I'll report back if I manage to conduct any research.

I had a love/hate relationship with cannas that were along my front porch when I moved in here. They shaded the porch, which was kind of good, but I couldn't put pots out there, not enough light. And they got clobbered every time it rained. I finally dug them all out, dug a new bed beside the house where the soaker hose runs and where I do a couple of loops through that bed. I put the cannas out there, used amendments and fertilizer, and they are as happy as I've ever seen them. This year they're even bigger, up to 6 feet. It's just a garden variety red flower, but with enough of them going and the plants healthy, it is a really lovely stand of green stuff out there in what was once a rather unattractive portion of the yard.

The cosmos are starting to sprout.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 31 May 09 - 01:25 PM

I can't sleep and don't care to eat. Got some of the veggies in early this foggy morning: 2 kinds of sugar snaps, snow peas, shell peas, broadbeans, leeks, pok choy, 4 kinds of eggplant, moved overwintered potatoes to a different bed, moved volunteer lettuce (Jerico and oakleaf) to a bed.

Tomatoes are in the greenhouse in gallon pots. If the storm doesn't hit before suppertime I may chunk thirty or so into the garden. Got to cut the seed potatoes and plant them this week. We'll have just one corn patch and keep it small enough to fence. Fog has given way to sun and hot wind.

m

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 31 May 09 - 12:50 PM

And I have been a slugabed this beautiful morning. Slept until after 12:00, which I haven't done in years.

It was not wasted time though. I feel rested for once. Gonna hit the yeard and do the housework later.

While digging out the shrubs yesterday, the ground is soft and too wet to work, but not soggy like I thought it would be. I'm getting a clearer and clearer idea of just how much water all these trees do suck up.

Somewhere way up thread Bobert had commented on how much cooler this house will be from all the shade. I'm finding that to be remarkably true, and loving it. I also love the tranquil quality of light of all the shade and the green grass, and the contrast of light and shadow on the lawn.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 31 May 09 - 12:11 PM

Comfy here...

Just came in from weeding the asparagus bed and taking a break... Lotta weeds in there... Gonna put down some horse manure on it later today...

We have several cannas... The one that the P-Vine seels at the garden center has moroon leaves... Not too sure of the bloom as yet.. Lots of sun fir them fellers...

I have my own canna in my little shabby back of the farm garden in front of my old Spatan trailer muics studio and I abuse the heck out of it but its coming back... The P-Vine digs here's up and store the roots in peat moss in the winter... I donno???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 May 09 - 11:36 AM

I picked up a pretty dwarf tropical canna for a couple of bucks recently. I don't know if it will be happy where I put it, but I think it has the best chance of getting the most water where the water drains off of the roof and where the soaker hose runs each summer.

My son is in Dallas but I've arranged to have his father pick him up this afternoon so I have the day for working around here. It's going to be hot, but I'll work on the shady side of the house.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 31 May 09 - 08:28 AM

Didja check out Home Depot's left over plants, Maggie??? Spometimes ya can luck into something interesting and cheap at the box stores this time of year...

Rained cats and dogs over night here... Must have been an inch... Oh my gost... All the holes I dug yesterday are gonna be mud pits for a couple days...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 May 09 - 11:21 PM

Janie, I know that sensation of wasting time like that--other stuff intervenes, or not, but you don't end up doing the thing you planned to do. If you discover an exercise to get past those doldrums, let me know!

I ran around on behalf of the garden today. Home Depot for various things, including some of the seeds we've written about here. I'll be putting some in pots and some in the ground.

I picked up some hose repair kits and will use some of the shorter sections of old broken soaker hoses to make new loops and sections to put in the new garden. I use hoses and Siamese fittings and such to distribute the water as efficiently as possible. Sometimes the hose is coiled in large concentric watering loops, other times it will be partly looped and partly stretched out. Not sure what it will look like yet. Depends on how much hose I have to work with, for starters.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 30 May 09 - 08:33 PM

Well, Janie, one thing is fir sure... You ***have*** taken mental posession of the new digs... When you bend up yer glasses that puts you right in there with the garden "true believers"... Now if we could only figure out what to do with the neighbor's cats then all would be wondeerfull...

Yeah, Maggie... When we moved here (like Janie) we knew what we knew and we tried to bring as much with us that we could that was familiar... We moved around 550 shade plants and we created a very long bed that was somewhat similar to what we had... And then we built on it... Then we discovered that the house itself was on about a 1/2 acre lot if you take the fence around it and so we first planted trees that will provide shade... Now we are kinda fine tuning it... We allready have figured everything out 360 degrees around the house and that's all okay but the yard??? Not okay, but getting there... I guess we've always known that there were possibilities but until just recently we haven't been able to take on the no-man's-land of the yard...

But gardening is always evolutional... It's never completed... That's a good think

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 30 May 09 - 08:20 PM

I have no clue what it is I do when digging that ruins glasses, but I just came in from digging out shrubs, and my glasses, which were dangling from a cord around my neck, were bent at about a 60 degree angle. I've gotten them straightened out as best I can, but am getting a terrific headache right now, either from the way they are pinching my nose or because the lenses are not lined up correctly in front of my eyes.

Dug out 3 forsythia and three boxwoods, and whacked a bunch of other stuff to the ground that I hope to dig out tomorrow. There are nandina growing right up against the foundation. I'm afraid to try to dig them out as they may have roots that penetrate any underground cracks in the foundation. Guess I'll just keep cutting sprouts until they give up and die.

One of the container planted tomatoes has set it's first fruit. Bottom leaves are yellowing on it. Guess I'll try some epsom salts as the plant otherwise looks quite healthy.

A few years ago I would spend every spare minute working in the yard and garden. I still have the same enthusiam, but not the energy. After working 50-55 hours a week between my job and private practice, I often find myself, when I do have time, just sitting and doing nothing in particular. I ended up not doing a thing inside the house today, but still didn't go to work outside until 4:00.    And it is not that I was enjoying myself sitting around. It was simply wasted time.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:57 PM

When I was a kid I think we had the garden as a supplement to what we could afford to buy, but even if not, it set such a great example. My mother spent many years on a farm, so it came naturally in our large yard in Seattle. For me now, I find it in some ways convenient--what are we eating? Something that uses garlic, onions, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, chard, whatever. :) If I'm cooking and find I'm out of peppers or carrots or green onions, etc, I head out the side door.

If I wanted to eat less expensively I probably wouldn't have a garden, I could use all of this time for a part time job that pays and could buy the fresh produce at a farmer's market. It's the magic of watching a garden grow and bringing in the food and cooking it and serving it that keeps me gardening.

There's also something else, something I don't hear often, but it is more of the magic. When we moved in here, the yard was weeds and bermuda, the hedge was ugly. I planted a few trees, cut down the hedge, and I put in a veggie garden at the side of the house. At the front end of it, and in the front yard, I dug a couple of areas and I planted seeds for bunches of state fair zinnias (big, multicolored, bloom all season as long as they get water). They were magnificent, and people would remark on them, but the one that really was nice was the woman from two doors up the street that intersects my street. Her mother was barely ambulatory in her last year or two, but she would sit in the driveway looking out at the neighborhood, and her daughter told me a couple of years later that her mother loved watching this yard evolve, and really enjoyed watching those zinnias take hold and present such a wall of color. That is so nice to know!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:19 PM

It is lovely, and it will be brighter soon, but I can't help feeling a little twitchy now... why won't that corner grow anything (fertilized with the crap of a dozen cats is probably why), why won't my fountain work properly (pump fouled with duckweed, impossible to remove, have to wait til it rots out), why is there hardly anything in my garden to eat....

I can sit back and feel smug that I'm done, but mine is a pleasure garden and I am very aware that some here rely on their little plot for life and livelihood... I know how hard that is to do, having been brought up on home grown fresh veggies in season. I do think of you all often and wish I could help you out somehow... if good thoughts will make your water butts fill and your beans sprout, then you should be in for a bumper harvest all of you!

Thank you, for the success stories and the not so successful stories - they're all part of the gardeners' year, without which, we would have fewer potatoes in the world.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:04 PM

Bobert,

I have laid out the yard so that not only it looks nice from the street but so that it is interesting from the house. The back yard bed outside my bedroom window was trampled by the dogs, there is a flowering shrub there now, but the rest of them still have flowers, trees, and shrubs that give a pretty landscape from each room. My office window on the front of the house looks out into the limbs of the vitex planted in the middle of the yard, and between the street and the vitex is a bed of iris and daffodils. Close to the house and tall enough to be seen from the window are several colors of Swiss chard. There are areas of turf in between these things. There are shrubs down at the curb that will bloom most of the summer (salvia gregii).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 30 May 09 - 04:45 PM

Well, more about protecting our gardens: rented a Bobcat with an auger today and dug 37 nice holes for the fence posts that are going to get deer fencing... I have them every 17 feet coming up the driveway and 3 or 4 back to the woods where we have enough existing decent trees to attach the fence back in the woods...

Me thinks this is going to take a while...

The P-Vine is going to plant a nice 30 long raised bed I made her tomorrow... It's between a creape myrtl and an dog wood... There is also a large maple between it and the afternoon sun and...

...best of all it is right outside our bedroom so we'll be able to enjoy it from the house...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 30 May 09 - 01:50 PM

It does indeed sound lovely, Liz.

Had to work this morning and am just home. After several days of rain the ground is way too wet to work, but it is sunny and warm. After the inside chores are done I'm going to take advantage of the softened ground ot try to dig out some shrubs. Gonna start all over here on the foundation plantings.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 30 May 09 - 11:26 AM

Congratulations, Liz. It sounds perfect; enjoy the fruits of your hard work.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 May 09 - 10:45 AM

Well, that's it... all the annuals planted, and most are picking up after a day in the sun and a long water Friday night.

The path is cleared and swept, the pots are filled with flowers, my pyrocantha is a sea of blossom; the roses are tighly wrapped buds like pink lips, waiting to kiss the sun; the arums are unfurled and glow in the twilight like they were lit from inside; talking of which, my two new lights are perfect. Just ordinary deck lights, solar powered, one in the circle under the trees and one on the table... they shine quite brightly in the evenings, and create the most amazing shadows and glowing pools like ice... very pretty.

All I need do now is keep watering the thing, evict the odd snail that gets too cheeky and watch it all burst into bloom in a couple of weeks. Can't wait!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 29 May 09 - 01:17 PM

I recently found a $5 garden book treasure at a local library book sale. It's "Know It and Grow It II: A Guide to the Identification and Use of Landscape Plants" by Dr. Carl E. Whitcomb, 740 pages of clear information on a multitude of trees, shrubs, vines, and groundcovers. It's a perfect choice for this cold and rainy day.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 29 May 09 - 11:48 AM

I have a deep magenta red snapdragon that has self seeded for the last 4-5 years and this year I just finished planting a whole batch of orange ones... I hope they'll self seed too, so I won't have to buy any next year!

I've always loved snapdragons, used to grow them every year at home.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 29 May 09 - 08:40 AM

Discovered a seedling peony while weeding the garden last night. It's right where a seedhead from either a tree peony OR an herbaceous could have falledn - so it may be either or a natural hybrid. The leaf looks about halfway between the two types - so will fun to see what this turns out to be....

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 29 May 09 - 08:31 AM

Janie, we love the Rocket snapdragons, especially the red. Sometimes they self-seed for us. I should talk with you about the cut flower trade sometime.

In the last week I've potted up: a few dozen lupine seedlings, 5 kinds of hosta, 7 varieties of tomatoes into gallon pots, red elder, bloodroot, pulmonaria, polemonium, cranesbills, several kinds of sedum, full size and dwarf bearded iris, both white and blue crested iris, Diablo ninebark seedlings,and twenty grafted apple trees into 3 gallon pots.

In bloom: late tulips, poeticus daffodils, late apples, crabapples, cherries,forget-me-nots, lupine, 4 kinds of trillium, starflower, bunchberry, pink ladyslipper, lilacs galore, bearded iris (Immortality rebloomer was first), dwarf bearded iris, polemonium, Quaker Maids, allium, wild and tame strawberries, Ragged Robin, Honesty, ... and many others.

I've weeded the lupine/New England aster bed and cut back the asters. The trimmings go right down on the garden bed as mulch. I need to dig and split many others this week, and will be sheet composting along the hedgerow, and over the invasive gooseneck loosestrife. We're enjoying unlimited rhubarb in 13 varieties and asparagus.

We thought the purple tree peony had died, but see numerous shoots emerging from the ground. I assume it's the rootstock regenerating rather than the graft, but it will be interesting to see what sort of bloom we get in a year or so. The other tree and herbaceous peonies are budded and will soon delight us.

Glads are sprouting, overwintered potatoes are showing above ground, and we have plenty to do in the next two weeks if we're to have enough seedlings, veggies, and plants for the farm stand. I wonder why my wrist hurts.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 29 May 09 - 07:31 AM

Lots and lots of rain, and more on the way. It will be awhile before this red clay dries up enough to work.

The mophead is not sure if it wants to be blue or pink in this new location. Right now the blooms are at my favorite stage - big and flat, before curling under to form a big ball, not so heavy that the stems flop onto the ground, and mottled white and blue (and a bloom or two mottled pink.)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 28 May 09 - 07:28 PM

For some reason, snapdragons do not sell well as cut flowers, at least in these parts, although they do OK if included in mixed bouquets. Had a number of conversations with other local market growers, back in the day, and none of us ever understood why.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 28 May 09 - 06:56 PM

Took a slightly different route home through town this evening. Some one a few blocks from here has got a glorious bed chock full of Rocket snapdragons.

Hardly ever see anyone plant nice, tall snapdragons anymore.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 May 09 - 06:45 PM

Garden is now all finished and clear... it hasn't looked this good for a couple of years now.... all I need is for the flowers to start blooming.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 May 09 - 01:48 PM

It seems my garden goes from zero to sixty every spring. For so long I'm struggling to prepare the soil and the plants are so small, but they skyrocket and now I have large tomato plants (with green fruit) and the oregano needs to be cut back, the rosemary needs to be cut way back, I'm eating a steady diet of chard and keeping a couple of other folks supplied. The eggplant are finally growing, and I have a space about double the size of my dining room table that I finished digging last week and need to amend and then plant.

Janie, that vitex/purple chaste is native here and does very well. I've cut off a lot of branches or it would be even wider, and I need to trim off the ones that are again leaning onto the roof line and are drooping into the path I use for walking the dogs out of the yard (with Invisible Fence we use the same one entry point all of the time.)

Snails this year have been a problem, you've heard about them already. I have replanted rows of beans, and I replanted some basil last week. I see the little sprouts are being knocked off again. I don't see the snails there now, so I'll put out more beer this evening.

There is the most gorgeous salad in this month's Martha Stewart Living if you flip through the magazine back to the stiff page with a perforated page of four recipes. It's a plated of cut up heirloom tomatoes. For a dressing she warms some garlic in olive oil then lets it cool and then sprinkles chives and basil and this garlic oil over the top. I'm sure it will work equally well with my super fantastic and large cherry tomatoes.

It's time to set up some of my tape and handy sprays, as it gets warmer plants get stressed and bugs come calling. And I forgot to spray my beneficial nematodes. It'll be too warm soon, but if I do it one evening or early morning they'll get into the environment. Time to do some weeding and transplanting some seedlings. I bought a tall colorful red salvia last year that I loved so I bought two more this year, only to find that it apparently seeded itself last year so I may move around some of those seedlings and have them in more places.

I took the pit bull to the vet for a sore foot (she has been licking it a lot). Turns out to be the dog version of a hangnail. :-/ Anyway, he trimmed it and gave me an oily ointment to put a drop on my finger to rub on the toe, then not let her lick it for 10 minutes. I commented that since I'd be putting it on my finger I'd be treating myself also. He said he uses this stuff all the time on himself. I may try it on some of the sore spots on my callouses, see if it helps!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 May 09 - 01:31 PM

Thanks, gals.:-) I will call the Extension office and see what they recommend. I know our county has a composting facility where we could get some inexpensive good stuff to use. We don't have salamanders, slugs, or toads or frogs, not here in town at least. The only things really buggy are the earwigs and a mostly outdoor-near-water huge roach, I think they call Japanese roaches.

I remember a year or two ago, one of you, Janie?, recommended the nighttime catching of earwigs, then dumping them in water. At the moment, I don't feel fit enough to do that, but will keep it in mind for later this summer. I'll get my brother or Rog to do the compost-spreading.

My little perennials are looking really good; one of the carnations' blooms just opened. I'll try to get some pix later today.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 28 May 09 - 01:07 PM

*grin* spring hill had potted coneflowrs on sale - so I bought some; and some hellebore; and some iris....


DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

of course it turned out they are out of spring stock on some of the stuff so about half my order won't ship until fall - but at least I have my self-birthday present already ordered.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 28 May 09 - 11:40 AM

Kat,

While I have problems with earwigs, I don't find the problems any worse when I use newspaper or cardboard than just using a good layer of mulch. The cardboard/newspaper will decompose, but will have seriously smothered a lot of unwanted plants in the garden in the meantime.

I bet chickens are a darn good control for both them and the slugs.

In small beds, I lay down a board. The earwigs gather underneath it during the day, and I then pick it up and knock them off into a bucket of soapy water. I've had a fair amount of success bringing the population down to a tolerable level in the past, but only in small beds. I just live with them and complain in the bigger beds.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 28 May 09 - 11:04 AM

The Big Sky series of echinacea are yummy, MMario. My favorite is "Harvest Moon."

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 28 May 09 - 10:06 AM

I should have taken photos of the tree peonies last week - the rains have not done them much good.

I'm thinking about getting some coneflowers - especially the newer colours....

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 28 May 09 - 06:34 AM

sawdust mulch & other sheet mulching techniques

From that site (not updated, but full of useful tips) this caught my eyes, Kat:
"Sawdust, toads, frogs and birds protect from slugs, snails, wood lice and earwigs."

I have found that to be true for our gardens here. The compost we use is horse manure and pine shavings, composted yet with the sawdust and shavings still somewhat present. I'm now using free mixed-wood shavings from a nearby boat building school for the paths, and I love it! When we first started working the ground here there were so many slugs they would be all over our shoe tops as we walked around in the grass. I still find them from time to time, but so few even our lettuce is usually untouched. The kind of mulch we use, the hand picking, and the frogs, salamanders, toads, birds and our bantams have dramatically reduced slug, snail, and earwig populations.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 28 May 09 - 05:36 AM

Kat- Sorry, I intended to respond to your cardboard question. I use newspaper as a weed barrior, covered with compost for mulch. I do not find any particular increase in earwigs, etc. as long as I also make sure there is good air circulation within the garden.

Cardboard can been used in a similar way. In our case, the voles love to make their runways under cardboard so we don't use it. Voles are responsible for a great deal of plant damage in this part of Maine.

When I have used woodchips as mulch I have seen an increase in slugs, snails, and earwigs. A lot depends upon the local soil, moisture, and so on. Have you contacted the Cooperative Extension in your area? They should have sound advice for you.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 May 09 - 02:19 AM

Kat - get a hedgehog. Best ever at removing snails, slugs and little bugs.. trouble is, they do for worms too...

Surrounding seedlings/tender plants with sand or small gravel helps, snails don't like it and it won't harm your pets. Planting in those 'snailproof' containers (large overhanging lip around the top) is pointless, the little buggers in my garden would give Spiderman a run for his money.

Did my annual planting of lobelia last night. Have added purple verbena and orange snapdragons this year, so it's going to be an interesting display if they survive. I like planting things at night, when you can't quite see where you've put stuff... makes a nice surprise 3 weeks later when you get a flower where you least expected it.

LTS