BS: Gardening, 2009

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: GUEST,Bobert escaping purgatory...
Date: 04 May 09 - 09:50 AM

Yeah, that is it... Not much flower but a real nice specimen plant... I saw one on the tour that was 6 feet tall and stunning!!!

Well, gotta pack the car 'cause as much fun as this has been home seems a lot more funner...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 04 May 09 - 07:10 AM

My gardener will transform my garden!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 04 May 09 - 07:04 AM

This one, Bobert? Also known as spider azalea

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 04 May 09 - 06:51 AM

Seigai, I believe. Sounds like a very nice azalea.

Janie, we have many garden photos, but our connection makes it difficult to post them. Our little farm is a work in progress and has many rough spots, but you hit it on the nail. We are aiming for a functional garden of Eden.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: GUEST,Bobert, one day to freedom
Date: 03 May 09 - 08:38 PM

Janie,

Try "siegai", "seigai"...

Lotta nice azaleas here... We sold about 25 of them at auction tonight after the farwell banquet... Also sold a (big) dwarf weeping acer (Japenese maple)... I should have bought it but seein' as I was the actioneer that wouldn't have looked right... Nice tree...

Well, I am sneaking out of a boring speech so better get my butt back inthere before the truent office come fir me...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 May 09 - 12:59 PM

So much rain overnight, more for today. Here's hoping my new garden doesn't rot in the ground.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 May 09 - 01:22 AM

Six hours later I finally turn on the computer after several heavy bands of storms have passed over. Another one is forming to the west and they say will be here by daybreak. Trouble with the way we get rain here, we get more than we need a few times a year, and then are parched much of the rest of the time.

We need to put photos up on the Google group (Mudcat Gardeners).

Janie, why don't you call Howard Garrett in the morning and describe the problem and ask for his opinion? I'm not sure if the national broadcast is all three hours, but you can stream online, look for the "listen live" button. Here is a link to that page at his site:

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/organic/garden/content/code/radio/

1-866-444-3478

Dial carefully--there is an X-rated business if you get the prefix wrong on this number.

I think you should call. He gets calls from all over the U.S. and borers are something that an arborist in Texas can discuss even if they're on the East Coast. The program plays from 8 to 11 Central Time and some rebroadcast stations only play the first two hours, if you hear it via broadcast. If you listen streaming online you would hear the entire program.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 02 May 09 - 07:21 PM

maeve, do you have photos up on flickr or elsewhere of your place? Sounds like a lovely, functional, garden of eden.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 02 May 09 - 06:52 PM

Yesterday we brought home our coop trees; one each Galaxy and Northstar cherries, a Redhaven peach and a stunning little crabapple called Liset. We potted them up right away to keep them happy until we get them in the ground.

I cut the long green-grey willow weavers this morning, then sorted and graded them for size before tying them into 6 bundles of 20 each, with most 6' long. I kept a few pieces to start some more plants.

In between I potted up bleeding heart and violets that bloom in a beetroot color, then potted 6 hanging baskets with Seascape strawberries, and finally potted a couple of Regale lilies.

We were given the wonderful gift of Flicker nestboxes, and hope to hang them tomorrow.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 02 May 09 - 06:38 PM

Our 30-40% doesn't look likely to materialize, Probably happening here and there around us. There is still plenty of moisture in the top four inches from the last good rains, but we are still teetering on the edge of drought, and instead of a bunch of showers in April, we had one weekend of soaking rain.    So I'd like to see some more - get the water tables built up good.

That oak with the borers has more holes, and sawdust all over one side of the base and on the ground. As soon as I can afford it I have got to get an arborist out here. Don't think the tree can be saved, but would like to have some idea if I can safely let it stand while I save some money to have it taken down.

Then, I wonder if taking it down will drive the borers out and onto other trees. Do you know, Maggie?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 May 09 - 06:20 PM

Change of plans--the 30 and 40 percent rain chances we've had all week ganged up today, so we have about 160% today meaning several really nasty storms are taking their turns rolling over the top of us. Ironic, then, that today I would be out shopping for hoses and soaker hoses. :-/

I found a lovely canna that I'm going to use to start a new patch. The ones I have a (pardon the pun) "garden variety red" and this is a super-charged shot of orange red. Last one apparently, couldn't find a price, so the clerk obligingly found the least expensive dwarf red canna and put that SKU on the pot. :)

Whoa--thunder galore. Time to turn off the ocmputer.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 02 May 09 - 05:44 PM

Not coming up with anything, Bobert, other than Dr. Sergei with Azalea Orthopedics.

Heck, we'll give it our name!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: GUEST,Bobert, 3 garden tours later
Date: 02 May 09 - 05:38 PM

Janie,

Google Images: Sergie??? Sergia??? Sergai??? Pronounced "sir-guy"....

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 02 May 09 - 03:23 PM

My lettuce and spinach are starting to bolt as the result of last weekend's hot temps (I think.)


300.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 02 May 09 - 03:02 PM

Victory is mine! I found garlic chives this morning at the local co-op. Just popped 'em in the ground. Now my tiny little herb garden is full.

Grow on, children. Grow on.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 02 May 09 - 08:34 AM

Everything is coming along well here in Erica's, my wife's garden . An old friend is coming out to do a photo shoot on the pottery this week ( also possible that she may bring a tv crew as well ) but I think she will have a pic or two of the garden . To bad, I think the tulips will be just passing. I have flat rocks and a wonderful cut bit of round live rock ( from cutting a hole for our electric line pole) that I use as a pedestal center piece for a larger pot   all the rest for placing the smaller pots around the big one . So I will as Martha if she wants to do a shoot on placing those bigger pots and planting them . The timing for that is perfect . Our garden is a showplace for the pots we sell so a little of our advertising budget can go into it . Wish me luck on making the property look ok for a national magazine and tv visit . AHHHHH . Yours Guy

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: GUEST,Bobert, Day 3 of Purgatory
Date: 02 May 09 - 07:46 AM

Well, it's not all that bad... Today is the first of two days of garden tours... The premiere garden is that of Don Hyatt... His gardens are renouned... If you Google up Don Hyatt there are pics on his website...

Fotunately for us the convention got over booked and so we are going to be driving our own car as opposed to being on the bus... That gives us more freedom and less cahnces of being introduced to flu bugs...

Janie, I still haven't gotten the name of the azalea I'm going to grow for you but am in hot pursuit...

Well, gotta go...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 May 09 - 04:37 PM

Get some BT and carefully apply it to the bush. You don't want to harm future butterflies, just the critters on this bush. If you have a black light you might creep out at night to see if you can find the culprits. They sometimes fluoresce under black light.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 May 09 - 03:41 PM

I just watered my garden... the lettuces are doing well in one part but have been scratched up in the back bit... the rocket is going like the proverbial and so is the lemon balm. The mint is making its presence known and the wallflower is still in bloom. The pyrocantha is budding like mad, all ready to explode into blossom.

Some little bastard cattlepiddler has eaten my rose bush. Every single leaf has been nibbled to a nubbin and there are hardly any buds left. The ivy behind is untouched as is the larger and less delicate rose to the right of this bush... bloody cattlepiddlers.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 May 09 - 03:07 PM

I enjoyed that program also, Don.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 01 May 09 - 01:43 PM

Just meant - here you are reproducing with the plant, and you don't know ....

Never Mind - I am sure you'll do right by the shrub.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: GUEST
Date: 01 May 09 - 01:39 PM

Now don't be like that, MMario... I got the plant and I'll by-golly have a name fir it before messing with it... Ah-hem, my mamma raised me up right when it comes to this kinda stuff...

Sorry to have missed Diane Rheme's show... She is a sweetie...

Now back to the fun...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Donuel
Date: 01 May 09 - 10:33 AM

yesterday the 30th of April, Diane Reems had a perfectly wonderful show on gardening. Look for it on the npr website.

The author of the gardening history book was great.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 01 May 09 - 08:57 AM

tsk tsk, bobert! A true gentlemen would never take a cutting prior to discovering the name.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: GUEST
Date: 01 May 09 - 08:31 AM

Good advice, Janie...

Raining here today but 'sposed to be in the 70's...

The plant sale is in the covered parking deck of the hotel... We were abgle to secure 80 trillium which will go quickly... I only have one yellow at home so I hope to glam one of them... But we have the white and the more common maroon, as well...

Some lady from Tennessee sent 100 native deciduous azaleas grown from seed... They are about 18" tall and only $10 so I'm gonna get one of them as well... Then there is a table of dwarf iris which are all white blloms 'cept one has a sport with some purple in with the white so we'll try to hide that one as well...

As for shady stuff... Like maeve, we have lots of the pulmanaria... Great woodsy plant that spreads nicely... We also have patches of blood root which is abot to give out in terms of the bloom... The black kohosh is coming up all over the woods...

As for today, the P-Vine has a 2 hour board (bored) meeting at 2:00 so I'm gonne get away and find me a geetar shop to check out... I knopw of one down in Falls Church but that's a haul from here (45 minutes) but if I can't find nuthin' closer I may have to do that...

BTW, Janie, I gotta an azalea that I'll grow you a cutting vfrom this year that will knock yer socks off... I'm gonna find out it's name today...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 09:43 PM

Now Beaubear, just pick up the phone, call room service, and drown your sorrows....

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 09:42 PM

Wow, maeve - sounds breathtaking!

If I were near, I'd certainly come looking for plants.

It isn't easy to find interesting cultivars of aquilegia around here. The garden centers and nurseries mostly sell newer, compact, very cultivated appearing varieties. They are pretty, but I like the big, tall, graceful, leggy columbines.   Granny's Bonnet is indeed a great common name for them. A fine, old-fashion name for for a fine old-fashioned flower.

I hope to eventually develop natural woodland edge beds under the trees here. I picture native columbine canadensis, and perhaps some the native western species scattered here and there. It will take some time to build up the soil, which I intend to do by piling leaves in place in fall for a few years, and covering them to rot. I don't want to develop a garden that will require, once established, routine supplemental watering, so that is going to limit either what I plant, or how big an area I try this with. I have to keep reminding myself that although there are lots of trees here, this is not a little bottom along a creek. I get all excited and think goldenseal, black cohosh, blue cohosh, ginseng, bloodroot, toothwort, mayapple, white snakeroot, wood anemone, celandine poppies, galax, native vibirnums, etc.

Then I think about self-will run riot and look at the redbuds and native dogwoods struggling to survive in the absence of irrigation.

I had some bloodroot planted in a medicinal display garden at the old house, maeve. The flowers are so lovely. Do you make a tincture of it?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 08:52 PM

I cut the glowing yellow basket willows today, bundled them by size, and tucked them into an airy shed to dry. The elegant, long, and limber Italian willow weavers will have to wait for another day.

We've emptied pots of winter-killed perennials, and have a few hundred in the sun, beginning their spring growth spurt in readiness for spring sales.

In bloom now:

Many kinds of daffodils- large, small, and tiny, and all combinations of yellow, orange, cream, peach, and white. I'll still have Quail daffs blooming in June, maybe July. Tahiti will be followed by South Seas daylily.

Bloodroot- a few hundred spreading in several patches via seed and root cuttings.

Hepatica- violet, pink, and perhaps white.

Pulmonaria (lungwort)- in the common pink/blue, cobalt blue, white, and deep coral.

Violets - in pink. red-violet, deep blue, purple, white with red-violet centers, white with dark plum centers, with pale blue, yellow, tiny white, and big Canada violets soon to follow.

Primulas- all sorts from cowslips to mahogany/yellow to magenta, and not forgetting various forced primroses from garden centers that are hale and hearty after several years in the ground.

Star magnolia, with a carpet of hyacinths, violets, scilla, and such underneath.

The pears, apples, plums, cherries, and single peach trees are nearly ready to burst forth in bloom along with shadbush, red elder, and black elder. Several viburnum , azalea, rhododendron, and mountain laurel shrubs will join in, except the very young or winter-stressed individuals.

Liz- I always liked the nickname "Granny's Bonnet" for aquilegia.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: GUEST,Bobert in Purgatory...
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 08:05 PM

Well, the national azalea convention is finally here and I'm stuck in a fancy hotel in NoVa...

Lotta nice plants (other than azalaes) in the plant sale which begins at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon... The P-Vine has her eye on a couple...

I'm just wishing I were back home but, hey...

... a man has gotta do what a man's is ordered, ahhhhhhhh, strike that, what a man has to do...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 11:17 AM

I need to get some Iris. My B-i-l has this thing against Bearded Iris - though he likes Siberian iris. I prefer the Bearded. But I need more anyway....

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 10:18 AM

Lots of colors of salvia coming out in the yard, still quite a few iris blooming, and the daylillies are starting to open. The datura has been going for a few weeks now, and I'm pulling up its seedlings daily. I only need so much of that each year.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 06:48 AM

The ginger lilies are starting to emerge! I was beginning to worry a little bit that I had lost them.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 29 Apr 09 - 07:30 PM

Liz, did you mean Aquilegia? If so, we call them Columbines here. Never heard them called Granny's Bonnet's, but that is an apt description.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 Apr 09 - 04:33 PM

Got home today to find bluebells, aquilleigia (granny bonnets), wallflower and violets in bloom in the garden, along with the pittisporum tree which is scenting up a storm - perfume out of all proportion to its bloom!

The lettuces are still there, some a little less there than I would like, but otherwise it all looks fine.

One more little stone at the 'cemetery' end now... I shall have to find something suitable to put there one day, for my dear departed kitties.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Apr 09 - 04:22 PM

More rain is forecast, with sprinkles and drizzle today so far. The tomatoes are loving it, several of the plants have doubled in size in the last week. It may still be too wet on the weekend to finish digging this bed, but I have time. It's a long growing season--but I do want to finish some of the really heavy work before it gets too hot.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 09 - 11:42 PM

You Betcha!

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

Ah, Maggie.

No matter what else it brings our way, when we can look out on a garden, don't we know that life is good?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 09 - 09:51 PM

My brain is fuzzy--something is in bloom or in evidence (mold? mildew?) and my allergies are real miserable right now. Proof-reading is one of the first skills to go, especially when you're dyslexic already.

I have a smallish pan of green beans cooking. The fresh beans came from the grocery, but I had a spare big green onion from the yard that I cut up and dropped in for flavor. It smells wonderful. As I prepared the beans to cook I stood looking out the kitchen window at that side garden I started last year. I realized it was so different this year because there is a lot of stuff around the edge that came through the winter and I'm just filling in the middle. Next year the new bed, on the other side of the driveway, might have a similar collection of cold-weather plants finishing up as I get ready to plant for spring.

This looks okay now, but who knows what typos I'll see next time back to this thread. :-/

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 28 Apr 09 - 09:44 PM

In my impoverished old age (and I don't think I'll much mind it,) I can see myself buying an acre of old tobbacco or cornfield out in the county, putting an old Airstream on it and a latrine, getting the neighboring farmer to plow most of it up, and planting seeds and tough perennials known to naturalize haphazardly everywhere. I'd let it grow up into a jungle of flowers, watch out for black snakes that I don't scare them and copperheads that they don't do me in, and then get interested in identifying all the insects and different species of mice that eventually come to inhabit the place. The wildflower, bird, tree and insect fieldguides will live permanently on the corner of the sofa by the door.

One hot August day I'll be out rooting around in the midst of it, hair a stringy gray and blond mess. I'll be wearing an old canvas hat, an oversized and garden stained v-neck tee-shirt, a pair of red nylon gym shorts with the rear seam ripped out, cheap Walmart earthshoe clogs and pink bobbysocks. I'll be happy as a two year-old playing in a mudpuddle, thinking that when I die and go to heaven, I hope it is just like this. I'll drop dead out in the middle of all that glorious life. They'll know from the smile on my face that I had found heaven on earth, whether it exists anywhere else or not.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 28 Apr 09 - 09:18 PM

Had to drop some things off for my son this evening. The roses are starting to bloom at the old place. Several different irises that I had divided and moved two years ago are blooming for the first time since the move. They look glorious. My favorites were these great, tall white ones. I saw dutch iris blooming as well, though obscured from view by the weeds that have grown up. Where he didn't mow it down, the dame's rocket is blooming and the poppies are starting to uncurl their buds. The gardens themselves are well-overgrown or mown over, but there are many, many of those lovely and tough plants coming up, budding, growing.

It i very bittersweet to go by there now.

Creation and I have definitely left our marks. 50 years from now there is going to be some future generation of something that I planted and nurtured there spring up to surprise whoever is in that place then. Perhaps the children and grandchildren of old neighbors will tell about remembering the big Victorian cottage garden and the lady that they often saw out in it, dirt and sweat running down her face.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 28 Apr 09 - 07:46 PM

I was wondering about that;>)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 09 - 05:46 PM

That should have said "I missed the early season."

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 08:55 PM

I missed a few seasons here already. The beans I planted are pretty good in heat, but the snow peas wouldn't thrive. Lettuce--well, I dunno. I'm going to try some. I haven't put in all of my eggplant, and I have things I'll be planting in stages. A month ago I put in some carrots and they're up a couple of inches now. Time for another couple of small rows.

Have you read Under the Tuscan Sun? The movie is cute, but the book, it is way better. And after reading it you want to go wallow in the garden. With a glass of wine and a ripe pear. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 08:49 PM

Can you mulch them good, Leo, and throw plastic over the beds if a hard frost is predicted?

I'm really enjoying the salad greens I planted in the pots. With just me one week, and just me and my son the other week, I am going to get a lot more mileage out of them than I thought I might. 2 advantages I had not thought of, are not having to bend so low to harvest baby greens, and NO SLUGS!

I agree Maggie, that growing yer own is worth the pleasure of doing it, the increased freshness and flavorfulness, even if it does cost more.   Even produce bought at the local farmer's market is never quite as good as what you eat 15 minutes out of the garden. And around here, we have some serious organic truck farmers who harvet throughout the week. Still a lot fresher than stuff trucked in from Florida, California or Mexico - but not as good as literally just picked.

I've got one pot of lettuce in bright shade and am wondering if I might be able to harvest lettuce a bit longer than is typical here, since they are protected somewhat from the heat.

I also wonder what it would be like to live where you can grow lettuce all season. Here, by the time the cukes and tomatoes are ready to start harvesting, lettuce and salad greens season is way past.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 05:22 PM

We've had some lovely weather but not much. Still trying to snow off and on, so no bedding plants yet. A few marigold and wildflower seeds are in but I still haven't had a chance to KILL the damn Queen Annes Lace/wild carrot that is RAMPANT! I HATE that stuff. I hate 'campanula' too! Arrrrggggghhhhh!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 10:26 AM

For a change, spring is rather advanced here; and thanks to two days in the high 80's we have colour showing on the pjm rhodie and on the magnolias. Forsythia in full bloom - the best we've had in years.

The daffies are at their peak; and the primroses are going nutso. Several have bloom heads that have c ompletly covered their leaves.

Had good overwintering on the tree peonies that my B-i-l ordered last year; remarkable considering that they were long delayed in being planted....(because I bunged up my leg last spring )

The temptation to hit the nurseries for bedding plants is high...but knowing how often we have had frosts right up until Memorial Day....

Do I risk it?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 07:50 AM

Hot as a three dollar pistol here, as well...

Gonna be 90 today...

The landscape job I am doing in for the Town of Luray... They are renovation their old train depot to the tune of $2M... Yes, that's 2 million bucks... The P-Vine and I bid the job and won (haha) it... 237 plants... Most of them are going to be half and hour installs but the "bones" are major plantings... The largest are 3 creape myrtls that were field grown and dug with a 36 inch hydrolic spade and they are somewhat planted... Well, lets say they are in the holes that were dug with a backhoe and at the correct heights and the holes half filled with combination of Pine Fines, clay and top soil... I used up an entire pickup truck worth of top soil on them allready and need another to finish them...

As fir the mushrooms??? Yeah, I think I know who got 'um and he's a buddy of mine so I ain't gonna say nuthin' 'cause maybe last year I got to the patch before him... The problm right now is that the trees have all leafed out and it's harder to distiguish poplar forests and that's where they live...

As fir gardening??? Got our palms outta the barn where they winter under grow lights and the mandovia out where it winters in the mud room... We are going to Maryland tomorrow to buy azaleas for the garden center... This guy, Mike White, propagates alot of really nice cultivars...

Haven't looed in the veg garden since we panted it... Reckon the spinich and lettuce will be up this week...

Gotta go...

Oh yeah, cats??? Gonna get me a Super Soaker today...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Apr 09 - 11:42 PM

I have some great garlic here, but it is kind of all over the place. I once had a vegetable garden in the back near where the clothes line is now. I stopped gardening there when the dogs arrived, but every year I have garlic pop up on both ends of the old bed, and I simply mow around it until it's time for harvest. There is also some back in a couple of locations where I had compost piles. Must have been on the edges and not composted. A neighbor of mine has a boxwood hedge that for some reason has a healthy crop of garlic under it. I think she planted some years ago and just because she put in a hedge later, that's no reason for the garlic to quit!

I dug up my first batch of it wild in the woods across the road, that's what went in the various beds around the yard. Everyone around here has the same type, I think, that they found wild. Maybe it was originally someone's crop, but we all acquired it in the woods. :)

Eggplant, more tomatoes, green bell peppers, bush beans, basil, and a few annual flowers went in today. As I get farther along in my new bed I'll put down a soaker hose, loops and zigzags to catch everything, and once it is in place I'll put some onions and carrots along on either side of the hose in bare areas. The new stuff will take a while to get established, but I had oregano, onions, and chard winter beautifully, so I've been eating out of this kitchen door garden steadily since I planted it last spring. Oh--there is also a huge rosemary shrub. Wonderful seasoning! The new bed is on the other side of the driveway. Both are away from the dog traffic.

I still can't quantify for anyone who might ask if it is cheaper to plant my own garden. I suspect not. But the pleasure factor from eating out of the yard just goes way beyond price, doesn't it?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 26 Apr 09 - 11:02 PM

Record breaking high temps here this week end. Hope it's a fluke.

Planted two tomatoes in containers out by the road. A Sweet-100 cherry and some patio tomato - I forget what it was. As the trees have leafed out, I'm increasingly doubtful they will have much of a chance - but we shall see. Also popped a few basil plants in the herb garden, planted a ghost fern and a japanese painted fern, and got a bunch of stuff mulched with chopped leaves I had piled up in a corner last fall. I've spread the rest of the leaves out over roughly an area where I eventually want to put a flowerbed and unrolled a length of chicken wire over it so the cats don't use it as a litter box. I'll start dumping coffee grounds out there also. If the earthworms will do their thing and I am patient, I'll end up with a rich, loamy bed with minimal effort.

That digging of new beds is hard work, Maggie! I'm finding the soil quite variable here. In places there is 6-8 inches of good top soil over red clay.   In others, nothing but red clay that will take a lot of work and amending. I think building up is going to be the only viable thing to do here. I need to figure out a place to put wire bins for leaves next fall - loard knows I will have plenty.

Also put up a humming bird feeder. I'm wondering how long before a hummer might discover it. I saw one hummer a week ago checking out a red azalea, but don't have anything planted right now to draw them in. I bet when the red poppies bloom they will come check things out again.

Haven't been able to find garlic chives, and my son keeps forgetting to dig up some from the old place to bring to me. Maybe some one at the farmer's market will have them. I wanted to check on Saturday, but we slept in.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Apr 09 - 02:02 PM

I'm still hand-digging a new bed, slowly but surely expanding it down the side of the yard. I'm laying down thick layers of newspaper and mulch on top to give me an edge to it for now. And as I dig I've have a few bright ideas. But before I go too far I need to make a map of this bed--I think I almost weeded out some tiny basil (from seeds) this morning in the upper end I dug and planted a few weeks ago.

The only mushroom I have nearby is this really bizarre looking thing that comes up near the house every year and looks like of like a trimmed down pineapple top, but it's whitish. I leave it alone, it dies off, and goes away 'til next year.

SRS