How is your garden this year?

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 02:19 PM

I've never cut or tied my daffs, the rest of the garden just takes over and they vanish into the general greenness of it all. The grey/green leaves do make a nice foliage contrast too.

Another tip is to cut your daffs if picking for indoors - don't pick or the stems split and don't pull or you take the heart out of the bulb.

LTS

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 02:39 PM

Jacob was asking for "More Manure" and so, at the suggestion of JenEllen, I'd like to contribute this load of GENUINE MUDCAT MANURE to this thread and all you gardeners out there. There's plenty to go around.

Spaw

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 02:50 PM

Alice...re wintering your waterlilly plant. How do you go about it? I was told that you should cut the branches down to the pot, and leave in the pond as long as top of the pot is below freeze level. True? Also, do you keep fish in your pond?

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Morticia
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 03:12 PM

any minute now Charlie Dimmock ( or as Terry Wogan puts it the Dimmock twins) is going to arrive :)

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 03:20 PM

Ground Force!!!

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 04:33 PM

As long as it isn't Alan TITchmarsh, we'll be OK.....

Mind you, I could do with a nice water feature....

LTS

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 04:40 PM

Larry, a corn farmer, bumps into his neighbour, Donald a wheat farmer in the general store and they fall to talking...
"How grows the corn Larry", Donald asks...
"Oh fine, strong, tall, but ya know... there's a small problem... Late at night the local kids pull up and park beside the corn field... They sneak in and leave a mess of beer bottles, used rubbers, cigarette butts and it's a right pain to clean up after them...."
"But enough of my problems.. How's your wheat?"
"F@cked flat", says Donald...

[~`

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 04:42 PM

I had that problem too, but with cats and lavender....

LTS

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Alice
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 08:07 PM

LEJ, if your pond is deep enough and you have a hardy lily, you could probably leave it in over the winter. My pond is more like a big puddle... I have a pump and waterfall down some rocks, room for a few goldfish (who die regularly and have to be replaced from WalMart) and several plants. It's nice to hear the water, see all the birds gather, and its our dog's favorite drinking bowl. I use a large tub over the winter to save the plants. I put the pump into it, too, and it splashes water like a fountain. Snails keep the tub clean. It sits in my living room from fall until spring. There is a great pond forum that provides good advice. I used the forum alot when I first made my pond a couple of years ago. You can get to the forum from the links on the pond page at my website... Alice's pond page.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 08:19 PM

Anyone who has success with a pond has my greatest admiration. The tale of our attempt is too gruesome to tell.

Have any of you tried planting corn in a circular pattern? A few years ago when we actually had a tiny backyard we could use (pre-kids), Karen and I were into postage stamp gardening and one of the best books we had on the subject brought up planting corn in concentric rings. You get more plants ina smaller space and pollination is supposedly excellent. We had a major rabbit problem that year, so we never found out. Anyone else have any experience with this?

Spaw

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 08:22 PM

Well, for my first vegetable garden ever.....not bad. Got enough lettuce for a thousand salads, peas are startin' to show, tomatoes lookin' round and green, and some peppers.

'Course it's not really MY vegetable garden 'cause Duckboots did all the work. I looked at it everyday though. HER garden is flourishing big time!

Rick

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Duckboots
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 08:39 PM

Thanks to all the rain we've had this year, the garden has been a source of amazement. Everything seems to be double the size it was last year and has been blooming for twice as long. It's been just great!

I'd almost given up on the clematis, but it's taken off and is starting to cover the arch just as I'd hoped it would.

Thanks to advice Alice gave me last year, my traditional rose had a thousand blooms this year and was beautiful.

The wild strawberries are growing wild but not producing a lot of berries, does anyone have any suggestions?

We put in our first vegetable garden this year and an herb garden. It is so much fun to go out and pick the salad.

Duckboots

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Bearheart
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 11:13 PM

I second the Cloud Nine comment...

Well being in massage school ruined me for gardening this year, except for the herb garden (I had to do something to keep from going crazy!). I bought tomato plants, but the beavers came downstream and carried them off (did the same with my two hazel bushes, but they managed to send out new shoots and will probably survive). They also trampled my peppers. But somehow I'm still grateful to have them in the neighborhood. Guess it's the farmer's market and friends for produce this year. I did plant lettuce and cuumbers after I passed my state board exam (hurray!) in June, but mostly because I needed to plant SOMETHING.

Thanks for the tip on mulching the lavender with sand, I have plenty of that nearby...

Bearheart

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Llanfair
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 04:10 AM

Duckboots- Strawberries are like nasturtiums, it doesn't do to feed them too well. I made the mistake of manuring the strawberry patch one year and got masses of leafy growth and no strawberries. If that's what's happened, don't worry, you should get a good crop next year, when all the "goodies" have gone! Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 08:37 AM

Bearheart, welcome to the Mudcat and congratultions on your success with the state boards...wonderful profession you have chosen.

Beavers, huh? In SE Ohio? Wow, must be pretty neat. It has been so dry in Wyoming the past couple of years, the beavers literally left from some parts of the mountain. Haven't seen any in ages. Sounds as though you live in a nice patch. Glad you've joined us.

kat

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Grab
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 08:51 AM

In theory, slug traps (a jar half-full of beer buried up to its neck in the ground) might work, but some slugs round here don't seem to like beer. And some of the cats do...

There's a thought - anyone got any sure-fire anti-cat remedies? I'd like something a little less risky than the guy on an electronics board who's installed a low-current electric wire along the tops of his fences!

Liz - Cambridgeshire seems to be Buddleia Central, it looks like everyone's got one. Maybe all the builders have access to a garden centre that sells them cheap, or something. Anyway, my buddleia's just a standard purple one, but it's enormous. There's nothing until about head-height, just some twisty trunks, then the branches start. They've gone a good 8-10 feet in each direction now (and a fair ways up too) - I'm amazed the trunks are strong enough to support it! Come the winter, it's in for a really good haircut...

Grab.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: GUEST,Auxiris
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 09:57 AM

Hello again, Jeri. . . hope you'll not give up on growing irises entirely; they are really rewarding to cultivate. This is the ideal time to plant them, if you're game to try again. It might be that the ones that gave up the ghost simply didn't have enough sun or were located in a part of your garden that's too humid. If you have lots of clay in your garden soil, you might want to try and plant them on " hills " so they're well drained, as too much humidity tends to rot the rhizomes. Other than fertilising them twice a year (July/March, with an NPK of either 6-8-12, 7-5-12 or 4-6-10, for example strawberry fertiliser) and watering them every 10 –15 days during dry spells, they don't really require too much care. Some of the varieties that I have do seem to nearly disappear after they've bloomed, haven't a clue why. Good luck.

Cheers,

Aux

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: leprechaun
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 10:40 AM

Alison - I still think you should dig them up and separate them. Same with the tulips if you have any.

Our garden has corn just starting to tassel, incipient yellow zucchini, green beans climbing to the sky, explosions of cucumbers and tomatoes, and anaheim peppers will be ready to eat in a week. The habanero peppers and tomatillos won't be ready until the end of August. Chives, cilanto, sage and basil! Flowers and flowers and flowers only my wife knows the names of.

When the asparagus comes back I'll be thinking of Sorcha.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 11:44 AM

For non-electric, enviro-safe cat repellents, check out Drs. Foster and Smith Pet Supply Catalogue. They have several solutions and are a good company to deal with, at least in my experience.

I think my garden and my houseplants, some of which are quite rare, thrive on what I call "benign neglect." I don't do much except water when they droop, prune once every other year or so, and feed when I remember, but never the outside plants.

Anyway, my clump of iris keep coming back up, blooming beautifully, then standing tall and proud, adding a nice green backdrop to the other little bits which come along and bloom. I let them die back and let the leaves mulch in naturally. They are on the west side, in full, high altitude sun, with very poor, bentonite type soil and good drainage. They definitely get dry in between infrequent waterings.

This has turned out to be another wonderful garden thread. Thanks everyone...it's a lot of fun to read about your greenery!

Two of my very favourite spots for buying indoor and outdoor plants are Logees Greenhouse and Caprilands Herb Farm. Jeri, if I remmeber right, Logee's has some increible hybrid irises and they are in eastern Connecticut, as is Caprilands.

Aux, your irises sound lovely. DO you have any pictures of them on the web? OWuld love to see them.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: GUEST,Chancey Gardener
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 12:08 PM

In the fall, the garden will die. In the spring, the garden will flower again.

I like to watch.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Alice
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 12:12 PM

To keep this in the Mudcat realm, our own Mudcatter Guy Wolff is in the new issue of my favorite interior design and landscape magazine, House & Garden (August 2000). The cover is a great photo of pond lilies. Page 20, "bold and beautiful Guy Wolff's new terra-cotta pots. Connecticut potter Guy Wolff has teamed up with the Seibert & Rice catalog to produce a collection of five large outdoor planters. All the planters are handmade of frostproof Impruneta terra-cotta in the company's workshops in Italy. Different moments in garden history inspired each piece. The Hartford pot ($500) recalls 19th century New England; the Gertrude pot ($530) left [photo], is an homage to the great Jeykll. - Bonnie Bacon" [writer]

hurray for Guy.

Alice

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 12:38 PM

Hey, great thread by the way. The equivalent of neighbors gathering by the back fence to share some information.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 12:49 PM

Kewl, Alice! Way to go, Guy! Yeah, LeeJ, I like that image!

Sorry I didn't get the brackets closed on my first link. Here is the link to Caprilands which was mucked up in my previous posting.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 05:02 PM

Grab - it isn't just Cambs. London is covered in the things, all burgeoning with all forms of insect life except bloody butterflies!!

If you want to use it as a cut flower, cut it in the cool of the evening, and stick it in water immediately. It keeps its leaves then, but if isn't well watered, it will go brown. Great for those quick displays at church where there is a huge vase and no other flowers....!

Nasturtiums - plant 'em once, you'll never need plant 'em again!! I still have some going strong from the seeds shed 2 years ago! One is climbing up the back fence and the other is making a bid for the buddlea.

LTS

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: MMario
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 05:09 PM

I have never successfully grown nasturtiums. the buggers die after one or two blossems every time.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 05:16 PM

Keep them in rubbishy soil. I grew mine to cover a spoil heap of rubble, earth and cat poo. They covered it alright, that and the rest of the garden!! They still grow out of it now, regardless of me pulling the wretched things up.

The better the soil, the more leaves you get. The poorer the soil the more the plant thinks 'have to propagate to survive' and produces more flowers.

Personally I've always liked them, but they can get a bit overpowering.

If you want to get rid of them, grow them as a salad plant. They'll all sink without trace!

LTS