BS: Gardening 2010

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 May 10 - 12:33 AM

Bobert, snow just lies there, it doesn't suck . . .



okay, minds out of the gutter

I took the spray bottle with a mix of fertilizer and some BT and sprayed the plants that are most likely to be bothered by hornworms, caterpillars, and other worm creatures. I've picked a big honker hornworm up out of the garden already and today pulled a couple of brightly colored caterpillars out of the parsley, and a fuzzy one out of the strawberries. Last week on the Dirt Doctor's radio program he mentioned something I haven't been aware of--the BT breaks down quickly in sunlight, so it is best to put it out in the evening hours or at night. Gives it more time to be there when the critters are chomping.

Geez. This whole post could be X rated if you weren't all just good gardeners out there tilling and sowing seeds . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 20 May 10 - 10:15 PM

Snow sucks!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 20 May 10 - 09:41 PM

Snow in the weather forecast.

I planted seeds, not bedding plants, so they will make it through the storm.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 20 May 10 - 08:23 PM

Sins,

Cut away any dead braches and get some of that foam in a can and squirt it into any bad spots... Also feed it and airate the soil unerneath it... Also, take about a cup or two of dish detergent and several cans of beer... Mix all up in several gallons of water and water around the trunk out as far as the branches go...

Do not call a tree guy... They all are the same... They want to cut it down and give you a big bill...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bettynh
Date: 20 May 10 - 11:46 AM

Shiso, aka perilla

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 10 - 11:37 AM

Good news on growing herbs for that restaurant! They'll earn brownie points from their locovore customers.

Mary, visit the Dirt Doctor's instructions called the "Sick Tree Treatment". It really does work.

Found a deceased immature tarantula on the walk near my side door this morning. I'm sure it wasn't there when I headed out. I was working in the garden over the weekend, digging garlic. I wonder if this little guy was injured and died or was somehow impacted by my digging? That's one reason I hate to disturb the soil once the garden is laid out and planted. So many beneficial critters live in there, if left alone.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Cuilionn
Date: 20 May 10 - 10:24 AM

Sinsull-- maybe you need to wassail your tree and sing it back to health? I wassail all my fruit trees when I plant them, then once or twice a year, particularly in extreme cold snaps or droughts. Don't know if it helps, but it makes ME feel better!

I sing the old "apple tree wassail" song, modifying it to fit the species.

Can't hurt...

On a totally different note (LA!), a lady from a local Japanese restaurant asked us if we could grow "Shiso" for them. They used to buy it from somebody at the farmers' market, but that vendor stopped growing it. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try, so I ordered a packet of Ao Shiso seeds from the Kitazawa Seed Co., an Asian-heirloom seed supplier in California. Of course, Maine ain't California--or Japan. Has anyone else grown this tasty Japanese herb, and do you have any tips on cultivation?

I figured we could start some in our hoop house and some in a raised bed outside, then just hang back and see how it does in the different conditions, but I'd ideally like to have enough of it to harvest and sell. (I wonder how many shiso leaves a Japanese restaurant goes through in a week?)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: SINSULL
Date: 20 May 10 - 10:06 AM

My tree is weeping. I looked for a madonna but found none. The trunk branches off into two trunks. At the separation point, water (I stuck my finger in it and it is water) is running out even though the weather is dry. Tree Man coming to take a look on Saturday. Am I about to lose my friend? She lost a huge branch two years ago in a Nor'easter. Took out half of a smaller tree and a fence.
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: MMario
Date: 19 May 10 - 12:53 PM

*phew*   my computer just saved me from an impluse buy of about 200 daffie bulbs.

but it wouldn't let me "go to checkout" because I had cookies blocked for that site....

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 10 - 12:41 AM

Janie, did you see my post here? I scanned the front and back of the nematode instructions for you to take a look at. You can enlarge and read there onscreen, or you can download, etc.

Bobert, I don't think nematodes would hurt, even if you think everything is in balance. These are beneficial nematodes, and they might head off some problem that is looming.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 18 May 10 - 10:45 PM

Alice, I hope that high country is worth it:>)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 18 May 10 - 09:09 PM

Well, we wanted rain, and we got rain - 4 inches of it. And probably more over the next few days. Hope the seeds and new plants don't rot, as it is also cool.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 18 May 10 - 07:34 PM

The beans and potatoes won't mind but the zukes ain't gonna like the snow one bit...

Hopefully, yer past yer last snow...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 18 May 10 - 06:23 PM

It is close enough to June that I took a chance and planted some things today - potatoes, bush peas and beans, and zucchini. Hopefully the snow will be only brief if it happens again.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 18 May 10 - 06:01 PM

Yeah, Cuilionn, I've given serious thought to fencing in my berries like a room... I've seen a few articlesw and pics on that concept and think it's the bee's knees...

Lotta late bloomin' Rhoddies in bloom here, too...

Planted one of the 4 Japanese Maples today and sited two more...

Cold and damp here but supposed to be sunny and in the 80's Thursday and Friday... 'Bout time... We need to get the season goin'...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: MMario
Date: 18 May 10 - 04:25 PM

Mainstream Rhodies (Roseum Elegans, I think) starting to bloom, funny the one on the right of the door is always a week or so before the one to the left of the door, and they are all of 10 feet apart, same variety, same age.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: gnu
Date: 18 May 10 - 03:12 PM

Apple tree blossums! Hummingbirds soon!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 May 10 - 12:36 AM

I had to put up bird feeders to distract the bird theives from my strawberries. They were really going to town in them for a while.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Cuilionn
Date: 17 May 10 - 09:21 PM

Bobert: regarding the anti-bird netting: I'm trying the UK approach this year: instead of fencing birds/critters OUT, you use the netting to create a "fruit cage" to keep your plants IN. It's essentially a little fence/net room, big enough to stand up in, with stakes or some kind of frame on which the netting can be draped and then secured to form a roof and walls. Pollinators and harvest-folk can get in, but not wild hungry berry-munchers.

I plant to do this for my raspberry & blueberry patches. It's probably cost-prohibitive for a big spread, but our farmstead is quite small and our berry patches are only two years old, so it'll be easy to enclose them.

--Cuilionn, who has more trouble with berry-stealing chickens than any wild feathered theives!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 17 May 10 - 03:44 PM

Sounds like a wonderful dream, Animaterra... But if ya' stay at it you'll get there...

We finally made some sense of our vegetable garden yesterday... Replanted some spinich where nuthin' came up during the dry spell (dought) but now that we have rain things will probably do better...

Bought some ***bad*** straw for mulching 'cause we mulched the three rows of potatos and both woke up this morning with itchy welts allover our arms, necks and tummmies... Straw must have had a colony of "straw (hay) mites" in it... Grrrrrrrrr... Never had 'um but they show nuff can make life miserable fir a couple days...

But nice gentle rain fallin'... Hooray...

As fir nematodes??? Other then these mites I think we have a purdy good balance of good and bad bugs and I'm afarid to introduce anything that might throw that balance off...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: MMario
Date: 17 May 10 - 03:05 PM

I have to decide where to plant my witch-hazel, or as one article I was reading called it:

"American winterbloom"

(and then proceeded to go into a long rant about common names being derogatory to ethnic groups - ignoring the fact that "Witch"hazel was originally wych-hazel - which means "hazel used for dowsing"

Anyway, can''t decide whether I want to put it on the north side of the southern leg of the driveway or the north side of the northern leg of the driveway; both sites face east with pretty dense shade to the west.

I think the south section - the north has bittersweet and forsythia; there really isn't anything at the south entrance.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 10 - 02:21 PM

Brought in some garlic last night. I don't have a huge bed of it, but I'm getting more every year--it's a local wild (escaped?) garlic, a hard-neck variety. I have a couple of good spots going now. Some of it was starting to show the brown tips on the foliage, so I brought it in. The rest can grow a bit longer. Some of them were quite large. Mmmmmm! They're hanging in bunches drying in the laundry room.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 10 - 12:42 AM

Janie, Bobert, whoever else has ant problem, and other critters (grubs, for instance) here are the instructions that came with the two packs of nematodes. Meant to put out in two applications a week apart (optimum - I went a lot longer because I was waiting for rain. It's easier than watering down before applying nematodes).

front page

back page

I think if you download each, you should be abel to read them fine.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: GUEST,mmario
Date: 16 May 10 - 01:02 PM

Yesterday I managed to plant the hosta order (ordered 8, got 15; potted a couple of the extras).

planted a bunch of seedling azaleas and small rhodies. took three to a friend and potted up a couple more as house gifts for a trip in june.

planted the lilacs, the wegielias, and the spireas. Now just the honeyberries and a couple more azaleas; Two japanese ferns and A SOLOMAN'S SEAL to go.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 16 May 10 - 08:56 AM

Sounds very lovely, Animaterra.   Hope you will continue to share here as you work to bring your vision to fruition.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 16 May 10 - 08:47 AM

Hello! Here I am in the sunny Monadnock region. My house is (mostly) built and I am spending part of most every day creating a garden where once there was sheep pasture (100 years ago) and then unmanaged scrubby woodland. It was cleared last year, and abused with trucks and construction equipment all last year, and now I'm taking over and nurturing it like a mama with a newborn.

First I dug a lot of rich foresty soil and mixed it with manure, humus and peat moss.

I've put in 4 4x4 raised beds (my own adaptation of
square foot gardening) where I've planted lettuce sets, and seeds, spinach, pea, bean, beet and parsnip seeds, onion sets and seed potatoes. It's still too early for tomatoes and basil, but they're coming. I have an herb plot with thyme, tarragon, oregano and rosemary, (more herbs coming soon- especially my favorite, lavendar!) and have ground prepared for squash and melons.

I've dug a couple of plots for the perennials that have started pouring in- planted white and yellow flags, rosa rugosa and lilacs, have a spot for the forsythia, rhodies, sunflowers, nasturtiums, dahlias (which I've moved from garden to garden 4 times and they keep giving me glorious red blooms in August/Sept!). There are still piles of lumber where I want more lilac and 2 holly bushes in front of the house. We're building a porch and woodshed this summer, then I'll get going on those areas.

My long term goal is to create a feeling of sanctuary as you wind down our long driveway, inspired from my long-time friends at Seven Arrows Farm in Seekonk, Mass. First you turn off the road on to our wooded driveway lined with beech, maple, hemlock, birch and pine. Come up a rise and begin to see daffs, lupins, lilies or whatever's in season. Round the bend is the garden on the left, the house straight ahead. Buddhas, wind chimes, other sculptures, cairns, or special rocks are hidden in the trees. You'll know you're safe when you get here. That's my dream, and it's starting now.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 16 May 10 - 08:45 AM

Yea! Rain - lots of it overnight.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 15 May 10 - 06:26 PM

Dang, my yard is a bear to mow - but it is done. 'Maters and herbs in. zuccini and cukes seeded. I might couldashoulda planted closer and planted more, at least in the two sections that are 12" deep, but just couldn't bring myself to do it, in spite of what the square foot gardening recommendations are.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 15 May 10 - 09:59 AM

Sounds like a great way to spend a May Saturday!


Just back from Lowes and Southern States with a couple of trellises, basil, cilantro, chive and italian parsley plants, and cuke and zuke seeds. Already moved the oregano. The Mexican mint marigold did not come back and I couldn't find any more of it. Think I'll leave the rosemary where it is for now. Last year I planted were supposed to be one each of onion chives and garlic chives. They were mislabeled. The onion chives were actually garlic chives. I'm not sure what the one labeled garlic chives is, but is getting ready to bloom, so expect to soon find out. I'm wondering if it might be society garlic, although it did not die back over the winter, and I would have expected society garlic to have done so in zone 7.

Will have to go back out to buy stakes or rebar to better brace the trellises.

We did get a little shower overnight - just enough to raise the humidity. Will wait until sundown to start transplanting stuff, and to mow.

Rats. That means I have to go do housework now.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 15 May 10 - 08:13 AM

I didn't do it!!!

BTW, folks, I've got a question???

It's about time for black raspberries to start coming in and the crows know it... They have been hangin' out waitin' to do their crow thing on the berries and we've tried a few things that didn't work out too well...

First, that small light weight netting isn't the answer... The plant grows thru it and then the stuff is hopelessly captured by the netting... I hate that nettin'!!! Second the crow go under it and peck away...

I've also used pie pans hung above the patch...

Any other ideas???

I'm going back to Wes Ginny today to play a large private party (200 people) and am takin' some 3 gallon pots and shovel and going back to some propert that we just sold but have permission to scavenge from before it is cleared for a new house... I know there are several white pines which would love to be outta those woods so maybe I'll save a few of them... Lots of stuff on a several lots I sold a few years ago that I know will one day be bulldozed so I'll check them out, too... Think it's gonna be fun...

I know that playin' will be fun... Takin' the entire arsenal... Drums, Lowebow, Back Porch slab geetar and a couple resonators... Gonna be a ggod plant day and a good music day, as well...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 14 May 10 - 08:29 PM

And don't ya' just hate it when your eyeballs don't line up, and you open an adjacent political thread instead of this one?

I've got whiplash. Who shall I sue?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 14 May 10 - 08:09 PM

Went to three nurseries today in or around Richmond... The first two??? Same old, same old... Then we stopped at Acre Acres in Montpelier, Va... Ya'll wouldn't belive this place... They have over a 100 Japaneses Maples hybrids and one price fits all... $32 fir a 3 gallon (3-6 ft plants)... We bought 4!!!

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 14 May 10 - 07:51 PM

Stilly,

More, please, about ants and nematodes. Although fire ants have been reported in the county for several years, I have yet to encounter them. I do, however, have huge anthills in the lawn and garden beds. Once I determined they were not fire ants, my approach was to ignore them, thinking that anything that loosened and aerated this heavy red clay was a positive. However, the nests are so extensive they create air pockets around the roots of plants and grass., and the large heaps of the anthills smother the grass.

Re: trellising the tomatoes. If the plants stay healthy, I am reasonably certain the cherry tomatoes will be attractive on a trellis. Not sure about the big guys. One very real glitch that I don't think I can overcome - the long raised bed is oriented north-south, parallel to the road, in the only space that gets close to 6 hours of sun when the trees are leafed out. Most sun is morning sun. the beds are shaded for most of the afternoon, then get another 1 to 1 1/2 hours of sun late in the afternoon. Because the total sun exposure is marginal for veggies, I can not allow the tomatoes to shade the rest of the plants from that last bit of afternoon sun. so the trellis will have to be oriented east-west. A bit of an aesthetic problem. As I type, I am finally accepting that I can either grow several tomato plants, and perhaps a little basil in the long bed, or I can limit myself to two tomatoes, and also plant a couple of summer squash, cukes and a few bush beans. The raised beds provide adequate space for a nice little spring and fall salad garden - but not for a diverse summer veggie ,garden.

Grrrrr.   I hate it when Mr. Reality strolls in and smacks me in the face.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 May 10 - 07:03 PM

That sounds interesting! This year I had some small (about 5') of those hooks you can get for small lamps or plants in the garden (got them at a garage sale for $2 ea) and I put a couple of tomato cages side by side, with each doing kind of a garden Venn diagram with the post through the overlap. I'm hoping this will provide a stronger and larger cage to keep some more of my plants up off the ground.

I fertilized with corn gluten meal and dried molasses. And now that the rain has stopped, I'm going to apply my next batch of beneficial nematodes to knock out some of the fire ants and such.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 14 May 10 - 06:16 PM

It is only the middle of May, and what little grass I have is turning brown. Some small chance of thunderstorms over the weekend.

Let's hope.



Bobert, the neem oil appears to have mastered the lacebugs for now. No new yellowing of leaves in 3 weeks now.

Gonna head out to Southern States first thing in the a.m. to get bonemeal and Fertrelle Tomato Tone. Then to Lowe's for some inexpensive but reasonably attractive garden trellises. Gonna try to dress up the beds by trellising the tomatoes as if they were ornamentals.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 May 10 - 02:10 PM

I mowed and sprayed and trimmed today, and now it's raining. Let's hope this rain is a boost to the garden. I use the soaker hose and sprinkler, but it's never as good as a healthy rainfall.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 14 May 10 - 08:32 AM

Well, we had one of P-Vine's azalea chapter people down yesterday for what I hope is the last tour for awhile...

As for "Liquid Fence", MMario??? We have tried every concievable product and rememdy out there for deer, including hair, coyote pee, soap shavings, malorganite, and the other store bought priducts and found that this is the only product that works... You can buy it in concentrate (approx. $120 a gallon) or allready mixed... Yes, it is stinky but the stink goes away after a day or two leaving yer plants protected for up to 3 months or 4 inches of rain, whichever comes first...

We are going to play farm escapees today and visit a couple nurseries in and around Richmond... There is one great one called "The Great Big Greenhouse" which has alot of the newer stuff on the market...

Kinda lookin' for a "picea abies virgata" but always have my eyes open for unusual conifers to mix into the gardens...

Oh yeah, the reason we can get away is that we have had a glorius 7/10's of rain over the last 3 days... Horray...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 13 May 10 - 06:08 PM

Two words, MMario: Liquid Fence...

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: MMario
Date: 13 May 10 - 11:58 AM

The deer and other critters manage to eat almost as fast as we plant.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 10 - 11:52 AM

Damn, Leo, with all of the stuff you've been planting all of these years, that property must look like a park!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: MMario
Date: 13 May 10 - 10:12 AM

Janie - yes - went hog wild.

two of my orders which Had NOT notified me of shipping were on the porch last night - so I did indeed dig holes. I got Three rhodies, two spirea, a wegilia and some iris planted. dug more holes. unpacked a bunch of other stuff and sorted them out for more planting tonight.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 12 May 10 - 09:05 PM

Janie, and others,

Well, my pudder has been down since last Sunday and today was tour an' pudder fix it men at the same time...

The tour went great... We are beat!!! The North Carolina people were blown away... Or, at least, that is what they said... Maybe it was the fine supper that the P-Vine had waitin' for them... One thing is fir sure, the P-Vine has definately cracked the upper ranks of the the North Carolina Azalea and Rhodo society folks...

I'm tired... Good to have a computer back but I think I'll just catch up with the "other threads" another time...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 12 May 10 - 02:08 PM

I think I am actually going to be home for the next couple of weeks and will get to garden some. I'm going to try "Mortagelifter" tomatoes, another heirloom that I can't think of right now, Sweet 100's and Sungold grape tomatoes. Will have to put up a small fence around the raised beds to keep the rabbits out - and am starting to have deer show up on occasion. Will also plant a couple of cukes, a summer squash of some kind, and may toss in some bush beans, though I won't have space for more than a mess or two of beans.

The basil did so well in pots last year that I'm tempted to grow it in pots again. However, by mid-summer the pots need watered daily and I'm not sure I'll be home enough to keep that up.

Lifted some single apricot mums from Mom & Dad's garden a few weeks ago. Just to get them in the ground, I had to plant them in one of raised beds - which I am reserving for veggies and herbs. Gonna move my perennial herbs into that bed, and replant the mums where the herbs were - hopefully this weekend.

Leo - you dun gone hog wild with the catalogs this year. Good on ya!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 May 10 - 12:23 PM

Building up the compost in the back with more of the next door neighbor's leaves. And I tossed in the old dirt from various pots that have nothing growing in them now. I could build that dirt up again, but I might as well let it contribute to the compost bulk next year or two. I'll bring in new potting soil for the pots. I have lots of things I'd like to start from seed. I need more pots, though, quite a few broke last winter.

My next door neighbor put in a bunch of good looking hardwood mulch, bought for a reasonable price nearby, but I have a camper shell on my truck and they insist on loading with the loader, so I'm sure they won't let me pick up any without removing the top, and I'm not going to. My across the street neighbor has a pickup with not top, maybe we can work out a deal and make a trip for both of us.

It's early days yet in the garden, and new seeds haven't sprouted yet, but I have tomato voluteers coming up everywhere. If I left them alone I'd have a huge sea of tomatoes. I'll let some grow and transplant them when they're bigger. I've been thinking about putting in a plant at the curb for neighbors to pick from when they're out on their evening walks. Maybe this is the year to do that.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: MMario
Date: 12 May 10 - 10:05 AM

My hosta order has shipped ; so tonight I dig holes....

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: SINSULL
Date: 12 May 10 - 09:26 AM

Thanks, Janie. Wish me luck.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: MMario
Date: 12 May 10 - 09:23 AM

Gramma was convinced that tulips had to be lifted every year. There was plenty of room to plant the dahlias around them; but Gramma insisted tulips MUST be dug. That's the way her mother did it and nothing would convince her that they could stay in the ground.

We had a neighbor who did the same thing; even though the tulips in our yard bloomed as well or better without being lifted.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 12 May 10 - 01:24 AM

Leo, It would be good if I proofread before I posted on occasion. I might even be coherent then.

What I meant to say/ask was....did your grandmother dig up the cold hardy tulips to make room for the non-cold hardy dahlias? Otherwise, I don't understand why she would dig up the tulips in late spring to replant in fall.   Although we are not supposed to be able to overwinter dahlias here, with a bit of mulch they generally are fine left in the ground year round in my little corner of the southern part of heaven. I understand they are not cold hardy in your neck of the woods, but the tulips would be.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 May 10 - 11:55 PM

My northern gardening experience is so long ago that it's childhood memories, mostly. We loved nasturtiums, a silly little flower, but they kept blooming as long as you picked them, they were great colors, and they loved the northern climate. I have never been able to grow them down here.

Flowers in the carnation family. Pinks. I haven't seen pinks in years, but they were a summer favorite at home. Geraniums did okay, and I'm sure some of the new ones would take the weather better than down here, even though they're supposed to work down here.

Ground cover like St. Johns Wart and Vinca did well. We had lots of lovely orchids (but those aren't for flower beds commingled with tulips. They're for great little shaded nooks that aren't disturbed.)

I'll root around in my brain (that mostly comes up with ferns and moss) and see if I remember any more.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 11 May 10 - 11:15 PM

Grandma do that to have space, Leo? Otherwise, I think understand why she would lift the tulips.

Sins,

Dig up the tulips when the foliage is starting to fade so you still know where they are. Dig deep and wide around the clumps to try to avoid actually slicing into them. Once out of the ground, remove the soil from around the bulbs. Clean up the bed, replant the tulips, being sure to get them deep enough, and add bone meal to the planting holes. Mark where you planted them with sticks or something so that you don't dig them up again by accident when adding other plants to the bed.

No suggestions about what to plant for spring and summer color. My southern garden experience doesn't translate very well to Maine - especially when it comes to flowers and bloom times. Heat tolerance and length of season vs your longer summer daylight hours make for significant differences.   maeve would be a good one to consult.