BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Apr 11 - 11:04 AM

We need to find another equivalent for Mudcat Gardeners since the Google Groups went away. Leo posted some lovely photos of his yard there.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 11:28 PM

In summer, Leo, I wish I lived where you do. Come our early springs and long, mild falls, I'm glad I don't.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: MMario
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 09:30 AM

yesterday I stopped and picked up a bow saw - removed the limb on the magnolia that I've wanted to take off for three years; may take off another as it is rubbing the roof.

planted the easter lily, two pots of hyacinths and an azalea. My winter hardy banana arrived - the truckloads of mulch won't arrive for at least a week ....so I guess I will try to pick up enough bags to do the front gardens at least....they shouldn't take more then six or eight bags...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 11 - 10:56 PM

Between work and dog walking I have a couple of hours for chores and gardening. I have a friend I meet at 7 (usually) that I need to do for social and exercise purposes. This week I've used some of that time to dismantle a little stone wall (a kind of wing wall, there is one on each side on the front, a very-1970s look) and use the stones in my garden and tote the crappy mortar to the back of the yard to dump to fill it in. I'll spread topsoil over it once I finish and seed it with something.

Tomatoes still look awful, though they're not dead. I'll do some foliar feeding again tomorrow and that should give them the boost they need to get started. A couple are already beginning to turn around.

Veggie seedlings are tiny, not doing much. Starting from seed can be more satisfactory, but the results are a crap shoot. :-/

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: MMario
Date: 28 Apr 11 - 04:11 PM

It didn't rain last night (well - not until almost dark) which meant I actually managed to get some garden work done. This has been a record April for rain in the area....though we had a couple of dry days early in the month when I couldn't stand up because my back was out....

So I got the itoh peony planted, and the gobi berry, and the honeyberry, and the red daffodils I bought last fall (they most likely won't bloom, but they are **IN** for the future). Have a couple pots of things to plug into the garden that were my sisters Easter flowers (Early easter because she left on a cruise good firday)

Just got a shipment with some witch hazel, mountain laurels and what is suppossed to be a JULY flowering azalea....

So have to get them planted.

Hopefully the mulch will arrive this weekend. My b-i-l hired two of the gardens raked and cleaned while my back was out - so if I can get the mulch down they won't need re-weeding.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 12:43 AM

I finished the digging for my keyhole garden, but now I'm working on the building (which has stopped for a few days until things dry out. Lots of spring rains last week.)

The garden is coming along, potato plants getting larger. Tomatoes in, eggplant, some peppers. More to follow soon.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 12:03 AM

Bobert and P-vine,

HELP!!!!

I have a number of pink azaleas that are of small stature, small leaves and small, densely packed blooms. They all appear to be of the same variety - slightly earlier than the rest of the azaleas I inherited here. Also a number of nearly red azaleas. Most have large blooms, though one as smaller blooms and a different growth habit from the rest of the reds.

The blooms on all of the pinks and the one red with small blooms have turned brown. So far, at least, the large bloomed reds and the azaleas you folks gave me are unaffected. All of them also bloom a tad later.

In Hillsborough, I had one white azalea that developed a fungal disease that also hit the camelia) and had to take it out. What has happened with the azaleas here looks different, and also has not happened the 2 preceeding springs I have been here. The plants are covered in brown, dead flowers. Not mushy. Still firmly attached to the shrub. If we had experienced an unexpected, late, hard frost, that is what I would attribute it to. But that didn't happen. The brown flowers are crisp, and well-attached to the plant.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 11:53 PM

Mowing on Sunday is as good a way as any to connect with the natural world, and the out-of-doors is as much "church" as I ever encounter as far as my beliefs. So I don't worry about running the mower on Sunday. The people who would worry about it should be in their churches. ;-)

I have some small seedlings in that I started in the house but never got very big. I've put them in and if they make it, fine. I should have waited and just started them from seed in the garden. I bought a few extras today, a couple of bell peppers, a beefsteak tomato, an eggplant. I need to add more peppers, chard, okra, etc. and some will be by seed.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 03:32 PM

Going thru papers last weekend I stumbled across a $75 gift certificate for Niche Gardens that my friends at work gave me when I resigned last June.

I need to find a place to put it where I won't forget I have it. I now remember that I set it aside until I actually get some new garden beds put in - and who knows when that will happen.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 03:20 PM

Snow peas are blooming!

Need to thin the kale seriously.

Do any of the rest of you have trouble making yourself pull out perfectly lovely-looking seedlings, even knowing it is necessary?

Hope the sun comes out and it dries off a bit by early evening. I try to respect the feelings of my neighbors, but absolutely must get the grass cut this weekend - Although I try to avoid mowing on Sundays, on occasion it is necessary. But Easter Sunday?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 13 Apr 11 - 11:32 PM

Things have exploded here in the time I've been gone. All the azaleas are in full bloom, the dogwoods are just past their peak. The yard is carpeted in Quakers Ladies. The Solomon's Seal are blooming, tulips are nearly finished, irises are in bud. The ferns are all up and many of the fronds are just fully opened.

Tiny flower buds on the mop head hydrangeas and the smooth hydrangeas, the ones I cut back late, are sending up lots of new shoots - got a bit of a slug problem with them but not bad enough to worry about. A friend gave me start on an oak leaf hydrangea late last summer. I let it get too dry. Thought I had lost it. While the existing stems are dead, a new shoot has emerged from the ground.

Tree pollen everywhere. The car is coated. The porch and furnishings are coated. My sinuses and bronchial tubes are coated. Great green clouds of assorted tree pollen burst out of the tree tops with every strong puff of wind. The white pines sometimes look like smoke is pouring out of them when the wind hits.   Zyrtec pooped out on me and have switched to Allegra. Benadryl works best, but turns me into a dope. Some years the allergy thing doesn't rise much above the level of annoyance. This year is kicking me in the behind.

The neighbor brought me seedlings for yellow squash and a Cherokee Purple tomato this evening. My tiny little raised bed is full of spring stuff just now reaching harvest size. I figure if I go ahead and plant the summer crops, the spring stuff will be harvested or will have bolted by the time the summer stuff needs more room and less competition.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 08:48 PM

Sniff...

This is the time of the year that we are generally cleaning up and planting the veggie garden but with the move comin'??? We're having to sit this one out...

Did plant tomato, pepper and eggplant seed which will get moved into containers and moved with us so we'll at least have a few buddies...

Nice thing about where we are going is a cattle farm a mile away and we're told we'll be able to get manure from that farmer...

Meanwhile, blue bells in bloom, blood root, linten rose, daffies, pulminaria and I'll be diggin' stuff up as it comes up...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: pdq
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 08:34 PM

For the date of 21 MAR 2011, NOAA says...

                NATIONAL TEMPERATURE EXTREMES

                HIGH MON...95 AT PECOS TX

                LOW MON...5 AT PRESQUE ISLE ME

Quite a spread there. It was a high of 46 degrees F in the sagebrush of northern Nevada. Cold and ugly.

Folks must be able to start a garden somewhere in the US, but not here.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 07:11 PM

Boy, wouldn't a Mudcat Garden Tour be a wonderful thing!

Hope you are documenting your work, bbcw, and will post pics as the work unfolds.

Oh Me of Little Faith! maeve's bloodroot lives!

Tulips don't tend to be reliably perennial here. The lady of the house before me had planted them here and there at some point in the past, and in the last few days they have colored up and some are in full bloom.

I never met her. She was in a nursing home and the house was sold by her son, her power of attorney. (I hadn't thought about it before, but the first house, the one in Hillsborough, was sold under the same conditions.) The neighbors tell me she was a gardener, and there is evidence that was the case, though she must not have been able to do much for quite some time, and I am also realizing how light must have changed over time as trees got bigger and shaded more area, based on what she planted that is still growing, but in areas much too shady now.

I'm sorry I never met her.

Thank you for the tulips, Mrs. Harris.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 08:36 AM

Spent yesterday moving most of a pile of stone. It was in the middle of where I want a lawn and I've moved it about 50 feet and made it into a wall which seems te most efficient way of storing it for future use. It might even stay as the wall. I'm guessing that it was about 15 to 20 tons so Ishould have had a fair bit of exercise!

I need to go over all the area that we are converting from field to lawn extracting proruding rocks and cutting off tusocks so that I can use the mover. After a couple of seasons it should be OK to buy a ride-on mower and use that. I shall have ruined the present one by then knowing my luck.

The idea is to put in shrubs and trees first to get some basic shape to the garden and to work our way down in plant size as we progress. I am very much a beginner gardener in that I never paid much attention to what my parent did with theirs, even though my late mother was a National Assosiation of Flower Arrangers Judge and could rattle of the proper names of everything.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: maire-aine
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 03:21 AM

Garden cleanup has been put on hold for a while. Snow & freezing rain have returned, and it will be cold thru the weekend. My rosemary did not make it thru the winter, but the rest of the herbs seem to be doing well-- thyme is thriving and the chives are up about 2 inches. I was thinking about raking up the leaves around the heaths & heathers, but that will have to wait a week or so. My broccoli seedlings are doing well under the grow-light. Last chance for frost isn't until mid-May, so they'll stay inside until then.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 07:14 PM

...and what to her wondering eyes should appear...but a patch of crested iris, compliments of maeve!

Last night there was nothing. Tonight, a little 4 inch patch of dirt has tiny little iris blades poking 3/8th inch above the surface! For some reason I thought they would be really early, like reticulated iris. Now that I think about it, I realize that on camping trips to the North Carolina mountains, they are usually in bloom about Memorial Day along old logging trails.

Thanks maeve!   Seeing those little pale green points made my old heart go pitterpatter.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 10:15 PM

Keep finding solace in the garden, Janie. It's good place to work and think.

I mulched leaves this weekend - ground them up on the front lawn, and I'll spread them around some more soon because I see still a bit of a windrow of the fragments from the last few passes of the mower.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 06:34 PM

Lots of stuff really popped out while I was gone over the weekend, especially trees. A couple of the azaleas are coloring up.

I cut the smooth hydrangea back just now, per the suggestion of some one, (Bobert? maeve?) Probably should have done that a bit earlier as the leaf buds have greened up and some buds higher on the stems were starting to open.

maeve's pulmunaria is blooming. The solomon seal and my one miniature hosta have broken ground. The lettuce keeps germinating, a little bit at a time. I'm going to sow some more in a pot in another week. Have sown another little patch of mesclun mix.

The yard needs mowed to mulch all those last leaves the oaks hang onto until stripped by the March winds. That is not a job can be done on weekday evenings until my son is out of school. Traveling every weekend now, and think I have decided to just not worry about the lawn. or the house while we are so involved with taking care of Daddy. With the change to daylight savings, I have a little time to putter around when I get home on Sundays. That is soothing to me, and so I will very much target my garden activities to those in which I take the most pleasure.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 11:43 PM

I refueled and mowed the rest of the back yard. I don't always do the entire 1/2 acre in one day, but because it got so very cold a few weeks ago, the weeds are a little behind in their growth. I was able to get through the front and back without stalling out the mower once!

My potatoes and beans are coming along; the rest will be going in in stages. I have more digging to do in a new section of the garden, and I'll be bringing in some more topsoil to elevate those dug-out areas into raised beds.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Maryrrf
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 03:37 PM

OK the garden has been composted and fertilized, soil has been carefully worked with a cultivator, and I've got my herbs (basil, cilantro, dill and parsley) planted. I've got mint, too, but far too much of it. It has taken over a large spot. Also put in some Swiss Chard and - my favorite: lettuce! Romaine, Simpson, two kinds of Mesclun and I can't wait to dig into fresh salads again! The rest of the garden will go in on or around May 1st - zucchini, yellow squash, okra, eggplant, cucumbers and tomatoes. I love this time of year!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 03:22 PM

Today was the first official, full-fledged mow of the front yard. I also did about 1/2 of the back, but I'll have to finish later, I have guest coming for a late lunch. It's a workout with all of those tall wet weeds in the turf!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 18 Mar 11 - 01:06 PM

Oh, happiness is 47F, sunshine, and seeing the two primrose peeking out from under the ice in the 3X10 front "yard" - where the sun shines most all day, until the tree in the sidewalk gets leaves. I planted them after the tree leafed out last year, thinking this was a shade garden. Then I planted some sedum - also starting to show!

Have to pick out bits of trash and broken bottles from time to time. The bus stop is so close people sometimes sit on our front stoop and TALK before we're ready to face the day, smoke and it comes through the mail slot - a project for about now! A new mail slot.

Anyway, now I am inspired to order the heritage tomato plants for the back garden - even if it is still under two feet of snow. I saw the top of the composter the other day - about 6 inches. The worm composter has been perking along. I see they are hard at work.   Go, worms, go!

Janie, You are a fund of info! Thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Mar 11 - 12:05 AM

A few weeks ago I started seeds in trays of 1" pots, and some of them are good sized (squash, zucchini, etc.) so I used a spoon to extract them from the flimsy tray and put each in it's own 4" pot to grow a little more before transplantation into the yard. I usually put this off too long and pay through the nose for bedding plants. I'll still buy my Super Fantastic tomatoes, I rarely ever see the seeds for those. But the rest - my squash, chard, beans, peppers, eggplant, they're all seeded here. Okra I even harvested from last year's wonderful plants (I'll plant those directly in the soil.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Mar 11 - 11:26 AM

Dug more beds for the garden, then accidentally flooded it this morning. Must buy a new timer for the water. Seems I have to buy a new one every year.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 08:03 PM

Mystery!

Along the back of my property line grows a thin and neglected tree/hedgerow.   Good bird habitat, and otherwise an eye-sore except for one or two very stalwart, untended and overgrown early flowering shrubs. They are also eye-sores most of the year, but startling lovely in early and mid-spring.    Other than to whack back seedlings, saplings and some privet to get them out of the way of the shed when we built it, I have ignored what I think of as my live brushpile. Strolled out just before dark to look at how strongly maeve's pulmonaria (sp?) was emerging, and noticed two, and only two, fat, pink flower buds on a little sapling. About 6 ft. tall and no more than 1/2 inch thick at the base. Tiny leaves sprouting all up and down it. My first guess is a cherry sapling of some sort, planted by bird droppings. I'll let you know when the buds open.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 07:24 PM

The spiraea prunifolia (aka Button or Popcorn spirea) have burst into bloom, and some of the flower buds on the flowering almond are starting to open. Sweetest surprise, when I went out to fill the bird feeders this evening, was to see a solitary clump of Quakers Ladies in bloom. They occur throughout my yard, and I will watch eagerly now to see them gradually create a low, pale blue mist of color across the lawn. The sepals on the dogwoods are just starting to open. I have one, squirrelly scrawny little redbud (I think, from looking at the base, the previous owner cut it down due to some kind of disease, and then let a couple of pollarded sprouts alone to regrow) It is feebly blooming. It had been in the shadow and the water zone of the big oak that died and was taken down late last summer. Nearby is an equally scrawny little dogwood. I have been tempted to take both of them out ever since I moved in. Think I'll watch and see how they do with a little more sun and with less competition for water this year before I decide.

We may still have a bit of a cold snap, or an unexpected hard freeze, but Spring has definitely arrived in this little piece of the southern part of heaven.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 15 Mar 11 - 12:22 AM

Oops. That last should read "1/2' inch ...."

Also want acknowledge the best planting depth for many plants varies according to climate zone.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 15 Mar 11 - 12:04 AM

Dorothy, Bearded Irises will not bloom, or will not bloom well if planted too deep anywhere, but whether or not the tops of rhizomes are best left exposed depends on both how well drained the soil is and the climate zone.   I think good drainage is the most important element regardless of climate zone. I had a variety of soil types, and both raised and unraised beds in my Hillsborough garden and experimented a good bit with Bearded Iris. The more friable the soil, the deeper they could be planted and do well, but regardless of soil type, they bloomed less well if planted with more than 1/2 inch soil over the tops of the rhizomes. In the less well drained beds (either because the beds were not raised, or because the soil was the native red clay, even though well-amended,) planting them more than 1/2 inch deep resulted in more rotted rhizomes, and in fewer or even no blooms, although in some places in the clay soil, the plants produced abundant leaves and the rhizomes mulitiplied well, where drainage was good but planting depth was below the 12 inch mark.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Mar 11 - 08:54 PM

I've cleared another raised portion of the garden this evening. Last year there were tomatoes on part of it and eggplant on part of it. I'll move those down a bed and put something else in there this year. I have a bed all set for lettuce and more beans. I have to arrange my irrigation before I plant so I can see where to put stuff. That will probably be tomorrow.

I'm going to use a sprinkler in one part of the garden, a soaker hose in another, and compare results. Last year's soaker hoses worked well when I had only a few plants in the area and the hose ran right past. But in places with close rows and stuff fairly close, the soaker would have to wrap around a lot to hit it all - not practical.

The roots from last year's plants were strong and spread way out - looking the way you want them to. When I first gardened I remember going back at the end of the season and finding the plants that hadn't thrived also had barely grown past the size of their original bedding plant container.

I'll be simultaneously gardening and sending good wishes P-Vine's way tomorrow. It's the least I can do!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 14 Mar 11 - 06:06 PM

I was told, emphatically and repeatedly, that iris do not bloom if the rhizomes are not exposed - as I repeatedly weeded and tended to about 200 feet of iris beds for an iris fanatic. They DID bloom.

The top few inches of my composter is can now be seen - on the sunny side only! Thankful for the worm composter which seems to be perking along.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Mar 11 - 06:31 PM

I made a good start on the yard. Mostly in the side where the veggie garden will grow. One of my rosemary shrubs was dead, this last winter finally took it out. It is the contents of this week's large Rubbermaid trash can down at the curb. Next week I might have another - I planted three rosemary plants way too close together, and they became this huge hedge. It's a popular hangout in winter for the songbirds who visit my feeders. As I prune this back I can see where my bay tree is going to go - there is a place near the kitchen window that will be perfect. It means I won't be able to see the garage door from there, but I hardly could anyway, I had to lean way over in the corner over the sink, so it isn't really the loss of a great vantage point.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Mar 11 - 03:31 PM

Uncovering strawberries today (they're starting to bloom) and running hoses to get water to all of the beds. I've also been digging weeds and will use the string trimmer then use my vinegar weed killer on a lot of the smaller thistle and mustard and Queen Anne's lace type of deep root weeds. I think it will take them out.

Lots of wasps hovering around the front of the house. I heard birds in that hole in the top of the rock wall on the house that I still haven't filled. I saw a cottontail running across the road yesterday.

Spring seems to be here!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 09:03 PM

Cats, you are a breeder of roses? Tell more!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 07:36 PM

Hi Auxiris,

And welcome to the garden thread, and perhaps the Mudcat Cafe!

Seems to me the old varieties (those ubiquitous tall, pale lavender iris, or those very early, shorter, deep, deep purple iris, for example,) will keep blooming, even in an untended field or yard, despite years of neglect. Newer varieties need more care and better soil to bloom well, though they will survive for years without bloom, or only occasional bloom if simply accidentally dropped off the side of the porch.

In these parts, iris borers are a big problem, especially when irises are planted en masse, and the dead blades allowed to lie on the ground.

There were irises here when I moved in two years ago, in the old neglected beds. They are still here, hanging on, but I haven't seen them bloom or increase.   I figure that unless or until I get some decent work done on the beds they are better off left undisturbed.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Cats
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 05:15 PM

It's my brothers 70th birthday soon and as he has been a nurseryman / garfener all his life thought we might name a rose for him. Has anyone ever done this and how successful was it? Have looked at websites but need to be sure

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 03:57 PM

Yeah, Iris are indestructable...

I've dug 'um up and thrown them in a pile and they just grow right there on top of the ground...

We just got back from spending 3 hours at the new (hopefully) new house and mad some discoveries... I thought there was a creek on the property and sho nuff there is and it's a nice one that looks as if it runs all year around as opposed to being a run off creek... And the water looked clean... I already see where Mr. Kabota and I are going to put a road thru and we'll be able to plant lots of azaleas back there...

Still have to figure out how to grow food but it's looking as if we're noy going to grow much food this summer... Bummer...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 11:17 AM

Bearded iris are as tough as cactus around here and take almost no end of abuse. They don't like particularly rich soil, or as our visitor comments, compost, but I have seen them sprout in the compost. ;-)

The mower must come out this weekend, there is no more ignoring the tall weeds. I find as I walk around the woods here with the dogs I catch the whiff of some of our blooming shrubs, and my quince is leafing out now.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: GUEST,Auxiris
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 07:28 AM

Hi everyone;

Just a quick word about bearded irises. . . while it is true that they are tough, it is worth it to try and move them at the right time of year, when they're dormant. July/August is the ideal time, though warmer climates can get away with replanting in late September/early October. A general rule of thumb is, the colder the climate, the earlier one should replant bearded irises. Also, it isn't a great idea to plant them using compost unless it's very well decompose because this can cause the rhizome to rot.

cheers,

Aux

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 06:41 AM

Well, I love coming south this time a year... The cherry, pear, sweet bay magnolia, etc. are in bloom here in Charlotte...

We're off to the "hopefully" new house this morning and, yea, the sun is supposed to return... That will be nice just to see where exactly it is in relationship to everything... This is going to be a lot like gardening back in Wes Ginny...

Unfortunately, we're already way behind for this summer... Everyone around here is tilled up and ready to get it on???

Glad to hear that the azaleas are looking good, Janie... I've got couple more with your name on them... I did get one nice plant out of that koromo shikibu that came out as a double... We'll have to wait until next spring to see if it duplicates....

Well, gotta get crackin'...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Mar 11 - 11:57 PM

I've been watching for seeds to sprout in the garden. I'm going to hover over my beans until they're too big for the snails to demolish.

I hate this spring daylight savings time nonsense. I always feel like it is a switch between "real time" and daylight savings. I'd prefer they not switch (and in Arizona they don't, so they in effect move from one time zone to another by not moving. And then I have to remember what time it really is there.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 10 Mar 11 - 10:06 PM

The time changes this weekend?!!!!

Thanks, Maryanne. Don't know that I would have picked up that little tidbit otherwise.


We have had a couple of inches of rain over the past 48 hours and the plants are loving it. Everything has perked up and started growing. Was afraid we were going to get so much so fast that it would drown my little seedlings, but that did not turn out to be the case. Even with all the rain, the ground is moist but not muddy. It has been dry, dry, dry.

The snowpeas are emerging. More green onions are popping up. the kale and the spinach had good germination rates - still just codtyledon leaves, as it as been coolish during the day and often in the low 30's and upper 20's at night. A little more of the lettuce is up. If I get home before dark Sunday I will press more lettuce seed into the ground. I think the reason I got lousy germination with the lettuce is that after I broadcast the seed I took my hand and stirred the dirt a little instead of just pressing the seeds down, and too many of them got covered up.

I still have 1/2 flat of mixed yellow and purple violas purchased a month ago, intending to plant in strawberry pots. That probably isn't going to happen due to time constraints, but I think I'll take them up to Mom and Dad's this weekend, plant most of them in their garden, and put a couple of them in a small pot for Dad to enjoy indoors. I can plant them out in a week or so when they stop blooming from too little light.

The lavander-rimmed violas I planted in the hollow tree stump have really taken off. The Pulmonaria maeve sent late last summer is sending up lots of leaves. No sign of the bloodroot or the iris. I knew the bloodroot was iffy but am surprised the iris have not emerged. I had trouble finding time to keep the new plantings watered in, but thought the iris would make it.   There is still time. Keep your fingers crossed.

Bobert's azaleas are looking pretty darn good, as is the hellebore he gave me a few years ago. All the divisions of the stonecrop, even the tiny ones, are taking off.

The assorted daylilies are up 4-6 inches and the Single Apricot chrysanthemums are forming a dense spring ground cover. The crocus are about to bloom. Seeing lots of henbit, some purple deadnettle and wintercress blooming. I bet if I walked in woods or fields I would find dense mats of chickweed just right for salads.

Last weekend I finished cleaning up Mom and Dad's beds. Here in zone 7, peonies eyes are beginning to sprout. No sign of sprouts yet in Mom and Dad's zone 6 garden but the Stoke's Asters are sending up a lot of leaves and the day lilies are up nearly as far as here.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: maire-aine
Date: 10 Mar 11 - 07:54 PM

My broccoli seeds have started to sprout. I planted 4 at first, and I'll start a few more next week. We still have a few inches of snow on the ground, and big piles of it where I ran the snowblower. But we finally had rain instead of snow today. Don't forget to change your clocks this weekend.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 08:35 AM

Well, seein' as the P-Vine is having here mastectomy a week from tomorrow and we haven't gotten the bank to sign off on the "short sale" of the NC property which will more than likely come next week we are going to NC tomorrow and measure rooms and try to figure out where the veggie garden will have to go... To the rear of then house is old growth forest and that is on the westward side of the property so areas around the house won't get much sun in the afternoon... The east side is the pond... The only place that get's good sun that is on our property is fenced in by a neighbor and we are told that their is a "handshake agreement" that the neighbor uses that piece for his horses in exchange a piece the neighbor owns that our driveway is on...

That leaves only the area between the driveway and the pond that will get good sun but there are smaller trees (maybe flowering cherry) every 30 feet along the pond...

I've kinda tried to get the P-Vine to see that we might just have to till up several plots between those trees and rather than having one big veggie garden we may end up with 6 (or so) smaller plots (maybe 8 feet by 15-20 feet)... She isn't there yet but I think that she'll arrive at the same conclusion once reality sets in...

No matter, this year it looks like our veggie gardens will be containerized and movable...

I was kinda thinkin' of buying an old truck when we get down there... You know, something that isn't exactly road worthy that go cheap at farm auctions... Maybe a flatbed with side pockets and a 14 foot bed and filling the back with dirt and planting veggies in it and then moving it around to catch the best sun...

Maybe I shouldn't think too much... lol...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 08:03 AM

I spent most of Sunday digging away in a negelected area of the garden. Make that "even more neglected area", all of the garden has been neglected to some extent. Much of it was just a field and the rest had rubbish distributed in odd piles.

I can manage to dig for about 15 minutes at a time with 15 minute breaks without causing permanent discomfort. I have to build up my muscles as I am one of those people who has slipped a disk in the past and my vetebrae are not quite the shape that nature intended either, having additional growth on them. I can stand up straight OK, I just can't bend much.

Why is it that even in the most remote part, even when you think that you are breaking new ground on what used to be a field, there are pieces of broken Victorian crockery in the soil?

I have been clearing out the bottom of a shallow gully and removing dead wood from the blackberries growing there. Hopefully I can start to train them so that I can get at the fruit next autumn. The nettle roots were dreadfull to behold and the dock roots went down for yards!

I would like to create raised beds for the vegetables in the hope that I will be able to cope with them in later years. Planning ahead I hope. The trouble is when you haven't 100% decided where you want them, it's not easy to move them around!

I was hoping to do some more digging tomorrow, but having arranged the day off it now forecasts rain!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Cuilionn
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 06:52 AM

Reading Carol Deppe's book, "The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times." Anybody else familiar with this? Mum just went to a couple of her lectures at the Pacific Northwest Garden Show and sent me a copy of the book right away-- says she's learning more from reading it than she's learned in over 40 years of organic gardening!

Deppe proposes five crops that, in judicious combination, can ensure survival: corn, beans, potatoes, squash, and eggs. (I like her sense of humour with the inclusion of eggs as a crop.) She has previously written about the breeding of custom veggie varieties and she talks at length about the process of seeking out or breeding crops suited to particular climates and personal needs/tastes. (She's gluten-intolerant, so she has spent a fair bit of energy seeking out heirloom corn varieties to replace wheat in her own diet.

I'm only partway into the book, but already fascinated by her wide-ranging and well-researched writing. This looks like a book I'll be turning to frequently as I gradually convert my plots into permaculture plantings.

--Cuilionn

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 11:40 AM

It's so sad to hear about your dad, Janie...

You tell him that a fellow hillbilly is thinkin' of him and rootin' for those pansies to bloom for him...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 12:58 AM

Janie, a slow death is not what any of us would wish for. Getting through the end of life with grace is what we hope for, but it's difficult.

I never met the woman who lived two doors up from me and across the street. But apparently the year I moved in here, when I made inroads on the ugly hedge out front and put in a few slim wands that are now trees, she really enjoyed my State Fair zinnias. I planted them in a couple of spots in the yard and they got huge, some of them five or six feet tall, covered with brilliant mixed colors. She would sit in the garage that was on the side of her house and look down the street strait at my house. I was at the estate sale after her husband died, shortly after she died. The daughter was pleased to learn where I lived, and told me about how her mother admired those zinnias.

Never take for granted those flowers that bring you pleasure. They may bring true joy to others who really need it.

Take care, Janie.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 11:51 PM

Daddy is dying. I hope it warms enough in his zone 6 climate for his fall planted pansies to begin to put on a show I can wheel him out to see before he goes.

It is easy to take pansies for granted, they are such ordinary annuals. Study a bloom, though, and they have astounding depth and beauty. My dad is like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 11:22 PM

Will need to re-sow the lettuce if I am able and have the time.