BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 09 Jun 12 - 12:08 AM

Have had good success with some produce in containers, and so-so success with tomatoes. I think using varieties that are adapted to containers is useful. Although patio varieties may not have the superdooper taste of heirlooms, any home grown tomato in season is gonna be hands above anything you buy in a store.

In my experience, consistent and even moisture without overwatering is important, as is staying right on top of fertilization requirements with balanced fertilizer customized for tomatoes. Too much or too little can be equally problematic within the contained environment of a pot. Attention to minerals, especially magnesium, is very important. This relates, in part to watering since some minerals required by tomatoes leach more readily than others. Tomatoes are such heavy feeders, and the balance of minerals and the effects of ph and watering on the balance gets real important when tomatoes are grown in containers.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 10:58 PM

Bobert, I think you need to gauge watering based on how the plants look. Hopefully the containers have drain holes?

I picked a half dozen large rosy tomatoes. I don't let them get completely red on the bush, makes them to easy for the squirrels and birds to spot. Lots of cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, waiting on some of the hot peppers and I've planted another round of squash that are still small but just beginning to flower. Most of the onions are in.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 09:16 PM

Has anyone ever grown produce in containers????

We have 18 tomato plants in 10 and 15 gallon black plastic containers... They look fine but...

...we're not sure as to how often to fertilize and water, etc...

Any advice appreciated...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: GUEST,Tinker
Date: 28 May 12 - 11:33 PM

Damn deer.

Now tall pholox has always grown nearly weed-like in my garden, more pink and white blossoms than I knew what to do with. But a mile or two away they had a controlled deer hunt last winter and for a couple of days each week eight young bucks sauntered down the mountain and hung out rather brazenly in my backyard.

I haven't actually seen them in months, but my garden has become the local smorgasboard! Pholox is clearly the Favorite, but lupine is clearly also a hit and the cone flower may never recover. They don't seem to be attracted peonies ( that would have been even less forgiveable)

But I spent the day on a 15 x 10x 10 foot patch of dog rose and I may have it all bagged to ground level with one more day. I've learnt not to try and compost the stuff, it and bittersweet are the two things I actually bag up and have taken away ( one perk of suburban living)

But the deer and I are definately not on good terms. since I've seen them sail over my neighbors 6 foot fence, I'm not sure there is much I can do....

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 May 12 - 08:35 PM

My tomato plants are sagging with the weight of fruit this spring. I will consider myself lucky if I get a crop of what has been pollinated so far, but it would be lovely to have a more "typical" summer and have production all season long. Last year was such a disaster that I've changed how I do a number of things. Hand watering, every couple of days for most stuff, more often for tender things just transplanted.

I dug out a large bed along the front of the house - not a vegetable bed, but the artist in me wants some order out there and a place to plant more flowers - they'll be among the perennial plants. I bought and used that pick adze - Janie, I'm never going back to the spade fork unless I have no space to take a swing. This was so much easier and faster - and with the chopping action you can get it deep enough to take out the bottom clumps of Bermuda roots, not just chop them off. This is like chopping wood, might be easier on your knees. I picked up the 2.5 pound tool - there is a five pounder, but I'll let the guys use that one. I also got the ash handle instead of the plastic. I've always liked wooden handles.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 28 May 12 - 08:15 PM

We see light at the end of the tunnel and it is not a train... We're within 15 - 20 plants installed of calling it a day...

Like Janie, we have one big open space that get lots of light... It kinda semi-circular and today we found an affordable "Thunderhead Pine" (the cultivator that spreads but doesn't get any taller than 4 feet... It will be the center of our pinus bed... It's small and will need a couple of years before finishing out the pinus garden but with some rocks and hard-scape I can make it look like okay until it gets some size...

Veggies are doing okay... I have found that growing tomatoes in 15 gallon plastic pots means watering just about every day... Didn't know that... Do now... We put in 20 asparagus plants in trench planting and all are up 2-3 feet... All in all, things are civilized...

Next: Hand digging footers under the the overhand to build out the P-Vine potting/propagation room... Should be cheap because I bought the windows and doors back in VA at this salvage joint and brought them down here... It's gonna be a slobber-knocker but what isn't???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 28 May 12 - 08:10 PM

I have a lovely and common terracota cherub that has grown even lovelier with age as she has donned moss and lichens. A squirrel knocked her off her pedestal this spring, resulting in an arm broken off. I am torn between the alternatives of letting the result stand to eventually grow moss over the wound of the severed arm and gluing the severed arm back on.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 28 May 12 - 07:46 PM

Mission accomplished.

Got both raised beds purged today. Planted the two tomatoes, the 4 sweet basil, and the unknown melon. Sectioned off a piece of the oregano and replanted it to another location, and otherwise completely cleared another small and deep raised bed that had been dominated by the oregano, something that was supposed to be chives but wasn't (gorgeous blooms, tho') and scads of self-sown Italian parsley. Need to go get a bag of compost to add to that bed. I bought a packet of zucchini seeds today that I might plant there - not sure of the sun. Whether I plant that little 3x3x1 this summer or not, I'm gonna plant kale there in the fall. Also severely whacked back a Rosemary shrub which should allow the single apricot mums to do a bit better this fall. Pegged a gorgeous and unidentified shrub that was already here in a few places for myself and also for Sis. A graceful, fountain shaped shrub prolific with white nodding blooms in late spring. Does well in shade to part shade. Still have not been able to key it out despite crawling the internet for 3 years.

The knee held up to pushing on the garden fork. Still not confident enough in its stability to risk pushing the mower around my large and full of holes yard where I have several times before the broken knee cap twisted ankles and feet well enough to land on crutches for a few days. My son is gone for 2 1/2 weeks. A kind neighbor with a riding mower came through today and mowed what was easily mowed with her riding mower. She also offered to do the challenging trim work along the banks and ditches with her push mower but I declined. I know how hard those parts are to do.

You might recall I had to have a large oak cut down after it died suddenly last summer. With it gone, there is enough sunlight hitting the opposite side of the road for the old-fashion orange day lilies to bloom. They are just visible from where I sit on my carport-cum-backporch. A delight to behold.

Coming to terms with the limitations of time, money, and energy. Have been able, this weekend, to spend time just sitting outside and watching. As limited as is the habitat here, it is pure joy to quietly sit and watch the plants, the birds, the small mammals, lizards and the wide variety of insects participate in the great web of life. Helps me find perspective and accept that no matter, I am also no more and no less than a participant in that great web.

Happy gardening.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 May 12 - 11:16 PM

I finally had the good sense to hire a neighbor to weed the biggest garden for me. I was away for a week and he watered but wouldn't accept any payment, so I hired him to come back and weed and my garden, and it is a transformed place. We didn't have much winter and the weeds were huge. He grew up on a farm in Mexico so has always enjoyed working in gardens. He arrived an hour earlier than I expected and with his pick/adze dispatched those weeds in a short time. I need to get one of those things - much more efficient than the spade fork. I suspect a childhood of weeding his father's farm also helps the efficiency.

He lives a block away but his yard doesn't have much clear space (too much shade) for a garden, so I told him if he wants to help here occasionally we can dig another bed to fill with his beloved peppers. :)

It's funny, people come by to say hello and look so pleased when they leave with an onion or a handful of herbs or a zucchini - the act of growing food seems magical to city dwellers, while not many generations ago people were growing a lot more of their own food. Growing food is hard work, but we don't know that with industrial farms, subsidized corporate growers that are sending grocery stores uniform sized and looking produce.

I'm not nearly so organized as Bobert, no heavy machinery or loads of chicken or cow manure to disk in. But I still manage to grow enough of some things to last me during the year, and give a lot away.

Okay. Off the soap box.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 21 May 12 - 10:38 PM

Yes, it is a process... i.e, fight...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 21 May 12 - 10:33 PM

Wrongly anticipated I would get the micromini oak forest chopped down from the raised bed this weekend. Somebody needs to write a book about gardening where acorns fall heavily enough to look like mulch.

But a pitchfork and a dry Memorial Day weekend should take care of it. The neighbors brought me a melon - they got their seeds confused and don't know if it is cantelope or honey dew. I bought two super sweet cherry tomato plants, one red and one a yellow, but unfortunately not my all time fav - sungold - plus 4 basil plants. If the weather, the knee, the back and the motivation cooperate, all will get planted this weekend. I don't think I have enough sun for the melon to do anything, but it will be an experiment. Have definitely concluded I don't have enough sun for biggetr tomatoes, but the cherry and grape varieties are so prolific that they still produce enough in 5 hours sun to be worthwhile.

Orange daylillies blooming as are hydrangeas. Azaleas not so bothered by lacebugs this year, but red spider mites are a bitch. Maybe will be able to deal with them this weekend also.

Am finally thinking creatively about garden plans for this place. Not yet thinking realistically. But hey - it's a process, yes?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 21 May 12 - 09:06 PM

Well, we are zeroing in on having all the moved plants planted... As for veggies??? Gonna be a crap shoot... We have some stuff that we think is going to do very well and some in the iffy category... Rabbit ate our zucchini... Everything else okay...

Put in 20 asparagus and they are happy and up....

Been a hard year...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: mouldy
Date: 08 May 12 - 10:47 AM

Apple tree #5 got put in this morning...

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: maire-aine
Date: 08 May 12 - 10:29 AM

Planted some carrot & some beet seeds on Sunday. Sunday night & Monday night we had nice, steady overnight rain. And the flower seeds (zinnias, snapdragons & cosmos) that I planted in the birm (btwn street & sidewalk) have started to sprout.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 07 May 12 - 08:55 PM

Home from yet another azalea society convention with my little 6 X 5 covered trailer full of plants... Normal... Lot's of deciduous azaleas plus a few evergreen one as we;ll as half a dozen miscellaneous plants... Our teenager garden helper, as per ususal didn't water enough white we were gone...

Worn out...

More tomorrow...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bettynh
Date: 07 May 12 - 02:45 PM

Sweet alyssum is the first thing that comes to my mind, Bonzo. I can only grow it next to my concrete path, presumably because it craves the lime. Look to the Mediterranean for other flowers - herbs like oregano or marjorum scramble over chalky cliffs in Italy and Greece.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 07 May 12 - 02:20 PM

Hello - can anyone please suggest some small summer flowers which can cope with about 3-4 inches of soil, on top of solid chalk?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: mouldy
Date: 07 May 12 - 12:33 PM

Greetings from across the pond!

After last year's enforced non-gardening, due to building work, I have spent time (and money) getting the albeit small (microscopic by New World standard) back garden up and running. The veg plot (once under concrete) is planted, with a donation of top-soil from the builder. It's still got too many stones in it, but the level is better than it was. Also, my back and shoulders were starting to wave the white flag after several days of uncovering old wall foundations - stone ones just a few inches down. I think the root veg will be interesting shapes this year!
That's when they eventually get going properly.
The weather's been diabolical. We had a very warm late March, and then after that it's been nothing but traditional March temperatures. The bees are too cold to fly much, the blossom either started early, or it's late. I'm lucky to have a walled garden, but even so, things are slow.
The bulbs are ending, and the things that have had the sun are doing fairly well, but the soil has been very cold. The frogspawn in my little pond got killed by the frosts that followed the early warm weather.

Well anyway, I got apple variety number 6 today. They are dwarf, or semi-dwarf trees, and one is a dual variety, so they don't take up too much room. Somehow I am not hopeful of a very good crop, even though there is quite a bit of blossom on them.

Andrea
(in North Northumberland)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 07 May 12 - 05:33 AM

I have two peonies in bloom - with the last of the daffies. The oak tree has finally leafed out - just about the only thing that is almost on a normal schedule - everything else is several weeks to a month ahead of "normal"

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 06 May 12 - 10:52 PM

Oh my, what a lovely weekend it turned out to be.

Left work early Friday to drive to WV. Had car problems and had to turn back, spending almost 4 hours at the mechanic's waiting for those good but very busy people to work me in, since no rentals were available on late notice. They were able to get the car running well enough to get me home and back to them on Monday, but not to anything else. Saturday I was able to sit on the ground and weed a long, thin, flowerbed before the heavy rain hit. I was sore this morning but a couple of ibruprofen got me moving again.

We got about 1 1/2 inches of much needed rain over a 5-6 hour period yesterday evening. It was cloudy and humid early today, but cleared off mid-afternoon. Highs in the mid 70's F. Son got most of the yard mowed and I was able to not only do some of the finer mowing on the even ground level parts, but was also able to use the weed eater and do some much needed trimming. That was after moving everything from my lower kitchen cabinets, so Annie could begin prep work, and painting interior window framing that desparately needs it. The kitchen is still all-to-pieces and unusable and will be for another week or two, but this painting the cabinets is a major first step into a long process of making this place a home. In the meantime, we are eating as best we can doing microwave and take-out, and paper plates and plastic silverware.

Annie is so awesome.

The birds, rabbits and squirrels are a joy to watch right now. Babies and fledgings everywhere. Since I am able to be out in the yard again, am seeing more species of birds and generally appreciating what a wonderful habitat for small wild life I am again creating.

Annie had brought me some stones from her leftovers to make a stone path from the shed to the main yard to get our feet out of the mud, and until I can rent a rototiller to use to loosen the soil to dig out for the path, the stones are stacked in an approximation of a dry-stack edging around a garden bed, and the look makes me salivate regarding the possibilities if funds, the spine, and time ever permit.

And tonight, after yesterday's heavy and long rain, the tree frogs are in full chorus. The rain last night kept the fabulous moon hidden. I'm headed out as soon as I hit "send" to see if I can catch it tonight, and then to bed.

It is so good to be regaining more use of my leg and body, to have my sister here and her energy to spark some of my own, and even if it was spent fretting and shifting in an uncomfortable chair in the waiting area of my mechanic's shop, to have had that little extra time away from work. The unexpected time to spend on the yard and garden was an absolute elixir.

Sweet dreams to all of you.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 04 May 12 - 10:53 AM

Trying to decide if I want to try some veggies this year...

24 zuchinni plants last year - I got 4 blossoms total and no zukes.

the beans never got more then two leaves each

the butternut squashes all died.

the "official" killing frost free date is under a month away...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Arkie
Date: 02 May 12 - 03:30 PM

Have a relatively small garden of edibles in raised beds. The soil on this lot is about as worthless as I have ever seen and I have added compost and other amendments with some hope of producing something we can eat. Last year I did not get one thing. The previous year was not bad. So far I have little peppers on the vine,a little eggplant on the largest of the plants, tomatoes are blooming, multiple little cucumbers, squash blooms, lettuce and onions are doing well so far. Blackberry vines are loaded. Time to cover them with nets

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 02 May 12 - 09:37 AM

I sympathize with the aches and pains. I sit at a desk from New year's to spring and then wonder why I hurt when I go out and spend a day gardening in april or may

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 May 12 - 09:33 PM

How is your soil, Janie? Is it healthy? I think that makes a big difference in the health of the plants.

Take it easy. The weeds will wait for you. :-)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 01 May 12 - 08:07 PM

Noticing a flower scape or two on a couple of my earlier day lilies.

Don't buy day lilies with yellowing leaves. Could be a virus or bacterial infection that can slowly spread to other day lilies. I haven't had big problems with day lily deseases and fungus, but where planted en masse, such as at breeders, they are fairly easy to pick up and transport to your own garden.

After 10 weeks of significant inactivity due to the broken knee (preceded by not much gardening or physical activity for months before that,) I spent just a couple of hours Sunday non-strenously forking a small pile of mulch into a wheel barrow and then distributing it into a couple of beds. Yesterday and today I have had a hard time standing straight or walking. Didn't injure anything, just really, really sore muscles from being seriously inactive and out of shape. Rather shocking to recognize how much so.

Been doing more research on the azalea petal blight, and also noticing many, many azaleas infected throughout my little town. From what I have read, soil drenches and replacing mulch, the most commonly recommended practices are not actually very effective. Seems spraying the flower buds and flowers weekly with powerful fungicides,from the time they form until petal drop can "control" the fungus, but who has time for that,nevermind concerns about using powerful chemicals.

I'm stymied.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 01 May 12 - 05:59 PM

I know - but since I work an outdoor entertainment venue weekends in July and August and rain days - while fun - are p*ss-poor maneymakers.

Subject: Lyr Add: CAMELOT (Lerner/Lowe)
From: Bettynh
Date: 01 May 12 - 01:19 PM

That's Camelot
weather:

It's true! It's true! The crown has made it clear.
The climate must be perfect all the year.

A law was made a distant moon ago here:
July and August cannot be too hot.
And there's a legal limit to the snow here
In Camelot.
The winter is forbidden till December
And exits March the second on the dot.
By order, summer lingers through September
In Camelot.
Camelot! Camelot!
I know it sounds a bit bizarre,
But in Camelot, Camelot
That's how conditions are.
The rain may never fall till after sundown.
By eight, the morning fog must disappear.
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.

Camelot! Camelot!
I know it gives a person pause,
But in Camelot, Camelot
Those are the legal laws.
The snow may never slush upon the hillside.
By nine p.m. the moonlight must appear.
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 01 May 12 - 09:18 AM

rainy day today - which is good - it was suppossed to rain sunday night and it didn't. I'd like a moist (but not soggy) summer as it will help with the new plantings.

Nice gentle soaks at night, during the week would be fine. No rain on weekends for July and August though please...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 12:22 PM

mine are just coming up.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 12:18 PM

My daylilies are just starting to open. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 11:46 AM

two daylily BREEDERS in the area just "round the corner" (country/rural speaking) one who also has iris and peonies; but their hours are not compatible with mine..... usuallly there is ONE day per season I can get there...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 10:28 AM

Do you have a chapter of the daylilly society near you, MM??? Yes, there are plenty of them out there and a great source of cheap and/or free plants...

I've been Farmer Bobert the last week... As some of ya'll know the area where I want a permanent veggie garden is one the other side of our pond and wasn't graded well when the pond was put in so it was a tad on the swampy side so...

... I have mined/purchased about 40 yards of fill dirt and spent much of this spring on my Kabota pushing, pulling and grading and installing two French drains under what will be the future bed... Problem is that I have run out of time and soil so we will be using the two small (6 ft X 10ft) raised beds, a smallish (15ft X 15ft) bed the former owners used, seven 15 gallon containers, a 10ft X 6ft bed I tilled up for asparagus and half a dozen areas in the gardens where veggies can mix with decorative plants...

Looks like the Beverly hillbillies but it will be food...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 09:07 AM

Two witch hazels I thought were dead because they go eaten down to ground level are putting out shoots; time to start dousinge with red pepper!

Saturday I planted two more varieties of witch hazel , 4 azaleas, 7 rhodies, a holly, a purple birch, a blue poppy; and 20 daylilies.

I ordered 7 new varieities of daylily this spring - I love this particular company as I often get 3 or 4 plants from an order for "1" - they send really nice clumps!

Back to weeding and mulching...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Apr 12 - 11:20 AM

Last week I had to trim some large dead limbs off of what is normally a very hardy privet in the understory woods section at the back of the yard. I have been told by neighbors that the first owners of this house had quite an exotic jungle of figs and fruit trees back here, now the lonely remaining privet shrubs grow under the various native hackberry trees.

I'm still digging and clearing beds, transplanting things, mulching, getting the yard ready for a friend to water for a few days next month. I spread a bag of corn gluten meal in areas that needed fertilizing. I haven't been good about doing annual or semi-annual fertilizing, but I do foliar feeding and drenches in the gardens during the growing season.

Lots of peppers this year, eggplant, tomato, squash, okra, potatoes, herbs, and I'm moving the crowded daffodils and iris. I've given away hands full of some of these things to neighbors.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 27 Apr 12 - 09:32 AM

I'm about 8 hours north of DC....FingerLakes region.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Apr 12 - 09:29 AM

Well, looks as if we are finally into temps in the 50s at night so the tomato seedlings are jumping for joy knowing that they are going to have their own spots and not have to share with their siblings...

Yo, MM... Where do you live??? I thought you were in the DC area, no???

If so, Merrifield Gardens in Merrifield, Va. - just west of Falls Church - will have your redbud...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 27 Apr 12 - 09:21 AM

*pout* they were sold out by the time I got there.....

oh well - my mountain laurels came through the winter, have two new witch hazels to try and get past the "something ate them to the base" stage and found a huge patch of the wine coloured myrtle to pot up...

also finally got some white grape hyacinths to grow this year after several failed attempts - and the pink lily of the valley are growing well that I bought this spring.

if EVERYTHING went well I would think I was ahllucinatiing.

We lost a couple tree peonies to the late snow though - all but one should come back - and even the last probably will in a couple years
(it snapped at the base of the trunk)

I think I'm buying a flowering peach as my last purchase this year - have a spot where it will look good.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Apr 12 - 11:39 AM

Thanks, maeve... Yeah, I know that one afterall...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: maeve
Date: 26 Apr 12 - 06:16 AM

Purple-toned leaves, Bobert: http://lpstatile.com/picts/Forest-Pansy-Redbud.jpg

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Apr 12 - 07:59 PM

Forest pansy redbud, MM?

Is the the one with the yellowish-green leaves???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Apr 12 - 06:26 PM

I picked up a handful of sweet potato slips and will be using them to landscape in the front. There is this berm I built, and a wall in front of it (that I built last year) and I had some of the ornamental sweet potatoes there but they didn't look nearly so beautiful or robust as the real sweet potatoes I planted in the veggie garden. So I'm putting the vegetable sort in for looks this year.

I'm still digging and planting, but I have to leave for a week next month so I want it all in place and established a bit so a volunteer waterer won't have to take care of bedding plants not in the ground.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 25 Apr 12 - 01:41 PM

yee-haw! Just found out a local nursery has the Forest Pansy Redbud; potted, at the best price I've found yet, and it is ALMOST on my way home from work.....

yippee!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 25 Apr 12 - 01:19 PM

Water shortage and hosepipe ban... ha bloody ha! We've had hailstones the size of golfballs and incessant rain for ages. Can't possibly plant anything tender outside. Poor farmers, their fields are waterlogged and the earth is stone cold. Grain sown will probably rot.
My greenhouse is chokka, hanging baskets, tubs, seedlings all ready to go outside but I just daren't, I'd lose the lot. The river which runs through our village is absolutely whizzing through the watermill sluice gates, and the valley below is already flooded. Enough! Stop! Warm sunshine please!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: kendall
Date: 25 Apr 12 - 01:14 PM

I learned something about gardening today.
I'm a sailor.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: MMario
Date: 25 Apr 12 - 01:08 PM

Winter can't decide whether to come or go locally - Snow at my house, wet and rainy at work all this week; but suppossed to be a little warmer and drier this weekend - which is nice as I have a baker's dozen of shrubs scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

Including 2 witch hazel's and a purple birch!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 09:14 PM

Janie,

So happy to read that you spent time with an old gardening buddy in her garden... Very healing... Here's an idea on the cuttings... You grow them out and keep an eye on them for a year...

Everyone else,

The P-Vine got in 38 plants this week... We are very close to having everything that bloomed this year in and maybe 75-100 that will have to go another year...

Me??? One handed tractor man is on the verge of finishing the French drains which will run under the future veggie garden and then quit for this season after setting the railroad ties...

We'll be doing container and raised bed veggie gardening this year...

Eating kale twice a week... Spinach coming on...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 08:11 PM

Sounds nice, Janie! I like looking at the yards in my neighborhood and noticing the relations between them - I share plants with neighbors and they with me, so you see the same color of iris or amaryllis in two or three yards in a row. I've had people admire the vitex in my front yard and have over the years given away several seedlings from it, another one a couple of weeks ago. (Yes, it spreads, but it is easy to mow down or pull the sprouts.) The yards are different, but there are common interests observable.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 05:01 PM

I gritted my teeth and decided to break out of hermit mode this weekend, and responded to an e-mail from an old Hillsborough friend and fellow gardener that I had been trying to reply to for a month or more. Upshot was I went to her house for lunch and a 3 hour visit that included a tour of her marvelous gardens that I had not seen since I left Hillsborough. The visit with her and the tour of her garden did my soul more good than I can say. It was also gratifying to see plants growing that I had passed on to her that I couldn't grow here in all this shade even if I had time. Plus, she has a really large yard, mixed habitat, with some beds very shady, and has offered to share plants or start cuttings of shade shrubs that probably would do well here whenever I am ready and able. I would love to share a cutting of your Koromo Shikibu with her, Bobert, but don't want to take any chance on also sharing the flower blight. Although the blight does not appear to have spread yet to any of the three azaleas you have given me, that doesn't mean the spores aren't present. I sent her some links where she can order it.

When I got home there was a lovely voice message from another gardening couple in Hillsborough that I have not seen or talked with since I moved and who had taken me up on my offer of digging anything they wanted from my gardens just prior to me moving. Jim had called to say they were especially thinking of me as their garden is growing this spring and they see so many plants they had acquired from me. Wanted to say hello and to ask if I want any divisions or plants.

Warmed my heart.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Apr 12 - 01:31 AM

I can eat or drink the juice of just about all of the tomatoes I grow - your family must be unusual, Matt, if tomatoes planted in a garden that small were too much! But good luck this year growing what you'll eat.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 07 Apr 12 - 12:50 AM

Ya'll go, Matt!