BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)

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BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)

18 Mar 04 - 01:32 AM (#1139732)
Subject: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Okay, Bobert, here's the new thread. And here's the last one.

I planted my tomatoes this week. Haven't put in the eggplants, carrots, peppers, etc. But I wanted to get something going. I'll also plant more onions, we'll try corn this year, and then there are the ornamentals around the rest of the yard. Spring is here! Up to about 80 today.

Marion is visiting, and she was interested when I told her about our tarantualas. This morning I mowed a section of the back where the spiders live to see if any of their holes are active yet. I found one, under some weeds over near the bird bath, and she poked a flag next to it for a night-time excursion to see if Grandmother Spider is up and around yet.

We walked out with our flashlights this evening, found the stick, found the hole, nothing much going on. Then she used the stick to pull away a few leaves, and was startled to find a toad down the hole gazing out at her! Handsome fellow he was, kind of yellowish-greenish, and he stayed put. Don't know if there is a spider in there underneath him (or inside him!).

SRS

18 Mar 04 - 05:46 AM (#1139815)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)

And here in the Northeast US we just got another 6 inches of snow!!

Allison

18 Mar 04 - 08:31 AM (#1139911)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

My early tulips and mid-season daffodils are blooming. The Kale that I planted last fall has come out of dormancy and we had our first mess of them this week. Peas got planted last week and the mesclun mix is germinating. Onions are just coming up. The fall planted lettuce is just about finished. All but the latest emerging perennials are at least above ground and the phlox drummondii is starting to elongate. I was a little late fertilizing and pinching back the pansies and violas, but in another week they should look swell. The perennial beds have been lightly fertilized but the compost and mulch layers will have to wait until I get back from vacation the end of March. Inside the house, the tomatoes, peppers and several varieties of annual flowers are perking along under grow lights. We hope to get the arborist over this week to prune the crepe myrtles before it is too late (shoulda called him in January!).

Oh these long, mild southern springs!

Janie

18 Mar 04 - 09:35 AM (#1139968)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Well, SRS, not much happening here on the Blue Ridge Mountain in Wes Ginny. Snow drops up an' bloomin' and that's 'bout it. The dafodills are up but several warm days from opening. Problem is that we haven't had too many warm days. Going up to 'round 45 degrees today. Once it hits 60 degrees for three or four days then the spring wildflower show will begin.

I've got a lot of clean up to do because of the unusally cold and snowy winter. I lost one 80 foot tall maple which is going to take several days to cut and split but it's gotta go. Fortunately it fell between beds.

Haven't done much with the veggie garden and won't until is dries out enuff to til up. We don't plant corn because it takes up too much space to grow enuff fir it to pollinate itself. But we get a lot of food out of a 35 X 20 foot space. We buy out tomatoe plants as well our pepper plants. Everything else, 'cept onions, we grow from seed.

I still have the protective covers over all the first year camillias that need to be slowly opened and then removed and reused for next years first year'ers... Along with at least 30 pots of stuff that are in the basement to get planted look like me and Mr. Shovel are going to get reaquainted...

This year is really going to be an important one for us since the wife, the P-Vine, is going be working part time at her favorite nursery, Merrifield Gardens, and also be doing some landscape design consulting on the side... Lucky me, I get to help with the drawing and the composition issues...

That's one thing about wildflowers that I appreciate. They do what they do and don't need much help from us. I'll report on the little guys as they actually stick their heads out...

Come on, 60 degrees.......

Bobert

18 Mar 04 - 09:38 AM (#1139972)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: GUEST,MMario

ONly 6" Animaterra? We got over a foot and more predicted for tonight. I did have a couple snowdrops bloom last weekend - but they are well buried now.

18 Mar 04 - 10:04 AM (#1139985)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Bobert, How are those hellebores doing? I love them, but don't have a good place for them--only have one and it is surviving but not thriving. All my diciduous shade has kids and dogs running through it, so mine is under the drip line of a very old, dense burford holly where it gets barely enough winter sun to bloom. Several friends have big, beautiful stands of them.

The yards around are full of violets (I love the white ones and the little dogtooth violets), common speedwell, purple dead-nettle and henbit. The redbuds and dogwoods are ready to pop open. The light in the new green on misty, drizzly days is just incredible!

The grass doesn't need mowed--but the chickweed and creasies sure do!

Janie

18 Mar 04 - 01:32 PM (#1140164)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

My redbud is getting ready to bloom. Something is eating the grape hyacinths--so my task over the weekend will be to sink a few old margarine tubs in the garden and put in a couple of inches of beer in each. We do this to clear out snails and slugs.

Bobert, I lived for a while on 10 acres out at a lake in the countryside in Whatcom County, Washington. I went to school in Bellingham, and I think it was about 15 miles to get to school from the lake. One night we had a silver thaw (ice coating everything in sight, beautiful to behold, but tons of tree damage) that tore lots of branches out of the cottonwood at the mouth of the driveway. Before we could drive out that next day, we had to clear out a six-foot deep pile of branches. Had we realized the damage, we'd have gotten up several hours earlier. I don't think I made it to school that day--I spent the rest of the day with my camera taking the most amazing photos of the ice on everything.

SRS

19 Mar 04 - 09:45 AM (#1140892)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

SRS,

I'm gonna tell you something that maybe you know and maybe you don't about redbuds. I learnt it quite by circumstance and the hard way myself. I dug up and replanted a baby redbud 'bout 5 years ago our back in a bed outside the bedroom. Well it grew to about 7 feet but wouldn't bloom so I figgured it needed to go so I put a chain 'tound it's trunk which was no larger than an 2 inches and pulled it out. When I lloked back out the rear mirror I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It pulled half the danged bed with it. That root system was close to 20 feet across! I thought maples were bad! They ain't nuthin' compared to the redbud... No more of them greedy trees. I'll just enjoy others, thankee......

Bobert

19 Mar 04 - 07:16 PM (#1141323)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Big roots, eh? I planted this redbud in a spot between my driveway and the neighbor's house where I didn't want a big tree because he has a sewer line running along side his house. I sure hate to move the thing. Here's hoping his sewer line is in fine shape!

I put out the beer tubs, and got a few critters, but not enough to quite answer the question of who is eating my tender flowers. I notice this week the aphids are here, but so are the ladybugs. Go, ladybugs!

20 Mar 04 - 02:04 AM (#1141484)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: CarolC

Oh, it's so nice to have a garden again. It's been several years since I had one. I was out watering the newly planted containers this evening. It was such a great feeling... shorts, flip-flops, and a sweatshirt, warm daytime air mixing with the cooler evening air, the evening nature sounds, sound of water gently falling on good soil. It's a feeling I had forgotten. It's wonderful to be able to experience it again.

28 Mar 04 - 08:13 PM (#1148539)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

okay, gang, other than speding a couple hours in urgent care today for accidently cutting off part of the tip of my left index finger while cutting back my lavendar, i have things to report. byw, the no ''caps'' is because of the injury... gonna make gitfiddle pickin' interestin...

but here's what is up....

...linten rose is in bloom---- soft pink flower
...toothwart is cming up but no blooms
...bloodroot is up and blooming----- white flower
...daffodils---- standar yellow and doubles with white throat
...pulmanaria leapoar---- small pink flowers
...hellaboa niger--- christmas rose---- soft pink flower
...hepatica up... no bloom
...bleeding hearts---- up but pinl blooms won't come fir weeks
...galax---- sweet wild flower with tiny white flowers
...blazing star, also called ferry wand--- blue flower, not bloomed
...larkspur---- up, blue flower, not bloomed yet
...shooting star---- cool wildflower, blue flower, will bloom in may
...canadian ginger---- doesn't bloom but nice ground cover
...marsh lilly---- yellow wildflower, just blooming a little
...stulonefera flox---- up, white flower, blooms in summer

horray, spring wildflowers...

makes one firget things like slicing and dicing fingers...

bobert

28 Mar 04 - 08:30 PM (#1148550)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Ouch! Bobert, you're a real cut up! Having nicked myself a few times out in the garden, I know it can happen.

Everything is bursting forward here, pity that most of it is weeds I'll have to pull or mow soon. But there is a lot going on in the "sanctioned" part of the yard as well.

Texas star hibiscus is sending up shoots

Daffodils all over the place

Blue iris blooming

Yellow iris sending up stems

Salvia gregii blooming profusely everywhere

Cannas sending up shoots (and I've transplanted some so they don't take over my porch)

Spiderwort that I transplanted from the woods last year is looking marvelous in its rich blue flowers

Wisteria blooming

Redbud at absolute peak right this very minute

Leaves coming out on baldcyprus, metasequoia, vitex, and desert willow

Lots of flowering weeds in the lawn

I'm probably missing some stuff

oh, yeah,

mosquitoes out

something is munching on my tomatoes already

lots of fire ants in the yard

SRS

28 Mar 04 - 08:49 PM (#1148564)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

sounds like yer in zone 8, srs or 8b....

our iris's up up but won't bloom fir another 3 weeks. cannas still in plastic buckets packed in peat moss in the basement. they ain't allowed to winter outside.

wysteria 'rond these parts is invasive so we ain't got it. i do have a stand of bamboo but the wes ginny slide rule has figgured that it won't be growin' up thry the bedroom floor until 2022 so i got time...

we have spiderwort, too but not til mid may.....

tomatoes...question mark.... we don't plant 'um 'till mid may and then they just sit there 'til mid june before gettin' going...

bobert

29 Mar 04 - 01:35 AM (#1148715)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: CarolC

Pobrecito, Bobert.

Most of our stuff is planted, and much of it is already up and looking good (so far). We got a little carried away and ended up planting quite a lot more kinds of veggies than we originally planned.

I had my first "harvest" this evening. I picked a few sprigs of rosmary and thyme to put in some pasta with roasted bell peppers and portabella mushrooms. Mmmmmm....

29 Mar 04 - 01:26 PM (#1149175)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

carolc...

we got ''spreading thyme'' that grows between the stones that i set as part of the entrance to the house. it suirvives the winter nicely... we also plant ajuga between the stones fir contrast and it does very well also...

ain't tooo sure about the ''pobrecito''. that like greek fir ''clumsy gardener'' 'er is it some rare brazillian wildflower... guess i missed that day in school, also......

hey, iz gonna be down in yer neighborhood this weekend fir the savannaugh garden tour... really lookin' forward to it.

bobert

29 Mar 04 - 01:51 PM (#1149210)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: CarolC

Pobrecito = poor (male gender) thing, in Spanish.

Wow, Savannah? We keep talking about going there, but we haven't made the trip yet. How long are you going to be there?

29 Mar 04 - 07:55 PM (#1149500)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

ahhhh, from friday to monday morning, carol... we're going to do the garden tour on saturday and savannah on sunday... i lookin' forward to it... the p-vine and i went to charleston, s.c. for out honeymoon and loved it so i'm sure we'll love savannah as well...

ahhhh, as fir the spainish. i should have known that since i had a hispanic employee before i retired. he used to call me ''bohito'' which means ''old man''... see, i've never gotten no respect...

bobert

29 Mar 04 - 10:41 PM (#1149582)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

After much consideration, I visited the garden center of my local mega-hardware store and bought myself a trenching shovel. I have to do some trenching later this spring, but mostly I want something that I can use to dig out individual plants in the garden with out digging out the neighboring plants also. This is a long slim tool, not quite so long as a "drain shovel," which also looks pretty good, but not sturdy enough for future trenching.

I have to work to resist bringing home a lot of the tools I see when I'm out shopping. There was a great looking small shovel, a miniature version of your standard curved with a pointed tip shovel, but about 1/3 of the size. I can see it as an easy one to use in the veggie garden, or to toss into the bucket when I go walking in the woods across the way looking for stuff to transplant back to the yard. But I don't need it. The big shovel works okay for that.

What am I initially using the new trenching shovel for? I'm digging out the cannas that are just surfacing in a bed that is crammed full of other stuff also. I want to do a surgical removal of just the few plants, not mess it all up. I will probably lose a few cannas--I'm not exactly in love with them, they were here when I moved in, but I'll make an effort to transplant while they're small. I didn't want to dig out the entire bed so I waited until I could tell where the cannas were. My yellow iris will start opening overnight or tomorrow. There were some just on the verge of exploding tonight as the sun set. My salvia gregii are even more fabulous today than they were a couple of days ago. Those rich dark reds mixed in with yellow and blue iris make for a good-looking yard.

The trees are all leafing out this week. Some of them are pretty small still, they were in 5-gallon pots that I planted two summers ago. This is the year they should begin to really branch out, now that they've had time to get the roots established.

My yard is still a baby compared to those around me. But mine is bursting with color and looks much more dynamic. Nothing was done here for years because the house was rented. I'm making up for lost time, but my work has inspired the next-door neighbors--after years of talking about it, they went ahead and had a very nice local garden design company come in and do their yard. I'll make sure my ongoing design compliments what is on either side of me and doesn't encroach on them.

SRS

30 Mar 04 - 07:50 AM (#1149867)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: GUEST,MMario

we have a lot of mud - and then some more mud - and a muddy patch with a few snowdrops in it, and mud with a few daffodils poking up - and mud. there are a few crocus just beginning to bloom in the mud along the side yard - nuthin' much else.

Did I mention mud?

30 Mar 04 - 08:20 AM (#1149895)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Liz the Squeak

I took some care when designing my garden 6 years ago, and with interlopers from over the fence, I never have a single month where there isn't a bloom or blossom in my garden.

This month I have had crocus and miniature daffodils (tete a tete variety), white daffodils, two colours of rosemary (pink and blue), grape hyacinths, real hyacinths, forsythia, verbena, violets, blue and purple primroses and periwinkle. The Bay tree has just burst into yellow blossom and the pittisporum is showing its heavenly deep wine red colour on the buds. When these bloom, they look like little bells and have the most amazing evening perfume, out of all proportion to the size of the flower.

The bluebells have buds appearing, the roses are beginning to stir, the hollies are looking brighter and the many ivy varieties are starting to climb towards the sun again.

The two dogwoods (common green and 'midwinter fire') are bursting with leaves, the pussy willow has sprouted kittens and the water lilies are piercing the duckweed on their way to the sky.

All it needs is a little tidying up and some damage control, and it will be fit for a party. As I type now, the sun is shining and it looks positively tropical.

It's home to a blackbird family (they nested here last year too) and some newcomers, a colony of tits. Surprisingly enough, with the amount of cats in the area (at least 7, including my 3), they appear to be thriving. Even the sparrows have been making a comeback since my neighbour cut down their privet bush commune 3 years ago.

Life in the pond is burgeoning, although I notice a decline in baby watersnails.... I suspect the flat worms and the leech have been getting hungry. I will have to thin out the weed this year, if only to find the candle holder that fell in 2 weeks ago when we had a gale.

So what the heck am I doing here? I'm off to enjoy half an hour or so in the sun!

LTS

30 Mar 04 - 08:51 AM (#1149922)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

I was in Florida for a week and when I returned home Sunday it was like entering a fairyland. The garden is full of daffs, tulips and violas. The phlox drummundii will be blooming anytime, and I really gotta figure out where to put zinnias this year. Lost my snapdragon flats that I had nursed along so carefully. Hubby did the best he could to take care of stuff but I have too much and he lost track of them. Oh well--next year. Late last spring I tossed a bunch of different seeds out in one section of the garden. They were old and I didn't expect much. Now I have all kinds of strange plants coming up. I don't remember what seeds I tossed and so don't know if I have a bumper crop of weeds coming in (I don't recognize them, but odd things are always drifting in), or if they will be a profusion of different blooms.

Aah--garden mysteries.

Janie

30 Mar 04 - 08:58 AM (#1149930)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: GUEST,MMario

the grounds around the building at work are doing better then home - (far less wet helps) alpine daisy blooming in the lawn, a clump of violets at the corner of the building (it has a southern exposure and gets more warmth and light then most of the grounds) and a single lone dandelion. one. How often do you see a SINGLE dandelion?!?

30 Mar 04 - 09:24 AM (#1149956)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Liz the Squeak

MMario - the answer is - not for long! However, I can send you a recipe for Dandelion wine if you like?

LTS

30 Mar 04 - 09:50 AM (#1149980)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Tinker

Ahh Mario, you're ahead of me. The violets are still hibernating, the daffodils only half up, but budded. The rabbits (or other creatures) seem to be eating up the wood hyacynth as quickly as it sprouts. But I did find one lone blossom on the lung wart yesterday. Last year it was a bright blue, but it seems to be red violet now. A gentle dust of snow this morning,it looks like the temperatures will keep things here stalled for a while. All these wonderful reposrts give me hope.

tinker

14 Apr 04 - 03:18 PM (#1161667)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Gotta relate this unreal experience. I am home today not feeling well. As I walked past my living room window a little while ago, I looked out and saw a strange car parked on the street in front of the house, and a strange lady bent over in my garden. She was stealing plants! She had tried unsuccessfully to pull up some bleeding hearts, had dug one clump of violas, and was pulling out spent tulips when I saw her.

Now, I have had two inexpensive buddhas, and a cast cement hen and chicks stolen out of the front yard. Disappointing, but not surprising. Never, however, have I had some one actually try to steal the plants out of the garden!

Janie

14 Apr 04 - 06:41 PM (#1161817)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

I love these threads, Janie, thanks. Sad about your experience. No plant would be happy living with that horrible lady. That sort of thing happens here in the cities but we escaped from there and most gardeners are a bit afraid, or at least puzzled, by our wild "garden" anyway.
Ours is a late Autumn garden and it's fun to compare it with yours.
It's berry time here. In our indigenous (well mostly) garden the kangaroo apples are covered in bright orange fruit. We have saltbush berries the colour of port wine and big bright blue Dianella berries. Dianellas are clumping lillies named for the Godess. Little Silver eyes have arrived from Tasmania just in time to feast on the wild fruit. Skinks wait below the bushes for their share of fallen berries and ants carry away any seeds that are spilled. I can tell where the ants nests are by the little piles of grass-seed husks that they leave on their doorsteps.
We wait for the rain that is long overdue. Dark thunderclouds are building up in the West so it won't be long away.
"Mercy drops 'round us are falling, but for the showers we plead." Joy

14 Apr 04 - 07:22 PM (#1161846)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: open mike

bummer about your missing plants! do you have a shot gun?/!
some kind of compliment that she picked yours to nab?!
I have my hands permanently stained brown and green
from weeding and grubbing around in the garden.
Had several meals from the asparagus patch this
year...hooray for Hollandaise sauce! yum yum
the daffodills and tulips are basically finished blooming
as is the daphnia, quince, forsythia and star magnolia.
The redbud and lilac are beginning to fade now. I wonder
why my wisteria has never bloomed? perhaps too much pruning?
Apples, nectarines, cherries and apricot trees are done
blooming too. The roses are coming on and the clematis
are too. Pansies are smiling away , and candy tuft, iris,
calendula too. I wish whoever planted the vinca had never
done it but the little blue flowers are nice for butterflies.
Potatoes are up and peas too. and fava beans. oh yes and
grape hyacinth. I also have some hanging baskets of
Fuschia and Million Bells. Gotta fill the humming bird feeder soon.

14 Apr 04 - 07:33 PM (#1161856)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Well, Janie, come on. Don't keep us in suspense. Did ya' pull out yer Glock and put a cap in her _______? Jus funnin'. But really. I hope you confronted her, Hey, I've liberated many plants but never from anywhere but in the wild... That's tacky... A guy down the road from me had 5 hemlocks stolen that he had just planted...

Burn me up......

Grrrrrrrrrrr...

Bobert

p.s. Oh, BTW, triliums are up. Ferns starting to unfold. Dogwood just starting to show some color. Plums in full bloom. some of the daffodils are in bloom but the doubles (white and yellow) still a few days away. Tooth wart blooming everywhere. but things still rather cold so til next week when it warms up I don't expect too much new... Oh, I did get th4e veggie garden tilled up and got some lettuce planted in the shadiest part...

14 Apr 04 - 09:12 PM (#1161928)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: CarolC

We had our first strawberry from our container gardens a couple of days ago. It was little, and JtS and I each had half, but it was delicious.

We've been having some broccolli as well. The broccolli is behaving strangely. Some of the plants are putting up some pretty straggly little flower heads, even while the plants are pretty small, and we've been picking them just before the blossoms open. There isn't enough in them to cook and eat, so we've just been eating them raw right from the garden. I've never seen broccolli behave like this. They are very tasty though. I'm hoping some of the plants wait until they're more mature before sending up a flower head. It'd be nice to know how it tastes cooked ;-)

We'll be having the first salad greens in a few days, I think. These will be the little spring greens that come from thinning out the rows. I'm looking forward to that.

It's looking very beautiful and green here right now. And the weather has mostly been glorious. I'm enjoying it while I can, for summer is not too far away...

14 Apr 04 - 10:38 PM (#1162033)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Heck, CarolC, sounds like to much phosphate to me. Ain't tot sure what yo gatta do but don't add no phosphate..... Potash and nitrogen, yeah, but no more phosphate....

Bobert

14 Apr 04 - 10:54 PM (#1162042)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: CarolC

Thanks Bobert. We didn't add any phosphate. We put in a mixture of organic manure and humus, clean potting soil, sphagnum moss, and some kind of humus mixture that was supposed to be good for mushrooms. The guy at the store said it was good for other things besides mushrooms as well. Do you think it could have been any of those things that had too much phosphate? Would the potash and nitrogen help to fix the problem of too much phosphate?

14 Apr 04 - 11:26 PM (#1162064)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I had a huge head of broccoli that I harvested last month--it was the size of a basketball. Amazing! It took us so long to eat it that next time I went out to pick more the rest of the florets had flowered. It's all seeds out there now. The onions planted last fall have finally started making their bulbs, and they look good. Last fall's chard is tough, so I'm trimming it back and hoping to encourage new growth to eat this year.

Tons of stuff blooming. Daffodils are mostly finished, just some of the little multi-head fragrant ones out still. Iris are queen of the yard for the last couple of weeks. Last year a late freeze zapped them, and this year they're making up for lost time. The salvia greggi are blooming as hard as they can. Other salvia (victoria) are fully leafed out and starting to send out little blue blooms. Grape hyacinth are mostly finished. Texas star hibiscus are knee-high now, or taller. Datura is coming up from seed. Cannas are knee-high, lantanas are just starting to send out little stalks of leaves, same with Mexican heather.

I transplanted a large spiderwort last year from the woods across the road. It has bloomed and bloomed and bloomed this year--such a beautiful color of blue. I bring home wild things every so often--how horrible that someone admired your yard only as a place to steal stuff! My neighbors and I tend to share our extras of bedding plants and cuttings. I gave away a lot of iris last year, and I see them popping up around the neighborhood now.

The quince planted out back a few weeks ago finished its short bloom, and the redbud finished a couple of weeks ago. The coreopsis are showing but not going full-tilt yet, and the gaura are just barely getting started (they put out slender stalks with butterfly-shaped flowers for many months).

Spirea that I just planted hasn't started budding yet. The rock rose is just showing buds (it's in the evening primrose family).

Tomatoes are growing, and I just put in some peppers and squash. A few weeks ago I put out some cards with trichograma wasps to hopefully keep the caterpillers down. I need to put out some more this summer. Each card covers about 500 square feet with these microscopic wasps that attack moth eggs. Keeps them from becoming the critters that devour the garden. I'm planning to put some veggies out in my front yard for entertainment value. It's also much easier soil to work!

I saw my first tarantula of the season last weekend--we bumped into each other, literally, when I was clearing out some trash beside the garage. I'll build a brick thing over there for shelter for various critters.

Okay. I'll stop now. I keep a log for the yard, and I need to go enter some of this stuff there.

SRS

15 Apr 04 - 08:49 AM (#1162296)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

SRS you cause me to feel guilty. Every year I start a garden journal, and every year I fizzle on it. And I KNOW what a valuable tool it is.

Joybell--I love hearing about your garden. The flora and fauna all sound so exotic to me. Would love to see not only the garden, but some of the critters also. You don't by any chance have any pics on the web do you?

Bobert--I did confront the lady but was so flabbergasted I was probably way too polite.

Carol--any chance you planted broccoli raab (spelling) instead of regular ol' broccoli?

It is great to hear about the differences in our gardens from zone to zone. Lots of overlap on daffs and tulips, but everything else is at very different stages in their growing cycles. If I grew broccoli, it would still be 3 weeks away from harvest size.

My garden is entering the "tween" time now. The daffs and tulips are just about all spent. I have a few bleeding hearts and pulmonaria at their peak, but mostly there are just buds on the mid-spring bloomers like hersperis, lily-of-the-valley and columbine. The ever familiar and faithful pansies and violas have to carry the show for now. The lettuce that I planted last fall is starting to bolt and this year's crop is just reaching harvestable size. I pinched out the flower buds on the kale and can probably get another month out of it before I need to pull it up. Tops of the green onions are still small. The peas are only 6 inches tall. Tomatoes and peppers are ready to go in the ground, but we are having an unusually cool and dry spring. I will probably wait to plant the warm season veggies until very late April or early May.

We finally got a good rain this week. Don't you love the way a spring rain sets everything to growin'?

Janie

15 Apr 04 - 09:04 AM (#1162307)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: GUEST,MMario

Carol - it may just be the heat - has it been warm? Broccolli really prefers cooler weather - and will "bolt" (send up flower shoots) if it is too warm.

frost this am.

15 Apr 04 - 09:25 AM (#1162323)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

CarolC: Yup, if you do have too mush posphate, adding nitrogen and potash will bring yer soil back in balance. The organic matter that you added probably was higher in nitrogen, however. so I don't think you need anymore of that. Have you put any jypsom (sp) in yer veggie bed? If not, you should. The bag will tell you how much you need per square feet. Also, it yer plantin' in a lot of clay their is a product namned Permitill which is a crushed looking gray stone and it is a great ammendment to till into gardens with clay soils and will make that soil look and work great. Plus moles hate it and won't go near nuthin' planted in the stuff...

40's yesterday, 50's today and 70's by Saturday.

This coming weekend is the Leesburg (Va) Garden Show and it is a good one. Better that the one in D.C. by far because of the varieties of plants. One vender comes up from Southwest Virginia with nuthin' but woodsy wildflowers. Another vender, Suzanna Farms, come from Maryland woith his latest evergreen finds. He buys his stuff in Oregon and always has stuff that no one else has. Last year we bought a columnal ivy plant. Hun? Yup. To look at it from a distance you'f think it was a sky-pencil but you get up close and it has branches that grow very much like sky-pencil but the leaves are all small ivy leaves... Also got a columnal bayberry from him which should make fir an onteresting specimen plant, not to mention it's vertical qualities which are very important in the overall compostion of the gardens.

Glory be......

Bobert

15 Apr 04 - 01:08 PM (#1162517)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: CarolC

Thanks Janie and Bobert. It is indeed broccolli, and I think MMario probably has the answer. We were having a lot of days in the 80s shortly after I put the broccolli plants into the container gardens. Now I'll know to plant them in February next time (or maybe in November).

15 Apr 04 - 01:24 PM (#1162533)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Got my first poison ivy of the season. I just figured out what that growing itchy spot was on my wrist.

Now for the Benedryl cream and "IvyDry."

SRS

15 Apr 04 - 02:31 PM (#1162584)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

SRS--if wild jewelweed grows down your way, harvest it and make a STRONG decoction. Put it in a spray bottle and refrigerate. Spray on skin and let dry within a few hours after exposure and it will prevent the poison ivy. You can also use it before exposure, but you will probably just sweat it off.

No kidding, it works.

Janie

15 Apr 04 - 02:48 PM (#1162594)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Looks like an interesting plant. I seem to remember seeing it when I lived in the east. I don't believe we have any of it here in north Texas.

SRS

15 Apr 04 - 06:57 PM (#1162766)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

Janie, Yes we exotic quite well here. I am about to try to learn about putting up a web site - as a memorial to my strange and colourful grandmother - but I could include some critters. That would be fun. In the meantime I could send some pictures of our baby possum, our Magpies and our poor old Cockatoo that we've just aquired and are hoping to rehabilitate - to you and anyone who wants to email me. I also have a friend with a wildlife shelter who has some great critter pictures. (My True-love, being American, calls them that too.) There is a picture of me among the member photos with a magpie on my head - but she's not the strangest of our critters. It's the ones like the Echidnas that wander in sometimes that are really strange - and there are Platypuses (I can't relate to Platypii) in the creeks nearby - they are pretty weird. Wallabies and Kangaroos are fun. Mind you we visited there once and I fell in love with so many of your wonderful critters - Humming birds, singing Coyotes, Roadrunners, Skunks, Racoons, Lightning bugs and a Marmot. I truely liked the Marmot! Cheers Joy

15 Apr 04 - 07:20 PM (#1162779)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Yeah, the jewel weed works but it ain't up. We won't thave it fir a nother two months... Ahhhh, I only use extract from the root. Does the rest of the plant work as well, Janie?

Bobert

16 Apr 04 - 08:17 AM (#1163067)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Joybell that would be great! I'll pm to you my e-mail address.

Bobert--the stems and leaves work great, and when you use them you still have the plant left so you can make some more when the plant grows back. We make several gallons at a time and freeze them so we have it year round. (My spouse is an herbalist and sells it at local stores and the farmers market.) Cram a big pot full of the leaves and stems and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain and let it cool. You can keep it in the refrigerator pretty much indefinitely--it works even if it ferments. We freeze it in gallon jugs and keep a sprayer bottle of it on hand at all times.

On another gardening topic, have any of you tried your hand at vermiculture? I'm wondering how big a worm bed you need to feed a large home garden, and how much time and effort it takes to keep one going. I have been buying worm compost for my seedlings and potted plants and am really impressed with the results.

Pulled the mulch off the few dahlias I left in the ground last night. Hope they survived the winter.

Janie

16 Apr 04 - 10:59 AM (#1163212)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I haven't done anything in particular, but I've noticed this week that they have the distinctive "collar" that tells me it's breeding season for the earthworms. I also buy worm castings, and need to put some out in the garden. I'm afraid worms in one of those long low bins would accidentally bake down here in the hot weather. I've heard about people keeping under-sink bins with worms and dropping peelings into it. Not sure how that works either.

SRS

16 Apr 04 - 01:07 PM (#1163309)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: CarolC

Where do people get their worms when they do vermiculture?

Janie, do you use the jewelweed for anything besides the poison ivy?

16 Apr 04 - 01:24 PM (#1163317)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

From the little bit of research I've done, it looks like the worms can be ordered on-line, as well as information on how to go about it. Before I do it, however, I want to talk to someone who has or is doing it themselves. If they were, but aren't now--I wanna know why!

Jewelweed (impatiens capensis), also called "touch-me-not" is a nice edible plant when young. The new shoots (up to 6 or 8 inches) can be cut and steamed like green beans. I put a little water (about 1/2 inch)in a skillet, add some minced onion, and when the water boils add the shoots and cook on medium heat until the water is evaporated. Then I toss them with herbed butter (I like garlic, taragon, basil and a touch of marjoram.) You can also toss in croutons or toasted sesame seeds. This is also my family's favorite recipe for fresh green beans. Right now I'm having a senior moment and can't remember if jewelweed becomes toxic if used internally after the stems begin to leaf out. I think so, but am not sure. It has also been used as a fungicide for athletes foot, but I don't think it is nearly as effective for that as it is for poison ivy.

I have always wondered if the related impatiens that so many grow as annual flowers will also prevent poison ivy. So far, haven't found a guinea pig to check it out.

Janie

16 Apr 04 - 01:36 PM (#1163330)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: GUEST,MMario

I don't know if the cultivated imp[atiens will PREVENT poison ivy - I do know thier juice relieves the itch and helps the rash heal. From experience. (we always used to just use the juice of the jewelweed - basically crush it and apply to the rash. (we had TONS of jewelweed growing in and near our yard)

16 Apr 04 - 01:48 PM (#1163338)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Janie,

Ahhh, we have worms going to bed (pun inteneded). We do a lot of composting because with 5 acres of mostly wood and about 3/4 acre open, we have plenty of material. Plus, all the kitchen scaps, coffee grounds, egg shells, etc. get used.

Janie and others:

Blue bells in bloom, pulmonaria, twin leaf, blood root, marsh lilly, in bloom. Hostas, ferns, Solomons seal poking their heads up outtta the ground. Lylac swollen, Some azaleas showing a little color as are camillias... Temps in the 60's... Beautiful day... Going back out and finish cleaning up the "Ginyard Bed". Actually it is more of a hydranga bed with Ginyard Ive as the border... Daned voles ate a real nice hosta over the winter. I hate those little buggers and one day I'll kill off the last of the grubs so they will leave.

Bobert

16 Apr 04 - 03:10 PM (#1163396)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

So Bobert, how much tending do your worms take and how much worm poop do they produce per square foot of bed? If I go away for a week or two will they starve or dry-up if I don't hire the neighbor teen to tend them? Do you keep a bed going inside in the winter? If so, how does that work out for you. Most importantly, should I be asking you all this detail in this thread, or should I PM you?

Sounds like you have a lovely shade garden Bobert, with lots of those beautiful ephemerals. We have one little patch on the north side of the house where we coax a little goldenseal and bloodroot to grow, but they don't thrive. Tried ginseng in that bed to no avail.

Leo, thanks for the feedback on the cultivated impatiens. That makes me think it is also likely to work as a preventative.

My husband and son are both very sensitive to poison ivy, and spend a huge amount of time in the woods and fields, wildcrafting. The jewelweed works wonderfully as a preventative if it is applied within a few hours after exposure. Some years they immunize themselves by starting to eat poison ivy leaves just as soon as they begin to emerge in spring. They continue to eat a leaf a day until the leaves begin to lose their waxy shine and are almost full-size. This imparts immunity to the rash for the entire season. During the time they are doing this they watch for small outbreaks in their mouths or around their rectums, and stop eating it for a day or so until the rash clears. I was ready to divorce my husband when he proposed doing this with our son when only a year old, but By George, it worked! It is the same principle as allergy injections. If the leaves are more than an 1/2 to 3/4 inches long before they have started, however, they skip that year and rely on the jewelweed.

True confession. I am allergic to everything under the sun, except poison ivy.

Janie

16 Apr 04 - 07:25 PM (#1163561)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

I've got worms here too. Of course it doesn't get so cold in the winter so that they don't need too much care. I made off with an old bathtub I found in a city dumpster and they live in there. It's raised up enough for the worm and compost juice to run out of the plug hole into a bucket and I use that on the vegies. I covered the bath with a wooden lift-up top that's hinged in the middle so that I can fill each end in turn with stuff for compost. Very proud of myself I was too, even though I know other gardeners have come up with the idea by now. We have a friend in town who is passionate about worms and she likes to give them away to good homes so that gave me a good start. Joy

16 Apr 04 - 08:59 PM (#1163616)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Janie,

I don't mess with them worms none. I have these composting bins up in the woods where I throw chopped up leaves and grass clippings and stuff from the kitchen and, even in the coldest of winter, you dig don in there 4 'er 5 inches and its warm from composting and the worms live in there year round and multiply like crazy. There's hundreds and hundreads of 'em in there. In the spring, I'll just turn it over with a pitchfork and get me a couple 2 or 3 hundred of 'um and put 'um in the veggie garden right after its been tilled. We use straw as mulch in the veggie garden and its keeps everything all moist and them worms jus love it in there. I can go out with a shovel in the middle of August when it ain't rained for a week and in a shovel full of dirt there like 10 worms.. And they is all smilin', too... Happiest worms in Wes Ginny... Almost heaven... Nevermind....

Bobert

25 Apr 04 - 05:32 PM (#1170674)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

April 25, and it's pretty hot out there today in Edgecliff Village, Texas. In the 80s. Bobert, I'm pleased to tell you that this morning not only did my lawnmower tune-up go quickly, it was also easy. I had to replace the blade instead of sharpening it, because last week out behind the garage I bent the blade badly when I hit the heavy iron rod that had been part of the previous owner's earlier garage door opener. It was buried in the grass out beside the garage. . . "clunk" sudden silence. . . were heard in quick succession when blade met iron. I bought a replacement that actually is meant to bend if it hits something. The premium blade is only a buck more, but better a bent blade than a bent shaft!

I poured out the gas (was able to reuse it, minus a little residue that may have come off of the lid) and I drained the oil and changed it. Now I'm in the house cooling off for a few minutes and giving the grackles full access to the field of naked bugs now that their cover is blown. I have my tankard of ice water and I'm heading out to finish the back then go around to the front.

Blooming now: salvia, still, greggi and the Victoria variety (blue) plus a pretty white one that looks like a smaller version of Victoria. Iris and daffodils are about finished. Red yucca, lantana, several sorts, verbena, are blooming. Honeysuckle out back on the creek bank smells like heaven. Onions about ready to pick, tomatoes are putting out blossoms. I even put some tomatoes and cages out in the front yard this year. I find vegetable gardening so entertaining that I may well put some eggplant and peppers out there too, just for the looks.

SRS

26 Apr 04 - 06:44 AM (#1171053)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

I've got a critter story. Boy have I got a critter story. I put an old folding chair in the possum house so as to spend a bit of comfortable time with our half-grown young possum. She is getting too wild to bring into the house for playtime now. I sat down and suddenly the material seat tore and I found myself folded in half with my legs in the air and no way to elbow myself out. Baby possum gleefully landed on my head and began to tear out my hair, wash my ears out with her tongue, and run up and down my extended legs. Had a fine time! True-love was taking a nap and darkness was falling. What a truly silly way to die I thought!
Have you ever tried to breathe while folded in half and squeezed.
After about an hour True-love came looking for me. Took us some time to tip me over and remove the chair - but we managed it.
Sorry no pictures. Every story tells a picture though as my old Mum would say! Joy

26 Apr 04 - 09:10 AM (#1171159)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Well, danged, Joybell. That oughtta teach you not to go gettin' all lovey dovey wid a possum... Them critters is only goood for stews and pies... Awww, jus' funnin'... I loves all them little four legged critters as long as they live above ground... The moles and voles I could do very nicely without...

Hey, SRS. What's worse than a lawnmower that won't start?

Give up?

One that will...

Nevermind.

Everything is up and happy here in these Wes Ginny mountains. Even got blooms on the paw-paws so I might harvest enough paw-paw fruit to make some jelly. The P-Vine is not doing well with her one-day-a-week-parttime-job at the garden center in that she is spending more than she makes. Even with the 25% discount, we're loosing ground.

Yup, me and the Wes Ginny Slide Rule is all over this one. She get's $10 an hour and works 9 hours. Hmmmmm, that's about $75 after taxes. Now lets see what she got fir her $75 this week:

1 Fringe Tree @ $49.99
10 Acuba Japonica @ 39.99/each = $399.99
4 bags of Pine Fines @ 7.99/each = $31.96
2 bags of Permitill @ 8.99/each = $17.98
40 lb's of SuperPhosfate at $34.99
$10 worth of gas for my truck and 4 hours of my time going back yesterday to pick up the acubas and 4 bags of pine fines...

Hmmmmm, even with the discount, I'm sure you all can see that the part time job ain't gettin' no extra tators on the table?....

And it seems that every week is just like this one... Now throw in the 2 hours per acuba for digging holes, mixing in the ammendments to the soil to plant one in, planting one, watering one with collected rainwater and mulching them, and poor ol' me has just eaten up a good two hours. Did I mention that she bought TEN of these monsters?

Now I know exactly what Robert Johnson meant in his song "Walking Blues" where he says "Lord, I don't mind diein'...".

BTW, my gardening friends, I got Turk's cap lillies and Linten Roses going to bed. I'm really going to have to dig some up and give them away... Too bad the garden center won't buy them from us since they are getting' 15.99 a pot for the Linten Roses and 13.99 a pot for the Turk's caps...

Bobert

26 Apr 04 - 10:27 AM (#1171253)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Bobert,

Now you know why I will never take a job in bookstore or a garden center. I couldn't afford to work there!

I buy trees as small as I can find them, usually in five gallon pots. My strategy is this: I don't have to carry as large a plant, dig as big a hole, carry as much water to it (if it's beyond hose stretch), and after a couple of years in the ground they explode into growth and soon catch up to their larger pot-bound relatives. Spend $100 or $200 for instant gratification of a bigger tree and you bust your ass trying to plant and maintain it, and the big thing is so much more compromised by having been in the pot for that long that they're the ones that are harder to keep alive after transplanting. I'm guessing your shrubs are in the 5 to 10 gallon size pots, what's killing you is the repetition. Planting $400 of anything, whether a one big one or lots of little ones is going to be work!

SRS

26 Apr 04 - 11:15 AM (#1171296)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Joybell, what an experience! That one is sure to become a family legend.

Now Bobert---just think of what all that would have cost without the 25% discount! P-vine is a woman after my own heart.

It is dry, dry, dry. Nothing is dying yet, but nothing is thriving, either. The peonies and roses are in bud, but the bud-count looks low this year because of the dry spring. My scarlet phlox drummundii are blooming but are covered with powdery mildew, as are the pulmonaria. The yarrow is beginning to send up buds, but the heads are small. I broke down and irrigated the border where most of my lilies are planted, but I am steeling myself to let many things die if this turns into a season of drought. It is 'spose to rain today. I've left the windows down on the car to encourage it.

Janie

26 Apr 04 - 11:18 AM (#1171299)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: GUEST,MMario

wish we could ship weather around and even things out. we are deep into mud season here - wet, wet, rain, wet, rain, mud, mud and mud.

26 Apr 04 - 12:59 PM (#1171393)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Janie, get some baking soda or potassium bicarbonate in water and a little (teaspoon) dish soap and spray that regularly over the stuff with powdery mildew.

From the Dirt Doctor Site

(To look around for more of these kinds of recipes, visit the "Information Center" link on the site and then search alphabetically.)

SRS

26 Apr 04 - 02:01 PM (#1171461)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: JenEllen

Gorgeous day here.

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading these notes. I had to laugh at SRS's lawnmower blues. Reminds me of my own "FRANKENMOWER" (broken and cobbled together so many times I don't think any parts are stock except maybe the little lever with the turtle and bunny on it).

P-Vine is a gal after mine, too. I went to the garden center this weekend with the STRICT intent that I wouldn't plant anything in the garden until after mother's day (to avoid late freeze). Came out with a truckload of plants and dirts--to wedge into the truckload of books I had just bought at the library book sale--- and spent the cool of last evening trying to plant and work out drip-lines. Irrigation is for crap this year, but with the cost of veggies in the stores? It's worth the shot.

Y'all say a prayer for lots of tomatoes, okay?

26 Apr 04 - 02:21 PM (#1171479)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

SRS,

What a great site! I have not found the baking soda very effective on black spot on my roses, but I'll give it another shot on powdery mildew. I was going to try neem oil when I got around to it, but this is more benign so I'll try it first.

Janie

26 Apr 04 - 07:09 PM (#1171739)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Powdery mildew is a fungus--neem is to repel bugs. You can also use a spray made from corn meal for the mildew (check out the dirt doctor site for that--you soak corn meal for a while then spray the liquid and it's great against mildew and also has great fertilizer qualities).

Here's what Garrett says about Neem:

We have a great little nursery in west Arlington called Hare's that I pass on my way home from work if I take back roads. I stopped and spent $18 today buying a flat of salvia, peppers, squash, watermelon, verbena and lantana. (I also picked up two 1-gallon penstemons that will be gorgeous out front, along with some big purple bell peppers.) I've already put in the squash and watermelon. The other stuff will go in the ground over the next couple of days. The soil is good for digging now--we had five inches of rain over the weekend. I'm going to put in another layer of flower garden out in the front and stick in some red, white, and blue verbena. No flags for me, but I'll be in great shape by July 4th. :)

SRS

26 Apr 04 - 07:19 PM (#1171748)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

Today I'll begin this year's revegetation planting in the West paddock. My little kitchen garden needs some work too and True-love will harvest the last of the tomatoes soon. There is a pumpkin rambling all over the vegie patch and we'll have to play hide-and-seek with it to collect it's fruit. A few passion fruits are dangling on the vine I planted just last year.
In the wild part of our place the tall Banksia marginatas are blooming. They have flowers at all stages at the moment -
bottle-brushy yellow flower stems full of honey, green seed cones and dry brown ones. The Honey Eaters flit about sipping the nectar and soon the Yellow-tailed Black Cockies will raid the old seed cones. They'll fly in from their home on the nearby volcano screaming with excitment, bringing their nagging youngsters. They sound rather like un-oiled door hinges - the sort of rusty hinges you'd find on castle doors. When they leave there'll be half-empty seed cones and torn blossums scattered everywhere. Joy

26 Apr 04 - 08:30 PM (#1171796)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Fir mildew, use "Immunox". Most flox in this area, other than the natives will develope mildew if they are not spayed. Spray when they first come up fir best results. Contains myclobutanil and pernethin and kills off bugs and mildew... If ya spray them early and maybe once in June, that's it. Also, a little "Liquid Fence" and not deer eating 'um either... Flox will make a grand showin'...

Bobert

26 Apr 04 - 08:52 PM (#1171805)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Bobert, the suggestions I posted are organic solutions to stuff like powdery mildew. Since I don't find matches for any of the ingredients in Immunox or the name itself, something tells me this is the nasty stuff Dr. Garrett is encouraging people to avoid. I also bet that baking soda and soap in water is a heckuva lot cheaper!

SRS

26 Apr 04 - 11:36 PM (#1171898)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

The phlox drummondii is native (I think). During good years the mildew isn't much of a problem with them, but years like this spring, when the plants are water-stressed, anything that ever has problems with powdery mildew does. I made the problem worse by planting zinnias in the same beds for three years when my cut flower business was bigger. I garden organically so the Immunox is out.

SRS--The neem is also used to treat and prevent powdery mildew and black spot. I've had moderate success using it to treat my roses. Since it is an oil, it may just protect the foliage from the fungus spores.

'Course my biggest problem with spraying ANYTHING is keeping up with it. I have a lot of garden--both veggie and flower--and am your typical way too busy working mom. Since my son started playing sports it has knocked a huge hole in my weekend gardening time. My husband is selling at a local farmers market on Saturdays so all the Saturday sports stuff falls on me. I had to cut way back on my flower business, but I haven't yet brought myself to cut way back on my gardens. I have switched back to predominantly perennials that are well adapted to my area, but I do love all those masses of pretty blooms on a lot of the annuals.

I have started using row cover in the veggie garden to protect against insects and it is a huge time saver. By the time the row cover has to be removed when the plants start blooming, they are usually big enough to withstand some insect damage.

Joybell--you paint wonderful word pictures.

We have gotten a few showers today. Hope it keeps up overnight.

Janie

27 Apr 04 - 09:11 AM (#1172203)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

SRS, I'll check on the Immunox and have bookmarked that link for the P-Vine to check out. She generally is into organic gardening so I'd be surprised if we're using anything nasty... But, hey, if baking soda works, great...

We got 1.2 inches of slow rain over the last 36 hours and today the sun is out so I'm expecting a lot of growth. We've had some damage allready to several hostas which the deer ate the tops out of as they were coming up so those will be slightly deformed this year. I've sprayed everything with Liquid Fence (organic) so the deer will leave them alone until we have accumulated 5 inches worth of rain when I'll have to repeat.

Our azaleas are popping out which is real nice. We are members of the Northern Virginia Azalea Society since there isn't one in this part of Wes Ginny and have several yet-to-be-named plants from the hybridizers who are members of the Society that just have nubers on the tags. Kinda like mystery, pot luck plants... Camillias are in full bloom...

Question:

We have an Empire Apple tree which has never made any apples. We have a Courtland which we thought would polinate the Empire but that hasn't happened. Will any other apple tree polinate it. If so, can I go to the nearest orchard, shake some polin into an envelope and shake it onto the blooms on my Empire?

Bobert

28 Apr 04 - 07:11 AM (#1173086)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: black walnut

Toronto: It's currently Minus 3 degrees Celcius. That's COLD!!!!!

My whole yard is 'garden' - no grass to mow - but they took down our Giant Rotting Maple Tree a few weeks ago, and are putting up new fences, so my plants and bushes have been totally trampled, except for a wee bed right outside the back living room bay window. Thank heavens for those serviceberries which have buds eager to bloom.

Meanwhile....BRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~b.w.

28 Apr 04 - 11:55 AM (#1173220)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

BW,

And we are feeling (gloriously) chilly at 60%F! Bet most of those trampled plants make a spectacular comeback.

We have to have some major grading and drain work done because our basement floods everytime it rains. The guy came yesterday and told my hubby that a large perennial bed that I have (approximately 50'x 12') is going to have to be lifted to protect the plants while he works, and then replanted. This is NOT the best time of year to do that to my perennials. Not to mention that I don't really have the time--but what the heck--maybe I'll use this as an opportunity to do a little redigning....

We are having an unusual and absolutely lovely cool spell, with daytime highs in the 60's. Wish I was outside.

Janie

28 Apr 04 - 02:24 PM (#1173352)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I have planted things over the last couple of years according the the size information on the tags, only to have them grow much larger than expected. And some things I just accidentally planted too close. Either way, this year I'm once again moving some stuff. Salvia greggi is very happy in my front yard, and transplants pretty easily. It's crowding out the day lilies, so a couple are moving out to a bed by the curb. I have some rosemary to move there also. Iris grew so big and lush all around the yard that they're crowding other stuff, so once their blooms have completely withered I'll move some of them to new beds and take a few to friends. It isn't the best time of year to transplant, but it's not like our 100 degree July days when it pretty well fries stuff you dig up. I would eventually like to end up like BlackWalnut with little grass and mostly garden. Right now it's still mostly grass, but after every rain I get out and dig up a bit more turf. I've also been experimenting with No Till gardening--the jury is still out on that.

SRS

28 Apr 04 - 02:42 PM (#1173371)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

SRS,

I will be very interested in your assessment of the no-till gardening, especially since you also have a yard full of the dreaded and dreadful Bermunda grass. Be sure to keep us (me) posted on that.

I absolutely love reading about all of your gardens and gardening activities. Music and good dirt---nothing feeds the soul so well!

Janie

28 Apr 04 - 05:34 PM (#1173507)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

So far the "No Till" method translates to "Mulch now, 'til[l] later" (when you struggle to dig it all out). The result, and perhaps this is because I didn't use enough paper or deep enough mulch (though it was several inches deep!) was that over winter and in the early spring the bermuda grass under the mulch grew up through it, and put out a new set of roots in the mulch. That meant when I wanted to plant in the bed I had to dig out a double layer of roots. Geez, but that's not convenient!

I'm going to try spraying several times with vinegar in the sun then putting down paper and mulch. I want to kill off the green a couple of times before I try burying the roots and hoping they rot.

I did find in one side of the no till bed that some of the roots were doing what they were supposed to, rotting and composting, and the area worked nicely. So I think there is a trick I must have missed the first time I tried this.

SRS

28 Apr 04 - 07:06 PM (#1173581)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

SRS,

4 or 5 years ago, when I installed most of the beds in my front yard, I tilled it up(or rather my hubby and Dani's hubby did), and then raked out as many of the clods of sod and roots as I could. I put down layers of cardboard until I ran out, and then used newspaper for some of the beds. I bought a couple of dumptruck loads of topsoil (the frontyard was mostly a shallow layer of red clay over hardpan) to put on top of the cardboard/newspaper, and then mulched heavily with shredded bark. Boy, did I have the arm muscles that year! Within a year the Bermuda grass had come up through the newspaper. Until this spring the beds where I used large sheets of cardboard were pretty clear of the grass. Where I had smaller sheets, and therefore more overlapping pieces of cardboard, the grass wended its way pretty successfully up through the overlapping layers after two years. I also have trouble excluding it at the edges of the beds, even with an edging barrier that goes about 3 inches deep. because my yard slopes but I raised the beds up to be nearly level, the depth of the topsoil I brought in varies from 6 to 18 inches. I have noticed that the deeper the topsoil, the less the bermuda grass has made it up through the cardboard or newspaper layers.

The first bed (and the smallest) I installed from scratch was about 8 years ago. It did not have fill-dirt in that spot and though the topsoil was heavy clay, the hardpan was down 9 to 12 inches. I lifted the top 5 inches of sod and soil, double-dug the area, hauled in topsoil and compost, and edged it with a barrier to 6 inches deep. Every year I lay down a few layers of newspaper and shredded bark. That has worked the best, but it was by far the most work to install.

The large bed that I have to lift for the grading was there when we bought the house, but had been untended for many years. It had good dirt. I tilled it up and enriched it with compost. After I replanted it I laid down 3 layers of newspaper and 4 inches of shredded bark. It took 3 years for the bermuda grass to extensively reinvade that area.

I think I have concluded that however I create the beds, mulching yearly with several layers of newspaper covered with shredded bark is what will do the best job of controlling the bermuda grass. As I get older, and my back gets more fragile, I am thinking about goats:-).

Janie

28 Apr 04 - 07:22 PM (#1173595)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

I've got rid of a few acres of Kikyu grass. (I'm not sure of the spelling) but it sounds like your Bermuda grass in habit - deep long runners for roots. Repeated spraying is fairly sucessful. Mulching works to a degree but sends some roots further down. The easiest method was thick black plastic over patches of grass under the hot sun. I move the plastic on after about 6 weeks and plant the area up with local plants. I have to time it all fairly carefully so as to plant at the ideal time but plastic, then mulch, then planting seems to work quite well. I always have to pull up some resistant runners for a time. We don't have lawn either just native grass mostly in clumps. We still have three paddocks of introduced pasture grass to reclaim outside the house garden. 2 acres down 2 to go or there-abouts. Joy

28 Apr 04 - 07:23 PM (#1173597)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Native azaleas in full bloom tonight. One we scavenged from the mountain about 4 years ago has finally bloomed for the first time and it is a hot pink! And beautiful, indeed. Another savenged on4e is a ligt pink and is absolutely loaded with blooms. The hydrangas are swelling and the oak leaf up about 6 feet tall. The ostich fern has sent up 4 babies and they have come up right in the middle of a righteous stand of yellow bell. Several serious stands of Solomon's Seal (both real and false) are coming up along the paths in the woods along with Jack-in-the-Pulpits coming up everywhere. The larkspur has beautiful little blueish purple blooms. Bleeding Hearts (both white and pink) in full bloom. Hypatica mounding like crazy. Trillium in full bloom. We have the native maroon and the rarer native yellow plus some white, which I think has sported or mutated, that we ordered from a wild flower nursery in N. Caroline. Govenor Muton Rhodo, who is purdy danged tough to please, is going to bless us with two of his maroonish blooms any day now. The foam flower that we planted 2 years along the run odd creek has made so many babies its unreal and now lines a 20 foot section of the creek as does this dwarf iris and behind it lots and lots of black kohosh that I've been finding in the woods and moving into that area... My euphorbia bed is kicking some butt and I'm going to let it go this year since it is a new bed but will deadhead it next year since it is somewhat invasive...

My mahonias aren't doing well at all. This is their third year and I'm loosing lots of leaves during the winter. We cut on almost to the ground as an experiement. It's alive so we'll just have to wait it out and see if thet may be the way to go.

We lost one Cady Tuff to voles and bought one to replace it. The other two have mounded to about 2 feet wide with lots and lots of white flowers...

Oh, I love spring...

Gonna get potatos planted in the next couple of days. Have lettuce in but taht's all so far in the veggie department....

Oh, I love spring...

Bobert

28 Apr 04 - 07:34 PM (#1173608)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Bobert, it sounds like you have a wonderful shade/forest kind of yard. Many of those plants are also in the Northwest, or they have close cousins there. Not many of them will grow happily down here in Tejas.

Whoever invents a way to kill Bermuda grass without nuking the rest of the garden will be a Billionaire within about six months. I hate the stuff!

SRS

28 Apr 04 - 07:39 PM (#1173614)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

Does anyone have lighting bugs yet? Tell us about lighting bugs. We don't have them here and I love to hear about them. Joy

28 Apr 04 - 08:48 PM (#1173650)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Oh Bobert, It sounds so glorious, it makes me homesick. We used to camp a good bit over in the eastern mountains not too far from where you are (near Frost, WV) and I so remember those beautiful native azaleas. I would love to see all of your spring ephemerals blooming right now.

Joybell, I had forgotten this, but my one shady bed where I can grow a few of the plants Bobert just described was made from the sod I raked out of the front yard. I piled it up under a huge old Burford Holly and covered with black plastic for 2 years. THAT killed the *(&%##@ Bermuda grass!

Lightning bugs are still several weeks away from emerging where I live. I love catching them with my little boy. We put them a mesh bee cage overnight in his bedroom, and then turn them loose in the mornings.

The lightning bugs over in the North Carolina mountains are a different species from what we have here in the Piedmont, and to me, because of their strangeness, they are even more magical. They are smaller, they light-up white, and they move in cloud-like drifts. It is awesome to camp up in the mountains in summer and have them come drifting in around you in the dark.

Janie

28 Apr 04 - 08:50 PM (#1173653)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Anybody know any songs about lightning bugs?

Janie

28 Apr 04 - 09:04 PM (#1173661)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

It's a bit soon for fire flies here in Texas, also. We didn't have them in the Northwest, so they were a pleasant surprise when I lived in New York City, and other parts of the east and southeast and now Texas.

SRS

28 Apr 04 - 09:08 PM (#1173664)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

* but

any day now we'll get those goddammed Junebugs! Stoooopidest bugs around, bouncing off of walls, doors, lights, people, cats, floors. . .

28 Apr 04 - 10:32 PM (#1173706)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Wierd but I had a lighnin' bug land on the pole for the prch umbrella just yesterday but it wasn't in the mood to light up??? Don't ask be> I ain't no bugologist, 'er nuthin'....

But we got a couple o' Monarks hanging around. I got a butterfly house est up but I don't know fir sure if they moved in 'er what but they are hangin' close...

Got a lot5 of juvinile birds at the feeders... Can't wai fir the gold finch kids. They are a hoot when they first arrive... Talk about adolescence, them gold finches are somehting else...

Bobert

28 Apr 04 - 11:18 PM (#1173725)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Didja ever "fly" Junebugs as a kid? We'd tie a thread to their legs and fly 'em in circles. Never a thought for the Junebug--just the thrill of flight and control.

Janie

29 Apr 04 - 05:39 AM (#1173882)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: greg stephens

WEll, we've had seven kinds of butterfly so far this year, which isnt bad for April in the middle of an industrial city (Stoke,UK). Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell, peacock, Speckled Wood, cabbage White, Small Blue and Orange Tip. No Commas yet, which is a bit surprising as they are normally early.
Today we have a fine Aoril display of flowers in the wild bit: bluebells, wild garlic and the apple blossom are fully out, and looking gorgeous. The cowslips look great (bit of a cheat, I bought a plant and put it in to see how it takes). The celandines and daffodils are finished now bit looked great a few weeks back.
The best colour is a whole drift of forget-me-nots which have just appeared from nowhere. We hacked back the damson trees last year, and that let some light onto a patch of ground that was only growing brambles. And now there is a dense mass of forget-me-nots there. A wonderful sight. How they got there I dont know. Maybe the seeds have been there dormant for a while perhaps? One theory is that there is quite a lot of birdshit around where the flowers are. Perhaps some roosting bird in previous years had a taste for chewing on foget-me-not heads and excreting the seeds?

29 Apr 04 - 12:45 PM (#1174155)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Hey, Gregster, good to hear from ya... Man, You'd love to be sittin' on the back deck now smoking one of yer hand-rolled's, drinkin' beer and seeing everything in bloom... Since you were here we have palnted easily as much new stuff as was here when you last saw it.

Hey to Kate...

Bobert

29 Apr 04 - 12:56 PM (#1174165)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I don't know what the source was of the Queen Anne lace that is in our lawn, because I don't remember seeing any go to seed last fall, but my lawn on one side of the house looks like solid carrot tops. Not so pleasant an aspect as a big cluster of forget-me-nots! Now that it has been mowed a couple of times they've spread out flat, and look like they're here for the duration. I go out after each rain and spend a few minutes pulling all I see in various patches, just to see what happens. I'm probably clearing the way for the next batch.

29 Apr 04 - 02:00 PM (#1174229)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

I may be nuts, but I love QAL and let it come up where-ever it wants.
Drives the kid who mows my grass nuts trying to dodge it.

Forget-me-nots---what a neat surprise!

Janie

30 Apr 04 - 12:33 PM (#1175100)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: GUEST,MMario

we have Queen Anne's lace and goldenrod in huge drifts on our property - (not at the moment of course)

30 Apr 04 - 01:32 PM (#1175143)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: black walnut

Sounds beautiful MM'o. Two of my favourites, where there's room. I have less room, so I like my black-eyed susans, purple coneflowers and white obedients to wander.

My new fences are looking great. 75% finished. Much trampling on perennials and flowering currant bushes. Ugh.

Where the giant maple towered last year, covering 4 back yards, we'll replace with paper birch, hackberry and a yet undetermined evergreen.

~b.w.

30 Apr 04 - 04:07 PM (#1175265)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

You're going to plant a hackberry on purpose? I can't mow and chop and dig and prune fast enough to keep them contained. There's a big one in the middle of the back yard that the renters before I bought let grow there, and there are hackberries ringing my fence, growing over the cyclone fencing and pushing through the stockade fences. There's a huge one in my next door neighbor's back corner that shades out a bunch of the back of my yard and is going to collapse one of these days. They spring up in the lawn and flower beds. Might as well plant kudzu.

SRS

30 Apr 04 - 07:05 PM (#1175380)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

Thank you for the fire-fly tales. True-love took me to the Midwest on a trip to visit his home country and these stories, all of them on this thread, remind me of the wonders we saw.
There is a poem by Thomas Moore about Dismal swamp which features, along with doomed lovers, a Fire-fly lamp. I fancy I've heard True-love sing a little piece of a song about them too. I'll ask when he wakes up.
It's the time of moths here now. Big Granny moths, soft brown with big eyespots of irridescent green on their wings and tiny pale moths that fly against our windows and get pounced on by Tree Frogs. The annual pilgrimage of Bogong moths will start soon. They fly over us on their way to the High Plains. Since the Dreamtime they have made this migration, steering their course by the stars. Now, sadly, the lights of our cities distract millions of them so that fewer make it to their breeding place on Mount Bogong. If only we could persuade people to turn off the lights for a couple of nights a year. Sigh!. Joy

01 May 04 - 12:31 AM (#1175568)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: MMario

The first of the magnolia blossoms out in our side yard today - the ones both front and back are slower - for some reason the north side tree blossoms first. Also the first azalea blossoms. The wine coloured myrtle is a-blooming - it's ahead of the regular blue. And a few lonely blossoms on the forsythia - where the deer left any...

01 May 04 - 05:18 AM (#1175660)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: greg stephens

Bobert: less of the "sitting in the garden smoking hand rolled cigs" if you please. I gave up on Oct 22, and I'm still going strong. I just sit drinking coffee or tea and look at the bluebells now!

01 May 04 - 08:26 AM (#1175713)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: black walnut

S.R.S. - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! We've read many gardening books that said that hackberries are great for wildlife - but I didn't realize that they had a wild life of their very own!!!!!!

Any problems with Kentucky Coffee trees????

~b.w.

01 May 04 - 11:44 AM (#1175855)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

black walnut, where are you? I don't know the answer to the coffee tree query. The question isn't so much "any problems with X tree," but "how will this tree do in this climate, part of the garden, with this level of water, cold, etc." It might be GREAT in Kentucky but a weed tree in Mississippi and a stragler in New York. (This is a wild example, I don't know anything about that tree).

Don't go to the commercial nursery to ask that question--they have trees they want to push, regardless of their quality. Ask the local forester in your city park department or find a local organic gardening group.

You could also go to your state's agriculture university and poke through their plant recommendations. They're bound to have some descriptions of the habits of trees in your area.

We have a local commercial nursery that prides itself on well-adapted ornamentals and as many natives as they can manage to propagate. It's called Weston Gardens In Bloom, but their information is pretty specific to this North Central Texas growing region.

Who knows, maybe hackberry isn't so bad where you live. But since it's a prolific native here, it isn't something anyone has to plant volunatily.

SRS

01 May 04 - 11:45 AM (#1175858)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Typos typos. Arrgh, this head cold seems to make them worse.

"Voluntarily." I saw it the moment I hit the Send button.

01 May 04 - 11:53 AM (#1175865)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: MMario

lloking in a garden catolog last night

GOLDENROD @ 8 bucks apiece - bare root!!!! I've got a fortune in my back yard!

01 May 04 - 02:00 PM (#1175973)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: black walnut

S.R.S. - I'm in Toronto, Zone 6a. Hackberries are one of our native trees and it's on the list of trees that the city will plant in one's front yard for free. So it can't be all bad! I think that things do grow a bit slower up here, what with the snow falling all year and all. (kidding - we don't have snow on July 1 - that's why we celebrate Canada Day). The Humber catalogue (the gardener's bible for Southern Ontario imho) says that the hackberry grows in "poor, wet or dry soil...Tolerates wind and pollution and glows in the dark". One reason I like the 176 page Humber catalogue (they no longer print them so if you do own one, don't give it away!) is that they mark all native plants and trees with a maple leaf. I do look in books and websites for more information, but it's a pretty reliable little manual and you can check out the price and availability of a product right away.

Kentucky Coffee Trees are also native here. They don't say much about them in the Humber ("A handsome tree...") but everything else I read about them sounds good ("a tree for future generations"). I certainly think I'd rather brush the fallen pods of a coffee tree off my furniture and patio, than sit down in smushed berry juice from a Hackberry Tree. They sound a bit sloppy to me.

I'm going to plant a Redbud too. I already have 3 Saskatoon Serviceberries, and the Redbud would be a nice contrast at the other end of the garden. Also 3 river birches, I think.

My rhubarb was on the readjusted fence line. It's toast.

~b.w.

01 May 04 - 10:00 PM (#1176234)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Hackberry trees don't have berries you eat. They're not like mulberries, they're hard little round things. Hackberry falls within the elm portion of the oak family, so they are subject to parasites like mistletoe. They also have lots of galls on the leaves. The trees seem to survive all of this stuff.

Cold and rainy and windy today, but supposed to be nice tomorrow. I made myself go out a couple of times today and I rounded up some cypress bark mulch, plus some topsoil and manure. Along with my compost and soil ammendments I'm gradually building up the soil here. But with this darned cold I have so little energy that I had to take naps between trips. [sigh] Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, but I'll limit myself to putting plants in the beds that were already dug, and putting down the mulch.

SRS

01 May 04 - 11:23 PM (#1176261)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Assuming we are all calling the same tree hackberry, it is a nice, though not real sturdy tree here in North Carolina that is not invasive at all. It makes a nice shade tree here, but once large, it does not stand up well to the severe winds we get with summer storms and hurricanes. We have one in the back yard. The most problematic tree I have is my Pecan. The squirrels bury the nuts, and they sprout up everywhere, quickly sinking taproots that make them difficult to pull out. Nip the seedlings at ground level and they just resprout.

My old garden roses are starting to bloom now. The poliantha roses won't be far behind, and the peonies will burst open any day. The bearded iris are just past prime, while the dutch iris are nearly finished, and the siberian are in bud. Aphids nearly killed my columbine before I looked closely enough to see what the problem was. (One problem with a big garden and little time is that some plants can kind of get lost and neglected.) The buds are swelling on the peach-leaf bellflower, which is one of my absolutely favorite flowers.

Yarrow "Moonbeam" is starting to color up, but it is by far my earliest yarrow. The coreopsis "Early Sunrise" will bloom tomorrow or the next day. I love the way it pops up here and there each year in different places. The bleeding hearts are finished, as are the last of the tulips and late season daffodils. The larkspur is elongating but the buds are just starting to set. The oriental poppies are getting tallo, but there are no signs yet of buds. About half of my dahlias have emerged.

Leo, 4 years ago in the middle of January I rescued what I was told was an aster from the garden of a friend's mother who had died. The house was going to be sold and razed. I transpanted 2 plants. Only two. Well. Turns out it was a wild goldenrod. They can be so difficult to key out that I haven't tried to identify it yet--someday--. In the fall it is lovely with tartarian asters, but it is the most invasive creature I have ever had rampage through a garden. These things do well in poor fields. Imagine how it took to my lovingly prepared garden soil. Now it is invading my neighbors lawn, though she doesn't know it yet. I have created a monster! We do have 10 acres of what used to be a farm about 15 miles from here. It has some goldenrod but not alot. Maybe I should move some of this out to there?

Help! Here it coooomes....Wake up, Janie. Wake up. Still spring so it isn't actually chasing me yet. What kind of magnolia ya got, Leo?

Janie

02 May 04 - 12:22 PM (#1176335)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: black walnut

Serviceberries are JUST ABOUT MAYBE ALMOST going to blossom soon (Toronto).

~b.w.

02 May 04 - 07:20 PM (#1176562)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Rain, rain rain. Yes! Two days of good rain coming down at a rate that the ground can absorb it. Whoopee!!!

Janie

02 May 04 - 08:23 PM (#1176588)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

Rain here too at last! Wetland filling up and frogs calling. Magpies calling ready for thier Winter courting. Joy

02 May 04 - 09:53 PM (#1176623)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Oh, that beautiful rain! We had two hours of steady rain here this evening and all is well. I had gone by a friends who is in need of some help increating a privacy planting and since it was his birthday, I took a young white pine, mixed in my ammendmants and planted it for him. The rain should give it a ral shot in the arm...

Bobert

03 May 04 - 12:17 AM (#1176691)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I not only pulled myself out of my sickbed today, I think I conquered this stupid bug. I went out this afternoon and dug up the Bermuda in one bed and I finally put some steel edging around it. Tomorrow after work I'll put down compost, newspaper, and mulch, to try to keep the Bermuda out. I filled the wheelbarrow full of the weeds three times, and I left a lot of the dirt on them this time because by past experience I've found that with shaking the dirt those pesky balls from the nut grass drop back into the bed. I'll compost it all before I return it to a bed. I have some really sweet plants to stick in there once it is all ready. I worked around the existing Desert Willow, a red yucca, some ornamental grasses, a white gaura (covered with aphids, but I sprayed it) and a lovely recumbent pink verbena. New will be some penstemon and lamb's ears.

It felt so good to get that exercise! A neighbor walked by, out with her dog. She said they had concluded I must do all of this gardening for therapeutic reasons. Partly that, but mostly because I just enjoy the work.

I'm going to dig a bed outside my bedroom window :) but the soil there is still too gooshy from the rain. Maybe by mid-week it will be a bit fluffier. I have so many projects that I'll probably never run out of them in all of the time I live here in this house, and that's fine with me! I enjoy anticipating how much better it will look each year.

Are there any gardeners on this thread who don't like the work? (I'm not talking about August 5th when it's a f**king 113 out and you have to go mow the lawn).

SRS

03 May 04 - 08:28 AM (#1176825)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

SRS somehow I missed that you were sick. Glad you are better. Dirt under the fingernails cures alot of ailments, doesn't it. I have managed to avoid the nut grass in my yard, though many of my gardening friends have it to deal with. Are you going to put in fragance plants in the bed outside your bedroom window?

Janie

03 May 04 - 12:23 PM (#1176937)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I have some rosemary for that spot, and nearby there already is a vitex that smells very nice. The garden center had some lemon geranium on sale over the weekend and I may go pick up a couple (I used to have that as a houseplant in the Northwest--I'm still surprised at the things that grow outside down here in Texas!)

Each evening for the last couple of weeks as the humidity rises the honeysuckle is in the night air. It smells wonderful! (I would never plant it intentionally, and not near the house--it's pretty wild around here, but I do love the look and smell of it).

SRS

09 May 04 - 08:30 PM (#1181910)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

My back yard was filled with fireflies (lightning bugs) on Friday evening. They were wonderful!

I've been digging the Bermuda grass out of flower beds and going ahead and putting in steel edging. It helps a little bit.

SRS

10 May 04 - 02:34 PM (#1182452)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: black walnut

Sigh....fireflies!!!! Well, our serviceberries finally bloomed, and the barren strawberry groundcover looks magnificent, especially when it weaves around the creeping juniper.

~b.w.

10 May 04 - 03:48 PM (#1182508)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

No fireflies here yet. BW, early spring is so wonderful. I like to think about you having yours now, while my early spring is long gone.

The roses and peonies are in full glory now. The Oriental Poppies are starting to bloom, and the larkspur will start blooming any day.
I blew the family budget this weekend on summer annuals to replace all the pansies and violas I have in the pots and windowboxes on the porch. I have one 25' x 5' bed that is planted enitely in yarrow "Colorado" mix. A few of them are starting to color-up. I like to stand out there in the moonlight and fantasize about how it will look when all the yarrow is blooming. A good part of the weekend was spent trying to pull-out the runners of that wild goldenrod I mentioned in an earlier post. I truly have created a monster!

Janie

14 May 04 - 07:47 AM (#1185545)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: black walnut

Whaaat? This thread is creeping...has spring long gone? Not here by any means. I went to the garden centre yesterday and today I'm planting! Perennials, of course. Chocolote boneset eupatorium, barren strawberry, white and purple coneflower, little bluestem, and on and on and on.

~b.w.

14 May 04 - 08:48 AM (#1185613)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Purdy warm here in Wes Ginny but everything looks great... Iris's in bloom, some late blooming azaleas at the height of their color, clemitis (white) in bloom, candy tuffs loaded, larksper hanging on, shooting star (blue) in bloom, bleeding hearts (white and pink) still hanging in, rhodos either in bloom or just opening up depending on cultivars, solomons seal and yellow bell both still blooming and is lilly of the valley...

Ferns are all unfolded and we're amazed at just how many new babies we got this year...

We've been out spraying hortcultural oil on verything that tends to suffer from mold or scale... Plus "Liquid Fence" for deer... Busy time of the year...

Bobert

14 May 04 - 12:07 PM (#1185739)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: JenEllen

I managed a walk to the garden this morning and found that I HAVE PEAS!!!!! The onions are going great guns too, so there will be WallaWalla Sweets to share!

14 May 04 - 12:12 PM (#1185745)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

So, JenEllen, you went in the garden for a pea? Don't do it too near the onions!

14 May 04 - 12:17 PM (#1185749)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: JenEllen

LMAO....damn syntax.... I was going to reply that I went in the garden to turn the water on, but that doesn't sound all that great either...LOL

14 May 04 - 05:06 PM (#1185786)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Friday, at last! Another weekend looms! I have lots of stuff to do in the house--putting shelves in a bookcase, painting, tiling, cleaning. . . but I know that since it'll be nice weather and we had a wonderful heavy rain yesterday (means the soil will be PERFECT for digging in!) that I'll be out in the yard all day tomorrow. I'm gradually cleaning out the beds, putting in new mulch, putting in a few bedding plants in places, etc. I have some new gladious bulbs to find a place for and since my iris went totally into hyperdrive this spring I have to transplant a few of them at the same time. I have a couple of small shrubs to move in to as-yet-undug beds, and I have to turn the compost. It's a big compost enclosure and a small new compost pile beside it.

I have lots of things that have seeded the area and started small sprouts that need to be dug up and transplanted, and several of those are promised to neighbors. I have to start digging out some stumps and roots from a hedge I murdered last year in the spring. If I manage one or two a weekend (ha!) I'll have them out by mid-summer.

I also have news! My neighborhood is adjacent to 200 acres of prairie and riparian land that was sold and was slated for development. Several developers came in on spec and tried to get the village to rezone to little zero lot line ghettos, and we wouldn't let them. This last guy actually did buy the land before he went through the process, so he was more motivated to work with us (the land had been zoned multi-family, for apartments, and no one wanted those and he didn't want to build apartments because our zoning was so strict, as one guy said, "you'd have to own a Lexus to be able to move in there.") I spoke, as did others, about the need for larger yards. In the end, his PD (planned development) was set with existing standards of mid-sized lots in the village, at least 75' wide (not huge, but larger than one finds in large urban areas today). And I feel like I worked hard and single-handedly to get the city council to understand how important to accept the land along the creeks, where they won't build, as park land. (They were originally going to have the developer keep the land--long story). The developer agreed last night to deed all of that over to the city, so that means a nice little trail system over about 50 acres of greenbelt. Not huge, but we only have about 2500 population now (this development will probably add about 1,500 more people) so it's a nice ratio of people to park land. I sure couldn't afford to buy the land and just leave it as it is, but at least we'll get nearly 25% of it (including the largest chunk that is across the street from me, as it follows our creek). Our village is completely surrounded by Fort Worth, and we're very near to a trail system that follows our creek from where it enters Fort Worth. I think we can connect to that in the future, to everyone's benefit. The village plans to leave the native vegetation in place. Yessss!!!

So what is everyone else doing this weekend?

SRS

14 May 04 - 06:27 PM (#1185843)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

Congratulations Stilly River Sage. We've had those encounters before we moved away to the middle of nowhere.
Just had our first frost for the year. Very light but there's a chill in the air now by dusk. Days are warm and sunny. We have a visiting Boobook Owl. Hope he/she stays. They sound like Northern Hemisphere Cuckoos. (Our Cuckoos don't say "Cuckoo") A small flock of Grey Fantails arrived a few days ago. They have a sweet song with bits that sound like someone sawing on a fiddle. Pretty little restless birds, very curious and tame even in bushland. Joy

14 May 04 - 11:20 PM (#1185992)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

This morning as I drove to the university I looked up to see a group of birds--on the leading edge was an owl, and behind it were the harriers, a bunch of small dark birds. Could have been starlings or grackles, or perhaps blackbirds. The large bird was beautiful--at first I wondered if it was a seagull, for the size, but as I passed under I realized what I was seeing.

After work this evening I dug out about 3/4 of an existing bed that was filled with Bermuda grass, leaving the desirable plants in place. I'll finish tomorrow when it's full light, because I have to dig very carefully around a prickly pear cactus (transplanted from the acreage across the road). "Very carefully" is for me, not the cactus! If it gets broken, all of the parts can sprout roots. If I get poked on the spines, I'll sprout little festering spots until the spines work their way back out.

SRS

15 May 04 - 04:23 AM (#1186067)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Liz the Squeak

SRS - congrats on the planning scheme! Everyone seems to want a house with a garden but developers are only interested in getting as many tiny house boxes into as small an area as possible.

The scout hall I want to buy already has a 3/4 bed house attached to it, but developers want to make the hall into 2 more houses and 3 garage/sheds into another 2 houses.

I want to turn it into a sewing business with cheap B&B on the side.... anyone got a spare £2million I could have please?

There's a big concrete playground that has planning permission for a communal garden for these houses. I think that's the only thing I'd keep the same, dig up the concrete and turn it into a fragrant garden.

Spring has finally given way to summer, I have 15 different flowers out, including an extremely late crocus (planted in March because I forgot to do it in October) and a very early Californian poppy.

And it was even warm enough to sit out there last night.

Mind you, we have greenfly here in plague proportions.

LTS

15 May 04 - 01:04 PM (#1186264)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

No, I'm not ready for summer yet! Keep spring going a bit longer, please! Summer here is Hot-And-Muggy-As-Hell and hard to get motivated for yard work.

15 May 04 - 01:21 PM (#1186274)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: pdq

Here in the high desert (Great Basin) we have had two hard frosts, even some snow, in the last six weeks. A local garderner remarked "Aah, May fifteenth, he official date to plant tomatoes...for the third time!"

15 May 04 - 06:49 PM (#1186467)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

Prickly pear was introduced here about 100 years ago. Then when it looked like it was a bad mistake, bugs were introduced to kill it. The bugs preferred native plants so cane toads were brought in to eat the bugs. Seems the toads don't feel like eating when the bugs are active - wrong part of the life-cycle, so now the cane toads are killing everything. Any bird or small mammal that tries to eat the toads gets poisoned. Round and round we go!
On a happy note - our baby Brush-tail Possum we rescued and raised is ready to be released on our property. She will have to find other playmates. She's fun to have in the house but it's like living with a monkey. She swings around on the curtain rails and tears across the bookcases, knocking everything flying. If we are eating she grabs food from our plates. That film about Helen Keller comes to mind, the family meal-time before Patty Duke got through to Helen. Joy

15 May 04 - 10:59 PM (#1186567)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I think that's before Anne Bancroft got through to Helen (Patty Duke). (Though I think there was a remake with Duke in the Sullivan role, I always think of the old movie first).

Sounds like a way to mess up a house in a hurry, having a character like that running around. But not quite as messy as having a 15-year-old daughter. . .

SRS

16 May 04 - 08:12 AM (#1186694)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Liz the Squeak

Well, today my garden is full of unhappy blackbirds and my house is full of unhappy cats.

A baby bird has taken its first jump from the nest and landed in our garden. It seems to be OK as it's secreted itself behind some ivy and is being fed regularly by adults. To help it out, I've shut my cats up (can't do anything about the other 5 in the area though) and left it alone. I have three very agitated blackbirds hopping about the garden and trying to look big and fierce now. I think I may have to sneak out and scare off another cat.

It's very distressing to see the poor bird, but I know better than to pick it up, so it looks like my three puddies are going to have a boring afternoon on the sofa!

LTS

16 May 04 - 08:36 AM (#1186705)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Liz the Squeak

Bad day for Mr and Mrs Blackbird - I found baby No.1 in the bedroom, decidedly the worse for wear, but it looks like it was a clean kill, which, considering I have 2 cats with hardly any teeth and the third has dicky legs, is about all we can hope for. I'm doing regular patrols of the garden now where chick No.2 has moved to another sanctuary but is in peril from the ginger tom from over the back.

LTS

16 May 04 - 10:36 AM (#1186755)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Part of the "survival of the fittest" theory involves being able to raise your young successfully. If these birds weren't particularly good next builders, then their young will die and they won't be passing along their inadequate genetic material. If they learn from this mistake and figure out how to raise their young by bolstering their nest and building it further away from cat predators, then they'll be smart enough to reproduce.

Darwin in a nutshell.

I'm going to put some purple martin houses out in the yard this year, in preparation for next spring. They do a wonderful job of eating mosquitoes. (I plan to have a house, not gourds. My neighbor has a couple of them going and has offered to advise me when I'm ready to put it up.

SRS

16 May 04 - 05:47 PM (#1186923)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Liz the Squeak

BAby No.2 seems to have made it back to the nest, anyway, Mr and Mrs and Aunty blackbird seem to be still collecting stupid amounts of food for something......

LTS

16 May 04 - 06:13 PM (#1186937)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Raptor

It is a myth about baby birds being abandoned because a human picked them up and put them back in the nest!

Many nest records involve taking babies out of the nest boxes to wiegh them for records!

But you should always keep cats indoors!

Feral cats kill thousands of birds each year!

Raptor

16 May 04 - 10:08 PM (#1186999)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I do agree with Raptor. I've heard over the years that returning the baby is probably more dangerous to the human than the chick--like being dive-bombed by agitated parents, or falling from your ladder in the process. If they keep falling out, then there's something other going on (siblings competing for food and space, or a poorly built nest).

Years ago we had two bluejays build their nest in a rather small pine in the back yard. The kids were thrilled about it. Came a huge heavy wind and rain storm one night and the tree was too limber (thus mobile) and it pitched the baby out. We found it in the yard the next morning, dead from exposure.

SRS

11 Mar 05 - 02:36 PM (#1432429)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

New year, new gardening question.

I was going through some old clippings this morning, tossing most but bringing a few back to the top of the stack for further consideration. I found one from Dec. 1994 that my Dad sent, to do with the discovery of the Wollemi Pine in Australia. It was thought to be extinct 150 million years ago, but a few small groves turned up. This story is much like what occurred in China with the Gingko and Dawn Redwood trees. Relatives of the Wollemi Pine, according to this site, are the "Kauri, Norfolk Island, Hoop, Bunya and Monkey Puzzle pines." They're not related to pines like those in the New World (Pinus sp) and elsewhere.

Have any of you put rare or unique features in your yards and gardens, along the lines of growing a tree like this? I have a Dawn Redwood in my front yard, but they are widely cultivated now, and this one will probably do very well in our creek-bottom soil. The Wollemi pine grows in a rain forest, so I won't attempt to grow it in the North American prairie. But what rare plants are you cultivating, or considering adding to your yard? And have any of our Oz gardeners taken a look at this tree?

SRS

12 Mar 05 - 01:26 AM (#1432834)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: JennyO

Wollemi Pine (Words: Denis Kevans & Sonia Bennett, Music: Sonia Bennett)

Wollemi, Wollemi, Wollemi - look around you
Keep your eyes open, ah look about you.
Wollemi, Wollemi, Wollemi - look around you
Keep your eyes open, ah look about you.

12 Mar 05 - 01:36 AM (#1432837)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: JennyO

Oops, hit submit too soon. There's more. That song was written by Sonia Bennett and Denis Kevans from the Blue Mountains and is sung by Sonia Bennett. Here is a more complete version, although I suspect there are other verses:

There's a tree that's so rare,
Grows deep in the gorges out there,
Deep in my heart I will sing of the Wollemi Pine,
No preaching words, no angry tones,
The Wollemi stands all alone,
One hundred million years of passing time.

Chorus:
Wollemi, Wollemi, Wollemi - look around you
Keep your eyes open, ah look about you.
Wollemi, Wollemi, Wollemi - look around you.
Keep your eyes open, ah look about you.

The only clue to your tale,
Were some leaf prints in the shale,
And we thought you'd come and gone long years ago,
But suddenly what do I see,
A living Wollemi tree,
Where the mountain waters pure and sweet do flow.

Chorus:
Wollemi, Wollemi, Wollemi - look around you
Keep your eyes open, ah look about you.
Wollemi, Wollemi, Wollemi - look around you.
Keep your eyes open, ah look about you.

I believe you can now get your own Wollemi Pine, and apparently they are quite suitable in gardens. I must admit I haven't got one yet. I tend to go more for fruit and vegetables.

Jenny

12 Mar 05 - 01:51 AM (#1432840)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: open mike

wollem in ther local native Concow Indian
dialect means white
or "white man"

i ahve a dawn redwood too,
and some very ancient plants
come up in my garden..
Horse tail is a primitive
species.
http://www.aquaticplantsofflorida.com/horsetail.htm
You do not often see Loquat fruit trees--i have
several.

12 Mar 05 - 08:47 AM (#1432981)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Liz the Squeak

It's a new year and Mrs Blackbird is already scouting for nest sites. Mr Blackbird has seen off one contender for a prime spot and is patrolling even as I type.

The blue tits and coal tits are bouncing around getting ready and the magpies are gathering on the roof.

LTS

12 Mar 05 - 12:39 PM (#1433105)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Where I grew up in Washington State we had lots of equisetum (horse tail) in boggy spots around the yard and in ditches along roads, etc. It is very old. (There was also always lots of skunk cabbage, but I don't know how old that one was, and I can visualize others I can't put a name to at the moment).

I've been planning to find a place to put a magnolia. That's an ancient flowering tree.

SRS

12 Mar 05 - 07:28 PM (#1433350)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: dianavan

Forsythia, ornamental cherry, hyacinth, daffodils and lungwort.

The soil is so dry for this time of year. All crumbly and nice. There is only a tiny bit of snow left on the mountains. With no snow pack it means our water reserves will be very, very low. The weather is lovely but I fear that it will be a very dry, hot summer with many forest fires.

23 Apr 05 - 10:14 AM (#1468781)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage

A pair of house finches are nesting in a plastic bag hanging on the decorative iron work on the non-opening side of the sliding glass back door. I reinforced it with a couple of extra bags. They don't seem to have noticed that their yellow house is now white. The bag is filled with dried zinnia heads from the garden last year. Food galore, should they be partial to these flowers! (I've seen little birds tear these apart to eat when the plants start drying in the fall.)

My front yard is exploding with four or five different types of iris--and I wish I had a satsifactory second act, but I don't. It will subside into a sea of spiky tall leaves until the vitex comes into bloom and the lantana start their continual color. Neither of those is due for another month or more at least.

Salvia greggi (many colors, not just pink) is beautiful now, and it comes and goes as it get watered or rained on. There is a lot of that in a couple of areas of the yard, and I'm planning to transplant one or two to spread the wealth.

SRS

27 Feb 06 - 09:02 AM (#1680184)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

The lettuce, spinach, radishes and bunching onions are all sown and beginning to germinate. Hope to get kale planted this weekend.

Have daffodils in bloom as well as crested and reticulated iris. The wood hyacinths are about to bloom. Larkspur, ammi and poppy seedlings are all over the place--I have to get to thinning them.

The lawns around town are looking quite charming with clouds of color from spring wildflowers--henbit, white and purple violets, common speedwell, mosses blooming, and of course the dandelions. And all the fall planted pansies in pots and beds around porches are beginning to put on their show.

The weather may be cold--but spring has come to the southland.

Janie

27 Feb 06 - 09:05 AM (#1680188)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: MMario

grumble,grumble, grumble, grumble,grumble,6 inches of snow saturday night another two this morning gromble,grumble,grumble,grumble.

27 Feb 06 - 09:06 AM (#1680189)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Donuel

I've had lantern flowers blooming outdoors in the backyard since Feb 1st.
day lillies are sprouting about an inch.
All my indoor bromiliads are blooming and the gardenia bush has buds.

27 Feb 06 - 10:17 AM (#1680250)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Daffodils got a mild coat of ice last week, but are still looking great, though they're standing in dry grassy weeds. Lily plants are spouting in back and need to be transplanted to rescue from the dogs who now live back there. We finally got rain. On top of our now-powdery soil, that equals a finely ground mud. Supposed to be warm today, but I don't know about next weekend, when I might be able to finally attack the yard with a shovel and get some fencing up to keep the dogs out of my veggie patch (where a couple of volunteer onions have sprouted and my garlic is returning.)

SRS

27 Feb 06 - 10:19 AM (#1680251)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: MMario

is the garlic returning to your garden similar to the swallows returning to Capistrano?

27 Feb 06 - 10:29 AM (#1680261)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

SRS--we have had a dry, warm winter following a very dry fall. Usually the ground here is too soggy to work in February, but not this year. Hope we are not into another cycle of drought.

This winter has been so mild that my Sunny Border Blue veronica has bloomed sporadically all winter long, even with the short day lengths, the roses never went fully dormant, and even the new growth is already developing black spot.

MMario--imagine your ground soaking up that snow as it melts--and smile!

Janie

28 Feb 06 - 08:41 AM (#1680990)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Well, NOAA has officially classified my area is in a moderate drought. That be bad news with it just February.

Janie

28 Feb 06 - 08:47 AM (#1680999)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Still too early here in Page Co., Va... Plus we're at 1270 feet so I'm not expecting much for another month and a half... Sniff... But I got the garden plowed (70X40) in October with about 2 tons of chicken manure so it's ready and willing just waiting for, ahhhh, some heat... High yesterday was 35 degrees....

But I'm really looking forward to our first spring and wandering back up into the mountain so see what wildflowers grow up here... And mushrooms...

Bobert

28 Feb 06 - 08:51 AM (#1681002)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Bobert, I really miss the mountains in spring.

Janie

28 Feb 06 - 09:15 AM (#1681017)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: number 6

-10 c out there today ... miles yet to go before any gardening here. I just hope we don't have the rainy, foggy weather we had last year.

sIx

28 Feb 06 - 09:23 AM (#1681023)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: MMario

heck - that's positively balmy - it was 7 degrees farenhiet colder then that this morning as I drove through town

28 Feb 06 - 09:26 AM (#1681024)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

The high today here will be 60 F (she said, with just a hint of gloating in her voice)

Janie

28 Feb 06 - 02:15 PM (#1681402)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

78 here today. And since it is February 28 and it is 78 degrees, through extrapolation you can guess that July 28 is going to be a whole lot hotter. The garden languishes at that point.

SRS

01 Mar 06 - 09:47 AM (#1682230)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

85 for the high today! This afternoon I'm going to take a few hours off from work (comp time) and I'm going to to transplant a salvia gregii (shrub) that is too big where it is and will only get bigger once the growing season kicks in. This will at least give it a fighting chance to survive instead of being cut out entirely. I had a bed in which I tried to get lantana to grow shrub-like, but it wasn't cooperating. I have one that is doing it right in another part of the yard, but these never caught on. I'm going to move a couple of salvia into that bed instead. It's about as tough a plant around here as any, and they are very happy in this soil and climate.

It smells to good to work around it, too. Salvia are one of those plants that you can buy in a tiny little 4" pot at the beginning of the year and have it just as big at the end of the growing season as the one you spent beaucoup bucks for in a gallon pot. That's my kind of plant! It also comes in great colors and here it blooms almost year round.

SRS

01 Mar 06 - 09:54 AM (#1682241)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: MMario

saorely tempted to send down a hit squad - but on the other hand maybe I just need to go visit the texas relatives.

01 Mar 06 - 10:04 AM (#1682254)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Leo, you can come visit here and dig as much as you want. You can go out in the backyard and ponder what it is about my soil that makes it so much work when I take a shovel to it but that my dogs can excavate a smallish replica of the Grand Canyon in the course of a few minutes. I wish I could get them to do that digging in the garden plot, then put the fence up around it. Maybe we could make it into a game--except they wouldn't know when to stop and would dig up the entire back yard. . .

[sigh]

01 Mar 06 - 12:23 PM (#1682362)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

SRS--is the lantana perennial where you are?

Janie

01 Mar 06 - 02:36 PM (#1682476)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Sorta. The recumbent ones seem to die off unless we have a mild winter, but the upright ones, while they start new branches each year, come back very nicely.

SRS

01 Mar 06 - 07:35 PM (#1682712)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

SRS (and anyone else) This past summer I had some lantana growing in big pots and they seemed really drought tolerant. I'm on the hunt for drought tolerant--or even drought-loving flowering plants for mid through late summer or even into fall. I prefer perennials or self-sowing annuals, but don't mind starting annuals indoors from seed if that will get me the blooms.

Do you find the lantana to be really able to handle drought? What about drought with high humidity? Many plants of the Southwest don't tolerate our humidity, heavy soil, and often soggy winters very well.

Have you ever done mass plantings of lantana?

Janie

01 Mar 06 - 09:37 PM (#1682821)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I've seen them, they look good. Do you know salvia gregii? It is a marvelous plant here in the hot muggy summers in Texas but it is a marvelous xeriscape plant. It comes in lots of colors, with some particularly wonderful deep reds.

SRS

02 Mar 06 - 09:17 AM (#1683175)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: JennyO

Interesting thing about lantana. Here you are talking about cultivating it, and in Oz we have trouble getting rid of it. It is officially classified here as a noxious weed!

02 Mar 06 - 10:09 AM (#1683219)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Jenny-it must be coming onto fall where you are. I just read a description of the common species lantana as "a brilliant bloomer with bad manners in frost-free climates!"

SRS--two years ago a friend gave me a salvia gregii that has done OK but not great in my garden. He doesn't remember the cultivar and I have been thinking about trying some other cultivars to see if they do better. I do love those reds.

One plant I am trying without success to dig out of my garden is obedient plant (physostegia virginiana.) It was already here when we bought the house and I think is an old cultivar. It gets really tall, flops over, is a very uninspiring lavender/pink, gets powdery mildew and invades everywhere.

It should have been named 'disobedient plant.'

02 Mar 06 - 10:24 AM (#1683240)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

In the Pacific Northwest where I grew up Scotch broom was everywhere and was a noxious weed. It is pretty in the spring, but it takes over everything. So when I go to the nursery down here and I see them selling a variety to plant in the home garden I think they must be insane to push this one. I love finding the various Tolmia/Tellima/Mitella (and yes, the names of the related plants were all named as a sort of anagram of Tolmie's name) understory plants from the northwest sold here, but they are marketed as houseplants. "Youth on Age" is one that is well known, also called "Piggyback plant."

SRS

02 Mar 06 - 12:24 PM (#1683339)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: billybob

Snowdrops in my U K garden, and snow in the air too!cannot wait for the spring flowers.Bitter cold , roll on summer!

02 Mar 06 - 12:32 PM (#1683346)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: John MacKenzie

My garden's under a foot of snow at the moment!
Here
Giok

02 Mar 06 - 05:16 PM (#1683552)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: maeve

Ours here in Maine are frozen stiff, too, but I see the bantam chickens are quite able to dig dusting holes! Daffodil tips ("Quail" variety)are showing in the pine grove.

I've got to dig out the white obedient plant from the roadside border, and move it out to the back where it can't be quite so abundant. In mud season, that is.

02 Mar 06 - 05:26 PM (#1683570)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

Fun to read our old threads and compare isn't it?
We are greeting this Autumn (Fall) with great sadness. Our mountains -North of us, burned with a way-too-hot, way-too extensive bush fire. The mountains are an isolated range with no native plant communities left around them. Not all areas of Australia are able to cope with fire. The effect on wildlife has been devastating. The trees burned into their roots and the nesting hollows are gone. It takes about 300-500 years for a mature tree to form a hollow and many of our birds and mamals need them. In the burned areas (60-80% of the mountains)there are not even any places to put man-made nesting-boxes. In the swamps the peat is still burning. Foxes and other introduced predators will move in to clean up any animal that happened to survive the fire and now has no cover. There will be recovery of some plant life but nobody knows if the rare and beautiful eco-system will ever be as species-rich again.

02 Mar 06 - 05:42 PM (#1683593)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Joybell

On a lighter note. Hildebrand left the bedroom in rather a hurry yesterday. Basking in the sun - on the floor, on my side of the bed, was a beautiful gold and brown Tiger Snake! I think it was the one I'd spotted the day before draped tastfully in the native violets by the back door. About 3 feet long but slim and young. There's a narrow gap below the front door which we should have blocked. Not many people are willing to tolerate snakes - all of our local ones are deadly although they usually give humans a wide berth. We see them as a necesary part of our world. We'd rather not have them hunting mice in the house though. We persuaded it to leave finally. Long story. We all survived it. Me, Hildebrand and the snake. Cheers, Joy

02 Mar 06 - 10:01 PM (#1683832)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Maybe we should retitle this thread "spring in the southern half of the northern hemisphere!

Very warm and very windy today with humidity down to about 25% on the North Carolina Piedmont. The soil is dry down to about 4 inches except in the heavy clay. Daff's and wood hyacinths in bloom everywhere, as are the ornamental cherries and Bradford pears.

Joybell, It makes me so sad to read the extent of the devastation caused by the fires in such a unique and vulnerable area. When green things and life begins to return, even if very different from what was there before, there will be such awe at what nature does to heal and redeem itself one way or another.

I looked at pics of tiger snakes--sure is a bunch of different species of them. The brown and gold ones glowed.

Janie

02 Mar 06 - 10:17 PM (#1683853)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Well, we had a warm day here with temps in the 50's and I'z been on the tractor trying to clear a hill that has a run-off pond at the bottom ans was pleasantly surprised to find a coupel hundred frogs in it today.... They weren't there yesterday and they are all of size so they have been burrowed in for the winter and seeing them all out floating on top of the water was nice to see...

The P-Vine watered and watered today since it seem we are coming out of the freeze without much water in the ground....

I'm getting a little excited to go wild flower hunting in the next month....

I've found a place where I just know the rattlesanke orchads are going to be growing just from the looks of it....

Bobert

05 Mar 06 - 07:14 PM (#1685998)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. I spent the entire day in the church of the garden-first time I have been able to spend a lot of time at it for awhile. Hands, nails, knees and butt covered with dirt. Face too.

Thinned the larkspur, ammi and papaver somniferum. (Just read an article that suggests calling them 'breadseed poppies' to stay out of trouble. Alls I knows is they am beeyouteefull.) Divided some crocosmia corms. Weeded. I'm tempted to let the common speedwell alone. It does make a pretty spring groundcover. The formosa and asiatic lilies are sprouting as are some of the dahlia that were heavily mulched. If you pm'd me about wanting dahlias, I'll be digging them soon and will let you know when I ship them. Most of them are NOT promised yet if anyone wants some tubers.

It continues to be very dry, and drought is forecast to continue in my area due to la nina. Because of drought conditions, I am seriously considering doing only a salad and herb garden instead of a full veggie garden this year. Those of you in drought areas also, what are you going to do?

Bobert, we have a little bloodroot, goldenseal and wild geranium from the mountains, growing up against the north side of the house. I guess the toothworts, spring beauties, trillums, trout lilies, and anemones will be up soon. Enjoy them for me when you walk out into your mountains.

Janie

06 Mar 06 - 10:28 AM (#1686403)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Sob!

They're tearing up the prairie where I always walk my dogs so they can survey and put in streets and butt-ugly tract housing. Why do they wait till spring and kill everything that has begun to nest out there? A sniper needs to take out that bulldozer . . .

I was going to dig up some yucca and mesquite out there. I have some cactus and garlic from out in that field. A little something to save a piece of that wild area. I tried taking a walk out there with the dogs on Saturday but wasn't feeling good (suspicious meal at a restaurant the night before had me sticking close to the bathroom) and had to turn back, so we didn't even get one last good long walk through our little wild spot before it was assaulted.

:-(

06 Mar 06 - 03:17 PM (#1686608)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

So sad. I remember when a developer cleared the acreage adjacent to my parent's home--again in spring. My sister, who lives on the Maryland Eastern Shore, has watched as farmland was sold off and converted to tract housing. She calls such places 'house' farms.

We are having a little bit of rain today. Not much--but every little bit is welcomed.

Janie

07 Mar 06 - 04:36 AM (#1687030)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: GUEST,DB

I live in South Manchester, UK. Last Friday I, and my botanising friend and neighbour, Priscilla, went looking for Spring Crocuses (Crocus vernus). We found five colonies spread through the Mersey Valley. Most were in churchyards and cemeteries and most had, as far as we can ascertain, not been recorded before (or may be survivals of old records). There is a possibility that some of these colonies may be very old and could have been introduced by medieval medical orders of monks (C. vernus is not native to the UK but is widely naturalised).
The interesting thing is that many of these colonies are close to (or intermingled with) colonies of another introduced Crocus, C. nudiflorus (the Autumn Crocus). This latter species is believed to be associated with the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (a medical order formed after the Seige of Jerusalem in 1099). They were said to have used the stigmas as part of a treatment for malaria. There is also a possibility of a link with Cluniac monks from Burgundy (where both species grow wild). It's obviously very complicated and needs lots more work!
Anyway, apart from the theoretical aspects, there's nothing to lift the spirits so much as botanising, or contemplating new growth, on a fine Spring day - as, of course, all of the posters to this thread can attest!
Actually, last Friday was a fine sunny day - but about an hour after I got home a blizzard started!

SRS - I sympathise with you over the destruction of your prairie - property developers are a curse here as well. I hate the greedy bastards and hope they all burn in Hell!!

07 Mar 06 - 06:32 AM (#1687093)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: GUEST,Cats

Having spent half term week in our pond after breaking the ice, literally, and the past two weekends dodging snow showers to bed up marsh marigolds and water lilies that had taken it over, we now have a pond we can see again. The froggies and newts are all back in it again [yes, we left it all on the edge so they could get back in] as are the iris, lilies and marigolds. But, out in the garden we have dwarf iris, crocus, hellebores, daffodils, primroses and our cowslips are in bud. Cothele House has had to postpone the daffodil walk this year by 3 weeks as not enough daffodils are out yet. They have 20 Cornish varieties there and if you are in the area it's a must.

07 Mar 06 - 09:31 AM (#1687242)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: MMario

HA! to you southern gardeners -- I have a snowdrop in bloom - and another one in bud! so there!

07 Mar 06 - 10:20 AM (#1687281)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Is this like your snowdrop?

I took the dogs for a walk last evening. The woods closest to us should be left alone (they're in a flood zone where they can't build houses) but the bulk of the area has been scraped on the south end of the property. All of those trees and shrubs just pushed into a pile. I expect them to move to the north end today (goodbye yucca). As we walked across a 2-acre spot the city owns for a future park (they keep it mowed) where the dogs know they can plunge into tall grass and shrubby trees they got more excited--they love that part of the walk and they know when we veer left that is our goal. But we got to the edge of the park lot I stopped and they stood there looking around. They're dogs, they probably don't register loss in the same way I do, but they certainly noticed change. The tall grass they wade into wasn't there and the trees we circle around (don't want to walk under them or you'll get ticks) were missing.

We'd be more careful this time of year anyway, since snakes will be out soon if they aren't already. But now, if we walk around the edge of this biomass miasma we''ll have to lookout for whatever wildlife made it out alive. So maybe we'd better not walk out there. It's not all bunnies and hawks who were displaced. Foxes, coyotes, snakes, cotton rats, skunks, possums, etc. Disoriented critters I don't want to meet nose-to-nose with the girls.

I took some pruning sheers out and trimmed off the dead stuff on top of the pots at the side of the house. I left the dead plants over the winter for the seed supply. This morning I noticed seedlings in my pot that last year held thumbelina zinnias.

SRS

07 Mar 06 - 10:28 AM (#1687291)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: MMario

THIS is what my snowdrop looks like. It is under the dryer vent and also gets a bit more sun then most of the garden.
Most of the snowdrops are just 1/2 inch tall green stubs - but one bloomed and there is one a few inches away in bud.

07 Mar 06 - 10:27 PM (#1687939)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

One less mourning dove in the back yard. It was a slow-moving bird, apparently. Slow enough for the dogs to catch it. I took it away from the catahoula, but the pit bull is usually the one who catches stuff.

SRS

08 Mar 06 - 09:31 AM (#1688218)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Tinker

MMario, I so envy that snowdrop !!!!
After all the rambles here about blooming flowers and dirty hands I donned a winter coat and with only a few shivers headed out to check the garden. The warmth of a few weeks pat sent the daffodils and a few sheltered tulips inches above the ground which is now freezing around them... BG
Amazingly enough when a poked through the leaves mulching the herbs along the driveway I discovered that the Rosemary and Parsley both have survived the winter so far.... They never have before. Perhaps it's because I planted them in order this year.... Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme....
The north side of the house is still has snow covered beds so that observation will have to wait a bit.

Living vicariously through you all...

Tinker

Janie, I'd love some dalias ( now those I hve to lift in the fall ) I'll pm addy.

08 Mar 06 - 10:14 AM (#1688247)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Next week is Spring Break for the kids and I think this year I get a couple of days off at the university (usually students and faculty get days off but rarely staff or administration). I'm gonna go dig in my yard! I'm going to pull the dead grass and leaves out of the beds, gonna dig out the dead lantana in one bed and move some saliva over there, and I'm going to move some bunches of day lilies to the front of the house. I'm going to put some wire enclosures around a few tender things in the back that the dogs will clobber otherwise, and I'm going to clean up a couple of piles of stuff that has been needing to be moved out to the curb for a while now.

Yess!

08 Mar 06 - 11:12 AM (#1688286)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Alice

Snow on the ground here. A few brave green tips of bulbs are coming up near the south side warm foundation, but mainly it is still cold and snowy! I have a new connection to the phrase "planting a garden". My colleagues and I refer to making cold calls for sales as "planting seeds". Now, going out to meet strangers in their businesses, not knowing if I'll get rejection, is "planting the garden". That image helps to motivate! When the ground is receptive, I can plant a seed that grows both their business and mine.

08 Mar 06 - 12:18 PM (#1688346)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

SRS, I myself rarely move saliva from one bed to another. I usually just drool anew. *BG*

Janie

08 Mar 06 - 04:26 PM (#1688531)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Good one! Spell check doesn't get those kinds of typos! Salvia is more durable than saliva in the garden (unless you're talking about the industrial strength stuff my dogs crank out).

08 Mar 06 - 06:44 PM (#1688635)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

We brought both blood root and wild geraanium with us when we moved but it's not up yet but with the weatherman calling for 60's and 70 degree temps over ther next week I reckon they'll be pokin' their heads out to see the new place...

I have found an old logging road about 150 feet back in the woods which is kinda hard to see but its defiantely a road so I'll get back there and start opening it up to I can get up the mountain some...

The folks 'round here saw that the morels grow up there... Most don't know much about wildflowers but I'm bettin' that we'll have a ll kinds of wildflowers to go with what we've brought up here...

Oh, we do have about a hundred frogs who decided that winter was over and are swiming 'round in the run-off pond...

We've been cleaning out 'round the pond becuase last year it was too overgrown to actually get to it without a struggle... But I've run the tractor a couple full days and have got the entire area cleaned up real nice and will at least ge some grass growin' 'round it fir this summer and maybe a couple azalea beds since we have over 200 azalea plants ready to go outside to live that we have grown from cuttings...

More later....

Hope everyone is enjoying thre coming of spring... We sho nuff are...

Bobert

08 Mar 06 - 10:01 PM (#1688769)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Bobert I hope you'll take some photos and post them on one of these free sites where we can all visit and enjoy the process of your setting this property to botanical rights.

SRS

09 Mar 06 - 10:09 AM (#1689189)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Alice

Woke up to snow! All the melted bare ground is white again, and I'm really tired of it.

09 Mar 06 - 10:29 AM (#1689208)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Alice, I forget. Are you in Montana?

Janie

09 Mar 06 - 10:35 AM (#1689217)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Sorcha

Snow here too, but only about an inch....tulips etc trying to come up...

18 Mar 06 - 07:57 PM (#1697269)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Today I lifted a big bed of Colorado Mix yarrow, digging out as much bermuda grass as I could, and divided the plants. Some of the color tags have gone missing, so I hope I didn't eliminate any colors. There is a lovely terra cotta that I particularly like, but it doesn't spread as well as some of the other colors in the mix. I will be very sad if none of it got replanted. Everyone who walked by got offered divisions, and a lot of people took them. I expect to see it in a lot of gardens this summer.

I hope to lift my dahlias tommorrow. I have requests from Michelle, MMario, open mike and Tinker. Anybody else?

Janie

18 Mar 06 - 08:25 PM (#1697289)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I've thought about trying dahlias here, but I think I'll experiment with something inexpensive from the local nursery, and if it grows, I'll get in line next year.

I just wish I could have gotten into the garden last week when it was so nice. This darned cold has made all of that work off limits. This weekend I'm beginning to feel better, but it has poured and thundered all day so far. Great for spring weeds to get a head start on me.

SRS

18 Mar 06 - 10:26 PM (#1697350)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Glad your cold is better. You'll be able to get out there soon.

Dahlias love the heat, but they must have the obligatory inch of water per week to do well. They also require that you stay on top of deadheading. I bought most of mine when I was selling cut flowers at the farmers market, so they are all quite tall and keeping them supported as the season went on was a major task. (I did try some of the very short varieties like Figaro as garden plants, but they seem to be very desease prone.) I have 30 to 35 varieties, and something like 50 plants.

Our water rates are extremely high, my garden is very large for one person to maintain, and I simply have to transition to lower maintenance and drought tolerant plants. But it is killing me to take them out. There is no other perennial that puts on such a gorgeous show for such a long season. (Here in zone 7 my earlier ones start blooming late June and the show goes on until frost, although they slow down blooming as the days shorten in early October.) Dahlias come in so many different shapes, sizes, colors and types of blooms that I can never get tired of them. I will keep a few absolute favorites that I just can't bear to part with.

The daffs, tulips and wood hyacinths are all still going strong. When they fade out in a few weeks, there will be a long spell where the pansies in pots will be about all that is in bloom. Then, in early May, the roses, peonies, poppies, hesperis and ox-eye daisies will start their show. Mid to late May the coreopsis, larkspur, veronica and yarrow will begin to bloom. I don't know what to expect from the bleeding hearts this year. They started blooming right after emergence when not even a couple of inches tall. They usually bloom in April and May. I don't know if they will bloom again or not. They are so short I can't tell bloom stems from unfurled leaves.

Janie

22 Mar 06 - 10:59 AM (#1700233)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

The latest Martha Stewart Living has a very nice pictorial display of dahlias and information on growing them.

I know it's spring because as I squint through my bleary eyes I can see the pollen-laden catkins on the neighborhood oaks.

Ah-choo!

My poor nose, this has been a tough March.

SRS

23 Mar 06 - 08:31 AM (#1700946)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

We got rain! Not buckets, but at least half an inch over 2 days so it soaked in well. Dani & I are headed out tommorrow for a girls only weekend at the beach (a books and basketball lolligag of a weekend) and I have taken a couple of extra days off to work in the garden. Guess I need to get off this computer, get my housework done and get out there in the dirt!

Janie

23 Mar 06 - 11:07 AM (#1701066)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

We had somewhere between 5 and 7 inches of rain last weekend, so this is the weekend coming up to begin digging. Soil was hard as concrete most of the winter. Our drought isn't over, but for gardeners, we can take a shot at moving things around now.

My neighbors have mowed on both sides of me now, so my tall weeds in the area we consider "lawn" are conspicuous. I need to dig a few holes and place some largish (5-10 pound) limestone rocks as markers flush with the lawn level so I can mow over them but still see the boundaries that the Invisible Fence broadcasts for my dogs. There have been little plastic flags on wires but those can't stay now that mowing season is here.

Allergies are in high gear, but I'm drugging them into submission and hope to have a successful weekend outside. I also found a great rocking chair at the curb in another neighborhood yesterday. It's in the garage, but needs to be reglued, sanded, and finished for my front porch or a garage sale, whichever appeals to me.

SRS

18 Apr 06 - 11:54 AM (#1721163)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

The garden is just getting going (the yard, actually, I haven't had time yet to put in the garden) and now it's gasping from the heat. April 17 it hit 100. The electric company did rolling blackouts because they were unprepared for the demand. Me, I'm ready, I had the dogs' wading pool out a day earlier. :) They're good, at least the pitbull is. She's in and out all day. She'll show the catahoula the trick.

101 predicted today. I'll be setting the clocks again this evening.

SRS

18 Apr 06 - 01:36 PM (#1721262)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

It looks like we are going to get just enough rain to pull off a decent spring garden. After that--who knows.

My roses are coloring up and the Zephririne Drouhin has a few blooms opened. Some early cultivars of my Dutch iris usually get hit by a late frost, but not this year. They look really pretty. Bearded Iris are in various stages of bud, bloom or withering, depending on the cultivar. The Hesperis is starting bloom, tho' they are much shorter this year--probably less rain and no fertilizer.

Janie

18 Apr 06 - 01:54 PM (#1721281)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

My iris are past their peak--last week was the height of their season. They spread every year, but last fall I didn't thin them, it was so dry and the soil was too hard to work in. So I'll thin later this spring and give a few to folks they're promised to and maybe start another bed or two. They're tough, drought tolerant, heat tolerant, and they have nice looking leaves even when they're not blooming. What more can a xeriscape gardener ask for?

SRS

18 Apr 06 - 02:37 PM (#1721329)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: LilyFestre

In Northern Pennsylvania I have daffodils, forsythia and chives showing themselves. The chives are about 15" tall and I am using them daily...YUM! Just this week we added another forsythia bush, a lavender Rose of Sharon bush, a pink hydranga, 2 apple trees, 2 cherry trees, 2 pear trees and a variety of grapes. I have Lily of the Valley, Gladioloas and Black-Eyed Susans to be planted this weekend. My sunflower bed has been tilled and is ready to go. Also, my Mom gave me a small, portable greenhouse for my birthday last week....I'm hoping to get that put together tonight or tomorrow afternoon and then I can set out the lettuce and pansies that just wouldn't do well with the colder nights we are still having.

My husband and I have a wager going about when the leaves on the trees will pop. Keep your fingers crossed....I can use the cash! :)

Michelle

18 Apr 06 - 07:57 PM (#1721440)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Well, it is officially spring here on the side of the Blue Ridge and we are now seeing waht weathered the move and what didn't... So far, ouuta the 500 plus plants that we moved, we've lost maybe 3 of them...

The twin leaf that we brought up here is doing fine, as is the larkspur, blood root, shooting star... We even accidentally brought up some tooth wart, which doesn't grow around here and also a single May apple, which I used to hate but it has come up next to an azalea we brought...

We have also bought 3 river birches, a coral bark maple, a paper bark maple, red twig dogwood, a thunderhead pine and half a dozen other plants for landscaping...

Variuos azaleas are in bloom... Seein' as the P-Vine and I are members of the Northern Va. Azalea Society, we have a couple hundred 1 and 2 year olds that we have gotten from hybridizers with name tags like BV-103 'er JK-598... We have had over a hundred of the 1 year olds in pots on the porch under 24 hour light... They will soon go out to the heeling bed and join the 2 year olds which wintered quite nicely with 4-6 inches of pine straw mulch...

Of course, the dogwoods are in bloom everywhwere... Our largest rodo, Cynthia, that we moved has been touch and go... About 70% of the plant died but the rest is coming back and it has several buds which we are debating removing since the plant is stressed... Welll cut away the dead and pray that it redovers fully... CDynthia is a wonderful rhodo and grows to be 30 feet tall...

We have some new opportunities to grow sunny plants that we didn't have back in Wes Ginny and have totally open minds so if anyone would like to throw a few of his or her favorites out, we're all ears...

Bobert

18 Apr 06 - 10:43 PM (#1721574)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

Bobert the solomon's seal that you gave me at the Getaway 2 years ago is spreading nicely. the hellabore is hangin' in there--it will be another year at least, I think, before it blooms.

Sun plants? I love crocosmia and there are a number of different cultivars. Check out Brent and Becky's catalog. (Check them out anyway--they are located in Virgina (near Richmond, I think,) and they have a wonderful and diverse selection of bulbs, including a good number of natives.

Oh. Are you still pretty much sticking with pinks, purples, lavenders, blues and whites? If so, nix the crocosmia.

Yarrows are good. Cerise Queen, Apple Blossom and any in the Summer Pastels mix would work with P-vines color preferences. Do you have peonies? Asters? If you don't mind the maintenance Dahlias are wonderful. Check out Swan Island Dahlias (www.dahlias.com) for the widest selection. Park carries the Karma series which are really nice also.

Lilies! Natives, species and hybrids. I bet they would love a sunny spot on the side of the Blue Ridge. Goldenrod. Ginger lilies. red valerian. Uh...shut up, Janie.

Bring lots of garden pictures to the Getaway this year. Puh-leez?

Janie

19 Apr 06 - 10:38 PM (#1722435)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

I notice the hesperis is not nearly as tall this year--because of lack of water I would guess. The larkspur may not get as tall either. The basal leaves on both the hesperis and the poppies are starting to yellow- again from not enough water?

We have had many dry summers and falls, but In my 20 years here, I have never seen such a dry winter and spring.

Janie

19 Apr 06 - 10:52 PM (#1722445)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

My weeds were plenty tall when I mowed the back 40 this evening. Just in time for rain to grow it all tall again. It sprinkled a little on a walk with the dogs later, and now thunder. But the yard needs it, especially because I'm moving dirt from in back to the front (I'm putting in a small berm) one wheelbarrow at a time. It has gotten pretty hard lately and needs the rain to soften it for removal. I'm also planning to build a low wall in front of the berm (this is actually a traffic control thing, something to slow down anyone who might miss the turn at the street that intersects my street and end up on my lawn or heading toward the house). Hasn't happened yet, but I don't want it to ever happen. The wall will be (hopefully, depending on what I learn about building walls before I do it) high enough to be comfortable to sit on, or maybe place a few pots. The berm behind it will slope gradually back toward the house and will have something low on it. I don't want to create something that blocks the view of the house (for security reasons).

I've also planted a tree out there but after four years it appears that it isn't thriving. I may take it out and put in something else, but at any rate, it will take a tree a long time to be big enough to stop a car.

Anyone else do defensive gardening like this?

SRS

20 Apr 06 - 07:12 AM (#1722655)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Leadfingers

Another Spring and the Jungle at the rear of my house is getting thicker ! Perhaps I ought to get out there and clear some of it and try and find the lawn that USED to be there !!

20 Apr 06 - 07:13 AM (#1722656)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Leadfingers

Or perhaps just settle for 200th post !

20 Apr 06 - 06:22 PM (#1723239)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Just for that, leadfingers, you have to actually tell us something about your yard. Or jungle.

SRS

20 Apr 06 - 07:24 PM (#1723285)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: LilyFestre

We just finished planting a 50' row of peas along the ridge! My honey's Gramp used to tell us that peas that got planted by April 15th would be ready for pickin' on the 4th of July. We're just a little late!

I'm planning on planting sunflowers along the same row in a few weeks which will also provide a trellis of sorts...all which will make a lovely natural fence which I can't wait to see!

Michelle

20 Apr 06 - 07:41 PM (#1723297)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: bobad

It's been an exceptionally dry and warm spring in my neck of the woods, eastern Ontario. The daffodils are blooming and lilacs budding. The garlic is 6 inches tall and the asparagus is starting to poke through. It's dry enough that I will till the garden tomorrow, many years this is not possible 'till June.

20 Apr 06 - 08:37 PM (#1723350)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I had the strangest sensation out in the garden last week. We live near an industrial corridor of sorts (industries that don't pollute but that do have occasional smells). Mrs. Baird's Bread is next door to Miller Brewing, so some nights you step outside and can smell the yeasty beer, other nights you step out and you can smell tomorrow's bread baking. I stepped outside on a Mrs. Baird's evening and leaned over to pet the dogs--who had apparently discovered and chomped the green of an onion volunteer left over from last year. Between the fresh onion on their breaths and the bread smell, it was rather like smelling a nice pizza crust baking!

SRS

20 Apr 06 - 08:41 PM (#1723356)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Janie

And if we didn't garden, SRS, we would miss all of those moments!

From your post, bobad, sounds like it is dry all over the eastern half of the continent!

Janie

21 Apr 06 - 02:40 PM (#1724026)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Liz the Squeak

Despite the 'worst drought for 100 years', my garden this morning was damp and fragrant... by some chance all the flowers presently blooming there are succulent blues and rich purples, with little stars of white Scilla peeping out from under the goldenheart ivy. There are palest purple rosemary flowers, violets in (not surprisingly) violet and magenta, periwinkle, mauve primroses, deepest blue polyanthus and sky blue grape hyacinth. The lily of the valley has spread and is budding, the bluebells are burgeoning and soon there will be a burst of white clemetis in my service tree. The flag lillies in the pond have sent up sage green spears to greet the silver grey pussy willow, and the bay tree is covered in bright yellow blossoms that rival the breasts of the great tits that have made it one of their lookouts.

Next door's lawn is covered in dandelions.

LTS

21 Apr 06 - 05:06 PM (#1724162)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

I was out poking around in the front bed and found that my giant spiderwort had grown a head and bloomed under a salvia, completely out of sight. This isn't the grow-in-the-grass variety, this is the 18-24" tall type. Anyway, a smaller spike made it through and when I found it I rearranged things so more spikes will be seen. It's a one-of-a-kind in my yard, dug up in a wild area and transplanted. My neighbor had one but I think he accidentally dug it up and tossed it. Too bad! I'd have liked to have two to see if they'd make viable seeds.

SRS

21 Apr 06 - 05:41 PM (#1724177)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Bobert

Thanks, Janie, fir the suggestion of usin' crocosmia... We'lll check them out...

Okay, what's new in garden??? Hmmmmmm??? Okay, lotta helibors (linten rose) are in full bloom... I love them... Our trillium (white and the native amrron) are up and budded... Slomons seal is up... Hey, we dug up some black kohash in Wes Ginny and it has come up with about 1 dozen new shoots... Oughtta be a heck of a stand...

More azaleas openin' every day...

We are going to have to get some more white azaleas since the rule of thumb in gardenin' is half white/half colors... We have tons of pinks and reds... (I ersonally don't care for the purple and lavendar azaleas...)..

We have had a time with one of our evergreens, criptomeria cristada (sp) with onme side of it dieing so we dug it up, shook out the roots real well, cut back the dead parts and have replanted it in morning and afternoon sun... We moved two and the other one is going gangbusters??? Cross yer fingers...

Veggies....Our veggie plot is about 30 X 70 so we should get a good amount of stuff canned up this season... Peas and beets are in... Lettuce is in and taters are in... That's about it for a couple weeks...

Yeah, I'll get sopme piicures fir the Getaway...

Bobert

21 Apr 06 - 05:50 PM (#1724183)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Wesley S

SRS - I know next to nothing about gardening. So - any idea where the Bluebonnets were this year ? I haven't seen any - even on our drive down to Austin last weekend.

09 May 06 - 12:27 AM (#1735933)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: Stilly River Sage

Sorry I didn't spot your question earlier.

The rain in the fall typically is what dictates how the spring flowers look. That was documented as the case by researchers out in the desert southwest, and I think we can look at last fall's drought and conclude that it makes a difference here also. The flowers weren't out in any way like they usually are.

And what I have in my garden now are fireflies! Lightning bugs! Those gorgeous little green glowing spots in the deep shadows of the yard. Walk the dogs late and watch everyone's bushes glow intermittently.

SRS

09 May 06 - 09:00 AM (#1736129)
Subject: RE: BS: The Spring Garden (N. Hemisphere)
From: MMario

We have a hellebore blooming for the first time - it's been in the garden about three years, and this year is blooming - and blooming well!

The vinca (myrtle) is blooming, both the "normal periwinkle colour and the wine coloured; Daffies continue - we had cool weather all last week and it kept a lot of blooms "fresh".

Set out the first of my bedding plants last night. It's still a *tad* early - but not much. We did have a frost Sunday night.