The Gardening 2014 Thread - I just spent 2 hours in a garden center.

[Winchester]

I've asked Rick for years now to build some window boxes for the house. I'd only need four (two for the front windows and two for the windows out of the computer room.....I wouldn't worry about the back of the house). He keeps promising me, but hasn't made them yet. I'd like to have them the length of the window with holes in the bottom and then put plastic liners inside. We could take them out in the winter (although I could probably keep them in during Christmas with some seasonal-type plants, maybe? And then take them off when we take the outdoor Christmas stuff down. The front of our house faces south, so they would need lots of water; the end of the house faces west, so they would need water, too, but not as much. And they might give the cats something to look at. 

I did show him your planter; he wasn't impressed. Oh, he thought it was a great idea! But the reason he wasn't impressed is because he knew that I wanted him to make one. 

I love the pictures. I really like your yard hook. I have one (my Dad originally made it to hold a Coleman lantern when we were still camping), but it only has one hook and Rick was using it to hold our Japanese beetle trap in the back yard.

Willowy, your Lemon Slice sounds very pretty!

 

[Winchester]

We pick up the rototiller this Saturday morning and we have it for four hours.....that should give us enough time to do the garden, go around to different areas in the yard and to start a new flower garden. 

On our veggie list: asparagus, broccoli, butternut squash, corn (poor Rick), green bell peppers, lima beans, onions, roma tomatoes for sauce and dehydrating, with a few regular tomatoes for eating out of hand, yellow squash, and zucchini. Maybe just a couple cucumber plants, but not many, largely for throwing into salads throughout the summer.

Our neighbors planted tiny little evergreen trees (about 20 years ago) close to our property line. Rick even went over when he saw what they were doing and asked him not to plant the trees so close because they'd grow onto our property. The guy said, "Naw, they won't get that big." (This neighbor is the same guy who was going to take Tabby for a "ride" if I didn't bring her home.)  And now they're on our property, some of them by a good ten feet of branches. And the neighbors insist on mowing around the trees, again on our property. Rick told them and then I got peeved and I told them not to do this. They set their mower down to the point where they pretty much scrape soil when they go around the trees and it's annoying. So this spring? We have quite a few daylilies that really need to be transplanted. And we're going to transplant the lilies between all the trees they planted....we'll make sure the lilies are on our property. In a few years, we'll have a line of daylilies growing down the property line, separated only by their trees. That way, they can't mow on our property. I have several sections of small white fencing that we'll put in and have the lilies growing against the fence sections. (If we really wanted to, we could go down the property line and trim every single branch right to the property line....they wouldn't be able to do a thing because the branches are on our property. But the trees are pretty and we don't want to do that; we just want them to stop using our property.) He'll need to till some of those areas, too.

We have a bank down by the road on one side of our driveway and it's a hassle to mow. I won't even attempt it with the tractor. Rick has to push mow the grass there. He keeps saying that he wants to dig the bank down and level it off, but he's never gotten to it. I thought it would be nice to plant daylilies on the bank, too. That would pretty much take care of the mowing problems pretty quickly, within just a couple of years, because daylilies propagate fast. And I love daylilies. So I need to talk dear Richard into tilling the bank...he's not really willing to do that, because he wants to level it out someday.

It will probably take four hours to get it all done.

 

[kathyfromcanada]

Geez some neighbours you have! I like the daylilies idea too.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

 
I love the pictures. I really like your yard hook. I have one (my Dad originally made it to hold a Coleman lantern when we were still camping), but it only has one hook and Rick was using it to hold our Japanese beetle trap in the back yard.

Thank you; DH bought that for me a few years ago.  I had a bird feeder hanging off of it before; but of course the seeds always fall down into the baskets and sprout.  I love how its a simple way to add color to the middle of the yard!

@Willowy; I just looked up the Lemon Slice!  How pretty!!  I'm pretty sure I saw Lobelia at our garden center too.  I saw a few different flowers I would love for an in the ground flower bed.  Those plans are on hold since I went a bit nuts with the flowers. 

Maybe in the fall so I can get some bulbs in!

Our neighbors planted tiny little evergreen trees (about 20 years ago) close to our property line. Rick even went over when he saw what they were doing and asked him not to plant the trees so close because they'd grow onto our property. The guy said, "Naw, they won't get that big." (This neighbor is the same guy who was going to take Tabby for a "ride" if I didn't bring her home.)  And now they're on our property, some of them by a good ten feet of branches. And the neighbors insist on mowing around the trees, again on our property. Rick told them and then I got peeved and I told them not to do this. They set their mower down to the point where they pretty much scrape soil when they go around the trees and it's annoying. So this spring? We have quite a few daylilies that really need to be transplanted. And we're going to transplant the lilies between all the trees they planted....we'll make sure the lilies are on our property. In a few years, we'll have a line of daylilies growing down the property line, separated only by their trees. That way, they can't mow on our property. I have several sections of small white fencing that we'll put in and have the lilies growing against the fence sections. (If we really wanted to, we could go down the property line and trim every single branch right to the property line....they wouldn't be able to do a thing because the branches are on our property. But the trees are pretty and we don't want to do that; we just want them to stop using our property.) He'll need to till some of those areas, too.
We have a bank down by the road on one side of our driveway and it's a hassle to mow. I won't even attempt it with the tractor. Rick has to push mow the grass there. He keeps saying that he wants to dig the bank down and level it off, but he's never gotten to it. I thought it would be nice to plant daylilies on the bank, too. That would pretty much take care of the mowing problems pretty quickly, within just a couple of years, because daylilies propagate fast. And I love daylilies. So I need to talk dear Richard into tilling the bank...he's not really willing to do that, because he wants to level it out someday.

It will probably take four hours to get it all done.

I like your daylily plan! 

  Our elderly neighbor kept driving through our yard when it would rain because her unpaved "L" shaped driveway has huge puddles in it.  DH eventually made a point by driving some wooden stakes into the ground.  I planted 2 trees in that area (on our side!); but they arent doing very well thanks to some rabbits.  Funny enough; after DH put the stakes in the ground the lady went out and got some of that green, wire fencing you use to edge flower beds an put a 3' row of that right on the property line at the corner between our places.  I'm still not sure exactly why. 

Our privet hedge was planted long before our house was built here.  But it does cross onto the neighbor's property.  I told DH we need to check to see if it needs to be cut back so it's not obstructing their driveway.  Shortly after we moved in they trimmed it up themselves once.  Fortunately they are nice people and don't care that it's there.  But we try to be respectful that it is on their land as well as ours. 

 

[di and bob]

We pick up the rototiller this Saturday morning and we have it for four hours.....that should give us enough time to do the garden, go around to different areas in the yard and to start a new flower garden. 

Winchester, you're lucky, MY husband went to pick up a rototiller and came home with a small tractor with a bucket and the pull behind tiller! I do have to admit though it sure is easier to get him to till the garden!

 

[kathyfromcanada]

We bought a rototiller a few years back. It comes in real handy doing the gardens. My niece also borrows it. 

 

[happybird]

I finally got the tomatoes in the pots yesterday:

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• MoochNNoodles
• May 13, 2014

I decided on the pretty blue ones since it is up on the patio.  There are maybe up to 2" of rocks in the bottom.  I'm wondering if I should get saucers to protect the patio?  I spent quite a few hours out back potting all the flowers and veggies I've been buying lately.  The kid's wagon was great to haul stuff around!  Easier than the wheelbarrow!   It's been pretty hot so I'm going to have to get out and water in a few minutes I'm guessing.  My cukes are sprouting in the garden now and I think some garlic.  I dreamed about the garden sprouting last night. :lol3:

DH is going to put together the planter for me this weekend.  Right now these are sitting on my front porch.  It's a bit of an experiement because I'm not totally sure how big everything will get.  I hope it's not too crowded; but will be nice and full.  I didn't want just one type of flower per box.  I am coming up with some ideas to make the planter more attractive.  Like some posts and lattice work on the back.  DH wants to be sure the pots won't slide off the steps part too.  The blog I found it on said to screw the boxes to the steps; but I want to be able to remove them. 

Look at the poor pot behind them...grass and bird seed growing!  I have a few extra bags of potting soil and at least 7 extra pots; so I may dump those and get some herbs or more flowers.  I'd like larger pots for by the garage too.   This has been a very good total-body workout!

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• MoochNNoodles
• May 13, 2014

My Calibrachoa I ended up with:

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• MoochNNoodles
• May 13, 2014

The big one is from walmart.  I went ahead and bought 2 new hanging baskets and 2 to replant myself this weekend. ( The flowers were from Lowes; there is a real noticeable difference in the health/care of the plants from Lowes!)  On top is the orange/red ones I was so in love with.  It was too dark at this point to get a really good picture.  It's more of a salmon or coral orange.  On the bottom is a pink to purple one.  The big pot is gold, red and purple.  it really is such a pretty plant!

I love the colors of the flowers you picked for the planter! It is going to look great. And I was wondering what Calibrachoa was, lol! Million Bells! I love the orangey-pinky-yellow ones, they look like pretty, little copper petunias. Always wanted to buy a hanging basket of them but I am too cheap.

Somehow, I missed the photo of your Grandfather's garden. It is very pretty. I love the big grass on the back right. My Mom hates ornamental grasses, but my Dad and I love them. For Father's Day every year, I get him a big pot of some sort of ornamental grass to plant. It's kind of a joke on my Mom, but he has a huge, beautiful area planted behind the pool and loves it.

It has been crazy, downpour raining here for three days now. The driveway is totally washed out and we have had a constant waterfall coming down the front porch steps towards the house (we are kind of set into the mountain, with the front door facing uphill). It is a miracle that no water has come into the house. It stopped raining 12-16 hours ago, but the waterfall is still running. The dogs are being weirdos about going out and getting their feet wet. Pitbulls. Smh. You'd think they were delicate little lap dogs by the way they act when it is rainy. Sadly, I think we are washed out for weekend gardening. It is going to be way too soggy for a few days. Once the sun comes out, I get the feeling the pollen is going to be unbelievable.

 

[Winchester]

The rototilling is done for now. The sun is shining and it's going to be a really nice day. But the ground is wetter than what we would like. Rick did what he could. Our soil is pretty much clay, so it just packs.

Someday, we'd like to buy a rototiller.

We're going to start a bit of a rock wall at one end of the garden. We keep tilling rocks up and we've no place to put those things. 

And I think we're going to be buying a composter. We have a large compost bin, but haven't really used it in years and our trees up at the back property line have grown into the bin. We need to pull that out of the trees and bring it into the yard up by the garden to store compost. And then we're going buy one. Rick wants to do some research before we decide on anything, so he'll be on the computer tonight. I can start to save veggie peelings, egg shells, coffee grounds (even from the Keurig) and such. I'll have to read up on composting, too. We need to help our soil along a bit. Rick promises that if we buy one, he'll keep after it. 

What can you compost?  Check it out:  http://mantis.com/global/assets/c-twin/CTWN_CompMtrl_Jan2010.pdf 

We need to get a load of good top soil this fall, too.

While we can put horse manure into the garden, the weeds from the seeds that the horses eat are just crazy, once they spout. And it just adds to overall weed control. 

Gardening season is well on its way here, too!

 

[MoochNNoodles]

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• MoochNNoodles
• May 17, 2014

Here is the planter without the flowers:

P5171801.JPG

• MoochNNoodles
• May 17, 2014

You can see it's kind of an unattractive corner there with the utility meters and all.

 

[kathyfromcanada]

I love the colors of the flowers you picked for the planter! It is going to look great. And I was wondering what Calibrachoa was, lol! Million Bells! I love the orangey-pinky-yellow ones, they look like pretty, little copper petunias. Always wanted to buy a hanging basket of them but I am too cheap.

Somehow, I missed the photo of your Grandfather's garden. It is very pretty. I love the big grass on the back right. My Mom hates ornamental grasses, but my Dad and I love them. For Father's Day every year, I get him a big pot of some sort of ornamental grass to plant. It's kind of a joke on my Mom, but he has a huge, beautiful area planted behind the pool and loves it.

It has been crazy, downpour raining here for three days now. The driveway is totally washed out and we have had a constant waterfall coming down the front porch steps towards the house (we are kind of set into the mountain, with the front door facing uphill). It is a miracle that no water has come into the house. It stopped raining 12-16 hours ago, but the waterfall is still running. The dogs are being weirdos about going out and getting their feet wet. Pitbulls. Smh. You'd think they were delicate little lap dogs by the way they act when it is rainy. Sadly, I think we are washed out for weekend gardening. It is going to be way too soggy for a few days. Once the sun comes out, I get the feeling the pollen is going to be unbelievable.

They look beautiful. If I'm lucky enough, I'll be planting maybe by Tuesday. It's just too cold at the moment. Plus I'm busy with kitchen reno.

 

[Winchester]

He did a great job on your planter! Beautiful! I really need to show these pictures to Rick. 

We planted cannas on Saturday. A few years ago, my sister gave us 10 canna tubers. Well, those puppies have propagated and propagated to the point where we have enough cannas to go down the one end of the pool fence, about 24 feet long, double-planted, and planted quite closely. Some of them are pretty young yet, so I don't know what we'll have for flowers, but they know how to reproduce. Most of them are red, but there are a couple yellow ones. We keep saying we need to tag the yellow ones, so we know which ones they are, but we never do. I really like cannas and now we have a ton of them. She also gave us some elephant ears, but they don't do as well for us. Hers are gigantic; the leaves are huge and they're just gorgeous....for us, though, not so much. I think they have too much sun at our house. But they grow. 

 

[pushylady]

MoochNNoodles excellent job on the planter!

 

[Winchester]

Spent the morning at one of our local nurseries and came home with:

• 6 asparagus plants (we're creating a small asparagus bed next to the strawberries....it's going to be one large perennial bed with the strawberries and the asparagus, so we want to keep it all together...we shall add asparagus as we go. Those 6 plants are to start with for right now)
• 6 broccoli plants
• 2 yellow squash plants
• 2 zucchini plants
• 6 butternut squash plants
• 12 green pepper plants (we've always had a lot of luck with Lady Belle peppers)
• 2 sweet heat hot pepper plants
• 12 roma tomato plants
• 3 cucumber plants (not planning on any pickles this year)
• 2 packs of corn seeds
• 2 packs of lima bean seeds

Some flowers, mostly annuals, but some perennials, too

Then we went to Lowes:

• 100 feet of galvanized steel 5 foot tall fencing
• 10 posts for the fencing (we have a ton of posts, so we think ten will be all we need)
• A bag of mesquite chips (for the pork shoulder tomorrow in the grill)
• 2 bungee cords
• And a new push mower

Rick also found the gate that he wants for the garden (no way can I climb over 5-foot tall fencing!), so we'll have to head back down after we get the fence up to buy the gate. Rick is ready to wage battle on the deer and raccoons. I'm ready to give up at this point. It's a war I honestly don't think we'll win.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

But fence hopping sounds like a good workout!

  From what I hear; asparagus does very well in the sandy soil around my house.  I'm not ready to try that one myself.  I would like to dedicate an area for vining crops like strawberries.  I guess they don't truly vine; but you know how they spread.  Also I think it would be fun to grow some pumpkins and things like that. 

Yesterday I went to the nursery for a few more herbs (I had 2 waiting to be potted already here) and came home with like 6 or 7!  Oops!  And I still didn't get any rosemary!  I need a dedicated herb garden!  I put them all in pots by the tomatoes on the back patio.  My husband says the pots are taking over. He is right; I don't even have flowers on the back steps yet!

 

I ended up with 2 pots of spearmint.  I completely dumped the old soil from the pots I already had and replaced with fresh potting mix.  That was when I noticed one pot had spearmint sprouting; not the birdseed I thought it was!  So I weeded and left the mint.  I'm hoping the basil survives.  It got a bit dried out in the garage waiting for me to get it potted.  I also got 2 types of oregano, cilantro, dill, sage and parsley.  I'd love to get some rosemary too; it's just so good on roasted veggies!  We will see.  I think I have enough soil; I just need a plant and a pot!

Last year I bought several neat herb plant markers from Target on clearance.  I can't find them right now of course.  I need to look around some more so I can take progress pictures of everything! 

 

[Winchester]

I would like to have an herb garden, too. Right now, the herbs are scattered about in our regular flowerbed in the back yard. We have some rosemary plants (I think that's what they are.....rosemary is perennial and this stuff keeps coming back). I have some thyme, which is also a perennial. We have lavender and our mint; both are perennial. I'm not seeing much mint in the flower garden yet...I will be upset if my mint is finished. I love a big glass of mint tea in the summer. 

I'd like to plant the herb plants in their places in an actual herb garden and then stick in a bunch of different basil plants and parsley....I'm a big fan of basil and use it in almost everything. Same with parsley....both are annuals. With the dehydrator I could dehydrate my own herbs, too, which would be a big savings; I'd have to read up on dehydrating herbs. BTW, I think sage is a perennial, too, but I'm not sure.  I should get some plant markers, too.

We got the posts up around the garden before it started to rain last night; that's as far as we got. What we thought was going to be a drizzle turned into an outright downpour. We had mowed yard, so we barely managed to get the mowers covered before it really started coming down.

Our strawberries did not do well over the winter; they're in very bad shape. I'm thinking of popping the flowers off the plants and not letting them fruit this year. Maybe that way, they can turn their energy into making stronger plants without the flowering and fruiting. I don't know. They don't look good and the rabbits are really going to town on them, too, which makes the poor plants that much worse.

 

[datagrrl]

Sage is a perennial. The only thing that survived this winter though was my tarragon. I lost mint, sage, and a lot of oregano.

We moved the herb garden to another container to give the soil a break. Not sure if I need to, but my husband is in charge.

Trying a couple new veggies this year, Swiss chard and broccoli.

Things I try every year and never have success: strawberries and peas. We do have flowers on the blueberries this year, so fingers crossed.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

My rosemary didn't last the winter.  I figured the mint didn't either; but it's there now. 

My Grandmother always dried her own herbs just by hanging them in bundles in her kitchen.  She had a piece of lattice with small eye hooks attached to the ceiling.  She loved to be out tending her herb garden.  I think it's the memories of her that make me want one.  Her little garden was tucked in a corner up against an evergreen hedge; it was always beautiful!  Lemon balm always makes me think of her too. 

 

[pat]

Can't believe I missed this thread!  This year I was so eager for homegrown veggies and spring I got planting in early May.  That worked out only so so..lol.  I've been replanting off and on since.

My leeks are coming up nicely - two batches since I replanted 2+ weeks after the first batch.  My baby bok choy almost didn't survive some either slugs or as yet unidentified culprit but a few plants survived and I'm planning more seeds this week.

My bush beans - that I gave an entire raised bed to are going wackadoodle.  We will have LOTs of beans - yay!

My scallions are a no show despite two different plantings.  I'll try a third time with the seed then go get some starts..lol.

We added a dwarf raspberry to our collection of container fruits (two of my strawberries in hanging planters wintered over well and we've a nice tiny crop of berries coming) - wish our gooseberries would flower and produce - they are planted in front of our house and are going on 3 years since being planted w/out a single berry ever.  Grrr.

Our container apple trees put on a magnificent display of gorgeous flowers (bought these last Fall) and we now have what is honestly about 100 apples growing.  Yay!  I've told our friend D. that she's going to be sharing in the bounty..lol.  These are a great baking apple, and I plan to experiment at creating an apple raspberry (and other versions) compote recipe.

In my growncamp (a raised bed, plastic covered little green house) we have rainbow swiss chard, two kinds of lettuce growing, with one side left for arugula and more lettuce.  We have our tomatoes in - 1 roma, 1 cherry, 1 beefsteak and a 4th that I don't recall.  One bed is planted in peppers - 3 green bell pepper plants, 4 poblano, 3 serrano and 1 little jalapeno..lol.

Hubby is almost finished tilling the area where we are putting yellow and zucchini squash and cucumbers (currently the plants in their pots are in the growcamp on a shelf..lol).

We have huckleberries to get out of their containers and into the ground in the next couple of weeks, and plans to go get a - not sure if hubby said it's  a hybrid/grafted or a dwarf) Northern Spy apple tree that would also be a container plant (so I can take it when we move).  My gram made the best apple pie - and it was due to her using Northern Spy apples.

I love Spring, and while I don't grow enough veggies to can, we grow enough to ease the grocery bill a bit, and to have the best tasting veggies.  Nothing tastes as good as what I can grow myself.

 

[Winchester]

We spent the last two days outside; unfortunately not planting the garden. Boring things like mowing the yard, weeding, weeding, and weeding. And then weeding some more. And I'm not done! I still have the side yard garden to do and must work on the garden in the back yard. I did get the perimeters done, but I have to get inside. And I'm so leery of getting inside the back garden.....Rick has seen snakes and shredded snake skins in there! Not funny!

While I was busy, Rick was pruning tree branches and mowing out back beyond the trees. He also finally burned a huge pile of weeds and leaves that needed to be burned. The fence is completely around the veggie garden now; it's just getting the stuff planted. We've been so busy with other stuff that we haven't had time. He gave the plants on the deck a good watering to see them through til tomorrow night when we get home from work.

We were up this morning at 6:30 and, honestly, we've been outside pretty much since then. Too much work and not enough time to get it all done.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

That sounds great Pat!  I'd love to start my seeds myself next year.  I just need to find a way to do that! 

I was thinking how nice it would be to plant some raspberry bushes.  My mom has some thorn-less blackberry bushes planted next to her shed.  We really enjoyed those last year!  I used some for baking that I froze to enjoy this past winter.  We put in a shed this past winter too; so I was thinking that might work for us for berries too.  I still want a potting bench on one side since it's close to the garden and I have a cabinet inside for my garden supplies. 

Pam; I'd stay away from those snakes too!

I finally found those herb markers (in the shed, in a basket on top of my garden supply cabinet!

).  I have markers left over for Chives, Rosemary and Oregano.  I think this calls for more pots!  I need another Thyme, another Mint and a Cilantro marker too.

  I had some really cute ideas marked on Pinterest; but I think I'll see if Target has the ones I already have or at least similar first.