Spring-2016 Gardening anyone? What do you plant? or not?

Since this is an early year for gardening here in the good ol North East New England in NH/MA/ME etc have you started anything?

What do you like to plant?

What did you plant that did not work?

How did you deal with weeds and bugs?

Do your cats like a stroll through the garden?

What are you going to plant this year?

I love planting mostly perenials

I tried to plant Hibiscus but I killed it=last year I got a few leaves but not much..this year I have to baby it better. I also found out that they are late bloomers and don't start regrowing until June or later. I also tried vegetables but my dirt is too acidic and I am too lazy to lime it. so I keep it mostly acidic loving plants.

Weeds I pull and plant clusters of stuff together to shade out the sunshine,

Bugs I try to keep earthworm happy and ladybug/pray mantis happy as they eat aphids or I think that's what I read. I read that we can use soapy water spray to kill aphids and other bugs..it works but you have to do it when no sun on leaves..I burnt them.

My cats absolutely love gardens. I only grow pet friendly things and pulled up anything in the lily family. I have catnip clumps all over. They are only allowed out when I am out with them which is often.

I have not planned to add anything-I have so many things growing on their own now 10 years later since I started that I FINALLY can sit back and let mother nature do her thing.

and a picture..because I know we all love PICTURES


This is a very easy thing to do=I uprooted wild daisies along the highway-takes 2 years to spread-alas they block out weeds well and last a good month.

My DD says your flowers are very pretty.  
These eventually filled in so nicely!!  


DH built me this pinterest find.  


DD wants to plant flowers by her swing set.  I am going to look for some pots that she can be in charge of. 

We have a resident woodchuck every spring have babies under my shed.

Yesterday afternoon my bf daw Honeybee watching something intently from the deck: woodchuck


I know that is isn't a garden but you can see how big mrs. Woodchuck is.

I never have good luck with veggies. Her children eat them up but last year I planted lettuce seed just for her kids. If I grow something yummy near their nest then usually they leave the rest of my stuff alone.

Green pepper love heat. I have used black plastic for them. But I also found out that Epson salts work really good for them. Dilute some in water and feed them. I forget exactly when but I think when they are flowering then at start of fruit.


As for sandy dirt-You have the opposite of what I havr-clay dirt. You can buy bags of top soil and dump it in the sandy dirt and mix it up. Or you can cheat-I buy bags of miracle grow potting mix and mix it 50/50 with what I have in the ground. Or if you want to use compost that helps. I like a sand/compost/topsoil mix of 33/33/33 to get that perfect mix of well draining soil with nutrients.

In the winter they use a ton of sand on our road. Next month April I sweep it up and mix it in my gardens to cut down on the clay soil. My soil has very poor drainage. So its a bit of work but I do this sand thing then next week do compost.

But once you have the soil set up it should be easy to plant afterwards. The goal is earthworms. Anything that attracts them. Someone told me to bury cardboard. I did. It worked. Usually in the fall I will do this or when a crop is done.

After messing with my gardens for ten years I have got to the point where I don't want to plant anything new. I have too much crabgrass that needs yanking.

Also when I plant tomatoes right in the ground I usually dig a hole and pull out the dirt then dump a bag of potting mix in place then plant the plants..eventually the dirt becomes better quality. You can always try that.

I had good luck with most things but the weeds kill it. Once the temp is 75+ I can't handle the heat. So the weeds take over starting in July.

We are still having the garden debate right now. Do we want to plant a garden or not? Rick says yes; I'm saying not this year. I'd just as soon cover the garden with newspaper for the summer, then till it in this fall and plant some rye for over the winter. By the end of the season last year, the garden looked horrible and I was the one who ended up cleaning it out, although Rick did take the fence down. I don't know that I want to deal with it. And I don't know what to plant. The garden is about 20 x 70, I think. I'm not really sure anymore.

In previous years, we planted broccoli, green and wax beans, corn, potatoes, butternuts, acorn squash, tomatoes, green peppers, mariachi peppers, onions, cukes, zucchini, and summer squash. We have strawberries and asparagus coming now. Last year the zucchini and summer squash turned into baseball bats because we didn't get up to the garden regularly and the butternuts got huge, too. We made slings on the fence for the butternuts and they liked their slings a little too much. Last year, something got into the corn (again!) and we got very little. We stopped planting cukes because they don't do well. The tomatoes usually end up with blight, no matter what we use (and I'm just not that big on chemicals as it is).  I just don't know if I want to deal with any of it. Rick has promised me raised beds now for two years and that hasn't happened.  

The thing is, normally, I am good at harvesting what we do get from the tomatoes and the peppers. The freezers are usually full of our garden produce and we eat rather well during the winter from what I've "put up". I use the dehydrator for all kinds of stuff throughout the harvest season and we do eat from that, too. I do can peaches for Rick and I'd like to can some more Zucchini Relish as, that is pretty good stuff! It beats the relish you buy in the store by miles; it's that good. I love the canned Red Onions with Honey that we can, too, and we use that in all kinds of beef dishes as well as pork and chicken dishes.

Even if we decide not to have a growing garden this year, I'd still like to compost if we can. We have a large compost area up by the garden as well as our composter gadget. We could dump compost on the garden, too, this summer as we go. 

I don't know what we're going to do.

It's still too cool here in NJ to even think about putting anything into the ground.  

Typically, I do big pots of herbs every year, all different kinds.  In the past I've grown tomatoes and strawberries but as each year goes by I have more and more trouble caring for them due to some physical limitations.  Plus, I've been getting CSA market boxes and this year, they have pick your own tomatoes included - which is very exciting!

My roses (more than a few - mostly old style not hybrids)  are starting to leaf out now and I'm worried about the weather this weekend. The temperature is supposed to drop again, hoping it does not hit freezing.

I planted a peony last year that I have high hopes for this season.  They don't bloom the first year you put them in the ground so I'd expect to see it in full force by June or so.

I've really gotten lazy about caring for everything, it's difficult for me to even fertilize but I'll have to push myself or ask Tom to help.  

Last, we are having our front walkway redone - the brick is decades old and it's totally sinking and is a tripping hazard.  My landscaper is putting in a paver walkway to match the back patio he did for us several years back.  This will wind up giving us more space to plant additional perennials.  Right now, the path has day lilies, lavender, boxwood, tickweed, catmint and small roses on either side. It still looks sparse though so I'll be on the search for a lot more this year.

Oh totally forgot - I have "dinnerplate" dahlias also.  Not sure if they will return. You're supposed to pull the tubers up late autumn and store over winter but again, lazy. I'd read that sometimes they will come back if the winter was not too terrible. Ours was overall mild this year so I'm keeping my fingers crossed on those!

I haven't even starting cleaning the yard and the weather doesn't look favorable for it the next few days.

I went ahead and bought some seeds, compost, garden soil and potting mix at Lowes yesterday.  I also got 2 big nursery pots.  I grow my tomatoes in 5 gallon ones but I'm going to try cukes in 4 gallon ones.  I bought 2.  I'll need to figure out some kind of trellis system for that though.  I'm hoping that will lead to some healthy plants this year!!  If not; well then I tried.  

I'm on the lookout for pink flower pots for DD.  She may have to settle for pink flowers.  I'm not spending a fortune on pots for her.  It's really cute she wants her own flowers to care for.    Lowes had some really pretty blue-green ones that might work for her.  That was where I got my purple pots last year.  I love them!!

So for seeds I have chosen sugar snap peas; which I will plant ASAP!, carrots, 2 kinds of bush beans and lima beans.  I've never grown limas; but I like to try new things.  I will get some seed potatoes and possibly onion sets.  The ones Lowes had out were icky looking.  I'll buy my peppers and tomatoes as plants.  DH and I really need to come up with a plan for our strawberries.  I don't want to fight the crab grass all year.  I had been debating some kind of corn too; but I read it does best in "square" patches and I was going to just do a row near the fence if I tried it.  I suppose there is still time to decide.  

I was surprised how many flowers Lowes had out already.  They had herbs and lettuce and things too.  My MIL grows different lettuces in window boxes on her 2nd story deck railing.  That is tempting to try!  We eat a lot of salad!

Lettuce and peas do really well in the cool weather we have been having..so does broccoli. I think carrots too..any leafy veg usually like it 60-70 degrees..the cukes don't like it below 60..Its been so long since I have done veggies..

If you want pink planters-get some spray paint=and make some kind of stencils in her favorite shape like circles etc-and spray paint the planter pink=let it dry overnight then stencil in some designs using cereal box cardboard-its hard enough to hold up to bending but flexible enough to wrap around the pot and cut out those shapes=spray paint black or while-viola~ then if she wants to change colors you can respray it...just an idea..I am always spray painting things on my deck/etc. don't like rust so I sometimes get some neat ideas along the way

I still haven't cleared up the brush-its snowing out or was when I left for work this morning..I have some petunias I was trying to save from last summer but the house is too cold and they died. They love 70 degrees but I keep it 60-65 due to asthma..we can't breathe in hot air..I will have to hunt down some pictures..hang on I think I have some on this computer..

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• foxxycat
• Apr 3, 2016

This is my huge boulder I need to clear out the periwinkle around it this year as theres no room for petunias..I go to this high school near my house and they have title wave petunias=they spread like 4 to 6 feet-if I take care of them and its warm enough this rock is engulfed completely. Looks like I need to get my butt in gear as by mothers day those plants are long gone=we have to call and order how many we will buy-and guess who forgot to order this year?

I have only found title waves at one nursery and they are $10 for a 6 pack

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• foxxycat
• Apr 3, 2016

I cant remember what they are called-hot rod something or fiery? They grow really big=these are in back of the boulder above ^^

I will have to find the photo I did from the roof of the house-I usually go up there midsummer evening and take pictures of the flowers=I cant get them all in the picture from the street-land too flat..

ok last one for now..

white lupine=not sure how it happened..

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• foxxycat
• Apr 3, 2016

The next years they are now always purple=

Spray painting is a good idea.  

I'm more about the veggie growing here.  Cool crops have to go in early.  Our spring is usually pretty short.  It goes from cold to hot a lot of years.  I still think the humidity is part of my problem with cukes.  We get enough heat for peppers and things though.  My mother planted blackberry bushes next to her shed and they have done well for her.  I'd love to do raspberries myself but I need a spot to let them go.  I have visions of a small greenhouse next to my shed and that is where I put the tomatoes.  They tend to sink into the ground so I might try putting some inexpensive cement pavers down to help them not settle into the sand through all the watering. Our property came with a mature privet-hedge along the back side so that limits what i put back there.  The rhubarb is under it though.  I'm thinking of putting my herb garden in the front corner; but it's under a neighbor's pine tree and the kids try to sled down that slight slope in the winter. I think just keeping the pine needles out of it might drive me crazy.  We used to have a pine near the veggie garden and I was forever picking needles and these other  things the tree would drop.  (Cant think of the name.)

That reminds me; I was going to buy a longer hose for this summer.  The one we used last year is about 10 feet too short to easily reach the rhubarb and tomatoes easily.  

I have a rock garden in the front of the house. Even I can't kill those. 

I'm looking for a flowering ground cover to put there because of the weeds that keep popping up. Something low maintenance that can choke out the weeds AND withstand the Florida heat. Summer will be here any minute  

My gardens are now under at least 8 inches of snow. :hmm:

I have a flower garden that I plant every year with a mixture of annuals and perennials. I have a very bad problem with Canada thistles, so I gave up on trying to maintain a lot of perennials. With the annuals, I can clear the bed each year before I plant. Rabbits have also been a major problem, but Liquid Fence seems to deter them. Several kitties passing through like to lie and hide in my garden. Here's a pic from a year ago. 


I also plant a number of pots.


I used to grow lots of roses, but the winters here are too harsh and the bed has become too shady and full of tree roots. So now I only have a few of the Griffith Buck roses. This is Hawkeye Belle.


This year, I am finishing a landscaping bed in front of the house. We've had snow here, so it's going to be a while yet. I don't grow from seed or plant vegetables anymore. 

I have started a new adventure-- container gardening on a mostly shaded deck. My FIL built me a raised planter so hopefully my herbs will get enough sun. And, since my neighbors' have a patio below our deck I am taking a natural route for pesticides: Neem oil, cayenne pepper, essential oils, and castile soap. I haven't made any of it into sprays yet bc my seedlings are still too young, but last summer I had such a hard time with spider mites and tobacco worms and some other nasties. Never dealt with them in all my life, and it's on a second floor deck! I want tone prepared this year.
Question, in our area we have wood bees. We might still be able to plug up their nests but I'm not sure, I've already seen them out. The wood bees are fine, it's the nasty wasps that take up residence when their season is over. Anyone know how to deal with them?

AbbysMom said:

I also plant a number of pots.

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• DreamerRose
• Apr 5, 2016

I used to grow lots of roses, but the winters here are too harsh and the bed has become too shady and full of tree roots. So now I only have a few of the Griffith Buck roses. This is Hawkeye Belle.

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• DreamerRose
• Apr 5, 2016

This year, I am finishing a landscaping bed in front of the house. We've had snow here, so it's going to be a while yet. I don't grow from seed or plant vegetables anymore. 

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Beautiful!  That rose is just perfect!!

The first picture reminds me of the beautiful, wild looking flower bed my Grandparents put in maybe 10 years or so ago.  Their whole backyard was landscaped.  Not that it was very big; but they did a lot with it. Veggie and herb gardens, mature hedges, etc.   They sold the house last year and the realtor described the backyard as "park like."  I always felt like it was a little oasis in the suburbs!  It was a shame the houses behind them were 2 story! 

janneb said:

I have started a new adventure-- container gardening on a mostly shaded deck. My FIL built me a raised planter so hopefully my herbs will get enough sun. And, since my neighbors' have a patio below our deck I am taking a natural route for pesticides: Neem oil, cayenne pepper, essential oils, and castile soap. I haven't made any of it into sprays yet bc my seedlings are still too young, but last summer I had such a hard time with spider mites and tobacco worms and some other nasties. Never dealt with them in all my life, and it's on a second floor deck! I want tone prepared this year.
Question, in our area we have wood bees. We might still be able to plug up their nests but I'm not sure, I've already seen them out. The wood bees are fine, it's the nasty wasps that take up residence when their season is over. Anyone know how to deal with them?

Click to expand...

My MIL started container gardening last year.  They are in a very hilly area and their main floor actually goes off to a 2nd story deck.  I think she still planted a few things in the yard below; but she did a good bit of greens and things on the deck itself.  I can't remember what else she grew up there.  i think just making sure they didn't dry out was the hard part.  She has a nice little shade garden under the deck too.  Their house is built into a hill; so you can go out the basement and sit on a patio behind and next to the shade garden.  it's a very serene area! 

I'm pulling the rocks out of the garden this year. I have a big palm tree on the side of the house by the screen room. I'll rehome them around the base of it. I bought a flowering ground cover that is supposed to thrive in the Florida sun. We'll see.

 I bought 5 of these. They are supposed to spread out:   Emerald Blue Phlox Perennial.  There used to be a smaller palm tree at the end of the garden and originally there were flowering shrubs along the whole thing. The shrubs got some kind of rot or something and died years ago. DH pulled them out. The palm tree died soon after and I had to get rid of that. I'm putting 2 night blooming jasmine at that end. They are supposed to do well here too and I love the way they smell.

Lastly I picked up 2 strawberry plants to add in. Those will mostly be for the rabbits I think. They will get to the berries before I do but that's OK. I love rabbits and don't mind sharing.

I still laugh  a little whenever I think about the fig tree that DH's grandfather gave us. It wasn't in great shape when we got it but I was able to get it going again (yes- me!! ). I planted it and watered it and it started growing figs!! We never got a single one though. Every time one would sprout, it would soon disappear. DH finally found a big possum eating them. He was an animal lover too so he didn't really care. Shortly after, I got home from work one day and went to water it. All that was left was a mangled stick. The IDIOT on the riding mower from the lawn service ran it over. I had deliberately put it in a place that should have been out of his path but he managed  to destroy it anyway. Sorry Mr Possum. I tried.  

I've just spent the afternoon getting the planters ready for spring flowers. I used to grow loads of flowers and vegetables, but we're so high up in the mountains now not many things are hardy enough to stand it. I'm experimenting with different kinds of plants every year. So far the tulips and daffodils have come back every spring, but they're about the only thing I've been lucky with.

What do you think, any idea of what kind of plants would do well here?

The land is mainly for the cats to play on, but I have a lot of plant pots around the deck too. It's volcanic soil with several mature pine, fir and maple trees growing there already, so it's pretty shady. I've tried to get a lawn growing twice, but the grass never took.


This was the deck 2 summers ago. Pretty cool and shady all year round.

I have four 4'x8' raised beds.  I grow mostly vegetables.  I used to do a large garden, but I get more production from the raised beds.  It is easier to control things.  I haven't had the disasters that I had with the regular garden - mainly floods.  We have clay soil here which does not absorb water well, and when we get heavy rain the garden can be deep mud for a week or more.  I've had a stream of water run through the garden destroying plants!  My raised beds are compost and peat moss.  No drainage problems.

Right now I have a pound of onion sets that are about 10 inches high.  I love Russian tomatoes, so I am planting  Limmony, Black Krim,  and a new one, Cosmonaut Volkov.  Also Cherokee Purple and Big Beef.  All but the Limmony will be grafted.

Also Ancho, bell and Jalapeno peppers, mostly grafted.  I had a chance to get some Sugar Baby watermelons grafted, and I got two.  I have never tried the grafted ones before.  They are bush Sugar Babies, so maybe I can keep them in the raised beds!  I might do some green beans or squash.

This month I will start marigolds.  I plant them near the vegetables.  It seems to help to keep insects away from them.

That sounds like a great garden, Boris! I had Black Krim one year, and they were delish.

Black Krim is a great tomato, Dreamer Rose.  I have not tried the grafted version, but I have had great luck with grafted Cherokee Purple.  I hope I can do as well with the grafted Black Krim.  The Cosmonaut Volkov looks should be very tasty according to reports.  We'll see how it does.  The Limmony is my favorite, but I can't get it grafted.  I may try grafting myself next year.

Boris, I am curious about your grafted tomatoes and other vegetables. I've never heard of grafting veggies. Where do you get them, and do you think they are better than those from seeds? I grew my Black Krim from seed. What kind of rootstock are they grafted on?