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

[posiepurrs]

For the watering issue- have you tried Moisture control potting soil? It has beads in it that absorb moisture and releases it slowly. You can also buy the beads and add it to your soil.  I haven't done much this year because I have a bad knee. It limits my mobility. Until I get that taken care of there isn't much I can do for extended periods of time. I have some seeds started (tomatoes, peppers and some flowers) but will wait until the end of May to plant. We had a freeze again this morning. My yard is a mess!!

 

[AbbysMom]

Very nice MoochNNoodles I think we have a similar color scheme.

I bought my hanging plants and plants for putting in pots. :nod: I'll have to take pics. As posiepurrs mentioned, it got cold last night, so everything is in my garage.

I have no idea when I will actually be planting my pots or planting my vegetable garden. I'll need to start buying the vegetables soon because they will all be picked over after Memorial Day. I usually plant around the last week of May, but we'll be out of town that week. Do I rush it and plant earlier or wait until I get home? I'm almost thinking it's better to wait, so I can keep the plants all in one spot and the person watching my house can check them occasionally to see if they need water. :dk: I also don't have a lot of time to be planting. :lol3:

 

[foxxycat]

I leave the plants in my truck-its still warm in there and no frost-so if you don't have room in garage-you can put them in the car-wont hurt them. I wont be able to plant for another two weeks-we have 70s this week but still 40 at night-petunias are not happy unless its 55 and up. So next week will be the 15 and hopefully I can plant then. Right now I decided to demolish the deck-I climbed under it last night to check out the damage. The boards are rotted all the way through-so now I have to find someone to build. And hopefully its not more than $4000. Never understood why its so expensive-I can put nails into boards and cut with a saw-but I am not good at assembling something I have not done before-so hopefully I find a good person who gets it done fast- or at least not drag it out for weeks. The neighbor had someone put on a porch and they took 3 months. I want someone to come and do it and don't go do any other work until its done-then they don't make mistakes..

So I rather weed and water than deal with house issues..grrr..

 

[jtbo]

Birch trees starts to have tiny leaves, but Juniper is just getting tiny beginnings of leaves, grass is growing only at some places, not much to do, but tomorrow hopefully neighbor comes with tractor and levels one part of yard so I can start cutting that unwanted bush down.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

 
For the watering issue- have you tried Moisture control potting soil? It has beads in it that absorb moisture and releases it slowly. You can also buy the beads and add it to your soil.  I haven't done much this year because I have a bad knee. It limits my mobility. Until I get that taken care of there isn't much I can do for extended periods of time. I have some seeds started (tomatoes, peppers and some flowers) but will wait until the end of May to plant. We had a freeze again this morning. My yard is a mess!!

I heard something about them but I didn't look into it at the time.  I wonder if it's ok for vegetables?  It's worth looking into!

Very nice @MoochNNoodles

I think we have a similar color scheme.

I bought my hanging plants and plants for putting in pots.

I'll have to take pics. As @posiepurrs mentioned, it got cold last night, so everything is in my garage.

I have no idea when I will actually be planting my pots or planting my vegetable garden. I'll need to start buying the vegetables soon because they will all be picked over after Memorial Day. I usually plant around the last week of May, but we'll be out of town that week. Do I rush it and plant earlier or wait until I get home? I'm almost thinking it's better to wait, so I can keep the plants all in one spot and the person watching my house can check them occasionally to see if they need water.

I also don't have a lot of time to be planting.

I love my house sitter because she does great with giving the girls their meds and crazy food preferences; but keeping up with watering my gardens is not her forte.  

  I usually just pray it rains a few times while we are away.  And I ask her to water.  But still I've come home to some very dry potted plants outdoors and things.  Nothing has died; but still!  I try to keep it easy on her!  I hate traveling in garden season because of that. 

I hope you find someone to work on your deck for reasonable @foxxycat    DH and I have become fans of looking up videos on youtube for instructions on how to do things like that.  I found videos when i was learning to pickle and can peppers, how to quilt, how to split logs...

  

 

[AbbysMom]

OK, I took some pics -


Here are the hanging plants I bought for the front. I bought all similar color plants for the pots so this going to be my color scheme this year -

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• AbbysMom
• May 11, 2016

I did buy one hanging plant like this, because I had never seen them before - (ignore the bad shingles on the house. Leftover project from last year. They will be replaced and painted soon. )

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• AbbysMom
• May 11, 2016

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• AbbysMom
• May 11, 2016

I ended up buying all of my vegetable plants yesterday so this is what the deck looks like -

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• AbbysMom
• May 11, 2016

I don't think anything is going to get planted until the first week fo June, especially since the vegetable garden is a giant mass of weeds right now.

 

[foxxycat]

looking Good!!!

I see you have a rug on your deck? that's a really good idea-the cats would like that better-I see crappy rugs out for the trash all the time-and if it rains so what. That's a good idea to cover up damaged wood...hmm....don't worry about the shingles on the house...I can't wait until I can get that deck DONE!

 

[AbbysMom]

I thought I had a pic on FB with my deck furniture with rugs, but I can't find it. Yep, cheap Christmas tree shop outdoor rugs. :lol3:

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Oh pretty flowers!  I think I have a small obsession started with the Calibrachoa/Million Bells.  I bought 4 different colors this year. They are just SO pretty!!  My phone memory is full so I'm short on pictures.  

  One of these days I'll get all the pics off my phone. But it's not likely today.  I'm trying to get outside before it rains again.  AGAIN!  Yesterday it started sprinkling as soon as I was ready to send my DD outside.  5 minutes later it was over and I got to weed. I'm not too sore today; but wow.  I only got 1/3 done and the worst is up next. So here I go again... 

 

[sivyaleah]

Just took a walk around my yard for the first time in a while. The weather in the northeast has been miserable this spring; we had a couple of freezes once buds were forming and lower than average temps with a lot of rain.  Most of my hydrangeas look awful - I've never had that happen before, they are usually completely reliable.  Some just look like sticks because; the freezes ruined all new growth.

Roses, however, for the most part are looking ok - the hearty ones at least.  All are full of buds.  Some have suffered unfortunately I don't think one of them is going to be a survivor and may need to be "shovel pruned" this year. Makes me unhappy but, on the other hand will make way for another heartier variety.  

My one peony is loaded with buds also.  I have a climbing rose near it which was making it's way over it so I pulled the main branches to the side on some other more sturdy bushes to start training them upwards.  I have high hopes for the peony.  All my lavender yet again, has managed to come back also and I'm always amazed by that since NJ is not a prime growing area.  My one lilac, is looking good too but should have already blossomed.  Warm weather today might just do the trick.  I saw some hostas poking up, and other perennials look pretty healthy. Maybe a week from now I'll have a good show going on 

  Unfotunately nothing worth photographing yet.

 

[Draco]

Finally got to garden!!

My veggie patch: beef tomato in pot- then I got bell peppers, cucumbers, and lettuce in the ground

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• Draco
• May 11, 2016

And on the other side of my porch- I've planted inpatients (I forget which variety). The pots has petunias and I forget what the tall pink ones are. Hostas in between the pots that I dug from my parents house.

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• Draco
• May 11, 2016

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• Draco
• May 11, 2016

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• Draco
• May 11, 2016

On my porch- the pots are mixed inpatients and marigolds. One pot has gerber daisies that I dug up from the side.

Overview of my area. Too bad I have that ugly boiler there

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• Draco
• May 11, 2016

 

[AbbysMom]

That looks very nice, Draco !

 

[Winchester]

That does look nice, Draco....you did a good job!

You know, you could put up a bit of white fence for screening at that boiler.

Is that your balcony above your sliding door? Man, the things you could do on that balcony during the summer! Plants, neat chairs, a nice rug. Nice!

 

[Norachan]

Very nice @Draco  I love that peacock!

I think I've just about finished planting for now. I want to get the front of the house looking nice. What I have in mind is something like this.

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• Norachan
• May 12, 2016

The netted part at the end used to be a patch of gravel and weeds that turned into a puddle every time it rained. I dug it out, leveled it off, put most of the rocks and gravel at the bottom so it would drain and topped it off with soil. I've put shade loving grass seeds and a mix of wild flower seeds in there. Right now I'll be happy with anything green there.

The tulips on the right couldn't be bothered this year, have to dig those up and put some new bulbs in later this year. There are chamomile daisy, clover and forget-me-not seeds in there too. Hopefully something will come up.

Lots of wildflowers have started to appear ever since I started raking up the dead leaves every autumn. The house was empty for years before we moved in and the land around it was knee deep in pine needles and leaves.

Some of the wild flowers, I have no idea what they are.

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• Norachan
• May 12, 2016

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• Norachan
• May 12, 2016

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• Norachan
• May 12, 2016

Sophie's garden is looking nice. This was supposed to be a memorial garden for her. Last year she disappeared and I was convinced she was dead, but after 6 weeks I managed to find her again. Now it's a reminder of how lucky we are to have our little Sophalicious.

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• Norachan
• May 12, 2016

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• Norachan
• May 12, 2016

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• Norachan
• May 12, 2016

I salvaged these off of a broken bird bath someone had thrown out.

These logs are steps for the cats to climb in and out of the window. I thought I'd try planting something here to see if it will grow.

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• Norachan
• May 12, 2016

A few other things I have in planters on the deck.

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• Norachan
• May 12, 2016

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• Norachan
• May 12, 2016

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• Norachan
• May 12, 2016

 

[Draco]

Norachan- beautiful!!

The balcony belongs to my upstairs neighbor. sadly not mine lol

 

[betsygee]

We grow a lot of native plants here, ones that are drought and deer resistant.

The purple and yellow plants are sages.  The grass is kind of ratty.  But the cats love hiding in it, pretending they're jungle cats, so we keep it.  

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• betsygee
• May 12, 2016

Andean sage in the back yard.  I love the almost black flowers.

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• betsygee
• May 12, 2016

We put out California poppy seeds every year and they're blooming like crazy now.

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• betsygee
• May 12, 2016

I put out other wildflower seeds, too, but the deer get those sometimes.  

 

[boney girl dad]

Columbine and Siberian iris from today.

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• boney girl dad
• May 12, 2016

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• boney girl dad
• May 12, 2016

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Beautiful pictures everyone!!

I went to Lowes for some drainage rock, potting soil, seed potatoes and a plant to fill the extra pot I ended up with.  

I came home with the rocks, soil (I found the Miracle Grow Moisture Max one), some gloves and 3 plants. 

  I haven't been able to find  good looking seed potatoes.  I'm wondering if I can plant off ones from the grocery store.  But I also found some potatoes sprouting in the garden.  I must have missed some when I harvested them last year!

I didn't have time to work on the weeding of my veggie gardens today; but I got all my flowers and the tomatoes potted.  DH was working so I hauled the rocks and soil bags myself.  I'm already sore but oh so happy!  I need to take some pictures of the flowers tomorrow.  It was getting dark by the time I cleaned up.  

 

[betsygee]

Beautiful. 

 

[Draco]

I found this fencing thing by someone's garbage. Salvaged it and covered my boiler nicely I think. I had just enough material to go around without cutting

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• Draco
• May 13, 2016

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• Draco
• May 13, 2016