My Morning Glories

Bragging about your soil? Up here, it's so alkaline that plants think battery acid is fertilizer.

Beautiful specimens but I thought the traditional use of the morning glory
is that it being a vine - it loves to climb. Give it a trellis or a rough side of
a fence to climb over and it will get so much more attention! As it deserves,
and ignore these flower-haters here, they have no taste. LOL

I'm just repeating what the gardener said because I pointed out my thistle problem and that was her solution. I think over time the moisture would dilute the vinegar - she told me to do this and then in the spring to plant what I wanted. Hey, it's organic, cheap and easy, so I'm going to do it. I'll let you know what happens.

Our tulips never last the winter because we're in Zone 3 (frost, snow, rain, more frost and snow) and the bulbs get mushy, plus the squirrels love the bulbs. So, I don't plant bulbs here. In Vancouver I did, but not here.

I actually like morning glories but they are like raspberry bushes, Lily-of-the-Valley, bamboo and swedish ivy - they are so invasive - they take over everything. So I would plant them in a container or along a part of the house where they won't interfere with anything.

If you have an area where you are considering putting up a shade cover, why not just go the easier route and plant heat/sun/drought-loving plants there? Way easier!

Ha - my soil is clayey... very. I have to add peat moss and compost every year. It's really condensed. It cracks when it's hot out (the few days that happened).

Oh. That's more like Eva's Tulsa. I favor ground bark over peat moss for clay soils. It doesn't compress and kind of go away. Since it slowly decomposes, you may need to add more nitrogen to make up for what it draws from the soil.

Hey, thanks for the advice. I think I'll try that.

I had already said I have them growing up my porch steps, and along the railing. I explained I put a couple of seedlings there (about a month ago) because everything else had died from the heat. I needed something to cover the bare ground.

I haven't seen any flower haters here, just friends.

I just got two dump truck loads of good black top soil dropped off. It's a huge mound and I think it's way too much. I have covered most of my driveway and now I have no where to park.
Next year I'm building two decks and a whack load of raised flower beds. The frost came two nights ago...Today, I'm clearing out the dead plants,;-(.
The compost pile will now grow exponentially.
It's supposed to snow this week. I'm not looking forward to it.

Oh believe me, I've tried, I've tried. Every year, the same thing. The rock of the planter heats up too much, and I think it bakes the roots. It needs shade.

The shade cover will of course be made up of plants. Potato vine growing up the trellis.



The only thing that could possibly grow there without shade would be cactus, and I don't particularly care for them. In fact, I really don't like cactus at all for a garden.

In a week or 2, I'll pull up those MG's, then pour on the vinegar and cover with black plastic to kill the roots with the vinegar and the heat.

That'll give me time to dilute out the soil with washings, so I can plant different bulbs when it gets cold. I'll just pick out any current bulbs I find. The tulips WERE absolutely glorious this past Spring. I'd like to do that again.

Maybe I'll do gladiola's instead.

I really enjoy doing this.

OH! Plus the shade cover will also provide a stretch of shade into the garden proper, giving it an extra hour or 2 respite from the sun. I think that'll help there too.

One thing that did really well in the heat and sun in my bunny ear lavendar

Well they may be weeds, chai, but they're very pretty weeds.

Actually, I live within a mile of the Arkansas River, so I don't have clay soil. There's a lot of sand in it, though. The soil here is excellent. You can stick just about anything in the ground and it will grow. We're known for azaleas.

Okay, another suggestion for the groundcover - what about periwinkle?

What zone are you in, chai?

Oh yeah, I've done periwinkle, I like them. They are tough!

They will probably be in the mix next year.

I'm pasting this solution I found on a gardening site, to remember the receipe.

Gonna try it soon.

I have found a non chemical weed killer...actually an ANYTHING killer! ( watch what you don't want killed!!!) In our area we can't buy any chemicals so this has worked wonderful and actually it has been better and way faster!!!
2.5L bottle of vinegar on the stove to warm it up only. Add 1/2 cup of salt to totally dissolve it. Then add 1 teaspoon of dishsoap(not dishwasher soap) and let it cool. I put it in squirt bottles and goodbye to the weeds between my patio stones. All is brown and crispy and I just sweep away the crispies. It works best in drier weather as it must dilute rather fast in damp soil. Good luck. Love to know how it works for anyone!

I think that worked pretty good.

Yesterday I sprayed down all the MG's and by the end of the day, most of the leaves were all shriveled up.

This morning, I raked the plants all into central pile (I have 3 places the MGs are growing, so three piles) then cut the plants off an inch above the root lines. Then I gathered the plants I'd cut off up, and stuffed into le garbage.

Finally, I poured more of the solution directly onto the remains of the root.

I'll go back tomorrow and see if it makes pulling up the roots easier, and if it killed them.

I'm sure I'll still be plucking up seedlings come the spring, but hopefully this gets the motherlode.