GARDENING

Lowered shrubbery Prunus tomentosa to give that lower truss of foliage
on the pine more visibility. Click photo for the before appearance.

Hello NekoNomad and Patricia Holland. Pleasure to meet you two, and your thread. Too bad I didn't stumble across this thread earlier. Did see some pictures though.
I'm an avid gardener Unfortunately, Michigan weather limits me.
I don't have many pictures of my landscape. It is only three years old. Lots of edible landscape.

Hello, Alex: My name is Neko Nomad, and I'm a plantaholic, and the trial and error kind. I'm primarily into fitting yet another perennial into an overgrown border in your average sized subdivision backyard. Not tidy but looked after. The lawn, or what's left of it enjoys a somewhat close second for attention. So go ahead and share this running gardening journal. Nothing's too trivial to post. Got anything lined up for next garden season? Happy Gardening...

Good day Neko Nomad.
Next garden season..? An apple tree and a peach tree....then maybe a lilac or hemlock privacy hedge...for starters. Also have some rose of sharron seeds.
Some of this years highlights for me were: A pumpkin patch that was started from last years composted pumpkin, that stretched over a third of my lawn. ..Sunflowers. I received a pack of sunflower seeds in the mail. So, I planted them all around the property. Holy cows, these babys were monsters. Eight, nine, ten feet tall. Two inch diameter stalks. Different shapes, bends, angles. At dusk, it reminds me of the Chinese terracotta army.
How much more lawn is being donated to your perennial garden next year?

The objective here is to allow that lower truss enough
sunlight to fully develop and spread over the shrubbery
which may evenually be removed in favor of perennials. A
yew hedge is already in place behind it.





I'm going to leave the pine alone the next year;it's
been picked on enough.

The ornamental apple tree up front by the driveway
got a trim. New growth had bolted due to this summer's
rain, giving it a neglected appearance.



It gave a good show this year:



Here's a closeup of its flowers-- I can't recall any other flowering Malus with this color shade:

esterday I lowered a lilac growing up against that Nanking cherry
to level out that side of the yard's shrubbery. This is an after shot. Click
for the before look, showing that lilac's leggy upright branches
which had been removed.




It's a magenta colored lilac,and I won't get any flowers next year,
the tradeoff for leveling it with the cherry shrub this year.

Now this mum which wintered over twice, appears to be a late variety
a and a week or so from blooming.




This one, which has also spent two winters in the garage, is in full bloom
today.

Good day neko nomad. Nice pictures. I do have to obtain a digital camera.
Tomorrow I'm planting eleven Autumn Jazz Arrowwood Viburnums. Attempting a privacy hedge. I have thirty six feet to block. Directions state to plant every twelve feet. I'm going for three feet intervals. Any thoughts? Also wondering what the growth rate is. Have a good day.

I looked up Viburnum dentatum. Good choice for a hedge;
the recommended spacing seems to allow for its characteristic width of six to eight feet. I space my privets and lilacs at about three feet and am getting a good hedge, which I'll maintain to five and six feet high, so you should be able to do likewise.

By all means get a good camera and share your gardening with all the nice folks here; I'd be delighted myself to see how you're doing.

I'd guess it grows about as fast as a lilac, which isn't what you'd call rapid, since it has a similar hardiness range. Well worth the wait, though. Like, maybe four years minimum, using sucker sized plants..

Thank you.
Got them all in. Frost advisory last night. Purchaseed a three foot by a hundred roll of hemp. Wrapped those babys up good.
Have a nice day.

To give a clearer example of the growth rate for privet and lilac in my garden,
I'll give a now and before look over four years, at about the same times in October.
In this shot lilacs are to the right of the sidewalk, and privets are to its left, toward the back:


Click here for the same view in 2004.

Great pictures. That was neat how you had "click here" for the before.
You have me going outside now to yell "grow" at my viburnum.

The sidewalk was still a Work-In-Progress in July 2004(click link); Nekochan
can be seen supervising the project. Those lilacs were lowered and leveled soon afterwards

My new irises that were set out last month have
firmly rooted(see the new growth on the rhyzome)and should get through
winter in good shape, with no frost heave.



This one is a Spanish Coins.

Oldtimer continues to grimly hang on and bloom on time,
even if with only a single flower. Not bad at all for a thirty
year old.

It was given a tall fish emulsion cocktail and
placed by a sunny window in the basement after this picture
was taken.

Thirty years old is great. What type of plant is that Neko?
Question number two? Is your fish emulsion cocktail a secret recipe?
Still no camera.
Have a nice day.

All I need to know is how to post pix from my camera. Do I need a host?

Our impatiens are gonna die in a few days if we get the predicted fros. Mrs F planted large groupings of them under trees and in walkways, theye are really brilliant masses of color as the fall begins stalking everything.

We have large Hosta groups and these are starting to go back.
Neko-Ive found that potted mums that we buy in Sept will winter over , if left in the pots and are set in the south side of the house. and out of winds.

Okay, here's my recipe for Fish Emulsion Cocktail -- purists would
call it a highball, but I run this bar-- and it goes like this:

1. To a two quart pitcher of rainwater



2. Add a couple of shots (approx. 3 tablespoons) fish emulsion.


Oldtimer's in the basement now; it's a Christmas Cactus.




Farmerman: You need a host in order to get a URL for your pics. Photobucket's the simplest for smaller sized ones.
Mums won't survive our winters here. My two, along with a couple of potted
dahlias will be going into the garage after blooming. We're having frost now.

sorry man, what zone are you in?

We count on the mixed colors of strong garden mums and purple and white asters to shoot us into fall with a blaze of color. Our mums usually will last at least 10 years if pruned back to a 6" stump each late fall. Ive found that mums are most vulnerable to ice kills if the entire plant is allowed to swing around in the icy winds of winter