Gardening ideas...

sozobe wrote:

Saw this and wanted to plonk it somewhere, this seems to be my default gardening thread (I have a bunch, don't I?)

I'm so glad J_B told me what that stuff was and that I've been busy eradicating it -- nobody around here seems to know about it.

When I first read the post and saw the words 'plunk it somewhere' I thought you meant you were going to transplant some into your garden. I was about to scream, 'nnnnnnnnooooooo' when I saw the rest of the post and breathed a sigh of relief.

Mr B and I were hiking in the Shenandoah National Park a couple years ago and pulled some garlic mustard we saw growing near the trail. A passerby gave us grief for pulling plants in the forest and how they should all be protected from people like us. I gave her grief for giving me grief and for trying to 'protect the garlic mustard', Sheesh.

0 Replies

Oooh, that's annoying. When I was researching it I came across something like that, some crunchy type talking about how some people don't like garlic mustard but she thinks it's pretty and she makes pesto out of it, or something. But it's evil!

I got 15 count 'em 15 yard bags' worth out over the course of about two weeks -- I think I got the last of it. I'm still grabbing little teeny ones here and there but it's pretty thorough. I know I'll have at least another year or two of eradication, but hopefully then they'll be gone gone gone.

While I'm here, any bright ideas for color in a container in shade? I have a largish (~ 15" diameter and maybe 18" deep) ceramic pot that I'm going to put in the back, want some color there. (Right now, almost all the color in the back is concentrated in the early spring. Bleeding hearts are going now, when they're done, that's pretty much it.) Impatiens are the obvious ones, a bit boring. Astilbe, maybe. Other ideas?

0 Replies

sozobe wrote:

I know I'll have at least another year or two of eradication, but hopefully then they'll be gone gone gone.........

I don't want to worry you Soz, but ruddy faced old gardeners have a saying......

"One years seeding, seven years weeding"

Let's hope it's different over in the US, eh?

0 Replies

Well, "at least"...

The good news is that they're fairly easy to get out, and satisfying. They're tall and if you grasp 'em about midway and pull just right (straight up) the whole thing pops out, roots 'n' all. A good way to work off tension. :-D

0 Replies

sozobe wrote:

While I'm here, any bright ideas for color in a container in shade? I have a largish (~ 15" diameter and maybe 18" deep) ceramic pot that I'm going to put in the back, want some color there. (Right now, almost all the color in the back is concentrated in the early spring. Bleeding hearts are going now, when they're done, that's pretty much it.) Impatiens are the obvious ones, a bit boring. Astilbe, maybe. Other ideas?

I'm going to say my favourite word again.....CLEMATIS!

Yes, this one likes the shade.

Clematis Macropetala (blue flower).
....dig hole four inches deeper than the plant roots (as you should with all clematis), so that you submerge about four inches of main stem as well as root ball. Stops wilt, and encourages a strong, healthy plant. Good, fibrous soil (roots like to be moist at all times) and a bit of feed now and then, and something for it to climb up (wigwam of bamboo canes?).

Marvellous!

or............a climbing Hydrangea, if you have a wall or fence nearby.
Hydrangea Petiolaris. Beautiful plant. Self gripping.

0 Replies

How deep is the shade, Soz? Do you get dappled sunlight or is it full shade?

0 Replies

Wow, thanks, Lord E! I thought Clematis all required sun, but this page is directing me to a bunch (306!!) of varieties that tolerate shade.

http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/clemlistsearch.cfm

J_B wrote:

How deep is the shade, Soz? Do you get dappled sunlight or is it full shade?

This time of year it's quite sunny. The cottonwoods haven't leafed out yet. When they do, it's dappled sunlight and some direct morning sunlight.

0 Replies

Oh, I was where you are with the bags and bags of garlic mustard about three years ago. I do my woods and my neighbor's (elderly, can't get out there anymore) totaling about a full acre of woodland. I'm about half done and have 3 bags full. Keep at it, you'll start to see a difference in another couple years. Depending on where the seeds are blowing in from, you'll probably have some to pull forever, but it becomes manageable after a few years.

I counted 12 grandiflora white trillium blooms today and hundreds of babies that will bloom in a few years. We didn't have anything but garlic mustard out there six or seven years ago. Good tension reliever and rewarding too!

0 Replies

That's fabulous about the trilliums and their babies! Good going.

Here's a fairly random collection of flowers for the back yard that I'm interested in -- got them from the White Flower Farm site but wouldn't necessarily buy them there.

primula (not necessarily this color):

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/images/36957a.jpg

asiatic lilies (part sun, one part of my slope is part sun):

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/images/984206a.jpg

astilbe:

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/images/82433a.jpg

I really like that collection, $58 for 12 plants, may get that. Will find out how much they cost at my local nurseries. I think they'd be perfect for a spot near the house in the back that is very shady but gets morning light. The description says that they will "They will glorify a shady spot and render carefree service for your lifetime and beyond." I especially like that they bloom June-July.

0 Replies

I like astilbe, they take a bit of care by dividing them every 2-3 years but you get more plants that way. They also tend to heave up over the winter so plant them fairly deeply and throw some more dirt around the crowns in the spring, if necessary. They have different blooming times so your collection will bloom over a longer period. You'll have good color if you interplant them with some colorful annuals. I usually use begonias in shades of pinks and white.

0 Replies

Just got back from the nursery!

Good god it's hard to keep from spending hundreds of dollars there. I'm on some kind of color high.

I got one li'l astilbe, to plant in my ceramic pot I was asking about at the beginning. Not that li'l, actually a 4-inch pot but it's already about a foot and a half tall at its tallest. Will put that in the center and then maybe a few little ferns around it and impatiens at the edge -- not sure yet.

Will see how that goes before buying that collection/ planting a bunch of them.

Got some asparagus fern 'cause it was the one indestructable thing in my container garden adventures last year.

Got a whole bunch of petunias in absolutely gorgeous colors. They had a sale, 8.88 per full flat. Got four flats, and my back porch is a riot of color right now, I'm so happy. The petunias were the other clear success last year, but I was a bit stingy with them -- one thing I see around here all summer are just huge bursting masses of petunias, gorgeous, I want to try for that.

0 Replies

Sounds like fun, soz. I love digging in the dirt. I'm holding off until next weekend to do any planting. I've spent most of this week pulling garlic mustard. I still plan on turning Mother's Day into an all-family planting, weeding, digging, pulling event.

0 Replies

I planted some bring-in-able containers, not sure whether I'll do the rest or not. Extended forecast says it won't get below low 40's between now and Mother's Day...

Re: garlic mustard, I'm seeing it everywhere, and everyone I've talked to is like oh, yeah, that stuff <shrug>. I'm thinking of writing to the mayor (I'm not a crank per se but I've written to him before, he's a nice guy :-D) and suggesting some sort of garlic mustard eradication program/ volunteer mass weeding. This is a beautiful area, hate to see the gm do its damage.

0 Replies

Soz...I know what you mean about getting a color high at the nursery. Be sure to deadhead those petunias every couple of days if you want lots of blooms. And don't be afraid to pinch them back as soon as they start getting too long. They recover in no time at all. A regular watering with ultra-high-bloom fertilizer (40-0-0) will help, too. Don't worry about fertilizing for the roots or foliage...these are annuals, after all. They're gonna die in a few months anyway. Go for maximum bloom. And post pictures!

0 Replies

My mother's house was known as the petunia house because she had a huge bed of petunias in the front. She was out there pluking spent flowers every morning.

Soz, our village offers matching fund reimbursement for buckthorn and garlic mustard removal if done by a landscaper. The max is $1000 per property in matching funds. We've really had a village-wide effort in eliminating buckthorn and garlic mustard.

0 Replies

I'm glad someone gets the color high -- you do a lot of graphic arts, Eva, don't you?

Eva and J_B, this climate seems to be a great petunia climate, or something -- the ones I put in last year did great with very little intervention. (I plucked spent ones occasionally, but nowhere near every day!) I just did 'em in a single row rather than a mass of 'em, and petunias seem to look better as a mass.

Quote:

Soz, our village offers matching fund reimbursement for buckthorn and garlic mustard removal if done by a landscaper. The max is $1000 per property in matching funds. We've really had a village-wide effort in eliminating buckthorn and garlic mustard.

I wonder if you could PM me some information about that? It's just the kind of thing I'd like to suggest, and having an example to point to always helps.

0 Replies

I'm reminded of a dog we had as a child who used to escape to run next door and jump up and down on the neighbor's petunias trying to reach the neighbor's caged canary.

The petunias survived.

Even so, they were very nice neighbors.

0 Replies

I just bought three toad lilies, wheeeee!

:-D

They made a big impression on me when I first saw them -- I just like 'em! Their leaves are just so toady, and then those purty flowers, and late in the season, and shade-loving!

I'm gonna put 'em out front under the magnolia I think.

Here are the ones I got -- one of these:

http://www.bigdipperfarm.com/images/big_dipper/th_399-025.jpg

And two of these:

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/images/39235.jpg

Cheap! Three 4-inch pots for ten bucks.

Back to gardening...!

0 Replies

I like toad lilies too, Soz. I have some under the dicentra. I cut the dicentra back in early July and then the toad lilies fill the gap.

I just pulled some garlic mustard from my neighbor's side yard. There's more there than I thought. I'll need to make another pass at it. This is the house that is up for sale and will be taken down to make room for a McMansion, ugh. While I was out there I was approached by someone I didn't recognize who wanted to know what I was doing. I knew the house was vacant because the wife had moved in with her son when the husband died, but this man told me she has passed away as well. This couple were the original owners of the house. They loved the woods and he loved putzing around in the garden and the woods. We pulled garlic mustard together for a few years until he was too frail to do it himself. I pulled my property and his after that, knowing I was doing it for my advantage as well as his, but doing for him all the same.

The couple is gone, the house they loved will be gone, the woods they loved will be gone. I'm very sad today.

0 Replies

Oh, that is definitely sad.

I'm sorry.

I hope that the McMansioners surprise you -- in a good way.

Sigh.

0 Replies

Gardening ideas...

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know