Central Midwest Gardening: May 2012-Plants done Blooming?, 1 by shortleaf

shortleaf wrote:
Haha, yeah, that pond is full of rainwater now! Ack! I wanted Fall Mums! Oh well, I have another smaller pot of Mums, I'll pinch them if it gets buds.
Here is the newest addition to my cactus/ succulent concrete planter, (mostly succulents, well, all succulents..lol, I don't really want to get poked by needles!) I learned at Home Depot today that not all cactuses will poke you, this girl was squeezing one on the same shelf I was looking at, she tells her brother or some smaller kid, "my Grandma has one of these it don't poke you", she said to the kid. Then she says, "ouch, well most of the time it don't poke!" rofl! I was gonna get that one until I read the mature size - 5 feet, too tall! Anyway, the new one is the green one in the middle, I splurged on that one, it was a whopping $4.98.
I plan to rearrange them later, it looks funny now. I need to get that rock out of there and replace it with a smaller one too.

Okay happ, no hurry on coming, I'll still be here, barring winning the lottery, which isn't likely to happen since I don't play!

Yeah, I told my homeowner friend that I wanted to change it to a raingarden and she was into it. She isn't crazy about the depth of it now, but I told her it'll be filled up with mud and leaves in no time. The likelihood of me getting the boot has come back down a notch now! Haha! I'm just kidding, she wouldn't really throw me out, she knows I pay rent, she'd have to give me 30 days notice!
When I cleaned the pond the other day, I scooped out about 3 gallons of smelly mud and leaves from the runoff, and that was from less than a year of accumulation.

Yeow Crit, that is some curls there, like Goldilocks! Like that episode of King of Queens where Carrie cuts her hair big to sell it for $2,000! I know you said your donating yours, that's neat too.

Isn't it so much easier buying plants than buying what is really needed? There is a trick to making the purchase of plants worth it. It isn't hard, I think they'd bring people alot more happiness if they just let them live year after year and let them get big and old like I try to do!

Thanks happ, a half-whiskey barrel is a good idea.

These peaches are really coming in. Now, if the squirrels will stay off of them!

Here is the big Mimosa already in bloom, the Hummingbirds will like that, that's some of my potted plants also in that shot, they are awaiting planting. I hate to stray but that big Swamp White Oak up close, I grew it from an acorn that I got from an arboretum near here called Powell Gardens in 2005. I just need a great big place to plant it someday. I have several trees like that, they started out small and now are getting pretty good size, an American Elm, a Chinkapin Oak, a Ponderosa Pine, a Leyland Cypress and an Eastern White Pine come to mind. Hehe.. the Ponderosa Pine (in the white wicker basket) came attached in a small seed packet that was attached to a shirt that I bought as a souvenir from the ArborDay lodge in 2004, it is getting quite large now! The American Elm I grew from a seed from the Illinois state champion American Elm tree, (it's in that photo, it's in the black pot in the front). The Chinkapin Oak I grew from an acorn from Burr Oak Woods State Park in 2006, it's in that photo too, (it's in the other red pot over on the left). The Eastern White Pine was a free seedling from visiting the ArborDay museum in 2004 too. The Leyland Cypress was just cheap, it was $3 in Fall 2010. I'm not sure what's in the white kitty litter jug, it is something that I started years ago but I'm not getting rid of it because I don't know what it is, I'm fairly sure it's either a Wisteria or a Kentucky Coffeetree, I used to grow them both regularly.

Here is the stacking, it's a work in progress. I need to drill drain holes in those 2 buckets, (in the background), before I put all those little scrap wood pieces in them.
I plan to finish that area this year! I said that last year! Haha!
Will