phloxfan, Central Lake, Mi. Welcome to Daves Garden.

Hello..it is nice to meet you...A fellow Michigander, is great.. This is the Michigan forum.. I hope you will come here..often..if you have any questions..about..getting around this site,...Just post here...and someone will tell you..how to get around.. Also..Hope you will tell us about your garden..What are you interested..there are so many things..to learn here...Share with us...what you know...or what you need to learn about..Many neighbors here..will help you out..

Enjoy your day here...and again welcome...

smiles..Diana....

Hello and thanks for the warm welcome. I finished my Master Gardener classes 2 months ago and have yet to start the required volunteer requirements. I have been gardening for 20 years with my main focus on perennials. After 20 years of learning at the school of hard knocks, I decided to take the MG class. I lived in Oakland county for 35 years and moved to Antrim county with retirement last year. I have much to learn about gardening in Zone 4B-5A sand, as everything I experienced success with in Zone 6A hard clay doesn't apply any longer. I have questions about resources and educational opportunities in Michigan for gardeners.......this is all new to me. I live in a little bitty town and may have to travel some distance to meet other gardeners but that is okay with me. Can you get me started on finding out about gardening clubs, classes, plant exchanges etc.? Thanks lots.

welcome where is Central Lake hope you have a great day
Gloria

Welcome Phloxfan!
We hope you enjoy your stay with us! Sounds like now you have the time to truely enjoy all the beautifits of gardening!
Garden Hugs!
Sandy

Welcome Phloxfan! Congratulations on finishing your master's gardening course. We also moved from the city to a small city in mid michigan. We have a small farm now. The different challenges I have now are trying to keep the deer from eating my flowers. Now that we've added to the family a dozen hens we also have to teach them to stay out of my perennials. :) I do spray the beloved Liquid Fence and fence in the veggie garden and around the fruit trees. All expensive fixes but necessary.

I'm not sure where you are at but if you're ever up my way I'd love for you to stop by for a visit. I live on the Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron sort of at the base of the index finger of the "hand" of Michigan.

You'll love it here at Daves. Everyone is so nice and there are so many forums to visit.

Brenda

I live in Central Lake, which is 6 miles from the Lake Michigan shoreline, about halfway between Traverse City and Charlevoix. It is a beautiful area of the state. We had a cottage here on the upper chain of lakes for 18 years. We were blessed to sell our home in Oakland county in 2008 (you know I'm sure of the challenges of selling real estate in Michigan) and moved to our cottage. I took divisions of most of my perennials with me. Some are very homesick and sulking (my hostas, monardas, columbines, astilbes) and some (phlox, echinacea, hemerocallis, shastas, sedums and nepetas) took the move in stride and are flourishing. I have problems now with deer and rabbits, and am meeting new bugs every day. I live near a fallow farm field and am learning that my battle with bugs will last a lifetime (or until the farmer starts to use that land again). I have no experience with Liquid Fence. Does it work? How often do you have to reapply it? I used a spray deer/rabbit repellant last year with a little success. But I think what really helped was a fox that moved to the neighborhood and took care of my rabbits. Do you have any other advice? Thanks so much.

The Liquid Fence is the only thing I've found to work almost 100%. Deer are creatures of habit so once you apply it the first time you need to reapply a few weeks later when the scent is wearing off. Keep spraying about once a month and you'll have no problems. If you forget, they'll be there in a heartbeat to eat everything up. I have a RTV I get in and take my two spray bottle full of the Liquid Fence and I drive around and spray everything from fruit trees to roses. :) Works for me.

There is a nursery in Clare, Michigan called Deer Resistant Landscape Nursery. While I haven't ordered from them, they are a great resource on what to plant that the deer don't prefer. Check them out. I agree with Loon about spraying. My cottage is across the street from the woods that a large band of deer call home. They will walk down the street not 10 feet from where I am pulling weeds and not give a hoot that I am there talking rather loudly to my husband. First of all, I plant stuff they don't really like, then I spray. At one point, I had a device that was a motion detecter, lit up when something got close, and emitted a sound that was ugly to them but that we couldn't hear. That took that garden out of their comfort zone and they never have bothered that garden. A lot of the deer resistant (nothing is deer proof) plants on the list from the people in Clare would also serve you will as they are xeric and, once established, not mind your sandy soil. Plants such as agastache, artemisia, some asclepias, caryopteris, euphorbia, ornamental grasses, lavender, lychnis, monarda, perovskia, salvia, stachys and verbascums will serve a double purpose. Yuccas are very beautiful zeric plants and the deer don't bother them all year, but in the winter when nothing else is green, they munch the heck out of them, so I have taken to caging them to make that impossible. The hostas, good luck. When we bought our cottage, I took some of my prized hostas to plant under a tree in the front yard. In 2 weeks when we returned, I was excited to go see my beautiful plants all opened up. Stubs of my beautiful collection remained. I told my husband they had probably been watching me plant those hostas, laughing to themselves saying "Ha, some variegated salad she's planting over there" I've since move them in ever more difficult places in the landscape for them to access, vowing to not let them win. It's definately a love-hate relationship. Add Canadian peat to your sandy soil for moisture retention as well as compost. And when those pesky deer eat something into oblivion, view it as an opportunity to try something new and exciting in its place. Nancy

That is a great list of deer resistant plants Nance gave. I'll add Nepeta or catmint. I have a whole row of it across the front of my property alonside the ditch. It's the best plant. Nobody eats it and it's tough. It blooms beautifully all summer long into fall and it's a bee magnet.

I have to keep all my roses covered with rose cones in the winter to keep the rabbits and deer off of them. Works great. I can't afford to keep buying plants over and over again because the animals think I planted them for dinner. I put an 8 foot chain link fence around my 20' x 30' vegetable garden. Works great. Nobody gets in there and I'm able to grow food without worry. It was costly but saved my sanity. :)

Thanks Nancy and Brenda for the great advice. I am a little worried about what I may find when I come home in April (we winter down south) because we do not have the snow cover this year that we did last year. Last year we had 220 inches of snow and all my plants survived pretty well. Brenda, you mentioned covering your roses. I only have one, a knockout, and the nursery told me I didn't have to cover it. So I didn't. Now I am wondering if I should have. I just ordered $100 worth of roses from Pickering in Canada based on what I could learn from the Rose thread. Can I ask what you have had success with? I made my choices simply based on winter hardiness and disease resistance. But I see that how roses are labeled can vary dramatically from vendor to vendor, so who knows what the truth is. I guess it's all a grand experiment! So any advice you can give me would be helpful.
Leslie

I think the reason the knockout roses don't have to be covered is that they are not grafted on other rootstock like the hybrid teas are. They would probably come back from the roots like so many other perennials do. Any of the own root roses probably don't have to be covered, but hardiness varies. I know there has been a lot of research in Canada to find or develop the hardiest roses, and that may be what you ordered. I'm in awe of the knockouts though. They bloom nonstop, year around, in Florida, never needing any rest, don't appear to have any mildew or blackspot there either, and yet perform well in northern gardens. So beautiful and yet so versatile. As for no snow cover, that may cause problems for all of us. What is one to do? Nancy

Most of my roses are the Knockouts. I have a row of them along the fence. They are extremely hardy. I covered them with rose cones mostly to keep the deer and rabbits off them in winter. I had to prune them back in the fall so they'd fit under the cones. It didn't hurt them a bit. When I was fairly certain we wouldn't be having a hard frost I took the cones off. Much to my surprise, they didn't suffer one bit of die back..........not a bit. In fact, they were already sprouting out from green canes under the cones. If I hadn't have covered them the deer would have eat them to the ground. I have a driveway alarm and it goes off when the deer are huddled out there munching on my plants. I rush the little dogs out to bark them away. :) I know then it's time to respray the Liquid Fence. I liked the knockouts so much that I bought ten more double pinks to go across the front of my perennial bed out front. I like them planted en-mass. It makes a bold statement. I mostly like they don't need spraying or fussing over like most roses do. I've gotten to be a lazy gardener in my old age and won't baby those hybrid teas any more.

More of the same.

A closeup.
These roses looked like this all summer till I cut them back in late fall to get ready for winter. I deadheaded them once I think all summer. They're self cleaning. They have spoiled me to the point that I don't think I'll ever buy any other kind of rose.

That could be a picture from House Beautiful, Brenda. Very lovely. For my benefit plant sale, I ordered a rose called a Weeks Rose. Supposed to have the same disease resistance quality as Knockouts, but in a deep velvetly red not available in the Knockout series. I am anxious to try this rose and compare. Nancy

Hi Nancy. I have heard of Weeks rose company at www.weeksroses.com/ but you are saying the name of the rose you ordered is called "Weeks"? Is it by the company of the same name?
You'll have to post a picture of it. I love to try new things. I like tough and hardy with no fuss or muss. We spend most of our time in the veggie garden now.

Brenda

The name of the rose is Home Run. This is what the growers says:
2006 Intro
Home Run™
(cv. WEKcisbako ) PPAF
Shrub - Showy flame red

This flame-red offspring kicks the competition up a notch when it comes to disease resistance. Home Run has a phenomenal fortitude against the dreaded black spot (like its father). But, unlike Dad, it is also completely resistant to powdery mildew. Rounded, bushy, fast-to-flower and nearly always in color, it hits a grand slam in the landscape & scores lots of points in a pot, too.

For some reason, this new computer won't allow my to insert a picture of the rose. Oh so aggravating, but I'm sure you can find a picture on the web. Nancy

Welcome! During the summer months I work in Central Lake on Thursdays at Kings Orchards off of 88, I think thats the road. I love that area! There is a garden club in Traverse city. Plus the college offers some garden educational courses and the grounds of the college are really beautiful in the spring. On 6th St in TC there is a gorgeous private garden that is open to public often.

On 31, Pine Hill Nursery has awesome deals on last years perennials. Last summer I bought tons of 1 gallong perennials for about .40 cents each!

I'm from Manistee County but have spent most my time working or going to school in TC.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/169295/

There is a picture of Home Run at this link here at Daves. It has received all good comments so far. It's a single red rose. If I had a spot somewhere I'd get one but I'm trying hard to keep my promise to myself not to expand my flower beds. :)

Brenda

Welcome and Hello!!
I just wish you a great experience with all us Michiganders!
This group has alot of information to impart.
Have fun.
Julie