What is happening in your Garden Today?

I cut my work in half this spring, also, Holly by doing much more in the fall. Today I put about 60 Asiatic and Oriental lilies in our new bed. Thursday I planted climbing Don Juan and a red Crepe Myrtle there. Still lots more room to fill up.

Holly this was a hard winter for my watergarden. I was afraid I would loose the whole thing. There was a leak around the falls and Paul had to top it off at one point, and adjusted the stones. Then after that we got the never ending snow cover and I could not get to it to check the water level. And the snow stayed on as a covering so I could not even look out the upstairs window to check it. I had to just forget about it and hope for the best.
This has never happened before. I only pulled out one deceased fish, may have been just old. The rest are swimming along just fine.
Paul is thinking about redoing the falls this summer to something that will hold up better. I really hate to think about it as I have a lot of plants to dig before he starts to dig and I hate the disruption. But it has to be done. I'll just go into the house and hide.

Roses you Rock ! That bed will be a beauty. Love Lillies

& daffs

Most of what's getting done in my gardens is being done by a mousing cat that also eats chippies and baby squirrels plus one or two of our song birds daily. I can't do a thing about it either. The owner assures us that Miss Pussy stays home. I find it very difficult to hold my Dutch temper. There are absolutely no laws for free roaming cats. Soon we can add baby rabbits to the list.

Our cats are all gone now, Sassy our oldest died last week. Sassy has been blind for a long time now and didn't go any farther than sunning herself on the back deck. Bubbles was always in and out but wasn't much of a threat to the bird population anymore. We have always let our cats roam. Of course back then there were a lot more fields and woods than neighbors. For years we had quite a few outside barn cats. Usually due to someone dropping off a litter of kittens. I do think it is a bit different than having dogs roaming loose. But if your neighbors cat is using your flower beds as litter boxes and stalking out the bird feeders you have every right to be up set about it. Household cats are a very big problem for the bird population, I've heard a few lectures on it. Maybe you need one of the water blasters, big water gun that shoots a good stream of water pretty far.
Hey Doc, Ric divided the horseraddish a little earlier and harvested some and is in the kitchen making his first batch. We will see how it turns out.

Roses I am so looking forward to seeing your gardens when we come up for the swap. Boy you are busy and your gardens will be beautiful.
Ladyg, I think my Delf is coming up.
Well I have been productive. Stated out weeding that back corner bed. I did about half of it the other week and thought I might get it finished. Looking pretty good but not quite done yet. Ric got up and headed for the Veggie garden so instead of finishing I moved down there. Did a little weeding in the big bed next to the Veggie Garden and then mulched the Variegated Boxwoods that Ric put in last fall. He got the Spinach & Lettuce planted, divided the Horseraddish and potted up a couple of pieces for the swaps.

Holly, I planted horseradish for the first time. Of course it was part of my flower garden because I don't do vegetables except for tomatoes and some arrugula lettuce. I put the some of the roots in the freezer and cut up 4 pieces for the fridge. They grew in the fridge so now I have 4 new plants.

Missey Pussey had a problem last night. I extended your water targeting devise to a dollar store water hand gun. Then I stopped at Gander Mountain and bought ten dollars worth of skunk urine. Yea I say unto you Missy Pussey went home in pretty bad shape. Guess it started messing with a skunk. I saw lights in the bathroom clear up to the end of the second basketball game. I reccommended tomatoe soup and lemon juice. That was folowed by a quick trip to the big box grocery store. Duke put on a clinic last night for the world of basketball. Guess my clinic was backyard one ups man ship. Strange Miss Pussy is on their side porch in a wire car cage. LOL

ROFLOL, Oh god Doc that is so funny. Holly



Doc, after a couple more treatments she may just avoid your place!LOL Ric

This message was edited Apr 4, 2010 10:47 AM

Doc, that is the best! Your way of tackling the problem is priceless. Could you hear who was screaming the most, the owner after letting her in or Missey Pussey getting a good scrubbing. ROFLMBO.

I am laughing so hard at the picture I have in my head of you politely recommending the tomato soup and lemon remedy. I am assuming you did it with a straight face, but deep inside you were pumping your fist and shouting "YES, YES". Way to go, Doc.

Just send the Gold Star to docgipe....Garden Solutions, somewhere in the foothills near Williamsport, Pa.

Yeah, isn't it shocking what some cats will get into??
~
More beautiful weather going on. I never got to my Butterfly Bush pruning as I should have in Feb and it's hurting me to cut the branches now with significant new growth. I may leave a few long ones (ugly but if it gets early bloom worth it). I should have a way of marking empty spots when I've mentally reserved them for later things like my two Brugs, or new lilies a friend has promised etc.

Sally do you have some extra terra cotta flower pots? Just set one upside down in the spots you want to save. I also use those green plant supports or one of those metal plant markers. Anything that won't move around on you.
Well, Right now I feel as though I may never stand fully upright again. I have been out side all day. Mostly on my knees or getting up and down over and over again. The wall bed looks wonderful even if I do say so myself. LOL It was cleaned all leaves and dead growth removed, weeded, mulched around the bottom of the wall. Ric planted the new Pieris for me and JR helped me plant Pansies. I also found a new spot to try my Pulmeria. I dug up some of the Campanula 'Pink Octopus' and had Ric start some pots for the swaps. Mulched weeded and cleaned around the clipped yews. Raked part of the yard. Moved hundreds of the small rocks round the blue ball bubbler so I could take the cover off and drain it, clean it and then top it off with new layer of mulch the rock will be replaced tomorrow. Probably would have done that but I couldn't find the %#%& mosquito dunks so I couldn't put the rocks back into place. Oh I did a small amount of weeding in the Veggie garden, too. JR spent most of the afternoon here and played near me while I worked and helped a lot. Ric worked on the new seedlings. I think he transplanted about 800 of them. It was a good day for all of us.

Here is the picture. The pulmeria is in the lower right corner. The pieris is in the middle of the back bed.

I did a lot yesterday also, but today NADA. It is too steamy out there. Besides, my hands hurt. BooHoo Did anybody ask me if I wanted some cheese with my whine? ^_^

It has been so warm that I watered the rose bushes today. While I had the hoses out I sprayed the areas where I sprinkled seed (everywhere) and started to separate and relocate the various ground cover plants. I really should have a plan now and then. I have 5 different ground covers surrounding the beds along the deck. I couldn't decide which I liked best so I continue to put different ones as the mood strikes me. I think the warm weather affected my ADHD and caused me to put out some of my seedlings prematurely. Oh well, we'll see what happens to the whole roasting pan of dragon's blood sedum seedlings that I planted. I have another roasting pan filled with voodoo sedum seeds just getting started.

The weather shouldn't hurt your sedum seedlings Roses they are hardy plants so I would think they would be fine. I have several different types of ground cover in my beds, too. I have been potting some of the extras up for the swaps.
Jan, I need some cheese to go with my wine, too. LOL I didn't do anything outside today either. We hit the road and picked up 8 bales of ProMix, a couple of clematis Mrs N Thompson and MultiBlue, pot of anglelina sedum, and lithodora grace ward. It was a run here get that run there get something else day. I was asleep before we even got home and I'm just coming back to life. Ric came home and did a few necessary things and just crawled up the steps to bed.

Gorgonzola, or swiss?
I had a few things needing water today too. I have some things on the deck that willl not like the cooler nights expected after tomorrrow. Watch out with coleus- I read it drops leaves below 60 degrees and it happened on mine too so I'm beingmore careful with them.
Roses--well, you will really see how well they (ground covers) do compared to each other! That may help the choice later. Or maybe you can get away with them, with a unified grouping elsewhere. It's all good~~~~I agree the sedums should be fine, just migh want another drink in the heat tomorrow. I did something different last year and got reseeding Autumn Joy like crazee--never had that before in lots of years. I like my autumn joy in clumps, not all over. and if you rip them up and toss them, they root LOL

Dropped by Md. Flower and Foliage--and they told me to "Watch out!" for sat. into Sunday!!!!

Supposedly--39* overnight! Bummer!
I think many of us will be hauling stuff back in.....I have so much outside!
AHHH! The last Hurrah!!!!

Gita

I have temp benches set up just outside the garage. I just haul it all out in the AM, water it, and haul it back at sundown. Pretty good system till we get a greenhouse. I also have a 4x4' area under lights for transplants, that cool bright light stands them up pretty quickly. Ric

Ric,
My "hauling" is not that simple....Most things are out back on the patio. Some is on my front steps.
It is either in the front door or in the basement entrance (3rd level)--then a couple levels up to where the lights are...

I have a 4-level split house.....It is ALWAYS steps no matter whether I go up or down.

Today's prediction----90*!

I have a hard time believing we will go as low as high 30's Sat-Sun, but one never knows! We ALL have learned the hard way!

G.

Sounds like a 'Dogwood Winter" We missed a redbud winter. my redbud is all out and gorgeous. Dogwood is getting there.

Vole patrol. I don't have the problem like some of you have with voles but I have a few that really have not been a problem. But it sure keeps the girls busy trying to catch it.
Penny is the hunter, Marychris just follows along.

My weeping cherry looks like an umbrella at a queen's bridal shower. The purple plum trees are a pretty pink and so are the kwanzan cherry trees. Pulled more weeds and sprayed new seed several times so that they don't dry up out there. Power washed one side of the house so that the screens get cleaned and won't look so gross when I wash my windows.

I put a few hanging begonia tubers in the window boxes on the shed. Hope it's not too soon. I'll never get done at my pace if I wait to do everything at once.

Lot's of weeding today. Ordered 15 yards of compost (which won't be enough). Admired my blooming tulips and VA bluebells and brunnera "jack frost", which are all blooming. Moved some plants around. Put my WS containers in the shade (since it's so HOT today). Started hardening off my annuals that I've been growing indoors.
Some of our azaleas are starting to bloom. Our magnolia is in full bloom, and so is our redbud. Everything's blooming about 2-3 weeks earlier than last year.

My weeping cherry just popped open over night too. Love you description Roses.

pgt,

Sitting at work here playing on DG. Hope no one is looking....

Checked the Weather.com---MAN! Not such good news the rest of the month!

Daytimes are Ok, mostly 70-something, but starting end of next week, night time lows will all be in the mid-upper 40's. Right up to May.
Well--that is for MY area here....zip 21236.

I think tomoroow night i will have to bring in a few things...like my Coleus cuttings. Heaven help me! All the tomatoes I have potted up to 4" pots--I sure hope they will still fit under my grow lights....My daturas are pretty good size too.

Well--What else is new? Get impatient and seed too soon--and then you have to deal with all this iffy weather....

Gita

Oh yes Gita. Ric said the other day he needs a GH and I was thinking the same thing myself today. I up potted a dozen Hyacinth Bean seedlings and about 8 Cardinal Climbers. Also potted up the Canna Lilies right now they are outside but tomorrow night everything will have to come inside. The garage stays about 10 degrees warmer than the outside temps so most of the plants will be OK in there some will come in the house. It is a lot of moving plants around. About another 4 weeks till our no frost date.

I have no garage--but in an emergency--I can stash some bigger pots in my shed. Not much room there either....and it is dark....

Ric--all you have to do is find someone who is having all their windows replaced--buy them all up (or take them off the hands of the installers) and build yourself a glass house--aka Greenhouse....
If you can fix some of the panes so they open--you have venting--TaaDaahhh! An exhaust box-fan to suck some of the air would be needed....

A few studs for the framework, cinder blocks inside to hold up your tables (ahem--a 1/2 sheet of PT plywood would work)--and there you are!

OK! Just my mind rambling on here......Gita

Your weeping cherry looks very regal Ronnie.

I don't know if I would be able to keep up with the in and out stuff, Gita and Holly

Ric,

Would a green house need to be heated until the nights stayed above 45 or 50 degrees?

I moved half of my stuff to the sun room. They get no overhead light because of the roof but get some southern and western sun at different times during the day. The room actually has been getting too hot during the day, even though I pull up the windows on the 2 doors and turn on the overhead fan. Can't put all the screens in yet because the nights are still too cold. Not everything will be getting what it needs, but I have no more room under lights.

I feel as though I went a little overboard this year, but I console myself by remembering that if my daughter has another baby early next spring (according to her plan), I will be there all spring and get involved only in winter sowing.

LOL Gita we have huge glass warehouse windows stored in the barn just waiting till we can get building. Building the GH was on last summers project list but RIc;s hand injury put a stop to it. Hopefully we will have one for next year.
R_R_R I always go overboard. LOL When you can get the plants at such good prices I think Oh I want some of those and some of those and I'll get these for Mom's house and Jen's & Josh's houses and the next thing you know I have spent a couple of hundred dollars and have hundreds of plants. I have all these tropicals that I start in pots inside, too. Caladiums, Calla Lilies, Dahlias and Begonias.

everything seems to be blooming all at once!!
Jill said it best when she said, There's no sving money in gardenig. When you can get and grow plants so cheap, you just end up with MORE PLANTS
Rofl

In our area we think the Bradford Pears and several other flowering shrubs are as nice as we have ever seen them. My daffs put on a sight for sore eyes.....even in the bed we totally dug and reworked last summer. Our Asian Pears will have to be thinned 80% this year if we want nice fruit. This sure is a blooming year.

My Mason Bees have been working their little hearts off to meet the challenge of our blooming nature.

We could use a bit more water. We have not had a good rain for about two weeks.

Doc, How do your Asian Pears grow for you? Ric wants to replace the Apple Tree we took out last year and I would like to replace it with and Asian Pear. Although I'm the one that likes to eat them the most. I'm weeding the back corner. I never did finish that.

Just potted up 6 tiny roses that came from Chamblee's. One was broken so I noticed that they put an extra one in the order. Very nice. Found a very nice new little weed all over the place. Jagged leaves at the bottom and tiny white flowers on nice long stems. Very easy to pull except I can't bend that many times in one day.

Asian Pears are an easy grow. They will fruit early. They set heavy numbers of fruit which need to be thinned. The only care I give them is thinning of the structure and fruit set. Neem Oil covers their spray needs. They seem to be fire blight resistant. I lost a Keiffer Pear to fire blight right between two Asians that were very slightly effected. I cut out the fire blight. There was none the following year. I bought a three tree offering from Miller's Nursery in New York state. They made first fruit in three years. This is a family owned nursery from whom I have bought from over my whole fifty years of gardening. If I step outside the back door and holler out Miller's Nursery eighty percent of my stuff will come to attention and salute the back door. I have when possible bought from nursery firms that are North of me. They grow them there they should be good to go in my back yard without concern for my growing zone. Miller's have several groupings of pear trees.....three fers this year.
They are very careful to classify and zone key properly. I have never done well with the Southern firms so to speak. Three dwarf trees will give you at least fifty pears each when fully grown. They can up supper nice and make great jams.

You are in the last two to four weeks for planting fruit. Better get hopping if you want to plant this year. I think the Asians if not all pears are shipped spring only. All fruit stock at this hour will have been held in cool storage. You will have to be ready to plant immediately when you get them.

I have been out all morning doing this and that--and I did mow the lawn as well. Still just at 2" to even the growth out a bit. Next mowing it goes back up to 3". Just HAD TO do it with the rain coming tonight.

To me--because of the forecast low night temps (mid-high 40's) after next week--and for the rest of April-- I feel that it sure puts a damper on my gung-ho gardening. Seems like such a bummer!

I am basing this on the forecasts, for the rest of the month of April, from Weather.com in my zip code.
I am sure some of this will change, but, all of a sudden, my gardening "get-up-and-go" seems a bit suspended.....

Beautiful day today--however--there are strong T-showers predicted later on today. We DO need the rain!
I brought in my 2 flats of Coleus cuttings and moved all the flats of transplanted veggies to the patio floor under a table...
Better safe than sorry!

Wanted to show you allwhat you can expect IF you take the time to dig up the big roots of your 4 O'Clocks.
I had there dry in a box in my basement. In mid-February, I put them in a plastic-lined box in some soil and kept them moist (still in my basement).
Eventually, there will be shoots of new growth coming from the base of where the old stem died back.
From these--you will get a huge bush this season.
I believe we (z-7) are the borderline for these being hardy--so, I suppose, one could experiment and leave them in the beds for the Winter. However--I have also read that these can get really "invasive" with massive root-systems. So--I rather dig mine up and re-plant the roots.
Actually--these all are going to my manager at work--who has "fallen in love: with the 4's. he cannot explain it when i ask him what it is about this plant---he just wants his WHOLE driveway lined with 4 O'Clocks this summer.....

He has planted seeds--I hope??? I asked him the other day if he had even looked at the roots he dug up last fall? NOPE! They are still in hos garage! He just has NO time to pay to gardening--but wants all kinds of things.....
I am obliging him the best I can.

Will send him an e-mail in a few minutes with all these pictures of the 4's sprouting....
He will also get--2 each of Ch. Purple, Mortgage Lifter, and Sun Gold tomatoes as well as 2 each of my purple and yellow Daturas and 6 plants of Italian basil. All these sprouting roots of the 4's and maybe some of my Cannas as well. It is frustrating--as he never stands still long enough for me to talk to him.....always a zillion other things on his mind.......
SO! I write things down for him and, now and then, send him e-mails.....Never get any replies, but I understand.......

OK! here are the dug up roots of the 4's "Broken Colors" starting to sprout. This is what I have kept them in since mid-February. I often wonder IF soil is even necessary??? as most of the energy and nutrtition, surely, resides in the fleshy root. Who needs the soil? I just think it helps keep everything moist......

Notice that the on on top left has just begun--the sprouts on that one are no more than 1/8th"--just showing....

This is the end of the one on the top-left. Not a big root--only one year old--no bigger than a med. carrot.
Interesting--how the shoots are just sprouting from the end. Three shoots--meand 3 plants to grow from this one root.
I expect this "bush" will be at least 3'x3' or more.....

Here are 3 shoots coming from one of the big roots at he bottom left in the first picture.....
The two BIG roots should produce a seriously large "shrub" of 4 O'clocks! These roots are second year dug-up.