Hi everyone...I just joined Dave's this past week, and I'm already hooked! I think the 5 feet of snow in my yard is putting me into withdrawals because I can't dig in the dirt...lol! I recently bought my home from an elderly gentleman whose idea of landscaping was to mow the lawn. I was wondering if anyone had ANY extra perennials, plants, seed, cuttings...not picky as to what. Sun or shade works, too, because I have both on the property. It would be truly appreciated! TY!
New to Dave's
Welcome! You will really enjoy Dave's.
Check out the Free seeds for Newbies thread in this seed trading forum.
Hi, Maria - and WELCOME!!!
Come Spring maybe you can pop-over (ahem - it's about an hour and a half), but I would be delighted to have you dig around and take what you want. There are always baby Lilacs and Maples, LOADS of Hosta, and misc. others for you to up. (And I usually have extra seedlings that i would be delighted to share.)
I guess the "seed trading" forum is the wrong place to post this, but hey! I've got it...and if you want it, I'm happy to share.
Hi Maria, fellow Nutmegger! A fabulous way to get more perennials is to go to a Northeast Roundups! It's just a bunch of wonderful people who volunteer their yards to host get-togethers to swap plants and relax, chat, and EAT!! I've met so many great people! Hang out in the Northeast forum and introduce yourself, you'll be adopted right away! I believe there's also a Northeast Roundup forum where people post the Roundups that they'd like to host. I don't have a yard anymore, since I sold my house last year, but I always brought home tons of stuff from the Roundups. And, of course, there are the swaps where things get sent in the mail. You'll find pretty quickly that you don't have to spend money to get great things, people here are truly avid gardeners and will happily share!
I'm going through withdrawal too. Oh well, lots of pots are going on my apartment deck this spring, that's for sure!
OH, just want to mention....in the spring, start creating the garden beds you want to plant in, even if you don't have anything to put in them yet. Otherwise you're going to have a whoooollle lot of lovely things with no where to put them. I'm just saying....that's what always happened to me. I'd come home with tons of great things, and then stress no end because I'd have to quickly plop them somewhere, not necessarily where I would want them, and then stress some more about creating a new garden bed, not necessarily how I would want to structure it. So, this is great time for planning, and then in late April and early May dig out those garden beds, and THEN acquire luscious stuff to put in them. If you already figured that out, then you're one up on me, and I salute you!
Welcome, Maria!
Thank you everyone for your warm welcome, offers and advice. Thank you bobyrd for welcoming me. Sequee, I will definitely keep you in mind. Maybe I can make a day trip when (and if) we ever thaw out! : ) Thank you Drumlin, for suggesting the roundups. I will definitely look into that, also. My father was always an avid gardener, and by the time I was grown, his property had little more than a 10x10 front yard. Every other available space was covered with beautiful beds. That was in TN. Then I moved to CT, and shortly after the home was sold. That was such a loss! Not only due to all the gardens, but that was the only home I knew. Now, I would like to attempt to have the beauty and variety that daddy did. I know it'll take a while, but thank you all for all your knowledge and generosity. I truly believe that avid gardeners are angels on earth! : ) Thanks again, and have a great day!
Thank you Carrie...sorry not to mention you in the previous post...you posted while I was typing it! : ) This is heaven for me. I am so addicted to digging in dirt, and the winter is killing me! This is helping me ease the withdrawals till spring! lol
Maria, have you thought of winter sowing?
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/coldsow/all/
It can really be helpful at this time of year, not to mention the flowers etc, you get out of it! I know Walgreens, for instance, has a 3/99 cents seed sale right now. They are brand X, but I couldn't resist a few.
Hi Carrie...I've never heard of winter sowing. Is it just that you plant indoors instead of outside? Thank you for the link, I did look at it, but still didn't quite find what it was. I don't mind brand-x seeds, as long as they grow! : ) Thank you!
Welcome Maria.
Winter sowing consist of sowing seeds either in containers, a cold frame or direct sowing into beds. For instance I direct sow most of my poppy seeds into beds during the cold part of winter. I also have about 25 pots set up outside with mostly perennial seeds. This method puts them through a cold period which helps them germinate. It doesn't mean they have to be done this way. I should say some seeds require the cold and others don't but it puts them a little farther along in age for blooming. Some plants like hollyhock usually don't bloom first year when you plant seeds in spring, but if you plant the seeds in the winter they usually will bloom that next summer. I hope I didn't confuse you.
I'll check my seed stash and see what I can come up with for you.
Winter sowing is fun to do when you are looking out the window at nothing but snow.
Besides the DG link that carrielamount provided, there is a website devoted to winter sowing, also with detailed directions. They also offer seeds for SASE:
www.wintersown.org
I just like to winter sow - by which I usually mean sowing seeds of ALL kinds in moist potting soil in vented translucent containers, labelling them, taping them shut, and then putting them out on the patio to fend for themselves - to help me cope with the cabin fever and snowed-in-ness of Jan. and Feb. (sometimes literal). wintersown.org is a great website too.
Winter sowing is a great way to get plenty to fill in the empty areas your first few years. We are supposed to get up to 2 feet of snow this week, I'm feeling your pain!
Another source is garden clubs, check around your area for their spring sales.
Thank you guys for the info and the links! I have to try it...we have 5 foot snowbanks in our front yard right now, and another foot expected Wednesday! : (
I think we're all talking about the same storm - worst yet? Maria, that's the BEST weather for winter sown seeds; they love it. Cozy insulating snow, drippy moisture (not torrential downpours) and bright diffuse light. Happy seeds!
I'm definitely going to try it...are there only certain plants that do well winter sown, or can you try any? I will probably be home tomorrow (I work in a private school, so depending on the storm) then I'll have a lot of free time! lol
My rough guess is that WS is best for seeds that need cold moist stratifiction to break dormancy, and other hardy perennials. I guess it would also be good for hardy annuals - though they would probably not need a LONG time outdoors.
Probably any seed whose packet says to start it outside BEFORE the last forst, or "as soon as the gorund can be worked" is a good candidate for WS.
I've heard of people even WSing peppers and tomatoes, but I don't understand starting seeds outside that need warm soil to germination. Maybe in a cold frame or plastic tunnel, where the sun raises the soil temperature.
But I'm not an experienced WS-er and defer to other's suggestions.
Corey
Thank you Corey for your input. I am not really an annual person (I'm much too practical and want my time and effort not to be a one time thing, rather by doing perrenials it's a long term investment that will continue to produce). I did talk to my daddy about it today (I'm grown but I can't imaging calling him anything else) and he's heard of it, but never actually done it. He did tell me that one down side could be that if a warm spell comes followed by cold, that it could kill any germination that might have occured by that point. He was an excellent gardener, and planted our entire property with beautiful beds. I will try to look for seed that mention to plant BEFORE last frost like you mentioned. That I can wrap my head around as a newbie! : ) lol Thank you for your suggestion...Maria
To your point Maria, I think that good ol' perennial seeds would be great candidates, because their seeds would hopefully be hardy enough to take what Nature dishes out. Good luck, please post pictures if you try this out!!
Thanks drumlin for the support!: ) I am going to try, if for no other reason than to feel SOME productivity in this horrible weather. I definitely will post if it comes out well...good luck tonight and tomorrow, too. It sounds like a doozy we're getting!
>> if a warm spell comes followed by cold, that it could kill any germination that might have occured by that point
I don't know if this is classic WS practice, but I plan to do it this way: if a late frost is about to break a spell of warmer weather, I plan to move my tubs onto a sheltered porch and cover them ... or even indoors overnight.
I also plan to park them most of the time OUT of direct sun, so they don't get hot every day and chill every night. I'll aim for cold/cool for a month or so, then as the weather warms up, take more chnace on letting days get "unseasonally" warm inside the tubs. If that gives them a head start, fine.
But I agree with you: average climate means occasional unusual weather, and if that kills a lot of tender wild plants one year out of ten, that may be Nature's way, but if I can finesse that for a few trays of seedlings, I will.
I think your Dad is smart: plants aren't so much killed by cold, as by cold they didn't expect and weren't prepared for.
On the other hand, I've had so much trouble starting fussy perennials from seed, that I now think of some annuals as easy, sure things that are bound to bloom. If my indoor seeds and WS seeds teach me something new by all dying (again), I'll still have beds full of blooms like Zinnia and Marigold. Even petunias turn out to be pretty hard to kill, and I may dicover a few more this year.
I used to say: "Hah! BUY plants? Why should I do that when I can start them from seed at 5% the cost and ten times the satisfaction?" Now I look wistfully at those "sure thing" plants at nurseries and Home Depot. But I haven't given up yet!
Corey
Ok, Corey, I'll take your lead! : ) I'll do the cold/cool thing and see. I'm like you, though, determined and stubborn! lol A little thing like a seed is not going to get the best of me!!
>> A little thing like a seed is not going to get the best of me!!
Good for you! I have been humbled by squirrels and even by slugs, but I'm still fighting back.
Corey
Maria, you really might read through some of those threads on the WS Forum, because a lot of people have tried a lot of things! Have the day off?
Thanks Corey, lol! I'm thinking about a BB gun if the squirrels don't leave me alone this summer. They're brazen little @!@&es aren't they? I had a metal tub with a lid on my front porch with my bird feed in it...I came home to find the lid thrown off it. When I walked onto the porch, they came high-tailing it out! Thieves...then when I tightened the lid, they rocked it over! That's not easy, the thing was heavy, knocked the lid off and fed their cheeks. On top of that, a friend gave me a few sunflower seed. I planted them and had one little one, 2 feet tall. I went out to mow to find petals everywhere! They shredded it! UGH!!
With slugs try this...take a pie tin and pour beer in it and leave it beside where they feed. They will crawl into it, and then flush them! Don't know if you've heard that or not, but it's worth a shot.
Hi Carrie...I did look in the WS forum, but it seemed as if people there already knew more about what they were doing. I need info from bottom up, but I didn't spend a whole lot of time there, either, so I'll try again later. I do have the day off, I work in a private school, and every school in CT closed today. It looks like we may have tomorrow off, too...this weather is TOO much! Everyone stay warm and safe, and I'll talk to you later...Maria
This year, i plan to try beer traps for slugs. Someone pointed out that you can put a lid with notches over a tuna can, to keep the rain out but let slugs in.
I've always told myself I would shoot squirrels with a pellet or BB gun if allowed, but then I bought a slingshot, and could still barely bring myself to shoot them. But I'm thinking of painting trees and fences with a band of hot chili pepper slurry! If they can't climb to escape, maybe the sedate, lazy, fat neighborhood cats will deign to chase the tree rats!
I also found the the WS forum assumed you knew the basics. Indeed, the only basics I saw there was "cut jugs in half, add 3" of potting mix, put holes in the bottom for dainage and top for venting and letting in a little rain or snow melt.".
Make sure the drainage holes aren't blocked by what the tub is sitting on.
LABEL, LABEL, LABEL. Masking tape peels off and magic marker fades. Try pencil on a white plastic tag inside the jug, plus magick marker on the jugs.
It's OK to use things other than gallon milk jugs. You can put smaller containers inside a big, clear tub with a clear lid, or clear plastic film on top.
You can cut the center out of an opaque lid, but use the 'frame" of the lid to hold plastic film over the tub. need holes in the film to vent humidity out and let a little rain in.
Don't let the jugs blow away.
Don't let pets ransack them.
It's fine if snow piles up on top of them.
If you sow too many seeds and they all grow togther, just plant them as a "hunk of seedlings" and let them compete with each other (?)
Where I am, and comnsidering how messy my projects are already, I worry about the "jug ghetto" looking too much like a pile of trash. That seems mitigated by people who have a large number of identical jugs in tidy rows and arrays: they look like a Roman Legion of tiny warriers with helmets shpaed like milk jugs. (My solution is to use three very big tubs (like sweater boxes) each woth 12 3.5" square pots inside. I hope to sow thinly enough that I can "prick out" seedlings into separate pots. They may need to sit in trays under plastic for a few weeks, put they will look more like palnts and less like trash at that point. But I'll need to deter the slugs!
Corey
Thank you, Corey for giving me the basics! I'll definitely give it a shot. I actually found a pack of seed my mom sent me last season but I never planted, so that would be the perfect guinea pig! lol Now I need to hurry and finish cleaning the house so I can try it... : ) Maria
Ahem ... we should probably ask Mel to move this thread to somewhere else; it is a lovely thread, just in the wrong forum. I'm just not sure where it should go!
Corey says all the right things, above, about WS.
Originally Maria was asking for seeds. It just got off on a different tangent, accidently, like most threads do here on Dave's.
Maria, have you added your address in the exchange yet? I have some seeds to send you.
>> Corey says all the right things, above, about WS.
Wow, thank you! I'm going by what I've read ... not yet confused by reality.
Corey
Hi everyone! : ) Sherman, keep trying! You'll beat those darn seeds, yet! I have faith in you. Carrie, thanks for the thumbs up for Corey. Robyn, I haven't added my address to the exchange, but for personal reasons. I will DM you with it, and thank you!! And you are very knowledgable, Corey, thanks again for the advice. I appreciate all of you...I think true gardeners are angels! : )
>. And you are very knowledgable, Corey,
Not really, but thank you. I'm just opinionated!
Well, I do know a lot about what to do wrong.
Been there, did that, started over.
Repeat as needed.
Some year when I succeed in growing out a lot of what I sowed, THEN I may think I know something.
Corey.
A lot has to be said for persistance, Corey...YOU GO!! : )
You bet I will!
Yay! : )
Thanks. ^_^