March, 2012!! Spring has sprung (or is springing-maybe).

Charlotte, kim , Loretta, Sarah & Kim's husband Geoff (spelling) met up in Bald knob today to support Dian's open house at Hopes & Dreams Nursery and to spend alittle money lol had a great time!! and yep, I spent alittle money.

came home and worked in the garden this evening, got the tomatoes planted, along with 2 rows of purple hull peas and the peppers. tomorrow we're going to plant more purple hull peas and squash thinking that will be it for a few weeks, then we'll plant the dill and the cucumbers and we'll just see what else we can get in the veggie garden, also going to plant sweet potatoes.

I did get a chance to put the spagum moss all around the edges and bottom of this three tier planter today. I am going to fill it with low growing sedums and rock garden type plants, like Ice plants and i got a couple euphorbias to put in there, I don't have many low growing sedums right now so it will have to be an on going process, hopefully I'll find some when we go to Rita's

here's the planter Ready for the dirt . A few other pics too since i can post more than one at atime. ;0) that second pic, I forget what it's called, variegated yellow rose of texas? I forgot. i also forgot the third picture, some sort of beauty plant? first time it's bloomed.

That container is going to look so pretty when it is all planted!!! Sarah and I stopped by BJ's and bought more plants on the way home!!!!! We were maxed by the time we got home. I showed her my garden plot on the way home. Then I changed clothes and went back and planted strawberries Kathy Ann brought me. Also got my tomatoes, some herbs, carrot seed, squash, cantaloupe and a watermelon planted. I have some other seed I'm going back to plant tomorrow. It's beginning to look like a garden!!! I already have sweet yellow and purple onions planted and broccoli and Brussels sprouts planted.

I hope it will look good, we might have to move it to more sun for the sedums. i hope to leave it out all winter too.

If any body knows what those two plants are, let me know . I think Terrye use to have one of those beauty bushes at one time, just wasn't sure that is what that thing is. I keep it in a pot all the time.

Don't know what those plants are but they are pretty!

Need to work on getting some more order in my yard tomorrow!! Love my stuff I got at Hopes and Dreams. Since I have a raised bed in my garden plot I think I'm going to buy some small pots of petunias and let them trail over the sides!! That way I'll add a little color!!

good idea, flowers always attract bees!

UUUUGGGGGGHHHH I just a post typed and LOST it ! So frustrating !!

Sounds like ya'll had a fun day plant shopping! I have to be in Searcy for a wedding shower on April 15..... how far is it to Bald Knob from there??? :) Might need to check this place out.....

Jeri, so sorry to hear about your friend, but I hope she is able to hold tight to her faith. I know it must be disappointing for it to reoccur, but tell her we are all praying for her!

I need some HELP! Alex's neighbors' bamboo is taking over his yard!! Leigh cut down one last week and the stalk was back to 4' today! It is spreading like wildfire and I need to know if there is any way to eradicate it - preferably without killing the neighbor's bamboo too! Next weekend it looks like we will be working to tame the jungle instead of working on the house! Any suggestions appreciated! Anyone with bamboo experience???

Thanks! HOPEFULLY this will post this time.. been a long day and i am headed to bed!

Genna

Oh yeah, Home Depot has their cypress mulch on sale for a 1.27 a bag if ya'll need any. So far, I have 140 bags and hope to get more tomorrow!! The 20 bags I bought a couple of weeks ago cost me 2.97 each! Maybe I will get to finish my foundation planting after all....... well, IF I can find some TIME! :)

Glad Yall had so much fun and ONLY spent a little!!! LOL!!!

Beautiful KA!!! That is gonna look great when you finish it.

Genna the only way to stop bamboo is to dig down and place a metal barrier. I just cut mine below the soil surface and usually that will get it. Right now the new shoots are coming up but in a little while they will stop for the season and that is when I just whack off what I don't want around. That is what I did yesterday. I cut the small canes out to make room for the bigger ones. It was quiet a job!!!!

So he needs a metal barricade under the soil around his fence? How far down?? Not sure how we will accomplish that since his yard appears to be total ROCK! :(

genna

You would think the rock would be a barrier, but I guess not.

Here is a quote from google.

"To prevent a running bamboo from spreading, a “rhizome barrier” is essential. A barrier two or three feet deep is effective. It should be slanted outward at the top so that when the rhizomes hit the barrier they will bend upwards. A barrier does not stop a running rhizome; it only deflects it. The barrier should project an inch or two above ground level. Check the barrier once a year, and cut off rhizomes that arch over the top.

Barriers can be concrete, or metal, or plastic. The usual recommendation is high-density polypropylene, 40 mil or heavier, glued or taped at junctions, or clamped with stainless-steel clamps. This material comes in rolls, or as hinged sections, and is available from some landscape suppliers and bamboo nurseries, frequently termed root barrier. More elaborate barriers with corner posts that hold the material at the proper angle are also available.

Root barrier is available from some bamboo growers. Look for “Rhizome barriers” in the Plant and Product Suppliers’ List.

A pond or stream can also act as an effective barrier."

Hope this helps!!!

I don't know if any of you use the Gardening by the moon, but since Charlotte asked about planting tomatoes I though I would post a link. looks like Thursday is the first good day for tomatoes this month.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=9063565

My next door neighbor has a small patch of bamboo in his back yard and he wants to keep it contained to a small area and I want him to keep it in his yard!!!. Jeri you or someone told me to put down the metal barrier and I told him to do that. It is working. But it is just a small area and he is young and strong and he worked like crazy to get the barrier down but it seems to be working. He keeps a close eye on it to make sure it doesn't escape his barrier.

Jeri the bamboo Genna is talking about has been there for years and I would guess to be 20 ft tall or more and probably runs 150 ft or so in length. I bet it has developed such a tight tough root system it will be almost impossible to cut through! What seems like rock could actually be root.

Genna almost every yard in LR is full of rock. Out at Wildwood we dig a hole with a pick. We have to loosen rock and remove as we dig. For some reason my own yard doesn't have rock. A gardener lived here before me and I think she had topsoil brought in and I think she also probably got rid of a lot of the rock in the yard. Down at our garden area where Randy shoved things around with the tractor you can see all kind of rock. One reason we did raised bed.

Sandra we did a cross post. One of my MG friends does a big garden and she told me about the moon phase gardening. I had never heard of it before. She told me where to go to find it (one of local nurseries has a link on their website). That's actually why I planted my stuff Fri and Sat. I figured it sure couldn't hurt anything!! I bought my tomato plants from her. She grows them from seed and sells her surplus. I bought 10 plants from her - all different varieties. Thought I would see which one I liked the best. She sells them for $1 each which is a lot less than what I would pay at a nursery and they are nice healthy plants. She said the seed for the tomato plants were planted by the moon.

Like the chart says - today I plan to work on getting a mulch path down in front and behind my bed.

I never put out tomatoes before the 15th of April until last year. Older folks did their gardens on Good Friday, and called Sat-rotten Sat, said any seeds planted on the Sat before Easter would rot in the ground. I do believe this is an old wives tale as no one really knows for sure the date of Easter, also when the women of the family had to start working in public, that was a holiday--LOL !
It seems our climate is changing and planting tomatoes a little earlier really made a difference in ours. They tasted great. my brother in law put his out later, as he was watching for a certain kind he wanted to plant and it had gotten so hot by the time he put his out they had NO taste, you could not tell them from cold storage tomatoes. Of course mine had been out for a while, but when it got so hot they quit bearing.

I have to go to town tomorrow. We finally bit the bullet and got a new car yesterday. Jerry drives an hour each way to work so we got him a Mazda 3. I have not even driven it yet, but I will drive it tomorrow to do the fun stuff, tag and insurance. I will probably get my plants tomorrow if they have any I want in Ripley, usually the co-op has some good plants.

gardening by the Moon is a forum here, you can go to the forum, but I only posted the April link. The girl that does it, posts each month.

Sandra know Jerry will enjoy his new car! I know what you mean about shopping for one. I hate having to buy a new car!!! It's always such an ordeal for me. The last car I bought the salesman probably thought I was a real loon! I walked into the dealership and within 10 minutes found the car I wanted and we were able to get a price negotiated that I was willing to pay. I drove off the lot with a new car! LOL
What he didn't know was I had been doing a lot of research on line for several months and knew exactly what I wanted and what I thought I should have to pay for it and how much my old car was worth. Now it has a 120,000 miles on it but I plan to drive it as long as I can!!!

Genna here is a link that shows how to do a barrier like Jeri is talking about.
http://www.bamboogarden.com/barrier%20installation.htm

KathyAnn, the beauty bush, Kolkwitzia amabilis, is Dreamcatcher. I think we bought ours the same day in Memphis. Mine has not bloomed yet though. I moved it last year and shocked it bad. But it has leafed out already this spring and is doing okay. Love the blooms.
I put out a few tomatoes and they have already doubled in size. They are loving the weather.

Terrye

Thanks Terrye, I knew y;ou had one too. I had one in the ground but it died so I kept this in a pot and it needs to go in a larger pot it's outgrown this one.

Good morning all
Jeri so sorry to hear about our friend prayers being said.

Genna this was an interesting comment on getting rid of bamboo. After 3 years of fighting it on his land and a common area he says it is all but gone. I also wanted to suggest renting a trencher to dig down as deep as you can to put out that bearer. I didn't read the article so I don't know if they suggested that. I don't know exactly how deep a trencher will dig but it should help to get it started. We rented a trencher to bury an electrical line when we couldn't break the ground with a pickax.

RE: Getting Rid of Bamboo

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Posted by newtie z8+ MS (My Page) on
Sat, Aug 13, 05 at 16:38

The reason herbicide fails with bamboo is that a grove is one plant with interconnected root system. The herbicide will kill the roots locally but the plant will survive elsewhere and regenerate. Try this. Cut off all bamboo stalks 4 to six inches from the ground. Fill a large oil can with round-up (12 TBS of 51 % concentrate/gal). Split each stalk once with a machete, to expose more cambium surface area, and apply one squirt of round-up to each split stump. Repeat this twice a year for 2 to 3 years. The grove will die, but you must not leave any shoots that are part of the colony untreated. The city dumped an entire load of ready-mix concrete (Don't ask why.)down a hillside near my garden. The hillside was covered with bamboo. Mulching it with 6 inches of concrete did not phase it!, but the treatment above has nearly eliminated the bamboo. The last bit is headed for bamboo heaven as I write this. Now, how do I get rid of the concrete?

Sandra so glad for you and Jerry about the new car. I am sure the newer ones get better gas mileage and as far as Jerry has to drive each day the saving will probably help pay the note. Last weekend our 22 year old suburban that we use at the camp motor burned up. Jimbo said he was going to have to put a new motor in it. I suggested since my suburban was almost 11 years old that he take it over there and buy me a newer one. It has less than 90,000 miles on it and it is 4 wheel drive. The reason we bought a four wheel drive was to be able to take it back and forth to the Island. Although my reasoning was good he looked at me like I was crazy. Oh well I guess I will be driving my suburban until it is 22 years old although I would be 72. I'm not sure I would still be able to pull myself up in it. Just hoping I outlive it. LOL

Kathy Ann Love your container I am sure it will look awesome when you get it planted. A nice excuse to buy more plants.

Charlotte the planters look amazing. I can't wait to see pictures when they are all planted and green. Glad y'all had such a good time getting together. Well I said I wasn't going anywhere because of the price of gas but I have always wanted to go to the NO botanical gardens. I have always heard it is so beautiful. I am going to go down and spend the night at Jeri's and go with her and Mary to NO. At least we can share the gas and no hotel rooms to pay for since it is a day trip. Hopefully Emily will be able to go too. Jeri says she always finds unusual plants too. This trip is not about buying plants for me. I just want to see the gardens. I am not getting any younger so I better go while I can still drive there.

I have really been working around here. All the daylilies in the pen have been dug up but not all put back in the ground.
We had a terrible log jam on our stairs to the water. We put the boat in and spent 3 hours yesterday removing those dead trees that had floated down river and been trapped. It was tough wrangling those large trees since all we had was rope. I wish we had a grappling hook to make it easier. Some of those logs had been trapped for a couple years. When the river is up it brings down more trash and it really looked nasty. We even had someone's rotted floating dock trapped in there. Any way nothing could flow through there so the pileup was getting worse everyday. It really looks nice now. I don't know how long it will stay unjammed but at least it is free flowing right now and that current is fast when the river is this high. It is not anywhere near flooding but much higher than normal right now.
first picture is the pen with all the daylilies removed. second is my snowball bush, third is Byzantine glads

This must be the year of clematis around here. They have started blooming on even short stems.

first picture is not Nelly Moser I just can't remember the name but I love it
second is my broom bush. First year it has bloomed
third is English dogwood
fourth is my first daylily bloom All the Magic

This message was edited Apr 2, 2012 9:53 AM

My La iris have been beautiful too.

Boy does the pen look different!!! That was a real job getting all those day lilies out of there!!

Love your blooms! My clematis are really blooming like crazy too. I took some pictures this morning but don't have time to upload them right now.

Cindy, Alex's problem with the bamboo is that it belongs to the neighbor and has crossed the fence and gotten into his yard. Trenching is probably about the only thing he can do. If he killed the neighbors bamboo I think he will have one mad neighbor. This neighbor has surrounded his entire house and lot on all sides with bamboo. This is a regular city lot and the only thing you can see of the house is a small amount of the roof from one angle. They have an opening just around their garage door. They pull into the garage and disappear!! The garage is close to the street. There is a house on the other side and I bet they do something to keep it out of their yard. Whoever lived in Alex's house before allowed the bamboo to come into his yard. Hence the problem!

Such pretty blooms from everyone. Haven't had time to post any pics but I have lots of stuff blooming. No DLs yet. Had a busy weekend.

Jeri, so sorry about your friend and her cancer recurrence. Prayers for her.

Sandra, glad you guys have a new car!! I know Jerry will enjoy it....especially his wallet will be happy! Isn't it almost baby time?

Sandra, congratulations on the new car! I am sure that will help out on the commuting expenses! Kyle looked at some mazda when he was car shopping but I can't remember which one. I remember it drove well.

Cindy, I love the broom bush - is it a tropical? Love that yellow~ I have several clematis blooming as well.... one on about a 5" vine! Not sure why it is so short, but the bloom is pretty - just on the ground almost!

Yes, Alex's bamboo is coming from the neighbors who have a large established grove! His yard is extremely rocky..... I don't even know if a trencher could cut it...??? Never tried using a trencher in rock before......... His back yard is a mess with all that rock, and his privacy fence needs some repair in places which we can easily do ourselves IF we could figure out how to dig post holes in ROCK! He needs to landscape a large area of the back yard so he doesn't have to attempt to mow it - the "mowing" back there will need to be done with a weedeater. But, I know he won't have the money to landscape any time soon....

Charlotte, do you know if LR allows you to purchase a burn permit? to burn limbs, etc? He has several limbs and leaves in his back yard that we will attempt to clean up this weekend and it would be a lot easier and faster if we were allowed to burn, but I didn't figure that was legal......

Once again, I had a large post typed and lost it, so I don't remember if I covered everything again or not!

Worked over 12 hrs in my yard yesterday trying to play catch up.............I was exhausted and sore but I did make some progress - although I doubt anyone would notice as they drive by!!!

LR does allow some limited burn permits but I doubt seriously they would allow him to have one being adjacent to commercial property. I can tell you it is also not a way to win a popularity contest with your neighbors!! My crazy neighbor behind me got one and burned his leaves. All the smoke came into my backyard and my neighbors backyard and stayed right out our back door. We couldn't even go outside and the smell came into our house. I called to report him is how I found out he got a permit!!! He did it another year without a permit and flames were shooting up above the fence after dark. I couldn't tell what was on fire so I called the fire department afraid the neighbor was about to catch on fire.

The city here picks up yard waste every week. You just need to drag the limbs out by the street - not in the street but in your yard next to the street. If they are huge limbs they may tag it for later pickup. The leaves will need to be bagged and also put out by the street. I had two huge piles of debris for the last 2 weeks and they picked them up both times. It ran almost the length of my front yard and about 4 ft tall!

Boy we are having a really powerful storm right now. I have electricity but 1500 in the parish are without.
We dropped from 84 to 66 in a matter of minutes.

This message was edited Apr 2, 2012 3:01 PM

Cindy, love the pics! My clematis are going strong with several of my late ones putting on buds. I have some new ones I can't wait to see. Even when I quit buying plants last year I couldn't resist the clematis. I have a few more I want this year.

Terrye

Genna you will probably have to use an auger to dig the holes. That's what we use at wildwood.

Do ya'll use a hand auger? Or one on the back of a tractor? We have a tractor, and a post hole digger for it, but no way to get it into his yard unless we take down fence first......... plus, hauling it to LR and back and getting it unloaded up there would be a pain, but guess it could be done! I will save that project for a later date! Got my hands full as it is for now. He had carpet put down today in his master bedroom, which except for re-installing part of the stair case railing, and installing a light above the bathroom vanity in the new bathroom , the upstairs is done!! :)

I just wasn't looking forward to dragging all that stuff to the front.... his yard is so rocky and uneven it makes it hard to walk, but we will get it done. Might attempt to take a wheel barrow and see if that helps or hurts the situation.

Do you have to call for them to pick up the limbs etc or do they just come by periodically?? Thanks for the info!

Cindy, we got a really heavy rain here too, but Leigh said it was a lot worse in Magnolia. knocked a lot of the blooms off my Lady Banks rose that had been loaded. But, believe it or not, we really needed the rain ..... that we got 2 weeks ago must have all ran off because the river is still out of its banks but when we were planting some trees yesterday our ground was still like concrete in places because it was so dry! hard to believe after we got so much rain, but guess it just fell too fast....??

Genna the yard waste people come by every week and pick up limbs, leaves, etc. They come by here every Tues. Not sure what day they would come by his house. No you don't have to call they just come by every week. That is part of his water bill fee. Really big things they will sometime put a green tag on it that means it is too big for them to pick up and another truck will pick it up later. He needs to meet some of his neighbors and they will tell him how things work. Natalie will probably have more time to meet them after she moves in. They will figure it all out!!

If you will look around lots of and lots of people have huge piles of yard waste in the front of their house this time of year. When you live in a mature neighborhood it requires a lot of pruning every year. I put a huge pile out in front of my house today. This is the third week I've done that and have lots more to go.

Just have to remember that he is in the city and we do things different here than in small towns or out in the country!! LOL

Genna you can rent a gas powered auger that will dig the holes. It is best to have 2 people to run it. We rented one when we put in a fence at our last home.

Yes Cindy that's what we use. Forgot to tell her that. We also use a heavy duty cordless drill with a really long bit on it to drill holes to plant bulbs, etc. I'm also serious about using a pick to dig a hole. We can't just dig a hole with a shovel. We have to start the hole with a heavy pick and then remove rock.....use the pick some more.....remove more rock....until we finally get a hole big enough to plant in. We do lots of manual work at our project. Not for the faint of heart!! LOL

Please be careful using augers as I know a girl who got her shirt tail in one and died, she worked for the phone company. It was one of my sisters in-laws.

We just got back from the hospital, Heather went in late this afternoon for a scheduled stress test and her blood pressure was so high, they put her in. They got it down some and they are planning on delivering Justin Case Geyer at 7:30am. If it goes back out of control through the night they will go ahead with the section. She is right at 36 weeks, but they are saying he is a big baby. Please say prayers for them both.

Praying for them Sandra!!! Hope they can keep her blood pressure down! One of my grandson's is named Justin.

Genna it just occurred to me that you may be talking about small dead sticks and limbs that fall out of trees. If that is what you are talking about they need to be put in a large lawn waste bag (like you would use for leaves) or in a large garbage container. I'm talking about big limbs or branches to just put by the street. Or big things you prune. The city furnishes a trash can for garbage and a container for recycling but you have to buy your own container for yard waste. Just the big plastic garbage cans like to can buy at Wal Mart. I always keep two or three. Stuff is always falling out of the trees and I just put it in a garbage can and put it by the street on yard waste day. I can also just take it in the back yard and fill it up as I move it around the yard.

Charlotte I have the same problem here. This used to be the company my husband works for rock unloading site. They make asphalt. They boat the rock from states like Kentucky and Arkansas and off load it from the river. They had spread rock around the land so the dump trucks that were loaded with thousands of lbs of rock didn't get stuck. So I have small rock that has been pounded in the ground by dump trucks for years. When you have small rock compressed it makes a barrier like concrete except you can dig it out once you get 10 or 12 rocks started out. Just time consuming and tedious work. I used to have to start every hole around here with an steel auger on a corded drill. I still have to in certain areas. When we moved here we had someone plant trees with those gigantic tree spade. He said this was the hardest ground he had ever tried to to drill. Like you I am sure these areas will not hold water. I have to water the rocky areas every day to keep things alive during the summer.

Remembering Heather this morn

Also hope things are going well with Heather this morning!

Cindy I love that combination of yellow knock out roses, iris and clematis! Pretty!!

Thinking of Heather and the baby - praying for good results!!

Just got a message from her that Justin is here! Very handsome fellow!!! I'm sure Sandra will be posting a picture soon!

Cindy, I too love your combo of yellow knockouts, clematis and iris. All your blooms are beautiful!

Sandra, praying for you all this morning. Hope all goes well and that Justin comes into this world peacefully and Heather has no problems.

Genna, DH has a gas-powered auger and he has used it on occasion to dig planting holes for me as well as fence post holes when he didn't want to drag the tractor out with the auger on it. It works well, but as Sandra said, be careful with a big one. The one he has is made for one person but there are larger ones that require 2 people to operate. And yes, keep loose clothing away, and if you are trying to dig thru suspected rock, I'd be very careful. It might not work at all.

Note: by the time I got this posted, Justin is already here!! Congratulations!!

Good afternoon everyone!!

Jeri I'm so sorry about your friend!!!

Genna I feel your pain with the bamboo, I hate that crap. My yard is all rock and I live in Lonsdale.

OOOOOO KA and all y'all, so glad you got to go to the nursery up there! I was in St. Louis so I missed it.
Kim how did Jeff like the flower trip? LOL

I can't stand bamboo, blah!

Cindy those are some pretty pics you have there! The clematis is blooming here big time too, wish I had a few plants of it. Wish I had a place for it to climb on. I'll have to work on that lol

Just got a message from Sandra and she said she is heading back to the hospital. Heather is back in surgery. She is hemorrhaging. She asked me to post for her.