Spring Plant Swap 2014 Lucketts VA - Post Party

ROFLOL Gita,
It's a tropical Passi, I do have a hardy one but I haven't seen any signs of it yet.

OK--You can all get off the floor now! Enough rolling around!

How about posting your OWN confessions? Then I can ROTF--but may never
be able to get up....CALL 911!!

g.

I didn't read it that way at all, cat. Thinking Terp really likes the Major Wheeler and whenever he see it as do I then we react with an OOHHH. AAHHHH!!! It's very hard to hear tone of voice in written words and not seeing peoples' faces. I always hear the OOhh AAHHHH sighs in the posts, cuz I figure if I am oohing and aahhing then everyone else is, too. Hehehe. Hugs!!

Catmint my mistake. I was ohhh and ahhhing the possibility of nice starter plants of major Wheeler.

Thanks Jan and Terp that makes much better sense! :-)

ssg, I meant, Angelina and Blue Spruce 'eat' every other petite sedum. However, my newer little sedums, if I let them get big on their own, I'll see if any can fight back.

GITA
Funniest
Post
Ever.

I can feel the cleansing breaths all the way down here!!!!! Or maybe it was breeze from the cold front. I hope you do feel better. By the way, I found somebody at work who will take an AV, whenever I see you again.

Hugs all around!

Oh okay, that makes more sense! I don't think sedums are bothered by any pests at all. Although my sister's Angelina gets eaten by deer.

I confess, to being drawn to bad boys (tropical plants) that need to be drug in and out of the house / GH each year. That need constant care all year long, they crowd me out of my own house, and spend all my hard earned $$ providing them winter heat. Oh why can't I just be happy with the good guys (perennial plants) that just need a little care, and pretty much just take care of themselves.

Gita, too funny - ditto what Sally said. I need to bookmark that one to easily find it to re-read when I need a laugh. I'll add Holly's addiction to those bad boys too LOL.

My addiction - I LOVE to acquire plants, and like planting plants, but I don't like planting the VOLUME of plants that I acquire LOL. Thank goodness for Suzanne. She plants 5 -10 plants in the time it takes me to plant 1. When I plant, I take my sweet old time, weed a little bit around what I've just planted, stand back to admire it, then take a contemplative break before planting the next one.... Suzanne moves with lots of energy and without distraction. She treats it like a work-out session to get in her exercise without having to go to the gym :)

Lol..Terri, I totally know what you mean about taking your time planting. I can only plant a lot of things if I keep my mind to it and don't get distracted. I dig the hole, carefully pick all the earthworms out of the dug soil so they don't get hurt, mix the soil with compost, tease the roots, throw in a pinch of Biotone, place the plant, fill soil in around it, and put some new mulch over top. That process takes more time than it sounds. So I usually install a few plants and then get up to stretch the legs, take a drink, look at other stuff in the garden, etc.

My planting process has gotten simpler since I discovered our critters (raccoons?) like fertilizers. So we just amend with pine bark and stick the plant in. I do try to save the earthworms....

Oh me too, Holly! Those bad boy tropicals! They're so high-maintenance, but they really get me all hot and bothered too.

Ditto on the long planting time. And before I even start I'll wander around pot in hand mumbling 'how would you like it here? Too much sun? Okay how about here? Hmm no I don't think so.' ;-)

Haha Cat, I'm glad I can do all that in my head otherwise it would take me forever.

Most of my time is spent shoveling more amended topsoil onto the bed. We have clay and rock so there's no real digging yet. After I have enough soil to plant in, I just make a little hole, put in some worm castings and get on to the next one!! This part goes rather quickly.

I put all the tropical containers into the garage on an inside wall and some get put into the basement near a little northern light. The basement has our second kitchen, DH's office, a closet room, the wash area and an unfinished large area where the kids play and watch or use one of the 3 old TV's.....so it's always heated.

Well I can do *some* of it in my head but there are always a few... ;-)

Hoo boy, I am NOT alone. YAY!!!! Trying to decide where to plant is the big thing.

Lol...Jan. I only have a tough time deciding if I run out of room, which happens occasionally.

And then things get bigger. You think you have left enough room for them to spread, but NOOOOOOO. Now they must be moved to a bigger area or divided. But, then they can be shared. YAY!!!!!.

Of course! It's hard to get walking room though if the garden is deep enough. My 'Honeylocust Garden' is a 1/2 moon shape and it's about 12' deep at it's crest. I had a path to walk down the very middle but it seems to be getting thinner....

I guess that I need to keep moving things around because I don't plant like Terri and Cat. Trouble is that I buy inexpensive tiny flowering shrubs that leave big gaps if I put them too far from each other and on top of that I plant too many perennials close to fill in those gaps. You know, the gardens started out so organized and now they just look like jungles!!

On gardener's jungle is another's well planned masterpiece!!

When I plant anything in my back yard beds--The first thing is always
yanking out the maple roots from the intended hole.
I dig the soil up a bit with my sturdy shovel, listening to the snapping sounds
as the roots get cut through.
Then--with my digging fork--I "mess around" the soil a bit pulling out piles of
feeder roots.
After the hole looks presentable--I shake in some Osmacote and plant the plant.
Lovingly pat it down and water immediately afterwards---VERY important to do this ASAP.

This goes on everywhere--as the roots are everywhere....and even if I rip them out--
by next year they will be there all over again.
Such a pleasure to dig in the front of my bed where there are NO roots.
SO easy!


*****HEY! IF you have a Big Lots near you--their 2cf bag of "Organic Choice
garden soil" is on sale for $6.!!! Usually--their price is $8. Still a deal!
HD---$12.98
I p/u 3 bags. Now have to go outside and find out where to put them.
They are SO heavy! One at a time--pull from the car into my wheelbarrow
and then wheel it to the patio.
I CANNOT lift these! NO WAY! Dragging them--or "walking" them works so-so..

G.

Roses: My approach is just like yours!

No one's talked about the other thing-
you want to plant A,
but first you have to remove B. Then go looking for a spot to put B, but that means you divide C, Now you have three C's to plant or pot before you are free to go back and plant A.........

Once A is i the ground, D looks overcrowded next to it, .......etc

LOL The ABC's.........DEF's of gardening.

I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one who can spend a long time planting things, in part because I often have to do the sequencing Sally does.

Does anyone else go through all those steps then move the plant right after it's in the ground? Sometimes I step back, look at it and decide it's too close, too far, etc.

A catbird followed me around the entire time I was planting today, staying just about 3 feet away. As soon as I finished digging somewhere, it would hop over, and always seemed to find something to eat even though the worms were covered up and I couldn't see a thing.

The birds and squirrels dig around any loose soil, so I almost always put a ring of rocks around everything I plant unless I'm sure I can hide the "evidence" with leaf litter, mulch, etc.

I have an oakleaf hydrangea cultivar that's supposed to stay pretty small, but I don't think it read the tag. It's taking over all of its neighbors so I had to move a hosta for the third time. I'm going to have to move a balloon flower for the third time, and I know they don't like root disturbance. Oh well.

I'm going to have to remove some New England asters to make room for a couple of azaleas. They'll be available at the fall swap!

Well Holly, I guess I'm doing it too! I'm already getting ready for the fall swap!

Whew! I'm not the only one!

I was pretty surprised when the catbird started following me. It wasn't the least bit afraid. I have to admit that I found it so adorable that I tossed it a few worms. It was very appreciative.

Muddy, I'd love it if a bird followed me around while I was gardening. What fun!

Muddy's got all the birds trained. ROFL

Sally, don't you mean that the birds have trained her? LOL

ssg, I remember your oakleaf hydrangea; it was very healthy-looking.
It probably would be hard to prune, so you have 2 choices as I see it: wipe some of that green off your thumb, or kill some grass and bump out that bed : )

The birds have totally trained me! I'll drop what I'm doing when the blue jays start crying for peanuts.

Muddy, the hydrangea's only spreading sideways but not front to back. I'm totally willing to bump out that bed, but it just wants to grow wide!

I put in some Houttuynia Cordata yesterday. I must go out and move it today!! I don't know if it will it up the plants where it is now. I think it needs to be around some really strong, mature bushes.

Happy, would this be a good ground cover for your hill or is it too aggressive?

Muddy, I can't wait to see the blooms on the 2 red Hydrangeas that you gave me. They both got prime spots in the gardens.

oh, Roses, I remember that plant from last year--it is very pretty but highly invasive and aggressive!! I put it in a container instead of in the ground and then when I realized it spreads by seed as well as by very thick rhizomes, I got rid of it entirely.
Here are some comments about it from other DGers
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2164/