Yup that's me, in bathrobe and watering plants! Actually I should find one "on the deck with coffee mug and laptop"
came from
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1360752/
Here's our place for general 'what are you doing yardwise' stuff. We welcome newbies, oldbies, and out of town friends of all kinds.
This message was edited Jun 1, 2014 10:03 PM
DG 'Pseudo' said on another forum. You know you're of a certain age when you will just take out an overgrown shrub, rather than consider whether you can move it. Yeah well, I'm certain. I took out my unruly Gold Mops last fall, now I looking at the Burford hollies on each front corner of the house. Totally have not kept up with pruning, and have tried for a couple years to knock them back down to size with no luck, they keep growing back more than I can prune. I think this fall will be time for two new 'sumpuns'. The hollies had berries but the birds never ever ate them.
Sally, thanks for the link about Amelanchier (Serviceberry) trees (http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/948185). CatMint, Sequoia, I and a few others were chatting about how to get fruitful trees on RickWebb's Serviceberry thread. I'm not sure I would be as patient as Passiflora Pink - 12 years is a long time to wait for fruit!
Totally! I don't think I would be that patient either! :-)
My own serviceberry is showing some chlorosis in the leaves. So, I need to treat the soil. Maybe the soil needs more iron, or the pH is too high? It looks as though they like fairly acidic soil.
My two serviceberries have fruit now and I just planted them this spring. They are tiny sticks though. Hopefully they do better next year.
Mine has some fruit but it is at least my height so not a baby even though recently purchased. I'm more concerned about the chlorosis in the leaves.
Can you feed it some iron?
How long ago was it planted?
This message was edited Jun 2, 2014 7:55 AM
Catmint, I think a simple Ph kit from a garden store would be good enough to give you a hint on ph issue. I would never guess ph except that I think its happymacomb who has found she does NOT have the acid soil that most of this region has.
Thanks I got a soil amender that's supposed to add iron. If that doesn't work I'll try for the pH thing.
Yesterday was absolutely delightful. As soon as I finished making and eating lunch, and before my daughter and husband even fell asleep for their afternoon naps, I got to work in the yard. I was able to be outside from 2pm till 7pm, with what I would call limited interruptions from my kids. August dug a big hole in the yard, and found a marble. He started writing a story about a boy who found a magic marble.... He didn't finish the story because he got bored. Oh well, we'll circle back. Sean mowed the grass in the afternoon after I had gotten most of my work done, and the yard looked great last night. Just in time for my generous neighbors to offer me a Bloody Mary.... yeah that was about when I stopped working! ;)
I accomplished 3 major things yesterday! I'm so sorry for the blurry pics, remember that Bloody Mary I told you about?
1. Extended the Yellow Bed to the Bed-Under-The-Holly-Tree (pic 2-4). Installed Catmint's Sum and Substance there (see pic 4). Divided my Palace Purple Heuchera into 5 pieces, hoping they survive. Installed the hellebores from Holly. Also the Tiarella Eco Running Tapestry from Happy and the Ladies Mantle from Donner. You can't see it but I put all of the Marigolds from Holly and Ric down here too. Hopefully they'll grow to be one big pile of yellow!
2. Finally dug the dirt out from under the trash cans and reset the bricks there. It might not look like much to you guys but it's SOOO much better than it was before. I used the excess dirt to fill in a huge indent in my yard where a tree stump is rotting underground. We use the wood for our fire pit and the pieces are standing up straight so that rats can't nest in them. Glamorous city life!
3. Pic 5 is a wider view from the patio. The sad looking gray thing is the Artemisia 'Silver King' from Holly. I promise I did water it! Hopefully this hill next to the patio will look really different soon. It needs an overhaul.
Looks good Typ! Is that trash can with all the holes in it a composter?
Yeah. Well, it was supposed to be. But I gave up on that a couple of years ago and now it's just the place I store the free compost I get from the landfill. And it's just handy to have a trashcan that size around to hold contractor bags. Also I use the lid for carrying lots of stuff around too.
Wonderful! Good Yardening, Karen!!
Woohoo!!!
Looks great Typ. And I love the color of the Heuchera with the Sum and Substance! :-)
Robin
My plants survived me being gone for a week! I even had 6 little ripe tomatoes! Got all my planter bags back where they belong, I had moved them so they would be reached by the sprinklers. Watered really good & today it's nice & overcast, so I'll go out & fertilize everything with fish emulsion. Blueberries should be ripe soon (only a cupful or so) & the strawberry plants are all full of green berries...just checked the temps & it's 76 degrees, which is perfect temps for me...:-)
My flowers are blooming nicely & now I have a good idea of which plants I need to divide...some are much bigger than expected & blocking plants behind them...its kinda weird doing everything so early, like dividing & deadheading - but, our summer started in May with temps constantly in the high 80's & 90's
Geez must be nice to have summer start in May. We can barely hold a string of 80 degree days. I think we've only slept with all the windows open 2 or 3 nights so far.
Do you know what's sad? Today I felt the need to go to the local nursery over my lunch and buy some plants. Even after all the plants I got from the swap. Someone please send me to rehab!!
Look - mini 'maters!! Very sweet!
Sounds like you need an intervention, but truth be told...we've all done it! I need to head to a nursery soon, need flowers for my patio shelf!
Good to hear from you Beckie! Yummy tomatoes.
Does anybody know what I can do to get rid of flea beetles? Flea beetles are making loads of little holes in the leaves of my ornamental eggplant. Any advice?
Wow Becky, I'm only now planting the tomatoes I got at the swap! I hope it's not too late.
Nice work, typ! I'm always redoing the stones under the trash cans. They were never set properly and now it's getting to be a bit of a tripping hazard.
This evening we're having someone from Meadows Farms come out to give us an estimate for a stone pathway. The entrance to the backyard by the trashcans is a muddy mess when it rains and nothing grows there.
Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew. Bonide makes it and it's safe for veggie use. You just have to read the label and harvest after the minimum wait period. I do believe it's organic.
According to this article, try marigold (Tagetes spp.), nasturtium (Tropaeolum spp.), peppermint (Mentha x piperita), spearmint (Mentha spicata), and Catnip (Nepeta cataria) as companion plants.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/companion-planting-repel-flea-beetles-eggplants-73005.html
This message was edited Jun 2, 2014 3:31 PM
Ppfffttt!!!! My name is sequoia and I'm a plant addict. Truth be told, aren't we all???!!!! And pretty proud of it.
enjoy your tomatoes Bec! We're still getting ours planted here in Jersey!! lucky you
Jan, I have extra Chocolate cherry and Goldman's Italian American and large red and yellow heirloom tomatoes if you "need" any. I can bring them to work with me in Vineland if interested.
Mosquitoes are biting tonight in Mt. Laurel!! Before I got chased in by mosquitoes, I tried to get a few shots of baby birds getting fed tonight and I had to use the zoom. Mama bird would not let me get too close. This particular bird house was always our Haunted House... never much luck for babies I think because it is so deep. This time's the charm though. You can see they have mounded up the nest so the babies are up to the hole! yay success at last
What adorable pics of the mom feeding her babies, Wind! You are blessed to have them nesting in a place nearby where you can observe them! :-)
Definitely a plant addict here--LOL! Seq, I have to admit that I had an urge to run to the nursery today, too, to look for water-tolerant sedges and ferns for a difficult spot in my back garden. :-D
This message was edited Jun 2, 2014 7:22 PM
Wind--lucky you! The closest I have been to a nesting bird is some
catbirds nesting in my old Burning Bushes at the end of the Patio--
OH! And, of course, my regular Staling occupants in the almost dead
Kwanzan Cherry tree. The tree is almost totally decayed--the stems
are all hollow--as is the short trunk. OR--should I say--the PRIME location--
EVERY year for the Starlings to nest. Staring early spring--they guard it
with their lives...It is almost funny...
I don't know if the same "old" couple returns each year--or is it the grown up
fledglings that claim it jealously every spring? Do you know????
I do not dare cut this sad looking "tree" down--as it IS the prime Birf Condo.
Spaceous quarters inside the main trunk of the tree. Deep and dry!
Speaking of plant-pushers and sad looking trees ;-) I finally got an ID on the volunteer evergreen that started growing in the corner of my yard last summer. It was just a little stick then and I ignored it, and lo and behold it is now almost as tall as me (not that that's very tall--LOL) and can no longer be ignored.
Apparently it is a Red Cedar or Juniperus virginiana--too large at maturity for my yard in general and for this fence corner in particular. The birds like the berries and it is a host for the olive moth--a butterfly I saw a lot last summer, probably from whatever neighboring junipers provided the seed for my volunteer. On the downside, these trees seem to have their ecological drawbacks, according to Wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_virginiana
So, should I dig it up for disposal or should I try to rehome it?
Good to hear from you Beckie! Yummy tomatoes.
Does anybody know what I can do to get rid of flea beetles? Flea beetles are making loads of little holes in the leaves of my ornamental eggplant. Any advice?
Cat, I would get rid of it. It doesn't look like it's in a good spot, being right up against the fence like that. And it's an alternate host for cedar-apple rust, so if you have certain plants in the rosaceae family, they could get diseased since the life cycle of the fungus can be completed on them.
Just my thoughts. You could try to find another host for the Olive moth to make up for taking away the cedar.
That is a really good point about the cedar-apple rust, Typ! Yes, I'll take it out. It's still small enough that I can do that without too much pain. Also a good idea to find an alternate host for the olive butterfly, which is pretty and nice to see fluttering about.
Muddy, I had no idea about beer and slugs! :-) That's a great tip.
Thank you, wind, but I'm not planting any veggies this year, cuz I won't be home basically all summer except for a couple of weeks in
August.
ROFL!!! You're a riot Jan!
I would have kept the cedar. They are a beautiful native tree and the bark on mature specimens is gorgeous.
Seq, would you like the red cedar?? It is still in my yard awaiting its fate one way or the other.
Hehehe, just speaking truth. I would LOVE some of wind's tomahtoes, but I don't want to impose on people to keep 'my' garden growing whilst I'm galavanting in Alaska and then to Africa to help build a girl's school the second half of August. I'm almost afraid of what I'll find when I get home. I have visions of weeds overtaking the town. AAACCCKKKK!!!! Okay, I'm over it. We're still leaving. I'll just take my chances.
PS. I love you guys.
CatMint, I'm with Sequoia, I would keep the cedar. It fills that corner nicely and you could prune it to keep it in bounds; some people apparently use them for hedges.
It sounds as if there are other cedars close by, so getting rid of that one tree wouldn't prevent cedar apple rust from infecting your plants.
If Sequoia doesn't want it, I would like to try to save it, although summer apparently is a very bad time to transplant these trees.
Okay, I have to confess: Instead of planting the wonderful assortment of plants I got at the swap, on Sunday I went to Meadows Farms and bought another Rhododendron.
I was just following Sally's advice, though: she said to resist the urge to plant things right away because some needed time to develop stronger roots!
Juniperus virgniana is common as dirt, so keep it if you like the looks, don't lose sleep if you don't like it. I also love them when they get old trunks, but in a rural setting, you need room for that tree to age like that
Muddy, if Seq doesn't want it, it's definitely yours! I wish I had enough space in my yard for it, but its mature height is 30-60' with an 8-25' spread. Of course, that could take 50 years LOL but it definitely can't stay in the tiny corner it's currently lodged in, and I want to keep the trees in my back yard small so they don't block any of my full sun beds.
I don't know a lot about tree transplant times, except the heat of mid to late summer isn't a good time. Maybe it's still early enough in the season right now?
common as dirt I tell ya!!!
says tired and cranky Sally
Muddy--ROFL! I think you are definitely a certified plant addict! ;-) So now I don't feel so bad about having the urge to stop at the nursery today... Okay, full confession, I *did* stop at the nursery on Sunday near my daughter's volleyball practice--but I was good and managed to leave with only plant markers and some iron amender for the soil around my serviceberry! :-D
