My Intro

Hello, Mid Atlantic Forum !

Critter gave me a polite little push to introduce myself in this forum.

Little about me... grew up in Gettysburg. Served 23 years in the Air Force. Moved back to this area in 2002 and have been here ever since, mostly in MD. Just bought my current home in Frederick two months ago, has a good deal of mature landscaping on it and not a ton to do but enough to do to keep my busy (which means keep me happy).

I love to keep a beautiful lawn (way too many dandelions in this yard right now) and really enjoy a nice variety of trees, shrubs, annuals and perennial flowers. You can see some of my previous work in my album.

Looking forward to being an active member in the forum and in some local events !

CAM

Welcome CAM! Frederick is very close to where I live in Lucketts, VA. In fact, Critter was the first gardening friend from the Mid Atlantic forum that I met when I joined DG in May of 2008. Looking forward to having you join in online and at the local get togethers. I'm sure Critter already mentioned it, but our annual spring plant swap is coming up in 2 weeks in the Vienna, VA area. Hope you can join us there!

Terri

Thank you, Terri !

Yes, I'm going to make it to the plant swap, just placed an order as part of the group buy on Caladium to pick up at that event. Excited to meet some of the other members there at the swap event. Not sure if I'll have anything to swap though, unless I can fit a 12-foot Juniper in my MINI Cooper... hahaha (replacing it with a Crape Myrtle). :)

I have driven thru Luckett's many times on my way to Leesburg, Sterling, and other points South of there.

Thanks again !
CAM

Congratulations on your new home and welcome!! I met Terri and Critter at a seed swap in Frederick about 7 years ago, and also live in Lucketts, not all that far from Terri. Looking forward to meeting you in Vienna. Do make sure there is room in your Mini Cooper when you head to the swap as you will likely be coming back with plants unless you lock the doors.

Pat

Thanks for the welcome and the heads-up, Pat. Looking forward to meeting you too. And will bring my older MINI, the one that doesn't mind getting dirty (the new one is a bit uppity).

CAM

CAM, please let us know if there's anything that interests you on our wants list. I didn't have a lot to share during my first couple of years of gardening, either, but I'd go home with so many plants that I couldn't see out the back. :)

Welcome CAM! You'll be glad to hear that one of our annual events, the winter seed swap, is in Frederick.....graciously organized by Critter every year.

SS... Still in the process of putting in some additional beds and planning what to do with the existing beds at my new house. Will be keeping a good bit of the existing landscaping, mostly just adding to it but not sure what just yet. I did recently plant some Pennisetum Hameln and could always use more of those. And if anybody is going to separate some of their Shasta Daisies - Becky, I have a great place for some of those too.

Thank you, Muddy.... and I will see you soon at the plant swap. Thanks very much for organizing and hosting that event !

CAM, check out the "haves and wants" thread to see what people are bringing. Keep checking it because plants keep getting added. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1387836/

Sequoiadendron4 has Shasta daisy 'Becky' on his list. You can let him know you want some by sending him a Dmail or by posting on this thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1392209/


This message was edited Apr 24, 2015 8:40 PM

Thank you, Muddy.... appreciate it !

You're welcome!

~~~ waving to CAM

I'm looking forward to meeting you in person! I'm also looking forward to hearing about the changes you'll make in the "mature" landscaping of your new home. :-)

Thanks, Jill... glad to know because I love talking landscaping and plants. :)) I love listening and learning too !

Hi, CAM!

I won't be at the swap, but I feel like I've been there and to Lucketts already...

This is a good crowd - they even like cats.

Thanks... Kentucky is beautiful State !

And haha... they even like cats. That's good, I have two beautiful Ragamuffin girls.

Our little troublemakers think so, too - and they all say hi.

Pokey, Smilax, Cercis, Cornus, and Salix...

Well now.... Kennedy and Reagan send their best to Pokey, Smilax, Cercis, Cornus and Salix.

Took a bunch of pics of the landscaping at the house I recently bought in Frederick and will show anyone interested at the plant swap on 5/9 but here's a pic to give you an idea what the home looks like.

What a lovely home and really like the blue trim. The cats look like they are still resting from the move!

Very nice! I can't tell what it is from the picture, but I see you have a good-sized, healthy-looking and well-positioned shade tree in front. That's a great start for designing your landscape.

Do I see a birdbath in the photo? We MAFers like birds too!

Thank you, ecnalg... I had those shutters painted blue a few weeks ago, one of the first things I did after buying the house. I'm thinking of having a stone retaining wall put into the sloping front yard too... and picturing it with blue petunias draping over the wall in the summer with a variety of shrubs and maybe a dwarf ornamental tree in the bed too. And ha.... yeah, the cats really were exhausted from the move. :)

Muddy... look at the great eyes on you to spot the bird bath. Here's a photo of it and the matching decorative turtle I have next to it. And that tree in the front yard... a very old Cherry tree. Just dropped it's blossoms and now getting its foliage. Beautiful, stately Cherry tree. I'm definitely keeping that as part of my landscaping.

Those are so unusual, and pretty too!

Thanks, Muddy. I've had those for about 5 years now, still love them as much as the day I found and bought them at the Sugarloaf crafts show.

They are indeed beautiful pieces, and will fit in well with your vision of the blue petunias. Your newly painted shutters really make the house. And I can vouch for Muddy's great spotting ability. They have some great craft shows at the Frederick Fairgrounds.

Believe it or not, one of my neighbors told me that my shutters were too "loud". :) Yes, we have some great craft shows around the state, including the Frederick Fairgrounds.

Very nice!! Great choice on the trim, too. The cherry tree is indeed a good start... and I like your idea of adding a retaining wall... some kind of additional hardscape like that would draw the eye to the front door. We have a similar slope in our front yard and a 2-door garage -- and that means the driveway is much more prominent than I'd like. I added a curving front bed between the bottom of the driveway and the front door, edged with big stones, and I think it draws the eye away from all that asphalt.

Let me see if I have any kind of photo to show you what I'm talking about... The front bed was more impressive in spring when it had the big ornamental pear, but it got blight and had to be removed. The little Japanese Snowbell I put in its place has some growing to do!

ach, your neighbor was just used to whatever boring color the shutters used to be. :-)

Ha... yeah, those shutters were a faded out brown. Yawn.

Good use of your beds to increase your curb appeal, Critter. And it's easy to see you're a lover of flowers and shrubs. :) I like what you've done.

I plan to soften the asphalt driveway by putting beds about 2/3 of the way down to the street bordering both sides of the driveway. Then put a stacked stone semicircle retaining wall between that Cherry tree and the Thunder Cloud Plum Tree I just planted last week. That will place it about in the center of the part of the foundation that sticks out forward. Should look very nice.

I hope your neighbors won't be upset when you replace boring lawn with colorful beds ; - )

There's a few of my neighbors who have done some pretty good and colorful landscaping. So the few that prefer boring and dull will just have to lump me in with those people. :)

Right now, they are probably upset and the number of yellow dots in my lawn. Previous owners didn't fight the dandelions very well. Just put my fertilizer with crabgrass prevention down. Need to wait a couple of weeks before I go after the weeds.

If dandelions were hard to grow, everybody would long for them! I kee[ them out of the front lawn (or try to), but I'm less picky in back... Joyanna loves them, so Jim doesn't mind. LOL

YAY for color!!!!

You will find us to be a pretty COOL bunch. There is a lot of knowledge and wisdom, too. Oh, and some craziness thrown in for good measure.

Yeah, Critter... or I could harvest them and make Dandelion Stew like my grandparents used to do. ;)

Jan, thank you... sounds like my kind of group !

Or dandelion wine like they do in a town east of me.

btw, love your idea with the semi-circ retaining wall... great focal point! when the landscaping takes shape, will you pick a new front door color too?

If I paint the front door, I will use the same blue as was used for the shutters. Have been contemplating that already. The painter wanted to do the front door and both garage doors. I thought that would be a bit much. But the front door alone... might look good and make it look more inviting.

Door ok, blue garage doors would totally overpower, IMHO, LOL. In a perfect world we could all have garages facing the side yard and not all garage front nonsense.

welcome by the way...looking forward to meeting you and seeing your yard develop ( and absorb all our excess plants)

I agree on the front door going blue and being more inviting, but that the garage doors would be too much. You chose a great accent color.

Appears only my painter would approve of blue garage doors... wonder why. Could it be that he would get paid for painting them ? haha

Thanks, Sally and ecnalg... appreciate it !

As per the BIG WHITE GARAGE DOORS...

As is, those are offensive. Just because everyone else does it, doesn't mean you have to.

I'd go for trimming it in the blue (or near counterpart), or maybe infill some of the squares to tone down that huge reflective surface. Play with it on screen to see what you appreciate; don't have to commit immediately to see what the result is.