Your Neck of the Woods 2015 Part 4

A few years ago while working at my parents after weeding their one bed I ran out of preen half way thru the bed. A couple of weeks after when I came back to plant the bed you could see a huge difference between the two areas one with preen and one without. You must reapply it after the soil is disturbed. So If I clean a bed of weeds and apply preen then if I come back later to plant in the bed I need to re apply where ever I disturbed the soil. Remember it only works on weeds spread by seeds so it does nothing to existing weeds or weeds that spread by runners.

Suspects line up--with huge black bear next to tiny wren...LOL

Hahaha, Sally. Yes, I can see the line up of the usual suspects. Don't worry, Holly, they can't see you behind the two-way mirror.

Well maybe the Preen is working and squirrels or something are disturbing the soil enough to allow seeds to germinate.

Just to add--that perennial weeds are not affected by PREEN either.
So--you are likely to see some weeds coming up anyway.

I mention this--as my neighbor, Olga, will pay someone a lot of $$$ to weed all her beds--
and then fusses that it did not work--the weeds are all coming back, and that
the paid person did not do a good job.
She does not "get it" about the difference of perennial weeds and from=seed weeds....

Just a week or so ago--she paid the lawn Guy $$$ to put down 20 bags of mulch
in all her beds. He did. Then I brought her a jug of Preen and explained how it works.
Then she had "The Guy" sprinkle the Preen all over the mulch.

I HOPE xxx (fingers crossed) that this 3" layer of mulch will work.
I don't want to hear her bitching when she never sets foot pout in her garden
and does not weed anything. Many times I weed the bed facing my house---
as it gets disgusting!
There is this one weed--with broad leaves--that fills her bed every year.
They pull up so easily--just a small tug.

What is this weed???? I don't have it in my yard anywhere--and we are just 20' apart.

G.

Oh yeah, that's a very easy weed to pull up, you're right. I just pulled one out of my neighbor's sidewalk bed Wednesday. It's a bed I planted a bunch of stuff in last year and there are a TON of volunteer Golden Jubilee Agastache in there. I told him not to pull anything out because he didn't know which were weeds or not and I want some of that agastache.

I'll have to post on Plant ID to see what it is. G.

might be burnweed? Erechtites. I've seen that stuff.

The leaves are very soft and tender...and it seems very shallow-rooted.
It sure is all over Olga's bed

She also has 4 big clumps of blue Liatris in this bed. All very close together.
All areready to bloom soon.

1--OIga said I could dig one of them up as it is smack next to a Hydrangea bush.
Will do so after they bloom....lots there to divide.

2--Cheers to my guests--Mark and John (V.V.), They stayed over here on their way to NJ.

3--Mark playing his Guitar after breakfast...

4--Saying "Good Bye" to my company--it was a pleasure having them...
They will bw in "this neck of the Woods" again in October.
Yes! We went to "Casa Mias" for lunch....yummmmm John also brought me a bunch of
awesome German wines- Such great Guys--both of them!

5--Both Mark (an arborist) and John--the Holly Guru.

looks like fun!

Holy cow is it HOT out there or what!?!?!!

That sounds like a great time, Gita!

I had some terrible insomnia last night and ended up spending hours on ATP, organizing my plant list. I'm glad there's a way to input this information without having to type out the name of every plant I own on Excel.

And it's way too hot for actual gardening!

This message was edited Jun 12, 2015 2:01 PM

SSG, I found the ATP plant list feature several years ago and it is a great way to keep track of all my plants. When I started out, I kept looking at other members' plant lists to get ideas on how to organize mine, but none seemed to keep track of garden location and acquisition year the way that I wanted to. I ended up creating lots of categories for mine. I love the flexibility of it, and Dave will periodically incorporate new features that make it even more useful.

Gita, glad you had a nice visit with VV and Mark!

I just checked out your plant list on ATP - wow, 169 entries already!

LOL A meeting got canceled so I had a half day at work today and I've been up since 3 am. What else to do but organize my plant list?

Laundry? What? :D

haha ssg, girl after my own heart and that of many here!

Great weather for all the tropicals we've slaved over during winter- I bet the bromeliads and orchids are just lovin it. Brug and datura babies are growing!

Nice Gita, I am looking forward to meeting John at some point in the future. He's one of those people who I just want to have over just to look at our yard and hear his comments on things.

He (They) will be back this way again in october. Some BIG shebang
in Hunt Valley. I don't remember the location...

He said i should come down to that as there will be a huge sale going on
on shrubs and evergreens, etc...
You could contact him and ask for more details. Tell him I gave you this info.

I asked him what his real name was and this is what he answered me:
Here are his "credentials:
*******************************************************
John A. Swintosky, at your service. Landscape Architect with Louusville Metro Parks since 1994, and horticulturist/landscape manager for Bluegrass thoroughbred horse farms from 1984 - 1994.

I am currently President of the Holly Society of America, and in my second term as KY Trustee to the American Society of Landscape Architects. Those affiliations are what bring me through the Mid Atlantic region twice a year, and more when we have other meetings in the vicinity.

Read more: http://davesgarden.com/tools/mail/pm/938275/#ixzz3d2M7G9bA

And a picture of him I forgot to post. He was sitting right next to me at the table.


I should send ll this info to Paul too. You three would be like 3 peas in a pod.

Gita

This message was edited Jun 14, 2015 7:15 PM

Gita, you should probably NOT post his email address. This is public access here (even though we think of it as private)

and it's even more public than we may think... at one point, I think non-subscribers could only see the first post in a thread in "subscriber-only" forums, but now everybody can see all the posts here -- you have to be a subscriber to start threads or respond but not to read.

There are a couple of places -- like group buy & prayer forums -- that are "invisible" to non-subscribers, but most of DG should not be considered even semi-private.

I had a recent exchange with Terry about this, since I wasn't clear on which forums were visible to non-subscribers and even non-members. Simply Googling John's name could bring up Gita's post.

I was surprised when I googled my name sometime ago and found a few posts I made on DG.

you think that's bad, just try writing on the net!! lolol guess I asked for it!

"It's not easy being green" or famous!

Thanks, Sally! I do not always think of the obvious.

I edited the Post and took away both his Cell # and his e-mail address.
Yes! That was shared to me on a D-mail. PHEW!!!

Stupid me!!!! G.

It's so easy to have these 'conversations' with a standing cast of respondants, and forget that others can look in. I've done it, too!

Since we had been D-mailing quite bit about them staying over,
all I asked him was what his "real" name was,

Then I was sent he whole testimonial I posted--with huge apologies for not having
thought of it before--and buried in which were the name and
e-mail address...
My thought was that Jeff mat want to contact him. Paul surely would--
but he does not post any more...busy with his job and life.

I think I will send him the info via e-mail. They should meet each other....
Or--at least--plan to attend the big tree and Holly and shrub sale in October
somewhere in Hunt Valley. I may just go to see what it all is about.

G.

Going some place like that with VV would be fascinating whether or not you bought a thing!

Our neck of the woods is rainy and slow today... Joyanna got sick yesterday, and I had a nasty headache much of the weekend. So we're having a couch day... spent the morning listening to music, mostly fun kid songs and then (inevitably) the Frozen soundtrack. Now she's watching "Sagwa" (cartoon about a cat family in China), and I'm browsing flowers online.

I did get a dozen 'Fish Pepper' plants into the front landscape bed yesterday, just in time to have them watered in by Mother Nature. They're so pretty with their cream-splashed leaves, and some of them are already blooming... there's even 1 little pepper starting!

We're looking forward to eating them, but we'll wait until the first ones are red-ripe so we can get seeds to share. I haven't saved seeds from them for a few years, one of the reasons they're planted in front to be sure they're isolated. I only put out the ones with the best variegation each time I save seeds from these, so I think "my" strain has been gradually improving. :-)

Hope you're feeling better today, Jill!

That holly and shrub sale sounds like it might be a good field trip. :)

I asked John (V V) if he would either--let me know so I can post it
on "Upcoming Events"--or asked him if he would post it as he would have
a lot more information. Whenever he has time....

I don't think he is back in KY yet--as this NJ trip was also lasting a few days.

Gita

any rain, you'uns?
Had a storm last night, and a shower this morning. I have enough to share with those who need it!
I planned to pick greens and blueberries this morning.

edit, ten minutes later, clouds are breaking...

This message was edited Jun 18, 2015 6:48 AM

We got a precious 0.73". I'm quite tickled. I hate to be a begger and a choser but it looks like it might rain Sunday, which is my only day this weekend to get yardening done. Hopefully it holds off until the afternoon.

On a side note, I saw my first JB yesterday.

June Bug?
Jay Bird?
Justin Bieber?

There's a wives tale about wild evening primrose, the tall biennial one, being a trap crop or even deterrent to Japanese beetles.
I can say, it does work as a good trap plant. You will find beetles on the top and can pick them off. I have a few of the plants going any given year, and few JB. But I might just be lucky. I doubt my neighbors have used milky spore.
The one beetles that bugs me more is the little brown june beetles that feed at night- practically defoliate Montauk daisies.

hahaha! I'd be horrified to find my yard overrun with Justin Biebers!!!!!!!

Bwahahaha!

I would venture to say that a yard full of Justin Biebers would be worse than Japanese Beetles (JB). I'd have to bust out the imidacloprid for certain then. I didn't know June beetles liked Montauk daisies. I guess we'll have to see how mine fares. It was planted this spring from Jill last fall.

OR--Jacquie Berger....our past Holiday cactus Guru here..

That is all I ever call her--JB.
You can find her on ATP now....mostly on the Houseplants Forum.

G.

She's on ATP?
Like on LSD? PCP?

tree guys were here the last couple of days.

Joyanna is still not well but doing better... she went in for just the last 2 hours of school yesterday and went this morning also (early dismissal today), bec. she doesn't want to miss the partying!

I'm going better too, no more headache, thanks for asking, SSG!

So, all the fuss about needing to extend the school year calender this far into summer due to snow days, and then they spend the last week having parties rather than lessons... *roll eyes*

ROFL @ JB's. Joyanna spotted one chowing down on one of "her" rose blooms yesterday and was horrified.

Tell her she can gain satisfaction by flicking it into a cup of soapy water and watching it squirm until it stops moving...geez am I the only sick and demented one here?

LOL----ROFL----JB on ATP! messing around with her Spiders....
Gave up on DG....Dog Gone!

Talk about abbreviations! G.