Yardening June 2015

We also have the highest iron content in our water of any county in the country! Our toilets may be any color on the outside but inside its all rust du jour. Ask anyone with a private well. We also have some fab clay deposits/veins and many bricks were made round abouts.

Do you have pretty decent soil then too Sally? Ours is clay. The only saving grace for the clay is that there are all these rocks. Otherwise it'd be very tough draining.

Soil here is fun for digging because you don't run into too much rock and it is almost always pretty easy to put a shovel in. Grew up on west side of Baltimore with soil more like what you all have been talking about. But one gardener I shared plants with said my soil can compact too much. I don't think the fertility is great either. I have to keep up with adding organic matter.

Lol Sally, for me the 'fun to dig in' is seasonal, meaning that if we get an average year of rainfall, Spring is best and Fall next but if you have to bury your dog in the middle of summer, even without rocks, it ain't easy. You have much more sand than I do, and then there is hardpan and hard crust in dry hot weather that doesn't break up even when hit with a shovel. So diggable but not friable.

Jeff, best soil I ever had the pleasure of gardening in was up in Bucks County PA (near those ringing rocks) river ibotom soil on an organic farm in same family for three generations. I could plunge my hand into that garden up to my arm pit! Wasn't exactly Findhorn, but the veggies sure did grow big.

It's interesting to me to get a swap plant someone has potted up in their soil and compare with my own.

If I'm digging a hole for a shrub in an area that is not in an established garden, I have to start out with the pick axe. There's just no other way around it. Especially now because it's been dry.

Speaking of dry, it's been wet around us but it seems that the storms are always missing us, especially to the north. Last night I watched a line of thunderstorms break up just as it was getting to us and reform immediately after passing us. Terrible.

" It's interesting to me to get a swap plant someone has potted up in their soil and compare with my own."

yes-- have noticed the PA red clay. It can be helpful- you forget what something is but you unpot and say Oh, must be from ...
:D

"Holly" LOL

hahahaha!!!!!!
I didn't say it....
haahahaha!!!!!!!!

Lol. Most swap plants I try to pot up in new potting soil so you might not be able to get away with that from me.

One time when David and Pat were over, little points of something just emerging caught our eye. Turns out is was variegated Solomon's Seal, but the funny part is that David id'd it because he recognized his gravel in the dirt clump LOL.

I was a little embarrassed because when they gave it to me, I must have just stuck the plant where I INTENDED to plant it and forgot all about it - caught red handed with plant neglect. It survived the winter above ground in its little gravel filled dirt clump. I planted it properly right after they left and am happy to say it is thriving despite the neglect through a whole growing season and an overwintering.

Speaking of rocks and tough digging, I really need to get a digging bar. Or steal my father's. hahaha

CAM, digging bars work great for you guys that have the strength to use them LOL. I've watched Mike and his brothers use them, but I tried it myself a few times and they are so heavy that I just don't have enough power to do anything with it. I can use it for leverage to pry under something, but definitely have no luck slamming it up and down to loosen the dirt around the stone you are trying to dig out.

I can understand that ! Those things are seriously heavy, why they are so effective. I have to take a short break after about every 7-8 shots with it. I don't want to end up dying in the damn hole I'm trying to dig. LOL


This message was edited Jun 15, 2015 10:10 AM

The mattock is the most effective tool for me. It easily breaks up roots and rocks.

I used to need to use the mattock every time I dug in the garden but now I only use it a few times a year.

Terri, I can use the digging bar, it is a very handy tool. I am wondering if it is your height, you probably can't get a good grip high enough to get a good downward push. Maybe a shorter version would work for you?

I don't have a digging iron but should probably get one. For me with rocks, it's all about how hard I want to work and how much soil I want to remove in order to get the rock out of the ground. A digging iron might make less work in rock removal though. Once, I got a roughly 1 cubic foot rock out of the soil. It probably weighs 100 or more pounds. In the first pic, it's the bigger rock. The dimensions are roughly 1'x1'x1' although it's hard to tell in the photo. The second pic is just to show how well that 'slomound' mugo pine has grown. I was so excited this year because it's growing its first cones. The first pic is from May 2011 and the second is from yesterday.

Jeff--that little corner seems perfect for your Mugo Pine....

Very cute..."The Rock" is the perfect accent piece.
G.

Jeff, that nice white rock came out of your own yard? Lucky little punk...

We saved some from digging the foundation for a bedroom addition. Bigger, but not pretty

Holly, maybe you are "strong like bull" ROTFLOL. Not sure where that expression came from but when you read it you have to imagine it being said with a very thick Slavic accent... Maybe it is the height. I could try an experiment and stand on something so that I'm taller when I try to use it, but then again maybe not... I can picture myself having another weekend excursion to the emergency room and them asking "you did WHAT???"

Jeff, nice growth rate on that pine. Cute.

Thanks ladies. That big rock was initially placed there as a trophy because it sure was hard work in getting it out of the ground. Then, as with everything, it became an excuse to make a garden...Lol. We have rock that lines many of our gardens all picked up for free at local construction sites. The site contractors are usually happy to have me take it as they need to bury it somewhere or pay to have it hauled away.

"Woman strong like bull. Hitch to plow when horse die."

I'm not sure where that came from, but it runs through my head when I give a satisfied chuff after a feat of strength in the garden, LOL.

Haha...funny!

got curious and googled for the possible source. I think it was likely from one of my favorite authors, Mercedes Lackey, in the book Oathbreakers.

"Good hips. Breed like cow, strong like bull, dumb like ox. Hitch to plow when horse dies."

Critter, great research. It makes it even funnier seeing the whole quote.

ROFLOL,
Terri, Not sure where that came from must have been in a movie somewhere because I had the Slavic voice in my head when I read it.

Hehehe,,me, too!!

Just in case you wanted to see where most of my plants spend
the summer. On racks against my house, under the patio.

I ABSOLUTELY have to decrease the amount of rooted spider plants
and other small plants. CC's is one of them.

Pat---
Your "lady's Tears" (?) Bromiliad is on the top shelf on the 1st rack.
A week ago--it blew down in the high winds we had with the T-showers.
Now I have it tied to the rack.

I would like to re-pot it in a heavier pot--like I have most of my Cc's in--
so it has some weight to it. Sometimes squirrels like to roam among my pots
and they have knocked some off the shelves.
Can I do it? I know the pot you had it in is OK in size, but I need something heavier.
Like--a glazed clay pot?

What do you say? Any pointers? Thanks, Gita

Gita, that pony tail palm is looking great!

Gita, I put the queens tears into a glazed pot with a good (not too narrow) base, and slightly tall narrow shape- can get a pic sometime. I think the narrow shape goes well with the fountain like shape of the plant.. They want good drainage, I use a lot of bark. Then I put some landscape stones from under the deck around the plant to fill between base and rim, firm them up and keep squirrels out. The Queens tears don't have a lot of roots to them.

I can't even find the Pony tail- (where's waldo?) but I've seen it and it is really nice.

Gita- the library is having a houseplant talk from the Master Gardener in September. If you have a dozen or two little plants to give away then, I can use them as freebies, if you don't mind giving them away. We expect no more than fifteen people.

Gita - our Queen's Tears Bromeliad lives in a glazed pot all the time. When we divide it up and give starts away we use landscape pots because that's what we have plenty of. Suggest that you re-pot it into a larger pot of your choice as it grows to about three times that volume in a couple of years for us.

Sally - Waldo is at the extreme left edge of the photo.

oh, haha, there he is!

Sally and David beat me to it, Gita. My additional two cents is to be very careful not to get scratched by the fronds as you are working on it and NOT to give it water each time you water the other surrounding plants. That's quite an impressive collection.

I plan or hope to keep mine in this pot by thinning older rosettes after they bloomed and made pups

David and Pat, I never asked but it just occurred to me - does the bromeliad prefer sun or shade? I've had it out on the deck (sun) and the leaves are a more yellow green now than the deep green in Gita's and Sally's pictures. I am also remembering that yours were on that old round picnic table top that you repurposed as a garden accent (really love that) and it is in the shade. Maybe I'm answering my own question - I should probably relocate it to a shady spot huh?

Terri--

I think you did answer your own question.
Bromeliads grow, naturally, in dappled shade in tops of rain forests.

I would put it in part shade. Like--under a tree.
The yellowing of your leaves is, probably, due to too much sun.


Sally and Pat--thank you for your advice on re potting the "Queens Tears".

Holly--here is the BIG "Waldo".....aka my old Pony Tail Palm.
This has 5 bulbs in it, now about the size of lg. oranges.It totally covers the plant stand.

It started as an small, 3" pot "Angel Plant" with 5 tiny bulbs in it the size of marbles.
I am going to guess I bought it some time when I still worked at "Franks"---
Been at HD now fir 17 years--So--it is probably 18-20 years old.

To the left of the PTP--are my 2 lg. beef Steak Begonias.
Have had these for ages as well--maybe 25 years old?--propagated from leaves
over the years.

Sally--
I will put your request for small plants on my calendar.
I sure have plenty....lots of small CC's. September will be a great time
to get one of those.

Just to make sure--when time gets closer--please remind me...
G.

Terri, not full sun for the queen's tears. They live in the garage without much light at all in the winter. I'm sure you can find some shady spot for them.

Ric put up the big yard lights last night and worked in the cool dark evening. He put in a cut edge with his very sharp shovel and started weeding. Then this morning we both went down there. He removed the dead Pussy willow and butterfly bush, did some cutting back on the quince and Black pussy willow. Then he started weeding all while I did some plant clean up and staged plants to go into that bed. I sent him out for our first load of mulch and told him I would finish cleaning and planting the bed while he was gone. Then I ran into a nest of ground jackets. So lucky I only got one sting. Now it is raining, I was hoping to have that bed completely finished today. Well see will see how much rain we get.

Yikes, Holly! That could have been really bad.

This morning, everything looked pretty wet from an overnight shower we had. Then I checked the rain gauge. Less than a .10 inch! All of the hanging baskets and containers were completely dry and needed a long drink of water. I couldn't wait for tonight's showers since today was supposed to be a scorcher.

It's 95F in DC right now with the heat index >100F. Ugh.

I doubt you'll get a shower or storm tonight, SSG. Looks like only a few spotty storms through MD/DC area. Most activity to the north and south.

I think my plants could use a few days of no rains, the ground is very wet from this past week.

But you're right, what a hot day out there, thank Goodness there's a good breeze blowing.