Yardening June 2015

YES! it IS hot! I just finished mowing my lawn. I am soaking wet--
my hair is dripping.

Holly--if you have any "Trizicide", wait until evening and sprinkle it all over
the area the ground jackets were in. Ground wasps and Jackets usually
go back in the ground in the evenings.

You can get "Trizicide" in a bag at HD where all the other Chemicals are.
It will kill anything underground in the treated area.

Of course--you may know something more "organic" to apply.

G.

I've got to do some mulching this evening when it cools down a bit. Steve got me a truckload last week and John (lives in the apt in the basement ) has put a big dent into it. Why he decided to plant veggies on the side of the house where it doesn't get full sun is beyond me.

Just glad it was me and not Ric, He had been working in that area earlier and he has an allergic reaction to bee stings. I must have disturbed them when I was digging with the shovel and then when I got down to plant and I first saw them I sat there for a minute trying to see where they were coming from. If I had gotten up right away I might not have gotten stung at all. That plant is still sitting there half in and half out of the ground and I'm not going back now to finish the job. LOL

Holly, have you located their hole?

Yes GT, Ric and I were down there just a little bit ago and he will take care of the nest once it gets dark. I was very lucky, I had 3 plants that I was planting, 2 in the back and 1 in the front. I had been down on my hands and knees practically kneeling on the nest and digging the 1st hole with my hand knife. The ground was dry and hard so I got up and picked up a near by shovel. Dug the back two holes then back down kneeling right in the same spot planting the back two plants. Then I dug right into the nest with the shovel and jumped down having the plant half way in the ground when I noticed the first couple of jackets. Then I sat there watching the jackets to see where they were coming from while still trying to get the plant in the ground. Wasn't till I got stung that I saw exactly where they were coming from, the hole I was stuffing the plant into.

Good grief Holly glad you are ok. You really lucked out with only one sting but ouch!

CAM, it's a good thing I watered this morning! We didn't get those showers as forecasted.

Holly, that's so scary! I see wasps all the time in my yard but they never bother me. I've seen charts on line about how to tell different kinds of wasps apart, but they all look the same to me when they're flying around.

ssg, the way to tell scary wasps from harmless ground nesting bees is, by whether you get stung.
wahhh waahhhh waaaahhhhhh

We've had yellow jackets near the front sidewalk, in late summer, we have ground nesting bees there now but on the other side of the sidewalk. Neighbor's yard has several square yards worth of ground nesting bees holes.

Yeah, SSG, just like Weather.com said, only a few spotty showers and storms that very few people in our area saw today. More chances coming in the next week though.

Holly, did you put some wet baking soda on that sting ? Old time remedy is still the best I've found for bee stings. :)

Wow Holly, glad you didn't get stung multiple times.

Our house hasn't gotten meaningful rain in over a week. I had to start watering last night. Now I'll probably be watering something ever day until it rains next. They keep saying on TWC that we might get some of this tropical moisture from Bill's remnants but we'll see. I think it might come on Sunday which will be my only day this weekend to garden....go figure.

Holly, you are lucky only one sting - usually when you disturb a yellow jacket nest they are on you in numbers before you even realize what is happening. One of the main reasons that I never go bare foot is that I stepped in nests several times as a kid - bare feet and shorts gave them plenty of area to sting. I've gotten stung multiple times as an adult too, but less area with just bare arms and head exposed - still not pleasant at all.

Cam--Never heard of wet baking Soda for stings. Thanks.

I have also used meat tenderizer (MSG) rubbed into the sting site.
Venom is protein--so the tenderizer breaks it down somewhat.
G.

Good old wet baking soda. I used that on a grandy recently when she was in the yard wearing her flip flops.

Thankful for only one sting, Holly.

*whew* Holly!

Joyanna was counting bumblebees on the way home from school yesterday and thanking them for pollinating each flower, be it dandelion or lavender.

"My" arborist Dan was here Monday, then his crew came Tuesday for a few hours and again yesterday morning... several big limbs and lost "tops" in the tree line have been taken care off, crooked willow pruned, 3 too-tall fruit trees improved, canker-infected limbs of mimosa removed, and -- finally --those 3 big Ailanthus in the back corner are gone!

I'd have taken them out immediately once I learned their ID, but they were helping to screen the view of the construction behind us. The mature trees look very different than the seedlings -- "Tree of Heaven," my Aunt Fannie!

Now I have a good place for the new elderberry and viburnum I picked up at Green Springs. Contemplating Sand Cherries also... Theresa's brother has one that's producing lots of tart but intensely flavored fruit, note to self, must get cultivar name! Lucky me, it seems to be suckering... :-)

Cool stuff Jill, sounds like some decent improvements to the yard!

Glad you got those alianthus trees out of there! Also glad you know what their seedlings look like as you are likely to encounter them for a number of years as well as sprouts they send up from their rather extensive roots that radiate out in bizzare directions often entwining with the roots of keeper trees. When in doubt, pull it out, it is noy a lookalike nice tree seedling, and overnite can grow beyond a homeowners safe dispatch! Mine took out three vehicles when it and the utility pole it was crowded next to snapped!

Yeah, I've been battling those seedlings and weedlings and weed trees since we moved in, without knowing their source until the first time Dan came here. Not that there aren't others in the area, as well as seeds remaining in the soil, but hopefully we'll get fewer seedlings now! They hit the stumps with some pretty powerful stuff so I won't get continual sprouts from the original mature root systems.

Yay! three less Ailanthus!

I found out where all the Oriental Bittersweet seedlings were coming from. Neighbor took down a big evergeen and said the vine had a base an inch and a half thick.. I need to keep an eye on my own treelines and hedges, they're of an age and maturity where it's getting harder to see what is coming up under them and I can see where this is headed.

My current backyard garden prolific self-seeder (probably thanks in part to my beloved birds) happens to be a native plant, Solanum americanum (American Nightshade). Seedlings even sprouted in some of the seed trays I left outside for a year! They're now in pots because I thought they were from seeds I had sowed.

Here's a current pic of the "mother plant", which I thought I had removed last year. It's happily growing in the middle of Liatris spicata.

If anyone's potentially interested in having S. americanum, let me know because otherwise I'm going to plant them all in the forest. I know the berries are edible when ripe, but it's just not a plant I want in my backyard. http://www.eattheweeds.com/american-nightshade-a-much-maligned-edible/

A few pics. of that nice neat edging.

Wow, that looks pretty great Holly! Good job!

It does look great! Whenever Ric has some spare time, I could use his edging skills : - )

I don't know what Ric uses, probably a sharp square spade, but I have pretty good luck with a small edging spade that I saw a landscape guy using once... I don't fly along like he was doing, but it's made to dislodge small pieces, so it's easy for me to manage and makes a neat edge. The shape of the blade is nearly a half circle and flat. Here's Lee Valley's stainless steel version that I have: http://www.leevalley.com/US/garden/page.aspx?p=66781&cat=2,2180,33221

Hmmmm--I have that! Somewhere in the dungeons of my shed!

Really 70 years old does this in 30 hr a week. I really need to step up my game.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/355432595568961258/?fb_ref=355432732999846079%3Aafb56c6217e9e74c9033542

WOW. It looks almost photoshopped. After seeing this picture and Holly's, I feel the need to go edge my beds!

Another hardiness report:

My dahlias overwintered! O_o They were hidden by other foliage so I only discovered them today.

Calla lilies, eucomis and dahlias are hardy for me, but not cannas. Go figure!

I was thinking that it doesn't look real it is so perfect.

I'm done with planting/transplanting for the season! Yay!

All I have left to do now is weeding, watering, and feeding until the fall swap. :D

Good for you, ssg! I wish I could say the same. I'm making progress, though.

That British garden is edged with pound-in metal edging, so we can't give him too much credit for keeping it neat-looking....

I still have some beds that need serious work and some pots and hanging baskets that need planted. But things are starting to look pretty good here and I am feeling good about the progress we have made so far.

Fun video of power tree transplant
https://www.youtube.com/embed/1IV10M1RbEA?rel=0

WOW

It's great that they saved the trees.

LOL... I'm going to try hard to catch up before my box from Santa Rosa arrives.

Great tree video! Joyanna watched it with me. We love the at the tree has kids playing and keeping it company at its new home.

Cool vid.

Two views from the swing.
Better shot of Gingerland caladium

'Gingerland' might be my all time favorite -- so pretty, and it goes with just about anything, plus it's sun-tolerant. Nice view!

Gosh, look at that car damage. Glad your daughter was OK.

Pretty 'Gingerland'

My calladium from the Spring Swap came up a few weeks ago. This pic is from a few days ago. They are getting pretty big !

This second pic is from one of my neighbors yard. I have to ask him how he got that bed edged so precisely. Wow.