Before y'all start poking me, here is a new thread.... came from
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1402137/
This message was edited Aug 30, 2015 7:25 PM
Yardening- almost September 2015
Sally---
There was NO link to this new thread at the end of the old one?????
Just....BAM! Here is the New Thread.....Glad I checked the MAF for new stuff....
G.
...cuz BAM...it took me a nuther minute or three to get it all linked up....
Sally, my Sun Sugar tomatoes have been incredibly productive. I only kept two, and I've had to give away all the extras!
It sounds like you got a lot done today, Sally! I had a fairly productive day too...I pulled up all of my Strawberry plant "ground cover" and replaced it with Chrysogonum virginianum from a patch that was desperately in need of dividing. I planted a bunch of Campanula americana seedlings on the other side of that bed. I think it looks a lot nicer.
Sorry Sally, just not a fan of hosta. They just don't do much for me. Maybe my taste isn't sophisticated enough for them ;-P
CAM, no worries, I'll keep the hosta hating to a minimum around your flock.
I didn't have that much yardening to do this weekend. I pulled out a Rodgersia 'Bronze Peacock' which is up for grabs if anyone wants it. A Japanese beech fern went in its place. Deadheaded my 'Bloomerang' lilac and dahlias as well as cut down my dying mahonia bealei. It's never quite recovered from a move fall of '13. It was a beautiful 4' plant but has been reduced to a little nub of growth. Does anyone have any volunteers they could give me? I have another one in front of the dead one but it looks weird with so much space behind it now. My kevlar palm gloves sure came in handy for that job. I only had one poke through and bite me but that wasn't bad considering I was pushing the leaves down in the trash can with my hands.
Planted 4 dwarf garden phlox, Purple Flame; a couple of Dianthus Diana, and 3 Aster "Purple Dome" this weekend.
Jeff, I'll look for a baby Mahonia bealei, if I have one though it will be quite small; you may not be interested.
Nope, I would rather have a tiny one. It would be best if it wasn't a first year seedling though. A second or third year plant would be great. Beggars can 't be choosers though, I'd take any.
What would you all recommend to use as mulch on a sloped walkway?
This side of the house gets very little foot traffic (only from me going to that side for weeding/watering). Nothing grows in the pathway, not even weeds, partly due to my neighbor's tree with surface roots. Water rushes down this slope during downpours, and even during light/moderate rain.
Wood chips would probably just get washed away. Would large bark chunks be better? I'm going to use some stepping stones, but I need something for in between.
What about large stones 2-3"?
Builder's Sand? It has fine grit in it.
I second the idea of some kind of stone 2-3" - wouldn't wash away as easily as any kind of mulch or sand/dirt on a slope.
Hm... I hadn't thought of stone.
I have stone mulch near one of the downspouts and I'm finding it incredibly hard to weed around it -- much tougher than bark mulch. I do love the look of stone mulch around the willow (?) tree in critter's backyard.
Just use RU around the stone areas. That's what I'd do.
Nice little thunderstorm and shower DUMPING water on us. YAYYYYYYYYY !!!
Still sunny and no signs of rain---yet.......
They were calling for it, though. G.
Spotty across the region, Gita. Future radar shows most of it dissipating as it comes down from the NW and enters our area as the evening goes on. We only show a 20% chance of rain so we got lucky. Rained here at work for a good 45 minutes and I live two miles from here, looks like I got a nice amount, guessing a half inch.
You and your rain bragging. I tell ya....some people ;-P
LOL, Jeff... if it weren't for a lot of watering, my yard would be brown like my neighbors' yards. So I haven't been getting all that much rain here, trust me.
Lots of rumbling here, very steamy, but NOT rainy
:^P
CAM, I heard that we were getting "popcorn" rain -- thunderstorms popping up randomly.
And I just *knew* CAM was getting all the rain! LOL
LOL... I'm probably not getting more rain than everyone else here but I probably talk about it the most so it just seems that way. :P
Jilll--this is for you;
Here are the spent bloom ends of one of my Phlox. (the deep fuchsia one)
If you look carefully--at 3 O'clock and 9 O'clock you will see two ripe seed pods
(the beige/brown ones). The rest are still green--not ripe--but they will be..
In the brown seed pods should be 2 large, black seeds.....
Just wanted you to see the Phlox DOES make seeds--and they are not small.
Gita
You always do seem to hog the rain CAM. No fair, I want my turn (he says like a child on the playground).
Looks like summer is going to at least slightly give way to fall in about a week and there's some decent chances of rain about that time, Jeff. Hang in there and in the meantime, play nicely with the other kids. ;)
Haha, well we will see on the rain factor. This morning we officially have 3 chances for rain in the next 10 days. Tomorrow we are at a 60% and then next Thursday and next Saturday. I don't believe in chances until I see rain on the ground. I've been fooled before. I also don't believe in radar until I see it in the rain gauge. Quite frequently lately, we've had good radar only to have it break apart over my town and reform after us.
I really hate when that happens. We have some mountains to our west and many times the rain systems come across those mountains and break up and then evaporate or go around us.
Yeah, 60% is barely even odds to get rain so who knows. I like to see numbers like 90% and 100%. :)
Haha...I'm with you on that one.
I'll have you all know that I did a 2-hour rain dance today; i.e., I spent the morning watering the seedlings I planted by the creek! I've been watering things in my yard all afternoon, too...and now we have thunder! We really need rain; except for the things I've been watering, everything in the woods is crispy.
Muddy---
I have to pour almost 2 gal. of water on each of my Brugmansias every day!
They are now in full leaf--BIG leaves--and a lot of them. They really suck it up.
If they are wilted--they recover in about 10 minutes. I have WAYYY too many
plants all over my patio floor. Hoping many of these will go away after the swap.
No rain here yet! I am hoping for a nice T-shower. NOT a downpour! S-L-O-W one.
Gita
Still no rainnnnnnnn. I watched the radar as the popup rainstorms skirted my neighborhood.
Sigh.
Yeah I spent an hour hand watering things when I got home. The sprinkler has been on the rhodi bed for 2.5 hours. I'll turn that off in a few minutes when I go to bed and then the soaker will get turned on in the chokeberry hedge and run all night. I don't like missing 3 nights of watering due to going to the beach but what am I to do...
We didn't get any rain, just thunder. Bummer.
No rain here either
Just got a cool 0.07". Take that!!! I won't have to water again!! Muahahahaha!!!!
I ran the hose for a couple hours today. I am grateful to have plenty of water to do it, unlike CA! and many places in the world.
I dug up a binfull of sensitive fern today, cleared an area about four by one feet between the AC unit and the house. And that's not all I have.
RAIN!!!! Yay, it's raining!!! I had just finished watering a wild cherry tree that's not even in my yard (it's just behind my fence), figuring THAT would make it rain, and it did!
Whew, I thought for a minute there that I was going to have to wash my car ; - )
Edited to say you're right, we're very lucky to have plenty of water. I know I'm going to get hit with an excess water usage fee for the month of August, though.
This message was edited Sep 4, 2015 6:58 PM
Well... law of averages got me tonight. Just a sprinkle but the system got strong after it passed and just a few miles from here, huge thunderstorm and it poured rain. Blech.
We just got a sprinkle too. It didn't even cover the bottom of a container I put out to measure it. Still, it was better than nothing!
My big gardening accomplishment for today was digging up a large Hydrangea that hasn't bloomed for 2 years and planting a Viburnum dentatum in its place. I planted some perennials around it to keep it company and fill in the void while it grows. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, mostly because I decided not to try to save the Hydrangea.