Jill--
I would say this compost is mostly decayed woodsy stuff.
Lots of little twigs still showing. I see no signs of actual soil in it.
May be good for aerating the soil??
I dumped out a bag to take a picture--but the compost was all wet.
I had to break up some big clumps so you can "get the picture'....
Anyway--here it is. And, yes, the bags are 1cf. Easy to lift...
G.
This has been bothering me so I looked it up. Some yucca have both a fibrous AND a taproot. All yucca have a taproot. Interesting article on yucca:
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/type-root-system-yucca-plants-have-48196.html
SSG, that's a cool way to have that scalloped edging. I've never seen it turned on it's side like that but I really like it. That oakleaf hydrangea is rockin.
Nice snaps, SSG. Faves in my garden are these near-blooming Cyclamen Coum. Got the tubers two years ago at Copenhagen Botanic Gardens. Slow growing but cute little gems.
Lisa, I don't think your first picture is a cyclamen coum but rather a cyclamen hederifolium. Both very pretty. I used to have both but the coum died and one of my hederifoliums rotted out this spring at some point.
Your Oakleaf Hydrangea is gorgeous, ssg! I need to fit one of those in somewhere.
Sally, good luck ID'ing your Yuccas; I had no idea there were so many species.
LOL My coral honeysuckle is a monster also... I warned you, I hope! Do you still want an L. americana? I found the one I "lost" among the pots this spring.
Thanks, Gita! I'll swing by our HD and see if they have something like that... nice size to have on hand for tree planting, although I haven't been amending the soil much when I put them into the fence row line of trees -- that soil wasn't disturbed during construction and is good stuff!
Yes, that honeysuckle certainly is a monster! But it's used to hide the trash cans, so I don't mind. :)
I wasn't looking for an L. americana, though.
Muddy, I was inspired by Jan's oakleaf. It's huge and really a show piece in her garden.
Actually, I was inspired by Jan's honeysuckle, as well! I don't have the room to showcase it as well as she could, though.
I'll have to check the spring swap lists.. I know somebody was looking for one and when I saw your honeysuckle thought it might have been you. LOL, memory like swiss cheese!
Jan had an AWESOME honeysuckle on display at her swap! I nabbed a few cuttings but didn't get them to take.
Seq, the scalloping was a last-minute, desperate attempt at holding the soil back in that part of the yard. We already had scalloped edging that the previous owner had used in another part of the yard. I do wish we had built some sort of a mini stone wall, but the edging is being gobbled up by the ajuga, so I'm letting it be. :)
I'm seriously looking into fall blooming crocuses right now. I hadn't thought about cyclamen, but that's also an option.
Well it looks nice SSG! My fall blooming crocuses took a dump and got eaten by my lamium galeobdalon. I used to have a couple of them. Colchicums are nice, maybe you could check out those. My cyclamen starts blooming in late August but has started as early as July. Usually the blooms are spent by September and they are so minute that it doesn't really put on a big show. Still though, they are a welcome surprise in the late summer shade garden. They definitely need dry shade though.
Ooh, dry shade, I got that! :)
Yep, I remember Jan's awesome honeysuckle. It was a highlight for sure. It inspired me to get one. I got a different cultivar from Jan's. The description sounded great though - cultivar is "Peaches and Cream" - pink and white bicolor florets with a nice fragrance. After two seasons, mine hasn't done anything spectacular yet. If I'm lucky enough that the plants stay alive, I find that it takes more than the standard three years for them to really take off. Keeping fingers crossed that my honeysuckle will someday grow up to be like Jan's LOL.
Talking about Honeysuckle, I have one that I am sure came from one of last years swaps. Anyone know what I have and how gave it to me???
Jan's honeysuckle is 'Major Wheeler'. I gave one large one to Donner or Holly who was looking for a native one. I have another large one and a smaller one in containers. May try to pin some of the ends into some pots and see if I can get them to 'take'. Cuttings haven't really worked for me with these.
Aspen, are you growing your Peaches and Cream on a trellis or fence of some sort?
Oh, I stand corrected on the Viburnum 'Brandywine' Proven Winners swears that 'Brandywine will set abundant fruit without a pollination partner! So I don't need to hunt for a 'winterthur'. If I had a winterthur, which needs a pollination partner a Brandywine would fill the bill.
SSG, I vote you get to go to Hawaii so you can get inspired and see lots of examples of Japanese gardens using tropicals! Are you adverse to container growing or just limited by overwintering space, cause lots of tropicals do well in containers and can be a moveable feast as you already have a great start on the 'bones' You have such an eye for design and plant placement...now if only the soil would cooperate!
Cute cyclamen Lisa and what a wonderful place to have acquired them! Did you have any trouble bringing them into the country?
I'd like to buy a dwarf crape myrtle. Gita, does HD have that?
Lisa--
There is not much left in my HD garden, as all trees and shrubs have
been clearanced already for weeks and weeks at 50% off.
The whole yard is now empty,except for all the Holiday shrubs and evergreens
which now are arriving. The Norfolk Island pines, the deco Rosemary shrubs,
Small pines and evergreens with red bows on them, etc...
Try next spring--you will have a much better selection. Or--try Lowes ??
Now all mums are also 50% off. All perennials and all ground covers too.
Gotta clear everything out. for the X-mas trees. They will be arriving on the 18th,
I don't work again until Sunday--will look for you. What IS a "dwarf" Crepe Myrtle anyway?
Got a name? Please use common names for me--I do not speak 'horticulture"...
Gita
Gita, nothing fancy about a dwarf crape myrtle. It's just a crape myrtle that grows 8 ft to 12 ft tall instead of 20-plus feet tall.
My HD (East-West Highway) has the evergreens and rosemary shrubs you'd mentioned. Guess I gotta wait til Spring for CM.
We have a dwarf variety that grows 3-4' tall. Luckily, sort of, that's how tall all our CMs grow due to being killed to the ground each year so far.
Seq, the scalloping was a last-minute, desperate attempt at holding the soil back in that part of the yard. We already had scalloped edging that the previous owner had used in another part of the yard. I do wish we had built some sort of a mini stone wall, but the edging is being gobbled up by the ajuga, so I'm letting it be. :)
Muddy---
I thought that is the only way it is used???? Upright. I cannot imagine how yours are used?
I have the scalloped, curved (not straight) edging around my bed where the KK Hibiscus is
on my front lawn. ....
They come straight too...
Here--this is the front bed. You ca see the edging. G.
The scallop edging is laid on its side and stacked three high. There is quite a bit of an incline and soil volume here (from all that sheet mulching), so when standing up, the edgers were not strong enough to hold back the soil.
Stacking three of the edgers on top of one another did the trick for me.
When curved scalloped edgers are used like in Gita's picture, it's to designated a garden bed, make for easier mowing, contain the mulch, etc., but what I needed was something heavy duty to contain the soil. I still would have preferred a pretty retaining wall made of stone.
This message was edited Nov 5, 2015 12:52 AM
SSG, I like your scalloped edgers, a different look. Very nice.
I used the scalloped edgers flat too. I got some free with something else and couldn't turn them away. I don't have upright edges, only flat ones for mowing.
Hardy cyclamen has been in my maple tree (dry shade) bed for years. They haven't spread much if at all but live without special care.
OH, OK! I did not know you stacked them....Must have missed the picture
you posted....I'll have to scroll back to see. G.
I need my scalloped edgers to keep mulch from escaping from a sloped bed, so I put them upright and hold them in place with bricks that also form a mowing edge.
