There is no Deep-South forum yet so this is about as close as I can get.
I figure if your in just about any part of the Gulf coast your starting from scratch this year, so what are you planting?
What is everyone growing this spring?
I ordered several plants from Bluestone. I'll try to remember some of them without going to get my list. For the birds I got a male and female holly. I don't have enough cover for the birds in my yard.
For the butterflies I got paprika yarrow and a butterfly bush. I remembered the yarrow because I have wanted a paprika yarrow for a while.
For me I got ajuga.
There may have been more, but I ordered it in January and it will be shipped in April.
When it gets here hope it will be perfectly OK for me to say that I am fixin' to plant my plants. Some people think saying you are "fixin to do something" is hilarious.
Greetings all! As I had been scouring through all my newly received garden plants, the heavens opened up and brought me a local business here in Memphis whose owner has decided to retire....his entire greenhouse stock was 75% off; including plants, chemicals, mulch...everything! I spent the entire weekend going back and forth hauling shrubs, trees, soil conditioner, rock....I say now, BRING ON THE SPRING and the augers!
d
When I moved here from Southern California a few years back I could'nt understand what people were saying! Now I talk to people from back home and they don't understand me. LOL! I picked up Plum, fixin ta, and Kin after only a few months here. The twang is something I hope to never pick up but I know its comming.
I have started a fragrant garden with lots of stock, sweet peas, datura, brugs, fragrant petunias, brunfelsias, Gas plant, cestrum (pink), pandorea vine, several jasmine, autumn olive, 4 o'clocks, and Im sure a few others I have left out.
I have almost no shade now so I will have to make due in full sun. I guess when life gives you lemons... which reminds me about the meyer lemon tree
I'll make Lemon-aid! ;o)
Caren.
D, what a lucky dog!
I think so...If I can just keep things alive until it warms up a bit....we recently moved out to TC; its 9 acres of farm land...blank pallet but LOTS of sun. I wanted to amend the soil abit before putting anything in the ground, but when this opportunity came along, I had to go with it. My garage now looks like a nursery
any suggestions for what I can plant along my road front that has a ditch between the property and the road. Its full sun and I 'm hoping to find something that I can grow along that embankment to keep from having to mow/weed it.
DH would loose his mind! He can't stand the seed starts I have in our sunny entry way. I can't imagine the melt down that would happen if he could'nt park in the garage!
Do you farm as well or just like the open spaces?
It depends on what your looking for. I have an Autumn Olive hedge that is small now but it will get big enough to hide my trashy neighbors yard. It gets honey-grape scented flowers in spring and tart grape shaped fruit in the fall that attract birds. It is laboled as and invasive plant but many people have them as a hedge here and I would not think of them as invasive. There is also Pompas Grass I like the pink but white is nice too. Im assuming you are looking for a hedge like planting tho. ;o)
No. We don't farm...we bought the land to get out of the county and its bad administration. I'm saving 4 acres of it for a horse or two, i gave the pups one and the rest is mine. right now I feel like a kid at christmas who got tons of new toys withOUT batteries and operating instructions *LOL Surely out of that much room, I can make something grow to love me?
more of a ground cover....I think. the ditch gets a lot of water during the winter/spring, but with our summers here water is almost nonexistent. Not to mention the humidity levels here, especially at night. I thought about just throwing cleomies down there and let them take over, but my friends tell me they take over the world and eat people. *L i think theyre pretty though
I can back that up!! Mexican heather is a good spreader too but like cleomies they make themselves at home. I have them planted togeather in a problem spot and they seem to keep each other in check the colors are nice togeather too pink and purple are my favs. Both die back to the ground in winter here but thell be back. I don't know your zone so I can't say.
I am familiar with both; though never thought to put together. I had a "what I thougt was" mexican heather once, but it didnt come back. Many of the zone maps have me in 7, but we're probably 8; depends really on who you ask. Do you think the combination will work for me here?
It is so funny reading these threads...to my husband! I have our garage full of tropical plants that I'm overwintering there. AND, I have several flats of seeds and bulbs sitting in the kitchen floor over the heating vent by the deck door. My husband laughed when I read him what you guys said above about your same situations and said we should start a forum just for our poor husbands!
This message was edited Feb 22, 2006 8:52 AM
D-Lantana or verbena are great for banks--they don't mind it being dry either and they spread--especially verbena--it can almost be invasive if you don't keep it in check. Most of the garden centers offer the deep purple verbena. Everywhere a stem touches it puts down roots...and needs little water after its established.
I would also suggest planting tall daylilies on a bank. Once they spread and fill in you won't have to mow.
This message was edited Feb 22, 2006 8:52 AM
That sounds like it would work for me. I love all three of those plants. will factor that into my MANY drawings as well....I have a rule of thumb...If I can draw it, I can make it so *LOL My husband nearly died when I told him I wanted to take some art classes *LOL
Howdy Gang!
I've tried my hand at propagating compacta hollies last year to replace the ones hub's stomped on while he was building in the front porch/patio into what will be the new living room.It has 7(or maybe it's 9) 36x 60 windows across the front facing the road (north),a picture window(4x8)on the west wall and french doors on the east so I will actually be able to see lots of my front and parts of the side gardens from my new room...YAY! Can't complain about the stomped shrubs because he was enclosing the porch at my request. I should have waited until he was done to do the new foundation planting but I don't know what "wait" is...LOL. My male boston terriers have "watered" some branches to death so when I get cuttings big enough I'll have to re-do the foundation.
I'd like to re-do my whole dang yard(1 1/2 acres)I've been gardening on for the passed 15-16yrs but will have to settle for a little re-arranging and adding to.I spent the passed year swapping for and buying (seeds)woodland natives plants and seeds .Would like to go native in my yard or half native because I'd have to 86 a lot of man-crossed hybrids and I don't think I want to get rid of my collection toadlilies,heucheras,hostas and such to be pure native.
Greenhouse are full of plants and new seedlings. Some of the seeds for native trees and shrubs have started popping up.
P
Hi Everyone, Karen, My husband is with yours, he wants in on the poor husband forum. LOL They just don't understand. He thinks our puter is for him to watch the stock market. LOL
I will be planting all of my favorite fragrant things this year. I have Datura and Brug seedling, cuttings from new DG friends and my old ones. Orchid cactus, hoyas, gingers and jasmines, I love the tropicals and would love to move to a zone 10 some day.
I do let my husband borrow the computer on a daily basis to keep up with the stock market. I figure that I can buy more plants and toys with the money he makes if he is allowed to use it too. Tee hee!
Hi, Picabo and all,
I love my gingers too. I have a lot of shade, but manage to get them to bloom in a couple of sunny spots. What a wonderful smell.
Does anyone have any luck with sweet peas? P.Allen Smith in Little Rock, says if they are going to make it, they should be in the ground by Valintine Day. It's been too cold for me to put the seeds out. Will still try, since they are so pretty.
I'm not going to buy any new plants until I get all the plants my friends gave me in the ground. Can't do that until I get a bed cleaned out. Bring on the sun.
Beckiem
I received a shipment of daylillies this week. I'm wondering how to keep them alive until they can go in the ground around April 15. Should I just leave them in the plastic bags they shipped in, or should I put them in some dirt? They're growing already!
This year I'm planning to work more on my beds and the things I already have, rather than putting in new plants (fat chance... I'm addicted, too). My beds need to be dug up and mulched, etc. I think I learned in here somewhere, this winter, that if you don't add mulch, etc., the amended clay soil turns back to just clay... That's what's wrong with my beds, and my flowers are suffering... I need to fix them now!
Oh no Pat, has the daylily bug bitten you?? By the way I have been staying in your neck of the woods some to keep my grandchildren a few days a week. You should have e-mailed me before you ordered daylilies, we have close to 300 varieties now
Sandra
FlowrLady,
do you have somewhere you can heel in your daylilies?They're tough and shouldn't be a problem to heel in or put into pots until you can get them in the ground.
A friend sent me a big box of daylilies one year in Sept.I chunk them in a bucket with about 2" of water....didn't get them heeled in until Dec. I did it in such a hurry that I just dug holes in the veg.garden, tossed them in and covered them over. They stayed like that for 2-3yrs until I finally moved them out into flowerbeds. I didn't loose a one....luckily,their tags where tossed in the holes with them so I had tags to id them when I dug them up.
bigred, I have done exactly the same thing several times. Mine always make it just fine also.
I have lots of new daylilies ordered and need to get my cold frame seeds started. I have been so busy with kids/ appointments ect. that I have the bale of ProMix still in my van!
Teresa in southcentral KY