Hi neighbors..I'm a newbie here.
Just wanted to say that I am looking forward to this season, and getting to know everyone here..
Hi neighbors!
Hi artemiss! We are all newbies here on this forum! LOL I'm excited for all the Central Midwesterners to come on over and get to know them all!
Hi artemiss & brinda, hope ya'lls spring is going great.
We're having some pretty hot weather here. I'm trying to finish up a big bed in front and the heat is killing me. I'm up to hypertufaing, but I think the sweat will make the tufa too runny *grin.
Hmm, about me.... I'm a single gardner with health issues. I live with my best friend who watches after me, and has let me totally destroy the yard. It's beginning to look like something now though. You will mostly see me in the pet forums. I read the others, but am just now getting to the contributing useful info stage.
Lets see, I've got Iris blooming and a couple of tulips. My peonies are just starting (having just really gotten to a size to notice) There are some hot pink ones open now. The creeping phlox is blooming and a few roses on my Josephs Coat. That rose will bloom through almost anything though. My white lilac is blooming. I'd still like someone to come dig it up and take it away. hint hint to anyone who'd like a white lilac.....
I am totally into daylilies and Iris right now. No care perennials that pack a lot of punch. I want a grass/weed free yard with all groundcovers and country/English garden look. And I'm trying to do it all with pretty much no money. Lots of wonderful traders and plain old generous traders here are helping it come along faster. Plus lots of great information on how to do stuff the right way.
I do want to say that layering newspapers under a bed does not work in my yard. The Oklahoma weeds and creeping grass just tears right through. For the new bed, I dug down a foot and hand removed every tiny piece of grass/weed root. We have some tough stuff here.
Gotta run for a bit. Hi to everyone,
mich & crew
Hi Mich, your yard is looking great! I'm petrified at trying to put in a few new beds. The bermuda scares me to death. LOL I'm wondering if 2 to 3 inches of cardboard might do the trick? Otherwise, maybe some cement! LOL
Hi all,
Thought I'd come inside for a little break,been outside planting my tropicals in the ground, and the wind is tearing them apart as fast as I plant them!!!!
The have been growing all winter in the greenhouse,looking real good,brought them outside a month ago in shady sheltered places to harden off,and took just a few seconds for the wind to almost destroy them!!!
Still have a lot of plants to bring outside to harden off,but some are blooming,and don't want to move as of yet,such as vitifola passiflora blooming so pretty this morning.
Don
Hi Tropicman ~ haven't seen your name in a loooong time!
That is beautiful Tman! Great to see you here. I was just reading the thread where Chele is planning a midnight raid. I hope she makes it in & out OK! LOL
It's good to see folks here from Nebraska. My mother's side of the family were all from Nebraska , near Fairbury and surrounding areas. I've never been there. I've lived in Idaho from birth until moving here to Arkansas. I've lived here since 1977.
Hello all.. Mich great yard.. Hello Moby glad to see you here now your closer can holler hello....lol.....
Tropicman your passiflora is beautiful....
Hello everyone. Its going to b e a swell bunch talking and trading. If it will grow in Oklahoma it will grow anywhere.
TARogers, thats kind of what I feel about this neck of the woods. "If it will grow (here) it will grow anywhere". :-)
Hi to everyone. I am going to enjoy this forum although my primary place is hosta and Heuchera forums.
Hey oz, there you are. Glad you are here too. LOL
My primary places are pets, hosta and heuchera also.
Saw our first hummingbird this evening. Now my life can be complete. That always makes me so happy for those tiny birds to be back. Hooray.
Susan
=^..^=
92° today cooking my Spring plants
some spring Iris photos
Wish I could post a picture. Won't let me do it tonight. I am bummed..... :(
Susan
=^..^=
Wow, Tazzy, that iris is beautiful! What is the name of it.
I'm so happy to see so much interest in this forum. I still need to finish notifing Ks, NE, OK, & AR subscribers about it. I got a few done day before yesterday and yesterday but it will be next week before I can get back to the task.
I love perennials and self reseeding annuals like Morning Glories, Marigolds, Sweet Peas, etc.
GOD bless and keep each of you. I must go as I'm almost asleep.
keyi, your garden is beautiful. I am another of those no grass people.
Right now daffodils, tulips, creeeping phlox, trout lilies and hyacinths are blooming. I'm a daylily, lily and Iris person too, but try a little of everthing. Won't be long now until the alliums, peonies, columbines and Iris will be in bloom.
Susan
Our yard is bursting with bloom. Some of the ones lincolnitess mentioned are already through flowering here.
The flowering dogwoods are in full bloom. The wood's trees are opening their new leaves. Oak, ash, sugar maples and many others are blooming. My containers of rainwater are developing a layer of yellow pollen. My earliest iris will soon open. The 'molly' peony that a dear friend sent me last year has two blooms. It is so different from any of my other peonies. I love it.
The wild iris are opening in my flowerbeds, as well as golden seal, may apples,wild blue phlox and toadshade...in the wildflower bed.
The creeping phlox is in full bloom. So is the jacob's ladder, the jonquils, a Lychnis viscaria( German Catchfly) that I bought last spring and grew in a pot. This is it's first blooms. The same with the Helenium hoopsii. It is just now putting on it's petals...another first for me.
By the front porch, on the left side, the red honeysuckle is in full bloom, and being visited by the 'ambassador' male hummingbird. :-) Beneath it is the jacob's ladder and the white jonquils. It's makes a nice patriotic picture.
The Candytuft is blooming and spreading wider each year.
Wild strawberries are spreading and blooming! I have to pull a bunch every year so they ( and the confederate violets) don't take over the bed.
Marian
You are ahead of us Marian. Take some photos to share. I used to grow the Lychnis viscaria. NOt sure what happened to it, but I always enjoyed it. It bloomed the same time as the tall bearded Iris and always looked nice with them.
Susan
leaflady the iris is "Lady Friend "
a lot darker than normal,
some blood meal from my Day Lilly bed washed down on it
intensified its color but could cause rot ,
it so dry it wont be a problem this year.
Tassy, that is interesting that the blood meal did that to the color of the iris. I don't want the tuber to be rotted, but I 'do' hope the rain comes for you folks.
Susan, my digital camera has about done it's last...:-(
But you can look at all my wildflowers ( and everyting else on our place) By clicking on the following link and scrolling to the albums that interest you.
http://www.picturetrail.com/marianark
Marian, I just finished visiting your garden. It is fantastic! You have so many beautiful trees and shrubs as well as a little of everything it looks like. The photos you took of the fog and your waterfall are great. I think I would go crazy with that much space to fill, but you seem to be doing a wonderful job of keeping it all up. Thanks for inviting us to see it.
Susan
Marianinark----- I was wondering why you did not name all you Heuchera other than Palace Purple and Purple Pettcoats. I seen a Green Spice ther and what looks like a Cream Brulee. I collect them along with Hosta I got 27 different species as of right now.
ozarkian, those Heuchera were bought at Wal Mart and were unlabeled, as are so many of their plants. :-(
I just haven't bothered to identify them. The same with the Hosta. Most of them were in assortments. I have always been more interested in what appeals to me, instead of 'names', anyway.
My problem is they all appeal to me. We have a lot of people walking into the yard to see the plants. and we are on a garden tour here so I like to keep track of what everything is. I just got started with the Heuchera this past year.
Hi everybody, I know I haven't been on much lately. Thanks for inviting me Brinda. I'm glad to see we have our own forum now. I've been increasing my flower bed size, when I get more of the flowers in it that I want, I'll post a pic.
Hello All ... I see a lot of old friends and some new ones, too... Hope everyone had a great Easter...
Wow, everyone's gardens look/sound great..I am so jealous of all the space..
right now i only have a patio, and lotsa shade on top of that, but I trying to make the most of it!
I have a tub of varigated peppermint, lemon thyme and "chocolate" mint that made it through the the winter (the lavander did not), some impatiens (new guinea and double, just planted this weekend), begonias (sinbad and non-stop tuberous), pineapple sage, basil, catnip, some hanging baskets, pansies and violas in a window box.and a fuschia/sweet potatoe container. I also have jasmine tobacco and four o'clocks I am attempting to start from seed (the tobacco is sprouting, the four o'clocks are not ) and some random caladium bulbs just peeking out.
I also have a lovely trellis I refused to let my ex keep and I think I will try to grow the tobacco against that..not quite the red cypress I had on it last year..but I don't know of any vines that that grow well in part shade and containers (suggestions?)
No hummers yet..I have a feeder out..had slews at the old place, but I have a pair of downy woodpeckers (Frank and Earline..yes I named them!) that are at the suet station all the time and a pair or cardinals that stop in occasionally
Marianinark - I spent much of my childhood in Fairbury with my grandparents. What are the family names??? Just curious. I went to your homepage...looks like real serious gardening. Thanks for sharing.
Edens_Gardener, the family names are Decker and Durish.
It would sure be fun if I made connection with some of them.
MarianinArk, Hi. I am not so far away from where you are located up there nestled in the hills. We are located in the Ozark foothills ourselves about half way between Harrison and Little Rock. I know where Compton is and we once camped at Erby and I remember stopping at a store in Compton and we drove around in that area including the Boxley Valley just enjoying the scenery. That is some of the most beautiful scenery in America I believe. Do you ever see any Elk around your place?
I am just getting started seriously into plants and don't know that much about a lot of them, but for about 20 years I have been raising bantam chickens and Red Jungle Fowl which are also a bantam size chicken and is the progenitor of all domestic chickens, and I have always just felt that birds and plants went together. I have recently been trying to spruce up my back yard by adding and organizing beautiful plants so I will have not only beautiful miniature chickens with wild type Jungle Fowl plumage colors but also beautiful plants to compliment them in my backyard.
There is this one type of plant that I never want to plant again, as I planted some about 10 years ago and they are the most invasive things I have ever seen. I would like for someone to help me identify the name of it. They have been heavily used in hedgerows, and I just call them "Hedge Bushes" because I don't know the real name of them. They have small oval leaves and bloom small white flowers around mid spring and then get small purple berries on them later in the season. I bet someone already knows what I am talking about, but I will also try to get a picture. Perhaps someone has some ideas on how to kill it out???
This message was edited Apr 18, 2006 10:39 AM
Here is the picture. Can someone tell me what it is called?
Just to show you what I am talking about, here are pictures of Red Jungle Fowl (small domesticated wild chickens from Southeast Asia). I will not make a habit of this as this is supposed to be a plant based site, not a bird site but I wanted to give you an idea of how the beautiful colors of these birds can compliment a yard or garden setting especially with tropical or subtropical (jungley) looking plants. The brightly red and black colored one is the male. The female is mainly brown with some black and with a yellow head and neck striped with black and she resembles dead leaves or ground cover for camoflauge puproposes when setting on a nest of eggs.
This message was edited Apr 18, 2006 11:01 AM
Here is the female.
Duckwing, is this your plant?
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/62891/index.html
No Duckwing, the elk have not found us yet. I sure hope they don't ! They are not all that far. The Ponca area is just about 7 miles from us, and that is their 'headquarters'.
I think I was only through Clinton once,while we still lived near Harrison, and that was years ago. That highway is too full of semi trucks to suit me. I always go the way of Clarksville when going to Little Rock from Compton.
Marian
i like seeing pictures of the birds to not everyone flowers nice change.
Yes Marian, that is the plant, the Chinese Privett. Thanks. I can imagine that elk could get to be a problem and I can see why you wouldn't want them around but I had heard they were near that area.
I don't blame you for taking the back roads, Hwy 21, I would guess. As you said there is less traffic and the scenery is superb I have heard. I have never traveled Hwy 21 but I have travleled Hwy 43 from Harrison to Ponca and 74 across to Jasper a time or two, but I used to regularly travel Hwy 123 between Clarksville and Lurton and Hwy 7 from near Deer to Ola pretty often and also Hwy 16 from Deer to Tilley and Hwy 27 from Chimes to Danville. This was just a small part of my route that covered both daylight hours and the midnight shift and it meandered for a total of 700 miles but never farther than within a 150 mile radius of Russellville. I did a delivery route to hog farms in an SUV and was through that whole area 3 times per week. Man! Parthenon is like a journey to the center of the earth. So is Nogo. I really got to see a lot of beautiful country in those days but the bad part was that I had to make the trip no matter how bad the, fog, ice or snow was because there was no fill in driver that knew where those hog farms were, hidden way back there in those hills.
I live about 6 miles west of Clinton and off Hwy 65 so we don't have many semi trucks coming across our highway. It's kind of peaceful here. I try to avoid Hwy 65 when possible. It is really busy nowdays.
This message was edited Apr 18, 2006 9:21 PM
Duckwing, you've got that right about Parthenon. Our son lived there briefly in the late 70s. Also, we used to go there to pick up an elderly lady to take her to church.( We lived in Jasper at that time. )
Wow, your hog farm delivery route sounds like hard driving! I admire you for having done that, and I can imagine the joys, and the hardships, connected with it.
Yes, I take hwy 21. It is a lovely drive, and I feel 'safe' on it. There are always helpful folk if you have problems. When you drove 43 between Harrison and Ponca, you passed within a mile or so of our home (as the crow flies). We are 2 ( crooked ) miles off the paved road.
It is very peaceful here. It used to be even quieter, but one of my DH's cousins set up a sawmill business up the hill from us about 3/4 mile. It can be heard at our house, but isn't annoying. Otherwise, besides the birds and other nature sounds, all we hear is airplanes and a little neighbor activities.
We can't see any neighbor's homes, except filtered through the woods in the winter while the leaves are off. There is at least 600 feet to the closest. I like it that way, but would like to see more open spaces, and farm work in the distance.
Marian