ericalynne

Hi there, sorry I don't know your friend.

Since we are both in Zone 4 (right?) I am just curious in thinking that maybe the Russian Sage won't grow that big here and maybe I won't have any worries??? Does your sage still grow well and look nice? How big is it if you don't mind me asking?? Ha! Now I want to compare plant sizes - go figure LOL!

Nice meeting you :)

i thought size didn't matter.ha ha .
no, really, mine was in a 2 gal pot when i planted it and it would still fit. it gets about 2 ft tall and flowers. looks healthy and pretty, i just left too much space around it because i thought it would get bigger. i actually planted 4 of them, in a border which is broken in half with a bench . i wanted them to sort of be the framework for the garden, didn't work out so now i have to move them.
i find alot of things they say won't grow in zone 4 do they just die back to the ground every year. lavender does the same thing.
i will try to plant anything once, if it comes back...great...if not ...oh well.sometimes i get lucky... i have viburnum and wisteria growing for a few years. i just don't spend alot of money on anything above zone 4.

That sounds just lovely! I have only started gardening myself in the past 2 years so I am still VERY new to this. I just love the look of wisteria!

Just so you know - you have been my deciding factor in planting it where I orginially wanted to. I am so happy now to have finally come to the decision wth my Russian Sage plant. Hopefully I will get a chance to do that in the next few days. I will post a pic when I am done. :)

i started about ten years ago, but didn't read any books on design etc until 3 years ago. so now i am in the process of redoing alot. (the readers digest illustrated guide to gardening is great for beginners. step by step instructions for everything)i still find myself not following directions(plant spacing, fertilizer, soil ammending etc) my gardens are pretty, but too many different plants and too crowded. i have become an expert at moving established plants. (don't be afraid to move things if they are too big or too small.) this fall i am redoing the front of my house. i have tulips, daffodil, phlox, lupines, monarda, azaeleas, roses, veronica, lambs ear, primrose, sweet william, oregano, and sage.plus evergreen trees. (see what i mean-too many plants) i would advise anyone just starting out to keep a journal. i just started one to keep track of what is where and bloom times for my area. that way i know what to move in the fall.for instance, right now i only have small wispy blooms, no masses of color. i am thinking about taking out the veronica, oregano, and sage, and replacing them with liatris and purple coneflower. i am also moving the phlox because it is too disorganized for that garden.

Glad to see people are still using the good old reliable RD gardening guide. It was my very first gardening book back, probably before either of you two were born!

Another great book is Color Echoes by Pamela Harper and can be purchased for about $10.00 from many used book sites: well worth it. The author does garden in Virginia so you'd have to adapt for your zones.

Have fun experimenting: that's one of the joys of gardening.

Crocket's book on perennials was my first (from the PBS series of yesterday) It was a great starter and I still refer back to it. Probably the best book since that one I've read is The Well Tended Perennial Garden. Great maintenance info.
Happy Gardening!

I don't know about you, Dave, but I go into a trance reading my favorite gardening authors.

Did you ever read "One Man's Garden"? I think its by Mitchell. No particular order to it but his attitude is great. I learned a few interesting gardening facts amongst a funny read.

You guys have brought up some great suggestions for books and gardening. To be honest I have looked through some books especially when looking for a certain plant but I haven't read any books per say. I think I will jot some of the books down and go shopping soon.

I do have one of Henry Mitchell's books and he did write so well. I enjoy personal experiences in the garden as much as reading about individual plants.

There's a very old book with black and white photographs by Adrian and Alan Bloom - maybe Blooms of Bressingham - that is excellent. Once the distraction of big color photos is absent it's a wonderful way to pass the days of winter and just absorb all that's written.

Dawn: please give the online used book sites a look, once you've checked out the books in any store, then buy them online much less expensively.

Its interesting Dawn. I use my garden books for referrence but there have been a couple that have influenced my mind-set in gardening. The Well Tended Perennial Garden taught me I was far too cautious in cutting back plants. Organic Gardening taught me, of corse, about organic gardening. The books that remain largely untouched on my shelf are the ones about design and color wheels. (Just not my thing, I like growing things,that stuff is too much like interrior decorating).

Now for a novel about gardening, reading my daughter The Secret Garden was the best!

Excuse my running on a bit.
Dave

How nice, Dave!

I keep trying to get my grandson to say Campanula Lactiflora but he keeps resisting - he won't even try!

How cute!! And good taste in baseball teams!

OMG pirl too funny!!!! All my little one says is she can't wait to get dirty which means she can't wait to help me in the garden LOL

Thanks, Dave. My favorite hockey team, too. (Just kidding)

It's fun to get dirty! Your little girl is a smart one, Dawn!

At least she isn't scared of dirt LOL. You should see the two of us after we are out weeding and gardening - we come in the house head to toe covered in dirt and then off to the shower we go! I have 2 girls - one who is 3 and the other is a year and a half.

LUCKY! Doubly blessed.

Enjoy! Enjoy!

my neices used to pick every flower that bloomed and plant every 'pretty' flower they found. (burdock, dandelions, crown vetch, bindweed etc) i finally planted a "girl garden" for them to pick out of,and plant in. that was 5 years ago. (nieces are now 7 & 9)they collect seeds from the creek bank and the field by their house and plant them. it's a mess but very pretty in it's own way. wildflowers and weeds, no organization at all. queen anne's lace, chicory, purple loosestrife, black eyed susans, buttercup, indian paint brush, solidago etc. yesterday, i noticed a wild monarda in bloom, pale lavendar/blue. no idea where they got that from. i may have to take some seeds from them.

What a wonderful idea ericalynne! I bet the girls love it and learn so much that way as well. I think that is just the sweetest thing. Hmmm maybe next spring I will have to consider a spot for my girls cause they too love picking at the coreopsis flowers and my petunias LOL. I don't mind though - I love watching them enjoy the gardens.

It's great to teach them while they're little.

Giving the kids garden space of their own is a great way to keep them interested. I had to do that when my son started picking things and digging holes in the lawn to "plant stuff". Now, at age 21, he takes care of the lawn and a lot of the heavy lugging work and he built some beautiful stone walled beds on our hillside. He has won ribbons exhibiting his plants at the NE flower show and can tell a hibiscus from a hosta! My 18 year old daughter helps me keep the colors in balance and helps pick out the things that will go in our containers. She has won awards for her plants at the flower show also. Keep em gardening, I say!
Martha

Martha, That is fantastic!

It's a hobby that goes on and on and brings such beauty to the world. Even when I'm outside, planting and sweating, I often wonder what I'd be doing if I didn't garden. Playing bridge, watching old Westerns on TV, or reruns just doesn't cut it for me.

martha you must be so proud.
my son likes vegetable gardening, but between my flower shop and my gardens, he knows alot of flowers. plus he has developed a good eye for color and form and helps me pick out clothes and with redecorating the house.
gardening is one of the few "hobbies" you can participate in for most of your life. from 2 to 100. it is also great exercise. my back and arms are getting so toned from doing stonework this year.

Do you know that gardeners live longer? Its true.

Dave: maybe it only seems that way!

Seriously, my namesake, the real PIRL - my now late, former neighbor, Pauline Isabelle Reid Loeffler (she did use her entire name) lived to 102+. She slowed down at 88, due to arthritis in the knees but still weeded and planted into her 90's. She was my inspiration, my teacher, my friend.

She's already an inspiration to me. Sounds like an amazing woman.

I've said it before but waking up to hear her sweet, soft, southern voice singing hymns in the garden was like living with the angels.

Wow.

This is a picture of part of the children's amateur exhibit at the New England Spring Flower Show. I am chairperson of Junior Horticulture {my committee and I set up and arrange the entries for the duration of the show} and this is how I encourage children to garden now that my own two are grown. We had nearly two hundred separate entries from about 120 children this past March. I also speak to groups of kids like the boy scouts and girl scouts who want to beging exhibiting. We also have several activities at the Children's Festival night at the show and we talk to many kids and their parents then about participating at the Flower Show. I also enter some of my personal plants and I have a blast during the term of the show. It's a huge amount of hard work the day before to set it up, but it has always been worth it.
Martha

This is the gold medal we won this year for the entire exhibit. It is the seventh one in a row and the third since I was chairperson. And me, in my gold medal dress!
Martha

Martha, That is great! Wonderful to get so many kids involved in gardening. Very cute picture too.
Dave

Martha - congrats! That is some dress! I bet you had all the heads turning wondering who that hot momma was!

Well, you gotta go for the gold. But really, the kids bring in such interesting things. We had a terrarium planted in a gumball machine, a cornstalk grown from seed with a little ear of corn on it and little string beans and cucumbers growing on the plants up in the picture above. Year before last, we had a little pumpkin on the vine. There were about five adventurous children who entered forced bulbs. One year we had a bunch of carnivorous plants started from seed and one in bloom. You never know what you are going to get. Which is why I love it. Also, I get to wear a fancy dress to the opening reception, a chairperson perk.
Any of you here in MA or NH or other New England states want to know about entering next spring in March, let me know. I can steer you to the correct person. I know there are great plants out there just waiting to find out how they can be in our show.
Martha

Great job, Martha!

Martha, good for you. Kids are great! never know what's going on in their heads. sounds like a lot of fun and a HUGE amount of work.

pirl, I wish I could have known PIRL. reminds me a bit of my great-grandmother. had a veggie garden into her 90's. took her walker into the garden with her. she couldn't bend her knees from the rheumatiz but she could bend from the waist to weed. she would garden in the morning, come in for lunch, and spend the afternoon reading her bible, rubbing wintergreen on her knees, and watching her stories (soaps) on tv :-) gives me a warm feeling just typing this. I had the pleasure and love of her in my life until I was 16 and still miss her.

gram

Did all grandma's watch their stories??? I used to watch them with my Oma. They helped her learn English when she first came to America. I remember she would watch The Doctors, Days of our Lives and General Hospital while she did her ironing.

My grandmother always watched her soaps, prayed with her rosary beads and kept her hair up in a little bun. Very cute.

my grandmother watched mary hartman,soap and saturday night live. and drank a martini every night. she was kind of a hippie i guess. always had the coolest jewelry and would take us hiking and canoeing. the only grandmotherly thing she did was bake irish soda bread. she was lots of fun.

ericalynne, she sounds like fun. I sure didn't have any grandmothers like that. In fact, I'm not even a grandma like that LOL (although I'm a child of the 60's and COULD have been a hippie if I wasn't so darn up tight...am a big SNL fan, though). I think we're probably talking a few years apart here. my Nana (great-grandmother) was born in the 1870's. when she baked rolls in the gas stove she didn't use the thermostat, just stuck her hand in to see if it 'felt' right, she didn't measure, she just baked. she wore a union suit under her dress(let's see if anyone knows what that is) instead of the underwear we wear today, and the only jewelry I ever saw her wear was a brooch on her coat to church on Sunday.

gram