Its that time of year!

I love fall in Michigan!
All the amazing colors, the crisp air. Piles of fallen leaves, up to your eyeballs. ( OK-that one, not so much,lol) It can be kind of sad, seeing all the gardens winding down, but its also a time for fall planting and finding some real deals at the local nurseries.

And apple orchard time! I would love to go to some new ones, so if anyone has any favorites in the Tuscola, Genesse, Lapeer, or surrounding counties, I would love to hear about them!

lilmac how could you live in Mi and not love the changing seasons I love fall and spring the best spring to reve up and the enregy and the fall when you set back and watch the colors antisapating the calm (most of the time lol) of snow drifting down I love Michigan
Gloria

Me too! I love the changing seasons. It's the main reason I have nver moved from here!! Even the winter is great when you get to sit back and plan your garden dreams!!
I love it. My work slows down and after the Holidays I have a couple of months to plan and dream. Read the seed catalogues and sip hot tea as I watch the snow fall!! AHHH sweet Mich. winters!!
i actually start my seeds sometime in Feb. or early March for some.
Last year the hot weather came early and stayed from April. So i felt i was late on everything. Thi syear i am going to watch the predictions better so i can get my stuff out and growing as soon as is possible.
Do any of you grow? I do about 50 flats in my basement. I have no green house. This year I may cut back. the cost of energy is so high. We'll see. I also bring out and pot up my cannas, callas, dahlias, and tenders in about March with bottom heat.
What are your secrets to share about growing???
Julie

I am still knee deep in fall prep and planting. I have so many bulbs to plant! Its been windy, wet and rainy the past couple of days...so what else did I have to do but go online and look for even more bulbs, lol. This is a new place (to me) and I have so many things I want to do- I want to make a nice perennial bed next to the driveway, and add more soil to the raised brick wall bes that goes across the front and side of the house...towards the end it looks more like a moat than garden. And I will be making a rock garden over the summer

I kinda play it by ear when I start seed in the late winter/early spring. It seems like I have more flats every year. I have so many seeds, I know I have forgotten what some are, lol. I start morning Glory's, Petunias,Hibiscus, Snap Dragons, Penny Blacks,Primrose, Violas...ok, I have a huge shoe box full of stuff I want to start. (when did all those come from?)
I find that a heat mat helps tremendously, and keeping the lighting close to the seedlings help them from getting too leggy. But yes, the electric cost are getting so high I my have to scale back. (ya, right.) I grow on bakers racks under 4" fluorescents in the basement. And I would give anything to own my very own greenhouse!

lilmac me too! That is about having a green house.
I made a box out of lumber 4'x8' square. I put lights in the frame and I put metal studs over the top and some inexpensive (close out) large ceramic tiles on that. It makes a real warm large heated area for growing. I have just made one without the wood base with just metal studs screwed down to my work table and then christmas lights in side and ceramic tiles on top. I have 4'x25' now so i can start all my cannas and warm soil stuff early. I found if I start them early and if I can not keep the soil warm when I take them out they sort of go into a holding position until their idael conditions are met.
So i don't start too early as they won't bloom any earlier than the soil is ready for them. Home Depot had some little green houses 8'x8'x6'tall for 249.00.
They marked them down to 62.50 so i bought one. I have to get the frame up as it will be my cold frame come spring. I can not afford to heat it.
Well those are my growing ideas anyone got something different they do??
Julie

Welcome to MI lilmac442 & jazzzy704! lilmac442 I thought I knew a lot of common names but what are Penny Blacks? Don't think I've heard that one before. I love heat mats too. I had a couple little ones, but last year my DH bought me 5 long, commercial mats (hold 5-6 flats each) off ebay at a really cheap price! They really made a difference. Your box sounds really interesting Julie, hope you'll take a pic. One of the first persons I met when we moved here last year was April. She is the Queen of winter sowing here. And seed saving. She's done some talks on it for the local garden clubs. It seems to work really well for her. She also has one of the Home Depot greenhouses that she uses to grow some of her plants on in. Since I have a gh, and my kids are grown, it isn't something I'm likely to try. But, it looks like something that would be really fun to do, a great project for the kids too. http://wintersown.org/wseo1/index.html April starts all her annuals and vegetables this way, outside on her deck, buried in the snow.

well I have lived in Michigan for 48yrs and i HATE fall and dread the winter months!
give me spring and summer!!!!
I do start my daylily seeds inside in the basement (all over the house)and then move them out to my GH when the weather gets better and add some night time heat so things dont freeze, I also start mators and hot peppers in side early! I use the GH as much as i can to get a head start on spring.
I use th Gh most for spring divisions. I dig stuff up as soon as the ground thaws and pot them up and get them ready to sell or for plant trades
I have daylily seeds sprouting in the frig so those i will get potted up in the next month or so!

Hey thank JeanTH,
I have done the zip-lock bag winter sowing but this link gave me new ideas. It's always great to see what others are doing. So you got some big mats cheap?/ That's great. I have been unable to find any at a decent price. I did however pick up 10 of the Jiffy complete seed starter(Mat, Jiffy peat, dome, tray) they were only $10.00 each when Franks nursery left town!! They help a bit but all the cords and the monitoring!!
I live in an old Victorian house built in 1865 and I am so afraid of a fire. Nothing here
can be replaced..it's OLD and new stuff is NEW. So fires scare me. I watched the
Victorian house next store burn to the ground because he left a soldering iron on one evening!! You learn allot watching. The fire men could not go in because it was in a basement and they could more easily get trapped, the gas co. and electric co. had not been out to shut off the utilities, and so it burned through the first and then 2nd and 3rd floor. Because the people called the police the were escorted to their car in the night and not allowed to go back in once the police arrived!! They called the fire dept. who had to stand and wait until utilities could be shut off...
The neighbor and I both have fire hydrants on our properties but none of that could save his house. I learned allot!!! I have a FIRE EXTINGUISHER on every floor of my home and one in the garage!!!
Any way on a lighter note heat mats and all of it scare me. Do you know of an auto shut off for these mats should they malfunction???
NotMartha; every picture I see of your property sends me dreaming!! It looks like
Paradise!! You have a lovely green house. Did you build yourselves?
A great place to go warm the bones on a sunny day!!! In the middle of winter!!
Are you a daylily Hybridizer? Do they start from seed easily?
I just recently got rid of a 20'x6' bed of daylilies. I could not seem to control the weeds and mostly the grass. I just picked up some Ornemec which is suppose to kill grass only. Have you tried it? What do you do to kill grass in the field of Daylily's???? I have some left but I seem to have more grass problems where I have daylily's. I know it is because I don't see the grass until it's really taken a hold.
What do you do?/ Preen?? Do tell!

Hey there everyone,
We did build the GH ourselves out of old windows. I really luv it out there on a sunny day. In the winter it gets up in the mid 70s if its sunny! I trudge through the snow just to sit and warm up. We live in a 100yr old farm house-its really drafty and cold during the winters. Total cost for the GH was around 300.00 for the wood and screws! :)
I get roundup concentrate from the farmer every spring whether i need it or not and I mix it strong-kills everything i spray it on! For the daylily beds I do alot of tilling and hoeing all summer and yes i have used preen in the spring-thinking on a pallet full next yr LOL

(((Are you a daylily Hybridizer? Do they start from seed easily? ))))
Im not a known Hybridizer -someday i hope! But i do dabble pollen all over the beds trying to make something new and great!!! Daylilies are very easy from seed and easy to grow

glad you like the pics :) makes all the work worth it
this is across the 3daylily beds

Im off to the post office to mail my LAST trade for the season!!!
Ive said this 3 times now!!!

I just placed 2 order for fall planting-yikes what was i thinking!
one was in the daves classifieds and the other was with my favorite davesgardener-Bleek at eflowergarden.com!

I may go out and play around in the GH at bit this afternoon(shes a mess out there)
so talk at yaz latter
dori

Notmartha,
You are killing me with those BEAUTIFUL pic's!!!!
Oh My what lovely, awesome looking day lily field you have there!!
Gorgeous colors! Your beds look great! You must spend allot of time weeding!
I'll have to get out and weed. You've made me feel bad. Yours look so good!!
Julie

Just got back in from the never ending battle of the fallen leaves. Today they win- its just too windy out! We have a ton of maple trees, very pretty in the fall, but a pain thin the behind when they are all on the ground.

Jeane, penny blacks are low growing annuals that have "black" (dk purple) flowers edged in white. They are a nice contrast to taller bright colored flowers, especially reds and yellows. If you want to do a Google they are called Penny Black Nemophila. Some folks use them in Gothic gardens I guess. I don't really have any themed gardens yet-mostly just tall guys in the back, short guys up front,lol. I do want to make a night blooming "Moon Garden" next spring.

I have been looking at the GH's made by FlowerHouse Greenhouses. Home Depot carried them, and last week I went to order one online and they were no longer in stock. Waaaa. I know the distributer is right here in Clio, and I keep meaning to call and see if they sell to the general public. That would be cool, as they are only about 5 minutes from here. I am hoping to find a smallish one that I can put in the basement in the cold months. (They have a line of portable ones) On the to do list....

The picture of the lily bed is awesome! I have been really looking in the catalogs at them...I don't have any yet. I think I like the Asiatics and Orientals. But I swear I am all done buy for the year. (suuure I am)

oops, I forgot to ask-

Jazzzy, how long ago did you get your GH from Home Depot? was it in the Fenton area? I am still looking for one.

I'll get you the no. of the item if you call them they can call all the stores and see who has any left.

HI, when I first started using the heat mats I was a little afraid of them too. But with the jiffy mats if you where to only run one or two off an outlet I don't think there's a risk. They're preset to only heat to around 60. When we bought the commercial mats we thought we might need to get a thermostat to go with them. (Available through Hortmart in Capac) But they also are preset to 60. They don't seem to draw that much electricity. They're rubber and pretty tough. So I really don't think there's much of a fire risk from them themselves. Many years ago (early 70s) when we lived in an old house in Lansing I used the tops of radiators to start my plants. I've also used the top of the refrigerator for seed starting. -- I do a lot of crafts and a few years ago my DH gave me a torch and everything to do glass bead making. Have yet to use it as I'm terrified of burning the house down with the torch! We don't have a basement, and the wood framed garage doesn't make me feel any safer... Someday I'll have a studio in the barn, but it's over 100 yrs old and I still don't think I'll feel comfortable using the torch. I don't feel comfortable plugging in the glass kiln, let alone open fire.

I moved my daylilies with me when we moved here last year. They're just not very happy in the dry, sandy soil we have now. I love them and so I guess next year I'm going to have to create a bed just for them with lots of compost to hold water. They looked so sad this year.

Thanks for the info on the Penny Blacks. It looks like they don't like the hot summer weather. Do they bloom all summer for you? I worked for years in a commercial gh that delights in growing the unusual, can't believe we never had them. There must be a reason. They're beautiful. Will have to give them a try.

I still have so much left to do outside before it gets any colder! Plants to move in, cannas & dahlias to dig up, bulbs to plant, etc. Some of my roses have new growth on them, am a little worried about them going into winter that way. I have more fall cuttings I still want to do too. Some of my gh cleaning will have to wait until I get done outdooors.

Dori your gardens are beautiful. Will have to drive by when I come to visit my son next summer. You must be on the edge of town with all that open country behind you. My son has an old 1880s house down south of the Museum. Can't start working on his yard until he resides the house and tears down the old garage. But some daylilies would work really well there.

Well, hope you all have a great day. I need to think about going to my part-time day job, lots to do this week. Wish I was out in the garden...