crocuses - and the day lillies are up! Zone 4B/5A

Hi everyone - I'm new to this forum. As a matter of fact, I just realized that while all the people who I work with are wasting time on facebook, I've been reading seed starting blogs. So I decided to just dive in and accept myself for who I am. I live in Western Mass- in Monson, a town right next to Springfield and pretty near Amherst and Northampton. I live on a house on the side of a shady hill/mountain, on a private dirt road with a neighborhood shared lake. When we bought the house in 2005 in October, I didn't think about the sun. Soon I discovered that I don't have much of it. The front of the house faces north east- and the driveway faces south. I have about four-six hours of full sun at the sunniest spot in my garden. Still, I perserve. It has been a process - the house needed tons of basic landscaping the first year, a bit more the second, and now I am actually feeling like I will have hope of a fabulous garden this year. I've started a bunch of tomatoes (a reach, considering my shade) and a few shade-loving flowers ... anyway, I ramble. I'm just so excited to have others who may appreciate my gardenning nerdiness! Here's a picture of my side garden from last summer. Thanks for listening!

Welcome lj! Looks very peaceful. You will enjoy this forum. We constantly learn from each other and share our successes and failures! You can still have a wonderful garden despite the shortage of direct sun. Good luck!

Victor

OMG OMG OMG - I got crocus after 4 years, planting not knowing what I was doing !!! OMG OMG OMG Sorry I am freaked out arms flailing and mouth smiling.

oh my oh my oh my

Show some emotion, Sherrie!!

Welcome ljmelbs! Looks like a beautiful spot and I envy your stone wall. Sounds as though you are making the most of your sunny spots and there are loads of pretty part and full shade plants for you to enjoy and of course share with us. You are certainly not alone, we are all a bit over the top when it comes to plants and gardens.
Congrats on your crocus schickenlady! Welcome to spring in the garden. You put a big smile on my face with your post. :)

Oh my - Pixie = Celeste can put a Really big smile on her face as we are UP and Beyond you people :-) lol yeah yeah yeah..... OMy I got a flower!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How can we be sure that photo is actually from your garden, Sherrie??

I will go do it.

Welcome ijmelbs - beautiful stone wall! One of my neighbors is having a wall built and I got to contribute 4 wheelbarrows full of ugly rocks! I was so excited to get rid of them. The masons might even take the yard of rubble I have left from taking out my front walkway two years ago. The masons will be back on Saturday and I've already started a new pile of ugly rocks to take to them. :) Life is good!

oh my gosh oh my gosh, I got a flower

You could have driven to MA and back in that time...

I could not...... Drive -

Welcome ljmelbs. You mentioned daylilies in the title and you had my interest....I collect a few.

Congrats Sherrie!!!! I'm still waiting but I spied the tips of daffs and tulips today! ya-hoo!!

Welcome to the crazed NE forum, ljmelbs. You'll get used to our craziness.

Congratulations on the new arrival, Sherrie. Glad it's a crocus.

welcome ljmelbs... i don't get much more sun than you... the one side of our house gets sun most of the day... only because we had to remove a few trees due to the water problem we were having after we bought it 4 years ago.. last year I used a lot of containers .. this year my honey said he is going to put in a raised bed for me so I have a better spot for my veggies

Allison

Welcome ljmelbs! Glad you have joined us! I don't think we have to doubt that it is Sherrie's crocus - nobody reacts like that unless it is in their own garden and their first bloom!!!!!!! ^_^ Congratulations Sherrie!!!

OHHH onewish. Beautiful solution, your containers look great.

I bought some of those grow bags .... going to hang some off that front wall this year... i haven't quite figured out how to secure them yet... but i am thinking some metal stakes hammered into the ground might do it

If you can find someone to cut them, I use 1/2 inch rebar.Home Depot. They come in 10 foot lengths. I use to cut them in half to stake the big White Henri lilies 6 foot tall and heavy when in full bloom.
rebar is at the left side'

my honey can handle that.... i was going to pick some up for the glads this year... I wasn't thinking about the tall lily i bought last year... hhhmmm might need a few more than i thought

They really are handy. I also use them to support trellises that don't have legs long enough for good support.

that's a great idea.... most of them aren't long enough ... any thing to give my honey a reason to play with his power tools he doesn't mind doing

I forgot to finish the rest of the trellis support idea. I drive the rebar into the ground parallel to whatever I want to support and then lash both together with Cable ties or wire if the diameter is too big for cableties. I also use cable ties for lilies. It's a bit of a nuisence after evertyhing dies, raking those pieces of plastic, but it works great and they slide up and down as the lily grows.

Allison, do you mean those topsy-turvy tomato planters? I did not have much success with them. I like your containers but it must require lots of watering. Do you use the crystals?

Welcome ljmelbs!! You're in good company here. We're all nuts about gardening. I only recently discovered Facebook existed. I like it here at DG. I've got plenty of sun, but not a lot of privacy, so I'll be sacrificing sun for privacy. I wish the trees would fill in faster! Here's some tulips from last year to brighten your day.

Harper

yes tons of crystals.... and the sprinkler gets most of the pots in the morning.... i usually take time before work and get the few that the sprinkler doesn't hit.... and during the real hot days I usually water by hand in the afternoon when I get home or after dinner.. but that's therapy time for me don't mind that at all... walk around the garden and see what's growing

these pots took me the longest to water because I filled them up too much... the water had no chance to pool up at the top and soak in.... I would have to pour in a little bit with the watering can and wait for it to soak and and repeat a million times.. thank god i used the crystals in there and only had to do that once a day... won't be making that mistake this year

Harper, you are being a tease!

ljmelbs, welcome. Looks like a beautiful spot.

schickenlady, I can just imagine you out doing a little " chicken" dance around your new beloved bloom. Congratulations. Patti

Wow, Alison - your beautiful garden is amazing. Thanks for the warm welcome, all!
What are crystals?
Laura

Polymer crystals which absorb water and release it slowly.

here is a link
http://www.watersorb.com./about.htm

There was a good co-op that is now closed - $4.25 per pound.

Sorry to ask dumb questions, but it looks like you mix it in with the soil, either in beds or in containers - would you do it for vegetables too?

No, I would not. Don't take chances with edibles.

LJMELBS, Welcome, I am new too! Feels good!, I have a shady backyard too and found that butterfly bushes do get to bloom and trive specially that you say that you get a couple hours of sun. I have one (purple) that blooms with filtered light from my huge trees.! try some

Thanks - I do love butterfly bushes. Didn't know they were ok in shade.

AYankeeCat any chance you could roll a wheel barrow full of rocks out to me? Here most of the rocks I dig up (and there aren't a lot of them!) look like cannon balls. If I want nice ones like ljmelbs has I have to pay a small fortune to buy them.

ljmelbs I'm new here too so it feels odd to say welcome ^_^ but it's always nice to meet a fellow gardener! Love your stone wall!!

MollyD

I had to pay for about half- the rest came out of the ground here - it's all rocks. Rocks rocks rocks.
Alison, do you start all your containers from seed? They are the most beautiful ever.

Laura, you said in your initial post, "I live on a house . . . " You really must be the outdoorsy type - most people live in a house!

thank you ...last year I did about half from seed.... this year it will be more than half... depends on what makes it out to the garden by then.... only my third year with seeds never know what might happen