Hello Montana Gardeners!
We need a thread to discuss gardening triumphs and tragedies particular to our zones (2-5). Most of us fall in zones 3 & 4 and are only now at the beginning of our gardening season. Please post whatever it is your working on--issues and questions are always welcome.
What a gorgeous day to be out in my new garden! I'm digging up ground, adding compost and planting away. On today's list: spade northwest bed, plant orchid glads and change out soil in my containers. What are you doing?
Hi, Northern. I just poured Imidacloprid (can't even pronounce that) around the base of my ash tree, because the dreaded emerald ash borer has made its appearance in Helena, here in my neighborhood. Expensive stuff! Do we really need to do this every year?
My understanding is that there isn't anything out right now that makes of significant difference in the presence of the borer. Have you talked to your local extension agent? My agent, Toby Day has a Masters in Plant Science and a BS in Horticulture. Give him a call if you want more details. 406-723-0217
Dee
Can I join you? I'm kinda lonely over here, and I'm only 40 miles from the Montana border. Please? I have a major disappointment to gripe about. :(
I have a huge area that I take care of. It's over 5 acres. My best estimation is that I have (had) over $5,000 in perennials planted. This last winter I lost about half of them, and I'm sure it's because we had the cold and the winds, but no protective snowy ground cover. The ground was frozen, so any time I tried to put water down it just ran off. I did water good numerous times last fall, but it just wasn't enough to pull them through.
Did anyone else experience a major plant loss last winter? I hope not.
To keep this on topic, what we are going to work on this summer is rearranging the perennial beds because we have some things that lived that we know need to be moved. We'll concentrate on weed control and do some soil amending and major compost mulching. We aren't going to plant anything other than annuals and the veggie garden. Next year we will try again, if Mother Nature will find it in her heart to send us some relief from this persistent drought.
JoanJ,
Join us? Absolutely.
Three winters ago we (Butte) lost a ton of old and established perennials due to the lack of snow. I snow pack everything under 3-4 ft of the fluffy stuff to keep the ground temperature from going too low. I feel your pain. Your plan of amending & mulching with compost sounds great. We had a lot of snow this winter so most everything has survived.
Five acres--Have you done a lot of landscaping? Post some photos. We would love to see them.
Wow, Joan, that's staggering!
The snow cover here in Helena was very short-lived. I wonder if that's why my little arborvitaes are now turning brown. I can't seem to give them enough water. They came from a big box store, so maybe they just aren't an appropriate variety for this climate.
The other thing that's surprisingly leafless is the 4 kinnikinnicks. I thought they were pretty tough, but they look dead. Vancouver Jade is the variety, and they were lovely.
On the bright side: we have a new apple tree, and the lilacs are starting to bloom! Our little horse chestnut has 3 flower buds.
Thanks! I started taking pictures when we first started landscaping, but then for some reason quit, so I don't really have any photos beyond what's in my journal. If things ever start growing again I'll get some photos.
I lost lots of daylilies, rose bushes and iris. I had three spirea along the front deck and they are all three dead. I'm sick about that, because they were what hid the underneath of the deck from view. :) Then I could stash my garden hoses under there out of sight. Once we dig out the spirea I'm going to have to figure out something to enclose the weedy area under the deck.
It looks a little cloudy and dark towards Montana. Are you getting any rain today?
Glad you joined us Joan.
I'm on the western border of Montana and we had a record breaking snow this year. We even recieved emergency funding to help. Our city crews were having to load the snow in trucks and hall it to the river to get rid of it. I had snow up to the top of my garage. The kids were shoveling off the roofs and then jumping onto the piles. One of my sons made $500 in one weekend shoveling off roofs. Thats pretty good for a 14 year old. Since we had more than enough snow cover, everything this way looks pretty good.
I've planted (peas,carrots,potatoes,lettuce,spinach, garden huckleberries, strawberries, raspberries and onions). I planted garlic last fall and it has really taken off. I made one more raised bed in my garden and planted a new grape vine in the center of it. I also planted another grape vine in another area of my yard.
On mothers day, some of my children and I went to a friends house and loaded up on sheep manure mixed with straw. I've never used sheep manure, but have heard good things.
Last weekend I planted some roses and clematis that I ordered. This weekend I'm still trying to decide if I want to plant beans yet. I'm so scared of having a freak frost.
Everyone: Thanks for sharing and have a great day!
We're having a steady rain in Helena, Joan. Thank goodness! It's been so dry, I've spent a lot of time lately with driplines & soaker hoses & water timers & watering cans.
Light rain here from Tuesday and supposed to last til Sat. or Sun. YIPPEE!!! We need it!!!
It is pouring rain and cold here. I have the big rectangle doing pretty good, the poppies are tiny but survived our record breaking heat due to frequent watering.
I did not get the big round sufficiently dug to replant it. We will be back in the seventies shortly, when it is hard to get tiny poppy seeds to germinate and send down roots before they dry up.
The big round is the sandiest garden so it is doubly hard there. I think I will just do a cover crop and really amend the soil late summer and in the fall and get the poppies back in there next year.
The big triangle is rather a mess, have some asparagus roots to plant in the back row where I have some blank spots in the asparagus bed. Too cold and wet to plant them.
The serpentine garden is in pretty decent shape, flower beds under the trees partly done, and the back row of trees needs mulching again.
The town policeman came by because one of my neighbors called city hall to complain about my composting. I don't even have any compost bins going as I dismantled them all. I think the problem is a load of green grass clippings that went rank in the heat and smelled really bad for a couple of days.
The officer is a great guy and was quite amused at having to come check on a compost complaint. He comes from a large city with extremely serious crime and loves working in Ennis!
I showed him my tomato plants which are making buds, (everything is behind this year, I should have tomatoes!) but there they are. I told him I will have loads extra when they start bearing and he happily said he will be back for tomatoes later.
My neighbors could have just come and talked to me and I would have thrown a big tarp over the pile while it went through its smelly two or three days...
o sigh about the neighbours Mulch. I hear you about the poppies. I seeded like crazy before I left and was so pleased to see massive sprouts when I got back. Note that this spot only gets afternoon sun. I think now with the rain they'll take before they dry out. I lost the sweet peas I put in due to lack of water but the lettuce and greens came up but again shaded by tulips. I'm thinking that spring shade might be best for direct seeding and self seeders in our dry conditions?
Mulching is the best thing, but my mulch cover got too thin when I neglected it during the book project and I ended up with loads of weeds. I redug the whole rectangle by hand and added amendments last fall, hurt my back so it did not get mulched at all.
This spring I scattered the wee poppy seeds on the bare dirt and then put a very light scattering of grass clippings over them, dry old clippings. Watered it down so the clippings would not blow away. The clippings help keep the surface hold a little more moisture and shelter the seedlings a little while they get going. They cannot be too thick or the seedlings don't come up at all.
When windy and or sunny I spray with the garden hose to keep the top surface wet, which I usually do not have to do that unless I seed very late but this year has just been weird.
Hmmm, my poppy seeds haven't come up, either, presumably because it's been too dry. Now it's nice & wet, but kind of late, I take it. I even wonder if we'll get any 70-degree weather. It's been a spring of extremes. Mid-eighties in May was a bit much.
I'm hoping it's not too late for planting poppies. I'm going to plant my seeds this weekend. Thanks, Mulchmania, for the grass clippings idea. It's been a bit windy this spring, wetting down the clippings should work.
I've been sick these last few days but I'm hoping to get out on Saturday for some light work. The flu in spring is the worst. I had to cancel a trip to eastern Montana to stay home and get well.
Here's a photo of me, last weekend when I was still well, turning over soil in my new garden.
I mix the poppy seed with sand (shake and bake method in a baggy) to keep those teensy guys from being too thick. It seems to work ok although they still end up a little crowded. Clippings is a good idea Mulch. Our mower is self-mulching but I could always grind up some leaves in the foodprocessor (I just KNEW there was a good reason I ended up with a foodprocessor!)
Oh, yum??? ;-P
Hmmm... with a self-mulching mower, do you have to get a new mower each time?
NS, I think I'll follow your lead and sow some more poppies this weekend, since it is now GLORIOUSLY WET.
LOL picante. I sowed some one year the 2nd week of June. Not great germination rates but they still did ok so go for it for sure. I think some drowned as we had alot of rain then. I still have a bunch of annual seeding to catch up on so I'll be out there this weekend sporting my mudmuffin look.
Greetings from the Garden City! I just found this thread, and am excited to see it. I was out on Whidbey Island visiting my son over the holiday. It is soooo beautiful there - the rhododendrons are all in bloom. Hard to come back.
My vegetable gardens are just about all in, except for 11 Gypsy hybrid peppers which don't have a spot. I want to keep them far enough from the other peppers that they don't cross. I'm considering tucking them into the flower gardens. Yesterday I reseeded the lettuces and spinach. I direct seeded them about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and germination was spotty. Oddly, the same greens that self-seeded last summer have come up all over the place. I was eating spinach from the garden in March. I'm thinking about planting next year's lettuce and spinach this fall. Has anyone done that successfully?
Happy to see that all of my perennials made it through the winter. I took a chance last year on one of those winter hardy kiwis, and thought that it was lost, but when I came back to town yesterday it had some new growth starting.
Oh, I miss the rhodies on Whidbey, used to live there. Did you go up to Meerkerk Gardens?
Welcome, Jayne, to the Montana thread. Isn't it great to come back from a trip and find new things in the garden? I have been sick for the past week and finally went out to my garden and discovered that my Asiatic lilies and newly planted rhubarb had peeked their heads up through the soil. It inspired me to plant my California poppy seeds, radishes, carrots, spinach and a mesclun mix. We had our first semi-sunny day here in Butte today followed by a wonderful downpour. Our soil is so sandy here that I am able to get out and plant my mail order transplants and homegrown seedlings after it finishes raining. Can't wait for the weekend to get here. Have a great night everyone!
Dee
It is fun to come back to the garden when I've not been there for a few days. At this time of year, anyway. By summer it's scary to find what's been growing when you weren't looking!
I did not have time to go to Meerkerk, because we went out to help our son paint his condo. I'll be going back the end of June just to visit, so hopefully I'll get to do some fun things then. Not that painting a condo isn't loads of fun....
Sorry to hear you were sick, Dee. Hope you're totally over it now.
Just want to know if any of you out there are going to plant tomatoes in the ground soon? Or have you already? I have some in the green house that need to get out soon. I'm just so afraid we will get a freeze with this strange weather. DM
I grow mine in the greenhouse in large containers all season. Too windy here and nights are cold so they don't do well unless in a full sun sheltered spot up against the house and let's not even mention the "h" word.
I planted my tomatoes and peppers out yesterday. I'll just have to watch the forecast and hope that I can get them covered if it's going to frost. As short as our growing season is, I figured if I needed to get them out soon.
If spring keeps getting later and fall getting earlier, pretty soon we won't be able to tell the difference between last frost and first frost. Yeah, I'm grumbling ^_^
dahlianut, being in zone 3, I can see why you would do a greenhouse. I'm going to try maybe one in the greenhouse as an experiment. My greenhouse doesn't have alot of room. It is mostly for putting seedlings in while I'm waiting to plant.
JoanJ: I hear ya about the short growing season. I was planning on planting my tomatoes and peppers this weekend,and now that I know someone else has braved it, I definately will plant this weekend.
DigM one tip I learned about greenhouse toms is not to prune other than taking out the suckers as it gets so hot in there it helps to keep them from burning. Other than that same as outside but they do need more water of course. It's cool harvesting toms in October when its frosty outside ^_^
Thanks for the tip Daliahnut
It's Friday and the weekend is here!
Has anyone grown Scarlet Runner beans? How do they do as a flowering annual? I'm thinking about planting them with my Blue Lake Pole beans to add some color to my 'wall' of green. The pole beans will be in my new ornamental garden growing up the south end of the ironworks fencing (behind me in photo). I'm mixing vegetables here and there among my flowering perennials. I've already planted radishes, onions, carrots, rhubarb, and a mesclun mix. If you look at my photo you will see the fence running along the south end of the garden then turning coming up along the west side and ending up at the front of the photo. Any ideas?
Has anyone planted Moon-flowers? I know they grow in the South but am not sure about this far north. I have planted them in both full sun and partial sun, just to see. Any input is welcome. Have a great day!
NortherSeasons: I love your swing arbor! Is the picture from this year? I can't imagine a vine with that much growth already in zone 4.
I planted 7 tomatoe plants today and two winter squash. I'm taking a break and then later will go plant cucumbers, beans, and summer squash. I have so much volunteer dill growing everywhere. It is good to repel aphids, plus you can cut it and freeze it until you can or cook with it.
Can't take credit for the photo, DigMontana. It's an DG example of Moon-flower in the south. I wish mine would look like that!
Been doing a little veggie work myself today. Got my cucumbers, pole beans and scarlet runner beans in this morning. Watered everything and went for lunch. I decided to stop at the Petunia Factory for annuals for my stairwell containers. I'll put those in this afternoon. Wow! What a beautiful day it is, in Butte, Montana. Hope everyone's day is going great!
Well, I just finished my stairwell containers.
This first one has 3 burgundy Martha Washington geraniums at the back, four pansies contrasting with the MW (in the middle) and 2 white bacopas and the front. This is a partial sun/shade spot.
This ceramic container stands to the left of the stairwell and receives 6 hours of sun. At the back I have Santolina chamaecyparissus 'Lavender Cotton'' which has silver foliage and gets to be about 12"-14" high. At the front I have 2 White Licorice with a English Ivy between them; all of which are silver in foliage color. And finally, I have eight petunias in the middle, 4 pink with yellow throats and 4 yellows. Can't wait to see it filled out and blooming. Dee
Looking good! Please post pictures when they grow up a bit. I'm so bad with container planting.
NorthernSea I've had no luck with moonflowers sigh. Don't like our cool nights. Only got about 1- 2 feet tall and no flowers.
I started moonflowers from seed this spring, and they did great in the house. Now they are in a 5 gallon pot outside and are struggling to survive. They are getting new growth at the bottom, but the vines keep dying off. I was hoping they would climb the chain link fence.
The same thing is happening with the Black-Eyed Susan vines that I started indoors and transplanted to a big pot outside. I'm hoping it's just transplant shock.
Thanks, Dalianut. I'll put the Scarlet Runner beans in.
