Newbie in Caro (Zone 5)

Hi everyone. I just joined up here and am also fairly new to gardening. This is the first year that I have had the time to invest in a little landscaping and I'm having a bit of trouble with what direction to take. I'm a natural planner, but it seems that I keep acquiring plants and digging up more flowerbeds each week in a haphazardly fashion. LOL I'm a suburb gal that moved to the country a few years ago and am still getting used to having so much space. (2 1/2 acres half bordered by a creek.) I'd love to chat with someone who shares the joy and wonder of it all.

This is a picture of a fence that my son built for me this spring to get me started. I've since planted two Golden Showers climbing roses and various other perennials but they are all quite small and it still looks pretty bare. Will it fill out by next year?

I've enjoyed this site so much already. Thanks to all who post & share their garden and lives!

Mary Ellen

Heheheh Hi Mary Ellen....You beat me to the punch..I alway welcome new Michiganders...to our Michigan forum....hehehe...So glad you stepped right up...Please come her often...Everyone is so great here...so welcome again..

smiles..Diana....

Hi Mary Ellen nice to meet you nice fence!!! It will fill in as the years go by and I bet it will be outstanding!!! I'm kind of a hap-hazerd planter also so this year I have to move a lot of plants around as there to big for the spots there in which means more beds and lots of work but I love it have fun and viset offten this is a great place to learn
Gloria

Hi Mary Ellen. Welcome to the Michigan forum. I love your fence. It takes roses a while to settle in and get big. I moved from the city to the country and dug up some of my climbers and replanted up here and they're just now getting settled in and growing tall again. I admit the deer helped chew them down from the top and the bunnies kept them sheared on the bottom. :) I've had to learn how to battle the critters.

Have fun filling up your space. I know exactly what you mean. I've been filling a lot of mine with trees.

It will be nice to have you around to chat with here especially in the winter when there isn't much gardening we can do outdoors.

Brenda

Thank you for the warm welcome. There is so much to read on here, I can't decide if I should sit here & read or got out and weed! LOL I am wishing that I had some plants & seeds to swap already.

Hello Late,
I guess I am Late Too!! But I still wish you a warm welcome. We do not live too far from each other!
Looks like you are going to have a ball here. Lot's of great Horticultural information and a bevy of plant addicts!! I am one!! LOL.
Have fun.
Julie

Hi there. Welcome to DG.

Sounds like you have a nice place there. I have planted and lost, planted and regreted, so, I just call it a work in process. Lots of shade here and lots of hungry critters.

I have found that it sometimes takes a few years for something to really take hold. Maybe the soil, or the lack of sun, or the cold or maybe I am just impatient. I am sure that you will be happier with some items after a couple of years.

Hi Mary Ellen, welcome!!!

Cindy

Hi everyone. I was away for a week and the weeds in the vegetable garden had a party while I was gone! It took me a few days to clean it all up. Thank heavens that it's raining today because my body feels like it was run over by a truck. While I was gone, my daughter bought a Pink Swirl hibiscus. Any suggestions on where to plant and/or with what to partner it? I'm leaning towards a corner between the driveway and the sidewalk approach to the side door. I'm also thinking of using the landscaping fabric with this bed... any suggestions or warnings will be greatly appreciated.

Mary Ellen

Landscape fabric and mulch is a great way to cut down on weeding. We have that tough old farmland grass that you can't hardly get a shovel through. Starting new beds is impossible for me. I just dig a hole and pluck it in and surround it with landscape fabric and mulch. I actually had that darn grass come through the fabric so I put down some old roof shingles and then more mulch. So far that has been my best solution. Nothing comes through those shingles. :) In the veggie garden I use a razor sharp scuffle hoe that just cuts their little heads off. After a few times of doing that they just give up. Best thing I ever bought. Makes weeding so much less work. I bought hubby one too and he helps. In the spring in March I put down Preen and repeat in 90 days. Only in the ornamental beds. That helps a lot in keeping weed seeds from germinating. You can't sow flower seeds in there though. I didn't mulch my big flower bed this spring. Never got around to it and now I have some grass coming up in there. Makes me mad. I hate weeding.

Your Pink Swirl hibiscus sounds beautiful. I have a big red one that I planted at the corner of my fence right next to Annabelle hydrangea. It came through winter fine and will be blooming soon. The hydrangea is blooming now. The hibiscus is slow to come up in the spring so don't fret if you don't see it right away. I leave some stalks up so I know where it's supposed to be so I can look for it. In the fall I mulched around it with a combo of grass clippings and shredded leaves. We get very cold here with high winds and I wanted to give it more protection and it's planted on the west side of the garden in the sun.

Have fun and welcome back Mary Ellen

Brenda

When I started my big flower bed two years ago, I preened and preened. Last year, most of the flowers hadn't filled in at all and all at once the lightbulb went on! I've been very careful where I preen this year and can see the difference. Of course, my son bought me a BIG container of preen for Mother's Day not knowing of my lifestyle change. The weeds haven't been really bad like I thought they would. I think even one year of preen makes a big difference. My new, virgin, bed is really keeping me busy. Kay

Nice...I did not know you could over Preen....saves a lot..but if you do too much...it hinders...the flowers.....glad you learned that...

smiles.Diana.....(((Learning is great)))) never stops...smiles..again

I maybe didn't make myself clear. I preened around the A.Lilies, coneflowers, beebalm, etc and thus, they did not reseed and fill in with new growth. Anything that doesn't reproduce by seeds, I preen. Kay

Whew! We got that bed in... well, mostly. It's about an 8' triangular corner with landscape fabric & Cyprus mulch. I couldn't decide on an edging for it but I didn't let that stop me. (I can get obsessive about planning and am trying to approach gardening with a more spontaneous spirit.) I planted the hibiscus in the center of the triangle in the sunny part of the bed and I’ll keep an eye out for something else to add. I was thinking about Forget me nots but they won’t reseed on the fabric, will they?

Brenda, I didn’t have any shingles but I will keep them in mind. What a great idea. And the killer “razor sharp scuffle hoe” is definitely going on my wish list along with some Preen. My husband’s current interest in gardening consists of planting & eating. In all fairness, he did weed a row of pepper plants one day… LOL

Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen, I'm posting a picture of my hoe. I've never seen one in the stores like it. I bought it on Ebay. Just go to Ebay and put into search scuffle hoe and it will come up. It is one company that hand makes the hoes in various styles. I like them because they put a six foot handle on them so you don't have to bend over to hoe. They are made very well. I now own about 4 of them I think. Some are tiny and you can get in between plants with them. Some are wider and better for the paths in between rows. It is probably the single best thing I've bought to make weeding easier. I hope you're able to got at least one of them.

Brenda

I'm all for easier! LOL I'll look on ebay for the hoe but will have to wait for funds. Hopefully I will qualify for the new unemployment extension soon. (I hope, I hope...) Hey, is there a section here at Dave's like "Gardening for pennies a day"? It would be great to have a place for money saving tricks & tips in such trying economical times. I know that everyone here is tired of digging & hauling rocks for my flowerbed borders. : ) I've seen somewhere how to make a birdbath from rocks and a bag of cement... I want to try that as soon as I round up enough of the small rocks!

Thanks again,

Mary Ellen

That sounds like an ambitious project. We have a lot of rocks out in the fields. My mower deck seems to find one every so often. In the spring when the farmers are tilling up their fiels they have hands out there picking up the rocks and putting them in small trailers. I'm sure you'd have no trouble getting them for free for the work of picking them up.

If you want free plants just go visit gardeners. They love to share slips of this or divisions of that. It is how I started many decades ago when we bought our first home. Neighborhood ladies were happy to share when I'd admire something in their yard. Nothing like free plants and to this day I can still remember who gave me what. Many of the flowers belonged to old neighbors who are now angels gardening on a cloud somewhere. :)

I know I hate dividing plants and would happily share a lot of flowers for the help of dividing. Some like iris and daylilies multiply so fast it's hard to keep up with them.

I hope you get your extension on your unemployment. Times are tough and we all need to watch our pennies and look for bargains.

Brenda

I took a day of from the flowers yesterday and trimmed the neglected hedges. Oh, for the energy that I had 10 years ago! It's nice and cool this morning so I'm heading out to inspect and see to whatever cries out to me for attention. Okay, to whatever cries out the loudest for attention. LOL Does it show that I'm a mother of 5?

Happy Gardening

Mary Ellen

gardening was my grear escape when my kids were small no way were they weeding!!!!!;0)
Gloria

Hello, and welcome. I'm new here too but everyone is so friendly. I know you will be happy here.
As far as filling in your space--fall is a great time to plant. Watch garden centers for when they reduce their nursery stock. I would highly recommend getting some butterfly bushes. They are one of my favorites and have a long bloom time plus you will enjoy the butterflies they attrack. Another back of the border plant that I really love is in bloom right now and multiplies rapidly but not hard to control is Crocsmania lucifer (spelled something like that). It is pictured at the top of this page. Also comes in yellow. The red is very showyand blooms a long time. I like plants that give me the most for my money. Of course brown eyed susan is very common and in bloom now and is very showy. The more plants like this that spread and fill in the less weeding you will have.

Some more ideas for you. You can do alot with 2 1/2 acres and so you may want to think of color and interest through the year. Grasses are very nice and will make a good size clump in a short time. They add nice interest in the winter when most of the yard is quite bare. I also like my Winterberry bushes, Cranberry bushes and Pyracantha which all have red berries in the winter. The robins and cedar waxwings love them when they come through in the winter. Research the cranberry as some of them are black berries and not all of them attract the birds if you care about that. Liatris are pretty and showy (a bulb) and the goldfinch like the seed so don't deadhead them. (Lucifer as I mentioned earlier is also a bulb---corm actually) It is in the gladiola family. Also don't forget the burning bushes which get a pretty red in the fall. Oh, I could go on and on but it can take years to get everything you may wait because it is addicting and you probably will keep adding more beds if you are like me. And then you will redo them. LOL
There is never an end to it when you love plants like I do.

Hi Gloria. Most of my children are grown, and I still like to escape! LOL Perhaps it isn't so much the children as the unending housework that I long to get away from.

Welcome to you too Anita. Thank you for all of the wonderful suggestions. I love the way grasses dance in the breeze. I've started 3 types this year and hope to keep adding them. I wish more of them were hardy in zone 5 though. We have lots of trees here, which mean lots of shade, but there are a few sunny spots that I can plant some full sun items. I just have to be sure to have a large enough group of them to make a little flowerbed so DH doesn't "accidentally" run over them with the mower. I got one little butterfly bush that was supposed to be red but bloomed dark purple. I've also planted some assorted seeds that I'm hoping will come up before fall and make it through the winter. I'm not familiar with Lucifer, but I will definitely check it out!

Two things that are growing abundantly here are yucca & black caps. I hope that I can get ferns & hosta to follow their examples. : )

Hi, Mary Ellen, welcom to DG. I have a couple suggestions for late blooming shrubs for you. I have a late panicle hydrangea that is just starting to bloom right now and is beautiful. Also you might want to plant an oakleaf hydrangea in your yard as it is showy all summer. I also have a dwarf clumping type bamboo that is interesting to see all summer. There are also several other grasses that grow here that you might like to try in your yard. Daylilies are wonderful for a long season of color and minimum work.

dorothian - Hi & thank you for the suggestions. I'll look them up & most likely put them on my want list for next year. I love to have a plant recommended over blindly picking something from a catalog! : )

We've put in 6 flower beds this year and have one more to go. The last one has ferns & hosta on the north side of a rusty red pole barn. I'm looking for a shade loving perennial that will add some color there and compliment the barn color. Does anyone have a suggestion for this?

Thanks,

Mary

Mary, I have a climbing hydrangea that's growing on the shady side of my house. If you want i can get some more rooted and get some to you in the spring. I know we aren't too far away from each other.

Dorothian, that would be lovely. Thank you so much for the offer. : ) I absolutely love having a plant cutting from a friend. Makes me smile every time I look at one and know that a friend is looking at the same one! If every garden has a motto, then mine is 'Sharing Is Caring'. I'm hoping to pass this along to my youngest daughter (now 11) as well as the love of gardening. She recently spent her last dollar on a pink swirl hibiscus so I'm thinking that she may have already caught the 'gardening bug'! LOL

Mary Ellen

I'll get some branches rooted now so they will be ready for spring. You may have to remind me about it, though. LOL My reminder doesn't always work as well as it should. I did write it down, though, so should be good to go.

Welcome Mary Ellen,

I have been so busy this summer, that I haven't had as much time as I'd like to vist everyone here at DG, but I too want to welcome you to our community.

Nice to see someone else from our "thumb" of the woods joining in.

Kathy

Welcome Welcome Mary Ellen,

Brenda do you just go back and forth with that hoe? kinda like my edger LOL (duh)...
never seen one like it?

Delane

Yes Delane, you just go back and forth. Easy peeze. Also, because the handle is so long you don't even have to bend over which saves on your back. It is razor sharp and makes short work of chopping all the weeds heads off.

I also have a couple of those hoes in 2 different sizes. I bought one at a gardening trade show and ordered the other one off e-bay. I don't think they are making them any more as they didn't seem to sell as well as they were hoping. Anyway they are wonderful for weeding in mulch without disturbing it too much.

You girls out in your gardens today??? beautiful day for it!
I have so many things to plant still...unfortunately I'm having a wasp issue and they love to chase me....I'm thinking my neighbors think I'm nuts...flailing my arms all about and running for cover LOL. I will have to spray them tonight because I have to get done out there and get those perennials in the ground...

I should have been, but got lazy instead. Got on the puter and that was the end of that

Omgosh I have to dicipline myself with this computer it's such a time stealer!
but I did clean the living room carpet and managed to get some laundry in and dinner made (soup) wasn't to bad. I can't wait for school to start to get into a new routine....although the school doesn't even have a start date yet because the teachers are without a contract....if you ask me they are lucky to have a job right now as rough as things are out there for people right now...but I'm really looking forword to some ME time YAY!!!!

Brenda where did you get your hoe I so want one!!!
Gloria

I should have been in the garden weeding, but I put up 32 jars of jelly & jam yesterday! Remind me that this winter I'll be glad that I did. LOL Today will be weeding day. I have some plants to get into the ground too and I have to get that last bed finished. It takes all of my willpower to not be on here instead!

Mary Ellen

http://cgi.ebay.com/PROHOE-60S-Scuffle-Hoe-6-garden-hoe-push-hoe_W0QQitemZ230078696456QQihZ013QQcategoryZ29516QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247