Any Nebraska gardeners out there?

Hi! I am new to NE, and we bought our first home. Really looking forward to revamping my garden. The former owner has a lot of plants that I think I am going to trade because they are too high maintenence for me w/ 2 little boys. What grows well for yall w/out a lot of care? I am interested in doing fruits, veggies, flowers and herbs. I did flowers and herbs before in OH, but will be new to the fruits and veggies. We have LOTS of bunnies, so I know this is going to be a bit of a challenge. :o)! Love any and all advice.

Welcome to Nebraska! There are a few of us here. Yeah, I'm not fond of bunnies in my garden, they can go eat elsewhere as far as I'm concerned.
Do you have both sun and shade around your home? What plants are you referring to that are high maintenance? I have both sun and shade at my house.
Two little ones will keep you busy.....
Good luck...

Blood meal or juices from meat you thaw from the freezer, etc. sprinkles around the yard or in beds will help to repel bunnies. Hot pepper juice/powder and garlic juice/powder helps to repel them too. Especially if you mix it all together. I know it works because we have done it.

Thanks for responding. I do have both sun and shade. I have some roses that aren't doing so well - one of them I know is a Judy Garland rose, I don't know about the other one. They have black spot and ... I have some columbines that have leaf borers or something. The former owner sprayed her plants with chemicals every week to get them to stay somewhat healthy. Anyhow, I am thinking of growing veggies and flowers together and want to go organic. That means looking for particularly hardy pest resistant plants for this region. The bunnies are enough to deal with! :o)! We like them. We had tons of bunnies in OH, but they never ate my coreopsis moonbeam, but here it can't even grow because they keep nibbling on the new growth - unless it can recover it will never bloom! Thanks for the suggestions to protect my gardens. Next spring when I get serious about rearranging/ veggie growing it is going to turn into a battle. For now my 1 and 3 year old are really enjoying watching them.

Welcome to Nebraska, wanderinggarden. The bunnies are beginning to be a problem for me too. I wish you well in your endeavors. Judy Garland rose isn't looking too good for me this summer either. Echinacea and daylilies do very well here. I also have very good luck with all kinds of bulbs and rhizomes - iris, tulips, daffodils, glads, etc. Some people have squirrel problems though.

Ok - I know what bulbs are, but what in the world are rhizomes? I am looking forward to learning more about gardening now that I have one of my own again. My 3 year old is really interested in gardening. I started on some simple chores while he was in the pool with his little brother and he insisted on getting out, putting on his gardening gloves and helping me. He just got a kid sized wheelbarrow for his birthday and regularly asks, "Mom, can we do some gardening today?" LOVE IT! I just wish the house was done (we are repainting before putting in new flooring) so I could start in the yard. Not this week, though, with it being so hot and humid here. Ok, I am rambling, but I really do want to know what rhizomes are. I am excited that iris and glads do well here - I have been interested in growing them, but don't know much about them yet.

If you look at a bearded iris plant, you'll see that there is a thing that looks like a stem that grows along the ground, that has roots growing out of it, and then a cluster of leaves growing out the end. That is a rhizome. That is what you will plant this summer (now is the time to get your iris rhizomes) so that you will have iris flowers next spring. Look here http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/123/ for a planting guide.

Glads grow from a corm - it looks like a bulb, but where a bulb has layers of leaves (think onion), a corm is solid with a growing point. Glads are planted after frost in the spring, and if you plant some every 2 weeks until the end of June, you can have them blooming all the way until frost.

Tulips, daffodils, crocus, and other spring blooming bulbs can be planted later this fall for bloom next spring.

Thanks! I never pulled apart a bulb - I had no idea that it had layers. I think I am going to have to wait till next year to plant iris's because I still have to finish painting my house and putting flooring in before I can start working on the garden. Hopefully it will be a fun fall project. I have a number of bushes that need pulled out, and I am itching to get started. There also are a number of piecemeal gardens here already and I know most of what is in them, but I want one cohesive garden, so will have to lay out the beds this fall and try and move plants this fall/spring - then I can add more stuff. I am going to try and grow veggies and flowers together. Can you say learning experience? :o)!

I'm really impressed with all of our Nebraska gardeners all in one spot!!
How are your tomatoes looking so far?
I have wonderful GREEN tomatoes that are taking absolutely FOREVER
to turn RED.
Is this normal - I mean they have hung there for weeks and not done a thing?

I've had green ones for quite a while too. Just last week a few started turning. Now I'm getting a couple a day. I think once they start to turn red it doesn't take long to get there.

I, too, am impressed with all the Nebraska gardeners in once spot! Are there more?

And Happy Birthday, rockin r!!!

My green tomatoes are doing nothing, too. The cucumbers, though, are very happy. If too many of them get ripe at once I am thinking of having my kids open a free cucumber stand since we live on the corner - maybe meet some new neighbors. :o)! Do any of you NE people want some roses? I have 6, and 4 or 5 of them are too high maintenance for me. Some of them are pretty big, and I don't know how well they would ship or when they should be moved - fall or spring. One is a tall yellow, one dusty pink that is more bushy, one a barbie pink - bushy also, and a Judy Garland. I am still trying to figure out how to do the trading stuff on here.

My tomatoes (Roma and Big Mamma) have been ripening for a couple weeks now - last night canned 7 pints of juice to go with the thick tomato sauce I canned earlier. Cucumbers have been spottier, usually get enough to make a batch of slicers in vinegar as soon as I finish the previous batch. Fall cukes and beans are planted and growing. Peppers are starting to ripen (Gypsy and a red Habanero) and one bed of onions are pulled and drying - the other bed, planted from the same bundle of plants, is still green and growing.

Thanks for the offer of roses, but I've already got my limit here.

Welcome to Nebraska! I am not too far from you. I grew up in old town bellevue. Nebraska has it's share of challenges for gardeners. I have been picking lots of produce from the garden and did pickles, relish and pickled banana peppers. I have a huge bowl of tomatoes on the counter. Just love the summer pickings! I also did pickled beets and am just now getting green beans. I always plant my pole beans late and let them climb my dead pea vines. DG is a great place to learn more and more and more lol. There are lots of low maintenance choices for your gardens. For your roses I would buy safer fungicide 3 in 1 garden spray from walmart or lowes. It is a great insecticide and fungicide and is made from neem oil and rated organic. It really does work on almost everything except squash bugs lol.