things i learned this year.

that just because its an annual vine you dont need to plant 30 seeds in the same spot. and just because its an annual vine dosnt mean it wont take over your life.

things really do multiply .

any one else learn any thing the hard way

This message was edited Nov 5, 2009 4:21 PM

The most important lesson I learned this was to never, ever allow Hubby in the garden unsupervised...

ask him to do really hard stuff every time he goes out and he'll be afraid to go out there. like mine

Where do I start, this topic needs a forum of its own.
Mostly my gardens are in their second year so I was thrilled and amazed with every two week cycle of blooms.
The stupidest thing I did was to accidentally spill fireplace ashes on the Rhodies last winter.
1 of them is looking awfull.Hope there is a fix somewhere.

Hot ashes?

no cold

Did you try hosing it down very well?

It was th dead of winter when I spread ashes, the bag broke in the wind and most of the ashes blew onto the rhode.
I never gave it a second thought all season ubtil I saw the drooping leaves.
I dont think we have taken in the hoses yet I'll try to flush it today.

It should work.

DH dumped 5 gallons of cold ashes on our one rhodie. I sent him out to scrape it all off and when that didn't do so much, I had him shop-vac it out of the soil and we topdressed with lots of good stuff. I think that since I found it within a month of him doing it ( only maybe 2 rains), the bush recovered and did not get too sick.

I learned that even if we completely agreed that we would never move anywhere and would stay in this garden covered land until we died, we can change our minds pretty easily even after 14 years. I will never invest that much money in a yard again. The new owner does not do anything other than mow the grass. all of those huge beds, all of that work, all of that $, gone... though I am glad to have enjoyed it for so many years.

I bet a blower would work on the ashes but wonder where they'd end up going.

That's a shame JuneyBug. We do invest so much in our gardens and it's a terrible loss on many levels.

Junybug Thats a good way to look at it.
I dont regret one minute or one dime of what I have spent.
I rarely travel or go out so this is my entertainment.
All summer my friends come with others to see the gardens,I entertain with lunches when the garden is at its peak.
This brings company to me. Its well worth all the time.
I'm thankful the people who bought my house are gardeners and are keeping thinge going.
We bought this house which had gardens but along its history it was a rental for many years and gardens were neglected.
I'm redoing the originals and adding other garden spaces because I want certain plants that there isnt room for otherwise.

You do know wood ash raises the soil ph, right Jo Ann? And the rhododendrons want acid soil. One of my customers said they put wood ash on their siberian irises. Eek. I think I'm going to put that in the planting instructions, no wood ash. Great for lilacs, by the way.

I had no idea. My DD just shook her head.
What else can I ruine?

Like GE, I learned many things this year. One that stands out is that the most well behaved plant, when moved to another location, can become a garden thug. I had some sedum growing under Maples for 4 years and it was very well behaved, but no longer worked as the bed evolved. I moved it to the other side of the Maples and it went wild. Now, I'm having to rip lots of it out.

Trial and error, we garden by the seat of our pants.

What sedum is it, Mary?

Polly, Yellow Star Creeper.

I'm not familiar with that, will have to look it up. I do know blue star creeper. It's not the same as Angelina is it?

I've been planting a few of the ground cover sedums. And lots of the ground cover geraniums, such as Karmina and Biokovo, and I find they really do help keep the weeds down.

i would love to see a sedum and semp co-op. They had one a couple of years ago with Squaw Mountain, I think it was, and the plants looked beautiful from the pictures they showed.

Polly, Estrailrider ran a Semp co-op in the spring. Maybe she'll do it again this spring. It was her first co-op so she kept it small. Also, she didn't know any DGers in her area and was afraid to get overwhelmed by the packing. But some nice DGer drove 3 hours to come help her pack.

No, It's not Angelina. Maybe I'll take a photo of it. I may have the name wrong. On the other hand, last fall I planted a bunch of Japanese Sedum "Ogon" and none of it survived. I am also very unimpressed with the Tri-color sedum. It hardly has any presence at all no matter, where it's planted.

Ogon is so delightful.

Pirl, Yes I thought the Ogon was very pretty. After I bought them, I read somewhere that they were only hardy to zone 7, but PlantFiles says zone 6. I had it planted in a windy exposed area. I try not to zone push as I find that my gardens are handicapped enough already. LOL

I couldn't really get a good shot of this Sedum as it has already gone dormant for the winter. In summer, it gets a small yellow star shaped flower.

Ogon is not hardy for me, either, Mary.

It wasn't Squaw Mountain the co-op was with, it was Mountaincrest. Here's a picture of what they received, really nice. Maybe estrailrider will do another one next year. Hope, hope.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5011535

Wow, That's a beautiful sight! I have these two old iron chairs that I bought at a flea market for $3 that I've been saving to try to make a pair of those sedum seats. I think they would be great. Just another project that I haven't found time for yet.

Let's lobby for a sedum co-op in the spirng, then.

OK, I'll write to Debbie, Estrailrider. I think she just moved her residence and needs lots more sedum. Who ran the Mountaincrest one?

Hillbilly_Gran

I don't know her, Polly.

I don't either. But she did mention at one point she didn't want to do another co-op, so maybe Deb would consider Mountaincrest?

I'll ask her.

Great!

I learned something... never clear a bit of dirt without planting something there, or the weeds will plant themselves. Grrrr....

Sheryl, My neighbor does just that. Every month I have to spray the ground all along my big flower bed as every weed known to mankind encroaches along my 250' bed. Last week I sprayed all of his creeping charlie.

Our next door neighbor wasn't a gardener and she died almost two years ago leaving the house vacant and it's still not sold. To prevent weeds from getting over here I have no choice but to clear all of her weeds on the side of the house and the edge of the property. The grown adult daughters do not live nearby and when they do come out they do not weed.

Stormy,

From the picture that you show of your creeping sedum, it looks like "creeping Charlie", something I learned about in the Mid Atlantic Garden forum, when Holly asked my to bring her some creeping Jenny. This creeping charlie grows wild everywhere in my gardens and pots, and even though it is easy to pull out, the job goes on forever.

This year i learned that all my attempts to start cleome seeds inside were futile because they need the winter chill to tell them when it is warm enough to start growing. My neighbor had sprinkled some seed in my garden last year, and I was given some at a swap, so I did have the flower that I really wanted in my garden this year.

Cleome and cosmos begin to show up around Mother's Day here. So I would just guess that sprinkling the seeds late April would be ideal. We have grown them from seed and then, of course, we ended up with more than we could possibly use but they are easy to pull. If they expand to other gardens they can be headaches because you'd be pulling everywhere. I can only handle them in one garden.

No Cleome here.the root balls are killers,not to mention the barbs on the stems.
Cosmose anytime. I have seeds for dwarf veriety.

Love watching the goldfinches dive bomb the Cosmos in the fall to get the seeds!

Oh, those thorny prickles on cleome are a royal pain!

Lawd - I can't even imagine having to do my neighbor's weeds too!! Nightmare on [my] street.

I may use weed fabric on the neighbor's weeds next year.

You might ask the girls to do a quick broadleaf spray?