What steals your time in the garden?

I am taking an ad out for tireless, garden-loving nymphomaniacs to help me.

I qualify for part of that, Victor, and you probably wouldn't guess which part it is.

Surprise me!

No fun! You do have a bad back.

Seriously, though (yeah right!), I am looking to make things easier any way possible. My back and knee problems (not to mention my battle with chronic laziness) are not going away. That's why I switched gears about five years ago and emphasized shrubs and small trees, instead of perennials. The deer have thrown another monkey wrench in there too.

The deer are 100% aggravation here as well, Victor. They've not only attacked plants but bird feeders, trampling many new daylilies while they frolicked. It's a shame that our town won't lift a finger to help out gardeners or the farmers who lose five million a year on lost crops. All the vineyards have gone to 12' high fencing but it's not beautiful to view for homeowners.

All the woeful cries of, "The deer were here first", fall on deaf ears since one man stood up and said he had been hunting here since he was a young person and never saw a deer out here in the 40's and 50's.

We need emoticons! You're right Victor. I think many of us are working more shrubs into the beds. It's not only less work, but there is more winter interest.

What do you mean by weed fabric, pirl? Do you have some recommendations?

And that's a bogus argument, Pirl! In my area, the density of deer is WAY up compared to 100 years ago. It's the opposite of the bear problem. I hate to see the dang tracks in the snow!

Yes, storm, good points!

Here, Lori.

http://store.the-landscape-design-site.com/

Thanks, Victor.

Before we tried the professional weed barriers we had tried two others and they did not work. My husband installed this fabric on the four paths in this garden and then we piled on chips. It does have to be stapled down for best results. Wal Mart has a good selection of staples.

I've found old carpet works very well as a barrier, and often use it in the veggies under cantaloupes and melons. Under wood chips it is very effective. I've found an endless supply on curb sides. LOL
Victor, I have yet to find any "garden-loving nymphomaniacs", on the curbside. DAH, maybe I should ask Holly for a voucher when she starts her (I mean our) next project. Ric

I try to ignore the 'curbside' nymphs, Ric. I try to hold out for the cultured ones.

Not exactly cultured (marble) and cold as ice but any port in a storm.

Nice! Just put a bag over her face...

Victor, I've been told you can lead a horticulture, but you can't make them think! Ric

Hee hee! Good one.

Did you ever hear a hormone??

No, but you may find one at the Philly show, they keep advertising! Ric

Now I'm tempted...

LOL, Wait till you see Reading Station! Ric

Pass Go and collect??????????

Bad boys, bad boys - whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

Do not even consider answering that question, Victor!!!

Can I? Ric
I'm going back to the big O, in Vancover, Nite all! Ric

This message was edited Feb 16, 2010 10:02 PM

I'm watching too.

Pirl: What happened to the goddess's face ???
Very rubenesque indeed.

Or slasheresque??

Pirl, I don't like that any port in a storm line.

Gee, I wonder why stormy! Sorry!

JD - I think the face looks like that because she "fell" for Victor.

LOL That is one beautiful garden shot, Pirl. Those Astilbe are fabulous.

You can lead a horticulture ..... too funny....

It was a Dorothy Parker line.

A few of her others were:

If you have nothing nice to say about a person come sit next to me.

and regarding Katherine Hepburn's performance in a play when Hepburn was young:

She ran the gamut of emotions from A to B.

Thanks for the link, victor. Will try to do some thinking about calls I could make to find the professional grade fabric. I know what we can get around here, and it won't stand up a year. Thanks for the picture, pirl.

Still can't wait around the gardens here. A foot of snow or more on most of them. Sigh.

Ah yes - "what fresh hell is this?" and "If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised."

Hee hee!

lol !

.Good morning
In reguard to body failure
,cutting back on the gardening
making things simpler with the use of weed barrier.
Welcome to my world
I would say go for it.
BUT remember all the griping I have done for 2 years about making new gardens here.I have pulled up miles of the stuff.HATE it with a passion.
It was laid down 20 years ago when the tract was built.
The barrier is under the entire mulched area seen in these photos.
There are areas where its quite deep and I can plant over it,but mostly I have to dig it out and use a box cutter to remove it in small pieces.
This is the area along my neighbors line where I have done the most work.
This border is 75 feet long and 10-20 feet wide with trees down the middle.
First pic was 2008,the first year I started the ShadeGarden.1 tree was removed that year( Bear is on the stump).
Second pic is June of last year. Big difference you must admit.
As my body ages I want to be able to sit on the deck and gaze at the garden,I probably will not win a neat garden award because its just too hard to weed and bend over to plant and dig holes for plants, thats why the garden is crammed to cut down on weeds.

LOL, You are right Pirl "Bad Boys".Those Bad Boys can be so interesting. LOL HOLLY

About 25 years ago we put down a landscape fabric with mulch and edging around our Evergreen group. They were young trees and it looked so nice. Mowing was easier and it showed off the smaller trees so nicely. I planted vinca minor out along the roadside next to the mulched area. Well the vinca didn't want to grow alongside the road it wanted to grow in the mulch area so I let it go now that whole mulched area is a bed of vinca and there are all kinds of weeds growing mixed in with that vinca. Especially some nasties that send out runners under the vinca. But they are usually easier to pull as they are growing in the mulch. After all these years that fabric is still holding up I had a devil of a time digging thru the vinca, mulch and fabric last summer to plant a hydrangea I wanted to add to the grouping. HOLLY

I feel your pain. When I was sent 75 pounds of DL's I expanded the garden again to acomodate them plus a few other transplanted hostas, and found white plastic mulch bags acting as a barrier.
There was a fine layer of spruce roots growing above the plastic and under the 6 inches of mulch. I had to use tree loppers to cut roots out so I could put in Asiatic lilies.
Its a mess in there.
I had Vinca in my old house gardens and ignored it ,bad idea.It came in with a Iris transplant.

Stormy, You are right about getting the most from my MD vouchers. LOL
Back when the boys were poor but talented they loved being able to give me a present that didn't cost anything but time. Now with more cash in their pockets and less time on their hands they would love to just buy me something. Over the years I have gotten gifts of hand built birdfeeders, installed garbage disposal, new lamp post and underground wiring, the well for the birdbath pond, installation of the blueball water feature, rock moving and when they were very young weeding. My children as a group decided that we need a bedroom remodel so this year for Christmas they went together with my parents and pooled a little cash and are coming to put in new flooring, paint or wallpaper and help shop for new furniture.curtains and bed-linens. They just might find out that stripping that old wallpaper was a bit more work than they realized. LOL