Garden Projects #5

spray em

You can use soapy water on aphids if you don't want chemicals. Clogs up their little nozzles.

For all you welders out there...this is such a cool project check it out at 4mins of the Garden Artistry episode into the show(or watch the whole 1st story)
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv8/videos/index.html

I got lots done the last couple of days. Yesterday I made up a bunch of planters. Really went wild. Will have to post pics soon. Then today I planted a bunch of impatiens and begonias in a couple of beds. Did some cleaning up of stuff, moved some pots of daylilies, staked up my 'Axminster Gold' comfrey, and cleaned up the bed around my toilet planter. I'm going to be working on the bed now. Going to get the planter planted. There are a lot of daylilies in that bed that will be dug up for selling or giving away. It's all shade there and not a good spot for daylilies. Two spireas have to be moved, and a hosta as well. There's tradescantia in there that needs digging out, as well as invasive grass. Not too much, though. I cut back a huge Rosa multiflora. Will be leaving that there for cover for the birds. I had a pair of cardinals nesting in there this year. Need to take some pics soon.

Karen

I can't figure out why our tradescantia behaves. Snowcap & Concord Grape. ???

Don't know, Lucy. I do know there is only one trad that spreads by underground runners, and that one is a bright fuchsia pink one. All the others I know of spread only by seed. I have blue and near white in my garden, and they pop up here and there, but stay in clumps. I also have that fuchsia one that spreads everywhere. I'll never get rid of it all. Would not wish it on my worst enemy. I also have 'Sweet Kate', which has chartreuse foliage. Have had it for 3 years now, and so far it's very well-behaved.

Karen

Mine will take over the bed if I let them....I have already pulled out over a dozen! Have to spread some mulch today....

Ok finished cutting in the stepping stones, just spread mulch till I plant some creeping thyme in between the stones and then extend the garden bed...or maybe just some ornamental grass...it will wait till fall

How nice it turned out, Jen......I couldn't wait til fall....I'd be at the nursery right now....

I hate working in the heat and humidity, or else I would be at the nursery too

nice Jen.. I couldn't wait either.. would be too exciting to plant

Looks great, Jen!

Thanks all...now I'm in the mood to plant!!! LOL

Love it, Jen! I'm with the others, would not be able to wait to plant.

Karen

Me too, I'd have to do it now. You're so organized, that bed looks great. I'd have it half planted before I ever had that much preparation done!

My problem with tradescantia is that over the years it self-sowed everywhere, so there are established clumps that have choked out everything else. They are very hard to eradicate once that has happened. They have invaded clumps of Siberian Iris and day lilies, among other things. Even though last fall I dug everything up in one bed, used jet spray on the hose to clean off the roots, sometimes dividing the plant down to tiny segments, I still saw tradescantia blooming there in May.

Pam

Don't you wish that would happen with something like delpiniums instead?

looks good jen

Pam, I feel for you on the battle with the trad. I can definitely relate.

Karen

Just got back here.
Patti segnut grass is the worst. Round-up hardly touches it and those roothairs that are left when weeding make new grass.
How did that stuff ever get into this country anyhow.?

Glory be and hoooray
http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/newpots.html

Allison must of wrote to them. ^_^

I just hated the peanuts.Other stuff wasnt too bad once I had a planting routine down so I had someplace to keep empthe plastic pots.
I dont even care if they add a few coin to the price of the plants.

I hate the peanuts too!

I would open the box and stand over the kitchen trash bucket.
Pull the plants out by the nursery pots.
Pick out any peanuts caught in the plants and then dump the box of peanuts into the garbage bag,tie it and toss it into the dumpster.
Then go to the garden to plant.
We have to break down boxes and recycle here. Sometimes I would toss the whole box if it was small enough.

Sounds just like me Jo...it's def. a pain in the butt.

just hope the coconut fibers hold up during shipping.. that was my biggest complaint with garden harvest supply... peanuts... the pots & trays they send are great.. always reuse them.. nice and sturdy holders.. but took me an hour & a half to unpack everything and get the peanuts off... granted the plants always show up perfect.. I wrote them.. and then apologized later on .. was cranky after a bad day at work.. was not nice to come home to

Peanuts or Stryofoam?

I have had a few bad plants from Blustn but in mid May and half price it hardly counted.

foam in the shape of peanuts. Its an industry term for those foam things.

Thats more acceptable then picking out peanut shells. I was having visions.

just as bad

I use the peanuts in my big pots. Easier to move and seems like helps to aerate the roots a little..but yeah they are a ROYAL PAIN! I happened to leave two large plastic pots w/ nepeta (which is hardy anyway) and they overwintered here in Maine beautifully. Yeah for styro! I have a short amount of time to work in my garden here. I rent my cottage part of the summer so whatever I plant has to handle lack of care during usually the hottest part of the summer. The entire front yard is a garden. I am starting to convert the side yard which was all blackberry brambles to garden. I am using the no dig method and my first several areas have been planted. I am working on the largest area now. My soil is tricky because I'm near the beach. Lucky for me I'm also a desert landscaper so I've a lot of experience w/ low water use plants. I tend to us mostly natives, smaller leafed plants in many places that are full sun. It's been a glorious June to work in the yard and I got a lot done. Nice to have a little rain the past couple of days to water stuff in!

I was going to say the same thing sonoranpoet, you can use those peanuts in the bottoms of the large containers

Glad to have the peanuts phased out.....I dreaded opening the boxes they made such a mess.....

I use the peanuts in big pots, too, and I also save them to reuse for shipping boxes out myself. Very little gets wasted around here.

Got a lot of weeding done, and managed to put down some cow manure mulch/fertilizer. Got my new Wedding Gown hydrangea planted, as well as some hostas I picked up a few weeks ago and a toad lily that my friend Karen gave me in trade.

Karen

Sounds like you accomplished plenty, Karen. I just happened to go by one of my fav nurseries & bought some annuals to fill in where I pulled weeds....gazania & million bells....

Weeding went well this afternoon until Mosquitos got chewy. Have not bought any annuals yet.

I can't tell you how much I've spent on annuals this year. Too much, for sure.

Got a bunch of Striptease hosta potted up to sell, put together 5 new planters with the plants I picked up yesterday, and got some weeding done. Also cut back the bloom stalks of the TBI's in the big bed they are in, and just cleaned up that bed real nice. Took off any bad looking foliage. Don't see signs of borers. Maybe the systemic is working.

Here are pics of what I did yesterday.

This is the front bed I weeded and mulched. Looks so much nicer. Planted a new mini hosta in there. I think it's Alan P. McConnell.

Karen

In the previous pic, the hosta on the right is Little Sunspot. The one to the left of the new mini is Love Pat.

In this pic you can see on the right, a toad lily, then left of that is Hosta 'Abiqua Moonbeam' (not looking to hot this year, as I dug and divided it last summer and it suffered a set-back). Then left of the hosta is a bird's nest fern that I just brought out from my porch. Then in front of that is the new toad lily called 'Taipai Silk'. Then that big light colored hosta is 'Lakeside Cha Cha'.

Here's 'Taipai Silk' with the bird's nest fern and a chicken.