Your Woodland Shade Favorites 4

Donna - sounds like you hit the jackpot this year with the new garden.
speedie - I love "rescue work" at the garden centers! I got a lot of hosta, astilbe and bleeding hearts from little 6-packs sold in the spring for shade gardens. By June or July, I could pick them up for $1 a pack.

It's trying times in my neck of the woods.
I heard on the news last night our average high temp for the past week was 103.9.
Low temp last night was supposed to be 83 ... no break from the heat even at night.
I spent last weekend watering constantly, but still lost several choice plants.
I can't water as much during week, due to job constraints.
Now there's a restriction on outdoor watering, which may just be the last straw.
My yard looks pitiful. Even my detested shrub honeysuckles are wilted.
I'm not sure I have the courage to do a yard tour this weekend,
especially since I can't try to revive any of my poor guys with a drink.
BUT: maybe light at the end of the tunnel: possible rain Sunday!!

So sorry to hear about your water restrictions. That has to be quite frustrating with an extensive collection like yours. Hopefully you'll get some rain this weekend. It's supposed to cool off around Monday so hopefully you'll see some lower temps down there. I remember St. Louis being quite the heat challenge in July. I started out watering yesterday (don't even want to see my water bill) and then we got a freak unforecasted storm with high winds that took the roof off of apartment complex a few miles away. Today is another day to stay indoors with high humidity and temps over 100. Ugh. Not even going out to pick up downed tree limbs.

I hate the thought of you losing plants. I look forward to seeing your photos and learning of new options for my garden. I wish you a good soaking rain.

Weerobin,

I'm all for trying to play by the rules, but do you have any soaker hoses? I use 25 foot ones (about $9.00 each) to water beds of plants. It's very inconspicuous, because no water sprays in the air, Making it very difficult to spot what you are doing.

So perhaps you could use them on your most stressed plants.

Donna

A nighttime maneuver with a watering can?

LOL Surely the plant police don't patrol at night?

I sneek out with my waterhose 6 in the morning and keep the hose down when a car is comming. They probobly think look at the carzy old lady standing in the yard and just looking at us. That is a only thing ilegal I do in my life, I figure I pay my water bills, I ought to use it. I will just tell them if I get cought that I did't know that manual watering is ilegal. Etelka . I hate all this rules and regulations. This is my protest sign.

Rebellion can be good!

Especially for your plants! =) I agree with Donna, soaker hoses are wonderful. I've got a 25-foot one in my big bed out front (should be switching it to a 50-foot one when it's not 100+ degrees out), and it's nice to be able to just nip out the back door to turn on the faucet, then nip back inside, and no-one knows except me and my grateful babies. =)

Speedie, do bear in mind that the 50 foot ones can be a lot harder to handle. I have one, and coiling it around plants is a pain. Now, if you are laying it out in a fair straight line it's great. But if you surround plants, it can take some wrestling.

I love what you said about "nipping" out to water. I have nosy neighbors. I'm out and back in a flash.

I used to have them on timers - 10 minutes on, 15 minutes off, but the timers couldn't be attached firmly enough, and would waste water. I've still got to try that again!

Thank goodness, no more homeowners association rules. When someone has something ugly in their yard and I can see it, I just put in another big plant. Without asking for permission. Or explaining myself. Or giving a bunch of jerks on a panel detail about my somewhat unusual plants so they can copy them (one of them kept coming to my yard and yelling, "DONNA! What's that?" pointing to my hydrangea querquefolia Snowflake. I told her it was a shrub. She went out and bought a bunch of burning bushes and barberries. Both are invasive up here.

Hmmmmm, I was thinking that same thing, (about wrestling with the 50 foot soaker hose), which is why I haven't put it down yet. ;) The bed is along the front of the house, about 20' long or so (but not a boring rectangle! heehee), but the varying depths of it allows for a lot of plants, which means I'd have to be weaving the darned thing in and out of a lot of stuff... but first I'd have to UN-weave the 25 footer out from stuff, including the Verbena, which I am certain has grown all over the hose now and re-rooted it's branches... oh, what a pain that's gonna be. I am always learning something, and I think I have learned that NEXT Spring is when I'm gonna switch them out, AFTER I've had a chance to give the Verbena their haircuts. =)

LOL, I LOVE your answer to the "what is that?" question!!! Haahahahaaa!!! "It's a shrub".. read: "Now leave me alone!!" LOL!!!!!! I'm guessing though that it's a form of compliment, wanting to grow what you're growing 'cause they love how you make your place look so gorgeous. (trying to stay on the positive side here, work with me.) ;) It is nice, though, to be able to just put out what you want without having to deal with the bureaucratic pencil-pushers who don't know a DARNED thing except how to sharpen their pencils. (case in point: growing invasives on purpose). Brings the word DUH to mind. =) heeheeheee

FYI - the breeze is changing direction here, coming out of the NW for now. While the sun is still pretty hot and it's humid, the breeze is definitely cooler.

Should say though that the chance for rain is iffy, coming (if at all) on the back side of the cooler front. IN is now asking for voluntary water conservation of 5 to 10%. The water deficit isn't as bad in my neck of the woods as it is east and south.

Finally a break in the weather! Only supposed to be 96 today.
It's funny to think of 96 being cool, but I'll take it.
We even got a little rain - of course nowhere near as much as we need, but any amount is welcome!
Unfortunately still a lot of summer to go - hopefully not as brutal as it started.
Some of my guys didn't make it; others could go either way; in no shape to tolerate much more stress.
Maybe we'll catch a break with more lenient weather!

Weerobin - I saw that St. Louis got some rain. This summer, some is better than none. Sorry some of your beauties didn't make it. Do you think they might come back later with cooler weather?

I hope so! Today was all about damage control.
We'll just have to wait 'til next year for most of them.
Supposed to be a little cooler this week, thank goodness.

We were braced for severe thunderstorms and flash flooding here this evening. All we got was the thunder!

Good morning all! =) Woke up to some wetness on the ground, so apparently it **did** rain at some point last night, but not when I thought it would. When I went to bed the sky was clear, ^^shrug^^. Oh well, I'll accept any precipitation at this point! :) How 'bout you all, did ya get any of the promised rain? I sure hope this ushers in some cooler air for all of us in these parts!

We also got a little more rain! Unfortunately, Nat Weather Svc measured 0.01 inch for St Louis - I think my yard got a little more, thankfully. But it was still warm (98), but that's the first time below 100 degrees in 10 days!
Should be cooler this week. Looking forward to it. My guys deserve a break!

No rain in the forecast here for the next week - just clear, sunny days. At least the temps are a little lower. I have been watering for the past month but still have an Astilbe that's losing ground.

It cooled off here--it actually feels good outside! *happy dance*

Good to know you folks further south are feeling a little cooler!

Same happy dance here after a full day of weeding and putting down the Preen. It's lovely outside now at 74.

Ooooh 74 sounds Heavenly!! I was downright THRILLED to head out the door to go to work yesterday morning to find it raining down on me. YIPPEEE!!! I guess it was a little late getting here (it was forecasted for early Sunday evening, it must have slept in, heehee), but that's ok, I'll take it! I think we had a bit more last night or in the wee hours of the morning, 'cause when I kicked DH out for work at 4:30 this morning it was all wet everywhere. Gotta love it! =) It brings a song to mind.... < =D

The air conditioning actually cycled off. The cats are blissful, and so am I.

I know what you mean about the a/c finally cycling off. I'm gonna hate to see my electric and water bills. I'm out for a short bike ride this morning to celebrate. I'm not a big heat-lover so my poor bike has sat neglected for the past couple of weeks. Then it's out to do some gardening today - 83-ish and I'm happy.

I'll finally get to plant some things I've had waiting in my basement for a cooler day!

Oh boy, KY, what did you get planted out?? =)

Either today, or Thursday (my next day off), I'm going to plant out and pot up the new "rescues" I brought home the other day. Some annual Phlox need replacing and .. **ahem** I NEEDED some more Coleuses. < =D (Yes, I NEEDED them, I swear I did!)
And then, of course, the Perilla was sort of whining "Heeyyyy, if you're taking them, why can't you take me tooooo?" I'm spineless, I had to give in.

Speedie - It's OK to "need" a plant. We can all sympathize! I used to grow Perilla because of it's purple foliage - the ruffly kind. But I would get tons of seedlings to pull out from unwanted places. It's mostly died out here which of course makes room for the dark coleus.

That purple ruffled perilla grows wild here, and it has taken me years to get it under control--it popped up by the thousands, everywhere! It's so pretty, though, so now I just have them where I want them, and remove the seedheads when they form.

I got a couple of things planted too. NOT the hydrangeas I bought - they are staying in pots. But Viburnum Valley told me that a solution I used at home would work in shade, and for privacy. Miscanthus giganteous. Here it is at my house (under contract!) on a foggy day - my favorite shot. And, by the way, this is what the plant looked like after 3 years. I was going to order it from Forest Farm. Pic. 1

So what do you know, after all these years, I'm tidying the yard for the new owner and see one bigger than my original purchase. So I pull it out of a bed where it really should not be, put it in a pot with some compost, watered it, and it started growing. Pic. 2

So I installed it. See the charming chain link fence behind it? Sorry the snarling, barking dog isn't there to say hi! In about a year the barking, snarling dog, the ugly chain link, and the unpleasant neighbors will disappear! Like Magic! At NO COST!

As Speedie would say - WHEE!!!

Oh my GOODNESS Donna, what a fantastically GORGEOUS foggy shot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woweeee, to have a place that looks like that to just stroll around in ... aaahhhhhh, Heaven!!

No more snarling unfriendly doggy or neighbors... Wheeeeeee indeed!! < =D

I love your messages. So exuberant! They always put me in the BEST mood.

Looks like a very peaceful place to hang out...once the unfriendly pup is gone. There are some you just can't make friends with. We have one at the kennel where I work who snarls if you look at him.

I particularly like what the previous owner did with the walkway from the front to the back of the house on the east side. He laid brick and then ground up mulch in a chipper to create it.

Back to front (the tree is an enormous crabapple. It must be 40 feet tall.)

And front to back.

This was in May. I have since found little patches of sun that are consistent and put some more tolerant plants there from my previous house. It's like having your own little path in the woods. And no one else can access it. Andit is always cool.

This message was edited Jul 11, 2012 9:07 AM

Donna - niiiice! The photos of your new side yard - why do visions of Charleston gardens come to my mind?
Snarling dogs? I have those too. Thank goodness the owners treat them more like house pets (erroneously) that only get out for a few minutes a couple of times a day.

We have had much less precipitation for the year, but we don't have restrictions yet. Since last year we have been using a 90-gallon "thing" as a cistern of sorts, gathering the water from the gutters and leaders for storage. My prince added a tap/valve at the bottom and it sits on a couple of cinder blocks with a hose attached. We fill 5 gallon pails about 1/4 full and drag them around for watering. We often water more than once a day in this heat and have saved on our water bill. We don't water the grass, though. We put down marble chips in some of the areas.

It's difficult this year trying to find the balance between using the sprinkler (when large areas of garden need water) and using the rain barrels (when specific plants need extra water like tomatoes), especially when we don't know when it will rain again.

I have seen pictures of Charleston - that's a lovely compliment!

This message was edited Jul 11, 2012 5:11 PM