Garden Projects # 9

Thought I would start a new thread.
We were here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1247883/


This message was edited May 15, 2012 8:15 AM

tradescantia....now that's another one that is very well behaved here, go figure

Not here....I dig it out constantly....I had several different colors...I think the bees hybridize them...

the same ones I dug for you .. are back again Jen.. want more.. LOL

The only trads I really have a problem with are the bright fuchsia purple ones, as they are stoleniferous and spread like crazy. Any other color is not so bad. Yes, they seed in here and there, but it's not so bad getting rid of them. At least the seeded in ones stay in clumps and don't spread ever outwards, devouring whole gardens.

It's raining like mad outside right now.

Karen

OMG, trads are such a nightmare for me. They were everywhere around here in all colors, ugh! I hate them so much even though you say, Karen, that the new chartreuse one is well-behaved, I can't look at it! I found new ones coming up in the middle of Sibs and DLs I cleaned up last year by washing all the dirt off the roots, could have sworn they were clean. The Sibs were in pots for a year, their space unplanted, to get rid of invasives. Ugh!

I do agree about Columbines- let them come. They are so lovely, I never met a Columbine I didn't like, lol. To me they are not thugs, don't swamp other plants, easy enough to edit. I let them bloom before pulling them out unless they are in a really impossible place.

I have yet to see if I actually eradicated the gooseneck loosestrife last year, but I doubt it. And the Artemesia Silver King. (my fault entirely, I introduced it!) is back as if I never pulled it out.

There's always something...

Pam

Pam, I pulled out some evil Tradescantia today too and some Honeysuckle Lonicera japonica as well as a couple returning but unwelcome Iris pseudacorus plus a few Autumn clematis, lots fo lemon balm, lots of columbine and more Lily of the valley plus some escaping Lysimachia clethroides along with some regular old weeds. The worst weed of the week is an officially Noxious Weed Euphorbia cyparissias which I have been battling for 30 years. My hands are all itchy from handling them. I should have worn gloves. Got lots done in our dell. Moving and dividing and general cleaning up. Good day. Pooped. Patti

Glad everyone has been so busy....my nightmare is wisteria....just can't get rid of it....also battling with LOV, and campanula glomerata.......and poison ivy!

UGH, sprayed a ton of poison ivy today...we have a fence in the backyard and so do the backyard neighbors so there is a about a 3' gap in between the 2. The guy behind us does NOTHING in his yard except mow(push mower btw for about an acre) so he lets all this garbage grow along his fence and it starting to encroach on our yard, we are spraying constantly, found a oak growing in that space but it's among the poison ivy, so I'll wait till it's dead and try to dig up the oak

My neighbor doesn't even mow....the folks next door to her do it.....the backyard looks like a wild, tangled mess because no one mows it......lots of bunnies back there.....

ugggg Marilyn.

Useful tool.

http://blog.evernote.com/2012/05/21/skitch-and-evernote-for-gardening-tips-from-a-professional-horticulturist/

Oooh....I'd like that.....

I know what will be on everyone's wish list.

Still planting the treasures I got on Saturday at Holly and Ric's swap. Fantastic!!!

Pam, when you dug up the DL's and washed all the roots to get all the trad roots, etc., out of them, did you divide them as well, or keep in a clump? I have found that when it comes to having roots of invasive plants intermingled with DL roots, then you must divide each individual fan in the clump. I don't actually wash them off, but I get all the dirt off and inspect closely for any invasive roots. Then I plant all the fans together in a clump, or several clumps if the original clump was too big. That helps an awful lot. Problem is, though, if you have even a piece of a root of pretty much any kind of invasive plant in your soil or in the roots of the DL's or whatever, then you'll have that plant coming back. It takes years of vigilantly digging and pulling, etc. to finally get rid of what you're trying to eradicate.

I think I have that Artemesia 'Silver King' growing in my gardens. My mother introduced it. I'm pretty sure that's what it is. It's in so many different places now. I feel your pain!

Patti, I battle that Euphorbia as well. Don't know if I'll ever get rid of it.

Jen, if you get that poison ivy killer, it should work on that oak as well. That will kill just about anything. I got into PI last week. Finally getting rid of the rash (I think).

Great tool, Victor. I have a program called Plantstep that can do a lot, too, but I don't know about garden planning. Will have to check it out. I don't even know all of what it does.

Karen

I'll try that on the oak, 1 day after using that PI killer the PI was already dying, I'll spray it all again after the rains end

I almost bought Artemisia 'Silver Mound' glad I didn't

Brush B Gone kills everything. Great stuff, to be used cautiously and sparingly.

Karen, I did divide radically, both the DLs and the SIBs. And I left the SIBs in pots and the ground bare for a year to get rid of raspberries, trad, ferns, goldenrod, grass, an edible but extremely invasive tuber called apios americana, as well as all the other usual weeds. But as you say, it only takes a whisper of a root to make a new plant. And then there are the birds...

Pam

I think I did buy silver mound last year, kept it in a container then planted in the fall. Perhaps I should pull it out.

I've had silver mound for 9 years, it's never ventured out of the bed I put it in.

That's good to hear Celeste.

Does it stay in a nice mound?do you have to trim them a lot? had to split them yet?

Yes, no, and no. :)
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5059247 this was in 2008

This message was edited May 22, 2012 9:11 AM

Silver mound is not invasive like many of the others IMHO.

I am in Vt doing the happy dance over my new kitchen, though it is not quite done yet as there are a couple of floating shelves to be installed and handles on the cabinets and some painting. But close. Same with the new laundry room and bath We are heading back to Nantucket today via a nursery or two. Patti

But remember...im much colder than you so it would help stunt it some.

Congrats Patti! It's a good feeling when a project is turning out how you imagined it. :)

Oh, joy, joy!!! Doing the happy dance for you and your new rooms. Of course and for the new plants you will get to celebrate on your way home. ;)

Love when projects are completed.
we still have some of my daughter's bedroom furniture in the living room, hubby has to install 1/4 round moulding around the edges and then nail in the threshold piece, then he can start to put her furniture together, I have to find her a rug(she wants it round and pink) and a kid size chair for the desk


Have noticed most of the negative comments about silver mound are from southern gardeners

I just love how soft it feels

Glad your house is almost complete, Patti....can't wait for Pixie to get there as well!

Finally after almost 8 years living here, got the nice green filled in lawn

Looks very nice.....my back lawn looks good....the front is dandelionville......

Nice. Lawns like that say chemicals to me! ^_^

Scotts

and he aerates and limed it a few times
we hauled in fill dirt and top soil and overseeded, a lot of work went into that lawn

I like the look, but don't like the chems. And, of course, I much prefer beds!

immediately in front of the house is the leech field so I won't be doing anything there

Ewwww. Assume you mean leach field. ^_^

it's ewwwww either way you spell it, LOL

True!