ROFLOL, Yea I buy lots of plants with no idea of where they will go and I buy pots without any idea of what I will put in them.
Yardening end of April 2014 continuation
Geez I didn't know there was any other way! Most of the plants I get are bought before knowing where they'll go..LOL
This past winter was the first time I've actually put some planning into where the plants were going as I purchased them. With around 60 different plants coming in, I had to put some sort of plan together.
I put a plan together for all the seeds I planted but this was after I bought them all. ;-)
I usually have a plan when I order something, it doesn't always fit what Holly had in mind though.
&**^%$E@! LOL
Most often the plants I buy with no idea of what I'm going to do with them are spur of the moment purchases. I see something and say, "I gotta' have one". Such was the Cryptomeria japonica 'Black Dragon', most Cryptomeria can grow to over 230' so I was lucky this one usually tops out @ 10'.
Hehehe. Sounds like we are all in the same boat
good thing we ARE in a boat-- this rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Many areas in my garden are starting to look like shallow lakes....
SOOOO tired of it!!! It was crazy listening the rain pounding the
ceiling at work today. Like a tin roof... that leaks.....
We had buckets in the aisles all over the place....need them all the time...
I cannot, for the life of me, "get" that the sky can hold enough water
to build a big lake....
Downtown Baltimore--another 26th Street just caved in--taking a few cars with it.
The BIG water pipes underneath Baltimore downtown are over 100 yrs. old--
and they just cannot carry this amount of floodwater.
They break now and them..These are the main water manes--maybe 16" in diam.
Gotta hand it to the workmen who spend days down there patching things up.
Caked in mud....
I need to listen to the news before I go to bed...just to see what's happening...
G.
This rain FOR SURE!!! It looks like lakes around here, too with flowering islands. One of the downspouts is near my bed. And the sump pump is under my bed. Noisy!!
We got 3.48" at our house since it started Monday night.
Yeah, this weather has me thinking about rice paddies again and California is still a tinder box.
Yeah seriously. I'm glad we're getting the rain though. Last spring stunk for rain.
We got six inches. One of the major roads near me is closed due to flooding, which then backs up all the secondary roads. Driving this morning was certainly an adventure!
The caladiums are getting planted in the ground this weekend, and all the houseplants are coming out. And I need to start potting up for the swap!
Hooray! The ittsy bittsy spider went up the spout again.
We've been potting for the swap. I'm trying to get the flats cart out so I can start hardening and slowing down some of the GH stuff.
Okay so maybe I put too many moisture crystals in with the potting mix. Sorry about the picture being upside dowm/sideways.
Catbird, too funny - the first time I used them was in the vegetable garden with some tomato plants and did the same thing. Looked like a bunch of gelatinous goo after a big rain.
There has been so much rain over the last few days that the driveway going across the creek was completely washed away. Yesterday, I had to park the car on the logging trail running parallel to the driveway, walk down it to the far side of the pond, across the dam, and then up the hill to the house. I was soaked. Mike was looking for a bigger culvert today to try to fix it. We'll see if I have another trek this evening or not :)
That stinks Terri. I actually had to look up culvert because I didn't know what it was...LOL
I have been doing all the same as you all...since 10AM. it is now 3:30PM.
Came in to ear a bite nd check out DG.
I have been digging up--dividing--planting and re-potting (for the Swap), etc..etc...
most of it in my YUK bed and Shed Bed...Some things have been in there too long--
for no real reason. Too short to be in the back---Too useless...don't even know the name..
and all that. Pretty soon I will have to say my "NEW and IMPROVED" YUK bed...
More to do--after my snack... Sure is nice outside today--except for my back lawn
squishing everywhere I step. The water level is so high--it has nowhere left to go.
G.
Mike had to drive out to Winchester (about an hour away) to get to a place that had the right size culvert in stock. He is on his way back now. Needless to say, I had to trek in again on foot. Not bad now that it isn't pouring :) Gotta love the country life, even with these little inconveniences. On the up side, the creek is really pretty right now - with the water level being this high, there are little waterfalls tumbling over the rocks. Sequoia, I have to look things up all the time that people mention - what would we do without google?
Gita, sounds like you have had a very productive day. I was hoping to do some planting when I got home this evening, but I'm already pooped. Maybe tomorrow, but definitely this weekend...
I paid for not finishing my new garden pond before this rain!! Due to a series of things I failed to do, the torrential rain picked up freshly turned over dirt as it headed towards the pond, creating a @#%$&! mess. I did what I could today, but won't know whether the fish survived until the mud settles. As things go, not a big problem, I know - Terri's got me beat by a mile - but what a headache!
Sorry to hear about the flooding problems, Terri. Hope the culvert has been located and all is well again.
Muddy, so sorry to hear about your garden pond. Hope it is not too difficult to get it back up to speed. The poor fish!
Things are fine here, although the rain cut large rivets in some of my beds, and washed a fair amount of mulch away--right on top of a few plants by the fence! The clematis in particular took it pretty hard. Hope it makes it. A few other plants had a fair amount of mulch and soil washed away around them.
My elderly neighbor told me the other day that the lot behind me had a bit of a stream in the backyard before the house was built--and this affected the placement of the house. The rivets I tend to get back there suddenly made sense. Well, I guess I have a natural rain garden area!! I should try to make use of this. My first choice for it: a small pot of Vietnamese coriander.
Oh no, the poor fish! It'd be lovely to have a small pond, but I wouldn't have a clue how to take care of it in a rainstorm like this.
Catmint, is the Japanese maple I got from you supposed to have variegation in the leaves? When does the show up?
we got lots of heavy rain too, like everyone else. Rains flooded our basement and one of our sumps decided to break this am! Harry got a new one installed and now the excess water is flooding our outside blue hydrangea and under the deck and into hollyhocks etc ughhhhhh. tomorrow we hope to add an extension to the pipeline to push the water farther out. All in all it's not too bad when compared to some much more serious flooding stories we've been seeing in the news.
And, still no signs of life on our little fig tree :( It took over 5 years to bear figs like it yielded last year. I'm still holding on to some hope... although the tips are blackish and it sure doesn't look good
Oh my some water woes here!
wind- my fig is all black and brown except one rooted branch has sent up a nice twig. I am set back 4-5 years, fig wise..
Sorry to hear about the sump problems, Wind. Sally and Wind, hope your fig trees make it. :-(
SSG, that is a good question about the Japanese maple. I need to get out and inspect mine tomorrow as well. A very sweet 93 year old man I know through work gave me two offspring from his Higasayama late last summer, and so I have one and you have one, so it is my first spring with it as well! I'll check on mine tomorrow and let you know what mine looks like right now.
Wind, I'm so sorry to hear about your basement! We had a sump break on us once, too. Yikes! I hope you don't have too much damage.
Amazing, none of my plants had any soil washed away that I've noticed..the flood waters headed straight for the pond : )
My awful hills look virtually untouched from all this rain -- a first. I'm really surprised because we have put so much mulch and compost on some of them. I'm sure there was a lot of erosion -- it just isn't visible (yet). But I had visions of the entire face of some of the hills sloughing off (which has happened before, when it rained shortly after I did a lot of planting).
Muddy, so sorry about the pond. Keep us posted on the fish, please. What timing.
And Wind, sorry to hear about the basement. My fear is losing power during a storm and not having the sump when it is needed. Water in the basement is definitely not fun.
Muddy: My fingers are crossed for your fish. Apt name you gave yourself!
SSG, here is my maple this morning. Like I said, he gave me these two offspring last summer when I had only been gardening a few months. He showed me his mature Higasayama (very pretty). As I recall, the babies were green-leafed at the time, and he told me how Higasayama changes colors depending on the amount of light it receives. It's possible he was incorrect about everything and maybe these are not Higasayamas at all but some other type of Japanese maple. Mine has maroon leaves right now, but I recall it as green-leafed when he gave them to me last summer (do you recall what yours looked like then?), and at the time I thought it matched the online photos I was seeing of Higasayama. Hopefully they are indeed Higasayama and will change colors.
Catmint, mine looks exactly like yours. There's no variegation in the leaves so I don't think it's a Higasayama, but I'm very curious to see what it's going to look like in the summer! I can't remember at all what the tree looked like last year.
yes, I see what you mean, SSG! I had forgotten that Higasayama is supposed to be variegated. I remember the part about changing colors in response to different lighting. I was looking through my photo files and couldn't find a photo of them from last year. I thought they were more green then. Maybe I'll write the friend who gave them to me and find out more.
I may be mistaken, but I thought maples can hybridize, or cross pollinate, which could breed away the variegation. Also to consider is that variegation is usually a sport and could revert in any generation, and lastly, some plants do not show all characteristics until they mature. The last being very unlikely I believe in this case.
I have 'homegrown mutt" Acer palmatums, I believe the spring foliage starts out nice and red but it greens over summer, and goes back to red for fall.
It's a stunning red color in person, much redder than Bloodgood or the purple one I have.
But it gets kind of lost against my red brick wall.
Siting can make or break the effect, eh?
Planted two Brugs in the front garden, moved an early bloom aster there too, rescued a rooted stem of a lavender lacecap hydrangea- who wants it?- and still a number of things to figure out where they'll go. What gorgeous gardening weather. And so many flowers and plants to enjoy just being outside!
Wow, we picked the perfect time to come in and check DG. Waving hands madly at Sally for the rescued lacecap.
We may have some red maple seedlings to offer. Need to start digging first to be sure.
I'm going to try keeping Terp's Bloodgood JM in a container. Hopefully that will keep it a manageable size.
LOL--'homegrown mutt' Japanese maple. :-)
Ric, those are really good points!! I'm pretty sure there were a variety of Japanese maples in the area, so it could very well be the result of cross-pollination--or a sport that's reverting. I wrote my friend to ask him more about his own tree. Hopefully I'll hear back soon.
SSG, I agree about the color--it is really a vivid red. Sorry about leaf color/brick wall match--maybe the leaves *will* become green later??
Sally and others, you lucky ducks for being able to spend this beautiful day out in the yard! I'm working. I like my work but well--you know... such a beautiful day! (sigh)
Catmint, I'm telling myself that I don't want to be out there anyway because it's still so wet. But all I want to do is spend all day outside. :)
The red is so pretty, I should have planted it by the white fence! Let's see how the color evolves!