Yardening June #2, 2014

Everyone is so busy. I have lots to catch up with while lingering over my Sunday coffee.

I was hoping that my virtual gardening friends could help me with something. I want to start blogging about my gardening (and other) adventures, but I can't decide on a blog name. Here are some of the ideas I had...

Garden Impressions (I like Impressionist art. Monet's garden is my all time favorite. However, it is a name of an outdoor furniture company). Variations - My Garden Impressions, Impressions of a Mountain Garden....

My Pocono Mountain Cottage Rose Garden
My Mountain Cottage Rose Garden
lots of variations of the above

The Accidental Sunflower
Rocks and Roses
Country Life for a City Girl
Sanity (the xbf, bff grumpypants's idea)
The Scenic Route

I plan to garden about gardening, fiberarts, cooking, home dec on a budget, furniture refinishing, whatever else I get into..I want to also start marketing my knitting and sewing patterns. I have tons of designs and samples, some are being tested now, just need to get better photographs taken and fine tune the printing format. I want to coordinate the blog name, knitting site name, etc. They don't have to all be identical, just related.

Winston the pug may start tweeting....

sounds like fun GG, you'll love blogging. I'm sure you'll settle on a name perfect for you. I kind of like "The Scenic Route" or "The Accidental Sunflower". Either one gives me visions of cottage gardening and garden impressions in general. With Roses in the name, it's nice too, but one would expect the majority of posts to be rose related. JMO (just my opinion). good luck with it. If you get a blog designer, let us know. I definitely need to update my very outdated blogger site.

got more plants planted before breakfast. going to go yank out a pretty large peanut butter shrub that is growing next to the main tree. love doing that. the roots do smell like peanut butter!

What a wonderful idea, GQ! I think they're all really attractive names. Maybe given the range of topics you're hoping to cover, Country Life for a City Girl is most descriptive?

This message was edited Jun 22, 2014 10:38 AM

I think I like Impressions of a Mountain Garden...
I am just so ADD when I am working in the garden. I started out thinking I was going to clean up and plant some annuals in one of the main front beds. So I took the wheelbarrow around to the compost pile to dump it and walked passed one of the back beds. Next thing you know I am cutting back a few branches on the bushes in that bed. Moving around some of the mulch piles that were dumped there and needed spread. Planting a few plants in that bed. Then before I finish with that bed I decided that I will need the hose and on the way to get the hose I walked pass a very small rather hidden bed. I noticed that it needed weeded and I remembered that I had a plant I wanted to put in there. Next thing you know I'm weeding and planting that bed. At least that one actually got finished. Just cam in for a break and I wonder if I will ever make it to that front bed today.

LOL Holly. I know what you mean!

GardenQuilts-
I like Country Life for a City Girl, I also like Rocks and Roses very much, probably more. It evokes 'bumps in the road and good things too" and hints at country/city in my mind..(can you tell I've been binge watching Mad Men) Rocks and Roses would make for a brand name I think. (Rocks and Roses patterns) I think you want an easy to remember and pass along name, plus a quick explanation of what it will be (R and R: country life for a city girl, ) I'm sure there are helps on the web about how to best title and lay out your sites.

Holly- too funny, too true!!

GQ, I prefer blogs that have a unique perspective, so I like the idea of incorporating Pocono or Mountain into the title.

Holly, I know what you mean! I get myself in trouble when I end up just sitting out there, staring at the plants, instead of doing any actual yardening. Yesterday as I was taking a long break, I decided to transplant half of the plants in one of the beds. More work for me this fall!

Sally, or anyone else who recognizes this plant: is it a weed ? It's growing in one of my neighbor's yards and I told him I thought it was a weed but wasn't sure.

I vote for it as a weed...G.

Yeah, I think you're right. I told him I'd pull it up if it were growing in my yard. The problem is that this is their first spring in the house and they don't know whether some things are keepers or tossers.

Muddy, I think I've seen several of those this year too. -- my mom and I watched one for awhile because it looked promising, but hers turned out to be a weed.

I get a lot of whatever that is -- mine are very fleshy. For a long time I thought they were Blue Lobelia seedlings....

Yep, Def a weed, that one I recognize.

I see those in my yard, too...

That weed is always deceiving to me because it looks like it could be a lobelia. I've never given it a chance in our garden though; it always gets yanked.

Bec, if your beetles are bigger and colored like JBs, they are probably Asiatics.
Catmint, We use Preen in our mulched areas to help prevent germination of weeds, The only drawback is if you plant after you apply you may as well reapply.

(moving the hosta swap topic here from the Group Buy thread)

Terp just received a nice variety of hostas from the DG hosta swap. I really love that tokudama hosta. Great texture and color combination.

I failed to mention the secret swap until it was too late this year. I thought I had mentioned it last year.

Anyway it is always a fun swap because you never know who is sending you what until you've received it. The requirements are only to send one named hosta but usually people send at least 2 and as many as 6 or 7. I try and send 2 or 3 and a few bonuses. If it sounds like something you'll be interested in in the future then you can read more here http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1360974/
and simply watching the thread will alert you to next year's swap or coming swaps.

It is the only mailing of plants I do these days.

If it was an 'established' perennial there would be more than one stalk...so it is new to there and probably from seed. I rarely plant only one of a kind so if there aren't others like it, it was likely not planted by previous owners.

That is a very sensible way to look at it Coleup! You're right-- one of the ways I know it's something I sowed is if there's a whole bunch of them just alike!

I think I have another cleome volunteer coming up-- and oodles of yellow Celosia from my plant last year!

LOL -- Catmint, you wrote: "One of the ways I know it's something I sowed is if there's a whole bunch of them just alike." That doesn't work for me -- I have weeds sprouting so thickly in some places it looks as if I dumped a bag of seeds in one spot.

I'm with Happy, if I have a lot of something it is almost surely a weed. ;-)

LoL you guys!

I got started on trimming shrubs and hedge, but when the four yard waste containers got filled, I decided let them get emptied tomorrow before continuing, and also so I wouldn't have trimmings in the way of DS cutting the grass. Good excuses eh??!?! What a lovely afternoon its turned out! Actually, grass got done, now I can trim, and let it lay till the bins are empty. And till I have time, which means Thursday.

Awesome speedie! I'll see you there next year. Mayyyybe I'll be your mystery sender!

I also 'watched' the hosta swap thread so you never know who will be your mystery sender! :-D

Wheeeee! Or, maybe I'll get to be yours! =) ... Hmmmm, guess this means I'll have to do a little researching to find out **for sure** the names of the ones I've got already. ;)

Gees, Sally, and I thought I was busy filling up 2 containers of yard waste!

I was deadheading the rose campion and noticed that the stems with no fresh blooms and only dead flowers already had dead leaves. I don't think I'll be getting a second flush of blooms from this one.

What do you do with wood poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) this time of the year? The leaves are looking a little beat up. Do you let it naturally go dormant or can I prune the leaves? They're in a wet area so they might not go dormant on their own.

Also, does monarda rebloom if you deadhead? How much should I cut off when deadheading? By a third, or just the bloom?

Btw, I'm very impressed with how well May Night reblooms after deadheading.

Yes May Night is a great rebloomer! I've managed to collect several salvia since May Night, but it is still my favorite.

OK speaking of weeds, check out what I've got growing in the cracks of my patio! :-)

Speedie, I'll bet you have a nice bird roost above all that poke weed. LOL

Thanks for the feedback on the weed, everyone. Very helpful and funny too! I'll tell my neighbor he has yet another kind of weed to pull. I just broke the news to them that the "mystery ground cover" growing amongst their lovely patch of Common Milkweed is Crown Vetch, so I'll save the rest of the "good news" for this weekend : )

Editing after thinking about it...the mystery does bear some resemblance to a Great Blue Lobelia seedling, and I just remembered that they sowed GB Lobelia seeds I gave them earlier this year. Maybe I should go take another look!


This message was edited Jun 23, 2014 10:13 PM

Has anyone figured out what's growing in the cracks of my patio (photos above)? I think it's not what most people would expect to find in pavement cracks! :-)

Celosia?

Yes they must be seedlings from the huge yellow Celosia volunteer I had last year! I'm going to try leaving them as is and see what happens! :-)

Cat, I knew it was the celosia before I even clicked on the thumbnail! I have it growing in my front yard bed. it's just starting to show its flower. I have to get the pictures from my computer at home for a good look, but here's a couple of snaps. One close up and one of the whole bed. I love how you can tell what color the flower of celosia you will get by looking at the midribs of the leaves before they start blooming. Has made differentiating the amish cockscomb volunteers from your yellow seedlings easy!

Cat--I think #3 could be a 4-O'Clock. Did I not give you some of the 4's
"Broken Colors"? If itr is--gently work it loose from the crack and plant it in a bed.

Needs lots of room to grow and bloom. G.

Typ, your celosia looks great--and what is that vivid beautiful blue plant/flower in the back behind it? What a lovely color combination!

hi, Gita, I need to get a photo of the 4 o'clocks for you.

definitely not 4 o'clocks... G. I have a nice little patch of yours from last year. I really loved those too