My name is Janice. I am a plantaholic. I will NEVER plant a wave petunia in the ground again. They are strangling everything in their path. I only planted 2. This was a new bed at the end of may so I figured it would take a while to fill in but between the waves and the sage.... Well as you see.
You notice that the poor lavender has about gone to lavender heaven. I am moving it as soon as it cools off today.
Moving around to the back side. I have thoroughly annoyed the attack hummer who considered the sage "his" territory. It is about to bloom again and he is keeping all comers away from his bush.
This thing gets too close the the guara and it will get its head lopped off. Can I chop on this thing or will I kill it. The color is fantastic, but it is wearing out its welcome.
I had to throw this one in cause I like it. This plectranthus cutting is very happy in the front yard too. I am hardening its big brother to be moved out front as the project continues.
Frogsrus: You can cut petunias back and it won't hurt them at all. It is a beauty.
My mistake of the year was taking that very warm April we had and treating it as gospel. I planted my cannas, and other plants outdoors too soon. I knew better, but just couldn't stand myself when it was so warm outside. Then, in May and early June it got real rainy, cold, and very windy. Everything is pretty much still alive, but they were stunted, and I will never make that horrible mistake again. Mothers Day is the rule of thumb where I live, and I will definitely keep that as gospel from here on.
My mistake of the year was to only buy two hummingbird feeders and then to place them really close to the house.
Now we are bombarded by mean hummers on a mission, hehe. :-| That was a sarcastic hehe. LOL
Your petunias are so lovely!!!
You can always move them! ;)
frogsrus, I am so jealous of your plectranthus -- I planted one about that size and it grew into a beautiful 2x3' specimen. Then the cold winter winds hit and it literally melted, just like the Wicked Witch of the East in Oz! We get very few frost days up here in Northern CA but those cold winds are almost as bad for the frost-tender perennials.
I do have some plectranthus elsewhere in more sheltered spots that are doing fine, but I miss that beauty in the front yard! Here's a picture of it a few months before it died:
Looks like a foresteri? That is the only one I have managed to kill-and I have lots of them. Marginatus (the variegated in my pic) is more cold tolerant. Turns pink around the edges. Want some?
My mistake of the year was moving here.
lol @ darius! too funny - hope you get used to your new place soon, and it's climate, and all that stuff you have to deal with as a gardener, and oh yeah - then there's the social aspect - gotta get used to them neighbors, and the people at the grocery store/market, and..........................
Didn't know you'd just moved. Give it time......... I love NC!
Frogs- I just don't get these new fangled Wave petunias either. Yours look pretty albeit invasive ...mine are not what I wanted.
I wanted the old fashioned kind that start dripping down. We have a half of an old chimney in our kitchen garden behind a white lavender and a white cala. I designed it so that I could put white petunias like I grew in Texas in the chimney and have them drape down the front of the chimney behind the other white pretties. I bought white petunias.
Well....helllooooo....wave petunias don't drape. Ever. Just too darn perky and I hate them in there. I had no idea there was a petunia that didn't cascade. This is my view from where I do dishes and I wanted PRETTY darn it while I slave!!!
So now they are eye level and you just see all of this stone work, then stems and then some okay flowers. Wave Petunias are not pretty from that angle. Neither am I. LOL
My mistake of the year? Carefully calculate exactly how much bulk mulch to buy.
This is the day it was delivered - Thursday, April 15th Tax Day.
Today July 12th - 3 months later I still have about 12 wheelbarrow loads sitting there. I've shared (gladly) with 3 neighbors and my mother. No matter how good a deal it appears to be....calculate precisely how much bulk mulch to buy. :-P
I'm planning to bag up the remaining and use it this fall....next spring....next fall.....gosh knows how much longer I'll have this stuff.
Another mistake for me too but mine was pea gravel.
Bemuda will grow through 8 inches of standing pea gravel, ya'll.
Just an FYI.
And the neighbors don't want any.
I wish mine was because I planted something or ordered something.
Mine.... so far....is trying to sterilize peat pellets in the microwave......dry.....and walking away from them. They caught on fire in the microwave and I didnt even know it until I smelled them in another room. The whole inside was black, stinky and I couldnt save any of the pellets. The poor thing is still yellow from the smoke but luckily it shut itself off and didnt go any further than alot of smoke discoloring and the smoke smell.
We still have five months left of the year so who knows whats going to happen.
Well...Daisy if I was a bit closer I'd take some of that pea gravel! LOL!
ROFL!!! Sorry lanbr but setting your house on fire sterilizing peat pellets is SO the kind of thing I would do! Drives dh crazy when he finds mud in the micro...
My mistake of the year was, gosh, there were so many, don't which to pick...this is so funny to see the screw ups committed by all of you "serious gardeners" - I suddenly feel much better about my weeds, my design problems, all the dead plants...
Here is mine: throwing away an entire flat of 6 inch celosia seedlings that "just didn't look like much, no time to plant em anyway."
Here's what the two that I kept turned into. (Stupid! Stupid! Banging self on head)
LOL Darius...my other mistake was not moving to NC!
Potting up my Caladiums before the weather got HOT-- they just sulk, and a few of them even rotted. Most survived though, and are spectacular companions to both Cannas and Hostas. Thanks to "eyes"' co-op, I was able to use them liberally throughout the garden.
My mistake started last year and continues to haunt us...We took out an old crabapple in the front of the house to replace with a more disease resistant variety. My husband kept saying, "do you want me to rent a stump grinder to get at that stump?" No, I was sure it would be fine. Ha! The sprouts that come up from the stump and surrounding area look like a poorly placed large bush from the sidewalk, while up close its just a mess of sprouts that we can not rid ourselves of.
Welcome to DG roseof karen. love the name. Never too late for that stump grinder lol. I have a cypress stump that I keep waiting to rot enough to take out. In the meantime, kids and Grandpa got dreative and drilled holes in it and started a cactus garden. Now I do not know what to do if I do get the blasted thing out.
I had a gallon of round-up that I only use for attacking those nasty little devils that grow in the cracks of the driveway and sidewalk. I put some in an old Windex bottle (I know, its a sin to use mis-labeled bottles) and sat it on the front porch so I could monitor the outcome. My teen daughter who decided to mist the Fuchsias in the hanging planters in one of her rare helpful moods used it and do I really need to say what happened.
Moral of the story: Always, always clearly label what is in bottles and lock them up in a safe place.
Roseofkaren, I too have a stump problem, one which becomes more of a problem as it grows.. sprouts turn into miniature trees and then I cut them off. Round up and brush killer don't seem to bother this CATALPA in the least.
This tree was a stump at ground level when we got the house in '89 so this on and off battle has been forever. Fortunately mine's not in the front but in the backmost corner of the yard. Shudda put some kind of acid on it to eat it up long ago. Outta sight.... Blooms
Yikes! DH thought weed killer (which I abhor) would help, so now stump is huge, green on the botton with brown tops. Blooms, you have not given me much hope on this matter! Did I mention the tree that haunts me was the type of crabapple that lost all of its leaves by July 1st, unless I sprayed it weekly with copper soap, and that was met with limited sucess. First it didn't live, now it won't die. I think its out there taunting me now...
roseofkaren, your crabapple was probably grafted on to some hardy rootstock so you have only killed the top. I had an apple like that which was growing like a bush when we moved here. I selected the straightest, most centered sprout and kept cutting off all the others. After several years and nothing but leaves we yanked the whole thing out after making a huge hole, cutting roots with an axe and jerking it out with the front end loader on the tractor with a chain. The roots had grown to an impressive size. My mistake was not to remove it years sooner which would have been much easier.
nadabigfarm - YIKES!!! What an shame!!! Good lesson to remember.
What's wrong with a crabapple folks?
I planted one 3 years ago, and I love mine!
Although, I did locate it in an "out of the way" place.
Mine? thinking those cute little four striped plant bugs couldn't possibly do as much harm as the books said, and not treating them the MINUTE I first saw them. Basil and sage will be completely dead by this weekend, many of the perenials in the new beds I planted this year are mere stumps of their former potted selves, and I honestly don't think I stand a chance against them. Lesson learned.
Oh yeah...the "mistake of the year." :-D Mine was buying "stock" from Farmers Seed catalog. Seeing the pictures of mature plants in NO way prepared me for the "rooted cuttings" I was to receive. AND you should have seen my DH's face when he asked me how much money I spent on the "twigs" HAHAHAHAHA...and what's worse is I ordered 4 Dwarf Burning bushes that I planted in my flower bed (just to get them started, mind you). The #%$# rabbits took a liking to new growth (YES! they *did* grow!) and took the 4 'twigs' BACK to stage one. I probably paid 4.00 a piece for them...so yesterday, what does DH do? He comes home from Wally world with a Dward Burning bush in a gal container, hands it to me saying "Now...you won't have to have a heart attack when the bunnies stop by for supper. THIS one will LIVE!" (Not if *I* can help it, it won't! hehehehe)
Yep...note to self 1 cent sales DO NOT make an instant garden! :-D
~julie~
Peat pellets in the NUKKER??? :-D (I love it...sounds just like me! )
Edited to add...DH only paid $6.00 for the DBB!! Arghhhhhh
;-)
This message was edited Jul 23, 2004 3:17 PM
This message was edited Jul 23, 2004 4:00 PM
Leisurlee - I thought they were cute too! ;(
I have only been gardening since April but I made a whopper of a mistake. It is my goal to attract butterflies and hummers so I purchased eight one gallon size bee balm transplants. I left them in my backyard before I transplanted them that afternoon. Within two hours they were covered by a swarm of bees. I didn't know what to do with them. I called a bee keeper and he wanted $75 just to come out. So I completely covered my self from head to toe and exterminated them with hornet/wasp spray the next evening. I felt bad about doing this but our neighborhood has a problem with killer bees and I didn't want any of those, for sure.
This message was edited Jul 25, 2004 1:37 PM
Do not plant bachelor buttons or poppies either. They are bee magnets. My whole yard hums by mid March.
