Its working for me now, Jamie. Is there a before of the magnolia? Wish I had one like that! There was a newly planted one here when we bought this place but, it didn't survive the winter.
Shade garden plants in Texas
Still works fine for me...both the thumbnails and the full size. A few of them are somewhat slow in loading and I'm on DSL, so those with a slower connect could just be having their browser time out before it loads. Because webshots (and many others are free hosting sites, they get a lot of traffic on their bandwidth. Not much you can do about that.
I had a huge magnolia at my house in Virginia. It had been planted in a small strip of ground between my and my next door neighbors driveway and it is was pretty close to my house. Never had a bit of trouble with it even though a couple of other trees hit the roof over the years in storm or were struck by lightning.
Well, I've tried several times. Guess it's just not gonna work for me. :-(
I suppose if some people can open it, Webshots will claim it isn't a problem on their end. But I am going to ask anyway- maybe there is something you can do from your computer to make it load. On the other albums I chose the "faster load" option as opposed to the "better quality." On this one I am pretty sure I forgot to change it to that option, so maybe it is taking them too long to load and your browsers are timing out? Anyway, I'll ask. Trunnels- I could email you the album via the "invite others to view the album" feature they have and see if that works for you. If you want to give me your email addy I can try that. LMK. I didn't mean to take over this thread with my Webshots issues. Sorry guys!
Pville- Don't know if you checked out my "pond" album on Webshots, but the pond is between the house and that magnolia. The crack in the pond happened as a result of the roots from that tree. DH stuck his fingers in the crack and could feel the root. I am going to patch it AND put in a liner anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem... at least not for a long time. But I am concerned about the roots affecting my foundation. The structural engineer told us to "just watch it" and look for signs of damage. He thinks the roots grow well below the concrete slab, but couldn't tell for sure. Anyway, we'll see. I hope he's right! The house was built in 1922- I have enough foundation issues without that tree giving me trouble. :)
All the "before" pictures are in that album- don't think there is a good one of the yellow leaves though. I was in a hurry to take them before they got to work and my digital camera isn't all that great!
I hear ya TG. I was always amazed that I didn't have problems with that magnolia in Virginia. Maybe just plain ole lucky. I have a much smaller tree in the front yard now that has to go because it is over the main water line and the roots have caused it to leak twice at the tune of a couple hundred dollars a pop each time it happened....not to mention what it did to my water bill that month!
My pecan trees are right next to the back door and their roots grew through one of the little 1 inch water pipes that run up to the house. It did cost a couple hundred bucks to fix it! The roots just grew right through the pipe. I hate pecan trees- mine don't even produce so I really hate them! Because I live in a historic district, I am not allowed to remove any "mature landscape trees" without landmark commission approval. I told one of their members that if it comes to that and they say "no," they will be getting the bill each time I have to fix a pipe. :)
Grrrrr!
There are ways of taking care of that. Girdle the tree at the base and it will die. Make sure you do it below the soil line so they can't see it.
Oooohhhhh, you are so sneaky! I like it! My DH actually likes the nasty things so I think he will have to see another plumbing bill before he will agree to remove them. Our ordinance does allow for removal of diseased trees or trees that could be dangerous or "cause property damage." I have already looked it up! Honestly, I didn't get approval to do all that demo I did, which did involve tree removal. No one ever said anything. Not like they can make you put them back!
My pet peeve is the thoughtless planting of trees. Like they just took a one gallon tree, spun around in the yard, dropped it and planted it where it landed! As if they gave no thought to the mature size of the thing! We have a gorgeous, HUGE redbud, but it is less than a foot from the corner of our front porch. So it scrapes the roof and has lots of roots right at the base of the house. The arborist told us that tree is probably 30 years old and redbuds aren't long lived. But it still blooms and it isn't diseased. When it comes time to remove it, we will NOT be planting another tree that close to the house!
The webshots loaded for me just fine... And I wish I could take one of those huge trees off your hands!
We planted 7 trees over 7 years ago, and have just started to get shade. I think there is enough for 2 lawnchairs to sit in the shade for about 30 minutes... But someday... there will be plenty. AND we planted them far enough away from the house... as that is a pet peeve of ours to have them in the wrong place for mature size. Hope they make it 20 years now!
You are exactly right. A lot of people give absolutely no thought whatsoever to where they are plopping that tree. I'm amazed at how many trees are planted right under power lines and then 10 years later, it has to be lopped off by the city tree trimmers because they are getting tangled up or are about to.
I actually LOVE all three of my big trees. I'm just not too fond of where they put the magnolia. My live oaks are a good distance from the house, but they do grow under (now over and through) the power lines. Even that isn't an issue if they are pruned as they grow. No one had ever done that to these trees so the big heavy branches just laid on top of the power lines. The electric company has installed three poles trying to lift the line out from under the branches. Thank God they didn't start hacking on the tree! The aborist we used cut what he could, but in order to keep the tree shape nice, he just cut limbs off the main limb that goes across the power line. That did significantly reduce the weight, but I am afraid of things like lightening striking the branch and crashing down on the power line. But those live oaks are gorgeous and provide good filtered light for my gardens. I am trying to locate the great grand kids of the couple who owned my house from 1926 - 1967 when the wife passed away. Researching the history of a building is as addictive as gardening so I have to watch myself or I spend all day in the library! Good winter activity though... :) Anyway, I am hoping to get info on various things, including old photographs that may show the outside and condition of the yard when they owned it. The arborist thinks the oaks were there from the time the house was built, but not too sure about the magnolia.
Jamie
I moved into my house 4 years ago. There was 35 foot cottonwood tree planted three foot from my house and a 45 foot sycamore planted right in the center of my back yard. I bought the house from the original owners who built it 31 years ago. When I asked them WHY those trees were where they were, the wife told me that she planted the one next to the house so that she could see it while sitting at her breakfast table and the one in the backyard just because she thought you were supposed to put a tree in the middle! Well, the year after I moved in, when I could save some money, I had both of them cut down. I still have two huge trees in the front, one red oak and one live oak, and a sweet gum tree that I planted 3 years ago. More trees in the back corners of my yard but at least I got those monster house killers out of there.
oh don't even get me started on on new home builder landscaping. I swear if I ever by a to be built house I'm gonna specify, no landscaping, no trees, no turf, no nothing.....just collect your garbage instead of burying it and cover everything with straw.
Unbelieveably, this wasn't the builder who planted the trees. The homeowner planted baby trees herself. Those trees weren't the only things she planted that made no sense!
Tell her she has a good future as a home builder LOL
Well Terrie, there are a million things about this old house that have us shaking our heads and asking "why?" :) From the electrical work to the plumbing to the horrible paint job, Winnie the Pooh stickers on the hardwood floors, inappropriate trees, gawd awful nandina, etc. Why?!?! We have had some good laughs though. Let's just say this place was owned by a do-it-yourselfer who shouldn't have!
OMG, Winnie the Pooh stickers on the hardwoods? LOL
Maybe it was a Winnie the Pooh cult!! tee hee
Ha! Seriously, two owners before us had a little boy and I think he did it. At least I hope it was a kid!
Hey Jaime! I just found your email in my spam catcher. I love your house. You did a great job of re-landscaping and I am drooling over all of your shaded areas!
Well you just saw the demo! It looks better now- but thanks! Maybe you can venture down from Plano and see it in person someday. I would love to see your garden! :) Hmmm... wonder why I was picked up as "spam" in your email? Anyway, glad you finally got to see the pictures.
I would love to come see it, Jamie! And would also love to have you over to see my gardens. Unfortunately, they don't look so hot right now. But come spring . . . :-)
Oh and about the spam catcher, it is very sensitive here at work and it probably dumped you there because you were attaching a web link. You are "approved" now so it won't happen again.
This message was edited Nov 2, 2004 5:54 PM
Ha! I know what ya mean. Mine are kind of a wreck now too. Glad I'm off the spam list! :)
These are some of my plants growing in shade with no direct sun:
Red firespike, hosta (So Sweet), cyclamen (dig up the bulbs when they go dormant so that they do not rot), river fern, Japanese fern, autumn fern, lenten rose, sweet violet, wandering jew white, low fern, kaffir lily, hairy wandering jew (Tradescantia spathacea), white-flowered Wandering jew (Tradescantia fluminensi) - this comes up by itself, but is easily removed from places you do not want to grow), golden club moss, baby's tears
These have some morning sun and filtered shade in the afternoon:
Gingers:
Variegated Shell Ginger, Black Ginger 'Midnight', 'Elizabeth'
Begonia: tuberous begonias (protect during freezes), waxleaf begonias(bring baskets in during freezes, mulch over ones in the ground), hardy begonia, star begonia (Begonia heracleifolia - somewhat rare, native to Mexico - bring in during freezes), cane begonia (bring in during freezes)
Petunia: dwarf Mexican petunia (Katie and purple variety), red wild petunia (Ruellia elegans),
wild petunia (Ruellia humilis)
Salvia: sapphire carpet sage (electric blue), eye-lash sage, 'Coral Nymph' (Salvia coccinea), Sinaloa Sage (Salvia sinaloensis), Blue Anise Sage 'Black and Blue' (Salvia guaranitica)
Others: blue shade, liriope, rain lily, variegated hrydrangea, spider plants, pigeonberry, wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca), ), sweet violets, dwarf penta, shrimp plant, princess flower, four o'clocks, 'Mona Lavender' plectranthus, acuba, cala lily, Brazilian plume flower, geranium, kaffir lily, Chinese Fringe shrubs, woodland phlox, hairy wandering jew (Tradescantia spathacea), palmy, spikes, chameleon, several types of sedum, cast iron, coral bells, false freesia, water zinnia (Wedelia trilobata - can be invasive), golden club moss, oyster plant (Tradescantia spathacea - invasive in Fla., but I have never had a problem with it like I have with the purple heart which I hate unless I see it in someone else's yard ), white-flowered wandering jew (Tradescantia fluminensis), baby's tears, umbrella plant (Cyperus alternifolius), trailing chenille plant (in hanging basket - bring in during freezes), geranium (Regal) and other geraniums (bring in during freezes)
Fern: Tassel, Autumn, Japanese Holly, Japanese Painted, Indian holly, river
Annuals: stock, magilla perilla, cloeme, gerbera daisy, black-eyed Susan vine
Oh my gosh, Htop!! Show us some pics!!!
Hi, I'm new to the forum, but I'vebeen reading your conversation. It's beginning to give me some hope that maybe I can actually get my shady front yard to look better. My back yard is very sunny and fun to plan. My front yard has shade from live oaks on one side and from a pecan on the other. It's all dry shade, but the pecan tree is the biggest challenge. I also have two raised beds and one has a window above it. I would really like to ask HTOP how much she waters her shade gardens. That's a wonderful list of plants, but I know I'm not going to have time or energy to do a lot of watering in the front.
BTW dstartz, I talked to my mother-in-law about the geneology thing. She said the Startz married the Loeffler's, but they are also part of Tom's ancestry. I can't keep all these dead people straight, but she said she would check her records. Tom also has that info, but he hasn't had a chance to look at it yet.
siverfluter, I am sorry that I forgot to add this thread to my watch list, so I did not see your question until now. I really don't have to water the shade plants (they are all in raised beds) that are in the ground a lot depending upon whether we receive sufficient rain. I have applied a lot of cypress mulch around the plants and I water them very deeply when I do water. I also water moisten the mulch. I would say about every 10 days or so. I have to water the hanging basket plants more than the in-ground plants. I usually water the baskets once a week, but in very hot weather more often if the temperatures are in the upper 90s and 100s. The firespike, geraniums, club moss, umbrella plant, chameleon plant, variegated hydrangea and calla lily need to be watered more often than the other plants. I have to give the annuals including impatiens, coleus and caladiums more water than the others dependig upon the heat. I have tried to group plants by watering needs which helps. Most of the shubs which include red tip photinia, cast iron, Chinese fringe, plumbago, acuba and nandina do not usually need supplemental water unless we are experiencing a drought.
What are the trees that provide the shade? Are there any pecans?
I have huge oak and crepe myrtle trees and one very large pomegranite tree that was supposed to be a drwarf shrub, but obviously wasn't. I also have 3 sweet olive trees, but nothing is planted in the flowerbed surrounding them. I don't have any pecan trees.
You are blessed not to have a pecan tree to deal with. I love pecans, but I really think the trees should not be in peoples yards. The branch structure on this one is very strange. My husband actually talked one about cutting it down, because he was afraid one of the branches would break off and hit the house. The only thing I would miss is the shade because it is on the south side of the house. I think I would plant a red oak or something.