Welcome to the Carolinas forum!

Thanks. The hydrangeas are not too big; I think they'll move easily. I have some crinum bulbs also that I want to try to dig up--they weigh a ton! The new house has a beautiful zoysia lawn, so I'd imagine I'll be learning about that and maybe buying a reel mower. There are also several mature crepe myrtles. Color will be a surprise! Lots of box and hollies as foundation plantings. Maybe they'll keep the burglars away! I'm excited about the move and looking forward to working in the yard. I've read in Carolina Gardener magazine about planting vegetables in hay bales. Has anyone tried this here? How well does it work?
Laura

This message was edited Mar 21, 2006 3:47 PM

Hello! New to gardening, moved to Gastonia January 05 from Atlanta. In GA we had mostly shade, now is mostly sun and currrently having a pool stuck in the ground. I'll be choosing lots of plants in the very near future to make the area look pretty. Some screening plants, ornamentals, bushes, small trees, and a cut flower garden, and veggies.

No, I don't have much space, its only a 1/3 acre here, house and lot. So I need to plan accordingly. I'm thrilled to have sun here, and love climbing roses, dahlias, hydrangeas to name a few. Plus want to attract butterflies. Maybe not too many birds if you know what I mean. ;)

Any suggestions from the local community would be helpful for tried and true plantings. I'm 7b here.

Thanks, have a great day, the sun has finally returned.!

Hi ya'll :)

Yeaaa...our own thread!!! I just found it the other day, since I hadn't been on line for a while, due to an injury I had back in Nov. But gradually getting back into now. Welcome Ya'll !!

Eric

Good morning from the foothills of lower podunk South Carolina. As a 7b, I started my first post in the mid-south forum and then found y'all. There's stuff out there in that plot of mine that appears to be in some stage of growth, but I'm not sure you should call me a gardener.

Although I've lived in this house for 30 years I am new to gardening on purpose. I've pitched some flowering stuff at the yard here and there over the years and what ever is still growing is thanks to the care of the universe more than mine. I finally gave up on all but rugosas when I realized I must the the world's most horrid gardener and a considerable expense of roses faltered under my less than precise care. The fact that Chelsea Morning remains true to form and still presents me with her smallish roses is a miracle I credit to my husband smiling down at me a couple times a year. Ditch lillies and my rescued K-mart Stella d'Oro's do well up front as does the Wild Blackberry and ubiquitous Kudzu that reigns supreme in what I call the back 40 of my little 1 1/2 acre plot of bumpy, hard packed, rock strewn clay.

Previous to 1972 I was a coastal California gal surrounded by year long blooms and houseplants that were outdoor plants who managed to get herself hitched to a sweet, shy southern boy who transplanted me when his tour with Uncle Sam was complete and I've never looked back. We raised 2 kids and began on one grandmonkey (my nickname for our only grandchild who is now a precocious pre-teen) here. Other than the summers and missing his sweet smile, I love my little blue collar subdivision plunked in the middle of a cow pasture in the boonies.

I look forward to learning to garden with something that approaches a purpose as I read through this forum and connecting with people who battle the same red clay and stones that rule this roost. (IS there a grass other than the clumpy fescue I love to hate that grows well in this darn stuff????)

I should doubtless take up pottery and rock art instead of attempting purposeful gardening.

My grandparents loved gardens, and somehow this biological internal gene has taken control. I find myself with several raised bed plots, and fruit trees. Using mulch and arm with a shovel and hoe my garden plots contain strawberries, beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers, lettus, and pumkins this year. It gives our childeren a chance to complain about how much they hate the work, all while they proceed to talk to my wife and I about there day to day life and things that are on their minds. Our gardens abundance is shared with our neighbors and friends, which builds fellowship.

This photo was taken on a dreary day. If you look closely you can see the fat clusters of unripe blueberries just beginning to bow the branches.

I love the picture Missgarney. Makes me wish I was there already. Are the blueberries wild or did you plant them? How much room do they take up and are they hard to maintain and control? Blueberries are one of my favorite snack fruits. They are very expensive to buy here so I dont have them often.

Hello from Columbia, SC, where the heat is threatening to really get oppressive. But I'd much prefer a stifling day to what happened last Sunday -- quarter-sized hail which ripped Cardoon, Canna, and Calla lily leaves. :(

How delightful to see GGG here -- she is one exceptional gardener!

Fleurs, what is the humidity level there right now? I am trying to keep a diary of the weather this year so I can have a slight idea of what to expect next year. I talked to my friend in York, SC and it is 80 degrees with 65% humidity right now, scattered rain clouds but none falling yet. I was curious as to the difference from your area to ours.

Carat, my hubby is a weather nut with one of those digital thingies he can "read" from his computer. Can't seem to get the current reading, but this morning at 9 am, it was 73.6° with 63% humidity.

I'm about 1½ hours south of York.

CARAT, the blueberries were planted by the previous owners and I do nothing with them save prune in early spring, mulch with ground oak leaves in the fall, and eat them out of hand when ripe. Wish it were a better picture, the photo does not do them justice. We have wild blueberries in the woods around here as well.

CARAT, I'm sitting here trying to get up my nerve (or would it be lose my mind?) to go outside to get some work done. The digital thingie says that at 11:27 this morning, the temp was 103.8° with 26% humidity.

Yikes!

Fleurs, can that be right? 26% humidity at that temperature in Columbia, SC?!

fleurs, I can feel your pain. It just wipes all your energy away...

I vote that you stay inside until the sun goes down. I do 95% of my summer gardening by lamp light at midnight around here.

But 26% humidity is great! I don't think we ever have that here, we are almost always WET or DAMP or HUMID.

Well, I have a wee confession to make. Turns out that at abut 11:30 every morning, the sun shines directly on the weather sensor which causes the temperature to spike on the digital reading. So you were quite right, missgarney. That 103.8 reading was NOT right at all.

Okay, now for today's readings: at 7 am, it was 67.1° with 87% humidity; at 10:13 pm, 77.2° with 64% humidity. The high today was a typical 92°.

P.S. So if the shining sun skews the digital reading of the temperature, what does that same sun do to the gardener toiling away? Please pass the lemonade, ma'am...

Watched the weather channel this evening when it said that we had a high of 103 today. Then walked outside to the thermometer on the porch in the shade and it was reading 105 at 5:30pm. I hate how the national weather bureau will only acknowledge our airport as the only official tempature. The same program was predicting that we will be in the 106-110 range for the rest of the week and into the weekend. Planning on alot of indoor activities that is for sure.

CARAT, but a dry heat, right? (I've always heard that dry heat doesn't hit you in the gut the way damp heat does). Still, you must feel as if you live inside a heated oven there.

Fleurs, well I am ready to move NOW!!!!!!!! Its 5:20pm 108 degrees and 69% humidity. Dark clouds lumming in the distance but they never drop any rain from them.

How in the world do humans -- and plants -- live in that kind of heat?!

Some plants (and some people) wouldn't have it any other way! I know a woman who is from, of all places, northern France. But she LOVES the heat. She has lived all over the world and her two favorite places to live were the Ivory Coast and South Africa. She lived in Orlando, FL and never turned on the air conditioning in her home. FREAKY! But think about it...if we hadn't invented clothes, where would you prefer to live? Even 65 degrees might be a problem for some people.

Fluers, this is the reason for my 700.00 a month electric bill. And one of the top 10 reasons for moving. I do okay for the most part but it gets real old real fast. Today we actually got rain. It downpoured for about 40 minutes on the west side of the valley. The temps were in the low 100's before the rain and then afterwards it dropped quickly into the 80's which is really nice right now. Still sticky out but cool enough to be outside.

Missgarney, I agree with that theory. I am not a cold weather person in anyway. The change of seasons is nice, and snow is beautiful to look at through a window or on TV but I could never live in it. Once I get cold which happens quite easily it takes forever for me to warm up again. If clothes had never been invented I would have to be rich enough to chase summer around the globe or live on the equator where the temp remains the same all year. One of my dearest friends lives in Russia and hates the heat so much that every summer she visits all her friends that live in cold weather areas. She simply refuses to come here, even in the winter, which she calls a burp in summer for her.