Unless one has endless finances, which we don't, time and patience are at the top of the ingredient list. I am considering a lasagne bed where we had to cut down a 40 year old tree last week. It has changed my landscape tremendously and in my opinion, not to the good. It had such wonderful shade. This is monkey grass that we had around it because nothing else would grow that close to it. Roots sucked everything out of the soil.
When all else fails, plant a bottle tree.
bottle tree hmm. looks easy to grow, winds here are real bad though wo would have to be in a protected spot. I was in that horrible wind storm the other day where all the cars and semis wrecked, if any of you saw it on the news. Love the yard Lou. We have just started to do our landscape after 4 years of killing crabgrass and weeds, losing plants to gophers and more.
We started with what had been a cultivated hay field....nothing but Johnson Grass. I would dream I was pulling weeds. If the roots didn't all come up....it would just help it spread more. Hope you were not injured in the wrecks. Beginning to wonder how you would up in this part of the country.
It was so hard to kill the crab grass but I waited till the dormant season and killed with a q tip and really high percent of total veg kill, straight on each emmerging blade or weed as it came up and Voila. Man if I had thought of it two years before I could have saved myself alot of torture and wasted energy. This year went into picking a spot and focusing on it and adding to the soil around my established roses that were root impacted. So not too far but a lot more hope now. I did it before so I can do it again. It is tougher here though.
I remember you were looking to move to Texas some time back, why didn't you?
Josephine.
clulu, I am the absolute worst person in the world to know what I have. Just buy what I like. This was a ground cover that I bought at HD in early spring this year. Mitch is coming soon to help me learn how to take cuttings to share. I would be thrilled to give you a part of it. Don't know if it will come back next spring or not. I just put it in the planter (has a crack and won't hold water) to cover the soil.....here I have a pretty surprise. Mostly the way I garden. Throw out the seed, put a little plant here and there and just feed and water. Some things make it and a lot don't. This one is a winner. Just wish I knew what it is.
Maybe Mitch can ID. He is much better than I will ever be.
Could not begin to count the number of plants I had that drowned. Tried to start the year with drought resistant plants........and what did we have........one of the ten wettest years in Texas history.
Lysimachia nummulariea (or reptans) ~ commonly known as creeping jenny or moneywort. There is also a goldish green one. It is a beautiful spiller and in a beautiful setting. Love the birdbath too LouC! Very pretty...
Thanks, Pod. Can always relay on someone to know what I have.....usually you or Jo.
Will it overwinter where I have it or do I need to take cuttings and save......where I don't know. I keep looking for a greenhouse but they are soooo expensive. Would mostly be easier to start all over next spring.
I need to mark my plants too, sometimes something does good and I have no clue what it is so I can not get more. The same with my seeds I nab of other places flowers or my own, I just think I`ll remember.
BTW I lied the atriplex (salt bush) that I just planted has about 100 branches on it in 3 months, not 20. Fast buggers.
More fun to start over... lol I am not a short day person so a GH would be an excellent way to extend the pleasures of summer for me... but it is not to be.
BTW, if you look at the runners on this plant you will see tiny roots. I've only first tried to root some ~ it should do so easily.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/677/ Plant files indicates it should overwinter. I am a little confused though on the pictures as mine has not ever bloomed. Has yours?
First year with this one so I have no experience on the overwintering. Especially in the birdbath. It may be more exposed. In ground, it would probably overwinter better. On that score, I don't know what to tell you... Might try leaving some out and try some starts of cuttings.
To me IDing the unusual and find it challenging to see if I can grow it. Great fun.
I am so excited that I was given a cutting from a Wooly Plectanthrus and it is gone mad and I see some big Giant things about to bloom on it. I got it at my first RU in May. I got a truck full of soil ammendments to add to my yard so I guess I will be busy tomorrow.
Oh sorry I forgot to answer. My dh thinks Texas is too much like here, hot and deserty and where it's not, too humid and hot. So I'm still working on keeping it as a possibility.
Hellnzn11 ~ don't know what else you are looking for (earning a living, etc) but tell him he is all wet! Hot and humidy maybe but Texas is not all deserty.. lol
My very woods.... 8 ))
Texas - definitely hot, but not deserty.:) Lots of places have very good soil. Rainfall varies widely. Normally (what the chances are that you'll have a normal year, I don't know), but normally our rainfall is supposed to be about 23 " ayear. We are about 1 hour north, sort of west of San Antonio and west of Austin.
Lou, I have moneywort growing too--thought it would be a cheaper mulch than mulch, LOL. Mine grows in both part sun and shade (haven't tried it in full sun). But none of it has ever bloomed.
It doesn't have to be rooted in any special way. Mine grows like mint. It roots wherever it touches. Just stick a cutting where you want it. Or dig up a piece already growing.
I'm thinning it out at both my house and my parents' house, and throwing away tons of it. If anyone needs extras, let me know, and I'll bring some to the swap.
A plant that grows similarly in the sun is golden carpet sedum, which DOES bloom, yellow, in the spring. I wish some of mine had drowned! It grows everywhere too. It's very pretty when it blooms, though. Yellow leaves in the sun, green in the shade. I can share that too.
Golden carpet sedum ~ I have never seen.... do you have a picture?
I don't have a closeup, but here's a photo I took last year when it was really coming into bloom. As I recall it blooms for about six weeks. In this photo my Georgia Blue speedwell is just starting to bloom, but when it really gets going, that blue and yellow are very pretty together. Don't know why I don't have a picture of that!
There's another clump of the sedum up next to the house, which gets more shade. As you can see, in shade it's greener and doesn't bloom. Still grows like crazy, though. In fact, that clump next to the house formed after I THOUGHT I pulled it up from that location.
Oh... forgot to mention. I know this isn't the thread where we discussed our scutellarias. But for those who were reading both threads, my Texas pink skullcap is just to the right of this picture. The sedum blooms yellow first, then the Georgia blue chimes in, and just before it finishes, the pink skullcap starts up and stays till frost. It's fun to watch my little pond area change from April to June.
Also for those who are getting water hyssop at the swap, that's it growing in the pond on the right. It comes out in April, but it doesn't bloom until about June. By midsummer you can barely see its "container."
Note to self: take more pictures in mid-summer. :)
Just to stay on topic--all of this stuff gets Epsom salts every year!
This message was edited Oct 18, 2007 11:32 PM
I checked this out in the Plant Files, and it looks like there are several different sedums that go by this name. Here's a closeup photo of the one I have.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/18984/
Very pretty pond setting... and your sedum is one I've not seen. I lean more toward the green than the gold. Sounds like when it blooms, it seeds freely. Thanks for the link and the beautiful photo.
What a difference a year makes. Just thought I would ask for your results from using Epsom Salt last growing season. I'm still using it. Have started a veggie garden this spring and haven't used ES there. Anyone have any suggestions.
It is a raised bed with a lasanga start, added 7 cu yds of dirt that is comprised of fine soil, Texas green sand, lava sand and compost. Haven't added any sort of fertilizer. Need to make a batch of alfalfa tea to spray but really have a yen to give it the old one two of Epsom Salt. Quite a bit has germinated so I sure don't want to mess up now.
Glad to see everyone this new Spring. My, my how time flies.
Christi
I always epsom/magnesium salt the garden twice a year..I should have done it already. I know the clay soil here is deficient in that category.
If you do fertilze with a soluable, there is more than plenty of salt in it.
I just did it too, today and some other areas a few weeks ago.
So far so good. I have been taking my bad clay spots and just dumping the whole alfalfa cube bag out and spreading it in the soil where I will later amend more, but it is helping with the worms there now, so that is great.
I want to get another bag for my front where the xeric plants are going to add some aeriation and worms along with some green sand which I just found in a nursury far away.
The "salt" part is sort of a misnomer. It is not "salt" at all.
it's a heck of alot easier to say "salt" than "magnesium" or rather write it
Randy it is not an exageration that we are experiencing flooding all over
Dallas. 4 inches here today and still raining really hard.
C
Oh I know!!! I'm having to deal with it here as American Airlines have cancelled 720 flights out of there...their folks are coming over to us.
It looks like it's moving a bit N.E. of us...I'm wondering if we may be spared.
Missed us in San Antonio but fouled up the airport schedules.
Did it? It looks as though we will see some action, but the really nasty stuff is headed north.
DH was in San Antonio today and he said they had mud coming from the sky. Not rain. He said the van looks like he's been driving on a really muddy road.
We had some drizzle off and on here in the NW part of town but not enough to help much. Looks threatening now though. The meteorologists said on the late news that the muddy rain occurred because a dust storm`met up with the moisture layer.
Shirley, my DGer cousin in Tyler, is mailing me a start of the common daylily, hemerocallis fulva. The plants are descendants of those our grandmother grew many years ago. She says they have not bloomed well in Tyler - I'm wondering if epsom salts will help them here.
This message was edited Mar 18, 2008 11:37 PM
silverfluter, a newspaper article today said the main part of that gunk in the rain was actually ash from a massive fire near Mexico City. There was also a dust storm near Monterrey and gusty winds at 35 mph did the rest.
Yes, I heard that too. I don't know if we had some of that in Fredericksburg too or not, but my car sure looked dirty this morning and it didn't go to SA.
Silverfluter...pretty sure you would have gotten in Fredericksburg. We got it here in Houston too. Nasty mess.
