Yep, Cracker Barrel is one of our favorites too. Yes, this vacation is exactly what Chris needs. Don't we all? My son Tucker has informed me that he is going to the beach with a bunch of guys the 9th of June, so John and I are considering taking that week too if we can arrange for a dog sitter. I can't decide where I would like to go yet.
See you good folks later on.
Ruby
A place to show off your new additions, and spring changes!
mmmmm, Cracker Barrel..............
Chris- I can just see the cat walking on there, so typical!! but not so funny when you see the broken plants, grr. Those are neat things they are planted in
Well I got some gardening done today! Digging up one flower bed, I had made the mistake of planting goose neck and it really got out of hand especially when you let it go for a year. I ended up digging out one of my garden phlox plants since there was no other way to get at the goose neck. I washed out the roots and divided the phlox. I replanted them and laid newspaper down and put mulch on top of that.
I was going to take a picture but my rechargeable batteries for the camera are not holding the charge very well, need to get new ones for vacation.
I can't wait to meet Ruby. I'm calling it our Meet and Eat. 2 weeks to go!
Sally, the things that the geraniums are in are foundation blocks from our house when we ran some pipes to the outside, hubby didn't break all of them.
Good eye there Sally. I was going to ask about the planters too. They are really gorgeous. So Chris, where might a person buy those foundation pots? I would love to have several of them. I too have a tendency to plant in unusual things.
Today I will be attending a Family Reunion. Yum, yum. Always some great food. I will be making and taking a huge bowl of cole slaw and huge bowl of Jello fruit salad. I need to start working on the Jello at least, in the next little bit.
Meet and Eat sounds like a good name for us Chris. One of us will have to take pictures of our meeting. I want the group to know just how special you have been to me. All - Chris was the first person to reach out to me when I finally began posting on here last summer. I will forever be grateful to Dave, Terry and all the others who help make this site so great.
Anyways, I am outta here. Got to get started on preparing food. Have a great Sunday everyone.
Ruby
Ruby, I don't think you will have an easy time finding my "Foundation Planters" Our house is at least 50 years old and I don't think they make these any more maybe a place that recovers old building material. Would love to find a place like that near me. On TV they find some neat things.
Folks, Ruby toots my horn too loud! LOL She helps me feel better also, as many of you do on DG. It nice to talk to some one who has walked the walk.
Now on to gardening, we got some rain last night so I am hoping it will do some good. The ground here has some very wide cracks in it from being so dry. I guess all the snow we had just melted and drained to the lower depths.
Well, I have had a wonderful day plundering the neighbors yard. My very nice neighbor moved to WV and as a thank you for some of the things I have done over the few years they lived here she gave me the plants from her yard. Other than a few I dug up and sent down to WV for her. She said take whatever and as much as you want. She really didn't have a lot but there were several things I was interested in. Sneaky me invited DIL to come over and get plants for her yard. She was thrilled and I got her and youngest son Jamie to do all the digging and potting for me. Which gave Ric and Josh a break, since they have been doing it all. Everybody's happy Jamie and Deb got plants for their yard, I got a few for mine and a few extra for the swap. Ric got to spend the day with grandson JR playing instead of digging.
toot toot- the horn for Chris. She encouraged me to use my dave's Journal and I'm finding it very useful. Can't believe how many species listed!! altho a few are just possibles. Now I'm gettign the camera for a few more pictures- Siberian Iris, Spiderwort,....
Holly, Hope your new neighbor is not a plant lover, she might be wondering when the plants walked off to. lol
Sally, more pictures please!
And did you know that you can grow Siberian Iris in a water garden. They like it wet! I have a picture of mine in my journal, good thing, as I lost most of my gardening pictures when my hard drive went last winter.
And other reason to record in your journal!
Chris
Here is the corner garden that I have been working on. I have not touched the front part yet. Next picture you can see what I did so far.
You can see the garden phlox that I divided. This was covered with goose neck plant and weeds.
I found this on the corner post, might be a mantis egg case, not sure.
Well, I have ths short shady path with beds on either side. It tends to fill in with small weeds. Never decided what to do to make the path stand out from the beds. if mulched the pat hand beds they'd all mush together...
so now we have this leftover stone from drainage and I'm getting DH to help move it to path. different camera position. What doyou think? I know it'll get weeds too, but.....
Sally - What a calm, peaceful pathway!
I had a similar challenge with a path. I thought the unpaved paths in a lot of European city gardens were the perfect solution so I started asking around at landscaping centers ... they use something called 'mall mix' or 'ball diamond mix'. It's a blend of clay, sand, and fine gravel - and it's really hard to find in small quantities! Then I found a shallow clay deposit somewhere else in my garden and I made my own mix with that, all-purpose sand from home depot, and pea gravel. I wasn't crazy about the clay & sand color, so I got pea gravel that had more brown in it, and I added some plain old soil. Now I have a hard, beaten path, it doesn't get muddy, and anything that sprouts has a very deficient root system. The clay is key - it limits root development and it keeps pebbles and stones from sinking in (I learned this the hard way - am having to re-do one small path after only a year - the pebbles and stones have practically disappeared). I use a gravel rake on it for leaves and maple helicopters, which I have by the millions. I can walk on it in bare feet. Digging the clay was the most work (unless you're also hauling 80 lb bags of sand by yourself) - after that it was like playing in a sandbox!
ooh!! I have clay!! You mean there's a use for it?? LOL I would love to hear more about the proportions you used... did you mix it up as a slurry with water to get the clay to break up? Or did you put the clay, sand, and gravel down in layers?
I actually have a pile of clay clunks at the back of the yard -- chunks that I dug up that were so hard, just pure clay, that I couldn't see trying to break them up and mix them back into the planting hole. So perhaps I have a good start on making a path like yours! :-)
Sally, I know there have been a couple of thread on making paths this year... here's one from Cottage Gardening, http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/680267/#new. You might consider putting down landscape fabric under the gravel to help limit the weeds. I could swear I read somewhere about somebody using carpet underneath mulch or gravel to make a pathway, and I have this notion that they said it worked better than landscape fabric, but do you think I can find that thread? noooo.... LOL
I've been working on paths also, using a bunch of lovely big stepping stones I hauled back from a nearby construction site in early spring. I haven't dug in or leveled them yet, nor have I figured out what (if anything) to lay under them... but I figured just getting them approximately in place was a good first step!
You can see some of the pathway rocks in this photo... and please take note of my irises, blooming for the first time this year!!
Critter, I'm afraid I wasn't very scientific about the proportions - kind of like the way I cook. The clay I used was fairly moist to begin with - crumbly (like when you make a pie crust and have just added water to the flour and are mixing with a pastry cutter, except the crumblies were a lot bigger) - and I put that down first. There were some larger dry chunks, which I stomped on, then spread with a gravel rake so it was 1-2 inches deep, then added sand, which I raked in so it was well mixed. The sand from home depot actually had quite a bit of small pebbles in it, but I added more for the brown color and then scattered a few shovelfuls of plain soil as well. I think I used 2 bags of sand for a section of the path that is 4.5 x 10 ft (it kills me to pay for sand, since I used to live on the beach). There are still some larger chunks of clay that I think (hope) will break down in time, since the path gets lots of water and walking. I'll bet that you could soak the big chunks and then bash them around a bit and they'd do just fine.
My long range plan is to pave with the native flat stones that I am constantly digging up. I've done part of a section with those and used the clay mix as a foundation. The stones seat really well on it. I added sand and soil in between stones because I do want something low and sturdy to grow in between. I waited too late to seed Irish moss, so now I've got purslane and 4 o'clocks and you name it, but maybe next March, when all the walkways are done and I've found enough paving stones to finish that one section, I'll get the Irish moss going. My next step is digging more clay and it's such a chore that I have been putting it off. I have so many projects in progress now ... my theory is that a little progress here and a little progress there all adds up and the time will come that in the space of a week everything is finished! Right? Hahaha. I am under strict orders from SO to start nothing new. I think he might have a point.
I remember that pathway thread - I snagged that image of the garden shed for my 'garden ideas' folder ... another great project that I can't start yet!
If you use concrete forms like what they're discussing, you do need a deep sand/gravel foundation or else you'll eventually get cracks. Same with brick - it'll become uneven. That's why I like the local paving stones - they're supposed to be uneven!
Sally, your pathway is soooo inviting. You can use quarry waste, it makes a good solid foundation and it's not expensive, but it's not very attractive. You could put some down and then put a more decorative stone on top.
Critter, We use carpet for a lot of things here. It works very well for us. I've used it under mulch and it would work just fine for under the stone pathway. We use it in the garden too. Ric usually drags some home from someones trash during spring clean up you can also get it from the carpet shops. They will give you what they tear out when they do a new install.
Thanks, that does give me a good idea about how you constructed your clay/sand/gravel pathway!
I've got a couple of carpet remnants in the basement that came from a friend's place... will have to check them out and see if they are too "nice" to cut into pathway strips, LOL. I don't think my big stepping stones would seat too well on carpet, but the carpet would be great for pathways where I don't have big stones yet, either topped with gravel or a scattering of mulch.... at least it would keep the weeds down and make it obvious to people other than myself where the paths are, even if it's not especially decorative LOL.
That's part of the reason I decided paths were a priority this year... I know all the paths through the garden beds, but anyone else who wants to get into the garden without accidentally tromping on plants has to play "follow the leader!" Actually, now that the perennials are getting some size to them, it's a little easier... it's such fun to watch the garden take shape in reality rather than just as a picture in my head!
Appreciate the feedback, gang. now let's see how much time and effort I can really afford to dedicate to this ,LOL.
BTW, nice thread, it's fun and gets the creative juice flowing, seeing what others have going. Chris, that does look like a mantis case~ guess she got confused....
Is that a mantis case? I've got dangling mantis cases on some of my plants, and I also have egg cases like the one in the photo -- and they look quite different to me. I figured the latter type were some other kind of insect, and I've been meaning to try to get an ID so I knew if it was friend or foe.
Hmmm, let me see if I've got a photo of what I think is a mantis case.... Hmmm, this isn't a great shot (at least not of the egg case -- I think it's a good photo of the snow crystals on the raspberry canes!), but it gives a general idea of the shape, which does not have a flat back surface to it.
Critter, I thought Mantis cases looked like the one you posted, but someone in Bug Files also think it is a mantis too, I don't know how long it takes for the babies to hatch, but I'll check it when ever I can. (It will probalby happen when I'm on vacation).
Sally I love your path, hope you can get it to where you really like it How about "Stepables" Irish Moss, Blue Star Creeper, Just to offer another idea. I do like the stone, It lightens up the path.
Chris
It would be great if those flattened cases were mantis eggs -- because I sure seem to see a lot of them in my garden! I'll keep an eye out also, and maybe we'll be able to catch somebody hatching out... I've already seen a few baby praying mantis out and about -- too cute!!
Although I tilled and amended last year for this bed along my neighbor's fence, I think it still counts as a spring project for this year since I'm still planting it! I put in this double row of peonies this spring -- red ('Karl Rosenfeld'), pink ('Sarah Bernhardt') and white (offshoot from my mom's plant). Behind the peonies, I have a 'Zepherine Drouhin' climbing rose and several clematis, plus two clumps of 1 year old Rose of Sharon seedlings. I'll be filling in back there again this year with morning glories, maybe some sunflowers again too, but this time I will put in some 6 foot metal t-posts and some sturdy green mesh fencing for them to climb. (Last year, the plan was to have the morning glories climb the sunflowers, which worked great until we had one of those sudden wind storms, LOL... In the interest of being a good neighbor, I want to give them something other than my neighbor's fence to climb.)
Well, shoot, I thought I had a good photo of the peonies in the ground, but all I can find is this planting diagram and photo of the peony pots all spaced and ready to plant... There are some dwarf iris in front of the peonies, and I'll definitely be looking for more of those to fill in that border....
I do have a shot of my new variegated Wiegela that's at one end of the bed.... The gnome is "Elmer." He was a Christmas gift from my DH -- isn't he a character?? LOL
Elmer looks a bit on the grumpy side, but cute just the same.
And why doesn't my variegated Wiegela look that good!!! Might be due for a move.
Chris
We've been making up thought/comment captions for him for months (he spent the winter on the back deck, where we could see him through the family room window)...
"You wouldn't be after *picking* my raspberries, now, would you?"
"Hey -- you! Bird! Don't even think about it."
The 'Wine & Roses' Wiegela at the other end of the bed is still just a little runt of a bush... but it's blooming! It's going to be quite stunning when it grows up. There are also 2 teeny dwarf Wiegela bushes on either side of the variegated one... I'd have to look up the name, but their leaves are purplish like 'Wine & Roses'.