Charlene, thank you for the Duranta, I really like it.
I can,t believe you didn't get your plants from me, I had them there and i gave them to somebody, I wonder who ended up with them. It was all a blur. May be they will let us know.
I am glad the Sycamore is a hit, I thought of you when i saw it.
Josephine.
North Texas Roundup plant ID thread.
There you go, I bet they were on the table and Charlene didn't know it.
Please, Cocoa don't mail the fig, it is too expensive and I can root another one for her, and the turk's cap too, but no more mexican milkweed, sorry.
Josephine.
Bluesmaven, Sherill, come get all you want of the horse herb from the lower part of my yard. Sweezel was going to get some later too I think.
Peachy Brug...thanks Mitch!
Charlene.... I remember seeing the fig and other small seedlings that could have been milkweed, but they were on the top of the table as extras, and had been left. Things were winding down and I am not sure who ended up with them.
That top of the table thing was a hoot. I went over at one point and scratched out the "for trade" part and wrote in "please take." I think they were gone in about 30 seconds.
what is mexican milkweed? are you talking about scarlet milkweed? i was supposed to give seeds to someone. was it you charlene? by the time i found them i couldn't find my list to see who i was supposed to give them to. but if you want them i still have seeds that i can mail. so lmk.
All is well, as I got plenty enough that I am still not through getting them all dealt with. Couldn't handle another thing right now anyway. So sweet to offer to mail, but the whole idea of a trade is to exchange without having to spend a bunch of money, so please don't mail the fig tree. DH already bought two very large fig trees and they are in the ground as we speak (type).
I shouldn't even have mentioned it anyway. I had so much fun and brought home a lion's share of trades. It was even better than I imagined it would be with the meeting of so many nice people. The best part was we had so much in common and really enjoyed talking to each other.
Charlene
FYI My mom was a terrific cook. I am a terrific eater as you can tell by looking. She would make fig preserves and add a package of strawberry jello. Would fool anyone into thinking it was strawberry jam. People who wouldn't touch a fig would eat a whole jar of her concoction. Another way to help use them.
Thanks Sheila I check and see when a good time is for you later.
Debnes, what is the name of the Agastaches?
Ok I need to know from you Ted about the Love Leaf plant, I can't locate anything on it. ....???
Also whomever I got the Parasol Plant from, same thing need some info on it....??
I am loving all my new plants and working my hinny off this weekend to get them in the ground, as I am sure a lot of you are. It is beautiful weather outside here for it though.
Air Plant, Mexican Love Plant, Mother-in-Law Plant (Kalanchoe pinnata)
I cheated. Mitch brought me about 60 or so special iris. Had the yard crew enlarge a bed and put them in. Not as young as I used to be and some things are out of my league. Sheila, you are going to hurt your back again. I'm trying to be careful so I'm not dragging my leg again.
Sheila, the parasol tree is fr me. Hear is what PF says about it!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53113/
I love mine. I have three that are as tall as my house & a fourth one that is chasing them!
:~)
Thanks Linda, that is a tall tree!
No LouC, I had a knee stool and also my son comes and helps (I have to pay him), but it saves our backs a bit.
The Dallas Zoo has a lot of them among the bamboo.
After reading Jeremy's articles makes one consider working in the botanical part of the zoo. Sounds like he gets lots of perks as a recovering plant addict.
I laugh everytime I think of it.
LouC
Howdy y'all!!! Got back Sunday night from a week in Florida. Yesterday, I had to play catch up here at work and was only able to answer my D-mails. This thread is a great idea and I hope I can use it help sort through my new jungle. I've become a midnight gardener in the last few months. With a full-time job and 2 small children, night time is the only time I have to tend my beds. Anyonelse "garden by the moon"?
Sheila, thanks for the horse herb, but I've got tons of it growing here at work and just haven't found a place at home for it, yet.
I have 2 questions for those gardeners who are much more seasoned than I. I have recently enlarged and added some new beds. I put newspaper and mulch down after tilling and placing the border. My yard is almost all bermuda grass. How long should I wait to plant my new plants in the new beds? Will the bermuda pieces under the paper and mulch lay dormant over the winter and try to emerge in the spring?
Listen carefully - you will never ever ever ever ever get rid of the Bermuda out of the beds so dont try.. it will come up in Spring, Summer, Fall for the next 100 years. The only way to keep it out of the beds it to weed like a mad mad or to let things grow lush and think in the beds like cottage style - it needs sun to live and the less sun the less plant there will be.
Back yard all Bermuda - flower beds taken out 4 weeks back already green and look like lawn.
Hi T.J. I wondered where you had been. It so happens that I have the horse herb that was meant for you. Do you want me to give it to someone else?
Or you could come for a visit and pick it up.
Let me know.
Josephine.
TJ, good to see you back. You can start planting stuff in your beds now. They will use the winter to set roots and give them a headstart on the Bermuda that *will* come up next year. Putting down a very thick layer of mulch (6+ inches) will help somewhat in keeping the Bermuda at bay. But make no mistake, as Mitch said, you will be battling it forever. I used RoundUp last year to kill a large swath of my backyard and made all new flowerbeds. To stay on top of the Bermuda situation this year, I was wandering my beds almost daily, spraying RoundUp on any Bermuda that came up. I swear the only things to survive a nuclear explosion will be cockroaches and Bermuda grass! :-(
Carla
Bermuda is what caused me to give me the vegetable garden years ago. I could fight the weeds but not the bermuda. There are threads running somewhere about lasagna gardening. I will try to find it. Might put it in forum search. Lots of information there. Am considering using it to kill out monkey grass and it is almost as bad as bermuda.
LouC
I put in a good sized area of Lasagna bed - but the Bermuda keeps coming.. I even hand dug out each root to a foot deep - they keep coming up from deeper still.
Josephine, you can give the horseherb to whoever wants it. Thanks
I can see that bermuda grass isn't winning any awards in this forum!! There's a few spots where I've been battling it in the beds that already existed, but I've won most of those battles by digging for it. Guess I'll have to get my shovel ready. I know some of y'all are not big fans of bermuda or yards for that matter, but I like having that green carpet just as much as I like my blooms. Plus, it gives my kids a place to run and play barefooted, and every kid should have that, right?
bermuda..................the bane of all mankind. boo! hiss! buffalo grass is good to romp in. lol. not meaning to give you a hard time bronc. lots of people like that stuff. but i have been digging it out for years........bleeding hands and all.
I like my green carpet too, and it is nice to have a clear space in the center of the yard to play or relax. I keep bermuda out of the beds by digging it out too.
One thing we need to be mindful about is not using too much water on the lawn, as water becomes more and more scarce we need to conserve as much as possible.
I only water the grass when it shows a real need for it.
T.J. That is how I do most of my beds, although I make the beds with layers of compost, peatmoss, some leaves etc.. I guess it is lasagne style. I have not had a alot of problems with Bermuda.I mainly find it in beds that I have not dug it out properly,amended and planted right away. I think you will be ok in the spring.
lol. who can sit in grass in texas? the fire ants always find me. nope, the plan for me still is to have a grass free yard asap. except of course for my indian grass, bluestems and buffalos. thank you again bronc.
Bronc, we have a St. Aug lawn, but it started out as bermuda. The St. Augustine eventually choked it out completely. Dunno if that helps with your new beds right now. But for future beds, St. Augustine is a lot easier to kill off, and it doesn't come back.
Now if someone could just tell me how to get rid of nutgrass... :(
There is an expensive chemical that kills nutgrass. DH bought it and it did kill a patch that he used it on. Hasn't come back as yet, that was about two months ago. I will get the name later.
Image? I'm organic, but I'll admit I've tried it. Had mixed results.
Bronc, you can try what DH and I are doing. We have put down the heavy 6mil black plastic and put landscape timbers around it. We made sure the ground under the plastic has a slope so it will drain. We planted right on top of the black plastic and extended it a little beyond the timbers. My entire yard was a hayfield of coastal bermuda grass. After two years of doing everything that everyone suggested including the dreaded chemicals I hope this works.
I did a search online and found another party dealing with this problem. He said he finally got rid of it by putting black plastic down and leaving it for a full year.
It is about $ 75.00 for 20 x 100' so if you don't have too large an area you can do it pretty reasonably. If you don't want to plant on top of it I would suggest leaving everything potted until next year after you take the plastic up.
Don't give up if this is where you plan to live and you like to grow plants you will win if you are willing to put in the work. (I hope)
My entire place looks kind of wierd with all the plastic down for now. If this doesn't work I think I am ready for cement LOL.
Charlene
Poor Charlene, you've had a rough go of it. I hope you can get rid of that coastal.
I haven't really had a big problem with bermuda as of yet. But now I know to stay on guard and get after it at the first sight of even one blade. Now, I'm wondering if I should even plant my new plants in the new beds, or just try to keep them alive in the pots until next fall. I don't want to be fighting the bermuda amongst the new plants. What is a poor country boy, like me, to do?
Last year I kept all my fall RU plants in the greenhouse until spring. I have a hard time deciding what goes where, and then I figure I will have new plants in the spring too and then what if I have to move something I planted in the fall....lol...yeah, I know I'm messed up. Plus it never fails that if I plant now, cold weather will hit. If I leave them in the greenhouse and move my houseplants in, it'll be warm. Case and point, I moved in all my houseplants over the weekend because it has been lows in the 40s. Now the forecast has lows in the 60s.
Hey there, Bronc, I didn't mean to suggest that I don't like a good lawn grass ... I just detest Bermuda! :-) I have a lovely St Augustine front yard and partial back (it's roughly 50% flowerbeds, 50% lawn). This spring I spent days and days and days down on my knees pulling up Bermuda and plugging St Aug (the Bermuda has been allowed to overrun the St Aug over the years). I love the soft plush feel of St Aug underfoot, and also love that once-established, St Aug is very low maintenance.
How much sunlight will this particular flowerbed get? If it's not in full-sun, it won't be that much trouble to keep the Bermuda out. The occasional spritz of RoundUp should keep it under control. Be not afraid!
Carla
This is the corner that faces the west. Previously, the Texas sage, Alyssum, and Oleanders were growing over the border. The bed also used to end directly under the vent on the skirting. The side where Jordyn is gets sun from midday until dusk. The side where the oleanders are gets sun from about 1:30pm until dusk. This was taken before I added newspaper and mulch.
The Northwest side of the house. The border used to run right under the edge of the boxwoods. Again, this is before the addition of newspaper and mulch.
This is the corner that faces the north. Once again, the border used to run right under the edge of the boxwoods. The northeast side of the house gets the least amount of sun, from about 8am to midday.
This is a new bed. It will get sun almost all day until the Chinese Pistache tree gets big enough to shade it. I'll try to get pics of the rest up tomorrow.
Oh what lovely flowerbeds, TJ! You must feel like a painter with a blank canvas -- what fun you are going to have.
Carla