Water Cooler 2

We were well represented in the Photo Contest. Al, booj, Celeste, Andy and yours truly all had top three shots! Big congrats to AL with a trifecta!

Congrat's to OUR VICTOR, too!

Thank you Pirl!

Victor...you da MAN !

Thank you (in a very soft feminine voice).

OK, I'm being lazy. I know this question has been answered before, but I don't want to look for the answer.
We just finished raking 10 bags of leaves, and I've saved a few and poked some holes in the bag. The leaves were a little wet to begin with.
How long does it take for them to break down into some good compost material? And how much of an end product will I have? I'm wondering how many bags to save.

They will end up as leaf mold, not compost, but that's still very valuable. Over a Winter I have had a full black 55 gallon drum bag reduced by 1/2 to 2/3. By late Spring or early Summer, I start using it - starting from the bottom. I just throw it anywhere, including in planting holes.

thanks Victor
This summer I bought leaf mold compost - what was that?

Probably compost that included a lot of leaf mold. Leaf mold lacks the 'greens' that are in true compost. I'm no compost expert so someone else can chime in.

Congrats to all of you Photography Winners for having top three shots!!! That's really impressive! I am not in the least bit surprised at those of you who got this recognition! Your pics are consistently terrific! Yay for the NE Gardeners!!!!

Thank you Louise!

Thanks Victor and Louise.

I don't do any composting, but I do bag the last batch of leaves and work them into my annual beds.

I thought we were way more silly than games - those don't even require thinking.

Congragulations to our photographers. I'm assuming I didn't get any write-in votes? ;^)

I wrote in a photo for you - are you kidding!

Al, did you send one like that to everyone you know? You are Bi-Forum(al?) after all.

Thanks Al!! I look good in your leopard print!

now that would be a sight!

Fahget about it Dave.

Victor - I don't know anyone else.

Al, Soo midwest! Its fuggedaboudit"

I suggested a new feature for DG. Please check it out and weigh in! Thanks.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/791949/

I already did. I think it is a very good idea.

Thanks Cat.

I did see it Victor and I also wondered how many people just started out without any kind of formal, or even informal, plan and the garden just evolved. We began with one daylily (part of the inherited landscaping) and now it's 2,000 daylilies later. I'd feel like a fraud to say it was planned.

2,000?

Yes, and then I just stopped counting. Much too embarrassing.

I don't think that I can even count that high without a computer anymore!

Wow - how many distinct varieties?

She doesn't know! (how many are exist? thousands? hundreds? tens of thousands?)

A few hundred named and many of our own hybrids, Victor. I have very few duplicates so each is a distinct cultivar.

Many thousands of daylilies have been registered.

Wow, who knew? When we started "daylily row" we didn't pay any attention to who everyone was, and then even when I knew it mattered, I would say to DH 'put this label on it when you plant it' but of course he doesn't or it blows off or whatever. To sum up, I love all our motley collection of daylilies, named and un-named, and I am in humble awe of those of you who keep your daylilies and in fact, any plants at all named and organized and distinct! I know what species we have but cultivars are, for the most part, beyond me. x, Carrie

What timing! Just as my large JM starts to change color, we get a real windy days and many of the leaves have now blown off!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I did.

Pirl - WOW!! I think I can still count my DLs on my fingers. I wouldn't be embarrassed - I've seen your pics and they are beautiful!! Eleanor

OMG, Pirl...........that is some collection of DLs!!! How many acres do they cover???

I brought a couple of the DLs that were dug up along with the amaryllis I brought down here (not sure what color). I just stuck them in the ground here at the base of a palm tree, and they are growing like gangbusters! It will be interesting to see when they bloom and what color I brought down.

Victor - glad to hear you had a nice Thanksgiving. We did too! I hope you all did!

Not acres, Louise! I have them planted "fairly close" and still have four with buds and have had some blooms in the last weeks. Once we started to hybridize it was hard to stop. The part I hated was seeing a garden of tag flying about on the plants. It looked like a square white moth invasion.

I know what you mean, Arlene.....I like to see only the plants, so I've often done a "map" of the plants in one of my NH gardens, but then if you don't update it often, natural changes occur and you get things all screwed up! I've resorted to the plant tags in several now - especially with the daylilies.

What I actually meant was the tags on the pods showing the cross. Some daylilies had 20 and 30 crosses and it just looked awful.

Maps are only useful for gardens where not much is changed. Otherwise, unless you keep the maps on top of your keyboard to remind you to make the changes in names or locations you made that day the garden gets scrambled too quickly.

This garden hardly ever changes so it's easy to make changes to plans. The camera is my best reminder to do it.

Pirl - that must be so beautiful to view from the window of your home!! Eleanor

Thanks, it really is nice.

It takes a lot of time to keep the records, but in the long run, it is time well spent. I can just imagine future generations looking at my scratchings on paper and trying to make sense of it all! So, I am going to resort to using either small photos that I have taken myself, or clip the photos out of the plant catalogues!

I have begun one photo album which will be a Christmas gift to Anna. Perhaps just doing that will help with the 'memories' of what and where everything in the garden has been placed.

pirl...can you name all your DL's without looking at the tags?