I've used a rock border VERY successfully but I dug a trench, lined it with cement, then added the rock about 3 inches back. The 3 inch border made it easy to mow and the cement eliminated the "weeds between the rocks" problem. I liked it so much I'm hoping to repeat it here at this home.
Mistakes... oh there have been so many!!! When I was young & newly married, I planted some bulbs, I don't know what I thought they were, but they turned out to be Glads and I had planted them at the FRONT of the flower bed.
Not VIGOROUSLY attempting to erradicate Bishops Weed before it took over the whole corner flower bed and invaded the yard.
Putting the new compose pile TOO close to the house... the rabbit poo didn't smell in the beginning! Not exactly sure what I did wrong.
Ah yes, the list goes on.
Pat
things we did wish we hadn't
I forgot about Bishops Weed. I planted at the front of a privit hedge and It grew higher than the trimmed hedge and shaded it and killed the hedge in one season.
#1. Thinking, "oh, I'll just leave a little of this coltsfoot in my bed... it's so nice to have something coming up first thing, and those leaves are so pretty later in the season" - now it's just a menace to society. I'm going to dig out the stuff I want to keep and use Roundup on what's left.
#2. - #1001.....
how about wrong plants for containers??? oh I am terrible with containers... they never turn out right!
I've stopped trying to have anything in a container! IF it can be put in a container AND the regular watering system can reach it, it MIGHT have a chance... a SMALL one! I just don't do well with ANYTHING that needs consistent exacting care.
Kassia and Pat - my experience has been that using polymer crystals (like Soil Moist or Watersorb) is the key to container gardening. They keep the moisture consistent. I use the Miracle Gro moisture control/fertilizer soil and I add a few more crystals. That does very well for me.
I'll give it a try because in the "excitement" having company come visit, I actually put a pot of petunias in an ice cream parlor chair (I had painted and had my Dad cut out the seat years ago) AND painted 2 old kitchen chairs and added pots to them. So far I have been getting by with "yard watering" but I'm VERY nervous and really want them to make it thru the summer.
I see an error in my post 4961322. "if it can NOT be reached..." is how it should have read!
Yes, I've been using the crystals in my containers, baskets and boxes for years. Also, bigger is better. Aside from looking better, larger containers don't require watering as often. Last, mulch them!
I second those tips, Victor! I never have problems with the big whiskey barrels. They seem to hold the moisture nicely. Before we moved up here to the farm, I would leave them all week, and when we returned on Friday, all was well even in the heat of summer.
Pat - your idea of putting the petunias in the old chairs sounds very charming. Can you post some pics of them???
HOLY cow Donnie, how hot does it get that you could leave it unwatered for a WHOLE week???? That is NOT possible in the heat of our summer when it will get over 100 degrees.
We have a digital camera, however, I dont' have the software on my computer. I NEED to have my husband help me with HIS computer so I can post pictures. I LOVE to see pictures, it makes everything so much more "real". I painted the chair BRIGHT yellow and put Hunter green pots in them with kind of a Violet/purple petunias. I have planted Black Eyed Susan, Coreposis, Red hot poker, and some day lilies in that flower bed. Reds and lots of yellows are not my "normal" choices but I wanted that bed to be HOT and bright! It is a brand NEW flower bed, that is why the chairs & petunia pots! No other color yet!
Come and check our our blooms thread, Pat.
Gimme a link! I LOVE pictures!
Those colors sound awesome, Pat. As Victor mentioned, you will love the Blooms thread.
In terms of the barrels making it through the hot weeks, I must admit we don't usually have 100 degree temps very often here. It does get into the 90s though. At our house in Fla. the temps get into the 100s often. We'll see how my caladiums get through the heat. I put crystals around them and mulched them good.
Spent the morning pulling up wild cucumber vines. The neighbor lets them take over and they shoot their seeds over our fence. The first year we lived here I let them grow on my privacy fence because we had no gardens and they looked pretty and green. I later read they shoot their seeds like 30 feet. I quickly ripped them all down. We still fight them because the neighbor doesn't weed. He even had a vine rip the screen off his house, growing under it.
Is anyone annoyed by the adds for OFF? that appears from time to time at the opening of DG'?
Thought this was a promo free site?
Thanks for the tip.
First time one has gotten thru.
Heck, didn't know about that! The darn dog food ad that I would get too close to & it would enlarge and take over screen drove me nuts! Thanks for info.
Of boy - sorry you guys did not ask earlier. I hate ads and got rid of them immediately.
yeah I got that tip from another thread after a flashy one driving me nuts!
ok, I got the cristals and planted 4 containers... hanging baskets... let's see what is going to happen... maybe it will be nice this time...
Hope you didn't use too much. It can get messy and actually push plants right out! Better to wet them first, though I never do.
Roman Artemesia. I shouldn't have put it in the bed I started a few years ago :( It keeps trying to invade my coral bells and everything else. Anyone want some??
Thought of another one, although this was more of a minor "Doh" than anything.
My parents learned about companion planting and realized that they could plant radishes with nearly anything. So we did. We mixed radish seeds with the carrots to help thin them, put radishes between the corn rows so we knew where the corn was, radishes in with the beans to thin them out a bit, etc.
Problem was, all the radishes got planted at the same time. So, a few weeks later we had BUSHELS of radishes. I'm talking radishes piled to the ceiling. We could not give them away, there were so many of the things. We had radishes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and any other food thing you could imagine. We fed radishes to chickens and pigs. We gave radish greens to bunnies. We put radishes in the compost pile. We tried to give radishes to neighbors, but that just wasn't happening. We attempted to feed radishes to the cats - they would have none of it.
Needless to say, in future years we didn't plant QUITE so many, and we did a better job of staggering when they were planted.
Radish anyone?
LOL radishes of all things... wasn't that the only thing Mammy said was left in the garden when Scarlet O'Hara got back to Tara after the war? "Ain't nuttin but radishes in the garden" LMAO
well, Victor too late... several pansies did fell out of the pot... and all I could see was the gel type of thing...
I'm sure everyone has done that, Kass. No big deal. Just scoop some of the gel out and use it elsewhere.
Hehehehe... yep, many of us that have used the gel have fallen victim to the thought that if a "little is good, MORE is better!"
The problem is a little turns out to be a lot!
One more "What were you thinking?" that comes to mind:
We had finally moved to Maine completely, and were used to a certain amount of wildlife from having spent summers there, building the house, using the gardens, and generally getting used to the country, after living in Boston.
Over the summer we had made friends with the local raccoons. We had taken to using bloodmeal to keep them away from the corn, they didn't bother much in the rest of the gardens, and they seemed to just be a part of the forest that surrounded the land. We had cats that liked to stay out all night, so we would leave catfood on the porch, which they would promptly steal, and over the summer they had gotten quite bold and sassy. They would even come into the house and eat leftovers from dinner! (And yes, NOW I know about diseases that they could carry and all, but back then it never occurred to us. So, just hush. *grin*)
There was one big one that was the sweetest, friendliest thing you ever met (we ended up naming him Mr. Lightfoot). He would come inside, gently climb my mother's leg a bit - like a cat - and trill at her for some of the people food she was giving us. After dinner, he would sit at your feet, and gently "purr" if you petted him, content. Naturally, if you fed him a peppermint or other candy, he was ecstatic. We often had to shoo him out of the house before going to bed, or I swear, he would have tried to sleep with us.
Well, September came around and we kids had to go to school. First day we are down near the road, waiting for the bus, and we hear a very familiar trill. We turn around and there he is, Mr. Lightfoot. He ambled over and my brother and I start petting him, and even feed him a bit of our sandwiches that we were going to take for lunch. He trills at us happily, enjoying the scratching and petting as much as anything.
A few minutes later, the bus comes along and we tromp over to get onto it. My brother went first and I followed. Imagine my surprise when the bus driver lets out a holler, and I turn around to see Mr. Lightfoot following us onto the bus!
Funny! Did he get to school?!
Thats a great story thanks
Thanks!
No, he did not get to school. I convinced him to get off the bus by putting a bit more of my sandwich on a rock for him to eat while we got on the bus.
Planted daylilies and Trout lilies and heuchera in the shade garden- - - - - THEN!!!! I decided to trim some of the lower branches.
Realized I had nowhere to stand for cutting DUUUUHHH.
Plus branches fell on plants.
Daylilies like at least 6 hours of sun for them to do well......
Forgot to mention that was the sun part of the shade garden, thanks for catching it.
LOL/no problem! I just love my DL's so I wanted to make sure you were giving them enough light so you too could enjoy their lovely blooms!!