A thread for the gardeners

[lulu]

Bebe''s beautiful pictures made me wonder how all the other gardeners are doing at this magical time of the year. Any big projects or new plantings in the offing? How''s spring treating your garden?

I came back to Michigan last week after a winter in Fla to find that the deer had eaten my arbor vitae and oak leaf hydrangea and chewed the tops off only the rarer and more desirable daylilies. Can anyone think of another vertical accent to replace the arbor vitae that will be unattractive to Bambi?

 

[somethingshiny]

I planted an oak leaf hydrangea last year and was so excited when it started budding last week! It''s transplanted from another yard, and it was in bad shape there, but I''m looking forward to seeing some blooms.

My tiny cherry tree (also planted last year) is in full bloom and looks so cute!

I planted about a dozen peony starts a few days ago and they don''t look like they''re doing very well.

I have plans to transplant some large areas of ornamental grass but I''m unsure of when to begin with that. We usually frost until mid-May.

LULU~ THIS may be a good choice for you. I think the deer would stay away since it has thorns. It''s pretty hardy too.

 

[lulu]

Shiny-what has thorns? I'm open to something thorned. The deer didn't bother the roses at all. And they didn't touch any of the many other hydrangeas.

 

[PumpkinPie]

we''re not exactly avid gardners (but we plan vegetables every spring) but we did just fertilise the front lawn this evening

 

[Mara]

not sure if these are attractive to deer or if they thrive in your planting zone, but you can google to find out... what about a climbing rose, or a wisteria? potato vine is popular out here in CA and it grows like crazy. i also love jasmine. or a butterfly bush?

we moved into our house 2009 jan and i finally had a yard to plant things in for the first time in years. i put in all my roses i'd been growing in containers (about 10 of them), my blue hydrangea i have had in a container for almost 9 years, rosemary, a lilac, a maple tree, and a bunch of perennials and annuals into the existing flower border. a year later everything is huge and thriving, we love it! it kind of makes the mortgage worth it.

shiny, i love the weeping cherry trees, so beautiful. i keep wanting to get one for our front yard but i havent gotten around to it. with the new baby i am just glad that everything is still alive. hehe.

 

[bebe]

Houston had several days of freezing temps and this was the result! I have 2 multi-trunked Pygmy Palms and they were severely damaged by the cold. They are just beginning to "come out". I''ve been keeping my fingers crossed they were not killed by the freeze.

 

[bebe]

Another palm that suffered freeze damage, might be hard to see in this pic, but the fronds were all brown. After they turned brown, they would begin to droop and we would cut them off the trunk. There is some green left, so I''ve still got some hope this one will be ok.

 

[packrat]

Great pics Bebe!

Our things are starting to come up now. The daffodils/tulips/crocus are up and blooming. Hostas are poking up out of the ground. The orange honeysuckle vines are green and budding. Barberries (sp) are leafing out, including the ones we cut way back so we could move them. We planted 3 new climbing honeysuckles last year and I *think* 2 of them are dead. The other is coming along ok..slow, but ok. Another month or so and everything will look beautiful!

The tons of snow we got over the winter came before the ground was frozen, so I think that helped to insulate everything nicely and gave it a nice watering as it melted. Last year we got so much rain the farmers were screaming, but our yard looked the best it ever has. Hopefully the snow will give it a good start.

 

[lulu]

It was a very cold winter in Fla too and a lot of the palms were damaged. We only have one though and I think it''ll be okay.

Thanks for the suggestions Mara.

I''m going to a National daylily display garden today to pot daylilies for the Master Gardener plant sale next month. Maybe I''ll come home with some freebies-they have over 650 varieties and loose rhizomes will be everywhere!

 

[packrat]

ooo I love daylilies! We''ve got a lot of them..the only thing I dislike is that garden spiders like the Stella''s and when we added several last year they showed up. They don''t seem to like the little daylilies.

 

[stepcutgirl]

I plant a few tomato plants each year along with some herbs but my pride and joy is the pineapple we have gotten each year for the past three years and I am so excited that we are going to have two pineapples this year!!! BF and I planted the top of a pineapple the year we met-5 years ago. And we forgot about it for two years because it never did anything. Then three years ago we saw something growing that looked like a pine cone. Well it was a pineapple! And then last year we had another so I am ecstatic that we will have two this year!

 

[somethingshiny]

Lulu~ This link I posted is for a Pillar Barberry. It has large thorns, grown several feet tall and is purply.

 

[bebe]

Date: 4/15/2010 11:57:53 AM
Author: stepcutgirl
I plant a few tomato plants each year along with some herbs but my pride and joy is the pineapple we have gotten each year for the past three years and I am so excited that we are going to have two pineapples this year!!! BF and I planted the top of a pineapple the year we met-5 years ago. And we forgot about it for two years because it never did anything. Then three years ago we saw something growing that looked like a pine cone. Well it was a pineapple! And then last year we had another so I am ecstatic that we will have two this year!

How cool, pineapples!! Keep us posted on the progress, I''d love to see these.

 

[winelover23]

Bebe - Can I be your poolgirl?

We are getting rid of a large flower bed in our front yard and making it all grass so I''m in the process of moving all the bark to the beds that are staying. In the back yard we are also getting rid of a long flower bed but we are building a large arbor to hang flowering baskets from to fill in. Should be close to done this weekend so I''ll post pics. Not much planting this year as we don''t have time w/ travel/wedding/honeymoon but next year we''ll be on to more projects. We''d like to plant some sort of fruit tree, any recommendations?

 

[TooPatient]

Date: 4/15/2010 3:24:24 PM
Author: winelover23
Bebe - Can I be your poolgirl?

We are getting rid of a large flower bed in our front yard and making it all grass so I''m in the process of moving all the bark to the beds that are staying. In the back yard we are also getting rid of a long flower bed but we are building a large arbor to hang flowering baskets from to fill in. Should be close to done this weekend so I''ll post pics. Not much planting this year as we don''t have time w/ travel/wedding/honeymoon but next year we''ll be on to more projects. We''d like to plant some sort of fruit tree, any recommendations?

Hey WL--

Apple trees grow great around here and there are lots of varieties to choose from. If you keep them pruned, they are reasonably easy to pick from & Mini would have a lot of fun. (plus, there is nothing better than the smell of applesauce cooking on the stove)

Pears are great too.

I''ve never had much success with cherry trees. They grow fine, but the birds always got them. I''ve seen people put shiny streamers in the trees to keep birds away but I haven''t tried it so I''m not sure how well it works.

I''ve had two different varieties of plum trees (can''t remember which ones) and they grew fine but were a bit messy if we didn''t get them all picked...

My grandfather has a few peach trees that do okay. Not as well as on the eastern side of the state, but reasonable.


Flower World (between Snohomish & Bothell/Woodinville) usually has a great selection of fruit trees & information about the fruit they produce. Since they are local, they tend to keep stuff that grows well in the area.

 

[bebe]

Date: 4/15/2010 3:24:24 PM
Author: winelover23
Bebe - Can I be your poolgirl?


We are getting rid of a large flower bed in our front yard and making it all grass so I''m in the process of moving all the bark to the beds that are staying. In the back yard we are also getting rid of a long flower bed but we are building a large arbor to hang flowering baskets from to fill in. Should be close to done this weekend so I''ll post pics. Not much planting this year as we don''t have time w/ travel/wedding/honeymoon but next year we''ll be on to more projects. We''d like to plant some sort of fruit tree, any recommendations?

You bet! just bring the wine!

 

[winelover23]

Date: 4/15/2010 3:56:17 PM
Author: bebe

Date: 4/15/2010 3:24:24 PM
Author: winelover23
Bebe - Can I be your poolgirl?


We are getting rid of a large flower bed in our front yard and making it all grass so I''m in the process of moving all the bark to the beds that are staying. In the back yard we are also getting rid of a long flower bed but we are building a large arbor to hang flowering baskets from to fill in. Should be close to done this weekend so I''ll post pics. Not much planting this year as we don''t have time w/ travel/wedding/honeymoon but next year we''ll be on to more projects. We''d like to plant some sort of fruit tree, any recommendations?

You bet! just bring the wine!

That I can do!

TP - Thanks for the info. Flowerworld is a great suggestion. I used to live next door to that place. LOVE! J is thinking plum but we''ll see how it shakes out...

 

[stepcutgirl]

I will! I'm so proud of them I take pictures every time it looks like they've grown!

Date: 4/15/2010 2:06:47 PM
Author: bebe

Date: 4/15/2010 11:57:53 AM

Author: stepcutgirl

I plant a few tomato plants each year along with some herbs but my pride and joy is the pineapple we have gotten each year for the past three years and I am so excited that we are going to have two pineapples this year!!! BF and I planted the top of a pineapple the year we met-5 years ago. And we forgot about it for two years because it never did anything. Then three years ago we saw something growing that looked like a pine cone. Well it was a pineapple! And then last year we had another so I am ecstatic that we will have two this year!

How cool, pineapples!! Keep us posted on the progress, I'd love to see these.

 

[Mara]

re citrus and fruit trees: we have an amazing orange tree in our yard that is at least 30 years old. we squeeze oranges from it all spring long, it''s fabulous!! and i heard before we bought our house there was a grafted peach, pear and plum tree in the front yard. when they redid the front yard they removed it and got rid of it! i was so mad to hear this. we would have loved having fruit all summer long too.

i also planted a meyer lemon (for baking) and a bears seedless lime last year (for Greg''s beers!)...the limes are crazy sweet BUT it takes almost 9 months for them to mature.

here''s a bad iphone photo of the orange tree.

 

[gardengloves]

Date: 4/14/2010 11:04:38 PM
Author:lulu
Bebe''s beautiful pictures made me wonder how all the other gardeners are doing at this magical time of the year. Any big projects or new plantings in the offing? How''s spring treating your garden?


I came back to Michigan last week after a winter in Fla to find that the deer had eaten my arbor vitae and oak leaf hydrangea and chewed the tops off only the rarer and more desirable daylilies. Can anyone think of another vertical accent to replace the arbor vitae that will be unattractive to Bambi?

I feel your pain. Deer go for arbor vitae big time. I have a few in pots on the deck but never in the yard, the deer munch them right up. How about a holly? They do well in cold climates, and the deer seem uninterested. I have to be very careful with what I plant because of deer.

I put in rhododendum two years ago and they have not bloomed once because every single year, the deer nip off every single solitary bud. They seem to do it in March, while it is too cold to even think of spraying. I wake up and poof- every big bud is gone and hoof prints all around. I''m thinking of giving up, taking them out, moving them to big pots on the deck.

 

[gardengloves]

Date: 4/15/2010 12:29:17 PM
Author: somethingshiny
Lulu~ This link I posted is for a Pillar Barberry. It has large thorns, grown several feet tall and is purply.

Pillar Barberry is good too, they don''t like anything sharp, or scented. Holly, supposedly blue spruce, .. is also deer proof. You could try one of those pyramid shaped boxwoods, and I''ve also done well, deer wise... with those pencil shaped tall skinny evergreens, forget what they are called-

 

[lulu]

A sky pencil holly? That might be the way to go if they''re deer resistant. I really want a tall accent there.

 

[annadragon]

Hope I''m not ''pas''ing the faux'' by resurrecting this thread but for you gardening types I have a question:

I have a rosemary plant in a pot on my patio. It seems to be producing less aromatic rosemary... thingies (I have no idea what they are called, leaves maybe?). I read someplace that sometimes rosemary needs to be re-potted due to outgrowing it''s container. How can you tell if this is the case? And how do I re-pot without destroying it?

 

[Gailey]

Annadragon

You don''t say what size of pot your rosemary is in, so I am going to assume that you are happy with the size of pot and plant (apart from it''s sluggish performance).

I would ease it out of the pot and slice 2-3 inches off the bottom of the root ball along with an inch and a half or so around the sides. A Root Knife from Lee Valley Tools is excellent for this.

Re-pot in a well drained potting mix. Add in some coarse sand or crushed grit to aid with drainage. You can also add in a teaspoon of lime for every 5" of pot (doesn''t have to be exact, but less is more). I would also add some bone meal, or slow release fertilizer to the mix, about the same amount as the lime. Again, less is more.

Then take the top growth back a bit, but do not cut into old wood as rosemary, like lavender do not re-generate easily. You may not get as good a flowering this season, but the plant should put out new growth pretty quickly.

I also like to keep a good airspace under pots. It is especially important for herbs, because they hate to have wet feet. I like to use pot feet on larger pots.

Oh, I also cover the drainage hole at the bottom with part of a bounce sheet. Deters insects from crawling in and prevents soil from leaching out.