How Does Your Garden Grow?

[soberguy]

I LOVE love LOVE L OV E!!!!!! those! I want a field of those lol! double hollyhocks ftw!!!

 

[Gailey]

Hey guys, sorry I haven''t been around much this week. All that rain we had the week before just brought an explosion of growth, so lots of weeding to do as well as pruning of winter kill. Next week is shaping up to be just as busy.

But it shows you how far behind we are, our hollyhocks are a scant 18" out of the ground still.

Packy, your folks place is gorgeous, and how wonderful to have a lifetime of memories and pictures to see how it has developed. I remember planting a Robinia pseudoaccacia "Frisia" at a house we lived in nearly 20 years ago. It was a tiny little thing in a 2-3 gallon pot at the time. A recent look on street view saw the tree taller than the house! Obviously a terrible choice for the tiny space it is in, but I knew a lot less back then.

Keep up with the photos everybody!

 

[Gailey]

I found an interesting website today, haven''t checked it out yet, but it looks promising:

Gardeners Index

 

[lulu]

I have taken some pictures and hopefully DH will teach me how to download them tomorrow.
Love everyone else''s pictures. We came back from vacation last week after a storm and my huge white delphinium had flopped even though I had it hooped. Bah!

 

[Gailey]

Two weeks ago I was staking peonies and this last week it''s been delphiniums. This year promises to be a bumper year for delphiniums as the caterpillar that devastates them so much every year got knocked back severely in the cold snap we had in April/May.

Can''t beat a good old fashioned bamboo stick and old nylons. And once the delphiniums are done, it will be time to stake the hollyhocks and helianthus. They are going to be monsterous this year as well.

As far as your photos go Lulu, you will likely need to re-size them so they are under 100kbs each. Then they need to have a unique filename, but without any special characters, such as Lulus garden 01 for instance.

All that said, I tried to upload a picture in another thread earlier in the week and couldn''t. We are really close to the migration to Pricescope 2.0, why don''t you wait until after that. We may lose everything in this thread and that will be a shame, so it will be nice to see new pics.

 

[packrat]

We took some big pots and a couple buckets to my parents and mixed together some dirt so we can move a bunch of hostas. With all the rain (Plus draining the tank on them about 10 times so far this season) they''re exploding! The slugs are coming out in full force tho..we put several containers of beer out for them, but I''m not sure it''s made too much of a difference.

Gailey-I checked out that site last night (and

to some of the pictures holy cow!!) and in the Zone 4 area someone said they heard setting out a container of corn meal on its side will help get rid of slugs..have you heard that too or is that just for ants?

 

[gardengloves]

thanks for the website Gailey. Photos look great. Wow, delphinium, I love those, hope you can post pictures soon. Lulu too.

Are we really going to lose previous pictures when PS migrates to 2.0 ? I sure hope not

Yikes, packrat, slugs - that reminds me, its japanese beetle weekend. We just put in a little kwanzan cherry tree, its the only fruit tree we have- and the one they'd be most interested in- so we will have to spray. If anyone has another solution please let me know, once these guys come out they can cover the leaves in a day. they laugh at the soapy water solution.

I found out about these guys in our last home, where I also planted a cherry tree. We went away over the July 4th weekend with a gardener friend and she said I hope you sprayed your cherry tree - this is the weekend they come out.. When we came home the leaves were ravaged and covered with them.

 

[gardengloves]

I'm going to have to do some serious pruning soon. I put in a few echinacea last year and they took over this year. Or are they just called coneflowers? There is an 18" box wood hedge framing this and that keeps it looking somewhat neat. This is in the front yard. What's fun about these are the yellow finches love them, and often balance on the top of the flowers.

 

[gardengloves]

here''s a close up, bees loves these too. I have too many plants bees love in the front.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Hi Everyone,

Since you all have such skill at gardening and such lovely yards, I thought I'd pop in to ask for -- Help!?! So, though I am slightly embarassed, I am posting some photos of one of the beds in the front of our house. This is only our second summer in the house, so I haven't been that negligent, and we plan to tear out most of this on Saturday. These are pictures from last year, so it probably does look worse now, but it really doesn't seem as bad IRL as in these photos. Oops!

I'd like to take out almost everything, except I believe there is hydrangea in the back, which seems quite over-grown, yet young and which I do not recall blooming last year. I also don't know if I should pull out the green shrubs, not sure if they are boxwoods?? I live in New England. Do I need to keep these here for the winter? I think (near the beginning of this thread) gardengloves may have mentioned something about shrubs providing visual interest in the winter. We've already taken out the tree in the left corner.

I would like to plant the following, but have no idea where to plant these. In other words, I do not know how to arrange them. In levels? Like all monarada in the back because it may be the tallest. Or each plant type grouped together?

Echinacea (which gardengloves just posted photos of)
Crimson Bee Balm Monarda
Black-eyed Susan
Catmint

I'd like to focus more on native plants, but I love the catmint, so would like to include if I can. I am picking up the bee balm tonight and will also get some dark purple siberian iris from the same seller. Not sure if it will go in this same area.

More in next post . . .

 

[Loves Vintage]

Here is more of the madness. The area is 20 ft long, approximately 14 ft deep. This area gets the most light -- sun from probably noon to 5 or 6, and then more filtered light. The rest is either heavily wood or has mature trees, none of which I am willing to part with. Last year I tried to plant a bunch of natives along the stream and near a wooded area. My husband, love him, mowed down most everything once it started to grow, in the interest of the shape of the lawn (i.e. following the curve of the stream.)

I have only one plant that flowered, out of 18 or so planted last summer.

Another plant did flower early in the season. I believe it was the Swamp Rose Mallow, but something decapitated it. The nursery was very surprised. Nothing should want to eat it, because the flowers are very bitter. A few days later, I found the blooms a few feet away from the plant. I guess they were rejected, after all. Sigh.

ETA: Lots of critters live in this area too. Frogs and chipmunks especially! I think they really enjoy the cover of the pachysandra. I hope we don't displace them, but they have plenty of other places to hang out as well.

 

[gardengloves]

Hi Loves Vintage,

I hope Gailey gets to add some thoughts before the big tear out on Saturday.

You''ve got some lovely boxwoods there, ( those rounded ball shaped ones). I''d leave them and the large rounded shrub by garage door, and if you have a hydrangea back there( can''t tell from photo if it is, should be budding by now up your way), I''d hang onto that .. Boxwoods stay green all year and hold things together in winter. They are also expensive, if you bought ones the size you have it would not be cheap. Once you clean out the other stuff , you''ll have a better picture of how you want it to look. It looks like a great size nice big generous bed -

A neighbor of mine, had the front professionally landscaped recently.. They did the box wood rounded shrubs with masses of echinacea in a sort of drifting free flowing pattern scattered around them. . In the winter they have the boxwood balls scattered about, and in summer the flowers bursts into flower. Its looks great.

I love your door.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Hi gardengloves,

Thank you for your reply! I will try to keep the boxwoods. I'm sure they've been there for a while, and I'm also sure the area was professionally landscaped, that is, until WE moved in! I didn't even realize the boxwoods stay green all year long. I will have to research the proper way to trim them because I just "mowed them over" with a hedge trimmer last weekend. They were really out of control!

So, your neighbors have just boxwood and echinacea. No other flowers? I could see how that would be very pretty. Echinacea is just beautiful!

ETA: WOW! The echinacea is so tall in your first photo! I just noticed it in the back.

 

[gardengloves]

Date: 7/2/2010 3:45:53 PM
Author: Loves Vintage
Hi gardengloves,


Thank you for your reply! I will try to keep the boxwoods. I''m sure they''ve been there for a while, and I''m also sure the area was professionally landscaped, that is, until WE moved in! I didn''t even realize the boxwoods stay green all year long. I will have to research the proper way to trim them because I just ''mowed them over'' with a hedge trimmer last weekend. They were really out of control!


So, your neighbors have just boxwood and echinacea. No other flowers? I could see how that would be very pretty. Echinacea is just beautiful!


ETA: WOW! The echinacea is so tall in your first photo!

they''ve got some other stuff, but going by and just taking a quick look, these two catch the eye and are dominant pieces. yeah, the echinacea are really tall, and they doubled in one year- thats something else for you to consider--- how it will all scale together, but you have a gigantic bed in place and thats the main thing

 

[Gailey]

Date: 7/2/2010 11:00:29 AM
Author: packrat
We took some big pots and a couple buckets to my parents and mixed together some dirt so we can move a bunch of hostas. With all the rain (Plus draining the tank on them about 10 times so far this season) they''re exploding! The slugs are coming out in full force tho..we put several containers of beer out for them, but I''m not sure it''s made too much of a difference.

Gailey-I checked out that site last night (and

to some of the pictures holy cow!!) and in the Zone 4 area someone said they heard setting out a container of corn meal on its side will help get rid of slugs..have you heard that too or is that just for ants?

The only thing I have heard cornmeal used for is as a preventative for mildew. Not sure how effective it is though.

Slugs are the bane of my life sometimes. Non pesticide methods include laying diamataceous earth, turned up hulled out grapefruit halfs will collect them and then you can get rid of them.

Here''s some non toxic slug advice

 

[Gailey]

Date: 7/2/2010 11:33:02 AM
Author: gardengloves
thanks for the website Gailey. Photos look great. Wow, delphinium, I love those, hope you can post pictures soon. Lulu too.

Are we really going to lose previous pictures when PS migrates to 2.0 ? I sure hope not

Yikes, packrat, slugs - that reminds me, its japanese beetle weekend. We just put in a little kwanzan cherry tree, its the only fruit tree we have- and the one they''d be most interested in- so we will have to spray. If anyone has another solution please let me know, once these guys come out they can cover the leaves in a day. they laugh at the soapy water solution.

I found out about these guys in our last home, where I also planted a cherry tree. We went away over the July 4th weekend with a gardener friend and she said I hope you sprayed your cherry tree - this is the weekend they come out.. When we came home the leaves were ravaged and covered with them.

Haven''t come across these wee beasties, but you could try Neem Oil if you don''t want to use a traditional pesticide.

 

[Gailey]

Date: 7/2/2010 12:58:12 PM
Author: gardengloves

I''m going to have to do some serious pruning soon. I put in a few echinacea last year and they took over this year. Or are they just called coneflowers? There is an 18'' box wood hedge framing this and that keeps it looking somewhat neat. This is in the front yard. What''s fun about these are the yellow finches love them, and often balance on the top of the flowers.

Both. Echinacea is the botanical name and Coneflower is the common name. Just love ''em!

 

[Gailey]

Hi there LV,

I have often thought about your garden since you posted about it on Mochi''s thread last year. Love to see some pictures of of your stream area one year on.

The plants you listed that you would like need 5-6 hours of full sun a day in order to thrive. If you think they get this, then go ahead.

I suspect looking at that lush pachysandra that the area is a good deal more shady than that in which case your choices may struggle.

I agree with GG, keep the boxwoods at all costs. Get yourself a pair of Topiary/Grass shears to keep them shaped. I have these and I love them.

If you would like some more shady suggestions, let me know.

BTW, if you do decide to go ahead with the Monarda, try "Raspberry Wine". Here''s a photo of it in one of my gardens, where it is a hot dry (non-irrigated/hardly ever watered) spot. I know it looks quite shady but this picture was taken in the evening when the sun was much lower.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Gailey, I saw your post this morning, though it is no longer here. This was my reply.

"I'll be heading out shortly to plant some more. Fortunately, no work today due to the the holiday yesterday. The goal for today is to dig out a lot of the existing soil, which is very sandy, no idea why, and replace with soil from the woods. Then, plant the rest!

I do not know what the apricot lilies are. The seller referred to them as "antique" apricot lilies. I'll see if she has any photos. I'm curious!

So, about those monarda. Haha, no I didn't cut them back. By cut them back, do you mean to cut the whole stem in half?

Thanks for the congrats on Baby LV (such a cute way to put it by the way.)

Davi - Are you thinking the Thimble Islands http://www.douglasturecek.com/thimble_islands_2007/ in Branford for kayaking?"

 

[gardengloves]

Hi guys,

Looks like most photos made it through 2.0, but we lost Davi's glorious container garden and LV's post tear out photos with her boxwoods, and we lost Gailey's coneflowers and liatrus. , plus the pantyhose gardening tips

 

[Camille]

Hi everyone,
We have an endless summer on the west side of our zone 10 home. I planted this Hydrangea knowing it might not survive but really wanted some' light blue' for a change there, hope I can add the img

 

[gardengloves]

Welcome Camille...

trying to post pic on new 2.0 - test..

coneflower with purple liatris.... well, er, that was complicated, lets see if pic posts. I think it was Gailey who posted coneflowers with white liatris that seems to have vanished with the migration to 2.0 , here's mine with purple liatris... anyone having a heat wave? its been 90 for the last month... no rain.... everything is struggling in this heat.

 

[Camille]

Thank You Gardengloves

 

[Camille]

Got home from NV to a surprising 67* temp drop, Baby Blue so loved:

 

[Gailey]

Gailey, I saw your post this morning, though it is no longer here. This was my reply.

"I'll be heading out shortly to plant some more. Fortunately, no work today due to the the holiday yesterday. The goal for today is to dig out a lot of the existing soil, which is very sandy, no idea why, and replace with soil from the woods. Then, plant the rest!

I do not know what the apricot lilies are. The seller referred to them as "antique" apricot lilies. I'll see if she has any photos. I'm curious!

So, about those monarda. Haha, no I didn't cut them back. By cut them back, do you mean to cut the whole stem in half?

Thanks for the congrats on Baby LV (such a cute way to put it by the way.)

Davi - Are you thinking the Thimble Islands http://www.douglasturecek.com/thimble_islands_2007/ in Branford for kayaking?"

Oh this new PS is a lot to get used to.

I replied and told you to cut your monarda back. Count the number of green leaves, two leaves opposite each other count as one, and cut half of them off. Also take off any yellow leaves at the bottom.

I don't remember if I said anything else, but I guess we will work it out!

 

[Gailey]

Davi,

Please repost your lovely containers.

 

[Gailey]

Hi guys,

Looks like most photos made it through 2.0, but we lost Davi's glorious container garden and LV's post tear out photos with her boxwoods, and we lost Gailey's coneflowers and liatrus. , plus the pantyhose gardening tips

Spent another few hours cutting up pantyhose and staking left over peonies and delphiniums. Was frantic trying to beat the storm coming in.

Can I request everyone post their gardening tips.

 

[artdecogirl]

Hi everybody! Gardengloves, I love your hollyhocks, they are awesome! And lovesvintage, I am soooo jealous of your boxwood, I do not have great luck growing them here. What a exciting project. I have not worked on my project, I staked it out and showed DH and he did not like it at all and does not want to disrupt the green space in back so I am coming up with other ideas and will show you when they solidify a little more. I just wanted to show my fellow gardeners this funny pic, I bought this last fall and thought I would have a lovely lavander asiatic and it is lovely but look what is growing from the base! DH said just cut it off but I figure anything that is tough enough to grow in my garden should get a chance so I wil try to split it this fall and move it next to the gaillardia, I thought it was fun!

 

[davi_el_mejor]

Davi,

Please repost your lovely containers.

Sure thing

 

[davi_el_mejor]

Davi,

Please repost your lovely containers.

And some more