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lavender_lass

Weeds, weeds, and more weeds! LOL

lavender_lass
10 years ago

After almost a year, my husband is finally home from the hospital/recovery...and my garden is a mess! Still beautiful as the roses are blooming, but a mess! LOL

I have SO many weeds in my garden...it's ridiculous. Slowly (very slowly) getting things under control, mainly with my wonderful mom's help :)

The good things about weeds...they shade the plants during the hot summer and keep the deer out of my roses. However, now these weeds are getting too big and have to go...although I will probably leave a few in the back for the bugs. Not really a problem, since weeds constantly blowing in from fields, anyway.

Once I get the garden looking better, I'll try to post some pictures.

Almost forgot---Lowe's is selling roses for 1/2 off. I got some beautiful rugosas for less than $5...surprising sale for July!

Comments (26)

  • cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
    10 years ago

    Welcome to my world-except the getting it under control part! LOL.

    I think your gardens always look lovely and I am glad your DH is home. Relax and enjoy the rose planting!

  • docmom_gw
    10 years ago

    We don't mind weed pictures. How about a before and after?

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Cyn- Thanks :)

    Docmom- That's what my mom always says...I don't want to remember the before! LOL

  • cenepk10
    10 years ago

    My goal is the pick a bushel a day of weeds. I just make a circle around the property- when I think I'm finished- I 've only just begun ... Again !

  • schoolhouse_gw
    10 years ago

    This year was the first year in a long time that I didn't tear out my hair along with tearing out shot weed. I think finally it's under control -for now. But in its place, I'm battling Oxalis everywhere. This stuff grows in sun and shade. ugh.

  • cenepk10
    10 years ago

    Awwww I love oxalis !!!! So pretty !

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    It's finally cooling off a bit, so hoping to do more weeding this week. I'm also trying to consolidate the gardens just a bit...to make them easier to maintain until my husband is feeling better.

    Of course, I went ahead and bought more sale roses to put on the metal arbor. Now, I have to decide where to put it, so the deer won't eat the roses! Always getting ahead of myself, but those blaze roses (with the purple clematis) will look wonderful against the black metal :).

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Sorry! I forget the picture. This is from a few years ago, but it shows the arbor. Great view, but too easy for deer to chew on roses...and I really want to try some climbing roses. Trying to decide if arbor should go in the front yard, or side yard, off master bedroom. I'm leaning towards master bedroom, because we would see the roses right outside the window.
    {{gwi:723706}}From Lavender's Garden

    When my husband gets better (and if I have the money) I would love to build a wooden arbor, where we have the metal arbor now. Out in the vegetable garden, with the beautiful view. I keep picturing grapes growing all over the arbor, with a big wooden table and chairs underneath. Lots of shade in the summer, pretty view and great place to sit and take a break, in the kitchen/vegetable garden. I saw something similar in a garden book, years ago. It just looked so inviting :)

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thought I should probably include picture of bedroom. This is the corner, by the windows...and why I think the red roses and purple clematis would look so pretty on the arbor :)
    {{gwi:723707}}From Home pictures

  • cenepk10
    10 years ago

    OMGoodness Lavender_Lass - that is so pretty !!!! Everything ! I'm 100% behind your vision & great taste ! I can already see it !

  • mnwsgal
    10 years ago

    Sounds like the perfect place to put your arbor and roses/clematis. I look out my bedroom window several times each day and always see something new and blooming in my back gardens. Sometimes I make a special trip to look out that window.

    I love your metal arbor. Just what I've been looking for to put in that back garden.

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    10 years ago

    That's what I've been spending my efforts on the past couple years - my view out the windows, gardening farther away from the house. It's made a huge difference in my enjoyment!

    Love your bucket planters, LOL! I have a couple too. Too handy and big (and free) to not use.

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks, everyone! I still am trying to get the arbor moved...maybe today, if my brother and nephew come out. Keeping my fingers crossed :)

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Well, I've been planting all week and tomorrow is the last day before the forecasted 'big rain' and then too cold temperatures.

    The arbor did not get moved...I decided to keep it where it is and redo it next spring. While it would look good by the bedroom, it's probably a little too big for the space...and it does look great where it is, now. But, I did move two arches and planted a narrower bed with roses, herbs, perennials, etc. It looks beautiful and I'll try to post some pictures, if I ever finish planting! LOL

    Still so much to do and I know it won't all get done, but at least I'm hoping to get all my 'porch plants' into the ground before it freezes. I've got to stop buying super-cheap, abandoned plants, but I feel like if I don't they'll end up in the trash. I've even rescued a few from the trash pile at one store. Now, they're big beautiful butterfly bushes and coneflowers. Who would throw those away??? :)

  • mikebotann
    10 years ago

    One way I keep weeds down is by using woodchips and vigorous groundcovers. With ten acres and 35 years here, I've learned a few things. ;-)
    When I was a kid we had a very large veggie garden just north of Spokane and weeding was done almost continually. My Grandfather lived with us and my two younger brothers and I were his garden slaves. It's a wonder I enjoy gardening today. Well, ornamental gardening, not vegetable gardening.
    I now live in western Washington southeast of Seattle since 1962.
    What city do you live near?
    Here's a picture of part of my garden last Spring.
    Mike

  • cenepk10
    10 years ago

    That's Gorgeous, Mike

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Mike- That is a beautiful garden! I'm trying to add some smaller pine/fir trees, to the edges of the garden. I've been debating about using bark on these areas...it would be wonderful if they turned out half this nice :)

    We live southeast of Spokane, close to the Idaho border. We have more snow and colder nights than Spokane, but the daytime temperatures are about the same. Perennials seem to be a better fit than annuals, but I do add a few to pots and the veggie garden.

    Just planted some more bulbs, so we have some extra color in the spring. It's too muddy to plant or do much of anything in the garden, until mid-April...so shrubs, perennials and bulbs seem to be the best way to have anything blooming. Also, we have our last frost about the first of June!

    It must be nice to have the milder winters...and I'll bet you need to water a lot less, than on the east side, too! LOL

  • schoolhouse_gw
    10 years ago

    Reminds me of an arboretum Mike, very nice. Lots of dedication.

  • mikebotann
    10 years ago

    Lavender lass, back in the mid-sixties I trained to be a RR depot agent in Fairfield, just SE of Spokane for the U.P. RR.
    I've got some class mates living near Mica, real close to there.
    Anyway, here's another pic of my garden. Sorry, not many perennials.
    Mike

  • cenepk10
    10 years ago

    So other worldly, Mike. Really beautiful

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    10 years ago

    I wouldn't ruin such a beautiful spot with a bunch of garish, vulgar hybrid flowers! It's perfect. I had to snag a copy for screensaver!!

  • mikebotann
    10 years ago

    I should start a new thread. I really don't want to hi-jack this one.
    I would like to point out though, good garden design is a matter of evolution. Most people start out with colorful annuals for color, then they go to perennials ...for color. At that point it gets complicated. How do I arrange all these choices for good color combinations? The choices are endless, and you can spend the rest of your life trying to figure out the best combinations for your mixed border.
    Meanwhile, the garden lacks substance, bones, and structure. It's all frilly dilly and only looks good when the combos come together for a few short weeks when it's blooming. Flowers are frosting, nothing more. ...Fluff.
    Build the cake with evergreen trees and shrubs before you add the frosting. All frosting doesn't make a cake.
    Sure, I have a large garden, but these principles can be applied to any size garden.
    Mike

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Mike- We're in between Mica and Fairfield :)

    I love shrub roses, since they're hardy and easy maintenance. Just water and enjoy blooms and fragrance! Here's my Celsiana from last year...I like pinks, lavenders, purple and white in this garden. {{gwi:47437}}From Lavender's Garden

    And a view from the honeysuckle... {{gwi:247924}}From Lavender's Garden

    This is my favorite shot of the horses, by the garden... {{gwi:325130}}From Lavender's Garden

    The new garden (need picture) has more shrubs with white, red, purple, lavender and a little soft pink/coral. Looks surprisingly good with the red :)

    I have yellow in other areas, with orange in the veggie garden. I love marigolds...those little rust ones that have the fragrance. They remind me of our vegetable garden, when I was about eight, so I always plant them. LOL

  • bart_2010
    10 years ago

    Mike, your garden is very beautiful and I definitely hear you talking about building up the backbone of the garden before thinking about the frosting! I am in the process of trying to do this in my garden,but I find it very challenging to decide on where to place the baby trees! they take so long to get big; i myself may never even see them at their full maturity, for all I know! Were your trees already full grown when you started gardening there? can you tell a bit of the story of your garden, please? How did you plan on placement of the trees? thanks, bart

  • cenepk10
    10 years ago

    Yes, Bart ! My same dilemma ! I've put in so many trees. This will be year 3 - maybe they'll start to look like something this year. 1/2 the fun is hurrying up to wait :)

  • mikebotann
    10 years ago

    Here goes, Bart.
    Lavender lass, I sure wish my garden had a few horses wandering around. Fenced from the garden, of course. That's what my property was when I bought it in 1978, a horse pasture with native alder, maple, hemlock and Doug fir.
    I rented a bulldozer and put in a driveway and cleared an area for a manufactured home. After that was done an acquaintance needed a place to store his bulldozer. My place was the logical choice. He said I could run it as much as I wanted as long as I kept it full of fluids. After a couple of years I had dug 12 ponds and cleared a lot of land and started growing plants for my landscaping business, focusing on the not so common plants and buying the more common ones wholesale. I propagated them from seeds and cuttings. Made a lot of trades too. Along the way I kept planting trees and shrubs for myself and slowly phasing out the nursery beds. Most of them went through several moves before they found a permanent home. Now, after 35 years, I'm doing a lot of editing. That means cutting lower branches off some trees and sawing down others. I'm even turning the larger rhododendrons in to trees by pruning them to look like trees. Lately I'm concentrating on planting more groundcovers and enlarging and redoing a rock garden. Every so often almost every part of the garden needs a reshuffle. That's the fun part!
    I really enjoy my neighbor's horse in the pasture next door. He also raises a couple of Angus each summer for beef. Lavender lass, there IS country on this side of the state. ;-)
    Mike...from Peone Prairie near Mt. Spokane

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