Forty + Liatris aspera die suddenly in sand site
plez
16 years ago
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laceyvail 6A, WV
16 years agocarol23_gw
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Gardening: A pointless depressing pastime?
Comments (34)I just spent my four days off (FOUR! In a ROW! It was a delightful thing) getting my garden ready for fall. The weather was perfect...I worked in the cool of the morning, sat in the shade and read in the heat of the afternoon. What did I do? 1) Dug out all (in my dreams--OK MOST) of the garden phlox that had devoured a planting bed. 2) Moved a chamaecyparis obtusa 'Hinoki' that had gotten larger than was advertised. (The plant tags...they lie!)It may or may not survive. 3) Spread ten bags of soil conditioner as mulch. (I need to spread at least another 20.) 4) Weeded. Did I get everything finished? Nor even close...but it all looks so much better than it did. I take comfort in my small victory over the phlox...and the fact that I can move today without wincing. (Note to self: never again attempt to dig out a 15 year-old 10'x10' bed of phlox in a single day.) Yes, there are days when my landscape overwhelms me...it's one of the reasons the back and side yards are still in their "natural" state. I tell people that I do that for the birds and wildlife. Really, it's because the thought of planning something for them paralyze me. Plus, I'd have to take CARE of it then! As I read your initial post...I had a couple of thoughts... 1) It's fall...many of us get a little melancholy. 2) No great project is EVER finished. Completion is an illusion. And that's a GOOD thing. Others will (eventually) build on what we've done. We bought our current home at a relatively low price ten years ago because the owner had let the gardens go. Not just a little...the place was waist and chest deep in weeds when we bought the house. (And unoccupied.) If the person who planted the front garden had seen it...she'd have been distraught. But after ten years of weeding, editing, and planting...it's coming back. True, many of the original plantings are gone, but the basic structure is still there. And my work would have been much harder had the hardscape not been there to give the garden some form. Not to mention the beautiful soil she left me. melanie...See MoreWhat is Blooming in Your Garden - May 2011 - a Photo Thread
Comments (79)I will start an "Early June" thread some time tomorrow. The irises in my garden are just opening. Irises are my favorite flower. I just have a small bed the width of my garage. We're planning to tear the garage down next Spring and build a bigger and better garage - which is probably my excuse to get a bigger and better iris bed! Clematis Miss Bateman in full bloom. I forgot to prune the clematis this spring. This is just a 2 year old plant! Behind the clematis is my daughters art gallery, aka our porch. My 3 year old peonie, flanked by a siberian iris and a japanese iris. I have been waiting 3 years for this peonie to bloom. I only plant white flowers in front of the house, and I am sick sick sick to see a pink bud on it. My only consolation is that I will have a beeautiful pink peonie in a bud vase on my kitchen table real soon. And this peonie will be getting the shovel. Lastly - any idea what this is? I seem to have stumped the people on the Name That Plant forum. I bought these at Weston Nurseries as tulip bulbs....See MoreNative Grass Gardens
Comments (18)Tom, that's really interesting about the relationship between the horned toads and red ants. We had giant red ants, nearly as big as carpenter ants, down around San Bernardino when I was a kid, and we also had horned toads. I don't think I've ever seen any since then. Janet, I think I'm going to have to be very careful with the grasses, now that you've said that some can be quite invasive. Naturally I knew that, but I had hoped the ones that we see in use as ornamentals would tend to be more well-behaved. I've got 6 acres of cleared pasture, but I don't think I'd call it prairie, since we're pretty well surrounded by oak trees everyplace else. I've also got a border of cedars that runs all the way around the property. The original owner put them there. I hate the things because of the way they tend to harbor ticks and they are such a fire hazard. My big flower border where I'd like to use some ornamental grasses for interest, runs across the front of the house section of the property, but it's on the far side of a humongous cement parking area that's about 40' x 130'. It's nearly the size of a city lot! If the bed on the far side was just a little strip, it wouldn't be so bad. It's not. When I ordered weed cloth, I had to measure it to get an idea of the size. It's 24' x 80' and was full of stuff like crabgrass, burr clover, stick-tights and poison oak; a big weed patch that had to be mowed all the time. After the first year, I couldn't stand to look at it any longer. The soil in the bed seems to be pretty good, as I've said before, but it isn't what you could call a 'yard' with all that concrete between it and the house. I began a weed control program and started putting in some of the larger foundation plants; a couple of maple trees, 3 crape myrtles, a Rose of Sharon and so on. The maples may eventually hang out over the parking lot, but it's so big that I can't see that it will be a problem. The soil in the bed seems to be pretty good, and looks to be a pretty neutral ph, but as I've said before, but it isn't what you could call a 'yard' with all that concrete between it and the house. Weeds are still my biggest problem, and most of them are a grass of one sort or another. The crabgrass/devilgrass is a nightmare. I'm going to try using the industrial-grade weed cloth that DeWitt sent to replace the stuff that failed, but the last thing I need is something that tends to be invasive, or that will let native weeds grow up through it. Somehow I managed to bring in a start of vinca major, and it's a disaster. Now it's another big bunch of tall grass with vinca leaves poking through it. I need to rip it all out. Are there any of the native grasses that are both non-invasive and also dense enough to pretty well choke out anything that tries to grow through them? I see them a lot in Shawnee and Tecumseh, but they are in planters with little else around them, so it's hard to tell what they would do in a garden like this, that tends to have a rampant grass population in spite of everything I can do to stop it. Oh, and I think you're the one who directed me to that silt test at Fine Gardening? Or was it Tom? I've forgotten. Anyway, thank you. I quit taking the mag a long time ago, so I hadn't seen it. It's a really good article, and I'm going to try it. The question seems to have already been answered. I won't be digging up any trailer-loads of the silty stuff in the chicken pens and putting it in the garden. I'll just stick to adding manure to the compost heap. I do have a neighbor who raises chicks and who sometimes brings the cedar bedding from the pens, so I add that also and let it compost down. It should not be any problem, should it? The bedding I add in from our sheep pens is generally oat straw or native grass hay and manure. I haven't worried about it too much and it does not seem to be seeding. I hope I'm not creating a monster by using it and will get a big surprise later on. Sorry I wandered around so far away from the original topic of garden grasses. It's hard to draw the line between controlling weed grasses and putting in the good ornamental ones and keep the thread separate. Pat ps: Janet, I absolutely love your photo of the wildflower up against the blue wall. It is so good, and has such a southwest feel about it. Have you ever thought of entering it in photo competition? Seriously. It's good....See Morecare to share a piece of art?
Comments (94)msjee- your "art" reminds me of something similar from my teen years. I had not planned on remarking on it, but I read a post just above and it made me think I should say something. I was angry with my parents and they took a picture of me as I glared at the camera. They put it in the family album and were/are (?) quite amused by it. I always thought it was cruel and mean spirited that they took that picture and it was always a reminder of how upset I was with them. Your son may find it funny, but he also may not and you may not realize that. The reason I put the "?" next to the word "are" is I have not spoken to them for over 5 years. The picture was obviously not the slightest the cause of the rift, but even thinking about it annoys me, 30 years later. They often found humor at my expense and if I expressed that it hurt my feelings, then I was being too sensitive. To this day, I have anxiety about singing publicly because they and my older brother would razz me about it. I remember being quite proud that I was a runner up for the lead in a school production in 6th grade, but when I said I did not get the part, they all said it was because it sounded like someone was getting hurt when I practiced in the bsmt. Very funny. I used to love to sing and wanted to become a singer, but after the 3 of them used it as a punchline, it was hard for me to ever sing in front of anyone again. What may seem funny to the adults may cut deep to a kid, even one who is older. Your son may act like it is funny but it could also get under his skin. Is it really something you want as a family story to pass down? Is that how you want to remember your son? If something were to happen to him, I think you may look at the wall differently and wonder if you should have continued the gag quite so long. Hopefully, your family is nothing like mine was and this is something humorous to all, but if there is a chance it bothers him, even a little, do you really want to do that?...See Moredragonfly_dance
16 years agobilleeeveee
7 years agowisconsitom
7 years agoZachS. z5 Platteville, Colorado
7 years ago
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