Nice to hear from you Tracey!

Hang in there and have fun!

Welcome Tracey!
I don't think the past couple of years have been very buggy but maybe I've built up a resistance (I cook with a lot of garlic). I think we keep learning.
Annie has a terrific NH plant swap twice a year. Keep watching the forum for news.

Hi Tracey :-)

Glad you decided to come out of 'lurkdom' [g]

It sounds like you are feeling a little overwhelmed. It must be hard to inherit an established garden that you're not sure how to take care of. You must feel like you have to come up to speed quickly. Otherwise, gardening doesn't have to be too intense. You can make it as simple or as complex as you want to, if you start out slow and don't bite off too much at one time. We were all beginners and have done some of the same things you mention in your post. It helps to have the forums so you can come and read what others are doing and ask questions. I hope you will jump in and post when you need help. I'd love to see photos of your puppy. How long have you had him?

Your Mom must be so happy to have you home!

Great that you love to mow the lawn, not everyone does. I bet you enjoy vacuuming too. :-)

Hi Tracey!

Welcome! Glad you joined us. Yep, we were all beginners once and no matter how long one gardens, we still keep on learning. I think I've learned more here on the forums than from anywhere else.

Hope to see you posting a lot!
:)
Dee

Thanks for the warm welcomes. I definitely think this year has been one of the best less buggy/mosquitoes summers I remember (in the last 15 years) here in our yard so that is such a bonus!

Prairiemoon2- Beau, my black lab just turned 2 this spring, we adopted him at 8 mos old from a foster family in NY through a rescue place in CT that saves labs from high kill shelters in the south (Beau's from TN). But he still acts like a puppy. He's a great dog, so much energy though! And he still hasn't figured out what the cat is or what his purpose is here on Earth since he won't engage in play with him.

Back to gardening. :) My dad's old flower bed (on a hill- all my planting places are pretty much on slopes!) is pretty much "dead" except for a few daffodils, blue fescue and 2 sad looking roses. I've been working on a new one right in front of our house where we removed shrubs... so far I've planted a peony (that sat waiting to be planted way too long), silver mound, lavender, another blue fescue (they're just so cute) and 2 tall ornamental grasses ... just trying to keep those alive now while I still have creeping woolly thyme and european ginger-from susan's perennials to plant. We lost a few birch trees a few years ago after the freeze storms and some hosta have been punished ever since. So I will attempt to move them out of that area (same area I just planted the peony, etc. in ....) to a more shady location (we don't have much shade or if we do it's in 'total' shade and very dry, compacted clay soil that I will be attempting to work as well!)

I'll update as I plant more and actually see a garden coming together, or have questions etc. :)

Welcome Tracey!

It will be an adventure for sure. Just don't try to do it all at once. We've all had to start out somewhere, and trust me I've lost the battle with enough plants over the years! But the victories are sweet when they happen. It's not a good thing if you lose a plant now and then, especially if they are expensive or have sentimental value. But it's not a crime either! Just a learning experience. I think you'll find that people here are very nice and willing to help and share what they know.

Best of luck to you!

Bill

beausgrrl, Labs are the best. We've had a couple of lab mixes over the years. Our son has a lab mix now that we all just love to death. Noodles is her name and my son also has 5 cats. They all get along and play a little bit, but the dog is definitely outnumbered. [g] She is a little more mellow than most Lab mixes but still has plenty of energy. It was hard on her when she was little and my son had to work but they've worked things out now, so she gets great walks before he has to go and then she is tired out while he is gone. She used to chew things when he was out and that stopped with the walks. Have you ever seen this website called 'dogmt dot com'? It has all kinds of products that are Lab related. Someone on GW posted a link to it and it's really neat.

We removed every shrub in our backyard about 5 years ago and it is finally starting to look like a yard again. [g] We also have some moss creeping into our back lawn that I am trying to encourage.

If you are trying to amend clay soil, have you ever looked into lasagna gardening? I used that technique on a few beds in my garden and it worked out really well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dogmt

Prairiemoon - Labs are the best! Although, I'm eating lunch and stopped to type and he got up and drooled all over me cuz I'm delaying his "treat" from my food ! He's a tad spoiled. Especially since we're not able to hike in the woods as usual due to the darn deerfly.

I am researching lasagna gardening as a matter of fact! Kinda reading too much and my head is spinning. Want to keep it really simple. Have lots of leaves in the fall but don't have a shredder, have a mower than could shred but our lawn isn't the best and gets super dusty by then so won't be that great an environment to mow/chop... would love to use chopped leaves rather than wait over a year for them to break down on a cold pile...

beausgrrl, I chop leaves with the mower all the time. We just mow the lawn with the leaves on it and empty the bag into a holding pen or in the back of shrub borders as a mulch. Sometimes our neighbors give us bags of leaves and we pour those on the lawn and let them dry out for a few hours and then just mow over them. They really do break down faster that way. I mulched all my vegetable beds with a thick layer of chopped leaves this year too.

Prairiemoon - I'll have to do that this fall, as we had 40 bags of leaves last year and it was composted at the dump! What a waste, I just wasn't into the gardening yet so clueless what to do... shoulda just kept them all! Oh well, I'm starting now. :)

Hi beausgirl! Gardening is a very fantastic hobby. Hope you have many enjoyable years.

I can't believe you love mowing the lawn. That has always been my least favorite yard chore.

Throwing away leaves - eeeek that makes a compost whacko cringe. I don't usually use the bag on the mower but in the fall will use to collect some chopped leaves. I use leaves whole or chopped as the main mulch ingredient. Make a big pile and let it partially decompose, you have leaf mold. Spread them on the slopes you have to control erosion and start to provide organic matter into the soil. Dig them into beds or you can use them as a layer in the lasagne beds when you figure out where you want them.

Yes, welcome!! Sounds like you are off to a fantastic start. Good luck.

We have sooooo many leaves here in fall that one year the piles on the ground were so fungus smelly and moldy rotting but not decomposing that I'm leary to use whole leaves anywhere. We still have piles in our side woods areas that are very slowly becoming mould. But when I dig down in them there is some useable material but lots of roots of other debris through them so it's frustrating to try to detach the stuff. Wish we had people properly pile just leaves up and not all brush, weeds, etc. mixed in...

beausgrrl, we worked out an arrangement with our neighbor who has a lot of trees. He just empties them over our fence for us. Saves him from bagging them and they don't garden so they don't use the leaves. Last fall was the first time we did it and it worked out great! We had more than enough leaves with his and ours and one other neighbor. In the photo below, maybe you can see the wire bin on the left that we normally hold our leaves and grass clippings in. We set up a second temporary bin to take care of all the leaves in the photo. They were both full to the top but in the spring they had matted down to half that much so we put one into the other.

Terrene - I think I like mowing because it's something I can "finish" and feel satisfied with that. Other projects always feel ongoing and unending and I never seem to get a feel of accomplishment (until gardening in general). I also get a small break from Beau my dog who is at my side 24/7. :) I like the idea of leaf mould.

I have a general silly question about amending new areas for gardening that are literally void of all good things (except over abundance of phosphorus according to our recent soil test from UNH)... if I have some plants planted and want to do lasagna layering in the non-planted areas can I just build up some layers with newspaper/cardboard, used coffee grounds, compost, leaf mould, and composted manure and then work that into the area when it breaks down (since the other plants would be at a "lower level") so it would be all the same height?

Yes you can use cardboard/newspaper between the plants, layer some organics, and then top with something visually appealing (chopped leaves, straw, leaf mould). In such a case personally I wouldn't make the layers too deep (3-4 inches). A brand new lasagne can be layered as deep as 10-12" but my experience is that if you plant right away in the bed the roots of the plants need to contact the soil to get a good hold. Organic layers compress as they decompose which can leave a plant high and dry. I don't think being a little low is a big problem (except perhaps plants that need excellent drainage).

Try to mulch AFTER a good soaking rain or watering to conserve the moisture in the soil.

Check out the Ruth Stout method of mulching - she mulched very deep and it wasn't a problem for her plants. Don't hesitate to use the Soil, compost, and mulch forum as a resource to search or post, probably would search first as they are zillions of posts on any given subject. That is a forum full of compost whackos. :)

Well, I typed out a long email and thought I posted it in the soil,compost and mulch forum but I must have not posted correctly b/c it's not there. argh. Anyway.. Thanks for the reply terrene I think I'll give layering a try today.

There are a few books on Lasagna Gardening at the library.