Author Topic: The Garden Thread that two people wanted  (Read 93456 times)

notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #200 on: July 13, 2020, 07:26:03 AM »
Well I got my new potato pieces planted today. I left a couple of things that I'm still not sure are weeds.
 
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LilyBLily

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #201 on: July 13, 2020, 07:50:45 AM »
I hauled out the hedge clippers and finally trimmed the azaleas myself since a certain person has not cooperated and this has dragged on too long. They probably won't bloom much next year because they likely already set their buds. Okay, but now all the bushes that needed trimming have been trimmed. Done.

Found another mullein in the process but will need a tool to dig it out; the lack of rain has turned the dirt here to concrete. Very typical of every summer here. Eventually even the weeds in the lawn die back and the only green visible in the drain field is directly above the drain lines themselves.
 
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notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #202 on: July 14, 2020, 06:35:15 AM »
Morning glory is curling around the mailbox post. Happy happy joy joy.
 
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LilyBLily

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #203 on: July 14, 2020, 08:02:53 AM »
I found a baby wood turtle! Whoa!
 
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LilyBLily

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #204 on: July 22, 2020, 09:40:41 AM »
I finally took pity on all the gasping plants and did some early morning watering. Twelve hours later, we're actually having a bit of a rain shower. Not a soaking, but something. Maybe tomorrow I should wash my car.
 

notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #205 on: July 22, 2020, 09:43:03 AM »
My Asiatic lily is opening. My winter hardy hibiscus has tons of blooms but they just won't open. Morning glories are on track to take over the mailbox.
 

Jan Hurst-Nicholson

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Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #206 on: July 26, 2020, 01:42:20 AM »
Thought you might like to see my neighbour's pony tail palm (sometimes called an elephant's foot palm). It only flowers every 10 - 20 years.

From the www.
You can grow ponytail palm in the ground or in very large pots. In either case, given sufficient patience, you may be lucky enough to see it flower. Flowering on a ponytail palm does not occur the first year you purchase the small plant nor is it likely to during the next decade. Before the plant flowers, it increases significantly in size and girth. The plant’s palm-like trunk sometimes grows to 18 feet (5.5 m.) high and widens to 6 feet (2 m.) in diameter. But size alone does not trigger first flowering on a ponytail palm. Experts believe that a combination of factors, including weather, can be instrumental in causing initial ponytail palm flowering. Once the plant blooms, it will flower every summer.

Not sure about it flowering every summer  :icon_rolleyes:

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notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #207 on: July 26, 2020, 03:00:05 AM »
Wow, I feel special for getting to see that. Thanks for sharing Jan.

Garden - ugh. A friend told me a potato sprouted in her vegetable drawer and she planted it a month ago and has been harvesting potatoes left and right. We are headed into another heat wave, 100 degrees predicted on Monday, but the rain barrels are full for now. Only one of my roses rebloomed, with only two flowers. I need to get some fertilizer down for the rain at the end of next week hopefully. If they blew the forecast and we don't get rain, well, veggie garden is going to be in trouble.
 

LilyBLily

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #208 on: July 26, 2020, 05:46:43 AM »
That palm is fantastic! Beautiful.

We discovered another wild version of an evening primrose. And we got lucky and finally there was significant rain. Many flowers look quite singed, however.
 

Vijaya

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #209 on: July 28, 2020, 02:22:00 AM »
It's beautiful Jan.


Author of over 100 books and magazine pieces, primarily for children
Vijaya Bodach | Personal Blog | Bodach Books
 

Jan Hurst-Nicholson

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Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #210 on: August 02, 2020, 01:17:18 AM »
Two more lockdown projects almost completed. All the plants were donated by the residents, or we split ones that were already growing in the common property. We've used mostly bromeliads, cacti or aloes that don't require much water or looking after.  Grin.

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notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #211 on: August 04, 2020, 01:11:28 AM »
Yesterday I fertilized the roses and lilacs in prep for the rain we should get from the hurricane. Munstead wood is the only one that's reflowered this year, which is really unusual. The morning glories are overtaking the mailbox. The winter hardy hibiscus buds started opening! The dalias I attempted this year are pretty stunted, not enough water.

If we don't get any water from the hurricane, well, the leaves look healthy. Last year a hurricane missed central and northern New England entirely. We went up to the beach that day and we could see it off shore which was pretty cool. Watched it move further north all day. The waves were amazing. When the tide came in rogue waves were making it up to the sea wall, which of course happens, but I hadn't ever seen it before.
 

LilyBLily

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #212 on: August 04, 2020, 02:12:00 AM »
A moonflower seed that I'd planted inside intending to move it outside has bloomed anyway. Huge white blossom. Not a variety I've ever had before.
 

Jan Hurst-Nicholson

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Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #213 on: August 04, 2020, 03:15:03 AM »
A moonflower seed that I'd planted inside intending to move it outside has bloomed anyway. Huge white blossom. Not a variety I've ever had before.

would love to see a picture of it. grint

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LilyBLily

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #214 on: August 04, 2020, 03:40:55 AM »
Okay, trying to post pics.

Which apparently worked. Thanks to Simon for how to make the file size smaller.
 
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Jan Hurst-Nicholson

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Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #215 on: August 04, 2020, 05:35:25 AM »
Okay, trying to post pics.

Which apparently worked. Thanks to Simon for how to make the file size smaller.

Very pretty. Don't think I've seen one.

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notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #216 on: August 04, 2020, 06:40:22 AM »
Okay, trying to post pics.

Which apparently worked. Thanks to Simon for how to make the file size smaller.
Oh so pretty. When the blossom is done you can harvest the seeds from it. It's a viner so you can throw some out by your mailbox in the fall if you want and see if they come back next year.
 

Vijaya

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #217 on: August 04, 2020, 09:17:47 AM »
What a beauty!


Author of over 100 books and magazine pieces, primarily for children
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notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #218 on: August 15, 2020, 02:10:21 AM »
Morning Glories are blooming. The deep purple ones, which are the best ones IMHO.
 

Maggie Ann

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #219 on: August 15, 2020, 02:43:34 AM »
Lovely!

           
 

JRTomlin

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #220 on: August 15, 2020, 02:01:46 PM »
Next year I am planning on completely redoing my flower beds such as they are. I will be putting in raised beds. I'll need to move a peony and some stonecrop but most will be new plants. My little garden (a pocket-handkerchief garden really) mostly gets about 5 hours of sun a day so not quite full sun, but close. Still deciding on what to put in so suggestions would be great. :)
 

notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #221 on: August 15, 2020, 10:05:19 PM »
Hosta can take 5 hours of sun a day so that can fill in when whatever is flowering isn't. Although Hosta flowers too. Bleeding Heart should be okay too.
 

LilyBLily

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #222 on: August 15, 2020, 11:21:16 PM »
Pulmonaria likes shade and is very hardy and doesn't get tall. Lamium is more delicate but again short. Lambs' ear is a nice silvery ground cover with a few tall blooming spikes like scepters. Phlox loves shade and sun and usually is a couple feet tall and has the virtue of blooming continuously from July to frost. Arum lilies like shade and they don't get tall.
 

Mammasan

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #223 on: August 16, 2020, 07:19:50 AM »
I tried to upload an MP4 File (.mp4) video, no go. Does anyone know what I need to convert it to, and how? Thanks. (I am a Luddite, but, last night I actually figured out how to convert an iTunes song to MP3 within iTunes and transfer it into my Windows Media Player. Immensely proud. Of course then I learned that Windows Media Player is the old 'thing' and I should have loaded it into Windows' newer "Groove Music" thing. I just can't keep up.)
 

notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #224 on: August 17, 2020, 01:16:54 AM »
I'm starting to get worried about the perennials, re: lack of water. Peonies and roses, the leaves are yellowing. The enormous willow shrubs are just losing leaves like crazy, as are some of the trees. They said rain tomorrow but they just changed it to a week away. Not sure what this will mean for tapping the maples in January, but that's not a huge concern, it's just a hobby.

Munstead wood is a real trooper, though, still blooming.
 

LilyBLily

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #225 on: August 17, 2020, 01:43:05 AM »
I think some of my peonies have died. I didn't notice them turning brown, but they now look as if this is November. I don't know what to think. Peonies are basically tough, but the ones that turned brown are not the heirloom ones. I doubt anything could kill the heirlooms.

My naked ladies came up double this year, their second, two stalks instead of one. That was lovely except the extreme hot weather kept their blooming period very short. I'm still hoping the lycoris will come up--often, they don't--but from checking old photos I've discovered that they bloom in September, not August, so the story isn't over yet. I have one delphinium that stubbornly refuses to do anything anymore. It's alive, which in this climate and recent heat is a minor miracle, but it hasn't bloomed in years and I don't know what kind of fertilizer it is missing. At one time it was easily five feet tall, including the impressive cobalt blue flower stalk; now it's less that a foot tall, and no flower.

We had a lot of rain in the past couple of days, enough so probably I should go out and pull all sorts of invasive plants while the ground is soft enough to render up their roots. I can't say it's my favorite thing to do.

 

notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #226 on: August 18, 2020, 07:12:07 AM »
Two of the dahlias bloomed which is incredible since they need to be watered a couple of times a week and nope, that hasn't happened. It makes me think that I should throw away some more money ordering more dahlias for the edge of the road. They have to be dug up every fall which makes them a good choice because the town plow destroys that area of the yard every snowstorm anyway.
 

Jan Hurst-Nicholson

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Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #227 on: August 19, 2020, 02:45:34 AM »
I tried to upload an MP4 File (.mp4) video, no go. Does anyone know what I need to convert it to, and how? Thanks. (I am a Luddite, but, last night I actually figured out how to convert an iTunes song to MP3 within iTunes and transfer it into my Windows Media Player. Immensely proud. Of course then I learned that Windows Media Player is the old 'thing' and I should have loaded it into Windows' newer "Groove Music" thing. I just can't keep up.)

Email the MP4 file to Tim and he will upload it for you.  grint

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Jan Hurst-Nicholson

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Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #228 on: August 19, 2020, 02:47:05 AM »
Evened out a patch of lawn by putting down some of my home-made compost. I now have tomatoes growing in the middle of my lawn  grint

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Mark Gardner

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #229 on: August 22, 2020, 01:25:54 AM »
I'm light this year. All above-ground. Tomatoes and red peppers are the mainstays, and then a bunch of random spices.




 
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notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #230 on: August 22, 2020, 10:38:20 PM »
That's a chocolate pepper?
 

Mark Gardner

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #231 on: August 23, 2020, 02:07:51 PM »
That's a chocolate pepper?
LOL. Nope, just an intermediate step in the ripening. I like the idea of chocolate anything since I’m on my third week of meal replacement...
 

notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #232 on: August 23, 2020, 10:42:16 PM »
Ah, we have another thread where we discussed how chocolate peppers do not taste like chocolate.

So I ordered soaker hose to put underground. The vegetable garden is pretty much toast this year due to the drought so I decided to put the hose in now rather than wait for the spring. I have the time. Went out to work on getting out a big rock that I discovered in the spring and found I did have baby carrots. We ate all of them in one sitting, there were only a dozen or so. Some of the plants are still hanging in there so when the soaker hose comes I will get the loam and redo the bed but I'll transplant what ever is still hanging in there in the hopes of getting something later this fall.
 

Mark Gardner

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #233 on: August 27, 2020, 03:12:08 AM »
Well, that does it. My 4yo drove her monster truck into the larger tomato plant, and pushed it down an incline where it hit my property fence in an explosion of light and energy. She just looked up at me with that toddler "oops" look. RIP tomato plant.
 

Jan Hurst-Nicholson

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Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #234 on: August 27, 2020, 05:48:05 AM »
Well, that does it. My 4yo drove her monster truck into the larger tomato plant, and pushed it down an incline where it hit my property fence in an explosion of light and energy. She just looked up at me with that toddler "oops" look. RIP tomato plant.

 :doh:  :icon_sad:

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notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #235 on: September 01, 2020, 06:29:53 AM »
I decided to plant another potato and I poked around out there and one thing that is growing is definitely a potato. I dug it up carefully and it had one potato the size of a grape. So I put it back. The soaker hose came so I will work on that probably next week.
 
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Maggie Ann

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #236 on: September 01, 2020, 09:27:01 AM »
Well, that does it. My 4yo drove her monster truck into the larger tomato plant, and pushed it down an incline where it hit my property fence in an explosion of light and energy. She just looked up at me with that toddler "oops" look. RIP tomato plant.

My lawn man just drove his riding commercial-type lawnmower into my dogs playpen. He managed to fix it with some duct tape, but I don't think that would work for your tomato plant.   :angel:
           
 

Mark Gardner

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #237 on: September 02, 2020, 01:27:42 AM »
Time to start building a raised bed vegetable garden plot.
 

notthatamanda

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #238 on: September 02, 2020, 01:46:45 AM »
What are you going to put in it? Replacement tomato? I wish I could offer you some rocks. We have loads of them.
 

Mark Gardner

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #239 on: September 02, 2020, 02:02:25 AM »
What are you going to put in it? Replacement tomato? I wish I could offer you some rocks. We have loads of them.
The plan:

I may swap the north carrots with the radishes. I know that cabbage doesn't get along with one of the other plants, and I need to make sure that there are barrier plants.

Also, since the plan is for 36"x36" but the interior diameter of the planter is 40"x40" I'll use the extra 4" on two sides to plant nasturtium, marigold, basil, & leeks.
 

Jan Hurst-Nicholson

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Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #240 on: September 02, 2020, 02:43:32 AM »
What are you going to put in it? Replacement tomato? I wish I could offer you some rocks. We have loads of them.
The plan:

I may swap the north carrots with the radishes. I know that cabbage doesn't get along with one of the other plants, and I need to make sure that there are barrier plants.

Also, since the plan is for 36"x36" but the interior diameter of the planter is 40"x40" I'll use the extra 4" on two sides to plant nasturtium, marigold, basil, & leeks.

Sounds like a solid plan. :Tup2:. Do you have wild animals to contend with? I'd have to cage that in to keep the monkeys out  :icon_rolleyes:

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Mark Gardner

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #241 on: September 02, 2020, 02:55:11 AM »
Sounds like a solid plan. :Tup2:. Do you have wild animals to contend with? I'd have to cage that in to keep the monkeys out  :icon_rolleyes:
My back yard is fenced with a ~6' wooden fence, so I'm not too concerned with mammalian interlopers. If I do discover that there are varmints getting in there, I can add a 4x4 on each corner, and string chicken wire between them. I'm more worried about pests, and perhaps corvidae.
 

Mammasan

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #242 on: September 02, 2020, 03:43:03 AM »
As far as interlopers go, every night I have to go out with a flashlight and pluck invasive Cuban brown snails off my invasive Mexican petunias, always disturbing a few sleeping invasive West Indian brown anole lizards.
 

LilyBLily

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #243 on: September 02, 2020, 04:34:43 AM »
As far as interlopers go, every night I have to go out with a flashlight and pluck invasive Cuban brown snails off my invasive Mexican petunias, always disturbing a few sleeping invasive West Indian brown anole lizards.

Yikes!  :dizzy
 

Jan Hurst-Nicholson

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Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #244 on: September 02, 2020, 05:42:17 AM »
As far as interlopers go, every night I have to go out with a flashlight and pluck invasive Cuban brown snails off my invasive Mexican petunias, always disturbing a few sleeping invasive West Indian brown anole lizards.

If you sprinkle broken egg shells round your petunias it should keep the snails off.  grint

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Mammasan

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #245 on: September 02, 2020, 06:22:51 AM »
Thanks, I'll try that. (Only thing worse than having to pluck off a Cuban brown snail, is stepping on one. Crunch, ker-splat.)
 

Jeff Tanyard

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #246 on: September 02, 2020, 09:00:22 AM »
Thanks, I'll try that. (Only thing worse than having to pluck off a Cuban brown snail, is stepping on one. Crunch, ker-splat.)


Better to step on one than to sit on one. 

Once when I was a kid, a friend sat on a slug.  It was just as disgusting and funny as you can imagine.
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Mark Gardner

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #247 on: September 02, 2020, 11:45:14 AM »
I think this tomato plant is at the end of its usable life.
 

idontknowyet

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #248 on: September 02, 2020, 11:51:14 AM »
I think this tomato plant is at the end of its usable life.

It produced well for you. You can always pluck the fruit off and ripen in on your counter.
 

LilyBLily

Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Reply #249 on: September 02, 2020, 01:03:16 PM »
Or make some fried green tomatoes.