The Garden Thread that two people wanted

[LilyBLily]

Bears? Yikes. There are bears very near us but they don't generally like to be in our woods because it's not dense.

Actually, as woods go, it's boring. Not much variety of plants or trees, and no wonderful discoveries. No lady's slippers, no jack-in-the-pulpits, and I had to steal May apples and bluebells from along a road. Each has naturalized in a big way, proving they are happy in their new home. 

[notthatamanda]

None came down this spring into the neighborhood, that we know of. I'm guessing because people are on the wood trails behind my house all the time now they are even more shy than usual. But it's always disconcerting to look out your window and see a bear or a bobcat or fisher. I think we saw a lynx once. And we saw barred owls a month ago.

Our woods are boring for plants too, and it's getting to the point where no one wants to go back there because of bugs. We have glacier deposited rocks, two so big they are called the house and the barn. There is a burned out car that no one seems to remember what happened or how it got out there. Older one may try to write and make a short film about it. (Fingers crossed)

[Vijaya]

Amanda, do you live in WA? When we lived there at the edge of the woods, there was a lot of wildlife. We loved walking in the woods, picking berries in the summer, mushrooms in the fall, and it was scary to see a coyote or bobcat or bear. They were more scared of us so would go away, except for the one time a coyote crept closer, barring her teeth. I picked up a few sticks and threw them and then turned around. I did not want my dog getting into a fight. She guards me.

It's cool that your older one will write about the car--she has just the person to ask for help too! 

[notthatamanda]

Ha ha, let's see if she does it.

We live in New England. And I forgot the coyotes. They hunt in pairs or packs now. They are definitely the boldest of the bunch.

Overall, it is not that scary, it's just when you see it the caveman part of your brain takes over and says "BEAR BEAR BEAR".

They are black bears, so not likely to attack humans, though we do have one neighbor who feeds them, because he is an idiot. It's not illegal to feed them here but nuisance bears get shot.

We had a mountain lion about 20 years ago. People kept seeing it, they talked to a zoologist from California and he thought we were all a bunch of ****, but eventually they got some tracks on it (three kids around the corner from me went and hid in their shed when it came into the yard.) Yup, mountain lion. My money was on a pet that got released, but we never found it. It made its way NE up into the White Mountains most likely. I carried a knife on my walks for a couple of months.

[Vijaya]

Yikes! And you were brave enough to go out with a knife. I'd be petrified.

[notthatamanda]

I really like my walks.

[Maggie Ann]

The only thing I can successfully grow is orchids. Even that took me a few years to get it right. I have about 25 plants, and 10 of them are blooming right now. The others are not blooming size yet. I would post a picture but the flowers are falling off because it's toward the end of the season. I keep my orchids on my screened patio so I don't have to worry about bugs, and it's roofed so I don't have to worry about too much sunlight burning them up.

My house was built in 2004 but I bought it in 2017. The builder planted two oak trees smack in the middle of my backyard and two oak trees in my front yard. Because they take up so much room, I haven't been able to plant any fruit trees.

I used to plant veggies and containers, but gave up on that when I decided to grow orchids.

[notthatamanda]

I've wanted to do orchids. By cousin's girlfriend does them. Maybe next time I go to BJs they will have them. I have a lot of indoor plants, including a lemon tree, which my friend's kid grew from a seed from a supermarket lemon. It's about 4 feet tall and I doubt it will ever fruit since it has to stay indoors here. But the leaves smell very lemony if you rub them.

I started a pomegranate from seed from one from the supermarket. I have one a foot tall and one about four inches. I will probably divide those and give one to a friend next week. I have seen pomegranates bear fruit in a pot here, so it may be possible. I'll let you know if 5-10 years.

[Maggie Ann]

I learned everything I needed to grow orchids on YouTube. The orchid whisperer lives in the Midwest and miss orchid girl lives on Cyprus which is much more my climate.

Dendrobiums are really easy but their flowers are quite small. If you want big showy flowers, get Cattleyas. Mostly, you'll see Phaelenopsis in the stores. I love Vandas, but they are very greedy, sucking up a lot of light and water and fertilizer.

[LilyBLily]

I've been put off by the supermarket price of $30 for a showy deep blue orchid, also not sure if it is real color or a dye. Of course the other issue is the expense of buying a plant I will almost surely kill.

I had to give up on alliums because the voles eat them, but at least that's not my fault.

[Mammasan]

I am not a gardener at all, but (I live in southeastern US) this Spring I saw a tree blooming with flowers that looked gorgeous --exactly like orchids. I Googled "tree flowers that look like orchids" to find out what kind of tree it was and (big surprise) found it's called the "orchid tree." Originally from Hong Kong. I took some seeds from a couple of its pods and potted them. Little trees are now growing! I'll have to find a place for them in the yard eventually.

[notthatamanda]

That's so cool! Good luck with your trees. Around here crab apples are some of the prettiest trees.

I've got a neighbor who has some alliums and I love them, but I don't have any myself. We've got voles too, I'm sure.

[Maggie Ann]

I am not a gardener at all, but (I live in southeastern US) this Spring I saw a tree blooming with flowers that looked gorgeous --exactly like orchids. I Googled "tree flowers that look like orchids" to find out what kind of tree it was and (big surprise) found it's called the "orchid tree." Originally from Hong Kong. I took some seeds from a couple of its pods and potted them. Little trees are now growing! I'll have to find a place for them in the yard eventually.

my friend in Australia had a gorgeous garden with orchids and roses and also had an orchid tree. She sent me pictures and it was beautiful. I also have an orchid cactus, which is not strictly an orchid, but is an epiphylum. hasn't bloomed yet but I suspect that it has to grow a lot more.

[Mammasan]

I bought a couple of pots of "Mexican petunias" from Walmart and left them on my front walk. They are bush-like but covered in purple flowers that look like petunias. They flower just before dawn, with the flowers all falling off around four o'clock in the afternoon. They do this every day.

Shortly after I left them, I noticed that a solitary bumble bee would come every early morning and dive deep into each of the flowers. Then, around three o'clock in the afternoon a solitary bumblebee (I'm guessing the same one) would come, but wouldn't go inside any of the flowers. Instead, it would go behind the flower, to its base, of each flower.

I figure the flower was getting ready to drop off and had formed a fissure with the stem, and the bee was accessing the nectar through that break. Kinda smart!

[notthatamanda]

Another trip to the nursery before the supermarket. I got cucumbers. That was literally the only thing I've been able to find this season in a six plant flat. We need to start eating the rest of last year's pickles now.

No broccoli but I got green cauliflower. Which is pretty close. I like cauliflower, but cheddar cauliflower is always disappointing. I expect it to taste like cheese. Also chocolate peppers, they should taste like chocolate please.

I bought three different types of blueberry bushes, one white raspberry (the absolute last raspberry) and a white grape vine. The grape is a surprise for my husband, he eats the concord grapes that grow in our yard. When I got home I saw the thing is supposed to be 10 feet tall, but I guess I can rig up something on either side, grape vines wouldn't be practical to harvest if they let them climb as high as they wanted.

The bearded irises are starting to open up and I expect the peonies to follow in a week or two.

I've been good about watering the veggies, the wildflower garden and the marigold seeds. I go out in the morning with my cup of coffee. I have two water cans so I can fill one from the rain barrel while I am watering with the other. It is quiet and cool and nice.

[LilyBLily]

Our pitiful number of iris blooms this year are all open, each a different color. I miss the ones that didn't bloom and will have to research what the heck happened since they're in very different spots vis-a-vis sun and water.

The peonies have started to open and look quite beautiful as usual. Not a lot of blossoms on the oldest ones but they don't get much sun and last year was a drought year. Even the buddleia behind them is looking as if it wants to give up. However, it has profusely reseeded itself in a sunnier spot and produces many blooms all season.

Somewhere I have some cucumber seeds and I will plant them in pots on my deck; it's the only place with reliable sun for hours.

Everything is taking a great leap forward. Soon my garden around the house will be all tall plants and I won't touch any of them for months for fear of snaky surprises.

The bulbs I dug up and stored in the garage are striated-leaf canna lilies. They didn't bloom last year but their foliage is beautiful and I planted the three that still looked alive in the super hot spot in front of the air conditioner.

If we get the windows washed we'll put up the hummingbird feeder again. Last year it kept falling off because the window was so dirty, and last year I did not care enough about anything to clean the window.

[notthatamanda]

Oh I thought you mistyped calla lilies. I never heard of canna lilies. I googled the buddleia too, I have seen that didn't know what it was called.

As I was leaving the nursery I saw they still had tons of peonies, which was kind of surprising, but I had already paid so I kept walking. I do like pansies. I had a bunch that reseeded themselves for more than five years then last year they finally quit.

I would like to get some morning glories to wrap around the mail box.

[LilyBLily]

I used to have calla lilies. They have to be raised and stored for the winter, but I did that for a dozen years. Then one year I didn't. White callas are really lovely; it's such a pure white.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Hydrangeas are in bloom:





Wild Muscadine:

[Maggie Ann]

I've lived in Florida for more than 60 years and I still miss the flowers I knew from up north. Hydrangeas is one of them and honeysuckle is another.

I'm going to visit the botanical gardens with my daughter and granddaughter tomorrow. Of course I'm interested in the orchid garden, but they also have a rose garden with roses suitable for our climate and soil. My neighbor has a 15-year-old red rose that is constantly blooming. There are very few leaves, but there are always dozens of flowers.

[notthatamanda]

Last summer we went to Montreal and I got to see the rose gardens there finally. They were wonderful.

I have a hydrangea, it has about 10 leaves so far. I think it needs to be in a sunny spot. There are some outside the community center in my town that grow huge, like the size of a small SUV. They are the lovely mix of the antique white and rose too.

[Maggie Ann]

our trip to the botanical gardens has been postponed, but we are still scheduled to do a picnic in the park. There's sure to be some hibiscus so I won't feel the lack of flowers.

[LilyBLily]

Right now I have a sea of white anemones to contrast with the deep blue tritelias--even though they were sold to me as camassias, they look much more like the bulbs sold to me as tritelias.

Different nursery companies, different subspecies/hybrids/whatever. I'm still looking for a giant snowflake (looks like a super tall snowdrop) with the same dark green, waxy foliage as the ones in my mother's garden many years ago. I can buy snowflakes from multiple sources today but the foliage is wrong. 

[Maggie Ann]

I received an email from my bank with the following.

" A Tip to Boost Your Mood While You Are at Home
   
A meta‐analysis of 22 case studies found that working in your garden can improve symptoms of anxiety and stress. Gardening allows us to get outside in the sun and can be an activity that allows us to get into a 'flow' state of mind – one where we are not focusing on anything but the task at hand. The satisfaction of watching your garden bloom or producing vegetables to feed your family can also help instill a sense of gratification or accomplishment."

so we are on the right track.

[LilyBLily]

I planted my bachelor's buttons today. Grown from seed indoors. It's finally warm enough for them to be outside. Otherwise, my gardening today was all about destruction: mowing, weed whacking, and then mixing up some vile weedkiller to put on the thousands of garlic mustard plants trying to infest the woods. Deer don't like strong smells and they definitely don't like garlic, so this non-native invasive has had an easy road to conquest. I aim to stop it if I can. Not with glyphosate, though. Something milder. Glyphosate was supposed to be the safe answer to weed control, but it's turning up in foods. Not good.   

[notthatamanda]

Around here people bring in goats to eat poison ivy. I wonder if they would eat garlic mustard. They are very thorough with the poison ivy.

I have a friend who grew bachelor buttons. I just stink at seeds. I did plant some sunflowers out front yesterday. I'll use your garlic and egg mix on them if they pop up. The spray bottle did gum up eventually, so I plan to mix it in a jar and apply it with a silicon pastry brush.

We got a good rain last night, which we needed. The rain barrel is hopefully full all the way back up now.

[LilyBLily]

I planted dill and cucumber seeds in pots. I don't have a great track records with seeds, either, but the dill seeds have been sitting around since 1999, according to the package, so why not give them a whirl? Somebody in the family had the idea of doing vegetable gardening and bought a ton of vegetable seeds; I have grabbed a few packets to play with.

[notthatamanda]

I did the same thing, all I managed to get was peas, and I killed half of those when I put them outside. I am just in awe of people who can make seeds work all the way to actual produce.

[Vijaya]

I am just in awe of people who can make seeds work all the way to actual produce.

I find the whole process fascinating. It never ceases to amaze me that a tiny seed turns into a tomato or a stick sprouts new growth. We had one overachieving tomato a couple of weeks ago and now the rest of them are ripening. They are so heavy, I worry the string won't be able to hold up the plant but so far so good. We'll have a steady supply... Peppers do really well here too, so I make a lot of salsa.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

This has been part of our lockdown project. Not quite finished. It's in the common property in my retirement village and is in the garden just above my cottage. It was a functioning fountain in one of the cottages and had a pool and fish pond, but the owner passed away and the new owners didn't want the bother of looking after it, so it was dismantled and removed and this part of the garden ended up with this part of the fountain. We tried to use plants that don't need much water or looking after. 

[notthatamanda]

Oh that's so pretty Jan.

So we positioned another rain barrel to catch the runoff from the deck. I had to move two hostas and put them out by the mailbox. I went looking for morning glory seeds but didn't find any. Planted some sunflowers - solar babies and teddy bears - out there. Now I'm going to plant marigold seeds in the planters on the deck. Hopefully with my new first thing every morning watering habit I will get seeds to grow.
And the second rain barrel will help alot.

[Maggie Ann]

This has been part of our lockdown project. Not quite finished. It's in the common property in my retirement village and is in the garden just above my cottage. It was a functioning fountain in one of the cottages and had a pool and fish pond, but the owner passed away and the new owners didn't want the bother of looking after it, so it was dismantled and removed and this part of the garden ended up with this part of the fountain. We tried to use plants that don't need much water or looking after. 

Very nice selection of succulents. I have two big pots of various varieties under my oak trees and a hanging basket of burro's tail

[LilyBLily]

The fountain looks great. Imaginative use of the dripping plants.

A squirrel (I think) knocked over one of my pots on the deck and rifled through it. Maybe it wanted to eat the cucumber seeds? I cleaned it up and took the pot inside with new seeds. It'll probably be easier to keep it moist indoors so they sprout.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Very nice selection of succulents. I have two big pots of various varieties under my oak trees and a hanging basket of burro's tail

We call them donkey tails - same thing 

[notthatamanda]

We have a robin's nest in the rhododendron outside my front door. I saw three eggs. I drained the rain barrel this morning. We set up a second one but no rain in the forecast for the next week and a half.

[Vijaya]

We have a robin's nest in the rhododendron outside my front door. I saw three eggs.

Sweet.

Very nice selection of succulents. I have two big pots of various varieties under my oak trees and a hanging basket of burro's tail

We call them donkey tails - same thing 

Lol. They do look like tails. Lovely fountain, Jan.

[notthatamanda]

Four robin eggs now. No wonder she was so mad at me this morning!

[idontknowyet]

I'm getting a little excited about my butternut squash. So far 3 large ones have avoided the worms of doom. They are days from being ready to be picked.

A trickling of non worm eaten squash keeps coming out, but nothing compared to the number of plants.

My tomato plants are covered in fruit. If I can avoid the horn worms for long enough I should get a wonderful harvest.

[LilyBLily]

Tomato plants eaten to three-inch stalks at my relative's house. I dug them up and put them in pots on the deck. We shall see if the animal dares to hippety hop that high.

Baptisia blooming a very pale blue and about three feet tall. I think they get that tall here searching for sunlight.

So far, I'm not seeing any ill effects on weeds from the vinegar I sprayed on them. Does it require repeated application to work?

[notthatamanda]

I googled trying to figure out if baptisia and salvia are the same thing. Not sure. Only my white salvia took, the blue ones never came back, but the butterflies and bees love them. No flowers on them yet here.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I'm getting a little excited about my butternut squash. So far 3 large ones have avoided the worms of doom. They are days from being ready to be picked.

A trickling of non worm eaten squash keeps coming out, but nothing compared to the number of plants.

My tomato plants are covered in fruit. If I can avoid the horn worms for long enough I should get a wonderful harvest.

I had a lovely crop of butternuts - until the monkeys got to them 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I had set aside today as the day to pick the paw paw (papaya) that was just beginning to ripen. Went into my garden to see a monkey sitting on the roof enjoying the paw paw  . Waited many weeks for that to get ripe enough to pick  .

[LilyBLily]

That's a shame.

It's why I get to feeling bitter when the deer eat the only flower a bulb will produce in a season. If they come along and chomp on the phlox, the plant will regrow its flowers.

[notthatamanda]

I tried starting two pawpaw trees here, but it didn't work. We don't have monkeys to worry about just not enough sun in my yard for pawpaws. I've never tried one.  Is it really yummy? Wow, monkeys. I guess I shouldn't complain about the deer, groundhogs and rabbits. But I'm going to complain about the deer anyway, I've seen a deer chewing on my roses once.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I tried starting two pawpaw trees here, but it didn't work. We don't have monkeys to worry about just not enough sun in my yard for pawpaws. I've never tried one.  Is it really yummy? Wow, monkeys. I guess I shouldn't complain about the deer, groundhogs and rabbits. But I'm going to complain about the deer anyway, I've seen a deer chewing on my roses once.

According to Google A pawpaw's flavor is sunny, electric, and downright tropical: a riot of mango-banana-citrus that's incongruous with its temperate, deciduous forest origins. They also have a subtle kick of a yeasty, floral aftertaste a bit like unfiltered wheat beer.
I just eat it with a dash of lemon sprinkled over it, mixed with oranges, or in a smoothie.
My paw paws have come up on their own. I have one growing in the compost heap and one outside my bedroom window. Also have two smaller ones. When they get too high you cut them down and put a tin on the cut trunk to stop rain getting in and the tree will sprout another branch and continue to fruit.

[notthatamanda]

Wow, that's so cool. I've heard that they taste like a banana custard. I know someone who grew them in Connecticut. They aren't shelf stable enough to grow commercially and sell.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Wow, that's so cool. I've heard that they taste like a banana custard. I know someone who grew them in Connecticut. They aren't shelf stable enough to grow commercially and sell.

They are sold here in the supermarkets. You can pick them when they are only slightly ripe and still quite firm and they will ripen in a few days in the kitchen - even quicker if you put them next to bananas that give off a gas that ripens fruit. 

[Gerri Attrick]

Good news at last.

The gardener I contacted early last month finally came to view the wilderness today. (The grass is now so high there could be a previously undiscovered tribe of pygmies living within it).

He's promised to get back to me with a price for cutting it all down, clearing it away, and renovating the borders. Here's hoping.

[Vijaya]

We're having critter troubles too--ants have eaten all of our cowpeas. They left the black beans alone though, so there's that.

[notthatamanda]

I couldn't find green beans so I got purple and yellow. Which means they are Laker beans. Not sure my husband will eat them mixed together.