Gardener's Group discussion
OGSG Archives
>
Spring 2011
message 101:
by
Renea
(new)
Apr 13, 2011 07:53AM
In Atlanta, we're in full bloom. It is glorious. A slight wind. Everything lush and green. Very bleesed indeed !
reply
|
flag
Here in southwestern Michigan, my tulips, daffodils, and hyacinth are up. My azaleas looking like buds are forming, as are my hydrangeas. My strawberry lipstick ground cover is ready to spring alive too. The hen-n-chicks are still a deep dark green/dark rose color.Haven’t walked the property yet to check out blackberry and raspberry plants, table and wine grapes, apples and peach trees, and my crowning glory, the walnut trees transplanted last year. Ned to get that done soon so as to modify my plans if necessary.
I know I lost one blue spruce in the front yard/driveway area due to over saturation (mentioned this in another thread). Have to check my lilac bushes since last year the mole/gopher/rodent tried bumping them off all season.
My clay soil is still muddy, even flooded in places. From the first thaw until about the end of May my property (not around the house) could be construed as swamp land and I live in a houseboat. Around the house the builders brought in sand to mix with the clay, then I add my old potting soil to the mix. So far it’s working for me. *S*
Right now, working on my season’s planting and thinning plans, as well as designing new gardens; herbal tea garden, new veggie garden location, a grape trellis area, and a hibiscus garden. When we bought the place in 2002, it was an empty pallet. I am slowly and meticulously filling it. *S*
The white cedar trees (they have pink flowers but are called white) are coming into bloom so its spring here too. The yellow ones are in bloom in town where its a lot warmer. http://www.google.com/images?q=tabebu...
Lots of perenniels poking through the ground now. Tulips I planted new last fall are coming up, but the bunnies are chewing off the tops. Have to get some red pepper flakes. We've had fairly nice (50s) weather the past week, but now are expecting snow over the week-end. Not unusual here this time of the year, it doesn't stay and gives the plants some much needed moisture. Spotted a wild hen turkey in the back yard a couple of mornings ago--first time I've seen one in town, although there are lots of them in the rural areas around here. My cats were pretty impressed and didn't know which window to look out of first. My favorite greenhouse is opening this week-end, can't wait to poke around and see what's new for the season.
It's going to freeze tonight. All of the lovely peach and cherry trees are in full bloom. This is the night we dread every spring.
The wind has been so strong here in Iowa, yesterday and today, that it has knocked down a lot of the blossoms. Last night I went out and cut my blue hyacinth, they were all lying down. The white ones and pink ones were okay- wonder if blue ones have inheritantly weaker stems? Anyway, they look and smell lovely in a vase in my fridge, protected from my cats! I may have to do the same with my "pink" daffodils, they are not looking happy this morning. There are a LOT more of them, so I would have no room left in the fridge if I have to cut them. I may get by with just tying them up to a support. Darn wind!
I am still living with the threat of snow, not that its forecasted anytime soon. Lots of rain coming yet, so my dried out clay soil will become a boggy mess again. I see the headlines now if I were to work in the yard this month, "Killer Clay Soil: Woman Drowns in Own Backyard." *LOL*
Miriam wrote: "Yes, Jo, I got missed by all the bad weather this weekend. Not even a good thunderstorm! I was watching, though. Prime conditions for it. Thank you for worrying about me!It has been nice here t..."
So glad to hear that!
OK, MS, AL and other states are getting hammered with nasty storms and tornado's yesterday and today. (shudders)
Monday was 80*, yesterday was in the 60's and Beautiful - today was cloudy, Cold and in the 40's! LOTS of rain coming tomorrow then we're supposed to be in the 60's for more than a few days.
Here on a mountain in Northern California, we're into spring and I'm in my "hope springs eternal" mood. By July, I know I'll be ready to toss everything when we hit 2 weeks over 100 and the animals forage everything. Yet I relish spring and growing and planting - if some feeds the local wildlife, so be it. I'm off in search of Turface MVP - found a supplier an hour and a half away near my closest Costco and I'm due for a trip. Turface is a calcined clay they use in professional ballfields - it aerates the soil and retains some moisture. Over at Gardenweb folks are swearing by it for potted plant media.I haven't potted up any of the really big (thigh high, tree size pots) since I moved here (2008 already!) and if I want the plants to look any good - well, now's the time. I've been making lists of plants, pots (what's alive, what looks like I lost it), soil mixes and more.
Daffoldils starting to look spent but some that I planted in pots really late haven't bloomed yet. The hillsides are green, folks in town (bit lower elevation than I am) have camillias in bloom and pbeginning. Our best planting date is purported to be "frog jump" - the County Fair is mid May every year and frog jump is the legacy here (from Mark Twain). So, all the master gardeners just tell you you can start planting at "frog jump".
Frog Jump--well that makes it easy to remember, doesn't it? Mine is March 31st, but we've had such drastic changes in weather that I haven't planted yet. Gonna try to do it this weekend. I did my tomatoes, but they're in the garden window, not outside. Do any of you do succession planting? (I probably spelled that wrong) You know, plant more tomatoes (or whatever) every two weeks? I'm going to do that with my carrots, but if I do that with tomatoes (four different kinds) not sure where I'd put them all? Right now I've got eighteen seedlings that are about 8 inches high. That's a lot of seedlings! How many tomatoes can one eat? Or store? Yikes! I don't mind getting a large crop of the canning ones but the cherries and sandwich slice tomatoes I would think I wouldn't need so many. Course if you pick them all in one week (don't know, never done this), then maybe every two weeks is the way to go.
What say ye, 'ol wise gardeners?
Also, I planted some carrots back in December and they are just now getting around 4-6 inches long. I've noticed they're not as sweet as I had hoped. Is that because they've been in the ground too long? Or perhaps the weird weather extremes? They taste good but with a very tiny aftertaste of bitter. Not enough to spoil eating them, just not what I'd expected. I keep waiting to pull them all up because they're so small and they're supposed to grow 10-12 inches long.
Hi Terri, nice to meet you. For me, at least, there's no need to succession plant tomatoes because they just keep on producing until the season ends. Succession planting works really well for plants that have a short productive life, I do it with Cilantro because it bolts so quickly here in the desert heat of western Colorado. It is also good for lettuce and beets, so you always have nice tender little ones.I've never had good luck with carrots so I'll be interested in the answers to your question.
Thanks Sally--good to know. Yes, somebody out there will know about carrots, right? Right? Hmmm...Miriam? Cheryl? Jo?
I didn't always have good luck with carrots when I grew them in Idaho either. They loved the sandy soil, nice and straight,, but sometimes had a bitter aftertaste. I vaguely remember that they are sweetest if they stay in the ground until frost, but this may not be true or may be true of parsnips only. I suspect that it is either heat or irregular water that gives them the bitter taste. I couldn't always water when I wanted to there, since the farmers got first dibs on the irrigation- we had to work around their needs. And we definitely had heat in southern Idaho.
It is snowing. Melting as it hits the ground, but white stuff is definitely coming out of the sky in huge flakes. Snow... four letter word.
I haven't grown carrots so I'm @ a loss Terri. I'll take a look @ one of my veggie books to see if any give a clue. My guess is the wacky weather but I honestly don't know.I've done succession planting more with my flower seeds than anything else because their bloom time is often shorter than a veggies producing time. Depending on our weather, I've had roses and tomato's thru Thanksgiving before but if we get cold early here on the coast w/a hard frost, it wouldn't matter how things were planted lol! I'm not growing veggies in my northern garden because we're not up there to tend to it enough (though I'm sure the resident wildlife (bears, coyotes, deer, fox & so on) would love it if I did) but I'm going to try succession planting with my flower seeds again this year up there as well. We have a very short growing season up there compared to down here on the coast (which is shorter here than it was when I lived 13 miles north/inland!).
Succession is excellent if you plant corn, as mentioned any greens (lettuces, bok choi and so forth), some folks do peas. No need on tomatoes. A lot depends on your variety. The heirlooms make a flush at once, most modern ones just keep going. When planning gardens (and others) some folks just pick crops with different "days to maturity", then plant all at once but have a succession of harvests.
Some folks plant a few plants late to get an extra flush fall/winter - not done it myself. Here's a thread on Gardenweb on it - mostly southerners but one person mentions a Massachusetts producer that does it with cherries. In my previous zone 9 garden my sherries kept going (sweet 100). http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/lo...
For the extras I'm a freezer gal - always quickly sauteed them and froze in portion size for over pasta, made soup (which can use a lot of tomatoes) and then I subscribe ot "plant a row for the hungry" so I always brought extra produce to the local soup kitchens (I'd call meals on wheels and they'd tell me who would take fresh produce - some were soooo appreciative, some so so - all depended on who was cooking on the day I came in and what they knew about fresh produce).
message 118:
by
Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie
(last edited Apr 16, 2011 11:56AM)
(new)
The wind and rain have kicked in! It is one Nasty day here on the Jersey Coast.When my veggies and herbs are out producing my ability to use them before they spoil, I donate to our local food pantry's. I was inspired to start doing so after learning about Plant A Row For The Hungry http://www.gardenwriters.org/gwa.php?... a number of years ago. If you decide to do the same, make sure you speak with your local food bank/pantry to see if they have any specific needs or requirements for you to follow. Fresh produce etc is hard to come by for folks using these organizations so they usually welcome it with open arms! Makes me feel good giving it to them :-)
Pamela wrote: "I am still living with the threat of snow, not that its forecasted anytime soon. Lots of rain coming yet, so my dried out clay soil will become a boggy mess again. I see the headlines now if I ..."
LOL!
Terri wrote: "Frog Jump--well that makes it easy to remember, doesn't it? Mine is March 31st, but we've had such drastic changes in weather that I haven't planted yet. Gonna try to do it this weekend. I did m..."I succession plant greens and kohlrabis but have never tried it with anything else, mostly because I don't have the room and our season is fairly short for warm weather stuff like tomatoes.
Awoke to a skiff on snow on the ground this AM and even tho it's in the 40s today and very windy the snow is gone. Seems weird, but I'm starting to be concerned about lack of moisture as we had so much snow, but since it melted we've had no more moisture and lots of wind and where I live is very sandy which of course dried out quickly.
Hello Everyone and welcome to newcomers,First of all I am on Spring Break next week. It is 47 degrees, very cold and has been raining all day. Hopefully the rest of next week will be warm and sunny. I am gearing up to begin my spring gardening. It has been way too cold to be outside here in Southwestern Ohio. My sister encouraged me to start gardening a couple of years ago and it is time consuming but rewarding-real fruits of my labor so to speak. Two years ago I planted over two hundred tulips and last year they were beautiful when they bloomed. I live in a suburban neighborhood-not much of any woods around. This past winter the deer ate the majority of the tulips and what they didn’t eat the snow fall we had a couple of weeks ago took them out. I have about five tulips left. (sad face) I planted two trees and the deer trampled over one and broke it off at the roots and ate all the new buds off the other one. Anyway, I have learned a valuable lesson – use deer repellent. Deer were coming into our yard in the late afternoon around 4:30pm. I was amazed to see this-I do feed the birds all winter and the deer ate most of the bird feed, too! One deer was so engrossed in eating the birdseed that it didn’t even notice me walking up on it. I love deer by the way! So I have my work cut out for me this spring-next week. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated from anyone. My husband and I are going to have two new trees planted next week and ones deer will not be able to reach and eat. Happy Gardening
Used the red pepper flakes on the tulips today and then headed to my fave greenhouse which opened this week-end. So much fun to see and smell GREEN. Just purchased a few seeds and new garden gloves and checked out the price on straw bales, but it was great to visit with the workers and check out what's new.
Gray, cold, windy. In other words, a totally depressing day. Argh! Guess I will curl up with a book. No motivation to do anything else today.
Beautiful cool day in the 70's, Yay! After the 90's I'm all for the 70's. :)
Its always in the 70s where I live. Low ones in the winter, high in the summer. I miss spring.
40's and gray here, snow expected starting tomorrow aftn. It just will not warm up this year. I'm not complaining after seeing all the coverage on the horrible tornado damage in several states especially N Carolina.
We started out sunny & warm, got into the 60s quickly then this afternoon the clouds & fog rolled in, dropping us into the 50s w/a wind chill in the 40s. Got just under 2"s of rain here on the coast Saturday night - just under 5"s up north!!! Thank God our place up there isn't near the Raritan, Passaic or Deleware Rivers or we'd be flooded out for the 2nd time this month! (We're closer to the Delaware up there than the other 2). Picked up my first purchases of this season: 2 'Strawberries & Cream' Hydrangea's and a 'Ballerina' African Daisy. This year Color(s) return to my gardens! I've gotten too boring. Found pics of my garden where we lived prior to here and our first year here and I had such variety and Lots of colors! The photo's have inspired me. No idea why I got so 'matchy matchy' when it comes to my gardens but no more!!!
I just looked up Strawberries and Cream hydrangea. I've never seen such an unusual hydrangea, just lovely. I wish I could grow them. I buy my sister-in-law flowers whenever I visit and recently she's been getting hydrangeas because I love them so much ($25 a bunch!) and that way at least I have them for a couple of hours too.
message 130:
by
Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie
(last edited Apr 19, 2011 05:41AM)
(new)
Aw, that's very sweet of you - hydrangea's are so pretty! These caught my attention in a magazine recently and loved it! So excited that I found them already! (I usually don't come across newbies until the year after they come out or if I find them the 1st year, they're very expensive and these weren't!) Next wekk I'm going to get 2 large containers (15"-18") for them to be repotted into. They can grow to 2 feet in containers! Fabulous!!!More rain today then we'll have some warm sunshine tomorrow before thunderstorms roll through. I'll have to make sure my new garden additions have a good safe spot before the storms arrive!
The Strawberries and Cream is beautiful. Two years agao I picked up a Lemon Wave hydrangea - gorgeous variegated leaves of yellow and green (some pictures show white and green, but the variety I got was the really nice yellow tone). Unfortunately, it didn't survive. I need to get my water tested. I know folks in Davis who have too much boron and they can only grow a limited selection of plants. Used to think it was my salt pellet water softener but the filter guy tells me that my water goes through the filter after the salt so it shouldn't be what kills off certain plants. Shame - have some "regulars" I used to grow that I just can't get to survive here. Unfortunately, all the outdoor watering is currently rigged to go through the house filtering system (one of the bigger projects I may get to some day).http://www.bissettnursery.com/nursery...
Maggie, how about a rain barrel for your pots?
I have several hydrangeas that have never bloomed after the first year. I guess they are not hardy enough for Iowa, and bloom on old wood. I am planning on digging them up (four!) and potting them this spring. Don't know where I will keep them overwinter, since my "garage" is a drafty old barn that is as cold as outside! The new shed, although not insulated, is more airtight... hmm.
Very pretty Petra! Next on my list is the Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea :-) And a Rainbow Butterfly Bush. And...
Jo wrote: "We started out sunny & warm, got into the 60s quickly then this afternoon the clouds & fog rolled in, dropping us into the 50s w/a wind chill in the 40s. Got just under 2"s of rain here on the coas..."Oooh--strawberries and cream hydrangeas sound wonderful---I'll have to look for one of those
Quiet day for me, kind of under the weather and disgusted with the weather at the same time. Low 40s and gray again today. Haven't really done much of anything outside yet.
Cheryl, I haven't been able to do much of anything outside, and you are quite a bit further north than I am. It must be horridly discouraging for you! This weather sucks!
Miriam wrote: "Maggie, how about a rain barrel for your pots?"Hi Miriam - It's a good idea. The problem is California weather. Our rain comes all at once over the winter, then virtually nada until the next winter. The barrels would be empty by May and dry all summer when I need to be watering the most.
I uploaded a rainfall map Sunset has in their Western Landscaping to a static garden page on my blog http://ceodraiocht.wordpress.com/garden/. I'd be somewhere between the SF and LA amount - generally less than an inch from mid-spring to late fall which, with weeks of high 90 to 100's Farenheit in summer, is virtually nada. The eastern half of the U.S. mostly sees 20's in inches, some 30's and we'll leave Florida out :-) . Even Phoenix and Reno see substantially more rain than us. You can water and drip - but other than the coast - the air itself is bone dry and sucks the water from leaves. But, we're not desert and don't have to do cactus (I like cactus in AZ and NM, not so much in my own landscape).
I am sorry, for some reason I thought you were in the southeast.
It rains a lot here (ha! its rainforest) but on some parts of the island, notably the beaches, it rains quite a bit less. We average 47" a year, 60" last year as we had massive flooding in October. I had muddy water up to the top of the first bookshelf (12 or 13") and $6,500 worth of damage. But with all that rain we still have cacti and succulents, none where I live, but plenty all over the island.
Oh my gosh, Petra! How awful! Did you have time to move the books?
Grape hyacinths in bloom! Another dreary gray day.
I love grape hyacinths. My father used to grow them, I don't think I've seen them in decades.I didn't get the books out. My bookshop is three parts, the main concrete part slopes 11" over the 24' length (yes its tiny). The concrete extension is the same size and probably has a big slope as well. So the water just ran from front to back and couldn't get out. I couldn't get into town as the rain had washed away a lot of the tarmac off the roads and the speed of the water was just too great for even my big 4-wheel drive pickup to overcome (I live on the side of a mountain). It went on for days. There was nothing we could do until it was over.
Oh, the waiting must have been awful, not knowing and imagining the worst!I figure is there is a major disaster here in Iowa, it will be a tornado, since I live on the top of a hill. People will be picking up antique silver for miles!
The clean-up was worse than the waiting!People don't generally realise it but hurricanes have tornados in them and its very scary to be in the path of a tornado within a cat. 5 hurricane. That was back in 89 I think, hurricane Hugo. I hope you don't ever get hit by a tornado. Is Iowa pretty safe geographically and from the elements then?
Cheryl S. wrote: "Jo wrote: "We started out sunny & warm, got into the 60s quickly then this afternoon the clouds & fog rolled in, dropping us into the 50s w/a wind chill in the 40s. Got just under 2"s of rain here ..."It's beautiful Cheryl! Next on my list is the Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea and a Rainbow Butterfly Bush.
message 147:
by
Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie
(last edited Apr 20, 2011 05:53PM)
(new)
Jo wrote: "I haven't grown carrots so I'm @ a loss Terri. I'll take a look @ one of my veggie books to see if any give a clue. My guess is the wacky weather but I honestly don't know.I've done succession pl..."
Terri, if you've left the carrots too long in the ground it can negatively affect the taste - that's the most likely culprit if you said you've had them before and they tasted good.
Lots of my grape hyacinths are blooming! More fog, showers and clouds to start the day, then partly sunny, then sunny for 20 minutes this afternoon, then back to foggy & cloudy but with a chilly on-shore breeze then back to partly sunny for a stunning sunset as the fog began rolling back in!
Iowa gets tornados. Flooding along the rivers sometimes. Hail, snow, blizzards, straight wind storms. Nah, not that safe. But in general, weather is four seasons of the usual stuff, Petra. Not so hot that the air conditioner has to run all summer, at least if someone is fairly intelligent about opening windows at night, closing them in the morning and closing the drapes on the south side, using fans. I usually find about 10 to 14 days (actually NIGHTS) that I just have to turn it on. WInters can seem long.But in exchange, it is lovely green spring and summer, and great fall colors. No location is perfect.
That's true! I've lived - or stayed for extended periods - in quite a few countries, but ended up here partly because of the climate. The rainforest is almost always 72-78, although the temp. does go up to 88/90 on the beaches and town. Trade winds blow most of the day which is nice and cooling. Hurricanes are terrible but we don't get them every year and most of them don't do any damage. Flooding is very rare. I don't remember it ever happening before like last year. There are definitely seasons but you have to be acclimated to actually feel them, and they are mostly marked by the prevalence of different coloured blossom. Its spring so its pink right now. Red and orange for summer then yellow for winter. That's only prevalence, there are blooms of every colour in every season.I sleep with an air-conditioner on every night. I love sleeping under a duvet and have to cool the room a little (67-69) to do that. Its a real luxury at the prices of electricity here but its my treat to me! No aircon is necessary in the day because of the trade winds.
