Garden thread

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Replies

  • JohnnytotheB
    JohnnytotheB Posts: 361 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I planted violas (little pansies) two days ago and yesterday transplanted bee balm roots into the mess out back behind my fence - the city removed some dead trees that were on their property up against our fence. They said they'd be taking out a strip of 10 feet in order to do this, but it ended up being more like 30. There was a line of trees up against the fence and the middle was lots of multi-flora roses and stuff like that. Trying to decide what to do. There's a ground hog under the shed so I planted some clumps of sod with clover for her. Hoping to keep her back there instead of my yard. So far she's ignored my veggies, maybe due to the marigolds I plant with the kale, but if she ever gets in there she will wipe out my kale in no time. I have a little fence around the veggies, which has been keeping out the rabbits, but will not stop a determined wood chuck.

    It's pretty wet in places out back and the middle spots in the picture tend to have standing water, so I planted some phragmites there to soak it up. I am aware that phragmites is generally considered an invasive pest, but there's no where for it to go, and may not even be consistently wet enough for it to take.

    There are tons of daffodils out there. My OH's parents have been dumping Easter flowers out there for years, covering them with grass clippings, and apparently the daffodils took and got spread around by the city's tree clearing machine.

    There's one common day lily. I may move some more from the side of the house that I never see and my OH doesn't like to mow near them anyway, and in fact weed-whacked half of them last year.

    I have some packets of wildflower seeds that are old but I will try sprinkling them around and see what happens.

    Suggestions welcome!

    sv1x1paqucby.jpg

    You have an awesome opportunity with this blank slate. I would transition this into a prairie type garden. I would equip it with fantastic milk weed, wild flowers, grasses, natives to your state. All the stuff that attracts butterflies, bees, humming birds, birds, beneficial insects, etc. You have a nice start with what you pointed out on the pic. You can mulch a path winding through it. You can even, in the low areas, create a small scale rain garden.

    It's easy to get stuff for free by posting ads on Craigslist or even just looking at the free section of Craigslist. I know this is MFP, but I have several packets of Blue Asters and a few other packets you can have. I can mail them to a PO Box for anonymity as well.

    Have fun with that space. Plus, any work you do on it will burn calories. Double benefit.
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I planted violas (little pansies) two days ago and yesterday transplanted bee balm roots into the mess out back behind my fence - the city removed some dead trees that were on their property up against our fence. They said they'd be taking out a strip of 10 feet in order to do this, but it ended up being more like 30. There was a line of trees up against the fence and the middle was lots of multi-flora roses and stuff like that. Trying to decide what to do. There's a ground hog under the shed so I planted some clumps of sod with clover for her. Hoping to keep her back there instead of my yard. So far she's ignored my veggies, maybe due to the marigolds I plant with the kale, but if she ever gets in there she will wipe out my kale in no time. I have a little fence around the veggies, which has been keeping out the rabbits, but will not stop a determined wood chuck.

    It's pretty wet in places out back and the middle spots in the picture tend to have standing water, so I planted some phragmites there to soak it up. I am aware that phragmites is generally considered an invasive pest, but there's no where for it to go, and may not even be consistently wet enough for it to take.

    There are tons of daffodils out there. My OH's parents have been dumping Easter flowers out there for years, covering them with grass clippings, and apparently the daffodils took and got spread around by the city's tree clearing machine.

    There's one common day lily. I may move some more from the side of the house that I never see and my OH doesn't like to mow near them anyway, and in fact weed-whacked half of them last year.

    I have some packets of wildflower seeds that are old but I will try sprinkling them around and see what happens.

    Suggestions welcome!

    sv1x1paqucby.jpg

    You have an awesome opportunity with this blank slate. I would transition this into a prairie type garden. I would equip it with fantastic milk weed, wild flowers, grasses, natives to your state. All the stuff that attracts butterflies, bees, humming birds, birds, beneficial insects, etc. You have a nice start with what you pointed out on the pic. You can mulch a path winding through it. You can even, in the low areas, create a small scale rain garden.

    It's easy to get stuff for free by posting ads on Craigslist or even just looking at the free section of Craigslist. I know this is MFP, but I have several packets of Blue Asters and a few other packets you can have. I can mail them to a PO Box for anonymity as well.

    Have fun with that space. Plus, any work you do on it will burn calories. Double benefit.

    Oh my goodness, I love this idea so much!

    @kshama2001 My aunt recently started a nursery business based on native locally-adapted phenotype perennials, and in support of her I have been getting hands-on experience with cool plants like penstemons, rattlesnake master, false indigo, etc. If it's not the native version, I would replace the phragmites with milkweeds and native irises (or even Siberian iris, which is not a native, but also fairly well-behaved). Our house is 120 years old, and I am having to deal every year with poor decisions made in previous generations.

    Piet Oudolf, and gardens influenced by him like Chicago's Lurie Gardens or NYC High Line would be a great inspiration for this space.

    In the short term you could also fill the area with sunflowers. Think of how happy the birds would be, and how many wonderful bouquets you would have! Although it might be a challenge with that chuck.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    edited May 2019
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I planted violas (little pansies) two days ago and yesterday transplanted bee balm roots into the mess out back behind my fence - the city removed some dead trees that were on their property up against our fence. They said they'd be taking out a strip of 10 feet in order to do this, but it ended up being more like 30. There was a line of trees up against the fence and the middle was lots of multi-flora roses and stuff like that. Trying to decide what to do. There's a ground hog under the shed so I planted some clumps of sod with clover for her. Hoping to keep her back there instead of my yard. So far she's ignored my veggies, maybe due to the marigolds I plant with the kale, but if she ever gets in there she will wipe out my kale in no time. I have a little fence around the veggies, which has been keeping out the rabbits, but will not stop a determined wood chuck.

    It's pretty wet in places out back and the middle spots in the picture tend to have standing water, so I planted some phragmites there to soak it up. I am aware that phragmites is generally considered an invasive pest, but there's no where for it to go, and may not even be consistently wet enough for it to take.

    There are tons of daffodils out there. My OH's parents have been dumping Easter flowers out there for years, covering them with grass clippings, and apparently the daffodils took and got spread around by the city's tree clearing machine.

    There's one common day lily. I may move some more from the side of the house that I never see and my OH doesn't like to mow near them anyway, and in fact weed-whacked half of them last year.

    I have some packets of wildflower seeds that are old but I will try sprinkling them around and see what happens.

    Suggestions welcome!

    sv1x1paqucby.jpg

    You have an awesome opportunity with this blank slate. I would transition this into a prairie type garden. I would equip it with fantastic milk weed, wild flowers, grasses, natives to your state. All the stuff that attracts butterflies, bees, humming birds, birds, beneficial insects, etc. You have a nice start with what you pointed out on the pic. You can mulch a path winding through it. You can even, in the low areas, create a small scale rain garden.

    It's easy to get stuff for free by posting ads on Craigslist or even just looking at the free section of Craigslist. I know this is MFP, but I have several packets of Blue Asters and a few other packets you can have. I can mail them to a PO Box for anonymity as well.

    Have fun with that space. Plus, any work you do on it will burn calories. Double benefit.
    Oh my goodness, I love this idea so much!

    @kshama2001 My aunt recently started a nursery business based on native locally-adapted phenotype perennials, and in support of her I have been getting hands-on experience with cool plants like penstemons, rattlesnake master, false indigo, etc. If it's not the native version, I would replace the phragmites with milkweeds and native irises (or even Siberian iris, which is not a native, but also fairly well-behaved). Our house is 120 years old, and I am having to deal every year with poor decisions made in previous generations.

    Piet Oudolf, and gardens influenced by him like Chicago's Lurie Gardens or NYC High Line would be a great inspiration for this space.

    In the short term you could also fill the area with sunflowers. Think of how happy the birds would be, and how many wonderful bouquets you would have! Although it might be a challenge with that chuck.

    Great ideas - thanks so much! I'll have to post a more recent picture. So far, seems like everything I transplanted has taken. The bee balm will indeed attract hummingbirds. I had two old packets of bee and butterfly attractor seeds that I made level terraces for, but we had really heavy rains and I'm not sure how they fared, plus the seeds were from 2016 and 2017. I have two more packets I can try. It was really hard work prepping those beds - yay gardening calories!

    I did move some Siberian iris from my regular yard to back there, and was going to get more from Mom's, but discovered that someone had dumped a few shovelfulls at the end of the street, so scooped those up and planted them. These are tough plants that will spread and spread, plus I love the flowers.

    I planted mint at my other neighbor's last year. She didn't harvest it and it flowered, and the bees went nuts for it. I've planted some mint out back. There's always more where that came from, lol.

    I'll get some milkweed from Mom's.

    I love the idea of sunflowers - I don't have room in my yard so that would be nice out back. One of my favorite memories is driving by fields of sunflowers in California.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I've been offering my neighbors plants for their garden bed, which I can see out my kitchen door and when I am in my driveway and front yard. They kept saying they needed to clean the weeds out the bed. Last weekend, I offered to do that as well. (If I was going to find a home for my excess bee balm, it needed to be immediately, and I could tell gardening is not their thing.)

    [clip]

    When the soil warms up to 60 degrees I will plant dahlia, and when it is 65 degrees, portulaca.

    I really love how you have expanded your fiefdom! I wonder if my neighbor would mind if I took over his front yard for a vegetable garden (and by vegetable garden, I mean something stuffed so full of "temporary" perennial flowers that veg has a hard time growing there).

    I once gave a bunch of hostas to another neighbor whose thing also wasn't gardening, and she got them put in the bed...later in the summer she complained about how they were shriveling up and looking so bad whereas mine were lush and green...turns out she wasn't watering them at all through a long, sustained drought. "But I thought they were supposed to be tough!" Not THAT tough, LOL!

    I've been leaving my dahlias that I am trying to regrow from their tubers outside in the colder weather...based on your note above, I am thinking I should probably move them back down to the root cellar in their pots.

    If your neighbor is like mine they will think you are odd but go along with it ;)

    My fiefdom previously expanded to the neighbor on the right as well. She gives me permission and I do the rest. A few weeks ago, we were looking at her bed and I was telling her what all was in there. She said she didn't realize she had tulips. I planted those last fall and didn't bother asking about those. I think I bought a bag of 50 bulbs and put some in my yard, some across the street, some to the right, and some on my Dad's grave.

    My fiefdom was across the street as well, which worked out great for both of us, as he wasn't into it, and his yard is my view from my home office. Sadly, he passed away, and the house is in the process of being sold. Until they close, I'm still treating the beds as my responsibility.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    edited May 2019
    Okay, did some weeding of our common space (which is in front of my place and my neighbor's, but city owned), and then planted some green beans and kale. I have more waiting to be planted (seeds sprouted indoors), but am having a raised bed constructed. If it won't be finished by the weekend I'll plant more during the week. I have perennials and some flowers out front and herbs and (indoors) sprouts.

    (The sprouts are delicious, I've been eating them, and I plan to start using the herbs on Monday.)
  • JohnnytotheB
    JohnnytotheB Posts: 361 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Okay, did some weeding of our common space (which is in front of my place and my neighbor's, but city owned), and then planted some green beans and kale. I have more waiting to be planted (seeds sprouted indoors), but am having a raised bed constructed. If it won't be finished by the weekend I'll plant more during the week. I have perennials and some flowers out front and herbs and (indoors) sprouts.

    (The sprouts are delicious, I've been eating them, and I plan to start using the herbs on Monday.)

    That's awesome!!!!!!
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    Well, I spent 12 hours in the garden over the weekend, and I can't exactly remember what I accomplished, other than digging up a patch of sunchokes (jerusalem artichokes) (fartichokes) that was getting onto my neighbor's side of the fence. I roasted a couple and had them along with parsnips, but I can't say they are my favorite vegetable; however I like to keep a patch going (not that you could ever stop one once you plant them) because they will stand me in good stead come the Zombie Apocalypse. :D

    Anyways, I was doing a lot of reading on them, because I wanted to pass them out to brave fellow gardeners who would be interested in growing them (with all due warnings on the impact they can have on the digestive system and tiny delicate gardens, for the uninitiated), and I learned a lot of interesting things.

    --They were diet staples for many tribes living on the plains and prairies. The plants had to be tough to compete against the prairie grasses. The tubers can be dug all year round if the ground is not frozen, so it would be like having a lot of calories in the bank.

    (This article has a recipe: https://www.toledoblade.com/Food/2017/10/09/The-Sioux-Chef-New-cookbook-by-Sean-Sherman-shares-traditional-Native-American-dishes.html)

    --One great way to clean out a patch of sunchokes is to run a feeder pig or two on it; also the cut foliage makes fine maintenance-level cattle feed although "the forage does not ensile well" according to Purdue. Ensile. That's a good word, much fancier than "sticking it in the hay mow."

    --The sunchoke is becoming highly regarded for its nutrients, including higher amounts of potassium and iron, and particularly for its inulin, a digestion-resistant fiber and prebiotic. Here is some light reading on fiber and prebiotics: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705355/

    "Although all prebiotics are fiber, not all fiber is prebiotic. Classification of a food ingredient as a prebiotic requires scientific demonstration that the ingredient [2]:

    - Resists gastric acidity, hydrolysis by mammalian enzymes, and absorption in the upper gastrointestinal tract;

    - Is fermented by the intestinal microflora;

    - Selectively stimulates the growth and/or activity of intestinal bacteria potentially associated with health and well-being."

    So, this topic manages to combine various sorts of peasant activities, indigenous cookery, and the microbiome all in one fell swoop. <3 Plus you get sunflowers!

    I couldn't think of anyone who would appreciate the treasure-trove of interesting information I was accumulating, but I though you guys would appreciate it. :p
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Okay, did some weeding of our common space (which is in front of my place and my neighbor's, but city owned), and then planted some green beans and kale. I have more waiting to be planted (seeds sprouted indoors), but am having a raised bed constructed. If it won't be finished by the weekend I'll plant more during the week. I have perennials and some flowers out front and herbs and (indoors) sprouts.

    (The sprouts are delicious, I've been eating them, and I plan to start using the herbs on Monday.)

    @lemurcat2 IK thought of you this weekend, as I was taking stock of what lived and died over the hard winter. My losses included my beloved peach tree, most of my sage and thyme plants, and possibly a couple of fig trees. But guess what survived, an herb I planted for the first time last year, French Tarragon! I haven't had much success with fennel yet, but I keep dancing around it, giving it a try.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Okay, did some weeding of our common space (which is in front of my place and my neighbor's, but city owned), and then planted some green beans and kale. I have more waiting to be planted (seeds sprouted indoors), but am having a raised bed constructed. If it won't be finished by the weekend I'll plant more during the week. I have perennials and some flowers out front and herbs and (indoors) sprouts.

    (The sprouts are delicious, I've been eating them, and I plan to start using the herbs on Monday.)

    @lemurcat2 what kind of dirt are you putting in your raised bed? I'm pretty much using Mel's mix http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/mels-mix/ and it is amazing how much moister my soil is than in my neighbor's bed, which seems like pure topsoil, not improved at all.
  • carakirkey
    carakirkey Posts: 199 Member
    Love the rainbow Chard! Those are some nice looking garden beds!
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    @kshama2001 That chard is gorgeous! I just got my chard seeds planted a couple of days ago, and still have a lot of plants in flats, looking somewhat disgruntled. Ugh! We just hosted an overnight with 8 13-year-old girls at my MIL's lake cottage, which was a blast, BUT--I was not in my garden while preparing for and facilitating the festivities!

  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    edited June 2019
    My husband built me a new trellis, it’s huge lolbdzxl4o3k745.jpeg
    I really need to put some mulch down, weeds are going crazy
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    My husband built me a new trellis, it’s huge lolbdzxl4o3k745.jpeg
    I really need to put some mulch down, weeds are going crazy

    Awesome trellises!

    I use straw to mulch in the garden. Mom uses leaves.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    edited June 2019
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    hesn92 wrote: »
    My husband built me a new trellis, it’s huge lolbdzxl4o3k745.jpeg
    I really need to put some mulch down, weeds are going crazy

    Awesome trellises!

    I use straw to mulch in the garden. Mom uses leaves.

    Thank you! I used leaves last year but didn't do a very good job because they all blew away lol. I guess I should mulch them up first. I think I'll probably use grass clippings because my leaves are all stuffed into my compost with rotting food on top of them and I'm not going there.

    I have a little surprise tomato plant that sprouted in my garden a little too close to the zucchini... For some reason I'm really excited about him, I think I'm going to try and move him to a safer location.
  • JohnnytotheB
    JohnnytotheB Posts: 361 Member
    WOW, everyone's beds look super!!!
  • JohnnytotheB
    JohnnytotheB Posts: 361 Member
    Great looking!!!!!!
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    carakirkey wrote: »
    Sharing pics of my community garden plot from May. The spinach overwintered from a fall planting and is HUGE! 2 leaves and I have a salad.
    wy7kf8ymuk39.jpg
    jgyw4rhfhre8.jpg

    Wow, what a gorgeous plot, @carakirkey! How big is your plot, and how is your community garden organized? It looks like it's a pretty big operation.