2016 Gardens

[taldesta]

I thought I'd show you guys how the blue ficus grass I planted last year filled in.

That beautiful blue fescue from last year seems more like a pet than a plant ... beautiful, and even more so this year. I remembered and tried my hand at growing from seed this spring and am having luck, sort of ... but am constantly taking my hat off to the green house operators who put in such time, money and effort to produce for our gardens.

 

[taldesta]

That blue ficus grass looks great. I have a couple plants to set out. Not sure if it needs sun or shade at this point, but I'm thinking shade.

Have one tomato that is almost ripe. This is about two to three weeks earlier than usual and from one of the large potted plants I first set out. I could probably pick it now, but it would probably be like one of those FL greenhouse tomatoes you see all winter in the grocery stores. My onions are doing well and starting to go to seed. Been snipping the seed pods off. I need to start using them for cooking.

Added 5-31-16: Had my first ripe tomato about a week ago. Had relatives in for HS graduation and the one little girl was absolutely dying to pick that tomato. It was the first and hence would be a cause of some irritation. I was impressed that the little 4 year old actually saw the tomato in the first place as it was really hidden inside the plant. Picked it and made BLT's. Had the second over the weekend. I really like garden grown tomatoes.

Love the tomato story! Who knows, the experience could last a lifetime ... the perfect reward.


The Bonny Best and Super Sweet 100 I planted inside early this spring (in containers) just didn't get to the size I wanted ... so I picked some up from the garden centre - Early Girl, Carmello, Beefstake and Sweet 'n' Neat (all in the ground). My nearest neighbour hasn't planted yet and she wanted the seedlings so I passed them along to her along with some cut rhubarb.




I finally saw a lantana at the local garden centre. Appearance much like a 'rose tree' ... but with multi-coloured flowers that are dead ringers for the verbena plants I grow here as an annual. I know that when I googled lantana last year after your mentioning it, the search turned up verbena and I was surprised to see that there was that connection. Are they shrub like in the garden there?



On drilled well water here and pump from the river with a piston pump (which is in the basement for new leathers just now). Still, I don't like to put extra wear on a pump, good ones are expensive ... to water grass. The veg garden yes

 

[taldesta]

Nice garden reports and beautiful pictures!

Thank you.

Cate

Hey Cate, nice to see that you're checking out the garden thread !

 

[taldesta]

This one followed me home ... acutally a houseplant that I will take in before frost. Chenille. Like the blue fescue grass, this one looks like it wants petting, soft and cuddly.




Veg garden has 6 tomato plants and my first ever try at growing a pepper plant - encouraged by another post here. From seed - swiss chard, green lettuce and red leaf, lots of amaranthus - a showy grain - from seeds dropped last year. At the East (far) end ... some roses and just beyond them (not in view yet), the grand marigolds from seeding directly after frost.




Dogs' eye view of tomato plants! Let's hope this is closer than Daisy tomato will get this year.




Scarlet runner pole beans are reaching up ... and need pots to be put on a higher support so that they can climb on the lattice to shade the shop window. I may cut three poles for a tripod for some of these plants.




Old favourites, right up there with my beloved pansies - the snapdragons.



________________________

If you look closely ...





Lumpy had disturbed the soil by piling it overtop herself in this pansy pot ... and to me it just looked dried out. I watered the plant and SURPRISE I think she is PO'd by the paparazzi and is now avoiding the patio

________________________

Begonia from overwintered corm. These are treasures on the porch, red and white so far. Some very tall and need staking.




All the nasturtiums are starting to put up blooms. Lots are given away as well. It seems not that long ago that the seeds arrived in the mail.



Temps dropping here to around 37F tonight and that's not cool X X

Happy gardening all

 

[Rupestris]

:thumbup: Looking great, T.

Looking at the forecast here it seems we're in for another Monsoon season. They're calling for rain every day for the next week.

 

[Catherine_Montana]

Hey Cate, nice to see that you're checking out the garden thread !

Susan,

Thank you. It is good to see all of the pictures posted by you and others here too.

We are working on the bucket list - more to tell. My husband will retire within a year or less.

I changed my email and came THIS close to dropping Charter entirely for my ISP here in town.

I will send you the new one and give you some updates. Edited: I sent you an email through the BF email deal with the new email - J's and mine for real estate.

I am still using the cane on and off and in treatment for the bum leg and ankle. I am no longer dragging it as I was towards the end of April and into May. I can lie down, sit, stand and walk for short distances with and without the cane without asking my doctor what the price of a bullet was due to the severe pain!

My neck, back, etc. are getting better - much better.

Later skater...

Cate
Typos!

 

[taldesta]

:thumbup: Looking great, T.

Looking at the forecast here it seems we're in for another Monsoon season. They're calling for rain every day for the next week.

An inviting sanctuary there, Chris ... thoughtful spaces and beautiful.

Is that pink plume an astilbe ... ?

 

[Rupestris]

My neck, back, etc. are getting better - much better.

Later skater...

Cate

Good to hear Cate. Keep getting better and congrats to your husband on his upcoming retirement. :thumbup:

An inviting sanctuary there, Chris ... thoughtful spaces and beautiful.

Is that pink plume an astilbe ... ?

Yes it is. In the first pic with the porch in it there is a larger white Astilbe but it hasn't fully bloomed yet. Soon. When it does I'll post some photos.

A coworker is doing some landscaping and is getting rid of a bunch of flat wall stones so I'm going to take them of his hands. I'll be expanding the area under the Magnolia tree quite a bit.

 

[Catherine_Montana]

Good to hear Cate. Keep getting better and congrats to your husband on his upcoming retirement. :thumbup:



Yes it is. In the first pic with the porch in it there is a larger white Astilbe but it hasn't fully bloomed yet. Soon. When it does I'll post some photos.

A coworker is doing some landscaping and is getting rid of a bunch of flat wall stones so I'm going to take them of his hands. I'll be expanding the area under the Magnolia tree quite a bit.

Thank you.

Cate

 

[22-rimfire]

I hope you continue to improve with your condition. I don't recall your mentioning this before.

On a side note, I recall last year one of the garden posters mentioned a brown "infection" on their tomato plant. I was wondering if the plant ever got over it? One of my plants this year has a similar deal going on. It was still small but every new leaf had the brown stuff on it. Yanked it and replaced it.

 

[taldesta]

On a side note, I recall last year one of the garden posters mentioned a brown "infection" on their tomato plant. I was wondering if the plant ever got over it? One of my plants this year has a similar deal going on. It was still small but every new leaf had the brown stuff on it. Yanked it and replaced it.

I remember that post too. Late last year I had considerable leaf browning and loss on the lower parts of the plants. No solution that I could find. Research suggested so many possibilities. But, I definitely am planting fewer and further apart for air flow this year - and trying different varieties. Time will tell.


One plant here is surprising me. Under 10" tall and growing in a mound so far and already putting up fruit. Very compact little guys too.




Powdery mildew was always a problem when I grew spaghetti squash here. It grew so gargantuan along the garden fence and made me look like one heck of a good gardener - but I had to be checking for those little grey circles and using homemade or bought fungicide from mid to end of season. It is both a relief and a great loss not to be growing it now. Tomatoes I will not give up!


I keep meaning to find out more about lantana there from you after seeing one at a local gardening centre. It had blooms just like our annual verbena but shaped more like a tree rose. I had thought you mentioned them growing there.

 

[taldesta]

This locust tree was planted in 2013. The foliage comes very late compared to other trees here and every spring I kind of had one hand on the pruning saw to take it down, thinking it may not be hardy enough. But it came through the winters beautifully, thriving in 2014 and 2015. It is intended to shade that area. Last fall was dry and I did not water it going into the winter and this spring was terribly dry with killing frosts late into the season, hard on the buds ... so I did get water to it .. but clearly not enough and not in time. The leafless branches still have spring to them. Hate to cut the tree down but perhaps another type would be a better choice. I do love the beautiful foliage on the locust.



Dithering here. Anybody ... ???

 

[taldesta]

As wild as the area on the hill beside the veg garden looks right now, it is jammed with nature's perennial treasures. Front to back - wild brown eyed susans, wild roses, iris, bee balm, spiderwort, milkweed ... most entwined with crown vetch. For two reasons, this hillside garden is off-limits to the pups. One ... not to knock monarch caterpillars off the milkweed - and - two ... to keep Sasha from flattening the beautiful crown vetch as she hunts her crickets!




The tromp path to the right of the veg garden helps to keep weed seeds out. Now I have tried 'stepable' groundcovers to my wits' end ... bugle weed, dianthus, irish and scotch mosses, creeping jenny, plain thyme ... but the creeping thyme that is blooming there just now is handling the dry and sunshine beautifully and thriving. Grass and weeds can forget life where it grows. I am planting as much creeping thyme on this path as possible, knowing it will eventually creep right over the bank and still hold the soil without problem seeding into the veg garden.

Oh yes, it attracts some lovely visitors ...

Seven swallowtails feasting ... Canadian tiger swallowtails I believe






Time to truly see our world is my most precious luxury these days ...






I have better pics of honey bees but this one makes me smile




And ... what I think is a hummingbird moth hovering. Very fast and impatient feeder.






Couldn't resist these colour combinations .... nature's eye candy

 

[gonebad395]

Man glad to see a thread like this now mind you in not really a lawn guy so don't mind the mess. On that note I love growing a small food plot and teaching my kids about it so here's a few pics

This is on or just after plant day


This is a few weeks later we have tomatos 15. Hot banana peppers,sweet banana peppers, jhalapeno peppers ,cabbage ,broccoli and whalla whalla onions I can't keep the grass outta the onions it's proving to be a pain in the grass.


And my raised boxes have strawberries, honeydew,cantaloupe , zucchini , watermelon and pole beans

 

[22-rimfire]

My grandmother had a honey locust in her yard. They are nice trees. Used the regular black locusts for fence posts.

The brown "infection" seems to be some sort of fungus or wilt. Many of the new hybrids are resistant to various wilts. I think spreading your plants out a bit helps. The browning at the bottom is mostly age related and perhaps shading as the plants mature. I have limited space and when things are new, plants small, there seems like plenty of room..... until they grow and all of a sudden the folliage is touching other plants in my cages. The plants are generally about 3-4 feet tall (and reaching for 5 feet) now in the cages. I need to pound in my stakes to support the cages today from the stronger winds associated with summer thunderstorms. The last two plants in the garden are much smaller, but have fruit on them now.

The big difference between the original two large plants and the next two is fruit size as the plants are about the same height now. There are a total of 6 plants.

I have already planted two new mater plants in big pots (17" tall and 19" dai across circular). My two plants that I planted in July last year really didn't do so well, so I moved the second planting back a month. The good side is there are still an abundance of tomato plants at the garden center still. Things thin out by mid July here. I may need to shift the two potted plants off my deck to a less sunny spot. Don't know really which is better.

These are the lantana plants that I am most familiar with. Verbena is in the same family I think. They produce clusters of small flowers in various shades of orange, pink, reddish, yellow, and white. They are a southern US thing. But should work as an annual just about anywhere. I have the darn things coming up all over the place and when I left the "wild ones" grow, they are not like the nursery grown varieties. They produce a lot of seeds.

http://search.aol.com/aol/image?q=lantana+flowers&v_t=client97_searchbox-ac

The cherry tomatoes are major producers if you like the small fruit. They are usually very tasty. Typically the plants don't get real tall and are more bushy.

 

[Rupestris]

Man glad to see a thread like this now mind you in not really a lawn guy so don't mind the mess. On that note I love growing a small food plot and teaching my kids about it so here's a few pics

:thumbup: Thanks for joining in and don't worry about the lawn. With kids and dogs, my yard looked just like that. It wasn't until recently that I figured out how to care for grass. Clover was much easier to care for . If I took some closer shots you'd see that there are still some issues.

Thanks for the pics and keep us posted on the garden.

 

[22-rimfire]

Gonebad395, it helps to define the garden spaces some. You did that with the raised beds. If you newly tilled or dug up law turf, it's best to rake out all the roots you can. It takes a year or so before the yard begins to know that the garden is not the yard. Hope you enjoy your garden and enjoy watching things grow as much as I do.

 

[taldesta]

Man glad to see a thread like this now mind you in not really a lawn guy so don't mind the mess. On that note I love growing a small food plot and teaching my kids about it so here's a few pics

Good going to involve the kids! I am retired now and enjoying growing some food and flowers to no end ... and remember well getting chased out of the family strawberry patch and tasting fruit fresh off the blade of a pocket knife when I was small. Growing common sense in kids is so worthy.

... and I have described my lawns here as 'quackgrass pooped by moose'

 

[gonebad395]

Hey thanks guys yeah we put the raised beds in 3 years ago and the big garden this year it's where my chicken coop used to be so next year I'm going to make it a bit larger and define its boundaries better

 

[taldesta]

The game begins. Who gets the first ripe tomato? The chipmunk, Daisy or me ...



... ...




Scarlet runner pole beans, finally up on boards laid across a couple of stumps, are now close to the lattice they will climb to keep the extreme summer heat off the shop window. In front of it are several caragana 'trees' from seedlings taken from under the one in the lower garden. This is only their second spring in this spot and they will be doing the shading job in a couple of years. That's one of my best laid plans!






Going wild in the garden on the hill ...

The monarch habitat is thriving and is about to bloom pink and scent the world. Dez (Desta) for scale ... not just because she follows me everywhere




Related to the Texas state flower 'bluebonnet' I believe - is the lupin, in foreground ... with wild iris in back.




Now, I have a hunch that you gardeners to the south are plating some of what you grow ... and not just lettuce