The 2020 Garden, Landscape, and Other Stuff Thread...

[LEGION 12]

 

[taldesta]

LEGION 12 Wow!

 

[LEGION 12]

LEGION 12 Wow!

Growing corn has been interesting , ears are starting to show .

 

[22-rimfire]

Growing corn has been interesting , ears are starting to show .

Those styles (silks) on the ears are kind of pretty and might make an pleasing closeup picture. I honestly had to look up the correct terminology for those silky hairs on the ears.

 

[LEGION 12]

Those styles (silks) on the ears are kind of pretty and might make an pleasing closeup picture. I honestly had to look up the correct terminology for those silky hairs on the ears.

The one's in the raised bed are doing even better get a pic up later .

 

[22-rimfire]

I have to chuckle about this. My sister also really enjoys Cades Cove, but they are 500 miles away. Anyway, she and her husband saw my bear pics with black berries and she texted me last night that they made the trip.... I don't think they planned this and it was a spur of the moment decision. The timing is all about the black berries ripening. I'll probably spend a day with them puttering around there later this week. It is always fun, but the covid-19 thing has made me ride in a different vehicle than them for safety's sake. Cases are increasing in a lot of southern states now.

My older brother took some beautiful Pink Lady's Slipper pictures earlier in PA and I was VERY tempted to make the drive to hit that spot. He said there were about 100 plants in bloom at the time. So, I understand the urge to do things like this.

Added 7/8/20: As it turns out, my Sister made the trip instead of a Rocky Mountain NP visit (and a visit with her oldest) because of recent covid-19 infections there. So, it may have seemed spur of the moment to me, but they were headed West (first by air, and then when all that got canceled, then by car.... with recent news of covid infections changing that).

 

[LEGION 12]

Corn in the raised bed planted 2 week after the one's in the ground growing much faster .

 

[taldesta]

All this corn reminds me of "Field of Dreams" - if you build it, they will come





That sense you get in your garden that you are never alone can be very true. I was trying for a picture of these delicate pansies, backlit by the morning sun. What surprised me, stretched out on the planter and hidden in the shade, was one of the ever present squirrels. They all lay about like this, dangling their feet, just relaxing it seems ...





The gravity drip attracts the critters and especially the birds to the rock birdbath, but it was originally set to fall from too high and made too much of a splash. I dug out one of my salamander drip waterers ... nice, calm ripples

 

[22-rimfire]

All this corn reminds me of "Field of Dreams" - if you build it, they will come

I pretty much believed that with hummingbirds and feeders.... until this year. It's July and I still have not seen a hummer in my yard this year. I gave up placing out fresh nectar about a month ago.

 

[JB in SC]

I pretty much believed that with hummingbirds and feeders.... until this year. It's July and I still have not seen a hummer in my yard this year. I gave up placing out fresh nectar about a month ago.

I haven’t seen any in the neighborhood this year, must be a migrational thing.

 

[annr]

We also had five pecan trees in the yard....you can guess who had the job of keeping the population down.


When you're able to get out, try the heavier weight welded versions, they'll chew through the lightweight stuff pretty fast.

My folks used to can or preserve most everything. My mother still had her old pressure cooker and meat grinder sitting in the cabinet when she passed away, depression era folks keep stuff like that all their lives. We had five pecan trees, a few garbage cans of pecans a year (most years). Not a bad cash crop for a little spending money. We took them to a friend that had a pecan sheller. Lots easier than hand shelling...

Read online (must be true) that these critters do not like the smell of ground coffee. I'm experimenting with this, and so far, no thievery.
And you bring me back to my time in GA: those pecan trees outside my school. Yum.

 

[JB in SC]

annr

I’m a native Georgian. I spent several years in the Southwest part of the state...pecans were a way of life there. I’m sure it’s not like it was fifty years ago.

 

[annr]

annr

I’m a native Georgian. I spent several years in the Southwest part of the state...pecans were a way of life there. I’m sure it’s not like it was fifty years ago.

Then you would know the Columbus, GA area and reason people went there. I'm referring to the mid '60's. And finding edible nuts on the ground was like a gift from heaven to a young child.

I've only been back to Atlanta a dozen or more years ago to visit family affiliated with "the Harvard of the South." (Emory for those who don't know the joke.) Seems everything is quite different!

 

[JB in SC]

Then you would know the Columbus, GA area and reason people went there. I'm referring to the mid '60's. And finding edible nuts on the ground was like a gift from heaven to a young child.

I've only been back to Atlanta a dozen or more years ago to visit family affiliated with "the Harvard of the South." (Emory for those who don't know the joke.) Seems everything is quite different!

I lived forty miles from Albany, pecans were everywhere.

From Ellaville to Albany the roads were lined with groves in the 60’s.

We lived in Columbus in the mid seventies (work not Army). We enjoyed it for the most part no school age children though.

Atlanta....I do not miss it.

 

[22-rimfire]

Atlanta has really changed since the 70's. I hate just driving through now and I am almost always going straight through on I-75.

 

[taldesta]

I pretty much believed that with hummingbirds and feeders.... until this year. It's July and I still have not seen a hummer in my yard this year. I gave up placing out fresh nectar about a month ago.

Lately I've spotted a few female hummers sampling the bee balm but I won't expect them to hang around at leisure until they can bring the kids along. Up until now, they've been just too busy.

The sunflower feeders have been inundated with goldfinches and purple finches, rose breasted grosbeaks, nuthatches - for a long time. The seeds are a staple on my grocery list . Chickadees are either busy like the hummers or they headed North because I am just not hearing or seeing them but rarely.

Now the grackles - I love these big black birds with their purple iridescence and golden eyes, the way they strut and cackle. But, when they bring the kids and all the relatives they are so persistent, bold and ravenous that I shoo them away. Not easy, they are very crow like, smart and they watch for opportunities. They start on the ground but do try to perch on the feeders although they don't like the footing afforded on the feeders at all. They just try to knock seeds out for the rest waiting on the ground, including the young ones. The whole fam damily

 

[taldesta]

Hummingbird candy - many shades of nasturtiums now blooming



Pansies & nasturtiums (both thriving now that maple shields them from the afternoon uv), bee balm

 

[taldesta]

Yarrow - between bee balm and petunia rows. The blooms turn lackluster when done and have been deadheaded. Without the weight, the remaining stocks stand more upright and will put up a lot more blooms (I've learned). Interesting perennial. I weed to keep the wild ones out of the gardens! What you see here is 1/2 my actual crescent shaped lawn. I am using my old electric mower now but am eyeing a battery powered for future. The rest of the flat areas are done with the riding mower. When I keep the wild from seeding into the gardens by using the battery trimmer, that's success



Dwarf bee balm is a perennial I am considering for this area behind the petunia row as well - compact, mounding shape - maybe 18" high, fair colour, lots of blooms.



Jester's hat bloom of dwarf emerging, compared with Jacob Cline (tall variety)



Tall



Pumpkins from seed - don't know what possessed me . Sweet Pea on trellises in background.

 

[annr]

JB in SC
Good thing you didn't have school age kids. Public schools there stunk! IMO. Rode a bus 1 hour each way to different school after refusing to go to local school--in spite of the pecans!

Back to gardening: Fuqua Orchid Center in Atlanta is amazing! (part of Atlanta Botanical Garden) Ever visit?

 

[JB in SC]

JB in SC
Good thing you didn't have school age kids. Public schools there stunk! IMO. Rode a bus 1 hour each way to different school after refusing to go to local school--in spite of the pecans!

Back to gardening: Fuqua Orchid Center in Atlanta is amazing! (part of Atlanta Botanical Garden) Ever visit?

It’s been five or six years ago at least. I'm not going back anytime soon, traffic is worse than awful now.

We go to Biltmore Estate a few times a year. The traffic isn't as bad and the food is fantastic. It's a beautiful place at Christmas.