Garden and Yard Talk
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The Southern Weather disaster seems to have concluded and I’m looking at my once proud:
Alocasia
Reduced to:
Described as hearty in zones 9-11 (we are 9), it remains to be seen if this will rise like the Phoenix or have to be replaced...
These are tubers. Next time, I’ll know to cut it back in advance and cover it up.
Alocasia
Reduced to:
Described as hearty in zones 9-11 (we are 9), it remains to be seen if this will rise like the Phoenix or have to be replaced...
These are tubers. Next time, I’ll know to cut it back in advance and cover it up.
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Unfortunately, it looks very much like my yard. Almost everything took a hit. Surprisingly, the daffodils are still holding up their saucy little heads.
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Have I mentioned that I just adore and absolutely love daffodils, complete with saucy little heads in a lovely, life-affirming shade of yellow?
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Why no! I don’t believe you have mentioned that...in this thread. LOL
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Well, yes, my question was rhetorical: But, - herewith an aside and hint, both: I can never see (feast my eyes on) too many pictures of daffodils......
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Hint taken.
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Hark. It’s Ah-liieevveee!
Can you see them?
Can you see them?
We used to live on Daffodil Path, Minnesota cold weather warriors (Daffodils) and made sure we paid the name homage!
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For anyone who likes gardening, I have to recommend Gardener’s World from the UK starring Monty Don. Very Zen like. It’s a great show with a large variety of guests and their gardens and is available for viewing in the US on, Acorn, Britbox, Amazon Prime, BBC2? and Dailymotion videos. My wife is a fanatic and it’s gotten her back out in the yard.
Watch Gardeners' World (2020) | Prime Video
All new season of this perennially popular gardening program returns with an all-new season budding with inspiring ideas and down-to-earth advice. [BritBox "Now" Program]
www.amazon.com
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28 March 2021
Besides the lone wolf amaryllis that bloomed in early Feb, all the rest are about to pop. Here’s one, front yard:
The elephant ear continues to make progress:
6 plant shoots in this photo
And we have decided to allow a little bird to have it’s nest under our gazebo. She’s not all that happy when we are hanging out back there, but it comes with the territiry she chose. I’ve not yet identified it, but it’s small with brownish red coloring, maybe a wren of some kind. Right now my guess is a House Wren or Carolina Wren.
Besides the lone wolf amaryllis that bloomed in early Feb, all the rest are about to pop. Here’s one, front yard:
6 plant shoots in this photo
I’ve not yet identified it, but it’s small with brownish red coloring, maybe a wren of some kind. Right now my guess is a House Wren or Carolina Wren.
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April 2021 flower bed Project
This strip of yard, approx 6x35’, the wife wants to turn it into a wild flower bed. The idea is that wild flowers should be relatively rugged and not depend on regular water as there is no sprinkler system in this part of the yard. So you know who gets to do the brunt of the work.
Since we live in a community that has covenants, I decided to run this by the home owner Association who approved, but I said flowers and mulch, not specifically wild flowers which can seen unruly. So we’ll see what kind of reaction if any we get from them. Anyway in the picture I just scalped it with the lawn mower, and per Monty (Gardener’s World), I’ve started to vigorously rake it to expose the dirt, not supposed to remove all of the grass.
Today, I’ll buy a stack of pavers to define the property line which will be flush with the ground (already checked and got an ok from the neighbor. I really need to get this area raked and the seeds spread as it is getting late in the season to start such plants. You want them going before it gets stink’n hot. And I’m going to drop a border of crushed rock around it using landscaping edging to make the area look more defined and refined to counter any unruliness of the wild fires themselves.
This area will also get some tuffs of ornamental grass and 2 Acoma dwarf (white) Crepe Myrtle bushes, 7-10’, but we will prune them as they commonly are around here to resemble trees, pruning them up with a couple of main stalks In the bottom 6’ or so. Typically each year, they are topped And new growth is encouraged.
So has anyone worked with wild flowers? I was surprised that they are typically sewed in existing grasses, but that makes sense when you see them growing in the wild in pastures. Any suggestions?
This strip of yard, approx 6x35’, the wife wants to turn it into a wild flower bed. The idea is that wild flowers should be relatively rugged and not depend on regular water as there is no sprinkler system in this part of the yard. So you know who gets to do the brunt of the work.
Since we live in a community that has covenants, I decided to run this by the home owner Association who approved, but I said flowers and mulch, not specifically wild flowers which can seen unruly. So we’ll see what kind of reaction if any we get from them. Anyway in the picture I just scalped it with the lawn mower, and per Monty (Gardener’s World), I’ve started to vigorously rake it to expose the dirt, not supposed to remove all of the grass.
Today, I’ll buy a stack of pavers to define the property line which will be flush with the ground (already checked and got an ok from the neighbor. I really need to get this area raked and the seeds spread as it is getting late in the season to start such plants. You want them going before it gets stink’n hot. And I’m going to drop a border of crushed rock around it using landscaping edging to make the area look more defined and refined to counter any unruliness of the wild fires themselves.
This area will also get some tuffs of ornamental grass and 2 Acoma dwarf (white) Crepe Myrtle bushes, 7-10’, but we will prune them as they commonly are around here to resemble trees, pruning them up with a couple of main stalks In the bottom 6’ or so. Typically each year, they are topped And new growth is encouraged.
So has anyone worked with wild flowers? I was surprised that they are typically sewed in existing grasses, but that makes sense when you see them growing in the wild in pastures. Any suggestions?
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these are trestrial orchids. I have two different plants in here but one the coolest is not happy. it has dark green leaves with black spots. this guys leaves are about the color now and the blooms can last for months. this is a easy to grow one some can be really finicky, this guy wants full son and loves the heat. they are so expensive I think this guy was around 50 for a little pot. but this is the 3rd or 4 year and it is doing really well
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Although I look at it every day, I’ve just realized there is a hump running down the right side of my new bed in the making ( previous image, looking from house to street), that gets quite pronounced near the street. I’m doing some mild terraforming leveling the area. which is going to wipe much of the grass. I’ve also been trying to get rid of a mole, family of moles for a couple of years now. Is there any reason to welcome them to your yard? I know they eat bugs...and worms?April 2021 flower bed Project
This strip of yard, approx 6x35’, the wife wants to turn it into a wild flower bed. The idea is that wild flowers should be relatively rugged and not depend on regular water as there is no sprinkler system in this part of the yard. So you know who gets to do the brunt of the work.
Since we live in a community that has covenants, I decided to run this by the home owner Association who approved, but I said flowers and mulch, not specifically wild flowers which can seen unruly. So we’ll see what kind of reaction if any we get from them. Anyway in the picture I just scalped it with the lawn mower, and per Monty (Gardener’s World), I’ve started to vigorously rake it to expose the dirt, not supposed to remove all of the grass.
Today, I’ll buy a stack of pavers to define the property line which will be flush with the ground (already checked and got an ok from the neighbor. I really need to get this area raked and the seeds spread as it is getting late in the season to start such plants. You want them going before it gets stink’n hot. And I’m going to drop a border of crushed rock around it using landscaping edging to make the area look more defined and refined to counter any unruliness of the wild fires themselves.
This area will also get some tuffs of ornamental grass and 2 Acoma dwarf (white) Crepe Myrtle bushes, 7-10’, but we will prune them as they commonly are around here to resemble trees, pruning them up with a couple of main stalks In the bottom 6’ or so. Typically each year, they are topped And new growth is encouraged.
So has anyone worked with wild flowers? I was surprised that they are typically sewed in existing grasses, but that makes sense when you see them growing in the wild in pastures. Any suggestions?
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Finally seeing some signs of spring around here. Hyacinths and Daffodils.
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I've done smaller patches from time to time, but I did try to dig out and otherwise distress the grassroots first down to around five inches and out about three inches so I could put stones over groundcloth along the edges of the patch. Believe me the grasses will find their way back quickly enough. I also wanted to bring poorer soil to the surface because the wildflowers thrive in poor soil and grasses like the stuff that's more fertile. I mixed some sand into the top couple inches too before raking it out and scattering the seed, because our native soil right around here tends to be heavy and we sometimes get heavy rain in springtime. I did mine early in spring and laid some light straw mulch over top to let the seeds figure out when to push up but some people around here plant earlier and don't mulch and do take their chances with both late frost and rains. As general advice I took guidelines out of some site like the one cited below, although it may not have been this exact one, anyway the suggestions look similar. Where you are now though, you might need to focus on advice meant for the southwest, past just generic "wildflower cultivation" tips.
How to grow a wild patch | The Wildlife Trusts
It doesn’t matter what size your space is, there’s always room for wildflowers! Set aside an area of lawn, part of a border, or even a large container and watch the bees and butterflies buzz in.
www.wildlifetrusts.org
Cautionary tale: some wildflowers are invasive, even annual ones in terms of their ability to spread elsewhere, so keep an eye out for those you don't care to see overtake the patch or make inroads into the lawn. My own lawns are mostly just from chaff taken off the haywagon so they're pretty invasive themselves, thus my battles of grass v wildflowers were more or less a draw at the borders of the patches, and the flowers stayed inside.
If your HOA doesn't like the look of a straggly patch at first, plant a few annuals in there to make it look more like garden and less like a work in progress. When you pull those out later just leave the space raked over a little, the foliage of the growing wildflowers will expand to fill the space, and the wildflowers will seed into those areas ok for the next year. I had to mulch over mine a little in winter to minimize seed damage or loss from frost heaves and maraudings of hungry meadow critters.
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When my mother - who loved gardening and was a genuinely gifted gardener - still had her mind, and memory and marbles, Monty Don was possibly her very favourite TV show, and was one that she never missed.
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Update : project complete with 2 dwarf Acomo Crape Myrtle bushes to be shaped as trees, 3 decorative grasses, and wild flower seeds planted. Let’s see what happens.April 2021 flower bed Project
This strip of yard, approx 6x35’, the wife wants to turn it into a wild flower bed. The idea is that wild flowers should be relatively rugged and not depend on regular water as there is no sprinkler system in this part of the yard. So you know who gets to do the brunt of the work.
Since we live in a community that has covenants, I decided to run this by the home owner Association who approved, but I said flowers and mulch, not specifically wild flowers which can seen unruly. So we’ll see what kind of reaction if any we get from them. Anyway in the picture I just scalped it with the lawn mower, and per Monty (Gardener’s World), I’ve started to vigorously rake it to expose the dirt, not supposed to remove all of the grass.
Today, I’ll buy a stack of pavers to define the property line which will be flush with the ground (already checked and got an ok from the neighbor. I really need to get this area raked and the seeds spread as it is getting late in the season to start such plants. You want them going before it gets stink’n hot. And I’m going to drop a border of crushed rock around it using landscaping edging to make the area look more defined and refined to counter any unruliness of the wild fires themselves.
This area will also get some tuffs of ornamental grass and 2 Acoma dwarf (white) Crepe Myrtle bushes, 7-10’, but we will prune them as they commonly are around here to resemble trees, pruning them up with a couple of main stalks In the bottom 6’ or so. Typically each year, they are topped And new growth is encouraged.
So has anyone worked with wild flowers? I was surprised that they are typically sewed in existing grasses, but that makes sense when you see them growing in the wild in pastures. Any suggestions?
Landscaping finished, watching for wildflowers to pop.
Hopefully the straw bed will not adversely effect wildflower seeds.
They were put down first.
Acoma Crape Myrtle about 10’ tall will have to be pruned up for this narrow space.
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Amaryllis popping out front:
They tend to sell just Red ones here (Houston) for Christmas. Last fall we divided, and sent some extra bulbs to friends and went online to find some other colors. My wife got some intriguing double amaryllise.
They tend to sell just Red ones here (Houston) for Christmas. Last fall we divided, and sent some extra bulbs to friends and went online to find some other colors. My wife got some intriguing double amaryllise.