Gosh, I had forgotten how much work is involved with getting the yard ready for spring, summer, and fall. I was outside most of the day yesterday, either planting garden, talking to people, or explaining what I wanted them to do. I think I'm down to getting some dead roses dug out and planting grass seed on the truck load of dirt that was spread yesterday. Then I can concentrate on bringing plants outside and filling pots with stuff from the greenhouse. It will be a big relief to have it all done; knowing that I only have to deadhead, fertilize, spray the right insecticide, and water. It's never done, is it? LOL! What have you been doing in your yard?

ChSam (Shirley Morr)
Chariton, Iowa
Zone 5

Hi Shirley. Spring is having a hard time getting started here...colder than normal & frequently rainy. We had a couple of warm days at the beginning of the week, so I went after a lot of weeds and unwanted grass with RoundUp. Many of my potted brugs sat in these areas last year and the leached fertilizer really encouraged growth of the "undesirables". I want to bring my brugs out of the garage in about a week, so hope the stuff I've sprayed is pretty much dead by then - it's looking a bit off already.

Other than that, I've done about 1/3 of my clean up in preparation for the growing season. I worked on the perennial beds first, so they're in pretty good shape. I've also dug, divided & potted a few things. Then I got busy on "rescuing" rocks from neighboring vacant lots where the bulldozers are about to plow. I have enough to do a good-sized water feature - now I have to get busy with that! Enough of the rock gathering, however! I'm even dreaming about finding rocks that water will flow over nicely. Between rocks & hummingbirds, my dreams are becoming fixated on nature!

I planted up my experimental Brug-in-a-Basket about 5-6 days ago. Using my largest hanging basket, I put my "decapitated" brug cutting (taken about 10" below the Y) in it with fuchsia starts ('Cloth of Gold') and white bacopa. The basket is sitting on my covered back porch until the nights start staying a little warmer - the temp still drops into the upper 30's some nights.

I have other fuchsia starts having a little tropical vacation under my plant lights. I didn't start many seeds this year, so there's room for the plants there. Hopefully, this is a good thing. They're no doubt building a better root network and the top growth is looking good too. I think I'll get them into hanging baskets within the next week.

I have a few canna indica seedlings (from Costa Rica) under my lights. I love growing them from seeds - they really take off once they've germinated.



Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Gosh Patrick, you have been.... and it looks like you will continue to be busy for a while. I know it's all worth it when it's basically done, but it is a lot more work each year I get older. Our hummingbirds arrived yesterday. It was good to see them, but it seems early for them. I'll have to check the migration maps to see. We had wonderful temps yesterday in the 80's and today it is only 52 degrees at noon. That's a big change. I've planted cannas from seed a couple of times. It was fun. Well....keep up the good work Patrick, so you can show us lots of great pictures later on of your blooming plants and greenery. I'm so ready for color.

ChSam (Shirley Morr)
Chariton, Iowa
Zone 5

It was in the mid 80s yesterday & it is 87 now. I am going to plant more brug seeds & the seedlings I started earlier are a couple inches tall now. The big plants are waking up but it looks like I lost a whole lot of them because of the heat going off a couple times. The Iochromas were sprouting nicely until something chewed ALL the leaves off (go ahead take a bite of Brug, I dare you). Whatever ate them got into the Quail & Rabbit food. I put the food in a metal trash can & I guess the chewer is mad at me for not feeding it anymore. It dug into the bag of wood chips for the cages & made a mess & ate all the labels off my shoe polish when it got into the pantry. It also chewed through my phone line. The cats will find it eventually, they love organic cat toys. LOL

Linda

Let's see, I am not sure there is enough room to post the chores associated with keeping my seven acres presentable. I started back in February getting some clean up done, but did not move any plants out. Since we had an unusually mild winter and all my crape myrtles, and other perennials were heavily budded, I decided to plant my garden. Big mistake, MN sent me a late freeze and killed all my veggies, froze all the new growth on the crape myrtles , fig trees and some of the other perennials. Some are beginning to rebud now, and some may be toast. I work at least 8 hours each day just trying to get my beds in order to put new things in should I so desire. I have had other gardeners come over to dig to take home, and then I don't have to pot things up (that takes a lot of time and money). Then, of course, in Texas, there is the watering..... we are still in a drought despite the wonderful rains we have had. It will take some time to get back to "normal".
I am looking out the bay window at a lot of color right now though. The window boxes are magnificant with their trailing petunias of pink, purple and magenta. All the salvias are in bloom, and the pink verbena that spreads across one third of one big bed is in full bloom. I have one very large snapdragon that is from reseeding of last years crop, and it is a totally different color from any I have had before. The mock orange, clematis and cross vine are also quite colorful, but my azaleas are fininshed blooming. Oh, and the roses are all in bloom and it smells so good when I walk outside.
Now, it is time to go move the water and get ready to start fertilizing the brugs tomorrow --- just moved them out today. All this to say, "don't expect too may posts from me for awhile"!!!!

USDA Zone 7/8
Copper Canyon
North Central Texas

It's 90!!!

Linda

I hope you catch the critter soon, Linda. How frustrating it is to have one that you can't get and to watch it continue to do damage can really set me off. A couple of weeks ago, we caught a groundhog. Three days ago, we caught a skunk....both in the live trap and outside of course. LOL! I don't like surprises, especially this kind, but I do feel better having them GONE.

Carrie....how about some pictures of all of your color. I'd love to see it all. Sounds just beautiful.

ChSam (Shirley Morr)
Chariton, Iowa
Zone 5

Carrie's does sound wonderful. Really warm here today, after work I put my brugs out, set them around the yard were I will be planting them, but I won't plant for a couple more weeks. Nice today frost tomorrow around here. I want to be able to hustle them back into the shed and greenhouse if and when I need to. Having them spread out around the yard helps me decide what needs to be done. Like Carrie, I have lots of gardeners stopping by for plants, it is a lot easier than hauling the extras off to a swap. Received a package from Logees today. Hibiscus Mango Moon has joined the madness. It arrived with 4 buds on it.

Lots to do tomorrow, but the weather makes it wonderful to be outside.
Enjoying my garden
Sally

Sally
Zone 5b
heat zone 4
Enfield Connecticut



http://community.webshots.com/user/sallycummings

Oh Sally, don't you just love those hibiscus....they have so many new ones all the time. June's Dragon is one of my all time favorites. I don't think I've seen the one you mentioned. My order came from Logee's last week. They have some great stuff. I found a place called Big
Dipper Farms, online, that seems to have a large variety of stuff. I've placed an order for some grasses, so we will see what they send before long.

We had bad storms on Sunday. Power was out for a couple of hours and the rains were heavy. Our grass needs mowing, but it's a little to swampy out there right now. The sun is shining today and I think I'm going to move some of the hardiest tropicals out to the deck. The mandevilla vines are going to take over the family room before long.

ChSam (Shirley Morr)
Chariton, Iowa
Zone 5

Hi Shirley, I hope you have good luck with your order. If you aren't happy with what you receive, contact Deidre at the nursery asap. Give her a chance to fix any problems, but let her know you're considering reporting the issue to Garden Watchdog...they seem very concerned about maintaining a good rating there.

This nursery is about 30 miles from where I live. I stopped there about 3 years ago and was not impressed with the overall condition of the nursery. It is a small, family-run operation and they must get overwhelmed. I saw blocks of 100 or more 1-gal. pots that had been sitting there unattended long enough that more than 75% of the plants were dead & gone (or very close to it) and were full of weeds & moss. With careful selection, I found a few things that were good buys. I also saw many thing that were way overpriced for the size & condition of the plants. They even had some brugs in their greenhouse...1 or 2 very common looking varieties (I don't think they were labeled with names)...and very pricey! They looked like they needed fertilizer & I wondered whether the owners knew much about their culture.

My overall feeling is that this nursery tries to carry everything! They have an area back behind a shed where the "good stuff" seems to be kept. It is primarily from that they ship. Hopefully, what you get will be that better quality. They do seem to be nice people, but the condition of their nursery turned me off.

Here's a link (mixed reviews) to what people have had to say about them on Dave's Garden:

http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/2704/



Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Thanks Patrick. I had forgotten that I could check for reviews, but I probably would have tried them anyway. Their website is definitely pulling at me to look for more, but I'll wait and see what the first order gets me.

ChSam (Shirley Morr)
Chariton, Iowa
Zone 5

I have always gotten excellent plants from Logees, I have never ordered from the place you and Patrick are discussing, I'll check it out after I hear how well you do. Mango moon is new this year. Really pretty. We have had three days in the 90's, it is suppose to return to normal tomorrow. We broke two temp records in the last couple of days. Tomorrow night is going back to the 30's. But soon it will be planting time, I am eager, I am extending my drip irrigation this year. Last year I had drippers set up for my deck and all plants in pots along my walkways. I am laying 1/2 inch line now for most of my gardens. All the brugs inground will get drippers and my veges. The perennials are used to what ever rain MN sends them.


Sally
Zone 5b
heat zone 4
Enfield Connecticut



http://community.webshots.com/user/sallycummings

Sally, I was thinking about drip irrigation for my gardens this year. Do you have to turn the water on & off or is it automatic? Either way, it has to save a lot of time.

I spent an hour in the front & an hour & a half in the back watering once a day until it got hot. Then I was out there twice a day & sometimes 3 for the pots. I'm not sure where to start since the entire yard slopes. I suppose I will have to run the main water line to the top & let it run downhill so I have enough pressure. I have the same problem with rain barrels. I can just attach a hose for the front yard, but I have to carry the water up to the back.

Linda

Drip Depot which you can google has been a lot of help to me. They have some videos you can watch and some guides you can download to help you plan out your system. Last summer during the hottest weather I had my hanging plants and all my different containers getting water 2 times a day, by timer. Different emitters drip out at different rates, so my hanging baskets had 1/2 gallon emitters on them while my earth boxes had 3 gallon emitters on them. That is gallons per hour, so I would run my timer for 15 minutes twice a day , giving my hanging baskets 1 cup of water twice a day and my earth boxes closer to a gallon. I use all different size emitter's. You also can use circular spray thingies. The setup I am working on now, with the kindly help of more experienced and friendly dripper, will have 4 different zones all on different timers so as not to overload water pressure. Last summer I went to Europe for 3 weeks backpacking and came home to hanging baskets that looked great. It cost me about 50.00 dollars last summer to set up the deck and walkway containers, I am investing quite a bit more this year, but the hose and emitters will last for years. You can leave your setup out all winter.


Sally
Zone 5b
heat zone 4
Enfield Connecticut



http://community.webshots.com/user/sallycummings

Sally & Linda, I'm glad you're having this discussion. I really need to move my watering into the 21rst Century! I'm sure I can find more constructive things to do with my time than dragging the water hose for hours every day. Our "silent member", Jody, is experienced with drip irrigation and after I view the videos that you spoke of, Sally, I think I'll ask Jody to help walk me thru it. It would be nice knowing that I could go away for several days in the summer if I wanted/needed to.


Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

I've been busy in yard.Everythings still not planted.Then we've had rain that makes the grass grow!! which I hate mowing like every 4 days.A neighbor had 7 trees ground so I've been collecting that also...3 55 gallon trash cans at a time I've got seed heads on my Crinium Bulbsprmum. I got cucumber beetles annoying mainly my Iochroma alba & amaranthus.My epis are growing great,but still no buds yet.

Njoy


SE TX Z8b
Coastal~Tyler Co TX

I'm just trying to keep up with the fast growing grass and weeds now. The only things blooming are the plants I've purchased at the greenhouse. It's been a slow spring here for plants to grow...just too cool until recently.

ChSam (Shirley Morr)
Chariton, Iowa
Zone 5

Yes, don't you sometimes wonder why grass & weeds grow so much faster than the plants we coddle?!

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Hi Everyone, It has been some time since I have visited this site. I forgot what my log in was, and just found it again today.

It sounds like everyone is hard at work on their yards. I finished all the clean up in March and planted the brugs. out the last week of March which is really late for here. Usually I have them in the ground the first week of March, but we are having a really cool Spring. We are only in the 70's this week with a chance of rain which is almost unhead of for June. Lots of things in the garden are in bloom, my favorites right now are the Clematis. The Iris's have already finished up and the daylily's are starting to bloom already.

I have had quite a few brugs. blooming, plus some of my new seedlings. Right now B. Chesa, L'Amour, Rubirosa, NOL, Mon Amour di Mareuil, a double pink cross ( PL x MADM),a new seedling ( Harlot x NOL) one of Gary Morales crosses, it hasn't quite made up it's mind what it wants to do yet. It opened yellow with a orange rim, but I will have to wait for a few more flushes to know for sure what it is going to do.
Harlot and Dream angels just finished blooming. So as you can see things are well underway for this season. I just finished sowing my crosses for next season which is always exciting. I just love this time of year with all the anticipation to see what new is going to happen.

Patricia

Patricia
Livermore, Calif.
San Fran. Bay area