Some inspirational (aspirational?) eye candy from ace photographer / commentor Ema:
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: NY Botanical Garden Orchid ShowPost + Comments (43)
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Some inspirational (aspirational?) eye candy from ace photographer / commentor Ema:
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I finally got around to calling in my Laurel’s Heirlooms order, so with my earlier WFF list I’ve got this year’s tomato (rootpouch) garden lined up: Bear Claw, Black Bear, Bloody Butcher, Cherokee Purple, Chocolate Stripes, Momotaro Gold, Mortgage Lifter, Ruby Gold, Tati’s Wedding, plus a Sun Gold and two Chocolate Sprinkles cherry tomato plants. The Spousal Unit is *very* fond of his Chocolate Sprinkles, and I’m honey-dewing him about his plan to build dollies for the rootpouches — 20″ plywood squares, and wheels built to deal with a summer on asphalt. Next step: Lining up a delivery of fresh planting mix, but that won’t be for a couple weeks yet…
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: NY Botanical Garden Orchid ShowPost + Comments (43)
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From commentor / aspiring native gardener JAM:
A passion flower vine came up in my sunny pollinator bed last summer. I think it is passiflora incarnata which is an aggressive spreading native vine beloved by butterflies. I really want to keep it, but I don’t want it to spread out of control.
I found a website that suggest burying an 18-24 inch barrier around the roots to prevent rhizomes from spreading. Other gardeners say to just pull up the rhizomes, it’s no big deal. So I would welcome any advice from BJers who have grown this plant.
For more context, this is in a long South facing bed along a fence, bracketed at each end with hibiscus moscheutos, and a lot of rather weedy self seeding annuals and perennials in between. I can go on the neighbor’s side to weed if needed, it is all lawn. The annuals are not native, and I would like to replace them with natives eventually. (Except for the old-fashioned petunias. They came with the house and they get to stay.)
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I don’t have many flowers blooming in my garden right now, so I thought I’d send you some nice weeds. I’m just starting out gardening with native plants, so I’ve been trying to identify the weeds that are native. I live in the Cross Timbers eco-region in Oklahoma, a belt of Blackjack / post oak forests which forms a boundary between the eastern woods and tallgrass prairies and the western shortgrass prairies.
Above: Spring beauty (claytonia virginica) blankets Eastern woodlands and lawns in the spring. Unfortunately, my lawn has been sprayed, so my spring beauties grow in clumps–but look at my neighbor’s back yard. The spring beauty bee feeds her underground brood the pollen of this flower only. They are also called fairy spuds because the corms are edible and supposedly tasty.
Bluets (Houstonia caerulea) growing in my other neighbor’s backyard. Weirdly, his back yard is full of bluets, but no spring beauties at all. They are too small to see in a lawn-wide view.
Small-flowered buttercup or crowfoot (ranunculus abortivus) growing with grape hyacinths. This plant is poisonous in all the ways.
The redbud (cercis canadensis) was a volunteer, so I’m just going to throw it in here with the weeds. If you want early flowers for bees, plant a redbud. It literally hums on sunny afternoons.
Milkweeds. Asclepias speciosa, Asclepias tuberosa, and asclepias viridis all shy in the back row. I’m starting seeds in lasagna pans and milk jugs outdoors-milkweeds seem to like the pans better. A. viridis has green flowers and is the most important monarch milkweed in OK because it blooms early when they are first heading north from Mexico. These will go into a new bed with other natives.
Bonus naked ladies! Haha, it’s March, they’ve got their clothes on, silly.
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I’ve started the spring cleanup (before it stormed most of the week), and at least some of last year’s new columbines made it through the winter. And the pink-cupped and all-white daffodils are blooming in the front, while the yellow daffs are opening in (northern exposure) back yard. Nice to have some encouraging signs while I’m raking up binsful of mucky oak leaves!
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Spontaneous Spring Flowers… & A QuestionPost + Comments (45)
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From master landscaper & ace photographer Dan B:
When we moved in the house was surrounded by unglamorous (I’m being kind) sidewalks. The backyard was sloped enough to uncomfortable to stand or to hold a chair. And I wanted ponds to hold water for summer. My partner built these rip-rap walls and I put paving on top. We have served dinner during the pandemic. Mt. Baker, 90 air miles north is visible from the top.
The daffodils I planted on top quadrupled in one year. I prefer the white petaled forms for our soft or overcast days.
This is a shallow pond by the tool shed / Mike’s playhouse and the stone stairs and landing to the upper terrace we call Tikal. In the background is a large brown shrub.
The brown shrub, 9 feet tall and wide, is Hebe ‘Midsummer Beauty’. We had 15° several days in a row and a number of plants were damaged. This was the largest. It may come back from the base.
Here’s what it looked like last summer. 8″ long pannicles and very fragrant. It’s from New Zealand where freezes are rare. This plant was 14 years old. It was a favorite hiding spot for our cats.
By the daffodils on Tikal is Wobbles the orange tabby in Temple Lion mode. He likes to guard the front gate and driveway even when Kai, the neighbors’ big German Shepherd, is about.
This is Wobbles’ indoor, bread loaf mode. Who needs legs? Or a tail?
At the west side of Tikal I planted a Grape Hyacinth called Grape Ice. It’s a new find.
Here’s another ‘pink cupped’ daffodil. It’s great on overcast days.
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Here north of Boston, the yellow daffodils that were here when we bought this place thirty years ago are in full (rather storm-battered) bloom, but our pink-cupped white additions are still a (sensible) couple of weeks from joining the show.
Got my first mail-order plants of the season yesterday — three very leggy Blue Butterfly columbines from White Flower Farm. So later today I’ll be transplanting them into temporary pots I can move indoors every night, because even if the ground where I intend them to go wasn’t still frozen, I don’t trust the weather (it’s been in the 50s this week, but we *may* get some snow on Thursday… ) Ah, the joy of climate change!
What’s going on in your gardens (planning / planting / reimaging), this week?
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Seattle Garden Tragedies (& Kitteh)Post + Comments (40)
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If the soil’s still frozen / too soggy to work, the hardscaping could always use some attention. Courtesy of commentor SkyBluePink:
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I need more photos, fellow gardeners, or you’ll be reduced to reading random news stories about gardening…
What’s going on in *your* garden (planning / prep / fresh growth), this week?
This post is in: Garden Chats
Hope and spring bulbs rise eternal… From commentor JeffG166:
Bonus reading:
For Women's History Month, a look at some trailblazers in American gardening and horticulture https://t.co/BBTyaLS8Sc
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 6, 2024
Jane Colden, Beatrix Farrand, Carrie Lippincott — and Fanny Lou Hamer!
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Our earliest daffodils — the ones in the south-facing bed by the heat-leaking basement windows — are also beginning to bloom. I’m gonna have to risk cleaning out that bed, despite my superstitious fear of encouraging an unseasonable snowstorm…
What’s going on in your gardens, this week?
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Early FloweringPost + Comments (41)
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From commentor JeffG166:
2.16.2024
Will be snowed on tonight.
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From commentor Delphinium:
Much like last year, we have had a less snowy winter overall here (Central NY) along with warmer than normal temperatures. While less shoveling is always good, the changing weather patterns make it increasingly difficult to plan garden beds, especially given that any snow that does fall tends not to stick around long like it used to.
Since my own garden is still mostly in the winter die off stage, wanted to instead share some prettier pictures from around my area (except for the dogwood which is from my yard).
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I need more photos, people — how are the new seedlings coming along? What about yard prep, for the new season?
What’s going on in your garden (planning / prep / retrospectives), this week?
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Springing ForwardPost + Comments (29)
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More great shots from professional garden planner Dan B:
Bonus fauna!
Our new kitty Miss Milly. She was dumped in the greenbelt across from Mike’s house. She had some painful blisters on her back. We got her treated and she’s much happier.
She wants to play with our boy cats. She runs up to them and they panic.
She’ll probably be ruling the roost soon.
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I need to call my favorite heirloom tomato plant source with a (very!) short list of must-haves, but I’m superstitiously afraid of triggering another ‘April Surprise’ snowstorm. Snow coverage here north of Boston has verged on the nonexistent; I wouldn’t complain, except that the draggled remnants of last year’s garden warm me we’ll pay when the bugs come out and the cold-loving perennials don’t…
What’s going on in your garden (planning / prep / notes), this week?
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: (Premature) Spring in the Pacific NorthwestPost + Comments (28)