Whatcha Planting?

[BlsdMama]

On 3/13/2021 at 5:21 AM, Laura Corin said:

Do you not have slugs and snails?  I took out a hosta that I inherited when we bought this house because its leaves were lace by the end of the summer.

We always wondered why we read about people having problems with slugs and snails. Then we moved to the PNW. We discovered something Mind blowing - there are slugs and there are SLUGS. 

Here in Iowa we have small and slugs, they’re cute and relatively non invasive. We moved and thought the first banana slugs we saw must be the product of some freak accident. Slugs there are enormous and there are a lot of them. So, no, my hostas look awesome pretty much always and I have about 100ish?

[BlsdMama]

I planted a rather lot of peonies behind my garage. They were unhappy. I have a new plan - sunflowers, just insane amounts of sunflowers. I also bought chives. And flower seeds... And more Lavender, because, well, I have no place for them and no plan but lavender makes me happy. 
 

I think, rather than planting new stuff this year, we are going to fence the garden. Fencing the garden is part A of building me a glorious coop. We also need to build a grape arbor for the grapes we planted last year. 
 

Our second daughter is getting married. It may or may not have crossed my mind that these projects and financing her wedding are not terribly compatible in the same season. Sigh. I did tell her if she got married here, we’d build her a lovely gazebo. 😉 She declined. 

[MeaganS]

Update! We've planted carrots, peas, kohlrabi, lettuces, and beets directly into the garden, which is exciting. It's been a very wet week or two so we were out there between rain showers, but we got it done.

All of the seedlings in our bathroom are doing great. It's going to be a good year I think. 

[Pam in CT]

Last year I wasn't going into stores, including plant stores; so I ONLY grew stuff from seed and/or propagated what I already had and/or traded with my vastly more competent neighbor.  Good COVID challenge and one-off learning curve but...

... I've had Vaccine 1, and once I've had Vaccine 2 and waited out my 14 days I will RUN, not walk, to my plant store. Ahhhhh.

My yard is still covered with snow, sigh, but yesterday and today have both been above 40 so I'm hopeful I can start messing around with beds in another few days.

I'm staring at seed packets for a mess of herbs, several varieties of lettuce, and tomatoes. But based on last year I'm still too early to start, even indoors.

Who's done perennial kale?  There is a rumor that it can take partial shade?

 

[mellifera33]

2 hours ago, Condessa said:

 

I’d love to use evergreen huckleberries.  We used to pick them wild at our old home—their pies are amazing!  Different gardening websites seem to vary as to what their gardening zone range is, whether it would include our zone or not.  But the climate is very different here than there, and they are kind of expensive to buy because of being a more unknown plant.  I’m nervous of spending a lot of money on plants that might or might not make it here.

I live in the native range of evergreen huckleberries, and while the plants are lovely, I think it would take an awfully long time to grow a hedge. The bushes I planted three years ago are still only about a foot high, and while being in full sun has probably slowed them down a bit, my neighbor's bush  in dappled shade took over ten years to reach 6 feet. 

21 minutes ago, BlsdMama said:

We always wondered why we read about people having problems with slugs and snails. Then we moved to the PNW. We discovered something Mind blowing - there are slugs and there are SLUGS. 

Here in Iowa we have small and slugs, they’re cute and relatively non invasive. We moved and thought the first banana slugs we saw must be the product of some freak accident. Slugs there are enormous and there are a lot of them. So, no, my hostas look awesome pretty much always and I have about 100ish?

Yep, slugs in the PNW are enormous. I still grow hostas, but they are near some other plants that I think the slugs prefer so they do fine. I have a picture somewhere of a slug that was as long as the blade of a shovel. I only see those monsters at night. lol

[Pam in CT]

55 minutes ago, mellifera33 said:

...

Yep, slugs in the PNW are enormous. I still grow hostas, but they are near some other plants that I think the slugs prefer so they do fine. I have a picture somewhere of a slug that was as long as the blade of a shovel. I only see those monsters at night. lol

(  shudder  )

I'm thinking I prefer East Coast coyotes to that... 

Slugs here, strictly escargot-sized. As they should be.

[Miss Tick]

4 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

Don't you dare think I'm too proud to beg plants from you! 

 Wouldn't offer if i didn't mean it. 🙂

Here's a baby pic for you.

[KungFuPanda]

3 hours ago, Clemsondana said:

@Condessawould blueberries work as a hedge-like border?  I don't know how big you can get them - ours started almost as sticks - but now they are bushes.  They have pretty flowers and turn red in the fall, so they're decorative, too.  We have them bordering part of the driveway.  

And, @KungFuPanda, I have joked that I may sit in the greenhouse, because I can't always hide in the bathtub.  🙂  My grandfather had a tiny tool storage shed, and he kept a beach chair in it.  My grandmother used to get so mad when a summer shower would pop up and she'd look out the window to find him sitting on high chair in his shed.  I"m kind of envisioning doing the same thing, especially on those days that are sunny but cold.  

I want to BE your Grandpa.  I'm already planning to "accidentally" leave my phone in the house so they can't just call me.

2 hours ago, MeaganS said:

Update! We've planted carrots, peas, kohlrabi, lettuces, and beets directly into the garden, which is exciting. It's been a very wet week or two so we were out there between rain showers, but we got it done.

All of the seedlings in our bathroom are doing great. It's going to be a good year I think. 

I planted peas, carrots, and beets this week and I'm giddy about it.  Now it's getting cold again and that's just sad.  I love being outside, but I struggle below 50 degrees.

2 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

Last year I wasn't going into stores, including plant stores; so I ONLY grew stuff from seed and/or propagated what I already had and/or traded with my vastly more competent neighbor.  Good COVID challenge and one-off learning curve but...

... I've had Vaccine 1, and once I've had Vaccine 2 and waited out my 14 days I will RUN, not walk, to my plant store. Ahhhhh.

My yard is still covered with snow, sigh, but yesterday and today have both been above 40 so I'm hopeful I can start messing around with beds in another few days.

I'm staring at seed packets for a mess of herbs, several varieties of lettuce, and tomatoes. But based on last year I'm still too early to start, even indoors.

Who's done perennial kale?  There is a rumor that it can take partial shade?

 

My garden has some kale and cabbage from my fall planting that just came back.  I've already used some of the kale.  I wouldn't call it perennial, but it was a nice surprise when the snow melted and it was just there.  Most years my parsley lasts all winter long and that makes me ridiculously happy.

2 hours ago, mellifera33 said:

I live in the native range of evergreen huckleberries, and while the plants are lovely, I think it would take an awfully long time to grow a hedge. The bushes I planted three years ago are still only about a foot high, and while being in full sun has probably slowed them down a bit, my neighbor's bush  in dappled shade took over ten years to reach 6 feet. 

Yep, slugs in the PNW are enormous. I still grow hostas, but they are near some other plants that I think the slugs prefer so they do fine. I have a picture somewhere of a slug that was as long as the blade of a shovel. I only see those monsters at night. lol

Oh man.  They don't lead with that in the brochure.  I shoulda planted them ten years ago.  I want something that will get 6-8 feet tall in less than 5 years.  I  may just have to go nuts with the hydrangeas, azaleas, and rhododendrons because I know those grow well in my yard and they don't generate any work.  I think I need to start thinking of my senior citizen garden when I don't want too much maintenance.

26 minutes ago, SusanC said:

 Wouldn't offer if i didn't mean it. 🙂

Here's a baby pic for you.

You are a temptress!  Now my brain is clicking and wondering if I can pull off that new bed this spring.  Stay tuned!

[Rosie_0801]

7 minutes ago, Dreamergal said:

I keep lurking, longing,  looking and feeling a sort of imposter syndrome posting on this thread. I am more plant killer and aero gardener, but I want to learn to grow plants the old fashioned way so I am yet again starting this year. Last year was experimental, first time, pandemic panic, patio garden and everything sort of died. I could only blame the TX heat so much.

Gardening is like learning several dialects of a non-human language. As if we can learn all that in one season.

[Spy Car]

Note to self: never plant cactuses or agaves or anything else with spikes in a mixed border ever again.

My machete just got a good workout. I'm knackered.

Bill

 

[Melissa in Australia]

38 minutes ago, Spy Car said:

Note to self: never plant cactuses or agaves or anything else with spikes in a mixed border ever again.

My machete just got a good workout. I'm knackered.

Bill

 

I planted a succulent garden right in front of  DHs shed. It has some beautifully spiky specimens. DH found some long sort of scissor tongs  clamp  sort of  thingy. It looks k like some thing from a hospital. He got them at the scrap metal yard. He uses them for weeding the succulents 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Melissa in Australia
Phone changing words

[Spy Car]

2 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I planted a succulent garden right in front of  DHs shed. It has some beautifully spiky specimens. DH found some long sort of scissor tongs  clamp  sort of  thingy. It looks k like some thing from a hospital. He got them at the scrap metal yard. He uses them for weeding that succulents 

I planted an unusual (and quite beautiful IMO) variety of cactus that has savage thorns. Kinda didn't factor in the thought that I'd need to weed around them. Hated to do it. But they got whacked today.

I have saved some pieces--as I tried eating some (after a good trimming with the machete) and pretty durn good in my estimation. Although my kid did spit out the sample I gave him.  Teenagers are strange. LOL.

Bill

[fairfarmhand]

56 minutes ago, Spy Car said:

Note to self: never plant cactuses or agaves or anything else with spikes in a mixed border ever again.

My machete just got a good workout. I'm knackered.

Bill

 

We have thistles that grow in our fields. I send my son out with a machete and tell him to pretend that he's Link from the Zelda game.

Thankfully, each year there are fewer but the first few years we lived here it was dreadful.

[Spy Car]

3 minutes ago, fairfarmhand said:

We have thistles that grow in our fields. I send my son out with a machete and tell him to pretend that he's Link from the Zelda game.

Thankfully, each year there are fewer but the first few years we lived here it was dreadful.

I'm constantly bugging my son to help with the yard work (not his favorite activity).

Today he was slammed with homework--and not too happy that I "stole" the one job that he would have loved. LOL.

Bill

 

 

[fairfarmhand]

5 hours ago, Spy Car said:

Rare rains are coming tomorrow. Yippie. It rained this past week too. The garden is happy.

I've been digging up and replanting some Korean spring onions that (believe it or not) I purchased a few years ago at a market. They had roots attached and were not trimmed--and were so pretty (to me anyway) that I plunked them into a mixed border with roses and herbs, etc.

Now (since they have proliferated) I'm using the Korean onions to frame the border. Pretty. Similar to the look of chives. 

I'm also taking inordinate pleasure from my French thyme that a started a couple years ago from (cut) bunches I purchased at the grocer. They looked so healthy and vital that I decided to see if they would root in water (with good success). Then they were heavily planted around a Liquid Amber tree. These trees have notorious surface roots, so it is very hard to plant around them. I made tiny holes and hoped for the best. Not totally filled in yet (but getting there).

Somehow I get extra-joy from the plants I've propagated myself.

Checked in on my Syrian Oregano and Cretan oregano propagations this morning and am having an unusually high rate of success. Seems like every cutting is rooting. Fingers-crossed.

Bill

Same. And I'm not sure where I'll put some of the stuff I've rooted over the winter. I didn't even necessarily have a plan for where to put them, I just wanted to see if I could do it.

Oh well. We live on almost 70 acres. I'm sure I'll find a spot. 

 

[kbutton]

6 hours ago, SusanC said:I finally finished some mini-greenhouses last month. This would be a good weekend too set them out and see what happens.

 

Nice design! I think I need some of those.

[KungFuPanda]

18 hours ago, Dreamergal said:

I keep lurking, longing,  looking and feeling a sort of imposter syndrome posting on this thread. I am more plant killer and aero gardener, but I want to learn to grow plants the old fashioned way so I am yet again starting this year. Last year was experimental, first time, pandemic panic, patio garden and everything sort of died. I could only blame the TX heat so much.

So this year we have invested in a single raised garden outdoor planter (so far). It is on wheels, so it could be moved about. I have not decided what will live there. It could be just flowers because I cannot grow flowers except roses. I don't want to buy a pot from a nursery, I want to grow flowers. I have also bought some grow bags. We have hardscape and definitely do not want to dig up anything. 

I am very go big or go home (the TX way), but when you kill plants like me, it is large scale vs small scale if I have to stick with something small. 

I just wish I could learn how to garden without killing things. People who manage to grow something to feed their families are amazing to me. So all those who do that on this thread, a big heap of envy tinged admiration from me.

I read somewhere that "If you don't kill some plants you're not pushing yourself as a gardener" and that makes me feel better about my casualties.  I think I've just tried (and killed) so many plants that I've built up a nice collection of things that can survive me and my shady yard/dark house. If something is in too small of a pot, I WILL neglect it and let it dry out.  We get so much rain that I've never formed the habit of regular watering or checking so sometimes plants in outdoor pots don't make it for me.  I have learned that the bigger the pot, the bigger the chance of survival.  If I lived in a dry area, I'd have to put anything that needs daily water right ON my patio and do that while having my morning tea OR I'd have to McGuyver some self-watering pots or drip lines.  I can do a bit effort at the beginning, but my downfall is trying to keep up with repetitive, boring tasks.  I'm just not consistent.  I'll bet there's a way to hack your wheely planter so that it's self watering.

 

17 hours ago, Spy Car said:

I planted an unusual (and quite beautiful IMO) variety of cactus that has savage thorns. Kinda didn't factor in the thought that I'd need to weed around them. Hated to do it. But they got whacked today.

I have saved some pieces--as I tried eating some (after a good trimming with the machete) and pretty durn good in my estimation. Although my kid did spit out the sample I gave him.  Teenagers are strange. LOL.

Bill

Oooooh, your cactus talk reminds me that Maryland has ONE native cactus and I kinda want to give it a home in my garden.  A neighbor has one and it just looks so cool and oddly out of place among all of our woodland gardens.  

[Pam in CT]

re Darwin in the Garden

41 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

I read somewhere that "If you don't kill some plants you're not pushing yourself as a gardener" and that makes me feel better about my casualties.  I think I've just tried (and killed) so many plants that I've built up a nice collection of things that can survive me and my shady yard/dark house. If something is in too small of a pot, I WILL neglect it and let it dry out.  We get so much rain that I've never formed the habit of regular watering or checking so sometimes plants in outdoor pots don't make it for me.  I have learned that the bigger the pot, the bigger the chance of survival.  If I lived in a dry area, I'd have to put anything that needs daily water right ON my patio and do that while having my morning tea OR I'd have to McGuyver some self-watering pots or drip lines.  I can do a bit effort at the beginning, but my downfall is trying to keep up with repetitive, boring tasks.  I'm just not consistent.  I'll bet there's a way to hack your wheely planter so that it's self watering....

Imma add this adage to my collection, LOL.

I've killed a LOT of stuff in 30 years of intermittently attentive gardening.  For the last 20, I've lived in a too-large, too-rocky, way-too-shady lot infested with too many critters large (deer, raccoon, fox) and small to count.  Until COVID, I left for 2-4 weeks right in the middle of watering season. And yet I wanted, and have had, some success.

There's really no getting around the need to water and weed regularly if you're trying to grow vegetables; I never pulled it off before COVID and though there are definitely satisfactions, once I'm able again to travel freely I'd rather do that, while at least some of my kids are still on school schedules and are still willing to do stuff with me.  But for flowers and flowering shrubs, here is the formula for success I landed upon:

1. Spend a season driving around your town and notice what seems to succeed in other people's yards. Give particular attention to unfenced yards and pay special heed to what seems to grow in under-tended areas -- the dogwoods growing amidst scrubby brush, the blaze of forsythia deep in the woods, the ancient peegee hydrangea in an otherwise unloved yard, the naturalized narcissus on the street side of a tumbling-down stone wall, tangled sprawling deutzia.
2. Learn to love those things.  Try other catalogue glories for one zone southward if you must, fussy things that require deadheading and pruning and clipping and carefully timed fertilizer and wrapping-in-burlap over the winter. Knock yourself out.  But if the backbone of the garden is comprised of reliable things that truly are content with minimal attention where you are... the heartbreak of the experiments will be eased.

[Pam in CT]

1 hour ago, Dreamergal said:

Thank you so much. By this logic of killing plants, I have pushed myself as a gardener 😊

.Before the pandemic, never had any desire to garden, grow. Grocery store suited us just fine, an occasional farmer's market. I am not someone who noticed the difference between a tomato straight off the vine.  I wanted roses to I found a few hardy ones that survived TX climate, not the ones I wanted, but they are flowering and are self sustaining, We have an aerogarden, two in fact and it seems suited to take care of my need to grow things without killing, but I want to learn the old fashioned way to garden. The whole learning about soil. shade, watering though I would prefer not pulling weeds. I am not a very hands in the dirt kind of person, the most I used my hands was cooking. But during the pandemic, I liked the tactile feel of kneading dough a task I would give away to anyone who asked. The feeling of hand sewing, writing letters and journals by hand. The feeling of having my hands in the dirt while I planted a pot was different from aerogarden. So I want that feeling. Probably a patio garden will be all I have. But this is a skill I want to develop and teach my kids. I want to grow from seed, not buy in a nursery. Hopefully I am developing to that. I just don't want to kill many plants on the way there.

If you MUST do the seed thing, go for BIG SEEDS.  Any kind of bean.  Squashes, gourds and pumpkin. Nasturtium.  Sunflower. Cleome. Morning glory.  The survival rate will be much higher.

 

 

(but let me again sing the praises of 6-pack flats of already-started very-cheap plants...)

[Jann in TX]

Today I'm planting a 30ft 'hedge' of double red knockout roses... part of our backyard (near the street) has wrought iron fencing... looks like 11 plants will do!  I'm also ordering some heirloom and hybrid roses for a rose garden!!! 

We have ordered a huge vitex tree/shrub and some x-large crepe myrtles to add some instant color and to anchor a weird corner of our back yard.  Another x-large crepe myrlte will go in front of the house-- we lost several shrubs in the deep freeze so that will help to fill in.  These will be 'professionally' installed as they are huge plants and we did not want to wait 8 years for them to size up!...downside is that they were $$$

This week I'm also putting in one or two 8ft x 4 ft raised beds for veggies!  And maybe some hanging pots along a very long boring fence line.

[KungFuPanda]

2 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

re Darwin in the Garden

Imma add this adage to my collection, LOL.

I've killed a LOT of stuff in 30 years of intermittently attentive gardening.  For the last 20, I've lived in a too-large, too-rocky, way-too-shady lot infested with too many critters large (deer, raccoon, fox) and small to count.  Until COVID, I left for 2-4 weeks right in the middle of watering season. And yet I wanted, and have had, some success.

There's really no getting around the need to water and weed regularly if you're trying to grow vegetables; I never pulled it off before COVID and though there are definitely satisfactions, once I'm able again to travel freely I'd rather do that, while at least some of my kids are still on school schedules and are still willing to do stuff with me.  But for flowers and flowering shrubs, here is the formula for success I landed upon:

1. Spend a season driving around your town and notice what seems to succeed in other people's yards. Give particular attention to unfenced yards and pay special heed to what seems to grow in under-tended areas -- the dogwoods growing amidst scrubby brush, the blaze of forsythia deep in the woods, the ancient peegee hydrangea in an otherwise unloved yard, the naturalized narcissus on the street side of a tumbling-down stone wall, tangled sprawling deutzia.
2. Learn to love those things.  Try other catalogue glories for one zone southward if you must, fussy things that require deadheading and pruning and clipping and carefully timed fertilizer and wrapping-in-burlap over the winter. Knock yourself out.  But if the backbone of the garden is comprised of reliable things that truly are content with minimal attention where you are... the heartbreak of the experiments will be eased.

I LOVE stalking my neighbor's gardens, but I'm terrible about identifying/remembering/photographing what I saw there.  I think I've spend so much time focusing on my vegetable efforts that I looked up one day and realized that the rest of my yard could look nicer if I rerouted some of that effort. Now that I'm learning more about landscaping plants I'm obsessing over bushes and wishing I'd focused on this part years ago.  We have so many mature trees that gardens just don't looked pulled together without the bushes.

[Pam in CT]

9 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

I LOVE stalking my neighbor's gardens, but I'm terrible about identifying/remembering/photographing what I saw there.  I think I've spend so much time focusing on my vegetable efforts that I looked up one day and realized that the rest of my yard could look nicer if I rerouted some of that effort. Now that I'm learning more about landscaping plants I'm obsessing over bushes and wishing I'd focused on this part years ago.  We have so many mature trees that gardens just don't looked pulled together without the bushes.

I keep a matrix on my computer, organized into 2-week clumps starting the last 2 weeks of March; and I just jot down what's in bloom in my own yard and in the neighborhood reconnaissance drives.  That's literally all I keep track of: what blooms/otherwise looks good when, in what color. I can't TELL YOU how much this helps planning out large spaces. 

I puffy heart love flowering shrubs.  Flowering shrubs, gray-and-red-and-golden-and-variagated-leafed foliage, and ornamental grasses of various heights and seedheads: that's actually all you NEED for a decent looking largescale area.  Fussy flowers requiring deadheading and pruning are just bonus to fill in the bare spots.

And staking... oy.  I don't stake. Darwin In the Garden: If y'all can't make it on your own d@mn stems you have no business living in this here operation. Well, except peonies of course.

[Spy Car]

Raining today. So taking day off. Got my first shot. Moderna.

The rain feels like tears of joy.

Bill

 

 

[Melissa in Australia]

I always think I can hear all the plants and trees singing when it rains 

[KungFuPanda]

On 3/15/2021 at 6:36 PM, Spy Car said:

Raining today. So taking day off. Got my first shot. Moderna.

The rain feels like tears of joy.

Bill

 

 

 

On 3/15/2021 at 7:07 PM, Melissa in Australia said:

I always think I can hear all the plants and trees singing when it rains 

My plants say "not again" when it rains.  It can get ridiculous here.  We get as much rain as Portland but we act like we don't.  Sometimes the tomatoes just split from too much water. I have to cover my carrots until they sprout so that the rain doesn't just wash all of my seeds away.

[AngieW in Texas]

I just put my garden in last year. It took me from spring break in March until the end of April to get it set up and then I had to buy seedlings to get it started. I have so much shade here that it is hard to grow much aside from herbs. We lost a lot of branches from the snowmaggedon that happened here in Texas, so I think my garden area will have some more light. The only perennials to make it through the ice were thyme, chives, sage, and oregano. And the sage had to be trimmed all the way down to the ground.

I bought a lemon bush in a pot last year and that will actually produce lemons this year. I brought it inside the whole week of the storm. I bought one more lemon and two blueberries to grow in pots this year. The only place that gets enough sun for them is my patio and obviously I can't plant them in concrete.

I have an old swing frame that I have hung peas and strawberries from this year and I'm hoping that will work out.

I'm mainly focusing on perennials (especially herbs). I have not had luck with fruits or vegetables due to all the shade. The plants will grow and produce leaves, but no fruit.