Let's Talk about Gardens

@lioness, So the cabbage came by its name honestly eh?? vbg Sounds like fun riding motorcycles in the woods. Sounds like Tom Sawyer and Huck jumping in the creek clothes and all. Great memories, yes?

Report from the gardens - we're having warm sunny days interspersed with showers. Needless to say, everything is growing "like a weed" - especially the weeds! I try to spend 1 hour every day pulling those pesky buggers - need more mulch.

After hosting 7 different diggers, with 2 more to come, I waded in and got ruthless. The 300 plus plants they adopted barely made a dent in my excess. My 100' back fence is lined with bugbane (in the shade) and cutleaf coneflowers and cup plants (in the sun) - and every one was trying to take over its area completely. So yesterday, armed with digger, pruner & big knife, I cut them all back to a single row. Wow, it actually looks civilized back there now.

Today I surveyed the front of the garden, marking the plants too tall for that space, Friday and Saturday I will transplant them to the newly-emptied areas. Sunday I will create a new front border from heuchera, perennial geraniums and lady's mantle harvested from other beds where they have multiplied politely.

Monday my young neighbor, whose summer job disappeared, will begin mulching all the beds. We decided to be kind instead of thrifty, and buy bagged mulch that she can handle easily, rather than have the landscaper drop a big load on the driveway to be hauled by wheelbarrow.

All of that still leaves a 15 x 30 bed in the center of the back span of lily of the valley, daylilies, iris and bee balm to be tamed later this summer. Or maybe next year.

What is yours current garden project?
Sue

5.5 did you feel it, near ridgecrest

These days I spend the bulk of my time watering, weeding, some planting and transplanting. During the cold months I move my tender friends to the cellar under grow lights on a timer to imitate the natural sequence of light and darkness. I'm moving them outside now. In the past I've grouped them under the willow tree, but I don't routinely spend any time out there, so I'm trying out placing them on the patio under shade cloth. I hope I don't lose too many.

In the fall I potted starts of jade plants, succulents and a few other house plants, along with hens and chicks. I counted them, but I don't remember the numbers. It's around 50, I think. I did this to donate them to a local church who has a plant sale every year, where I've found a bunch of things to tuck away into my gardens. I need to find out if the sale is still on. I hope so. I don't want to tend all of them for a year. An added bonus is that I'm clearing out my collection of pots. I made the hard decisions months ago which pots could go. There are some nice ones that I picked up at sales, but they have lost their appeal, and were just taking up space. There are quite a few nice larger pots that are full of hens and chicks or succulents. We'll see how many of them I won't want to part with.

Good news. The part for my riding mower came today. My fingers are crossed that it will move. My feet hurt a lot when I have to use the walk behind mower. I can mow the lawns in 30 minutes with the 48" deck. It takes a few hours to do it on foot. I've not been able to get out to the pasture to dig thistles and fill holes made by ground squirrels. I can't do that much walking, so I need my lawn tractor.

Once again I've rambled beyond anyone's attention span. Bless you if you stuck it out clear to The End.

Jim

These days I spend the bulk of my time watering, weeding, some planting and transplanting. During the cold months I move my tender friends to the cellar under grow lights on a timer to imitate the natural sequence of light and darkness. I'm moving them outside now. In the past I've grouped them under the willow tree, but I don't routinely spend any time out there, so I'm trying out placing them on the patio under shade cloth. I hope I don't lose too many.

In the fall I potted starts of jade plants, succulents and a few other house plants, along with hens and chicks. I counted them, but I don't remember the numbers. It's around 50, I think. I did this to donate them to a local church who has a plant sale every year, where I've found a bunch of things to tuck away into my gardens. I need to find out if the sale is still on. I hope so. I don't want to tend all of them for a year. An added bonus is that I'm clearing out my collection of pots. I made the hard decisions months ago which pots could go. There are some nice ones that I picked up at sales, but they have lost their appeal, and were just taking up space. There are quite a few nice larger pots that are full of hens and chicks or succulents. We'll see how many of them I won't want to part with.

Good news. The part for my riding mower came today. My fingers are crossed that it will move. My feet hurt a lot when I have to use the walk behind mower. I can mow the lawns in 30 minutes with the 48" deck. It takes a few hours to do it on foot. I've not been able to get out to the pasture to dig thistles and fill holes made by ground squirrels. I can't do that much walking, so I need my lawn tractor.

Once again I've rambled beyond anyone's attention span. Bless you if you stuck it out clear to The End.

Jim