I'm now waiting for mine to come back for the spring. I have a gardener, because I can't do the gardening now and my husband doesn't really like gardening. Anyway, the gardener cuts my hydrangea back every year and in the spring it grows so fast, I can't believe it. I'm starting to see many new leaves.
Lovie, your soil looks great, too. Looks like you have a really good mulch around your plants.
Keep the pics coming!
Hugs, Nini
very pretty, Lovie!
it'll be MONTHS before I have anything to take pics of!!
I have always had a garden since I got married 22 years ago. This year we are expanding and my 16 year old son and hubby help alot. My son thought of this: we are planting way more than we need and we are going to sell the rest. We live in the country close to a highway and I will have son/hubby put a sign out: Fresh produce! I also plan on canning alot. It's still a little early here in central IL but I have cabin fever and can't wait!
Happy gardening everyone!
Oh Boy! Gardening, my favorite thing.
It's still early here in Michigan, but I have spent a couple afternoons in my perennial beds, cleaning up dead stuff and smiling at all the green shoots pushing up. I have extensive beds around the house, the retaining wall around the driveway, and a big curving bed at the edge of the yard. I would love to grow vegetables but we have an enormous deer population and I know myself well enough to know it would make me insane to go to all that work and have the deer eat my plants. So without fencing I'm not doing it.
And really, at this point (my first summer with full blown RA) I don't want to add any more to my gardening areas. I have a feeling that I'm going to have a tough time keeping up my flower beds and the little pond I have on my patio. I am suffering some from my work so far cleaning up, despite the fact that I only spend three hours at a time instead of the ALL DAY I would like to, working in the beds.
I'd love to post some pictures, can anyone tell me where I can find directions on how to do so?
No garden here - too little sun, too much football/soccer in the backyard.
THanks everyone. Love, great pictures!!!!! Yes, anyone having pictures would be great in addition to descriptions.
Happy gardening!!!
I'm going to be getting some indoor houseplants soon. Not sure what yet.
Jan.. may I suggest a peace lily? they are the highest ranking for air filtration.. and they are very sturdy ..... just need alot of water.Babs, you are right about peace lilies and they are a nice break from an ivy or Schefflera. I also like them because of the bloom. I also suggest African Violets... easy to keep and pretty blooms in a variety of colors and easy light requirements.
Dh worked in the garden all day yesterday and I sat in a chair watching. I hurt too much to get in there with him. Oh well, tomorrow is another gardening day!
Babs, thanks for that tip about the peace lily.
I just had a small, elevated stone walled garden built. Unfortunately, I couldn't do the stone walls myself. It's a tropical garden and has been a dream of mine since we started to live 6 months of the year in Mexico. Right now I have a red banana tree, passion flower vine, several jungle succulents. pineapple plant, several wild orchids, a purple flowered vine, and a couple of small palms. I harvested many of the plants from the jungle and transplanted them. I'm really hoping that the orchids come back next season. They were so delicate and beautiful. One looks like a miniature lady's slipper and the other is white, yellow, and violet.
When we come back in October I'll be planting herbs, a couple of tomato plants and some annuals. One of my friends is a doctor and a native healer. We've done some jungle treks this year searching for medicinal plants. That's what the 2 succulents are. Not sure how I'll keep the iguanas from feeding on the plants. The only way I can think of is to keep them well fed with cantaloupe, lettuce and tomatos. Maybe I should plant them their own little garden!
This garden will be very much like my other gardens but it's tropical plants. Many of the plants here are the same as in the U.S. but they have a definite difference about them. The marigolds are wild, very straggly looking with small bright orange, single petaled heads. Roses tend to be small and wild looking.
This garden will make me very happy and I can't wait till I can harvest tomatos and lavendar next year. Hopefully, by that time I'll know how to download some pics.
Jan, thanks for starting this thread. Gardening is good for the soul and the mind and also reading about your gardens makes me happy. Lindy
Lindy, you might try ginger in your garden too. It has such a beautiful bloom in the spring, very like orchids. Mine do well here and I have had people stop off the street to ask what they are!
I also have Meyer's lemon, orange and lime trees... the scent is heaven when they bloom and they are great container plants - I got my first when we lived in an apartment. Very easy to care for and take more shade that you would think AND great, edible fruit!
Waddie, actually I have several gingers in large pots that my friend is going to take care of this summer. Next year I'll transplant them once I know where all the other plants are going and see what lives through the summer. I love the gingers in the pots. They make a nice entrace onto the patio. I would love to have a Meyer's lemon tree. They were my favorites when I lived in California and like you, I had one in a container. Everything about it was beautiful, the leaves, flowers and fruit. LindyI saw a Huell Howser program on pbs on The Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. GORGEOUS. I have seen it once quite awhile ago.HUELL!!!! What a guy. Loved his programs, so simple, to the point, and effective. GGP Japanese Tea Garden gets all the press but there's a beautiful, smaller tea garden in Hayward. It's an absolute jewel, perfection. If you're in the area or can travel to Hayward visit the garden. LindyI'll keep it in mind.
Yes, Huell has alot of great programs in California Gold. Last night was on the Santa Anita Race Track.
Hiuell also did a program on the 50 acre orchid farm in Carpenteria and showed some of the orchids. Gorgeous.A bunch of my spring bulbs were in bloom -- but now they are covered with about 7" of snow. Can't even see a couple of my beds. No snow all winter (well, maybe 2" being generous) -- and then came yesterday and today! we had two days of 60ish weather...... really making me ache to start gardening... maybe I can get to the cleaning up the beds soon.No snow here, but a freeze tonight. I was out covering my tomatoes this evening! This week has been tough on the garden, first a hail storm, now the freeze and all that after 80+ weather!!!
after reading Lynn49's post about organic foods...
I'm really getting the itch to get a large veggie patch going....... I wonder how I can entice my grown children to come dig up the beds??? Hmmmmm?
oh. I know!! Feed them Today, I'm doing the last of the little things I need to do to my tropical garden. We leave tomorrow for the 4 day trip back to the states. I can't wait to see the garden in October.
Babs, start your veggie patch and I bet the kids will show some interest. My son did but he was impatient. Lindy
bumping for Lovie
Thank you Suzanne.
Does anyone use coffee grounds in your gardens/flowers? I'd been saving them for a few weeks and went out yesterday and put them around a few of my roses and other flowering shrubs. I just did a quick google search of "coffee grounds in the garden" and some folks rave about it....other reviews are mixed. Curious what you guys thought.
Lovie-
I know people who do.
NEWS BULLETIN: My jade is doing well. I got a cutting from a friend. I forget it a few days and it wilted but after being put in water it perked up again. Jade is a great plant. If you only give it water and sun, it will not die!!!!
Jan; I bought a two jade plants today. I bought several suculants....I've never grown any before but they had some really neat looking ones at Lowe's. I'm hoping the majority of them wo't need much water. I had daffs up and last night the rain turned to snow. We have two or three inches this morning and it's still falling. Southern Michigan, I DO NOT APPROVE. It's weighing things down and I see my korean lilac has some broken branches. What a setback. Yesterday was my day off and it was cold and rainy even before the snow, I had hoped to get some outside work done in the beds but I've got another stinking cold and spent the day lying on the couch. Two colds in four months since starting MTX, previously I averaged one every couple years.
I told my husband, I need something good to happen. If our weather turned decent so I could go outside and work in the flower beds, even if I am only able to do so for a couple hours a day...that would qualify.
Boo hoo, wah wah wah.You can put a thin layer of coffee grounds on your house plants too. I save them all year and when the can is full put them outside. Its a little less for the landfill and if your have little holes, its easy to fill them with coffee grounds. It is more acid than regular soil, but if you fertilize or not put too much at any one place, it ok anywhere.
Planted leeks for the first time, they need a long time to grow so I hope they are worth waiting till September to eat. One tiny asparagus peeked its head, I hope we are eating more than one stem a day for the next three weeks. They are supposed to be delicious fresh but the plan was for more than one at a time to be ready. If you don't pick at the right time, it grows into a gigantic fern in a couple days.
Anyone have experience with asparagus?I have a jade that is as old as my youngest daughter...... I gave it to my mother the year M & D built their shore home.....when she passed away in 2005, I took it back.... that would be about 22 years old..... I throw all my coffee grounds down around my gardenias and azaleas. (Used tea bags, too.)
They really like the extra little boost of acid. (Blueberries do too, if ya got any of those.)
We're getting down into the 30's the next two mornings! (In north FL.) Latest freeze in years. And of course, all my houseplants and other tropicals have been living outside for at least a month now. Plus I've got a gazillion seedlings and cuttings going for a plant sale in May to lug in.
Yikes! I have no idea where I'm going to put all this stuff!
Great to hear everyone's gardening stories!!!Alot of Easter lilies in the stores. Anyone get one. They are pretty.I grew small tomatoes last year and it was great going outside and picking them for salad. I have a mint patch which I butcher down every year (much to my gardners disgust), and it grows back every year, is at its best during Jun/Jul (great for Pimms)
[QUOTE=Jan Lucinda]Alot of Easter lilies in the stores. Anyone get one. They are pretty.[/QUOTE]
I love getting them.. or other blooming bulbs... and enjoying them year after year after year.....
I even brought some daffodils from my old house.. and planted them here because they were originally from my gram's garden and she's long passed......
I've done a garden for the past four years since we took our pool down. I already have my seeds-some taken from last years veggies-in starter cups. I have tomato, green pepper, jalapeno, basil, cilantro,eggplant, and cucumber. We also have oregano that is starting to come back. I usually grow green beans also but not this year. News Flash: My Jade cutting, now in water, has sprouted roots!!!!! SO GLAD.THe jade is still growing beautifully. Woo hoo for nature!!!!!!
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