Gardeners of AW, unite

I had to have a daylily named Bela Lugosi. He was pricey but a deep dark purple. I made a special, 60 mile trip to buy him. It was so windy and dry that I put off planting him till this morning, after a good hard rain last night. I was kidding around with him, doing my Bela Lugosi impersonation and throwing in a little Sesame Street Count, even doing the maniacal laugh: --one, two, three, THREE TROWELS OF DIRT, ma-hah-haaha. Looked up and my neighbor was at her mailbox, staring at me. She's usually at work this time of day. I hate when that happens--s6

mrsmig said:

I keep forgetting about my container-grown sweet potatoes. They got a good drenching the other day; I tipped out the excess water and moved the planter under the eaves, and am letting them dry out before I harvest. My understanding is that when the vine starts to die back, that's when to harvest, but thus far the plant is quite vigorous.

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Dammit I wish I could grow sweet potatoes, because I love to eat 'em. Alas, at 61 degrees North latitude, the growing season is just way to cool and too short. So I grow regular potatoes, and they do really well. I cleaned up the harvest yesterday, and have baskets full of them in the dark in my garage. They keep really well. Last year we ate the last of them in March.

As far as the plant go, they seem to behave much as you describe for sweet potatoes (which are not really a close relative to regular potatoes). The plants are vigorous for a good while, then suddenly look like they're diseased and dying. It scared me the first time I grew them, but after that I realized that it's just part of the plant life cycle. When the above-ground plants "die", all they are doing is to transfer the growth energy into producing tubers. I suspect that may be how sweet potatoes work as well.

caw

I have another gardening conundrum, kind and much more experienced gardeners of AW! Particularly Southern gardeners.

So when I bought my home, the builder/mover/flipper (it's complicated?) put in some landscaping. I have no clue what 90% of it is. But there is a nice sunny mound that houses a lovely young crepe myrtle ... surrounded by pampas grass. (I learned the hard way how sharp that stuff is when I went to lightly prune the tree in hopes of a second bloom)

Now, the main pruning on them happen at the same time when the grass has died back and isn't so slicey. So that's ok for maintenance. But I wonder about going forward. Right now the grass is about 5ft tall, the tree a little over 6. Hoping that the grass is a dwarf variety, won't the tree eventually start blocking the grass from its required sun? I expect the tree to be about 15' in a couple of years. Alternatively, there's six grass bundles growing in a circle that's maybe 7ft in diameter - and I've read that pampas grass likes to spread. Would the grass crowding out the tree be a worry?

Should I consider relocating the tree (this winter/early spring before it gets a big growth spurt)? There's a number of nice, clear, sunny spaces it can live. Or can they continue to coexist together under my benign semi-neglect?

I have no answers to your questions, but if it were me I would set about getting rid of the pampas grass. It is nasty stuff.

MM

I'ma do some gardening for the first time ever. Wish me luck. My sad little courtyard had nought but a patch of dirt, but the recent unseasonal rains we've been having turned it into weed city, so I've bought some plants I hope will provide enough ground cover to keep the weeds away, and be hardy enough to survive the inadequate sun and frequent frosts. Is there, like, a god you have to pray to to make this work? Like for baking cakes?

MaryMumsy said:

I have no answers to your questions, but if it were me I would set about getting rid of the pampas grass. It is nasty stuff.

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mrsmig said:

I agree that you should probably eradicate the pampas grass. While it makes interesting blooms in the late summer/early fall, it also spreads like crazy.

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I would if I knew how. Everything I've read says eradicating it is nigh impossible without lots and lots herbicide. And I wouldn't want to hurt the poor tree.

Although a nice semi-shade bed under the tree would look way better. Anyway, thanks for the thoughts.

Albedo said:

I've bought some plants I hope will provide enough ground cover to keep the weeds away, and be hardy enough to survive the inadequate sun and frequent frosts.

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Uhh . . . where exactly is SYD? My only thought was Sydney, Australia, but that's hardly a place with "inadequate sun and frequent frosts". You want those things, you come live where I do (Alaska).

So maybe I can help with some suggestions, if I knew better where you are located.

caw

blacbird said:

Uhh . . . where exactly is SYD? My only thought was Sydney, Australia, but that's hardly a place with "inadequate sun and frequent frosts". You want those things, you come live where I do (Alaska).

So maybe I can help with some suggestions, if I knew better where you are located.

caw

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Hah, I should change that. I actually live in the NSW central tablelands now, which is high elevation, and one of the few places in Australia that gets subzero morning temps in winter. Not ground-freezingly cold, never less than -5 deg. C or so (which is probably a warm spring day in Alaska. ) The plant lady told me the Cerastium I bought should grow ok in a courtyard garden, which checking now does get sun in the middle of the day.

I plowed up the garden bed, and ripped up tons of that black sheeting stuff that clearly wasn't keeping the weeds away. I accidentally murdered a wolf spider in the process, and now I feel bad. I'll dedicate the first planting to its memory.

Albedo said:

I plowed up the garden bed, and ripped up tons of that black sheeting stuff that clearly wasn't keeping the weeds away.

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I'm glad somebody else has had this experience. I tried that stuff a few years ago, a couple of times, and it just plain doesn't work. It's complete crap, and ultimately just a pain the ass.

caw

Today my first snow sprouted. It's about six inches tall already. Should be harvestable by tomorrow.

caw

Congratulations!

MM

Adorable, mrsmig. I love it! Does your garden have a bench to sit and read at? that would make it even better.

I did my best in the garden before the first frost. I made fourteen jars of grape jam, and sixteen jars of picked green tomatoes. I only dried one bunch of parsley, and I left so many green tomatoes and grapes. Hopefully someone else came after me, or at least a few grapes are salvageable. The days have been pretty decent, even if the nights have been below freezing. Means I'll have to clean the beds before the days are below freezing too

I was out walking the other day and discovered my little town has a Community Learning Garden. It's so cute - just a little patch between the bike path and the back yard of a local elementary school. Even better, it has a Little Free Library right outside its gate! The little box was sadly lacking in books, so today I brought it 8-10 gardening books I was ready to get rid of. The culmination of the cuteness: some young man built the LBL as his Eagle Scout project.

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That young man certainly did a good job! There are little free libraries all over my city too. I have been tempted to make one but the configuration of my property doesn't allow it (I have no sidewalks, for example.)

I am a succulent and bamboo hoarder. It's so bad now that my boyfriend will come home, look around, and go, "Becca, are you kidding me, you got ANOTHER plant?!?!"

when I go on vacation and he has to take care of them I'm planning on leaving a 5 page instruction manual in MLA format.

Any tips for citrus trees?

Every year I drown in cherry tomatoes, zucchini and pumpkin, but for some reason my trees won't give me a single edible fruit. I've had a dwarf orange tree for five years and the few oranges that do grow go bad before they actually go orange. I water every day when it's super hot (100+ degrees) and a couple times a week when it cools down. It gets good sun. I even toss it coffee grinds sometimes. All it gives me is an abundance of leaves. *sigh*

Took in the last batch of tomatoes this morning, last 3 peppers. You know what this means? Last batch of pico de gallo for the summer of 2016. Garlic, onion, tomato, pepper, salt, oil, lime juice--the Mexican café down the road sells corn chips at 1$ a bolsa. The fresh cilantro is gone so I am using dried--not as good but no helping it. Had to rely on sweet 100s for the tomatoes so this batch will be sweeter than usual but every batch is unique. I will use the windowsill tomatoes to slice over a home made mack & cheese on Wednesday.

Farewell, Summer 2016. You were stingy with the tomatoes until right up to the end--now you are throwing them at me. Your unseasonable warmth has my larkspur blooming in November and black fennel sprouting everywhere. The cut rate hydrangeas were worth all the work and nurture. Neil Diamond, the rose, was the concert star of the summer. Zepherine Drouhin was the glory of the spring. The zinnias, coleus, impatiens and cosmos are gone but my lone nasturtium is still blooming its head off!

Going out to welcome garden 2017 by planting 84 tulip bulbs, 12 pansies, two daylilies and GOK (god only knows) how many daffodils. Hey, they were on sale! --s6

Snowy and freezing cold here. Space heaters in the basement and kitchen, to keep the pipes from freezing. I have been awake, off and on, all night, to check the heaters--house fire vs. burst pipes--what a choice. I delivered meals to the home bound yesterday, in the snow and wind, went to the library and the city offices to pay utilities, the post office to mail out the bills. When I got home there was a restless crowd at my bird cafeteria. The feeders were empty in record time, so I filled them, broke the ice on the birdbath. A big male cardinal was rude about the delay. He sat on my mailbox and chewed me out publicly, shouldered a couple of Juncos off the perches, spilled sunflower seeds all over my garden and then took off. He didn't even leave a tip!

Today the windows are frosted over, the porches are icy. The predicted snow flurries turned into a bona fide snow. I am homebound, only one trip planned-- to the mailbox. Only making that trip because there might be a seed catalog. They started the week of Christmas and have been coming almost daily. I am up to eight now. The latest, Bluestone Perennials, is waiting for me now. There are also two library books on gardening--Kitchen Gardens and The Well Kept Perennial Bed, and a purchase from Half Price Books in Kansas City-- Planting Paradise As soon as the tea pot whistles, I'll make a cup of tea and settle down to the best season in gardening--Fantasy Season! No aching back, no skinned knuckles, no weeds, no pests, no frustrations, just me and pages of gorgeous successes. Plenty of time for harsh reality when the snow melts and the mud begins. Right now there are only pages and pages of glossy garden porn. --s6

I have a lot of hostas in one of my garden beds that I want to move out (to another, less prominent location) this spring. I want to fill the gaps left by the hostas as quickly as possible, to avoid weeds/ugliness, but I don't want to spend a fortune on perennials, so I'm thinking about starting at least some of the replacement plants from seed.

Anyone got any recommendations? Full sun, sandy soil, zone 5b-6a in Ontario. Fairly dry summers - I may irrigate the first year, but I'm not reliable about it so the plants should be drought-tolerant when established; generally snowy winters.

I'm not very good with finicky seed preferences, so something that will germinate pretty easily would be good. I grow my seedlings in a sunny window with extra flourescent lights overhead. I sometimes use a heating mat, but will otherwise be in fairly cool temperatures (14-19 celsius).

What else should you know? I love blues and purples and oranges and reds... not so crazy about pastels.