any gardeners?

“The plan is to finish turning our front yard into all flower beds with gravel or bark walkways between. Got it part way last summer, now to finish the job. Goodbye mowing.

The iris are already starting to push up, looking forward to the day lilies, peonies, and others.”

“Sorry, but I just got the mental image of pekka standing in his front yard, ordering the irises to give him twenty...lol...”

“As I might then say to them, "What are you, some kind of pansy?"”

“Well, I just now got around to putting a small lemon tree in the fancy planter I bought right after Christmas. I must say, $100 in gift certificates to my favorite nursery was the best gift I got in a long time. Now here's hoping I don't kill the poor tree!”

“I left my carrots in all winter last year, I ate three (freshly dug up) last night. AMAZING flavor. We are eating the green onions planted last spring. I left them too. Its amazing that they came back after our winter. My garlic is 10" tall, the asparagus is just peeking out. It oughtta be a good year for them its their 4th year so they are now ell established. The rhubarb is coming to life. I spent sometime working in the garden tonite. I split the veggie patch into 6 beds that are 3' wide and 9' long, i built two small frames form cedar trees I have been savinf for something like this. The area in between each bed is filled with woodchips. I plan on putting in the cold hardy stuff this wknd. The more sensitive stuff goes in early may.I decided to not use my tiller (its for sale) anymore. I like to shovel and work the dirt with my back, its more rewarding. Plus its is better for my worms, which were more abundant then ever. My soil would make Jesse Jackson proud, black as molasses.

I am hoping to expand our berry patch and to grow a thicket of sunflowers for my kiddo. I wat to make a sunflower teepee when they mature.

I LOVE SPRING!!!

GO ORGANIC!!!!”

“i have a little herb garden. Love fresh herbs. I'll plant peppers, peas, tomatoes, orugula (sp?) and some kohlrabi this year.

didn't even think of rhubarb, and I just bought some last week. I may will have to add this to my list.

asparagus? too picky of a plant. It 'll die with me. Did hear though that if asspargus grows it grows so fast that you can actually see it grow. (no kidding)

yupp what birch said "go organic"”

“gemini, my inlaws have never had success with their apsaragus, bugs always got it. We've dodged the bug infestations but cant grow tomatoes in our regular garden (pots on porch now) due to some black fungus that rots holes in the fruit. I know how to solve the issue quickly but would rather let it correct itself on its own accord.

BTW fresh peas are the best.”

“Birch where do ya live? I need a tiller very bad!”

“I live in Mi. Kind of a haul from your "new" place, I forget where you moved when you left N.C.

I am flying to NC next month but doubt I can clear security with a tiller in tow.

Hows retirement treating you?”

“Pekka, wanna trade some Iris's I have yellow/brown tiger what do you have?

I have Dianthis in the front of our house as a border. Killer stuff, nice yellow flowers all summer long, and a nice, thick foliage

on the side yard I have wild Trout lily from the forest floors that I have been gathering for seferal years. It is a very nice, small flower but also delicate. It doesn't hold up well to the grazing of my tame boxer..”

“sirpete, they're purple with varigated foliage, but I can't remember the variety off hand. They are new as of last summer and aren't ready to divide -- in fact this will be the first blooming season. The yellow day lillies, on the other hand, need some thinning.”

“send my your snail mail addy and I'll send you a care package if you'd like. Don't wait to long though they are starting to pop out of the ground here.”

“And to where do I send this info, sirpete? Zap me an e-mail at the address in my profile, along with any helpful hints on dividing the day lily bulbs. I've never had to do it before, so I don't want to screw it up (though I'm sure I understand it in principle).”

“pekka, I have divided tiger lily bulbs with hatchets and shovels. To call them resilient or hardy would be an understatement.”

“Got it part way last summer, now to finish the job. Goodbye mowing.
Hello weeding, lol.

I got two big vibernum (sp?) bushes in the ground this week, as well as a new layer of mulch. Fertilized the lawn, now I need to find some good looking perennials. Any ideas?”

“stickman -- when I get done, there will be the perennials, the bark mulch around them, the gravel walkways between the mulched beds, and a small patio with a table and chairs for relaxing among the flowers.

With care, I hope the weeding will be kept minimal. And I prefer yanking a few weeds out of the beds than getting the dang mower out.”

“I was just pulling your leg a little. I'm sure you'll have it looking top notch. I had a traumatic experience with weeds the summer I graduated from high school, so I hate weeding, lol.”

“I knew it was a josh. But I understand about weeding. My dad made me dig dandelions out of the lawn. Plus mow. I hate mowing. And if there were a lot of weeds, I'd go for the Roundup. But I'm partial to just smothering them in mulch. I'll put down gardening cloth for the gravel areas.

I'm putting up some new gutters soon, too, and have to rework some of the drainage slope. Digging sod will be the least fun of it all.”

“Pekka, Daylillys have roots. Dig 'em up, use a serated knife or shovel to cut the plant and rootball in half or thirds, etc, replant. Easy as pie.


Hey, I have blue iris' I'll trade for some yellow tigers Sirpete! I'm talking the little blues you'd buy at the florists. They're niiiiiccce.”

“Argh, digging up sod...I have a row of bushes on the side of the house I planted last winter, and now it's time to dig the sod up and lay the mulch down.”

“Any gardeners out there had success with mail order perennial herbs? I'd like to get both my mother and myself lavender plants for mother's day. Any sources?

I like to give her stuff that will grow in her garden year after year. Last year was a rose bush.”

“I've had luck with Parks mailorder. Give them a whirl.

Birch-I hate you! I read your descriptions of your garden; it made me remember what gardening was like in Mi. versus here, and I still have a hard time growing things here.”

“Most all plants you get through the mail are smallish and in shock, unless you order from a florist. You might have better luck going to a local greenhouse Dhutch. Now, those smallish shocked plants generally come back to life nicely, (and if they don't they are replaced by the company) but it takes awhile.

Whatever you do, don't order from Springhill. They have horrible quality stuff. It all arrives dead.”

“Actually Sass, all the stuff I ordered from SH came in just fine. I just killed most of them! SH is based in SC, so most of their stock in southern in origin. It does better down here. I currently prefer to frequent the smaller privately owned nurseries around here. If I can't find something I really really want then I do mail order it.”

“Johnny's is very cool, I do buy tomato and pepper seeds from them. They're also one of Martha's favorites.”

“Johnny's is great but I don't think they do too many plants. Mostly seeds.

Maybe I just had a really bad experience with Springhill. I ended up giving up on them after three sets of plants arrived dead and crispy. And a fifteen dollar tree was delivered alive but was roughly the size of a two foot tall pencil! (I was alittle dissapointed, lol)”

“Treebait, yep gardening up here in zone 5 is pretty easy stuff. I cant imagine having the summers y'all have. Its gotta be rough on plants.”

“Anything cole related is grown in the winter. Most citrus actually ripens in the winter. Its best after it gets nipped by frost, like some greens are. The humidity promotes many fungi and insects, so I'm spraying a lot which I don't like to do. Most of my spray stuff is organic fortunately, stuff from Gardens Alive. Or I make my own concoctions. My biggest problem is actually getting outside to work in the yard in the summer. Between the bugs and the heat and humidity its no fun any more.”

“Sass, at what point is it too late to divide the day lilies in spring? So far the one's I need to do show no signs of sprouting, though those in the original site near the foundation on the side of the house are getting so much reflected light off the new white siding and the foundation heat, they shot up about 3 inches in the last couple days.”

“I've hacked 'em apart all times of the year, but this is Florida, so things are weird. It hasn't affected blooming for me yet.”

“beets,asparagus,green onions are all doing fine. i'm letting 2 of the beet plants go to seed, are they biannuals? catnip and most herbs are weeds, real easy to grow. All the neighborhood cats get a nip every now and then.”

“I've heard asparagus is really easy to grow here but I haven't tried it yet. It tends to come up in January/February here. Funny, with all the talk of daylilies here, I forgot to mention I actually bought one recently, for the humor value. It's name is "Galadriel."”

“Its really hard to hurt daylilies. I've moved them and divided them probably every month the soil isn't frozen. I don't think you can kill them.

Too bad my wife hates them so much - they remind her of an invasive grass they could't get rid of in her native Puerto Rico. When we had our house resided, she told the contractor to set the scaffolding up on top of them - they recovered stronger than before.”

“Thanks for the info Violin, treebait, Sass...now I'm still waiting for a way to e-mail Sirpete, as his profile doesn't have one listed. He's got me all interested in his tiger irises.

I smell a trip to the local greenhouses for more perennials and bulbs.”

“i dunn know, but if you search for spring hill, you'll get a whole list of "bad" experiences. not sure if they are the same springhill though. they are located in OH.”

“I didn't realize that my profile was lacking. That wasn't on purpose.

campshamoo@epix.net

Sass, your on. I will seperate a bunch up this weekend and get them ready for a trip out to you folks.

By the way Pekka I will be in Stoughton Wi on the 8th of May for about 8 days. How far is that from you?”

“There, it's fixed.

no wonder no one was emailing me....”

“Pekka, we have split tigerlillies in the fall (labor day wknd and had great success).

Sirpete, do you want them this spring or fall? Either is good.”

“Send me you addy and I'll get some in the mail to you right away, I am seperating them right now. I have been putting this off for several years so there is an over abundance of them here. Don't put yourself out for me, send them this spring or fall what ever is convient for you. I can wait till, No rush. Sharing flowers is a really cool thing!”

“sirpete, Stoughton is about 4 hours south of me, I believe.

I'll get an e-mail off to you. The day lilies we need to thin just poked a bit of green through the bark mulch, so we'll get it done today I imagine.”

“linky no worky”

“sorry..it's not up yet..I'll do it later..me bad:(”

“nice picture of the error page though”

“I just picked up a new peeper plant, variety "Red Peter." Guess what it looks like!”

“LOL, I just caught my spelling error!”

“little fruedian slip??”

“We have a pretty big garden here. There's a pretty common practice in Italy of making salads from wildgrowing yardplants, quite a variety, makes for a wonderfully interesting salad. I know the plants now, just not the names. Perfectly "barefoot" lawns don't exist here, they love the varied invasive plants. Round-Up the dandylions, meesa don't thank so!!!

Anyone into bonsai? I iz a bit.”