Garden Geeks thread

[dxmnkd316]

I am garden geeking the heck out of this spring. I moved at the end of last summer, and pulled up a lot of stuff that I found (like MINT, who plants effing MINT fer chrissakes that stuff is ridiculous. Don't plant mint anywhere except a pot, people, and probably not even then).

I found out the previous owners, in addition to the effing mint, also had blackberries and red currants, which I am glad to keep. In the process of creating some new garden beds for black raspberries, raspberries and blueberries. I have an herb garden to fill, a bunch of beds for annuals and perennials, and a raised garden. And my yard actually gets SUN. Already planted a magnolia shrub, blueberries, dwarf lilac and a peach tree. I removed a sandbox and a playset, so I am growing grass to cover up those spots. Really excited to see how everything looks in a few months.

Super jealous.

The biggest problem is the ten 70'+ cottonwoods in the backyard (the largest four are in the neighbor's yard) that block almost all of the sun* in the great spaces for a garden in the backyard. We basically have an area next to the house that gets tons of sun or the front yard. I'm not super keen on putting garden boxes in the front yard for aesthetic reasons (not sure but it also might run afoul of dumb ordinances). Anyways. We're going to ask our neighbor if we can build them within a couple feet of the property line on the one side of the house. We're on really good terms so it shouldn't be an issue. Just want to be a good neighbor.

* = This is actually a blessing and a curse. Awesome because most of the yard stays shaded and we don't need a ton of watering. It also keeps the house cooler in the summer. Yay. But, it means you can't garden and have to be selective with the trees and shrubs we plant. Plus it's kind of a disaster waiting to happen because cottonwoods grow fast, die young(ish), and don't have super deep root systems. A bit worried about straightline winds and heavy snows. They lost a tree this winter that was basically doomed anyways since it was leaning a good 20-30 degrees. But we worry about the big guys in their yard. These are monsters... Easly three to four feet across at the base.

 

[leswp1]

I planted tomatoes- 4 different kinds and almost all of them are sickly. The weather was ridiculously cold and cloudy right after I started them. Usually I put them on the sunporch but it was too cold. I think I have 25% of what I planted. Erg!

 

[dxmnkd316]

:-(

if it makes you feel any better, the deer went after our peppers.

 

[leswp1]

:-(

if it makes you feel any better, the deer went after our peppers.

Wildlife- ERG! Something ate all my heuchera that wasn't green

 

[Kepler]

ten 70'+ cottonwoods in the backyard

I did a triple take because I had no idea cottonwoods' territory extended that far north and east. So I did a little googling and TIL there are at least 2 trees called cottonwood in the US that don't have anything to do with each other. Yours and the ones that are everywhere in the Sonoran Desert.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Spent most of the morning and half the afternoon continuing our landscaping around the large tree in the front yard. It's about 80% done now. Just need to get a few more of the blocks and figure out how to negotiate around the cable boxes. Probably just going to leave that open.

Anyways.

While I was digging ditches my wife went to the local native plant sale and found some of the ornamental grass I've been searching for the last couple years. Apparently prairie June grass goes by a couple scientific names. Odd. Anyways, she picked up a couple of those for the "native-adjacent" garden I was working on. Very excited.

Also grabbed several additional milkweed for our butterfly garden. All of the ones we planted last year came back this year, which was in doubt until about two weeks ago. Also grabbed a couple of other native plants that'll go somewhere.

Our next plan is to brick in the front garden using small paver/edgers (no more 45-lb blocks thank fuckin god) and installing a drip irrigation system to cut back on our watering even more. Plus it will be automated, so one less thing to remember. We're going to expand the front garden next to the house and edge in a walking path with cedar chips. Then we plan on lining the front edge with a bunch of bulbs.

 

[walrus]

Still haven’t put anything in garden, high temp today 49. It was in the 80s yesterday. Supposed to be cold and rainy all week. Why bother putting stuff out when it’s going to sit there

 

[St. Clown]

My wife’s uncle asked me to replace his raised beds. He had 4 beds of all different sizes, and just kind of generally placed in the same area. I replaced that with 5 raised gardens, three of them 8’x4’ that sit next to each other with 30”between them, and two 8’x3’ running transverse of the other three. There was a relatively steep slope on the northern edge of it all, so I had to do some leveling of the boxes, and adding extra depth to the downward northern side.
Around the whole thing are a series of edging pavers that are beveled, cedar mulch between all the boxes and the edging, and then some 16”x16” concrete pavers resting atop the mulch to allow for stability of movement. The uncle is 70yo, so it was a big consideration. He likes the outcome, and that’s what matters. The perfectionist in me, though…

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

I’m ripping out grass around a tree and planting shade plants.

also planted a butterfly magnolia tree after wanting a yellow magnolia tree for years. Also added a dappled willow ornamental tree I’m obsessed with

 

[St. Clown]

My wife’s uncle asked me to replace his raised beds. He had 4 beds of all different sizes, and just kind of generally placed in the same area. I replaced that with 5 raised gardens, three of them 8’x4’ that sit next to each other with 30”between them, and two 8’x3’ running transverse of the other three. There was a relatively steep slope on the northern edge of it all, so I had to do some leveling of the boxes, and adding extra depth to the downward northern side.
Around the whole thing are a series of edging pavers that are beveled, cedar mulch between all the boxes and the edging, and then some 16”x16” concrete pavers resting atop the mulch to allow for stability of movement. The uncle is 70yo, so it was a big consideration. He likes the outcome, and that’s what matters. The perfectionist in me, though…

 

[dxmnkd316]

You can say that again

 

[leswp1]

Still haven’t put anything in garden, high temp today 49. It was in the 80s yesterday. Supposed to be cold and rainy all week. Why bother putting stuff out when it’s going to sit there

My tomatoes are the littlest they have ever been in 30 yrs. Even on the porch, it was too cold for a month. Put them outside and they grew a bit. The last 2 days hovering in hi 90s but today it was 48. (insert poopie iemoji) The lettuce is happy but everything else is asking Mother Nature to get off my lawn.

 

[Jaabo]

My tomatoes are the littlest they have ever been in 30 yrs. Even on the porch, it was too cold for a month. Put them outside and they grew a bit. The last 2 days hovering in hi 90s but today it was 48. (insert poopie iemoji) The lettuce is happy but everything else is asking Mother Nature to get off my lawn.

God bless Texas, it's been hovering from mid 70s to low 80s over last few weeks(I had even did a few jogs in the morning, felt pretty nice. Tested my new running shoes and some other sports equipments from https://rununited.com/sport-equipment/ ). Added a row of tomatoes to my old 2 and thinking on trying to get a few strawberry patches this year

 

[jen]

So I planted the following: two kinds of blueberries, red raspberries, parsley, dill, lemongrass, winter hardy lavender, cilantro, cantaloupe, watermelon, cherry tomatoes, big boy tomatoes, two kinds of cucumbers, baby carrots, strawberries, dwarf lilac, several coneflowers, two kinds of bee balm, iris, dianthus, mums, blanket flowers, bellflowers, pasque flower, and some other stuff I can't remember. Plus patched a bunch of lawn. And it hasn't rained in like 3 weeks. I am reeeeeally tired of watering.

 

[Slap Shot]

We added mint today to our array of herbs. So we now have that, Thai basil, sweet basil, cilantro, dill, tarragon, rosemary, lemongrass, thyme, sage, and oregano. I might be missing a few as my wife pays more attention to it. We have at least one pineapple that should pop in the next month, we're close on some bananas as well, and we should have a good year for tomatoes, papaya, string beans and cabbage. We also have a neighbor that owns a farm nearby and he grows a crazy array of vegetables that he practically gives to us since my wife will often turn them into a meal that we share regularly.

 

[dxmnkd316]

so i planted the following: Two kinds of blueberries, red raspberries, parsley, dill, lemongrass, winter hardy lavender, cilantro, cantaloupe, watermelon, cherry tomatoes, big boy tomatoes, two kinds of cucumbers, baby carrots, strawberries, dwarf lilac, several coneflowers, two kinds of bee balm, iris, dianthus, mums, blanket flowers, bellflowers, pasque flower, and some other stuff i can't remember. Plus patched a bunch of lawn. And it hasn't rained in like 3 weeks. I am reeeeeally tired of watering.

:-o

 

[dxmnkd316]

Woo!

after nursing a knee injury for the last week I was finally able to walk enough to get out to the garden. We installed our drip irrigation system for the front garden. I can't believe how easy it was! And my god, it's so good at watering! I know this is dumb and obvious and we should have done it ages ago, but it's really exciting.

Next step is to run it to the back yard and hit the lilacs, rhubarb, milkweed, clematis, and dogwoods. Eventually we'll run it out to our native adjacent garden. But that's going to be tougher since we'd have to bury it. TBD.

I think it should all work on a single zone. I counted the total number of emitters and usage. It should be plenty given what the sprinkler system can do on hoses. I believe they get 3.5-4.5 gpm based on the hose timer meter. I figure a system tapped out at 2-3 gpm, or 120-180 gph is way more than we'd need. I think we're at roughly 20 gph now. Even adding 20 for the native adjacent, 5 each for the two trees that need it, 6 total for the lilacs, 5-6 for the milkweed, 4 for the rhubarb, 1 for the clematis, ten for the two apples, four for the dogwoods, we would have plenty of capacity.

 

[leswp1]

We are sooo far behind this year. Lots of cool cloudy weather. Not all the rain is hitting us (it likes to break up as it is hitting us). Result- everything is about half the size it was last yr.
I had almost complete failure of my annual flower seeds (10 out of 70ish starts) and my tomatoes at least 50% failure. Never had this before. Wondering if it was the potting soil I used (Coast of Maine) but this hasn't failed me before!

 

[dxmnkd316]

I hope we get a good hard soaking tomorrow. Planning on burying line for an expansion of our drip irrigation system. Easier to work in wet clay.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Extended the drip irrigation zone today. Now covers both front gardens. Trenched it down about 6". Will need to be blown out every year I expect. But should self drain pretty well. Lowest point on the entire zone is a removable plug drain. Works really well.

We decided to do emitter tubing instead of individual emitters because the plants are so dense. Was a bit of a guesstimate for how we laid it out. Basically concentric arcs through the coneflowers for now. It will run tomorrow morning so we'll see how it works for a full run time. We'll evaluate that and fill in the bee balm, cardinal flowers, and asters with tubing. I negotiated a few individual emitters for the three plants (I can't remember their name) that are going to be a bit more individual and spaced out than the rest that will self seed.

that was a lot of work today. But looks great so far. Will have to post some pictures now that the bee balm and coneflowers are starting to open.