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" It's pretty late for 32F temps ."
When I lived in Mass 50 years ago the frost free date was Memorial Day--zone 5A.
Zone has nothing to do with the date of the last spring frost. That depends mostly on latitude. So just because the zone has changed doesn't mean you've moved farther south.
Last year, we had a freeze the third week of May. The annuals had been put out May 15th, I think, and we did lose some.
This time of year, a freeze warning is just boring noise.
Okay, thanks.
And what does the removal of your neighbor's gutters have to do with the destruction of your landscape?
OP has started a duplicate post with picture. https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6441983/landscaping-advice#n=1
Taking the gutters had caused that area to be flooded when it rains..
its a single family home not a townhouse
a d the pict is in the link floraluk2 added (thank you)
I would just plant and keep my fingers crossed.
Rob, yes. It is still in the pot that the nursery had it in.
Marmie, no. I did not plan to put it in a prominent place. I am working on filling in spaces between my hostas in my back garden. Pretty much no one sees them except me. But I did have visions of a gorgeous plant by summer. We'll see.
And PrairieMoon, I took it out of the bowl of water the minute I saw your recommendation - even before finishing your message!
Whew. So just wait a bit. Since it's in a container, it can wait. For that cool, misty day. Coming in the next week. I'm sure of it. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
The beds are much too shallow back to front. Remove the peculiar looking wall and deepen the beds from to back front for starters, keeping in mind that every shrub you plant should be planted far enough from the house that it will not touch the house when it is fully mature. For example, a shrub that will be 8 ft wide should be planted 5 feet from the house.
Since your house is a low one story, you'll want small shrubs, but the same principle applies--4 ft wide shrub, plant 3 ft from house.
Since you're back to the design stage, can we consider your downspouts? At a home improvement store you can purchase a plastic extender tube that you slide/shove over the end of the downspout. They are like six feet long - it should be as long as the bed is wide so that the edging is built up over it. Then cut the plastic extender tube flush with the outside of the edging. This will ensure that rainwater isn't trapped behind the edging. Thanks.
I'm a blue/purple lover and my neighborhood has a very high deer population. Plants that work for me are as follows:
allium Millennium (August bloomer)
agastache Blue Fortune (summer bloomer)
aquilegia (columbine) (spring bloomer)
aster October Skies (aromatic aster has stinky foliage so deer don't browse it - other asters are deer candy) blooms in October
baptisia (spring bloomer)
iris (both bearded iris and siberian iris)
lavender (summer bloomer)
nepeta Walker's Low (spring to fall blooms if trimmed back between flushes)
perovskia (summer bloom)
salvia (late spring into summer bloom)
verbena bonariensis (summer to fall bloom)
veronica (summer bloom)
Hope this is helpful.
Boxwoods are subject to diseases and also to boxwood moths, whose caterpillars eat them up. In Toronto where I live, everybody is pulling out their boxwoods after the last few years of defoliation. You can spray but who needs the expense, fuss and exposure to chemicals when you can just plant something else.
My sister recently moved into a house where the same owner lived from 1955 until she moved out last year. Same as your case, the shrubs were unsalvageable after decades of neglect.
If you give us a little more information about your location (e.g. closest big city) people can give better advice about specific plants. You've said you're in Zone 6a but that covers a lot of ground (pun intended.)
I'm slowly switching out many of my plants to native shrubs and flowering plants. They need less care, and attract pollinators which I love. Your state's extension service will have information about native plants for your area. For example, I'm putting in a lot of black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) which takes no care and blooms for a long time.
Dianthus is not a biennial.
There are well over 10,000 to choose from so here is another resource to help Don Rawson's Hosta List
peren.all - I added a 'Blue Angel' Hosta 2 years ago. I'm glad you like it and the flowers. Mine is still small and won't get much bigger if the rabbits don't stop eating it. But I'll take a better look at it when it comes up. Thanks.
A mulch is probably a great idea, especially if it is at least two or three inches thick. I use composted bark for my mulch, and I find if I poke a finger down to the soil level it is often very cool down there, even when our daytime temperature is over 80F. As I understand it Delphinium wants cool Summer conditions.
Certainly no reason not to mulch.
It definitely looks like it's planted too deep.
So it's still not planted? Oh good.
It's been that way for more than a year.
I wouldn't accept it. Demand a different tree.
Remove the existing shrubs--both badly pruned and badly placed-- and pull the beds out at least 6 feet from the house.
A better picture must show the entire house head on from enough distance to see what's on both sides. We also need to know your zone, general geographic location and the direction the house faces.
The shutters should also go.
I just want to say what a pretty home!
And definitely remove those huge shrubs first thing.
We have similar front yards and this is what I’m doing.
And if there's any danger it will damage trees, well, definitely not a good choice.
Sounds like it will create a whole lot more work to me. It’s easier to keep weeds under control (which you concede you will likely have no matter what) on a flat surface rather than between rock nooks and crannies.
Will the rocks impede vehicle traffic at all? Like a UPS driver in a hurry or a new young driver knocking them out of place?
Do you have snow removal issues which complicates driveway edging?
Do rocks appear naturally in your landscape? IMO they look quite out of place in a manicured suburban neighborhood.
And what is a governor’s driveway?
It won't do much for the weeds.
They seem too far along for Lobelia in your zone. Mine are not that far along, and I am actually zone 7 now.
Yeah, they do look like phlox. Well, phooey! I hope those two Cardinalis come back. I was got sick after I planted them last year. I briefly got to seem them bloom.
Hope your recovery was quick. If your L. c. was allowed to go to seed you should have seedlings come up as well.
Most important thing to know about chickweed is NEVER to put it in compost. It is capable of flowering and setting seed even after being pulled out of the ground. And it's a prolific seeder.
Charles if you do not find a way to get them out be prepared for a lot more. Perhaps try a long handled hoe, 3 pronged fork whatever works for you. The roots come out easily.
They're a tender annual. The only way to prevent a lot more is to get rid them before they seed or put down a pre-emergent early next spring. Whether they're mechanically removed or poisoned doesn't matter once they've seeded. I pull most of them, but some of them are impossible to pull.
Picture required, but the " weird round holes in the trunk" sound like sapsucker damage.
I'll bite. Please post some pics of the tree so it can be identified. Pic of whole tree, also close up of leaves, trunk, flowers, seeds. And of the holes too!
Perhaps the holes are caused by borers. We don't have woodpeckers in Australia.
Crystal, if you see these posts, perhaps you could post some pictures of the tree and the holes, both close up and far away.
They are highly invasive into the natural environment.
In the early 1900s during WW1, states were banning the sale of Berberis species, and having eradication projects, after it was discovered that Berberis host a wheat rust, during one phase of the rust's life cycle. The government took the drastic measures, so that wheat crops wouldn't suffer huge losses during a world war. By the 1970s the bans were lifted because of newer rust resistant wheat cultivars, and also more rust resistant Berberis cultivars. There is one native barberry, Berberis canadensis, that is endemic to Apallachia. It's impossible to find any source for native Berberis. I found a source selling plants, and I ordered 2 of them, but I was sent 2 Berberis thunbergii instead of the native. Barberries are also believed to attract ticks.
Berberis canadensis
Berberis canadensis has leaves with serrated margins, and mature stems have three spines at every junction instead of 1 spine.
Range of Berberis canadensis
https://www.ars.usda.gov/midwest-area/stpaul/cereal-disease-lab/docs/barberry/barberry/
@ Jay - Here in New England, I don't grow this, but I have a neighbor who has one across the street from me. I have found a few seedlings in my beds from his Barberry. But not as many as the Bittersweet produces that another neighbor has on his fence.
I'm reporting that my Nepetas, all Walkers Low, have been thriving in heavy wet clay. Highly unexpected.
A word of caution. If your Callirhoe bushii becomes a thug, better to remove it sooner than later. It's right up there with Aegopodium and Creeping Jenny in level of unpleasantness. My C. involucrata is the comeplete opposite, weak and feeble. I'm going to try growing the species native to Illinois, Callirhoe triangulata. It thrives in dry sand and is supposed to be much better behaved. I hope your Talinum shows up. They are a treasure wherever you find them. I've grown Talinum/Phemeranthes calycinum for many years, but only a couple plants actually appear every year. The Callirhoe carnage continues. Besides the main bed , there are many growing from seed in other beds. Explosive seeds?
Am keen to try callirhoe digitata. Have had a much faster germination on the c.bushii (unlike involucrata which took months and months so yep...will be watching. Also found 2 errant nepetas but not s sniff of the one I was most looking forward t - n.nuda 'Romany Dusk - just a dessicated rootmass (suspect it has been thugged by an enormo-apple and a very large Portland rose in the vicinity).
I have used Feliway for many years with several cats. It's great for calming stressed, anxious, frightened, angry cats. I wouldn't be without it. I use the plug in type. You don't smell anything at all.
We use Feliway and it does help with anxious cats. The other thing is - have they checked his blood for allergies? I had a cat that threw up every time she ate. We tested allergies before anything else because she was so young. It turned out she was allergic to sugar beets, corn, duck, and cow milk. And dust. Go figure. I have had cats with thyroid issues too - but wonder about allergies.
It's too bad you don't have many options as to vets. When our elderly little kitty's health began to fail, we were fortunate to have an emergency vet in town that's open 24/7, and a cat hospital just down the street - one of the vets was a specialist in geriatric and palliative care. Such a vet might know more about what may be going on with your guy.
If you want something really low maintenance, use a groundcover. If you're at least zone 5, Geranium 'Karmina' or 'Biokovo' should be semi evergreen for you and will require practically no maintenance.
I'd place two yews closest to the porch then place daylilies in front of the yews to fill out the circle. Plant daffodils amongst the daylilies for spring color.
Aleppo pepper is just great with greens sauteed in garlic and olive oil.
You can, but first you have to turn the item into compost.
Lay the chard over your soil. It will act as mulch to prevent more weeds from growing and eventually break down into compost. Or, you can feed it to your pets and let them compost the garden as needed.
Just what I was thinking, flora.
you bought a weeping tree.. its right there in the name... if you wanted a taller one.. it would have been best to buy a taller one..
it will be near impossible to pull the leader upright at this time..
tree time is counted in decades.. in 5 to 10 years.. it might put up a new upright leader.. and you can train that to grow taller...
i would also suggest you move it 3 to 5 feet further from the fence ..
ken
Jeff,
There's some beautiful pictures of this tree in the conifer forum.
Here's one below. Page down to about the third post.
https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5732852/experience-with-weeping-white-spruce-in-zone-7#n=14
I use them in several recipes that call for them. I have them whole and I crush them slightly, which is what the recipes call for. They provide a little heat. I'm quite sure I got mine from Penzeys.
you can find them at most asian or chinese shops ... at least in my area. i grind them up and add them to stuff. tongue numing yes ... start with 3-5 peppercorns and adjust up or down.
Very helpful! I want to try them!
Interesting that people are recommending specific pesticides to control allium borers (leaf miners), and quoting respectable sources. As I noted a few days ago, it has also been claimed that no residential pesticides are available that will work. See https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/allium-leaf-miner. So I guess there is some disagreement in the community. Though it is true that spinosad, for example, is banned in several states and some countries. Permethrin is also mentioned here, but that is not approved for residential use.
daninthedirt, that was also my understanding. An exceedlingly difficult pest to deal with.
Perhaps if I were younger I'd try some of the suggestions. But at nearly 80, I can't take on more garden set ups than I've already got. So, probably gilroy garlic from now on.
I am always simply dumbstruck by your magnificent presentations.
Again...your photos are BEAUTIFUL! Love seeing what your making! Your a food magician. Yum! 🍒
Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments. We all agree that food can be fun.
If you think this 2024 Eggclipse dish is creative, my next one for the next eclipse will be unbelievable. Come back here in 2079 I will show you. LOL!
dcarch
Plant a low groundcover around the tree--we don't know your zone but perhaps Geranium maccrorrhizum, Liriope (not L. spicata), or one of the spreading Epimediums. It's certainly not a "terrible tree" and it's great the city won't allow it to be cut down.
What is the green thing to the right of the tree?
I'm not a great fan of hosta, but I have a ring of hosta around an oak tree, where not much else will grow. They will grow big enough to hide the roots (unless you buy a super-dwarf variety). They will probably at least partly cover the green thing.
Some inspro
I would call Achillea 'Moonshine' lemon yellow.
Daylily 'Tetrina's Daughter': very fragrant, and I like the shape of the flower better than 'Hyperion'. Daylily 'Penny's Worth': tiny rebloomer, under 12" I think.
No response from garden fanatic - are we shouting into the void?
You can cut back the Buddleia now in your zone--June is much too late.
Spring doesn't go by zone. It goes by latitude. If I had buddleia, I wouldn't even be looking at it yet.
For the most part, that IS outdated info. The only time it may be appropriate is if a very young fruit tree that is little more than a whip or a single vertical shoot with no side branching. Cutting back the leader by a third or so will encourage side branching and since the tree is (or should be) dormant, the transpiration issue or foliage to root mass issue is null and void. Not at all the same as when transplanting or planting a more mature and no longer dormant subject.
This rough rule of thumb also tends to be most relevant to fruit trees or something like the Arbor Day trees that are really just seedlings or only first or second year grafts.
The tree is an Amelanchier 'Autumn Brilliance' clump form, something of a cross between a tree and a shrub. Instructions for shrubs are pretty clear to "thin 1/3 to 1/2 shrub by removing large branches" and topping others to improve shape. For trees to remove any broken or damaged branches/roots and some shaping pruning.
I'm going to consider it a tree and do very little pruning.
Thanks Bill and Gardengal.
I ended up with the original one, though I'm somewhat concerned that it sat all day Sunday--a very warm sunny day near 70 degrees in full sun. The medium in which the roots were wrapped was still quite moist when I opened the package Monday afternoon, however, and the plant looks good--still dormant but with lots of buds about to open. The buds seem soft and not dried out so I'm hopeful and planning to plant it this morning.
Just adding if anyone is following, the plant looks great after almost a week in the ground and cool, rainy days. Buds swelling.
Skirt steak is cooked like flank steak. I do a few minutes in a very hot skillet, flip, then a few minutes in a very hot oven. Should be quite pink inside.
We have an amazing farmer’s market. Vendors are restricted to local produce with the exception of two larger stands that can bring in things grown in other parts of the state. Eastern Washington has a very different climate than ours, so they grow things that can’t be grown as well locally. Asparagus, artichokes, melons, sweet cherries (WA produces the most in the USA), many varieties of apples and pears. There are a few craft vendors, but the market is very selective for high quality so there isn’t junk.
Thursdays, the vendors give a senior discount and all vendors take food stamps/EBT. The two large fruit stands give free apples to kids. I am unsure how prices compare because I don’t (luckily) have to pay attention and am willing to try to support our local farmers.
" If only more of our 'leaders' would be more forward thinking about these things... "
I agree about the need for more vocational training opportunities. I don't think available programs and schools, and there are many, are at capacity as is. One problem is that the interest in and decision to enter vocational training requires more than short-range thinking. And a degree of maturity that many recent high school grads or dropouts lack. It should be a no-brainer - many are not cut out or interested in academic advancement, vocational training leads to satisfying and well-paying jobs with lifelong career opportunities.
Nothing happens until the interested person walks in a door, dials a phone number or connects on a website. Point the finger at parenting failures, not political or public ones.
Certainly start by removing the rocks and the plastic or fabric that I suspect is under them.
If you possibly can, widen the path to at least 4 feet, and have it flare as it reaches the steps which should be as wide as the little entry area. That is a major start to making the yard more welcoming.
Your walkway in small pavers looks like it needs to be completely redone. Either you reinstall the same pavers on a good base or you can replace them with large pavers as shown below with different installation ideas. This is a budget friendly project.
Then, work your flowerbeds around the walkway. You can start with new flowerbeds along the house and when your budget permits, ad-on with plants along the walkway as shown in the sketch above. Consult with a near by nursery centre of what can be done on a budget for your house. A few shrubs, some perennials (not too expensive) that will grow to a full garden after about 2 years time.
As for the door, if your budget doesn't allow replacing the door, simply paint it white for more impact for your house.
Wow @Nate Iveson Are you not willing to do any work yourself? Not telling us what your budget is leaves it open to interpretation.
Nearly at the end of The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer, set in Paris and Hungary just before and during WW II. Also by her is The Flight Portfolio, based on true life American Varian Frye who helped Jewish artists get out of Marseilles just before the US entered the war. Both books are excellent--fine writing, great character development.
I am reading Kavalier and Clay right now. I am not sure how I missed it, but it is wonderful. I picked it because the Met Opera is doing a production based on it next season. I am not sure it lends itself to opera, but I am willing to give it a go.
Well I'm certainly not going to read it, but this review of Danielle Steele's latest is hilarious: https://wapo.st/3Jz3HZB. A sample:
I experienced déjà vu so often while reading “Only the Brave” that I worried I was losing my mind and then began to hope so. Typical example: On Page 110, Steel writes, “Hitler’s generals, led by Göring, were preparing the Final Solution, to eradicate all Jews from the face of the earth.” On the facing page, we’re told, “The Führer and his generals were obsessed with this plan, called ‘the Final Solution,’ to obliterate all Jews from the planet.” This is the kind of book you can read while watching TV. Or operating heavy equipment.
Good Grief! No raised planter.
I would paint the window trim a softer, more blending color. The white just emphasizes the tiny, awkward windows. Then, below them some pretty flowering shrubs as suggested.
Thank you!
@laceyvail 6A, WV - any update on these? curious now that it's been a while longer. thanks!
The wireless deer fence is working! My woodies now are at their most vulnerable--new, tender leaves and I have seen only a few deer tracks in the area and that just the other night. Nothing was eaten, however, and I haven't seen any tracks or other sign since. I strongly suspect the tracks were from new deer who hadn't yet been driven off. I will say that I have not removed the scent deterrents--milorganite in socks hanging from posts--but except for that one night, there have been no tracks for almost 2 months.
I am deeply impressed by these deterrents. I've changed the lures twice--easy to do--and continue to move them around a little. A great product.