Help with laying down vegetable/flower garden bed
scorpiouno
11 years ago
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scorpiouno
11 years agolast modified: 9 years agoscorpiouno
11 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Sneaking vegetables into the flower garden
Comments (18)I like to put Thai basil in the back of my flower border and let it go to flower. Unlike regular sweet basil I don't find that Thai basil gets bitter if if flowers. I pinch it back early in the summer so that it gets bushy then let the light purple flower stalks go and just harvest leaves from the bottom as needed. It makes a nice vertical filler in the border and attracts tons of bees and butterflies. I also plant purple royalty bush beans throughout the front of my flower beds. They are nice small plants with pretty lavender flowers and then I get handfuls of purple beans too. I like to think they are improving the soil in my beds too. Last summer I really enjoyed growing pepperoncini (sp?) peppers which made nice bushes covered in white flowers. I was also thinking of sneaking them into my flower borders this year. They were really prolific and seemed to love the hot steamy weather here in Virginia. Now I just have to perfect my pickling method. My neighbor had Black Pearl peppers in her front yard and the dark leaves were really dramatic....See MoreVegetable Herb Garden mixed with a few flowers
Comments (3)Many kinds of thyme (perhaps all; I'm not an expert) will live through the winter in 7a. Some hardy rosemaries will as well (though I see some die-back here). I have planted both in the later summer, and had most of those survive the winter. I have also had good luck with lavender surviving the winter, though they were planted in the spring (and experienced some die-back). I have a mostly-perennial bed where I use very short mugo pines, heath (similar to heather), and some herbs as winter greenery. My favorite of the thymes is German winter thyme, though I also have plain German thyme. The former I bought at a plant sale, and the latter were from Bonnie's Plants (a major supplier to Big Box stores). GWT has much rounder leaves, is only a few inches tall, and is trying to take over the bed; GT has thinner leaves and is upright, reaching 8-10" here. Both have tiny, palest lavender-pink flowers. GWT is probably difficult to locate, though seeds are listed by these vendors: Johnny's Selected Seeds, Horizon Herbs, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Vesey's, and Seeds of Change. Unfortunately, there seems to be some confusion as to which type of thyme is which; some people feel GWT and GT are the same; some say that GWT is the same as English thyme. There are also evergreen ground-hugging creeping thymes, which flower in white, red, and lavender/pink. I have at least three types which stay green all year here....See MoreHow do get dog's to QUIT laying in my flower bed's??
Comments (17)We have both cats and a dog. Love the beasties but....!!! What we do is keep all the cut canes from the roses and put them down where the animals take a nap. We would never hurt our four-legged friends but the dog at first didn't seem to get it so we let her sniff a rose cane and then gently tapped her on the nose with it (not to penetrate) so she gives a little yelp and gets the message. After that she avoided anywhere with rose canes. The rose canes also work great for keeping squirrels from digging out plants and bulbs. One neighbor has nice tulips, lilies etc. on his front lawn near the sidewalk and lost a few to 'pickers'. He takes a couple inch piece of rose cane and tapes it to the base of the plant stem. That way anyone wanting a smell ,etc. won't get pricked but if they reach down low to pick the flower off from the base theen 'OUCH'. He doesn't want to stick little tykes who might innocently pick a flower but he says the little ones tend to pick off the blossom from the top and leave the stem....See MoreBeginner Gardener, need help with flower bed
Comments (16)Many years ago, at a rental house with no landscaping at all, I planted Vinca all the way across the front of the house. From then on, every year, for the entire five years we lived there, new plants would come up from the seed that was made the year before. All I had to do was thin them out and pull an occasional weed. That was some seriously cheap and pretty landscaping. You could certainly do that in those two little beds. Or, next year, just sow seeds in there: vinca, zinnias, marigolds. Easy stuff. Just keep in mind that it's not as simple as scattering seeds. Do some soil prep and follow the instructions on the seed package. Keep them well watered. And thin them to proper spacing. As far as the rocks and wood mulch are concerned, you may or may not need to be overly concerned. If the rocks are small pebble sized and they don't cover the area completely, you can probably just dig and incorporate them into the soil. Then casually remove them as you come across them when you are working. If there are too many to tolerate, look for a wire screen that has large enough openings to sift the soil. I have done this. It is time consuming and not fun. Only do it if there's no other way. The wood chips will actually rot right into the soil over time, adding organic matter, so they're not a problem at all. (You may need to add some nitrogen fertilizer to the bed while they are breaking down. Just watch to see if your plants look a little puny. If so, fertilize.) For winter, you could fill the bed with snapdragons and pansys or sweet william too....See Morewhitecap2
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11 years agolast modified: 9 years agoBrad Edwards
11 years agolast modified: 9 years agoBrad Edwards
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11 years agolast modified: 9 years agoscorpiouno
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