lynne, wow. Done?! I've always got at least one bed in my mind that is several years away from starting, let alone finishing!

I have an enormous mulching job ahead too, but I finally got the last plants into the new tropical bed, including several that were rescued from overgrown mini-jungles in my very own yard. I still have a quick-and-dirty tropical waterlily display tank to put together and plant up, and a front foundation planting that needs a major redo after 13 years, but that has to wait until I can get the concrete walk fixed. Since no concrete guy seems to be interested in my business (grrr), that probably won't be happening any time soon.

My astilbes are getting huge and even spreading! Wow. Gotta love that soggy drainspout clay.

Lynne, try the Bayer all in one on your roses. This is our first year and it seems quite good, Not 100% but good. Steve in Baltimore County.

"Done?!" she screamed wildly, "DONE!?"
Crouching, looking frantically right and left, peering around a shrub, she whispered, "It's never done, there is always more."

And watergal, enormous? You haven't SEEN enormous mulcing jobs until you come to MY house. Twenty Seven, yes, 27 truckloads of mulch later, I might have only 1 more garden to go. Enormous? Let me make you feel better. Come on over.

"Black Spot? BLACK SPOT?!?" she screamed.
Abruptly she stopped, asking "What's that?"

Lynne, there might be another lilac with your name on it. Then, of course, there is that full grown, very mature, pink crape myrtle....

But good job. Having seen your yard, I can tell you all it's looking beautiful and will be amazing when it fills out.

yeah!

Christine

I don't think I'll be speaking to Lynne anymore. I'm pretty sure that being 'done' with the garden is not allowed. Oh, and Lynne is most definitely not allowed to speak to DH. One does not want him to get the idea that the garden is ever going to be 'done'.

Christine, you actually spread 27 truckloads of mulch? I'm almost dead from hauling mulch, and it's only one dumptruck full (almost done, over 100 wheelbarrow-fuls later. Still have about 1/4 dumptruck-ful of leaf mulch left. And boy, do I have a lot of weeding to do! Before I can spread the mulch, of course.

BTW, black spot is a nasty disease of roses, that causes them to lose their leaves and appear naked. The look you see typically of roses in the mid-atlantic (a bunch of sticks with the odd bloom or two) is the result of BS. Of course, if you check out the Rose Recommendation thread, you'll get some idea of what to plant to avoid this.

Well, a thunderstorm came up so I got to put off the puny little 14 bags of mulch I was whining about. Not enormous at all. And not done, again, yet, still, either. :(

I had to stop cleaning the ponds too - I decided sticking my arms in water with loud thunder nearby was pretty darn stupid! But I did get the tropical waterlilies and some marginals repotted and outside in a temporary holding tank.

I had the privilege of attending a lecture by Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery in NC. One of his first comments was - what is it with the MULCH here in Maryland? Why not ground covers? They are so much more interesting.

So I've been trending that way. Of course, now I'm discovering the constant boundary wars amongst the ground covers and the plants they are supposed to be covering between. And the ground covers with other ground covers. I try to put aggressive ones next to each other and let them battle it out in true Darwinian fashion.

Suja, I just said that garden CREATION was done. So you can still speak to me. =) And I should be safe to talk to DH because the GARDEN is NEVER done. I came home with a big bag of iris and and a big handful of grape hyacinth yesterday...And I'm planning to go to the dig tomorrow night in DC..

There is lots to do still but I'm not digging up any more lawn right now. After dealing with three yards of topsoil I opted to go the bagged mulch route, just to not get overwhelmed.

Watergal, I think the thing with mulch here is that if you don't mulch, you'll spend your time weeding. Although, I'm trying some creeping sedum under the lilacs and some others so eventually they won't need mulch, if any. I hope.

Steve (who I always think of as Oscar because I associate your face with your swap nametag!), I sprayed with Bayer's insect killer stuff (they didn't have the 3in1 where I looked) and that seemed to help a lot. I'll get some of the 3in1 next time I hit the store. Suja, this is the first year I've had any real problem with the roses.

Gotta go ride herd on the kids to get in the tub..

Lynne

You guys have got to get a truck.

Suja, I'm not even done at 27. The thing is, although I have to make 27 trips, I do it on the way home from somewhere. Shovelling down into a wheelbarrow is a heck of a lot easier and quicker than trying to load it up into one. Plus, I have the Golden Pitchfork, my very favorite tool. I cannot IMAGINE ever again shovelling mulch with a shovel. What a nightmare I did for 2 years!

Watergal, I have a friend who is a landscape architecht and a violent opponent of mulching. She's even published several articles on it. She insists it's a product of builders who cut down all the trees for the McMansion developments and have to find something to do with the byproduct: chipped up wood. She swears no where else in the country do they mulch like we do. I could go into the evils of why not to do so, but that's another thread.

However, with as much land and garden as I have? I couldn't not mulch. I'd lose my tiny mind weeding. Or pretending to weed.

However again, I've found myself looking for and planting ground covers that are now growing on the mulch. Plumbago, that aggressive Creeping Jenny, gorgeous vinca 'Trehane', and believe it or not, in my new (whisper) pink garden? I'm moving 'Lipstick' strawberry to be the ground cover. I've considered Vlad's strawberries in the big gardens, but decided they'd attract more of those evil rabbits. I decided plumbago and my favorite, low-growing chocolate mint (yes, mint) are the answer. Love them!

So there you have it. I"m relived Lynne isn't "done". How awful for her that would be. (g) Plus, we'd have to kill 'er and bury her under the rose bushes.

Christine

I have one little chartreuse creeping jenny plant that I put in the little strip between the foundation and the back of my pond. It covers the soil but still lets the bananas and cannas come through, and it looks great. It trails down into the pond,very pretty. I have to whack it back occasionally but it looks nicer and is easier to deal with back there than mulch. Plus mulch kept blowing into the pond and creating algae.

That area is confined by lawn. I tried putting some of the same jenny in the front of a soggy mixed border. Disaster! Had to rip it out before it took over the world.

Lynne, you can usually find Bayer all-in-one at Lowes, sometimes Wal-Mart. Anyone ever notice how all the "box" stores are so into weed killers. Christine are you sure you are talking about pick-up loads or that little garden trailer we swapped for. Steve in Baltimore County.

Steven, do you recall my red pick-up? The cutest, most wonderful truck in the world?
Yes, I'm sure it's pick-up loads. 27 of 'em so far. My bed holds exactly one bulldozer scoop of mulch, leaf compost or top soil. No more, lots less.

C.

Meadows Farms carried Bayer's products too, so does Lowe's. Both of them have a really good assortment of fertilizers and pesticides.

Christine, is 'Trehane' a vinca or a veronica? And what is a golden pitchfork?

Lynne, don't kid yourself not only is gardening never done but garden creation is never done because you have to create more gardens to hold all the plants that don't fit or aren't happy in the gardens that you have now.

collector, your last sentence is SO true. Where does it all end? When I get too old and decrepit to do it any more, I guess.

collectordi, you're right there - I'm now debating making an iris and lily border along the edge of the yard - someplace to put all the iris I've acquired lately... =)

Oops!
It's a veronica 'Trehane'!

Sorry!
C.