What do you wish you'd known when you started?
Kate M (zone 5b Des Moines)
7 years ago
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Lynn-in-TX-Z8b- Austin Area/Hill Country
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoKen (N.E.GA.mts) 7a/b
7 years agoRelated Discussions
What do you wish you started or wished you didn't?
Comments (3)I haven't started much yet. I have a bunch of geraniums. Most started from cuttings, but some started from seed. They take a long time to mature from seed. I have some begonias that I saved the tubers from last year. They are just starting to leaf. My Impatiens I intend to start tomorrow. I grow tempo Impatiens. They put on a great show and are the earliest to flower. I prefer them to the doubles. Anything else will be started in the greenhouse next month. I plan out my beds in a half hearted way when I'm contemplating my flower choices. I keep a book with genuses and their varieties that I have ordered and make notes in it about them during the summer. Over the years I have discovered which plants like which conditions in my yard. I mainly order the ones that have performed well in the past but I'm always open to new ones and include some of them in my order. Some of these I would grow again--others not. I always say I'm going to cut back but I always grow too much. I have a neighbor who is a gardener and we swap plants. I usually grow Petunias. For grandiflora I like the Storm variety; The blossoms don't droop in the rain. I grow the Grandiflora glorious mix double petunias amd the milliflora Picobella. The last are small plants with small petunia flowers that work very well for edging a bed. I don't grow the trailing petunias because I don't have many hanging planters or a place to put them....See MoreWhat do you wish you'd never planted?
Comments (22)I have to laugh. On my roadsides (aka 'Home of All Things Invasive) I have: Loosestrife Gooseneck (well behaved) Mallows Lychnis Helianthus Houttuynia (won't spread) Bishop's weed (can't get it to spread) Liriope Cleome of all colors (reseeded but 99% died in the heat) Chocolate mint Ajuga (can't get it to spread) Obedient Plant (looks like it might start spreading) Black-eyed Susans (self-contained, too) Onethera (won't spread) Vlad's Strawberries (Gone WILD!) Arc angel (sulking) Christina (Lettsee's) ffield daisies died. Spiderwort disappeared. Dead Nettle (dead?) Even my 'Elvis Lives' hosta, didn't. At least the liriope in all its variations is happy. Not spreading, but happy. I think my microcosm has far too much, unending sun and no water. Things seem to need that to spread. It's even called my sedum 'acre' to dry up and die in many places. Sedum! I've had 3 rains in 10 weeks and I cannot keep up with the soaker hoses. I can only wish your bane were my gain! When you want it to spread, nothing happens. Ah well. Christine...See MoreWhat do you wish you had done differently when you built bed?
Comments (7)I made several boxes, 5 feet by 15 inches (they looked like hobbit coffins) and lined them up in fifteen foot runs. My idea was that if I got tired of using them for veggies, I could put them here or there in the yard as planters for irises or whatever, and the weight wouldn't be too bad so one person could move them. However, having boxes like that makes it hard to run a soaker hose under the soil surface. You either have to loop the soaker hose above the end walls of the boxes, or drill holes to run the hose. If I were to do it again, I'd use 16 foot 2x10 or 2x12 so I could have an uninterrupted run of hose. I'd also securely affix a small vertical pipe to the inside of the box with a female garden hose fitting poking out above the surface, and a male garden hose fitting under the surface attaching to the completely buried soaker hose. That way if anyone pulls on the supply hose it doesn't disturb the soaker hose. Why sixteen feet? Because that's the length of the cattle panel I use for a trellis; or, as you can see in the picture, you can bend three of them into Gothic arches to make 'a cathedral of tomato worship'....See MoreWhat do wish you'd known?
Comments (34)Coming from the industry I really find this thread very informative. From the posts the biggest surprise to me was no one mentioned "I wish I had installed automation on my pool". Maybe it is explained everyone did get automation when they installed the pool. Automation for a pool is like a remote for a TV. The least surprising thing I read was the concern of all the power used by a pool and driving up electric bills. In defense of the PB; the IntelliFlo and Intelliflo 4 speed are very recent product introductions to our industry. These products change the way a PB has thought about pumps in the past. Unfortunately the prevailing PB's thinking was: the bigger the pump the better. A 2 HP power had to be better than a 1.5 HP pump. Actually if you only have 2" suction pipe they are both about the same except the 2HP will be louder because the 2" pipe cannot draw the water required to operate the pump effectively. This thinking has been really around since the beginning of time. Now a company comes out with a completely different pump that requires completely different thinking. The thinking now has to be: Take a pump and set the RPM's of the pump to operate the pool at it most optimum, efficient performance. No more bigger is better thinking. It will be only a matter of time before all the choices of HP are no longer available - just one pump and you set the RPM speed. Presently the minimum energy savings of a IntelliFlo pump verses a standard pump is 30%. That is due to the rare earth magnets that are used in the motor. A long story short a standard pool pump needs to create a magnetic field through the motor windings to turn the shaft of the motor. The IntelliFl pump is a magnetic and this alone saves 30%. Now set the RPM's for the actual GPM your pool requires and the savings begin to move from 30% up 90%. The savings will average 60% on most pools. That means if your bill is $100.00; it will now be $40.00. Lastly two more points: PGE and other utilities offer a minimum of $250.00 rebate for just buying this pump and this pump can do more than one application. In other words and in many cases you can replace a pump therefore having one pump do two applications - that equals super savings. Each day more and more PB's are beginning to understand the concept and see the benefits of these pumps. A month ago at a industry show in Las Vegas there was a IntelliFlo/ Variable Speed seminar and the room had well over 200 people in it. A year ago this seminar was not even offered....See Morejim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoSheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
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7 years agoKarenPA_6b
7 years agozack_lau z6 CT ARS Consulting Rosarian
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7 years agolast modified: 7 years agohoovb zone 9 sunset 23
7 years agofarmerduck NJ Z6b
7 years agoAJ (6A)
7 years agomodestgoddess z6 OH
7 years agoKate M (zone 5b Des Moines)
7 years agofragrancenutter
7 years agoP TW
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7 years agoSoFL Rose z10
7 years agozack_lau z6 CT ARS Consulting Rosarian
7 years agoRobin Lemke
7 years agozack_lau z6 CT ARS Consulting Rosarian
7 years agoBethC in 8a Forney, TX
7 years agoRobin Lemke
7 years agokentucky_rose zone 6
7 years agozack_lau z6 CT ARS Consulting Rosarian
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agodebbym, Tempe, AZ Zone 9
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7 years agoKes Z 7a E Tn
7 years agonoseometer...(7A, SZ10, Albuquerque)
7 years agoPatty W. zone 5a Illinois
7 years agoPatty W. zone 5a Illinois
7 years agoRose Beginner(MA - 6A)
7 years agotowandaaz
7 years agoLynn-in-TX-Z8b- Austin Area/Hill Country
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agojjpeace (zone 5b Canada)
7 years agoSylviaWW 9a Hot dry SoCal
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7 years agocarlotaroser
7 years agojjpeace (zone 5b Canada)
7 years agoSheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
7 years agocarlotaroser
7 years agojjpeace (zone 5b Canada)
7 years ago
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