Southern Exposure Foyer- No Fail Neutral Needed
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
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- 7 years ago
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Southerner needs help learning how to garden in the NW
Comments (10)Sluggo works very well and is safe for use around kids and pets. One of the more eco-friendly of the available slug/snail controls. I grow lots of plants in containers and have little problem with them and slugs, although conditions can vary widely. One method to deter them from containers is to run a band of copper tape along the inside of the container lip with a slight edged exposed on the top - copper and slugs don't mix well :-)) Lady ferns, Athyrium, are herbaceous and will dieback in late fall and with the onset of cold weather. Some species/cultivars are slower to do this than others and will hold on to green fronds well into the winter, but they never look good and I recommend cutting them back. But there are lots of evergreen ferns to choose from as well. Polystichum polyblepharum or tassel fern is one of my favorites with glossy, deep green fronds year round that look almost like they have been polished. I'd also recommend that you consider larger containers - I consider an 18" diameter pretty much a minimum for any kind of significant mixed container planting. Most local retail nurseries have pot recycling bins for discarded black nursery pots and you can often find a good selection of larger sizes in spring as the planting crush hits. This is a good source of very inexpensive (free!) containers to use until you feel comfortable investing in more decorative ones. They tend not to dry out as fast in summer as terra cotta ones do and are far more durable through winter. For smaller pots, a single plant type is often very effective. In your situation, I'd consider hostas - they are dramatic as a container plant and IME, far safer from slug damage in a container than in the ground. FWIW, you can grow anything, including small trees, in a container provided you provide the correct size and appropriate care. Visiting local nurseries and investigating their offerings for shade or part shade should provide all sorts of possibilities. Many of these will also offer classes in container design as well with many helpful tips, as this is one of the fastest growing aspects of hobby gardening....See MoreNeutral 3rd party opinions needed. Please be honest with me.
Comments (20)***Update*** OK, so the aforementioned garden center owners bought all of the critter cages I had on hand. They seemed excited, and pleased with the cages' construction. Purchase vs. consignment was discussed-- neither she nor I had any real preference. I think she just paid me for them outright because she needed some for her own use in their display gardens. But, it was my understanding that future critter cage orders, be it purchase or consignment, would be sold to customers without a markup. My guess is that they believe they will sell more plants if they have some sort of critter protection to offer to wary customers. They sell something like 200+ varieties of hostas...... and we all know how much voles love them. No idea yet on how well they are selling. It's still a bit early in our gardening season-- Apr 15 is our "safe" planting date. If I ever get another order for more cages, I think I'll need to attach some sort of pre-printed tag. Something with the product name, price, the garden center's info, and maybe a slogan. The only name I can think to call them is "anti-critter planting cage", which seems like a mouthful. The only slogan I could come up with was something along the lines of "Protect your plants, time, and sanity". Any ideas? I know there are some creative people out there who would like to channel their inner Don Draper. Despite this first sale, I'm still on the fence about the whole endeavor. Just for sh**s and giggles, I contacted one of the local farmer's markets that was recommended to me. The manager liked the critter cage idea and thought they would "dovetail" with their other vendors. She said their M.O. is to provide organic/sustainable/Eco-minded local farmers and businesses a place to sell their goods. She also said they have a few veggie and garden plant vendors, as well as a bulb grower. It sounded promising, so I looked up some photos of the market online. A lot of their vendors look like super-serious operations. Tents, signage, huge displays, staff, logo-ed packaging....... it's all very intimidating. Anybody out there with farmer's market experience? If it's anything like holding a garage sale, I'm *out*. To quote "Mythbusters", this starting to feel like a bad idea. But I'm still oddly drawn to it. Dear Hubby hasn't been much help-- he's been trained to temper his opinions:) Please help me make an informed decision. I promise I won't keep pestering you all....See MoreNeed SW Neutral Paint suggestions
Comments (6)I am moving to Thorsby. We have a construction manager to make sure things get dome while we are not there, but my husband is basically the contractor. He is currently managing a multi-family building here in Texas and SW Macadamia walls and SW Canvas Tan ceilings are what the decorator used in the corridors. It doesnÂt look bad with the lights off in the day, but there are fluorescent lights in there and when they are on it cast a weird yellow/green. I havenÂt seen the trim on these colors yet but they are using SW Whole Wheat for trim and I thought it was too yellow so I considered the SW Softer Tan. They are also using SW Camelback w/ SW Whole Wheat trim in the clubhuse area and it seemed too gold....See MoreIn need of a pretty BM neutral paint
Comments (11)I have Manchester Tan and like it, but it is a medium gold - darker than Believable Buff. BM Pittsfield Buff is a lovely color and I'd say it's almost a match to Believable Buff. If you really like Believable Buff, I bet BM could mix it for you with their paints. SW has all the BM colors and I've had SW mix all my paints that I've used that are BM colors. With computers, they pretty much can mix what ever you want....See MoreRelated Professionals
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- 7 years ago
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