Nature's own plant combination from Carrie ...
roselee z8b S.W. Texas
2 years ago
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Plant Combination Gone Bad - Need Advice
Comments (11)Seil.... Yes, Lynnie is a great garden rose - thank you Kim - but, this experience taught me to listen to myself when I know I need to do something NOW to keep a rose healthy. I know the budeyes have to be exposed to the light to activate. That bit of knowledge often informs my pruning cuts. I knew I had to cut those leaves back, but every time I thought of it, I was in the midst of something else I needed to get done and my pruners/shears were not handy, so I would make a mental note to do it the next time I worked on that level of the garden. What I didn't know was how quickly the lack of light would impact the plant or how quickly it would recover. From now on, instead of a mental note to myself, I am going to stop what I am doing and take care of whatever may inhibit the plant from growing well. Lesson learned the hard way. Smiles, Lyn...See MoreWant to Combine Cottage Gardening with Nature (Wildlife) How?
Comments (17)I didn't have much time to write about this, so here's how we attract and keep the wildlife. I have a mass planting of the verbena bonariensis that I planted just for our goldfinches. They love it. Right now, the bees are in a total frenzy on all of the hypericum blooms (St. Johns Wort). Previously, it was the lavender and nepeta. For the butterflies, I have bronze fennel, parsley and milkweed planted as host plants. My milkweed hasn't bloomed, so it hasn't been used as a host. I have lots of food source for them through flowers. We have a birdbath that where we keep wet sand for a beach for them. For the hummingbirds, I have penstemon, monarda and agastache scattered throughout the entire garden. I have a grouping of salvia red Navajo, which they really love. There are many other plants that they like, too. One of the guys watches me refill the feeders and will beg when they are empty. He buzzes me quite often when I'm outside. He has a favorite branch in our willow tree where he sits when we're on the front porch. Frogs, both tree frogs and bullfrogs, live in our manmade stream in the garden and the natural creek in our woods. We have toads throughout the garden. The geckos follow us around the garden and sun themselves on our stone foundation, steps and porch. We have bluebird houses throughout our neighborhood and we have them on our property as well. We have shrubs that serve as shelter and our property is also bordered by acres of woods on two sides. They are particularly fond of our wax myrtles (plant them away from the house because the scent isn't good) and hollies. They like to hang out in our willow trees to scope out the garden and get in line at the birdfeeders. For some reason, they love our clump bamboo, so as it grows larger, I'm wondering if it will become a home. We also have open meadow which attracts mourning doves (who also walk around our garden paths all the time), rufous-sided towhees, meadowlarks, robins and bluebirds. There are several woodpeckers who visit our feeders. The goldfinches are the most common in our garden. The carolina chickadees also hang out and get very close to me (they know who supplies the food, I suppose). Yes, I'm a crazy lady who talks to all these critters who are hanging around me all the time! My son thought I was crazy, but after working in the garden with me during his spring break, he started talking to the critters, too! :-) Lastly, we have the cute, but destructive deer and squirrel population. A doe had her fawn in the woods next our house last year and she did the same thing this year. They aren't afraid of us, or our greyhound. Here's the latest addition (taken in the rain and 15x zoom, so it's fuzzy):...See Morehydrangeas & other plant combinations
Comments (8)Thanks for all the suggestions! I As I said, the hydrangeas were not part of the plan, I just moved them there because i thought it was a better place for them (and it was). I was about to throw them away for not blooming, this was their last chance! The bed is rather large, surrounding the house and patio on one side. It has a Heritage river birch on it (still a small tree right now). There is a shady side (dappled shade)of the bed where the hydrangea and rhododendrons are located. And there is a sunny, south facing side on the other side of the tree, slightly up hill from the hydrangea. There is yet another side of the bed that is further from the tree, that again has close to full sun conditions. The rhododendrons are "Olga" which are tolerant of full sun and are doing very well. So the Iris can still be on another side of the bed and do well. The rest of the plants she recommended are appropriate and doing well, except that I now like the hydrangeas and would love to chose everything to go well with them. So, to clarify, as you move away from the hydrangeas there is more and more sun. They are located west from the house and north from the tree. I think some hostas can take more sun. Not sure about the others as I have no experience with shade gardening... all my trees are all young still... So, does that change your suggestions? I do like the idea of growing plants as they would grow in nature, and as the birch grows I will incorporate more shade plants. But I will still have space there for plants that love more sun. Thanks! Anda...See MoreKids and the media - carried over from another post
Comments (14)I personally hate TV--it makes me antsy, antsy, antsy. I can't stand to have it on unless I'm actually WATCHING it, and there are very few shows I can stand enough to waste my time on them (Smallville rules!!! anything w/ Superman) I don't like my kids to watch TV because i don't like the content, I can't control it because I can't see what it is before it happens. I also think a lot of cartoons are over their heads. And I hate commercials. The day my daughter came home from Grandma's, where she watches her 2 hours or less per week (though I swear I think it's more) and said, "Mom, do you know the hair you want can be the hair you have?" I almost called grandma right then and there to announce they wouldn't be coming over anymore. My societal objections to TV come from 2 places: a Nero Wolfe novel, and a study done in Canada on social interactions and how they changed w/ the advent of TV. In the Canadian study, they measured the amount of time spent in conversation, the ages of those conversing or interacting, and the topic of their interaction. There was a town that only in 1970 or so was able to get broadcast TV, so it was a great place to study. They found that cross-generational conversation plummeted, and that those conversations specifically (but all conversations) became more logistical, superficial, and less ideas-driven or emotional. Shallower, and about the stuff you HAVE to talk about, like pass the salt and what time are you getting out from work. In the Nero Wolfe novel, Archie Goodwin goes to some people's house to pick up clues and impressions, and they all file into a semidarkened room to watch TV and nobody talks to one another. He comments to us that the advent of TV has ruined investigations, because nobody talks anymore, and when they do they talk about TV shows instead of something interesting. When my kids watch a video (the only thing they're allowed to watch at home), they don't talk to each other (except to fight about who's bonking their feet against whom) or to anyone else. And I'm w/ you all the way, Stephanie, on the idea that we have to choose. (I love that "are you new here?") I also like Anita9's point that "those wonderful old shows" weren't necessarily so wonderful. And I think that kids approach TV differently. They've got a lot more competing for their time and attention--computer games, etc. We don't really remember that time period well--WE WERE KIDS!!! And we have romanticized anything we do remember (which is perfect normal). Also, I remember reading that w/ Game Boys they found that after the first year of kids being mesmerized, they actually didn't like to play w/ them very much anymore--they're become sated. I think that happens w/ people who watch a lot of TV. I, for example, grew up WITHOUT a TV. We didn't have one in the house until I was 17, and our rural town got cable TV as an experiment, so my dad got us a tiny B&W (I thought the Incredible Hulk was gray, and said so at school, LOL!). So I am mesmerized when it's on around me. I get sucked in, even if I don't want to be. I think a huge part of that is that I'm just not used to it. Other people I know can have it on as background noise and never even notice it; they all grew up with a TV going a lot. They feel lost when it's off and t e noise isn't there. I also read that the advent of the auto and of the TV correspond w/ the advent of obesity as a problem for children. Here's another great truth: " It is only when you have NO rules and NO LIMITS that you run into serious problems. "...See MoreB in 8a DFW
2 years agoroselee z8b S.W. Texas
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoroselee z8b S.W. Texas
2 years agoroselee z8b S.W. Texas
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agowantonamara Z8 CenTex
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoroselee z8b S.W. Texas thanked wantonamara Z8 CenTexmemetexas
2 years agoLesli Neubauer (South central TX zone 8b/9)
2 years agoroselee z8b S.W. Texas thanked Lesli Neubauer (South central TX zone 8b/9)
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