Bought a buddleja!
rosaprimula
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mxk3 z5b_MI
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Very basic questions for a beginner.
Comments (9)My initial response is to suggest you contact your local extension office to tap into those resources for gardening in your zone/location. Next would be to visit local botanical gardens to see what does well in similar conditions to what you have to offer the plants & how well your soil/growing conditions meet their needs. After that, check out some gardening books from the library and do your homework--I did tons of research before I ever stuck a spade in the dirt to design my beds and I was a fairly experienced gardener when I started out. Don't lose track of the wealth of information that's available to you thanks to the Internet. Here at GardenWeb are many voices of experience that, if you heed them, will help you avoid lots of common mistakes the rest of us have made (sometimes repeatedly) over the years. Read old threads and learn from our mistakes. I hit the jackpot when I moved here--my folks practiced organic gardening for 50 years before I came so I'm blessed with amazing soil conditions + lots of healthy, plump worms. First lesson I learned was to avoid chemicals--they're marked 'poison' for a reason. Poison the weeds & you poison the bugs & you're poisoning the earth. For every garden situation, there is generally a non-toxic, earth-friendly alternative. For example, I pour vinegar on weeds & poison ivy rather than spraying them with weed killer. Check out a book called 'Trowel & Error' by Sharon Lovejoy--you won't regret reading it. Watering may or may not be an issue given your soil type and zone but again, it doesn't hurt to ask questions of the neighbors or local garden experts. There's generally a garden article in our weekly local paper so it's often a good thing to read those. One tip I can offer is that when you do water, it's best to water at the base of a plant but only when it needs it. A recycled plastic milk jug set close to a plant & with a pinhole an inch from the bottom will slowly let out a stream of water so the plant gets watered at the base. Generally speaking, watering the entire plant during the growing season isn't recommended. IMO grass is the worst invasive plant on the planet. If you just grind it up when starting a new bed, you may never live long enough to eradicate it. I dug up the turf in sections and removed it before planting a new bed. Looking back, it was one of the smartest things I ever did even when I didn't know what I was doing. Did you buy the butterfly bushes or grow them from seed? Did you tease out the roots before setting them in the ground? The roots of nursery-grown plants tend to start growing around and around inside their pots because there's insufficient depth/room for them in the pot. If you don't tease them loose before planting, they'll continue to grow in a circle which ultimately means the plant dies. Ask me how I learned this. While I don't amend my soil (thanks Mom & Dad), many on the forum will recommend you add compost to the soil. Your planting window may or may not be closed at this point but that's a zone-specific question which I'll leave to those more familiar with your growing conditions. I can pretty much plant right through the season except for the extreme heat/dryness of mid-summer where I am but generally consider each plant's unique requirements before doing so. Like you, I have zero interest in annuals other than pansies--got to have pansies as soon as they're available from the nurseries. My focus the past 7+ years has been perennials that perform consistently in the garden with little to no help from me and which attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Keep in mind Mother Nature has kept the planet green for a few million years without our help so take whatever tips you can from what she's accomplished & do your part to keep it going. One last note--check out the Winter Sowing forum. You can grow lots of perennials from seed for virtually zero cost and quickly fill your garden with healthy plants in a short space of time that way. My own garden beds are now filled with perennials I grew from seed via WS. As a result I've achieved my garden goals far more speedily than I ever would have anticipated....See Moregetting tree stumps out
Comments (3)its a lot of hard labor.. but i would strip it down to 3 or 4 foot trunk stumps ... a meter or so, if you will ... these will be used for leverage .... then just start digging as close to trunk as possible .... dig a bit.. see if they trunks flex .. watch for where you see roots moving in the soil .. cut one.. dig some more.. wiggle some more .... cut more roots.. dig more.. cut more.. wiggle more ... get one plant out ... then get some ale.. and fall to the ground in physical exhaustion.. and make plans for the following Saturday ... start by sharpening your shovel to cut thru smaller roots ... a good pruning saw will help .. and will be ruined using it in the soil ... a sawsall might kick up the power ... bottom line.. its just a lot of backbreaking hard work ... or if you are an optimist ... great exercise ... good luck ken ps: insure there are no buried utilities ......See MoreStop planting butterfly bushes!!!
Comments (19)LEWISTOWN - The Mifflin County Garden Club has been busy beautifying the library grounds in preparation for its upcoming flower show. The club's co-chair Betsy Baker said the committee, which is made up of six local residents, Deanna Spickler, also a co-chair, Bonnie Mills, Marty Fisher, Sue Hunter, Sara Buffington, MaryAnne Wilson and William Basom, began working on the garden project in April. The club added educational plaques to the landscaped area around the library. Plaques bear both the common and botanical names of the different plants and flowers in the garden. Also, the committee planted a butterfly bush in memory of George H. Armstrong, who was the husband of a long time and active club member, Lois Armstrong. In addition to the butterfly bush, the committee planted purple fountain grass, petunias, profusion zinnia and sweet potato vine. ;-) heh heh...See MoreOmnibus 2018 winter damage report for the mid-Atlantic region
Comments (32)What a coincidence this was bumped re: crape myrtles. Because I almost did so myself. I really think they are way over planted (down here), but I also think they are useful plants and wouldn't mind having ONE in the garden. Years ago I bought a supposed 'Siren Red' from a mail order company but was not initially sure that's really what it was. Then later, out of some idle curiosity about whether any 'vintage' cultivars had an equal or even superior red coloring, ordered 'Cedar Lane Red' from Woodlanders. This is the pre-1990s cultivar imputed to have one of the best red flowers. Well, the final result on the color front is that I think 'Siren Red' has trouble developing a good color here - the fact my plant is in some shade doesn't help, I'm sure - but it is an improvement over 'Cedar Lane Red'. But the REAL downer is that 'Cedar Lane Red', died to the ground, while 'Siren Red' didn't. At 0F with as I've noted repeatedly, incredibly deeply frozen soil. I was always skeptical of the claim that guy in Oklahoma was ALSO hybridizing for hardiness...figures like -10F were being thrown around a few years ago...but, it certainly doesn't seem especially tender. So, the 'Cedar Lane Red' is already "bye bye" and I'm keeping 'Siren Red'. You can't really keep space for inferior cultivars, and I needed a spot for X Gordlinia 'Sweet Tea' anyhow. One more sad change to the above: something very bad is going on with Taiwania. Either...delayed winter damage, or root rot, or root rot triggered by winter damage. This is one of my favorite conifers and I supposedly had the hardier form which is rarely offered, so this might just be the worst development of the entire winter. Eucalyptus parvula, Grevillea 'Poorinda Leane',Cistus 'Ledon' and Rhododendron 'Cloudburst' are definitely gone, but those are hardly irreplaceable and for some of them known to be borderline so no shock. If it was cold that killed it, I'm surprised 0F killed the Taiwania because it had really grown well last year, after sulking in a pot for years. I did untangle the roots and maybe untangled them a little too much: but again I wouldn't expect it to have looked so good going into winter, if that had been the case. Maybe it just needed another year of establishment: since it clearly wasn't happy in a pot I should maybe have planted it spring 2016. There's one little branch that still looks semi-alive, but all of the others have dried up and died, so I think it's a goner. Since my post above it's been on an agonizing downward spiral; though I wonder if it was already dead and just taking a long time to look dead compared to my other rarities!...See Morerosaprimula
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