What's happening in your garden?

[Manalto]

My dragon is such a snob; she won't use her tail to dig in the garden.

[mjt]

The weeds, of course, will flourish.

A weed is a plant that grows where you don't want it.

[phil]

I think we should have a dandelion competition. Maybe the one that grows the largest one can win a old doorknob or something?

[Gothichome]

Well forks, spring has officially arrived in Chatham. Tulips are growing fast, roses are bedding hard and the robins have arrived. Best get my last inside project finished. It will soon be time to concentrate on out side work.

[Manalto]

Today the first gardenia of spring began to open.



By the end of the month the shrub will be covered in bloom. I placed it under a bank of windows at the back of the house so the fragrance wafts into the house, especially at night.

[Gothichome]

We had a cold front move in earlier in the week, it has stalled most growth in our gardens. Hoping it will be he last time we see negative temp numbers.

[Manalto]

My "rescue" gladiolus is in bloom.



So is the tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) down the street.

[awomanwithahammer]

Not precisely a garden, but hey! it's what passes for one in my world. I finally got a good picture of my azaleas in full bloom, or actually just a few days past. They're already fading. I don't think I've posted a picture of the house since I painted it. It's no longer yellow!

[Manalto]

Nice. The pink azaleas are better against a green house, IMHO.

[phil]

I decided I should pull some weeds this weekend so I got outhere yanking. somehow I buried or misplaced my favorite fork tool.

I have some little flowers with purple tips, they look kind of like tiny grape bunches.. they go like crazy duplicating so each year I have been trying my best to dig as many as I can up and each year there seems to be more. Is there a way to stop them? lay garden felt maybe? If I allow it they will take over the whole garden and my grass.

I have a bunch of little trees and things and some herbs that grow yearly like sage , and rosemary. some roses that wrap around my lilac trees.
I have a row of about a dozen blueberry bushes. a couple of plumb trees. I planted some green onions in there and they come back. I dont know but I thought maybe green onions and garlic were good to ward off pests. or was it just garlic? we eat some of the green onions. I have some various garden plants and things. some rhubarb and I've heard that helps with pests but the ants seem to love it near my rhubarb. I tried putting some borax down in the holes they push sand out under my sidewalks.. It seemed to work a little when I did that last year.

My aim isn't to make things more complicated I just want things under control before I get distracted with roofing. Mainly I dont want my neighbors cursing me because of the way weeds spread. Meanwhile my girlfriend hates weeding and says cant you just let it go all natural? Its hard to answer but I know if I do nothing I get an even bigger big mess so maybe the secret is planning more simply. leaving things natural seems simple until you realize it just gets out of control. you can get packs of wildflowers and they can look nice but I'm always afraid some will take over like these little bulbs I mentioned.

I've been trying to grow just clover out front. I managed to get about half covered in with noice clover about 2-3" tall, then If I mow it the clover seems to not like that so much. I had a lot of the little white flower things coming up , I think they are morning glory maybe? and vines and a variety of coarse weeds. I tried to leave the clover alone and pull as much of the heavy bunch grass and weeds, hoping to tilt the scales a bit so the clover can spread. Maybe I can move some plugs of it around to make it want to spread out more. maybe some just needs better dirt. I got a yard of planting soil last year and I could do it again on the patchy areas. Ive got just a bit more clover seed so I thought maybe I mix it with some dirt I can spread that thin on the patchy areas. the seeds are expensive. last year I ran the thatcher thing on my lawnmower and it took everything down to topsoil then I reseeded but it didn't change things a lot.

lawn grass seems to inevitably get into the clover and I dont mind it if it is just lawn grass. If I plant it I use kentucky bluegrass , its a bit finer. inevitably I get really coarse grass and it takes over. its more like wheat than lawn grass.

the sage is doing well. I dont use it for anything but it smells nice and it seems able to fight off the other undergrowth so maybe I can plant more sage to get things under control. I have a round planter out front with lilac trees in the center. Its OK fpr flowers and such but with the heavy traffic noise I dont want anything high maintenance there.