Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Manalto
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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The tree looks like it might be Prunus serotina, Black Cherry. It's a native tree widespread throughout the eastern US. Scrape off some bark with your thumbnail on a thin branch. Prunus is fragrant.

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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I posted a bit about some work I finally made time for yesterday in the "what I did at my house" thread. Been sidetracked quite a bit the last few days with one pressing un old house related project in particular.

It seems Shoobie has reached the end of his berries for the year. We're still thrilled to death that we got any at all. The wild strawberries we've tasted so far have not been very tasty, and I have some sites bookmarked about wild varieties that may mean what we have will never be very tasty.

The blackberries are taking their sweet time growing. The red raspberries are chugging along, and the birds love them more than the black variants we now have several baby runners presenting on our side of the rock wall. The ones in the southern shady area seem to be petering out, which happened right around when we had a short cold spell..one night it was down to low 50s. Not sure if that had anything to do with it.

We had another bush starting to berry along the rock wall, and Sean assumed they were blueberries and started trying them, but I told him to stop until I could ID for sure. There are quite a few berry something all tangled up in that spot, and some of the berries are round smooth and red that turn dark. So I want to make sure. He still insists what he ate tasted "blueberry" to him, so I'm probably just being paranoid. I've been reading up on a lot of wild foraging sites of late trying to ID certain things, and most of them have loads of warnings about look alikes that are not good to eat. :roll:

Manalto wrote:The tree looks like it might be Prunus serotina, Black Cherry. It's a native tree widespread throughout the eastern US. Scrape off some bark with your thumbnail on a thin branch. Prunus is fragrant.
I will do this today. It's been crazy here this week, too much going on overall. Fortunately, one side project is quickly winding down. :D
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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So...I think I mentioned in one thread or another that I had finally found the good cameras. I also have kept forgetting to charge the one I typically use to make sure the batteries can still hold a charge.

I was checking our milkweed seed pods to look for signs of splitting (when they recommend you take them off to get the seeds out with less fuzzies to deal with), and I saw this little guest, chomping away:
Image
Seeing that typically blurry close-up, I decided it was time to unravel the charger for the better camera. I'm pretty sure this is the same one--that leaf above now long gone as breakfast--and was hanging out in the understory plants:
Image

Still not as clear as I'd like, but it was very low down, and I was holding back as much grass and clover as I could with one hand. I'm not sure if it was the light being filtered through leaves that gave such a greener tone, or maybe something happened to the camera while it's been in storage for so long (hopefully not). If I find more, I might break out our wee tripod just in case my hands really aren't as steady as they used to be.

I am sort of concerned that this is the only Monarch caterpillar I've seen so far, but one is better than none! I hope nothing makes a snack of it before it can cocoon and change over.
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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I didn't take any pictures yesterday, but today we bought a Coreopsis variant from the "Big Bang" line. Sean picked it out. The petals are burgundy towards the center with yellow tips. We had to wait for a few bumblebees to finish with it before we could buy it, so it seems a winner for pollinators in that respect. I've been concerned with how our flowering plants that were planted or self seeded prior to our arrival seem to be petering out so early in the summer. So that's one of the reasons why I wanted to stop at the Agway to see what they had. This is supposed to be a sturdy and easy to care for perennial, and when I mentioned getting it in another discussion group I'm in, someone piped in that they believe they really are, from experience (Coreopsis in general). I've seen it quoted as good for zone 5 and once saw it listed for 4, but 5 was more commonly mentioned. The label on the pot didn't say. The flowers should last well into September.

This was the first time we bought a planting from first seeing it. Before, we've noted things we were interested in, and then I looked them up to see if they were native and other info. So it oddly felt a bit risky. :lol:

When we got it back to Beebe, I had him pick a sunny spot for it. When we took it out of the pot, I was very pleased that not only was it not root bound, but it self divided, in a sense, into three clumps. From what I read about them, I assumed I'd be dividing it later in the season, yet already done! We then proceeded to clear three areas and plant them. We should have cleared better, as two of them are in the thick of the wild strawberry melee with only a small amount of clearance around from the vines, but I will go back later today and fix them. I'll take pictures then.

The garage bed is a beast. I tried to let stuff grow just to see what was there. This may have been a mistake, as some things just went crazy when we had all that rain. So in a sense, it's like a jungle again. The strawberries have also sent out so many runners that I've been frantic trying to keep up with them. Several times, including now, I have lost sight of the rocks that border the garage bed.

The biggest problem with the garage bed is all the pieces of deteriorating weed cloth. It's a nightmare to work it all out of the soil where it deteriorated the worst. We've been finding it in other beds with the same problem, but usually larger chunks. I'm curious if the cloth in the garage bed is older, or was subject to more weeds over time due to the sunnier location. It also isn't terribly effective, as we keep finding all manner of weeds that have sent tiny tendrils through perfectly untorn bits. Still, it's easier to deal with overall than sifting and picking out safety glass bits. Sean and I both did one round of that today, and it really is an exercise in patience if you don't want to toss all the small pebbles as well. I learned quickly that once you have most of the dirt sifted, it's best to pick through in the shade. ;-) It is really interesting to see the top layer of the dirt where you worked look like well sifted dark brown flour. I was almost worried it might blow away if the winds got strong. Fortunately, every time we do a round, the area left that still has glass in it gets smaller and smaller, so the end is in sight.

We are starting to get a better sense in the backyard overall of where we want our paths. The plan for next year is to have raised beds running down the center of the yard, which we are going to try to support with willow. The idea is every year they will get a bit taller as the willow grows until we find a comfortable height to work with, and then we'll start training the willow to edge the beds. I'm excited that Sean is as eager to experiment with willow in our gardens as I am. I think they will be hard to train at first, especially where we want to use it as a retaining wall in the front yard, but I think the work will pay off over time. We don't think all the area we want to do this will happen next year, but I'm new to working with willow this way, so we'll see.

Our neighbor is giving us some low wire garden fence bits that I am going to try to use as trellis for the strawberries. I've never done this before, so I have no idea how successful this may work out or not. We had seen bamboo teepees at Agway, and that got me to thinking about the beans we never planted this year, but I also thought it wouldn't be enough support for the strawberries with even the shortest teepee, no matter how long some of the tendrils are that I've been unwinding as best I can.

Most of the strawberry vines in the garden bed did not bear much fruit at all. That bed is also the most dense in layers, so I'm not terribly surprised. They're smothering themselves. The safety glass bed has born more berries so far, and unlike what we originally guessed, they do get sweet over time--they are not the so-called "tasteless" variety. They just took a really long time to sweeten up. That bed does get shaded by the cellar stairwell in the earlier parts of the day, so I don't know if that contributed to that or not. I need to do some more reading up on them so I can give them their best chance of yield next year.

The compost pile grows by the day, and I realized--too late--that I should have stopped heaping everything on my first pile (bay) about a week ago. There are sections, probably mostly aided by the baked dandelion mess, that is definitely black gold, but I realized today I have to start the second bay with newer materials I added yesterday because I'm retarding the overall progress of the first. I have so many piles of twigs and branches that still need cutting up.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I finally found a purpose for the dog house. We're going to use it to make our farm stand. I mention this now because one of the plans I have for the twigs and branches is to make fire starter and kindling bundles to try to sell. There are a lot of folks with wood stoves around here, so we might manage to sell some. I have to decide to set some space aside in the cellar or maybe hanging baskets in the garage for that wood so they can cure best.

Good news, speaking of that area of the yard, is the climbers of the Oriental Bittersweet that I had cut at the base but could not pull down are dying off. So even if I can't pull them down closer to fall when they are even more dried out, they will eventually decompose out of the trees on their own. I'm worried some berries may have fallen before I killed them, so we may have some new sprouting to deal with next year. I still have to dig them all out from under the trees as I noticed they are trying to arise anew and making it to the lowest branches again. If the weather holds this week, I will be very busy with that. My gut is thinking bag and bake for all those bits as well.

I have yet to pick a spot for the feeder I picked up from next door. It is a pretty basic plastic model, so likely I'll need to do a pole with a waxed base and fashion a shield since it doesn't have much towards preventing the Squirrel Army from seizing supplies.

I've been trying to keep an eye on all the wildflowers that have dotted the yard. Fortunately, neither of our neighbors has complained that I started letting the bulk of the front slope and back yard go wild so I could see what we have available. I'm trying to start deciding where I might move some things so it's slightly more cottage-y organized than all out overgrowth looking. I have a lot of grass to pull. A lot. I imagine I will be doing that for some time.

The sunflower seeds I planted last month are taking their sweet time growing, and many were either eaten or did not germinate. I was concerned about this, since I found my seed and pip stash well into the summer, so they were not safely in the cooler storage of the cellar. I'm actually a bit surprised at the one of two seeds I dared to sow on the west side of the strip between the neighbor's fence to the east and our driveway. I was genuinely worried that they wouldn't grow at all due to the heavy shading in early-late morning, but one is diligently growing. I planted quite a lot on the corner I don't know what to do with, and I can only see two that have come up. That was very disappointing. The ones I planted in front of the porch show no signs of growth at all, which is likely due to how long they are shaded once the early sun moves towards the back of the house. That's not as much of a disappointment, and could also be due to the seeds being eaten or just really is they didn't germinate.

I did look up a local tulip company, and had a discussion with Sean about what we could reasonably afford bulb wise this fall, and made a list of a few variants we can start with. I like this company because they sell bags of 10 instead of 25, which helps our budgeting. We set our plan so that we can spend as little as $20, or up to $100. We tried to balance between early to late season bloomers to help with attracting pollinators, but if the budget tightens up, that may affect how far we can span the seasons.

On the same site where I went for the Monarch info/posting, they also have a program for tracking a particular tulip where you can input the data. It's a worldwide educational program so participating schools can help their students understand how various conditions and weather variations affect the growth cycle of plants beyond the ones they grow themselves. The organic place I wanted to buy a bulb from no longer had them listed, so I need to contact them to see if they still participate in the program. Otherwise, I'll have to go with another vendor if we want to get one of those as well.

The plan right now for the slope is to cut one, possible two shelf/ves into it, and plant bulbs, hopefully a few early crocuses, self seeders, some of the milkweed seeds, and transplant the various lilies we have already to contribute to what is already there--like the flea bane. I don't know how much my digging up will affect the self seeders that bloomed so nicely there. I've been weighing turf removal options to try to prevent as much unintended disposal of them as possible. Hand pulling that entire slope of grass is definitely doable, but I do not know if I will have enough time to do so.

I'm going to see if I can sell some of the lilies next year, and hopefully some other plant bits to help fund our growing gardens. When I was on one of my walks in the neighborhood recently, I noticed I could see a few hoop style greenhouses behind the house with the farm stand out front on the other side of that block.

My hope is every year we'll thin as needed for selling, and add a bit more until the entire slope is awash with flowers during spring/summer. I've been thinking about using the already extant mosses and clover as ground cover here and there so when the flowers die back, it won't be barren with just a slope of mulch. We're also going to move quite a few plants in the front in general around, in particular the hostas. Some of the variegated ones will be moved to shadier areas in the back.

We keep talking about the flat part of the front lawn, and what we will be possible with the limited budget we have for next year. I desperately want to put a small, almost mini, rain garden up there, but I don't know if we'll be able to afford many "attractive" plants for there. We have some typically seen as weeds that will help fill, but I don't want them to be the only plantings in the rain garden. Then again, maybe I just lack confidence in how I lay them out so they might look nice enough to not make the neighbors sniff. :)

We're also still debating how wide to make the bed in the front. We know we only have so much room on the west side, and our latest plans around the dry creek bed will mostly only leave the ferns, moss and rhododendron over there beside the rock property border. But getting back to the front porch beds...right now, all the plantings have no space behind them should we want to put a ladder there, and many are fighting hard against the AC siding. We still should leave a reasonable walkway there, so soonish I'll be getting out the graph paper and playing with math. I'm also thinking of leaning more towards a shallower edge with it growing wider towards the stairs on both sides.

Until we finally decide if the holly bushes are going on the west property border or atop the front before the slope, I'm really not sure how much room we'll have to work with. I need to consider, I think, either moving the hollies completely out of the front, possible near to the rock property border in the back, or possibly even just letting them go to another home.

So, lots to think about and do. I probably forgot to mention a lot. *laugh*
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

Here's two of our three Cosmic Eye plants from the three that divided off when we de-potted them. The third, which we had put a bit closer to the driveway was dug up and looked worse for wear. We replanted it and watered it generously, so we'll see if it recovers.
Image
As you can see, the carpet of wild strawberries still needs unraveling and likely most will end up in the compost. I saw one runner today that was at least five feet long traveling over the top of the carpet nearby.

We did get some solid work done removing the Oriental Bittersweet today. I posted about that in the "What I did at my house today" thread, but here's three comparison images:before, the first stab at clearing, and yesterday. The arrow shows where one bit broke off and we couldn't reach it without a ladder to get it down. The sun was already setting, so we'll get that last bit soon when we go back to get more further in that you can't see pictured here.
Image Image Image

The weather for F/Sa/Su is a bookend of sunny with some showers on Saturday, so I think I may get a decent stab in at continuing the grading work along the west strip near the house, and I may start digging out the trunks (still not sure if a creeper has that or there's another word) of the Oriental because even when I cut it back, it's still growing like mad. I'm also worried there are some daughters from what I saw yesterday, and I found a third main trunk when Sean was working on the second I had started on before.

Beyond that, I'm honestly not sure what whims I will follow where the yard and gardens are considered this weekend. It will mostly depend on how much of the Oriental Bittersweet I manage to remove.

I have to look up hosta info again to see when I should cut back the stems for the flowers. Most of the flowers have long since lived their life, so the sticks looks a little silly. I think I might have mentioned already that we'll be moving the variegated ones to the backyard to get a bit more shade relief.

There is still one ground cover type plants near the front stairs that I have not been able to ID. At first I thought it might be mint, but it's not. I'm not sure if I will keep it for the changeover to the slope or not.

I noticed in an advert a coupon for concrete repair material, so I may pick that up before the coupon expires to start the fill in on the lower cement stairs out front soonish. The lumber place nearby has the finish coat, but I'm going to wait on that until later. I'm a bit concerned about how this stuff on sale will work with our concrete. We're not sure how old it is, but it definitely isn't modern concrete by far. I'm going to talk to the folks at the shop to get their opinion on that, since the repair will eventually be covered with a finish layer, so I'm more worried about adhesion than it not matching.

I was totally taken by surprise today to see one of the sunflowers, the one closest to the rain barrel overflow growing like a champ through the clover I'd let grow as a ground cover since we're still short on compost for mulch. It was the only one that seems to have grown in the front porch beds. Given how slow the ones that are growing are coming up, now I'm starting to wonder if I didn't water them enough, since there is no mulching down. If Sean has guessed what they are, he still isn't admitting it. I asked before when I found my seeds if he wanted to be surprised or not, and he said yes, so I didn't tell him what I planted.

I did find a site that sells heritage bulbs. They also sell some individually as well as in larger quantities, so I may be able to sneak a few daffodils and a Dutchman's Breeches into our fall planting budget. I was especially happy to see so many woodland varieties on their site.
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Old House Gardens is great, and a pleasure to deal with. They have an interesting selection. I've got my eye on some Gladiolus byzantius from them. I'm not sure it would be hardy where you are; in the Connecticut River Valley, I'm solidly zone 6, and can grow some Zone 7 plants in protected locations. There's plenty to choose from though.

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

So our gloaming time water round wound up rather active in other ways tonight, which surprised me because Sean was quite tired when he got home and I had to cajole him just to get him to go out with me.

He seemed really concerned about Andromeda (we named the three divided Cosmic Eyes after galaxies)--the one that had been dug up. I'm betting it was the Squirrel Army, as I've been noticing quite a few shallow dug spots of late in the yard. We watered it generously because it did look tired. This surprised me because I had checked on it before my errands and it looked fine then.

He grabbed the ladder to get that last bit of the broken bittersweet vine down, and even on the six foot ladder, he had to use one of our hoes to reach it, but down it came! :dance: we tried to work on the ones deeper in the canopy where he had cut the vines a bit too high to easily do our tug-of-war team pulling, but it wasn't dead enough yet to let go easily either, so we left it for another day.

I kept working the compost while he finished the watering, then we went around and dead headed. The lilies on the east side seem to be petering out, so I think it will be safe to move them sooner than I thought.

We then talked about the repair to the concrete stairs, and the different steps that would be needed (no pun intended), and we're going to try to pry up the one stair rail base if we can to take some dirt out and level it better--it leans just a bit outwards away from the stairs. I'm wondering if maybe next year we can set up some wire below the rail line and allow a climber to decorate the rail for the season.

We also talked about the hollies again, and despite my suggestion that we could plant one near to the rock wall, he felt we should simply move both to the top of the slope and let them bush out a bit over time. He really seems to like the idea of keeping them in front, possibly because they flower fairly early when not much we currently have out front is in bloom, so it gives the pollinators a wider zone--I didn't think to ask his rationale. It could be as simple as he doesn't want to lug either of those bushes very far. ;-) It's going to be quite a challenge getting them out as intact as possible, but since we're moving most of the plantings in those beds, that should make it a lot easier to have wide berth to find all the roots. The good news is I have read that holly bushes tend to have shallow roots, so that should help some, I think, and again makes me doubly glad we're moving all the plantings from those beds so we don't have to worry about them while working on the hollies.

I think we may have finally established how far out to bring the porch beds in the front, and how much room to leave for ladder/work between. We also agreed that having a walk way width between bed and porch would help when it comes time to do work on same porch--less chance of killing anything should any paint removed still have lead.

I'm still pondering heights and what time of years and such for the bulbs as I know next year the slope may seem a bit sparse given our budget and the time it will take for things to adjust to transplants and such.

Speaking of transplanting, aside from two of the variegated hostas which we're thinking to put at the lowest point of the slope so they get more shade, the other variegated hostas will go in the backyard, keeping the regular green leaved varieties out front. We're doing this mostly because we realize how much more sun the porch front beds will get by moving them farther north and out of the house/porch shade.

The Emerald and Gold actually seems to be recovering rather well. I'm still hoping the last move we'll make with it once I finish the regrade won't shock it too badly. I still think it was the too much direct sun that caused that horrid burning to many of the leaves, which fortunately is all healed now. I was briefly worried that it was losing its variegation when the burnt bits stared coming back, but I've noticed overall the plant is much more back to its coloration as before. So I believe next season it should make a full recovery.

Hmm...oh. We did find a weedy looking not a tree buried within the one east side bush we've been letting grow out to see what it might look like. Sean pulled that right out, and it had a shallow root, so didn't even have to dig.

Then we talked again about what we wanted to go where, and I recounted the notion of looking too perfect balanced from the discussion that came out of my initial FOH drawing I posted in my other Beebe thread. "So chaos is the target then?" he asked. "More like organized wilds," I replied.

We took a short walk up Waterford a ways so I could show him what some neighbors has done so he could get a better sense of what I meant. There are quite a few cottage style gardens in our neighborhood, and although I felt bad making him walk even more than he already had yesterday, he agreed that seeing the few yards I pointed out around the corner helped him visualize what I meant.

I continue to be dismayed at all of the Tree of Heaven I see everywhere in Gardner. It's much more prolific than the Oriental Bittersweet. I don't know how many folks just don't know what a menace it is, or if they like it, or they have long lost the battle with it and have just given up. Fortunately so far, we have not seen any too close neighbor wise.

Ugh that reminds me. I still have a lot of cutting back to do on that one plant I still haven't ID'd that's smothering the rhododendron in the SW corner. And dealing with the blackberry bushes...and...and... :mrgreen:

I'm really hoping that next year, when we've got more mulch down that it will greatly help me keep up with weeding. I know we lost a lot of time to clean up this year, and will lose some next year as well, but I think (hope?) it will get easier.

I am still strongly considering sun tolerant moss for the two flatter strips where normally a sidewalk would be out front. We'll probably get it from Moss Acres, and I think that might just be best for next year though I may still fall back to clover or thyme.
Image

The rain started a bit ago, which if it continues after I get some rest, means I will be first dealing with the ktichen/dining room box shuffle so I can at least (hopefully) fix the stove. Time will tell. :confusion-waiting:

Manalto wrote:Old House Gardens is great, and a pleasure to deal with. They have an interesting selection. I've got my eye on some Gladiolus byzantius from them. I'm not sure it would be hardy where you are; in the Connecticut River Valley, I'm solidly zone 6, and can grow some Zone 7 plants in protected locations. There's plenty to choose from though.
That's good to know, thank you. There was one flower, I can't think of the name now, that definitely would not last here, but probably for the best to not have it so far out of its element. I'm working on the final purchase list for our fall planting, and hope to put the orders in by the end of the month. I still need to look into the one MA nursery I found with natives, but haven't made time to do so yet.
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Manalto »

Lily left the valley wrote:Cosmic Eyes ...look tired.


Perhaps it's all that gazing into the cosmos. (nyuk, nyuk) One intruder to consider, maybe not in this case but in general, is voles. They tunnel underground and feast on roots. The plant will look complete but wilted and then, without a root system, perish. I had great dahlias in the garden and the next year the voles gobbled them up. I'm not much for poisons and traps; I just grow something else. If I really want a dahlia - they're pretty spectacular - I can grow one in a pot.

Lily left the valley wrote:variegated hostas...shade.


Another consideration with variegated plants is - will you see the variegation? My rule of thumb is to position variegated plants close to walkways or other places where you are near enough to enjoy the effect. At a distance, variegated plants can just look sick.

Lily left the valley wrote:the notion of looking too perfect balanced...cottage style gardens...


Cottage-style gardens (AKA English gardens) are popular, perhaps for their romantic effect, but keep in mind that that controlled chaos is high maintenance. A landscape of perfectly balanced "bones" (trees and shrubs), softened by perennials and annuals, is much easier to maintain.

Lily left the valley wrote:...Tree of Heaven I see everywhere in Gardner.
...I think (hope?) it will get easier.


On land that has been neglected for a few years, you have what's known as a "seed bank" of weeds in the soil. As that bank becomes exhausted, fewer and fewer weeds will appear, so it will get easier. Mulching helps a lot because those weeds that need light to stimulate germination won't grow, and the seeds will slowly degrade. (I say 'slowly' because some seeds remain viable in the soil for years, decades - the Metropolitan Museum of Art several years ago germinated a lotus seed found in an Egyptian tomb that was a couple of thousand years old) Not letting weeds go to seed is crucial. Birds and the wind will always bring new visitors into your garden. Some of them may be welcome. (but usually not)

Invasives are here to stay, I'm afraid. Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven) is everywhere. It grows out of gutters and the cracks in the sidewalk in New York. (It's the eponymous "tree that grows in Brooklyn") I warned a neighbor about one that had sprouted at the back of his property, quickly reaching 15' tall, that if he didn't want a brittle trash tree, he'd better cut it down. He did, but of course it has resprouted. When I walk the dogs, sometimes I carry my pruners in my pocket, so I cut off the sprouts. With persistence, it should give up the ghost. Ailanthus is a street tree in Paris. À chacun son goût.

Lily left the valley wrote:...thyme.


Thyme gets my vote. There's a creeping variety with tiny leaves that stays low. I have some in a stone walkway and it's sprinkled with purple flowers right now. Moss is beautiful, but I've never had much luck getting it to grow where I want it, even if conditions seem right. It has a mind of its own and will grow where conditions suit. Then again, you may get lucky.

Lily left the valley wrote:Old House Gardens ...I'm working on the final purchase list ...


I feel disloyal to such a good company (when I worked at the botanical garden in Richmond I learned the owners name - he was wonderfully cooperative - but have since forgotten it - Gary, maybe?) but if you are being careful with your budget, you may want to use OHG for those specialty items not available elsewhere. If you decide you'd like to do a mass planting, it can get pricey quickly.

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

Manalto wrote:Perhaps it's all that gazing into the cosmos. (nyuk, nyuk) One intruder to consider, maybe not in this case but in general, is voles. {snip}
:D I have seen some vole like holes as well as chipmunk, but this is different. I'm going to take a few moments to see if I can find the tell tale treasure if my guess is right when I check the laundry outside. (It rained early, now they're saying clear for the rest of the day, so I did laundry because free drying!) I found another similar dug out area out front, and when I peeked in, the dumb private in the Squirrel Army hadn't even covered the acorn back up. The spot was close to the road though, so a passing car might have spooked it.

Manalto wrote:Another consideration with variegated plants is - will you see the variegation? {snip}
Good point. One thing I have on my "maybe" list is to just sell some outright instead of planting. We have maybe eight or so? When I was watching a few moss yard vids this morning, one mentioned another plant...goldenseal, and how that gardener was using it instead of hostas. It's kind of like how I feel about the Emerald and Gold. I wouldn't have bought it, but it's here and I'd rather that than nothing if it's not invading. We also have areas, due to the treeline where there's more dappled shade than sun, so you would see the variegation at least part of the day.

Manalto wrote:{snip}A landscape of perfectly balanced "bones" (trees and shrubs), softened by perennials and annuals, is much easier to maintain.
*nods* I'm curious, given some of the more aggressive shrubs and reseeders we have, what else might have been before. Google street view has an older pic, so at least we know some of what's gone from the front/side.

As to shrubs...just from all the raspberry and blackberries alone, we have oodles of actual bushes and want to be bushes some day. Like the strawberry carpet, we will not be keeping them all long term. I would like more variety eventually, but budget is controlling a lot of decisions which I'm actually glad about. Even though I would love a TV style "Hey, while you were gone, we heard you had a plan, and did this to your yard" surprise on one hand, my brain is overwhelmed with all the overall Beebe decisions. Since we use the eve water time for discussion about the yard, opinions have formed, and more than I like to admit have changed as I've been researching and thinking, as has Sean. So the financial limits are helping more than hurting there.

Manalto wrote:On land that has been neglected for a few years, you have what's known as a "seed bank" of weeds in the soil. {snip}
Interesting. I didn't know about Paris, and hadn't heard of seed banking that way, although it makes sense. I have also read about various seeds that were found in tombs and digs, some of which were extinct species they've managed to grow. I just saw an article like that in the last month or so too...can't recall where or what plant it was. Potatoes maybe?

Manalto wrote:Thyme gets my vote. {snips} Moss is beautiful, but I've never had much luck getting it to grow where I want it, even if conditions seem right.
We have a lot of small patches of moss all over here already, as well as ferns and fungi by the rock wall. I mooned over them early on in my Beebe thread, I think before Park Ave. was added. In some spots where I've managed to clear grasses and weeds out a bit to give them breathing room, they've done their slow creep, and the fern has gone to town. So I'm hopeful that a gradual attempt to continue such and a few transplants will do well over the long haul. I even have some I recently found that I brought from NJ. I need to soak that and pick spots. The sun tolerant stuff we don't have any of, hence seeking it out to buy.

My concern over whatever we put on the "should be a sidewalk" area is I know that the snow plows love to pile up snow on our side of the street if you don't dig out an obvious spot for a car. All the homes on our block width have driveways, which they are very good at not burying too horribly--a big improvement over our last place in NJ. One of my concerns, despite my lean, was that the moss I paid for would be given death by plow. They don't salt at least (they use sand), so I really don't know which would be best given those factors. I'm also concerned that it will still be too much sun even for that tolerant strain. Come winter, I'll revisit my thyme research and think some more.

Manalto wrote:I feel disloyal to such a good company (when I worked at the botanical garden in Richmond I learned the owners name - he was wonderfully cooperative - but have since forgotten it - Gary, maybe?) but if you are being careful with your budget, you may want to use OHG for those specialty items not available elsewhere. If you decide you'd like to do a mass planting, it can get pricey quickly.
We are very budget minded on this matter, and I am planning to buy from three places overall, partly due to that. I'm more worried what little we can afford will look rather lonely the first year. ;-) Still, it will be an improvement, I think, over this year where I mostly just dragged out the grass whip every once in a while and hacked down the random grasses trying to seed. We can use the mower on the slope, but it's less effort to use the whip, believe it or not. It's really not a large area anyhoo.

I'm still parsing through the catalog for UMASS Amherst's Wetland Plants catalog, but a lot of that will be more useful for the rain garden that I've seen so far. I've barely gotten through it since there are no images and I have to stop and look a lot up if I don't recognize the name. 40 something pages of plant listings, with roughly 6 to a page.

It didn't help that they have willow, and then I was doing the "well, which is closer, Amherst or that place in VT?" game in my head and got distracted. :lol:
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

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Manalto
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Manalto »

Lily left the valley wrote:As to shrubs...


Remember conifers and broadleaf evergreens. In our part of the world, deciduous trees are bare for half the year, and things can get pretty bleak looking. Evergreens provide shelter for wildlife, some structure during that time - and they look great with snow on them.

Lily left the valley wrote:Potatoes maybe?


The potato story is fascinating (to me, at least). Scientists go to South America, where the species was domesticated, and turn up all these unusual varieties of colors and textures (and flavors?) known only to a tiny village in the Andes. They bring them back, and before too long, chic restaurants in LA start offering them on the menu. Sometimes particularly appealing varieties find their way to the general population. Ultimately, the success of any plant, agricultural or ornamental, is whether it can be profitable to grow.

Lily left the valley wrote:...moss I paid for would be given death by plow.


One of the beauties of perennials and low-growing plants (mosses included) is that they suffer tons of snow piled upon them with aplomb. Salt, as you say, is the kiss.


Lily left the valley wrote:I'm more worried what little we can afford will look rather lonely the first year.


That's always true, though. New plants always look pathetic for the first few years. If they don't, you're probably crowding them. I find propagating plants enjoyable and satisfying, in addition to being economical, but I realize it's not for everybody. Getting to know the horticultural community (most regions have a horticultural society) is a great resource for "pass-along plants" - someone has an abundance of a particular variety and would rather give them away than trash them. It's also insurance in case you lose your favorite plant, you've got a garden buddy with a back-up.


Lily left the valley wrote:I'm still parsing through the catalog for UMASS Amherst's Wetland Plants catalog, but a lot of that will be more useful for the rain garden that I've seen so far.


You seem to gravitate toward natives (for which I applaud you), so you probably know about Nasami Farm New England Wild Plant Nursery in Whately, Garden in the Woods in Framingham, and the non-profit, Grow Native Massachusetts in Waltham. I like Tower Hill in Shrewsbury, the broken record repeated...

I tend to have a more liberal attitude about natives, and include non-invasive exotics. I've noticed wildlife can benefit from them too. One example is Salvia 'Spanish Dancer' a big, airy plant with red blooms. The hummingbirds go nuts for it. It's an annual but reseeds freely.

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