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Home and garden: Boring “watch grass grow” thread
(This is my first tildes thread please be gentle)
Hello, saw in another thread there was one person interested in boring hobbies of what we're up to so, brace yourselves! This is going to be a thread of me talking to my greenhouse plastic walls about literally watching grass grow, waiting for paint to dry and putting a puzzle together.
Would love to hear about your gardening and home inside/outside/building/demolishing/decorating efforts!
Maybe a sort of memorial thread for plants that died under our care. RIP little dudes.
06 June 2023 - Big storm last night
really glad a foot bridge/path to the creek was built this year. Before and after -- the water will drain in a few days, and i'm going to use the "high mark" as a sort of....base. Going to pile twigs and brambles and such onto about a foot above that for Hügelkultur.
Bonus derpy birbs attacking an innocent watering can
Congrats on your thread's grand opening! Here's a picture of some grass near me as housewarming gift ;)
Also first time I'm learning about Hügelkultur. That seems like a lot of work but the end result looks neat. Can I ask why you choose Hügelkultur over other gardening methods?
Oooh look at those beautiful little blades of grass :D
The soil here is super rocky and in the spots in going to put in the mounds it's super wet, so I need to raise it up anyway. I do have some "regular" flower beds as well so I guess it's a try everything and see what works well approach :)
08 June
The geese have had their new expanded area for a two days now, and trampled some and ate some of the grass already. Pic
The thinned out strawberries are settling inside the green house okay pic. I'm pretty proud of this greenhouse.....built it from 2x4s up~ it's also my second woodworking project so it's not to code, let's say, probably. But anyway it withstood Hurricane Fiona so there.
And finally, one of the squirrels felt safe enough to come pretty close to my hand :D he'll also take peanut from me when he's on the bird feeder too. eventually he'll stay to eat right out of my hand right? Pic
What are geese like to have as pets? The only experience I have around them are the occasions when I have had to navigate around the packs of Canada Gooses in the parks up here... and they are amongst our most dangerous, aggressive, and ornery wildlife! :P
They're a frustrating delight! The perfect mix of derpy and grace, adorable little jerk faces :3
Give you an example, they attempted to rush my kid recently, but at the same time a neighbour walked up, and the geese became very frightened and decided to honk loudly and all cower behind the child for protection. 🙄 You can't leave kids and small pets alone with them because geese are cowardly and will try to intimidate and peck first. It's their only defense because they're actually not strong.
But they can also be very sweet. They're very tightly defensive of one another as a little flock against strangers, but less loyal to one another with us. Eg. My husband likes to pick one up gently and cradle. When they know they're soundly out-gunned like that, they leave the one "victim" behind and waddle off. the held one becomes very sweet and make this low cooing noise. :3
And they have extremely extremely fluffy rumps. super warm downy soft fluff.
Hah. That's actually pretty adorable. Thanks for sharing.
Another question if you don't mind; Is their poop as horrendous as Canada Goose poop? Weird question, I know. But I still have horrible memories of occasionally getting covered in the greasy, slimy, slippery, bright green stuff when playing baseball as a kid. :(
Well, our flock is really small, of only 6 individuals that spend most of the day in the goose pen, so it's not that much poop in the human areas. Their poops are just repackaged grass in the summer, and regular bird kind of poop when they're eating mostly grain. We do have a specific "human play here" area that has zero poops, for our fire pits and pergola and ball activities so we can sit without feeling gross. I don't think their poops have been greasy.....did your park guys get fed a lot of human food? :(
And I love questions about the Silly Billie's :) they're our first outdoor pets, because we were afraid of losing them to a slight breeze or rats or something.... we wanted sturdy dudes. And these are that. hurray!
Heh, I don't think them eating human food has anything to do with it. Canada Goose shit is just one of the most evil substances on God's green earth. Google images it if you dare. I think it's from all the hatred they consume. ;)
Today I picked the last of my first flush of strawberries (almost 2lb so far). These plants are the Seascape variety, which I transplanted into my raised bed last spring but which I only got about three fruits from all last season. Has anyone here grown day-neutral strawberries before? I'm wondering how much more yield I can expect until the plants go dormant in the fall - two more flushes would be wonderful!
How far did your berries go before being all nom-nom-nom'd? I see recipes for jam, and frozen desserts and such, and it's like, pfffft as if.
How much work do you put into trimming off runners? I let mine kind of go "wild" last year and they put all their energy into making babies instead of making fruit -- a farmer neighbour walked by and gently told us to space plants out a lot more (2-3 feet diameter EACH, minimum) and go ahead and organically fertilize and mulch as much as we can.
This is exactly why I'm asking about how much more I might get with this variety. Jam is my favorite thing; I like making it, gifting it, and eating it myself. So I've been de-stemming and freezing most of the berries as they ripen (eating a few fresh too, of course!) until I have enough to make a batch of jam, and then I plan to eat the rest as they're harvested. The 2 pounds I've got is plenty to make a couple of jars, but if it turns out I have 4 more pounds on the way I may opt to freeze even more.
The plants are still too young to have sent out any runners; I expect they will start that later this season. I hadn't given it a ton of thought but I think my plan was to wait and see how many there are and mostly let them do their thing if possible. I didn't know that could hurt their fruit production – do you have a sense of what a good compromise looks like? One or two daughters from each plant or something like that?
From my light research, (including Food to Grow by Frankie Flowers) strawberry plants will give you more if you save all their energy for berries. What I've done this year is to set aside plants for "eh, don't care, do your thing" and separately, second year, big strong plants for berry production that are spaced farther apart and not allowed to make babies. Already the "meh" area plants have tons of new plants for me to propagate and I intend to keep "harvesting" from that patch next year to replace the fruit beds every 3ish years. I think even if you only set aside one plant as "cloning factory" that would provide more than enough new plants for next year.
I remember going to you-picks and their plants are huge and round and bushy and individually spaced about 3' between plant on each row * many rows.
Wow, mine are definitely closer than that! I'm pretty space-constrained anyway, so it sounds like the best course for now may be to trim any runners. I'm also trying Three Sisters for the first time this year and I'd like to keep the strawbs manageable.
I've currently got a wide range of fruit and veg growing in my garden at the moment.
Got a planter with potatoes, a herb table with spring onions, chantenay carrots, and garlic, a couple of hanging baskets with strawberries, and a greenhouse with peas, leeks, bell peppers, cucumber, corn and cauliflower inside.
I recently moved home into a garden that's mostly all stone slabs which is disappointing as my previous garden while smaller used to have a big plot of dirt that I grew heaps and heaps of potatoes in. Got plans to do the garden up but that's 4 or 5 years away at least so just have to make do.
I'm in Scotland so the strawberries are just starting to ripen and we get some really nice strawberries here so I'm looking forward to when they're ready in a week or so!
Wow! That's quite the cornucopia well done!! Do the cauliflower grow super big inside your green house? and tall enough to have corn!
Sorry, you mean all your veggies you mentioned are in your new garden, right? NOt the one left behind?
My strawberries are just now flowering :|
edit: I love your username heh heh heh
They've only actually just started sprouting so I'm hoping they will! I tried growing them last year but didn't get anywhere with them.
It's a good sized greenhouse so the corn can get the best head start before it's thrown into the variable but generally bollock freezing cold Scottish weather haha!
Yeah, they're all in my new garden although I don't think I got all the potatoes out of the old garden last year before we moved so the new owner might have a little surprise this year.
I actually find it takes so long to get a decent crop of strawberries, this is the first year I'm actually happy with them so keep persevering!
Thanks, I saw a badly photoshopped image of Bruce Willis' face on a spruce tree years ago and knew I'd found a great username.
The bad photoshopping only adds to the charm.
Scotland is COLD man, and I'm speaking as a Canadian. Was in Aberdeen one summer and man I still had to wear a fall jacket while out on a walk.
Haha, it really can be, especially up north in Aberdeen!
Its the variability thats the killer here, it's cold and rainy so you go out in your jacket and then suddenly it stops raining and the sun comes out, suddenly you're sweating and roasting in your jacket.
I've never been to Canada so can't speak to the cold there but I can imagine it gets horrendously cold there!
I live in the "new Scotland" province so probably pretty similiar..... We had a frost warning last week 🙄 and then this week I had to drive with AC on. Today is foggy so back to winter jacket while gardening....
But not as bad as Ontario with their stupid freezing rain or Alberta with their -40C freezes.
That's awesome! We have a local variety of bolete mushroom here, Suillus americanus, that pops up during Porcini foraging season. In our group of foraging friends it's very common to hear "ah, damn just another Bruce!". A la Bruce Suillus (pronouced swillis). It never gets old for me.
Is that particular bolete not tasty? Shame :)
Does anyone have any ideas for keeping squirrels out of my flower beds? I have done so many silly things already. Do the sonic repellant machines work?
Please help.
Oh god, squirrels, man. They are my bane.
This spring has been extremely dry, and since they can't dig in the soil, they've been going extra hard on my planters and garden beds.
Even the usual Repels All granules that have previously worked wasn't doing anything, this year, so I ordered a 5 lbs jug of cayenne pepper powder, mixed that into the Repels All, and that actually seems to have done the trick.
I picked up the Repels All spray. If it does not work by itself I can add a bottle of Tobasco sauce to it. Fingers crossed!
I prefer the granules because it seems to stand up better against rain/watering. The spray seems to work better for animals that are actually eating the plants (e.g., bunnies who love eating my tulips), while the granules seem to be better at preventing them from digging, either burying something or looking for bulbs.
I had beautiful red tulips that became an expensive bunny buffet a few years ago.
A few tried to pop up this year but the voracious bunnies ate them all.
I have a ton of iris and day lilies.
Yeah, bunnies really love tulips, but they haven't shown any interest in a lot of my other plants, including daffodils.
They also really like eating young trees. Also speaking from experience.
I might give that a shot. Thank you so much!
Repels All works pretty well on rabbits...and also me. It smells so bad.
I have had some success with offering the squirrels an alternative crop that I'm less interested in having for myself. In my yard, that's sunflowers. I grow the huge, 10-12 footers, and the squirrels LOVE them. While I like sunflower seeds, I'd rather have my other crops, and the squirrels would rather have the sunflower seeds. It works for us. :)
Our neighbor has a squirrel feeder with peanuts. The squirrels in my yard aren't foraging, but they're looking for places to bury their nuts, leading them to dig up any soft soil they can find... which tends to be flower pots and garden beds.
The smell! Yes, I find it sort of familiar and clingy-stinky. I'll spray the bases of my trees too if they don't stop pulling up my flowers. I think my neighbors feed them peanuts daily.
hardware cloth or bust. Like this
They even chewed into my 5mm thick plastic composters.
Oh my. I'm starting with flowers this year. I might do a small garden next year. I also have a thriving rabbit and possum population. Just had a big-ass groundhog move in under my shed. This area is full of birds too.
I'll have to build a set up like yours.
Oof, our version of this is deer. We tried everything from a chili powder spray (on the plants not the deer!), deer netting, I even went so far as getting scarecrows - which worked about as well as you can imagine but really do give the yard some personality. In the end I ended up caging half the yard with the raised beds in it. I think all in it cost us about $500 all in and covers about 60m². I built it tall enough so I can still walk around inside with about a foot of headroom and it has the added benefit of acting as a trellis for my vines. Though the vines with accessible edges still get pruned by the deer, but that's a balance I can live with, they live here too. The rest of my yard I keep as a little local ecosystem for them and myself. I just cage any new plant until it's gotten to the size where it isn't just a little appetizer for them. I think like u/chocobean I worked my way through more passive options before finally landing on a pretty heavy handed solution.
My parents had a big deer problem, they went with electric fence. Just some stakes really, with two strands of wire that can be electrified via battery. It works really well, but it's not great if you have dogs or kids.
My worry was the birds. We have a really awesome little community of warblers and scrub jays that hang out while I garden (they know when the shovel is out they're going to get the good stuff!). The fencing allows the birds in, keeps the other critters out, and is pretty comfortable for me.
Oh my word I would be so sad if I was gardening and little warblers came over and got zapped ....
But I hope they can sense electric current or otherwise don't want to run into stuff in the first place? Then again I've seen one pheasant stuck inside an open gated tennis court for hours.....just walking back and forth and back and forth.....
No worries, birds will not be zapped. You need to complete the circuit to the ground for it to work and they would be landing on the wires, not touching the ground or anything else that touches the ground. This is why birds are fine on power lines, but every so often you see a toasted squirrel or bird that made the mistake of completing the circuit.
Yeah, I have no idea but I don't like the feel of it. We actually had a neighbors cat that figured out it could chase birds into the deer netting and catch them. It came down pretty quickly after that.
Insect netting has saved my squash, peppers and tomatoes from squirrels for several years now. It definitely detracts from the aesthetics but I'm willing to give that up to actually eat my crops. As a bonus the netting helps deter squash bugs and deflects hail. I find bees get in so I just lift one end and let them all out before it gets dark.
Slightly related: Use lawn decorations for the wrong holidays
Put santa hats on lawn flamingos
Dress up your posable skeletons in Easter garb
Use a witch's cauldron as a planter during the spring
It's cheaper and way more fun than using decorations as intended.
One year for Halloween I painted my flamingos to look like vultures. But after Halloween I didn’t have extra money to spend on new flamingos, so for the next year we just had vultures in our yard.
I've greatly enjoyed the recent trend in my town of people buying those gigantic 12ft skeletons, putting them in their yard, keeping them up year round, and swapping out the skeleton's dressing. There are at least 3 of them that I know of that I drive by semi-frequently, and it's hilarious every time.
Lol, I love it! We have a neighbor with an 8 foot tall 5 foot wide wooden frog. They dress that guy up for every holiday and every now and then will deck out their yard in all the festive decor... and then do him up like the following holiday. On Halloween he was a turkey, for Christmas he was a bunny, for the 4th of July they put white pants on him (I'm still not sure how they did that).
I wish my neighbor's yards had half as much character as that frog.
Oh definitely. This is a "wrong" decor only house, sir.
I love watching (new) grass grow. It's really satisfying seeing a patch of dirt turn into a patch of little green seedlings and then begin to fill out.
We had to remove a really large spruce tree, last fall, and also got rid of a bunch of scrub boxelder that was growing nearby, so our lawn got a nice addition of useable space. I seeded it, this spring, and it's now really starting to fill in. (Side rant: Normally I like to seed in the spring because there's a lot more rain and doesn't need as much watering, but this year has been annoyingly dry and unseasonably warm, so I've had to do a lot more watering than I should have.)
I also put in a dry well, this spring, to hopefully help with some standing water in the low spots of the yard in the spring (which weren't much of an issue this year), thanks to all of the clay in the soil. Kind of annoyed that I won't be able to know if it's made any difference until next spring, now.
Our winters here in (non Vancouver) Canada are very very very long so it really is exiting when the grass starts to grow again.
Huh, today I learned about dry wells.
That is frustrating that in meat space things take so long and there aren't (usually) status bars :)
What are your plans for the opened up ex-spruce and shrub space?
Nothing exciting. It's right on the edge of our property, and only extends about 10 feet out and maybe 20-25 feet long. But it did allow me to move my cold compost pile to a more convenient location. The main thing is that it just makes the yard feel so much bigger without the spruce towering (and leaning) over everything.
Hopefully the maple tree that I de-girdled will recover so we will still have some nice shade in the yard. About 30 years ago, previous owner planted the maple too deep, put a ring of landscaping rocks/plastic around the base, and then later decided to just throw sod over everything. Eventually the maple grew into the plastic and rocks, which began to choke off nutrients to the rest of the tree and it's spent the last 20 years eking by with small leaves and dropping its leaves in the fall weeks before any other trees even start. This spring I finally excavated down to the root flare and cut back a couple of roots that were starting to choke the trunk. The worst part is I probably won't really know if I fixed the real issue for a couple of years. :/
Oh that poor maple!!! I hope it recovers and grow into a huge beautiful shade tree (which will drop quadzillions of seeds and sprout seedlings like crazy on your lawn)
I love maples. I keep missing my chance to gather seeds and scatter them everywhere that I hope grows into a maple grove long after I'm dead
It's already fairly big... at least 25 feet high. But it's really more of a "dappled shade" tree than a shade tree, right now. But, if the cause of the girdling isn't addressed, it will just continue to decline because it literally ends up choking itself to death because it can't get any nutrients or water back and forth between the leaves and roots. A pretty horrible way to go, no matter the species.
Eh, I am kind of maple-d out, in my area. Pretty much every house has at least one maple in their yard, here. I was chatting with one of our neighbors who was trying to decide what kind of tree to buy a few months ago and I told her "Anything except yet another boring maple tree." (She ended up going with a Quaking Aspen, which was a great choice.)
what about food-trees? can't get bored of trees that make food. How do you feel about say, chestnuts? None of that horse chestnut nonsense >:E like, edible ones.
I'd rather not have something I'm going to have to clean up after before mowing. :P
But I opted to go with planting a Dawn Redwood in my yard.
In California, it's the time of year when the grass starts drying out and dies for the season - unless you water it, which we don't. My wife and I having been talking about replacing the lawn with something else, but we have no real plans. We like the look of Carpobrotus chilensis (sea fig), which my wife took a cutting of in Monterey and we have a small patch that's growing well. It's somewhat controversial (considered an invasive species), but for a suburban lawn it seems okay?
clover is native and okay for our area and is a nitrogen fixer. Your Sea Figs look adorable - might I recommend a sort of stony border against your neighbouring fence so they don't "catch" your sea figs though? Some people are crazy about their lawns.
I also like creeping thyme because of its teeny-weeny fuzzy leaves.
Death to lawns! They're stupid and take up water and do nothing for our pollinators!
Hey, I like my lawn! :( The only time I water it is after planting new grass seed, and I have large beds of wildflowers and early spring flowering plants for the pollinators.
For the record, I think maintaining grass lawns in any climate where artificial irrigation is required is bonkers. And I think the people who maintain their lawns like it was a golf course and do blanket treatments of herbicides/fungicides/insecticides regardless of whether or not there are any weeds/fungus/insects present are also very misguided. But I think the people doing that are in the extreme minority.
As far as I know, there just aren't any alternate ground cover plants that can hold up to the wear and tear of even moderate traffic without the ground becoming a muddy mess every spring and fall (at least not for my climate).
A'ight, death to heavily -cide treated, artificially and heavily watered lawns :D
When I was living in Vancouver everything is always wet and green, but there are still people who obsessively poison their lawns because everything has to be exactly only one species of organism only on the lawn. When I visited Texas it didn't make sense for people in mcmansions to have the same kind of golf green lawn in the height of summer -- it was far too hot for human beings to go out and play on it, and the grass was riddles with fire ants anyhow. It's madness.
There's also the HOA people who destroy neighbours' wildflowers and report them incessantly for grass 1mm above a certain height, and who kick up fuss for others who choose ground coverings like clover and creeping thyme and those cute sea figs or rock gardens or mulch-and-tallgrass or other forms of landscaping.
Lawns represent that kind of mental illness to me. Of an obsession with monoculture and enforcing rigid human will on a system that should support diversity and Life instead.
So.....not all lawns are bad. But in cities with dry, hot climates where people live in little boxes made out of ticky-tacky, its pursuit is a culture that humanity would benefit from doing without.
I’m about to mix a bunch of Dutch White Clover and other small wildflowers (called the “envirolawn” mix at my local garden center) into my lawn. It’s supposed to have a lot of benefits for the soil and general health of the lawn, but the main draw for me is that you are supposed to have to mow it and water it way less often and it’ll stay green, more or less, through the dry season (because I also don’t water lol)
There is enough iceplant around these days that you don't need to worry, particularly in the suburbs. I think there is a lot of well intentioned but unnecessary finger waving in the plant community. I love the purple carpet down here in PG and I'm sure yours will look just as gorgeous someday.
Like others have suggested there are some really great ground cover options, some even have similar effects to the purple carpet (creeping sage or clover are great options, in fact California native clover produces dense gorgeous pink flowers and will return anytime there is any amount of significant water). I'm a big fan of ceanothus, though they will limit the "walkability" of that section of the yard as they are effectively a very low bush. The bees love them and they smell incredible. Another favorite are lupine. They are drought tolerant and have gorgeous flowers. I particularly like Lupinus succulentus and Lupinus arboreus.
Also, if we're talking invasives, I love Pride of Madeira. You probably already know about it, but if you're down in the area again check out the garden behind Alta Bakery. I think it is run by the historic community at Cooper-Molera Adobe and they have an amazing showcase garden of varietals that would likely do very well where you live. With all the fog by us I always have to be careful to ask which varieties will do well with limited sun.
5a south-central Wisconsin here!
It's been fun watching my nice green lawn turn to a desolate wasteland thanks to our current drought, especially after spending money on overseeding and aerating last year. This fall I'm thinking of slit-seeding micro clover and just being done with a grass lawn altogether. Not having to mow nearly as often and natural weed-killing sounds like a win-win in my book.
Hello, my fellow 5a Wisconsinite! Fox Valley, here!
This dry spring has been crazy, hasn't it? We've literally had like 0.04" (~1mm) of rain in the last month. Looks like we're finally going to be getting some decent rain this weekend, though!
I have a friend who tried the micro cover but it got decimated by his dog. He said it looked nice but it just couldn't hold up against any traffic.
I wouldn't give up hope on your lawn, yet. Most species of grass are totally capable of going dormant during heat and drought and will green back up once temps drop and we get some rain. Just because it's brown doesn't mean it's dead. Fingers crossed!
Ope, tell yer folks I says hi!
I've heard that about micro clover before, and I've got a 90 pound golden so I'm sure he'll tear it up too. Will regular clover hold up? Is there any kind of difference between the two?
I think my grass will bounce back, but I'm just so over push-mowing 10,000 sqft twice a week, ya know?
I don't think normal clover is any more resilient, unfortunately. But if you're doing a hybrid lawn, it might have a better chance of holding up.
And I hear ya about push mowing. I only have 5,000 square feet, and I don't think I'd want any more than that. I've been keeping my eye on those robotic lawn mowers—basically a Roomba but for lawns—but I just can't justify it for the size my lawn, right now.
Hopefully the tech will continue to improve and come down in price, though, because I think that's really the dream: sitting out on the back patio with a Spotted Cow and watching a robot mow my lawn.
I love talking about my yard so I'm stealing u/Omnicrola 's format.
My garden gets love in a bi-polar fashion. There are periods where I am out there multiple hours a day working on things, and then periods where I will just give it a quick appraisal when I leave the house. I like to think gardens need a little space as well ;)
Veg and Flower Garden
We have a lot of deer roaming around my neck of the "woods" and for the first few years we lived here it was a battle. Any edible greens would be gobbled up, flowers would be topped, and saplings would be consumed wholesale. I started slowly with deer netting but it didn't work well and was frustrating to get into. This led me to caging in a 2 meter by about 20 meter area next to the house. It sits between the house and the sidewalk, providing a nice viewing garden for the neighbors as well. I often have breakfast on the side porch and get to chat with lots of excited neighbors about gardening! Anyway, in this are I have three 10ft x 5ft raised beds made of some pretty choice cherry wood I picked up for free at the beginning of the pandemic when a local theater group was shutting down and getting rid of their excess building materials. I even got slatted flooring that I use with 1 inch space to line the bottom and keep gophers out.
Originally I tried growing all of my favorites: hot peppers like serrano, jalapeno, habenero, and reaper; tomatoes (particularly black krim and purple cherokee), and tomatillos. I learned quick though that the thick coastal fog that surrounds our house in the summer makes growing this sort of plants nearly impossible. The first year we did tomatoes I was finally able to harvest in November! Needless to say the quality was definitely wanting.
Now I stick to mostly green veg and to be honest a lot of flowers. The rains this year were pretty incredible for the garden. I threw a few start in in December and by March we had some truly enormous produce. I ended up planting cabbage, chard, collar greens, sweet peas, broccoli, and kale. I've never had so much produce or of this scale. The cabbages were bigger than my head! We're still drowning in Kimchi and Kraut! Oh, we also had some great luck with pumpkins and squash last year so they'll be replanted in the next week or so.
We also got some advice from neighbors that cherry tomatoes do well, so I'm giving that a go as well. Lastly, we've really ramped up the flowers. We had some nasturtiums really take off last year and they came back with a vengeance this year and I love it! I've given up 2/3rds of one of the raised beds to them and there runners are snaking around everything! The other flowers we have added are a combination of wildflowers, marigolds, some types of daisies/brushbush, poppies and some bulb species.
I also was regifted an artichoke that I gave my mom 5 years ago. It's always gotten about 2-3 feet tall and then died at the end of the season, it's never produced anything. Well I decided I wanted the 10 gallon pot back so I ripped it out and chucked it into the ground. With the rain and freedom for it's roots, it's now 5 foot tall with 11 artichokes growing! I could not be happier with the result. Also, in the past gophers have grabbed by grounded artichokes, not sure why this one is different.
Lastly my herb garden is always being dramatic. The rosemary does incredibly well. The thyme is always on the brink of death. The sage has expanded out past it's pot and rooted behind it as well. The lemon grass got plucked by our landlord who decided it was a weed. The mint is in a constant state of death, I thought it was supposed to be hearty!!!
Other plants
We are renting so the trees stay in pots! I bought 5 olive trees 3 years ago from a wealthy neighbor who decided to start an olive orchard in Oregon and found out the hard way that Olive trees don't like the climate there. She had over 200 trees that went on fire sale and I picked up 5 six foot trees for 80 dollars. If I had more room I would have picked up the lot. 2 went to my mom, 1 went to my dad, and I kept 2. Both of theirs went into the ground and are now large thriving trees. Mine went into 10 gallon pots and are moody and grumpy. My theory is that the most precious thing in a garden is time, so I'm heartying them up for when we have some soil of our own to put them into. Otherwise we have a lemon tree, still small, a lime tree, even smaller, and a new fig tree, the smallest of them all. I've even found a salamander making it's home under the figtree!
I also bought a Pride of Madeira that has absolutely exploded with the rain. It's in a 15 gallon pot and you would never know. I also bought 2 ceanothus, Dark Star and another small leaf varietal, which are really temperamental. I think I need to switch out there soil with sand.
Landscaping
Agreed, death to grass. We have about a 4x8m front "yard". On half of it we have outdoor furniture for hosting outdoor gatherings and the other half is some variation of wildflowers, grasses, or bare. I usually take the time to pull up all of the Bermuda grass by the root in the fall and seed wildflowers, which can lead to some incredible blooms. But recently our landlord has been dropping by and weed whacking everything he deems a weed (including all the un bloomed flowers) so I kind of threw in the towel this year. You can't stop nature though so there are still plenty of wildflowers finding their way through.
I also added some bee hotels and a scarecrow!
I really like your bee hotels! I should try this, I have carpenter bees munching on my shed (which is also sinking into the ground, so... meh?).
How do people not do the research before investing that kind of money? #facepalm
Yeah! It was a very fun project and a big hit with the neighborhood kids! My dad has carpenter bees and he'll leave out fire wood that they'll nest in. Doesn't have to be a predrilled for the!
She was pretty filthily rich. When you've got that much money you can afford stupid mistakes I guess. I got a good chuckle though.
I love all these pictures of your garden! I hope you guys get your own land very soon : D
Can I see a picture of your current deer cage? Our local deer are still somewhat limiting themselves to "the back" but eventually we'll venture out that way and be in "their country" -- I just want to know what I'm stacked up against compared to "just" squirrels.
Thanks!
This is the extent of our deer cage. I took the roof off it last week when I pulled out the collar greens and kale that had gone to flower/seed but the top section is just more of the same fencing attached with zip ties. There is a seasonality to our deer here. In the fall/winter they tend to head into the forests and in the spring/summer they show up again.
When the the roof is off the deer will jump in (crazy I know), if there is enough space - usually when we've cleared for a new season and planted sprouts. If it's crowded they don't feel comfortable so there just needs to be the perimeter barrier. It's a weird game we play. This iteration has been pretty phenomenal at keeping out deer though and again I only need the top when sprouts are in during spring/summer.
I'm not as familiar with squirrel behavior. I'd be worried they could easily climb the fencing and get into gaps so I'm not sure my laissez-faire approach to the build would work as well.
Oooooh cattle wire 4x4 grids with t-bars.....I have the very miniature version of that to stop our dumb geese^1 from bothering the planters
Nothing can be completely deer-proof or squirrel proof, just hopefully deter them enough so they eat the neighbors' stuff, I guess.
1: we love them
It's winter here (Australia), so there is not a lot to report. However, I have a collection of hellebores that are just showing the first signs of flowering, and I am pretty thrilled. I live near a highly regarded hellebore breeder, and I have acquired quite the variety of baby hellebores from them. Some of them are going to bloom for the first time this year. I'll try to remember to post some pictures here.
One of my big goals with my garden is to have non-white flowers blooming all year. Honeybees are attracted primarily to white flowers, but most of our native pollinators have other preferences, and I want to give them a reason to take up permanent residence in my garden. Our hoverflies like yellow and orange flowers, and my favorite bee species — the lovely blue-banded bee which, apart from being super cute, is more effective than the honeybee for crops like tomatoes and blueberries due to the practice of buzz pollination — likes flowers that reflect blue wavelengths of light (so flowers that are blue, purple, magenta, black, etc.).
Apart from hellebores, I have had success getting calendula and nasturtiums to bloom through the winter here in sheltered positions. I have noticed the nasturtiums also get pollinated by honeyeaters (a native bird), which is very cool.
Oh wonderful!! I'll be relying on you to get me through the Canadian winters and seasonal affective disorders :D
I think my zone (6b) could support hellebores too but I never see any in the nurseries around ;_;
Please do so post picture updates when they bloom!!
The blue handed bee is adorable!!!
We have a cute kind of ground bee here :D they live in tiny mud holes in the ground and are metallic green, solitary, and not stingy
I think hellebores should grow in your climate? They generally like a colder climate and are specialized for blooming in the snow. They do tend to be somewhat expensive, though, because they have to mature for a couple years before they bloom.
Until this year's blooms get going, here are a couple of pictures from last year: My two grey-flowered varieties and a collection of hellebores I picked up for myself and a friend.
One of the best things about being down here is that all the gardeners from Northern hemisphere get me so excited for spring and motivate me to get through my winter garden tasks!
Oh so pretty!
I just don't know where to source some. I've had poor luck purchasing plants from mail before, so disappointing to plant and wait and get nothing but dead plants. My climate should be able to support them if I can find any
I just discovered turf builder and have been experiencing the joy of being a 29 year old, middle aged man. Damn that grass looks nice and now the hardware store coupon paper gets me goin. WHATS HAPPENING TO ME?
:D you've unlocked a new tier of gear and quests and skill slots, that's all.
I love this. Excellent analogy
Ho boy, here we go.
I've deliberately set myself a lot of outside projects, for a variety of reasons. Mostly to make sure I get outside and have some physical activity, as I have a sedentary job and enjoy playing games.
Garden
I have 3x 10ft x 4ft raised beds, and 2x 10ft x 2ft raised beds. I built them myself out of 6"x10ft lumber from big orange (thankfully before COVID when lumber prices went insane). Three of them are wicking beds which I tried as an experiment. Conclusion: not worth it in my climate (Michigan), they're just as effective as the "pile of dirt in a box" version of a raised bed.
This year returning for a repeat showing are the Walking Onions, which sprang right up as soon as they could. Some critter keeps ... frolicking? nesting? in them? I dunno, but some mornings they're all bent over like a half-assed crop circle attempt. None eaten so, whatever.
Also returning this year are :
Oh and some random corn that apparently self-seeded last year and is now going to cohabit with the squash.
Other plants
I have a potted hybiscus "tree" and a Meyer lemon tree that are both in their 3rd year that are starting to be able to go outside now. I have a pair of potted fuchsias on the front porch that are delightful and make the hummingbirds happy, along with a variety of bright flowering bushes and plants in the front yard. My butterfly bushes appear to have been hit hard by winter and their limbs died though they are regrowing from their bases. I'm hoping they grow fast enough that the hummingbird moths visit them again this year, those are really cool to watch.
Landscaping
Death to grass. I'm in the process of removing all the grass from my 30x30ft front yard. So far I've decimated a ~4 ft border strip, and set up a temporary "wall" of concrete retaining blocks. I'm planning to excavate and level the wall itself next year (or maybe this fall, we'll see). This year's main project has been excavating, leveling, and setting brick runners in concrete along the sidewalk and driveway border.
I have a small single step that goes between my sidewalk and my porch which has been deteriorating, and while excavating for the brick runners, nudged it a bit and it just came apart like old granola. So I encouraged the rest of it with a sledgehammer. Now I'm contemplating how exactly I want to replace it. It was just a concrete slab poured in-place, which would be fine again. OTOH I am now a master mason with 10s of hours of experience putting patio pavers next to sidewalks, so clearly, I need to think of something more complicated.
Oooh, I love the post and am going to steal your format!
I'd never heard of wicking beds and your yard sounds like a paradise!
Jackpot! My attempt to fish for other garden enthusiasts' details of their efforts have hit paydirt lol
Ugh this is me. Gardening should probably not be used as "in lieu of exercise" and mostly not cardio (I have someone do the literal heavy lifting...) but I mean...it's my next to nothing alternative to sitting at home all day.
BO sent me lumber that was so twisted and slightly broken and moldy that these days I scavenge cull wood from the store owned by Atlantic Canada's feudal lordship and the local hardware store with employees who let me pick straight pieces from the stack. BO stinks.
Question about your 2'x10' beds: do you prefer them skinny? Or are they up against another structure such that 4' would be difficult to reach into?
Your walking onions are possessed. Exorcism with holy water is recommended. Or perhaps tiny, onion-hating gnomes are at work here, battling these scallions day and night in an endless battle.
I love brussel sprouts but the sight of the mother plant gives me the heebie-jeebies. They make me think of when Jimmy, from Margaret Atwood's Orxy And Crake, first encounters lab grown chicken nuggets:
Purple ruffle sounds super delicious. Also, I'm this many years old when I found out there is a curry plant. You mean this aster type plant, right?
And congratulations on your volunteered corn to go with your sister squash. Any desire to complete the three sisters?
Flowers! Hummingbirds! Fushia! Hummingbird Moths!!! If the hummingbird moths come back let me know! Wonderful little critters!!
Preach. Stone walkways are so pretty and so fun. I say extend your masonry skills. It's like lego for (outdoor) grown ups I guess.
No actually they're all just in the middle of the back yard. The whole yard is about.... 50x50ft? The difference in size was somewhat for variety and somewhat for growing things that don't spread out.
I'm on board with this idea. For the front landscaping, since my retaining wall block are going to lay loose for awhile, I'm considering sculpting/buying/3dprinting some gnomes/devils/knights/wtf-ever and staging a mock castle siege for my own amusement.
Yes that's the one. I've never actually used this type of curry, but I love the aroma and am excited to experiment with it.
This is exactly the phrase I have used when talking to friends about what I'm doing on the weekends. I'm trying very hard to stay focused on the actual plan, and not get sidetracked by building random weird sculptures with cement and bricks. Later though....