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2021 Gardening thread

David Chaus

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We had a gardening last year, and as it turns out, gardens just keep growing.

Trees have been flowering around here, and May is a particularly busy month with planting, weeding, pruning, mowing and string trimming, the start of plant sale weekends….

The cherry blossoms were just starting, this pic of the weeping cherry was 4/23….
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….next to the two tall ornamental cherries.
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Two Asian pears.
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A couple of mature cherries. If I’m lucky we’ll get a decent crop before the starlings hit them hard and there’s usually a raven pair that spends a lot of time up there.
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Another asian pear.
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The remains of a stuffed toy that Sadie left out in the tall grass that I didn’t see on my riding mower. Well she stole the toy from somewhere….
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This past Saturday, cherry blossoms starting to fall.
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coskigirl

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Since I'm heading out to Oregon in a few weeks any container gardening I do won't start until at least mid-June so definitely no tomatoes. I did pick up 1 strawberry plant, 1 lavender, and 2 mints that I'm going to get in a more permanent pot today. They'll get left where they get rain but tucked down lower where they'll be protected from the harshest of the sun when I am gone and if they make it great, if not oh well.
 

Bad Bob

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The wife decided I want 40 new plants to go into the new garden I really want to build. This must be true, she said so.
It is doing nothing good for my golf game.
 

Andy Mink

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I really dislike gardening but I do like a nice lawn and don't mind taking care of trees. Unfortunately, chickens (now gone) and 3 dogs have take a toll on my yard. Money will be spent one way or the other coming up in 3...2...
 

Sibhusky

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I did zero gardening last summer because I didn't want to go to the gardening center, where I knew there would be mask issues (indoors). This year I plan to resume. All container gardening, I have 31 planters that get hung under windows and on railings. Normally, I try to buy all the plants (168) in one trip, but I think I'll just pace myself a bit this year. I find I get pretty addled after a while as inevitably my shopping list doesn't match what is available.
 

Tricia

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I planted poblano peppers early when I found the plants, but they froze when we were in Colorado. Tomatoes which I planted at the same time are producing well, but it was so hot that many of the tomatoes cooked on the vine before they were 100% ripe.
Craziest thing I've ever seen!!
Basil and all other herbs are doing quite well.

Meanwhile I saw this and thought of this thread.
gardners.jpg
 

Scruffy

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Not a lot of activity in the year's Garden thread. I've been remiss too....too busy a year to snap photos ( putting an addition on the house, doing the landscaping as part of that project, and still planted a big veg garden...yikes, no wonder my feet hurt! ).

Here's two I snapped last evening.

Late bloom of our strange hydrangea: They even more iridescent early in the summer, but didn't get a picture then.

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Dahlia with hosta leafs
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David Chaus

David Chaus

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Ah, the Gardening thread. It’s been hard to spend time in our garden, because I’ve been preoccupied with dealing with my sister, who has end-stage cancer. I have rescued a number of her plants that were wilting in the hot weather we’d been having in the PNW. I have to figure out where they will go, this is after we had decided not to get more plants than we can deal with.

Here’s what I’ve rescued, the priority being this amazing fern and Japanese maple. A Paperbark Maple may not make it, as well as a few other plants. A few other maples are still at my sister’s and will need a moving van to transport, I’ve been watering them there and all but one is coming back to life.
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David Chaus

David Chaus

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Here’s some of what we have been working on over the spring and summer so far, when we have time.

Connecting two small areas with wood chips and making a larger bed.
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Hostas and ferns underneath an apple tree, which is the past has always been neglected.
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Asian pears, we have 3 varieties and we’re going to get a lot of them, although there’s so many that they may not actually ripen well, and we haven’t had the time to thin them out.
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A smoke bush that was planted last year.
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Just to the left of that, a Golden Cypress near a Big Leaf Magnolia, planted this spring.
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Moving more to the left, a weeping blue Douglas Fir on the right, a Sumac middle left, and a Currant on left front.
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And left of that, a golden Cypress and behind it a Pine (I forget which type). All of these plants were put in the ground either last fall or this spring, in a previously neglected area in front of chestnut trees and a walnut that Shamora planted a couple of decades ago.
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Some ornamental grasses, in front Gold Bar grass, to the right rear Miscanthus Gigantus (could get up to 10-12th tall). Flanked by two smaller grasses (I can’t recall the name) and two Zebra grasses to the left.
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Frost Peach tree manages to hang on here, not as vigorous as I’d like, but I’ll take it.
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One of the four pear trees.
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Shiro Plum.
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New garden bench, that center table folds up and down easily. It’s flanked by two Cypress trees (I think, I’ll have to look at the tags again) that are from my sister’s.
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Korean Silber fir.
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This is a spot where we had a sand/soil mix delivered to recover the septic drain filed, and we may need more so we’re leaving this as a potted plant display area for now, and change this up throughout the year.
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LiquidFeet

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Ah, the Gardening thread. It’s been hard to spend time in our garden, because I’ve been preoccupied with dealing with my sister, who has end-stage cancer. I have rescued a number of her plants that were wilting in the hot weather we’d been having in the PNW. I have to figure out where they will go, this is after we had decided not to get more plants than we can deal with.

Here’s what I’ve rescued, the priority being this amazing fern and Japanese maple. A Paperbark Maple may not make it, as well as a few other plants. A few other maples are still at my sister’s and will need a moving van to transport, I’ve been watering them there and all but one is coming back to life. View attachment 139707 View attachment 139708
I am very sorry to hear about your sister. That's so tough. My thoughts are with you.
 
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Scruffy

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Ah, the Gardening thread. It’s been hard to spend time in our garden, because I’ve been preoccupied with dealing with my sister, who has end-stage cancer. I have rescued a number of her plants that were wilting in the hot weather we’d been having in the PNW. I have to figure out where they will go, this is after we had decided not to get more plants than we can deal with.

Here’s what I’ve rescued, the priority being this amazing fern and Japanese maple. A Paperbark Maple may not make it, as well as a few other plants. A few other maples are still at my sister’s and will need a moving van to transport, I’ve been watering them there and all but one is coming back to life. View attachment 139707 View attachment 139708

So sorry to hear about your sister. Great to see you're rescuing her plants.
 
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David Chaus

David Chaus

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David Chaus

David Chaus

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Wow, @David Chaus, keep going and you'll be mowing grass with a weed whacker!

Are you doing any xeriscaping or specifically choosing low-water plants?
We're not exactly in a low water area, so that hasn't been a major concern, so no specifically xeriscaping.

It's just this year we've been watering plants since early June, whereas usually don't have to start until mid-July. What we're trying to do is choose lower-maintenance plants, and try different ways to keep the weeds out (smother grass with cardboard and cover with wood chips, the cardboard will break down in a few years and feed the soil) and it's easier to weed with wood chip mulch. And there are so many branches to prune every year that I will always have more wood chips.

I've been letting grass grow and mostly mowing some pathways, and to keep things cleared under fruit trees. This time of the year where things aren't growing as much, we can get a handle on neatening up a little.
 

Mel

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My garden has been mostly looking after itself - I have a drip watering system on timers and two kids I bribe to do my weeding, so I only have to sit back and enjoy it.
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we did have some excitement in our yard. One Saturday morning my husband said, “did you just hear something? Like a loud cracking sound?”. And this was our front yard. And yes, also our car. Part of one of our beautiful old trees came down, taking out a power line and landing on the minivan. Miraculously the Thule bars held the trunk off the roof of the car and it was undamaged!
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The view from the street side. Amazingly, the rest of the tree is ok and we still have some shade in the front yard.
 
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David Chaus

David Chaus

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I’m glad there was no damage to your vehicle.

This happened last winter. A mountain ash split off at the base of the trunk in a windstorm. Fortunately it didn’t hit the house, and there was no damage to the new roof which had just been finished the month before, just a few dents in gutters. the branches have been chipped, the trunk cut in a few decorative sections around the garden, and the medium branches have been cut into a border around the tree.
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Here’s what it looks like now.
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Mel

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I’m glad there was no damage to your vehicle.

This happened last winter. A mountain ash split off at the base of the trunk in a windstorm. Fortunately it didn’t hit the house, and there was no damage to the new roof which had just been finished the month before, just a few dents in gutters. the branches have been chipped, the trunk cut in a few decorative sections around the garden, and the medium branches have been cut into a border around the tree.
View attachment 139762 View attachment 139763

Here’s what it looks like now.
View attachment 139765
That was a close call - the wind must have been very powerful to blow that trunk towards the house (looks like it’s natural “fall line” would have been angled away from the house). Thank goodness for minimal damage.
We had a lightning storm here a few weeks after our tree fell, and the neighbour’s tree was struck by lightning. The tree was unharmed but all the Christmas light in the tree were blown off - there was a little circle of plastic lights and wire around it afterwards. There’s a big element of luck in avoiding Mother Nature!
 

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