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With the drought and the cold summer here in the Syracuse area, my plants never grew as large as I hoped they would this summer.
Most plants are still very young. I planted over half these plants in the last couple years. It should look better when everything fills out and grows taller.
I took a few more photos with my good camera now. Hopefully these will reveal the overall look of the garden a little better. Though much of the yard is still not shown..... (either because they aren't interesting yet or because it would show exactly where I live).
One of my garden "rooms"
you can see the drought took its toll on my grape vine
This is fun, but my back yard hasn't made any progress yet. I have side yard pictures...and front yard pictures.
Every side will have jazz when I'm done.
Let me see if I have anything worth showing here. Some already in my profile album.
Ok Mr. Paperhouse. We all know you are a great gardener but I want to know how you manage deer. Don't tell me you don't have any cause in NC there are more deer than people. Do you by some chance really not have to worry about deer?
Thanks for the pictures. When it gets closer to December, I want you to please remind us of your winter sowing hobby. I still have the video but I need to know what you plant and when and where you put them. Do you keep your plastic bottles outside and make little greenhouses,. Do they have drainage? What works best and what seeds should we not try. You are a treasure. I might look you up if I was about 30 years younger!!!(and if my husband wasn't the jealous type)
Hi, and thank you for the beautiful flowers/plants. What is the name of the Orange color one, and the one right after it, on the second part of your photos?
Hi, and thank you for the beautiful flowers/plants. What is the name of the Orange color one, and the one right after it, on the second part of your photos?
Thanks!
That is Kniphofia caulescens and the one after it is the common Yucca filamentosa.
Ok Mr. Paperhouse. We all know you are a great gardener but I want to know how you manage deer. Don't tell me you don't have any cause in NC there are more deer than people. Do you by some chance really not have to worry about deer?
Thanks for the pictures. When it gets closer to December, I want you to please remind us of your winter sowing hobby. I still have the video but I need to know what you plant and when and where you put them. Do you keep your plastic bottles outside and make little greenhouses,. Do they have drainage? What works best and what seeds should we not try. You are a treasure. I might look you up if I was about 30 years younger!!!(and if my husband wasn't the jealous type)
LOL. In my neighborhood, no I don't have deer. I live on 7th St in a small town. There are no wide open spaces and the woods here are narrow. There might be rabbits in the woods, but so far I have never seen one. I do have a chipmunk that's living under a few of the rocks in the perennial bed pictured above. So far, it's only gotten a few crocus and daff bulbs. It seems content eating all the acorns that fall from the big oak tree at the edge of the garden. The owls keep the squirrels in check and the hawk swoops in from time to time when the other critters aren't being careful enough. I got lucky when I bought this yard.
If they were grown from seed, they were wintersown. That means I made small containers usually from soda bottles. Poke holes in the bottom, leave the cap off for water and air movement, and scatter the seeds in winter on 3-4" of potting mix. They'll germinate when it's time. Plant them out when they have two sets of leaves.
I'll be doing it again this year. I have new perennials to try and a few new annuals too. I couldn't have done this if I had to buy all those plants.
I love the room. I see figs, I think. Can you grow them that far north? I lost one this winter and it was supposed to be hardy to zone 6.
There's a big difference in our gardens. Yours, while not as large as you want, looks nice and green and lush. Mine is turning brown and starting to die from lack of water and heat/humidity. Powdery mildew is settling on everything from crape myrtles to melampodium. Even the Rudbeckia is struggling this year. Most have already lost their blooms. They usually keep going til late October.
I don't spray. If it survives without rain, I keep it. If not, it dies. I don't coddle plants. Ok, a few hibiscus I coddle, but most are on their own. Even the brugmansias get no special treatment.
My garden looks lush probably for three reason. I water at least one part of the yard almost everyday unless it rains over half an inch....which was rare this year. Also, when I first plant a new plant I amend the soil.... after doing lots of research online to determine the best soil requirement for that plant. I've even dug holes over 4 feet deep for some plants and fill it in with compost if the plant doesn't like wet feet in the winter etc. Another reason is I'm a foliage guy. Only rarely do I purchase a plant for the flowers. I'm into interesting or exotic looking foliage plants and if they flower than it's a bonus.
Fig trees have been in my family for decades. I grew up in an Italian family that had a tradition of covering fig trees (4 or 5 of them) at my grandparents yard every fall...this was back in the 1980s. Then at the Easter get-together in the spring everyone would uncover them. My fig trees are from my grandparents old property. I have about a dozen of them scattered around the yard. I've never lost one of them. Only one of them is big enough AND is in enough sun to produce small fruit. Some years I cover that one in hopes of larger fruit. I've never had the success that my grandparents had with large quantities of full sized figs probably for a couple reasons. My yard is much more shaded than my grandparents old property and every year I've covered my fig tree the following summer has been cooler and drier than normal.
BTW, I'm in a zone 5/6. In the past couple decades, half the years have been zone 5 winters and the other half were zone 6 winters.
Do you have a lot of problems with seedlings from that mimosa? There is another discussion going on right now about mimosa, and someone said that in colder climates it probably wouldn't be a problem.
In my neck of the woods, I could never have a mimosa mixed in with "flower" beds....all my time would be devoted to pulling up the seedlings...and it doesn't take long for them to really take hold and be hard to pull up!
A few years ago my neighbor let a mimosa grow right up next to my fence....too close to some crepe myrtles already growing on my side (about 6 feet from fence). I love my neighbor, so I didn't say anything about it...just kept cutting off the brances that grew my way, although I knew that someday that wasn't going to work anyway....just kept praying for a peaceful resolution. So, one day, the people hired by the power company to clear stuff under the lines came along and chopped it down! (God is good.) LOL My neighbor has another one growing in her yard, further away from the fence....it also came up "volunteer" as the old-times say, and she let it grow because she likes them....so I don't feel so bad about her losing the one by my fence.
But, I still have to chop the new growth down every year, 5 or 6 times a year. It's been about 3 years since they cut it down.
LOL. In my neighborhood, no I don't have deer. I live on 7th St in a small town. There are no wide open spaces and the woods here are narrow. There might be rabbits in the woods, but so far I have never seen one. I do have a chipmunk that's living under a few of the rocks in the perennial bed pictured above. So far, it's only gotten a few crocus and daff bulbs. It seems content eating all the acorns that fall from the big oak tree at the edge of the garden. The owls keep the squirrels in check and the hawk swoops in from time to time when the other critters aren't being careful enough. I got lucky when I bought this yard.
If they were grown from seed, they were wintersown. That means I made small containers usually from soda bottles. Poke holes in the bottom, leave the cap off for water and air movement, and scatter the seeds in winter on 3-4" of potting mix. They'll germinate when it's time. Plant them out when they have two sets of leaves.
I'll be doing it again this year. I have new perennials to try and a few new annuals too. I couldn't have done this if I had to buy all those plants.
My garden in March of 2009.
That is SO cool! Except I don't drink soda...
I'm guessing I won't have a greenhouse until next year, but that should take care of early starters when.
This is all I've got for now - the Northern side yard and in the background the West-facing butterfly garden at front...but next year I should have several spots around the house with things ornamental. All still acclimating.
I am currently working on that path which also pulls the 'floating yard trees' in to the garden by extending the planting bed...hopefully to be completed before winter. Not sure how we're bordering and filling yet, depends on husband's financial mood. (Would like flagstones and crushed gravel with a low ornamental grass or shrub border.)
My back yard is a challenge because I want it flowering and a wild food source, but also to fit the hillside woodlands it backs against.
The front can be fluffy. ;)
Since you can't really tell:
Shasta Daisy at far left, done for the season and cut back.
Some other sort of daisy - orange. Gerber, maybe. In the planter. That tag is still there...
Three Blueberry bushes...only gotten a few berries so far, still small. Concord grape...I think. Have to verify which one that was...had a couple, only one made it. Have to move, does not like it there. Passiflora for the Hummers.
Pink and Yellow Four O'Clocks. For the first time ever, the yellow are thriving and the pink is wimpy. Want Kaleidescope for next year... Russian Sage. Asparagus Fern. Pink roses of some Home Improvement variety - doing very well, just no flowers in that picture. Weeping Pussywillow. Holly bush (came with the house)
Generic shrubs - must have been the thing a few years ago, see them everywhere...Alabama's version of Florida's Ixora. I found out what they were then promptly forgot. But the leaves have a warm copper or rosey new growth that is quite pretty, so they stay as an anchor.
What I think is a Penstemon...not sure. On either side of that bench. The tag disappeared last winter. No flowers right now to compare. Plant itself is low to the ground, sends up tall flowering shoots. Seems to me they were pink.
Some sort of Juniper that I started from a cutting, will move next Spring. Coneflower.
Under the bench are some sort of lovely white flowers that were already there...the plants die back by summer. Pic in album. Daffodils near birdfeeder, another brief event.
And a lot of weeds.
Last edited by 33458; 09-16-2009 at 10:25 AM..
Reason: What it is, skism.
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Bellafinzi
