Of the many different types of ubiquitous weeds in my lawn and garden beds, during late summer and fall one of them is "king of the weeds" by far: smartweed.
Three weeks ago I took some photos of my bald cypress tree, thinking I'd do a post about it. Although I've been sneaking photos of it into other posts once in a while, it's such a beautiful tree I wanted to collect enough photos to give it an entire post of its own.
Yesterday I wrote about planting the first of my two new clumping bamboos. Today I tackle the second one, the Fargesia murielae.
Recently I posted about Fall being a great time to find bargains at the local nurseries -- in that case, new pots. Today I will talk about some more great bargains I found last weekend: more bamboo plants!
One of the great things about ornamental grasses is the "winter interest" that they provide to the garden. They sway in the wintry winds, look great in the snow, and even provide shelter for birds and other wildlife. For those reasons I do not cut my grasses down until late winter, with one exception.
Those of you who grow plants either outdoors in your gardens or indoors as houseplants probably have had experience at one time or another with some sort of insect pest infestation: aphids, whiteflies, fungus gnats, thrips, scale, spider mites, bamboo mites (ack!), mealybugs -- there is a long list of "bad" insects that plague gardeners. Although they like different conditions, and often specific types of plants, many of these pests are tiny sap-sucking bugs that can cover a large percentage of a plant.
I'm going to be mulching most of my in-ground bamboos and some of the other planting beds in a month or so, to provide them with extra winter protection. The wood chip mulch also helps to condition the soil, adding organic matter as it slowly decomposes. I always mulch my planting beds. Except this year, when I didn't add any new mulch. The old mulch was there, but I never got around to adding the fresh stuff.
It's one of those mornings when the garden just hits me right. I'm not seeing the weeds in the lawn (or should I say "lawn of weeds"), nor the overgrown tangle of vines. I'm not seeing the dozens of potted bamboos that still need an overwintering strategy, nor am I seeing beds that need more mulching.
I've posted about my annual vines before. I think I've even mentioned in those posts how by the end of the season I'll have more vines than I can handle. If I didn't say it, I should have. It happens every year. The interesting thing about annual vines is they start out slow, reach a certain size, then the next thing you know they're gigantic!
My posts about:
© Blogger template Shush by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009
Back to TOP
