It's Not Work, It's Gardening!: planting

Showing posts with label planting. Show all posts

A little walkway help

>> Tuesday, July 24, 2018 – foliage, planting

Today we'll look at the part of my garden that I see most: the front walkway. There are some good things going on here...

...but there are some problems too. I'll address one problem spot in particular today...

Bamboo Planting, part 2

>> Thursday, November 2, 2017 – bamboo, planting

In the previous post I showed you the "easy" bamboo planting. It was "easy" because it was something I could do myself. Sure it took three hours, but that's garden time so it's fun, right?

Today I show you the two bamboos on the other edge of the yard, and describe the planting process.

Big project gets small

>> Monday, May 16, 2016 – planting, project

Of the many projects that are on "my list" this spring, there's one that I've been putting off because it just seemed like it was going to be such a lot of work. On Friday though I had a little free time and a burst of energy in the chilly sunshine made me jump in.

It's this planter box under the deck. I redid it a few years back but the arrow bamboo Pseudosasa japonica never did what I wanted it to here. It's been flowering and not looking great, but I keep giving it "one more year" -- until now. Well last fall actually, which is when I made the decision on what to do here.

Getting started...

>> Monday, October 12, 2015 – color, furniture, planting, repair

I got started on several larger projects over the past four days or so, and none of them is finished enough to really give you a good look at them.

So today just a couple of peeks at what's going on.

Hide those feet! (more new plants)

>> Tuesday, August 25, 2015 – foliage, grasses, planting

Grasses are one of my favorite plants to grow, and one of my favorites of the last few years has been "Vertigo" fountain grass (Pennisetum purpureum 'Tift 8'). I have it in several places in the ground, and in a pot where the walkway meets the street. Although the pot gives it some extra height and makes it that much more impressive, now that the grass has reached its full height it's starting to look a little ragged around its feet.

It probably doesn't help that it got overly dry a few weeks ago when I was gone for the weekend, but the lower part of this plant is not too attractive: you see lots of stem and brown leaves.

Bird planter(s) project

>> Monday, July 13, 2015 – planting, pots, project

Remember my terra cotta bird planter?

It's lived on my deck for the past five years or longer, holding cold-hardy succulents while braving the heat of direct sunlight on the deck and below-zero temperatures each winter. When I first put it out here I thought it was weird and it didn't really fit my gardening style, so didn't care how long it lasted.

Trouble bed helped

>> Tuesday, June 30, 2015 – foliage, planting

Since the front of the house just got a bit more exciting with its new door color, I've been looking at the rest of the front yard with a critical eye and found the ugliest part of it.

It's the bed under the maple. I half buried these pots a few years back in order to give whatever is planted in them a chance to thrive -- the soil under the tree is always so dry due to the greedy maple roots.

Small bed no longer ignored

>> Wednesday, May 27, 2015 – ferns, planting

Saturday morning I went to visit my gardener friend Mike. He had some clay pots that he wanted to give to a "good home", and had a few plants that he wanted help digging and dividing. So after loading about two dozen pots of various sizes into the truck cab I started digging ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris) which he wanted to reduce and relocate. With Mike's generosity I ended up with ten or eleven good-sized ferns -- more than I expected -- so I had to look for another place to plant some.

I had been thinking about planting ostrich ferns here next to the patio, and had even purchased a small specimen earlier this year (in the black pot). I'm glad I never planted that one, as it's still so young compared to what I dug. This bed is just weeds right now, so seems perfect for a makeover.

A new approach to watering strawberry pots

>> Wednesday, May 20, 2015 – herbs, planting, pots, project

I'm finally getting to some projects that don't involve cleaning or digging! I've had a couple of strawberry pots for several years, and always have trouble keeping them hydrated during the heat of the summer. Because of this they've sat unused for a couple of seasons now...

...but I've had an idea of how to solve this problem and am finally putting it to the test! I thought of this last year or the year before but other (bigger) projects were always higher priority. I still have a few big projects that I'll start on any day now, but with just an hour or so available last night this smaller one seemed the perfect size to tackle.

Buying unseen plants

>> Thursday, April 30, 2015 – foliage, planting

I've been visiting the local nurseries quite a bit this spring, and that means I've been bringing home lots of new plants too. What do you do though when the local shops don't carry plants that you're looking for? You buy online! (or "mail-order" as we once called it)

Today I have two stories about buying plants that you can't really see. The first is from a company in Wisconsin that I've never bought from before: Prairie Nursery. I've been looking for a specific native fern for a few years now and have never seen it available locally. A web search, an order, and this box arrived (a couple of days earlier than I expected).

Garden slide puzzles

>> Monday, November 10, 2014 – planting, transplant

Do you ever feel like you're trying to solve a giant sliding tile puzzle when working in the garden? You know those puzzles: there's only one tile space available and you need to move all of the others around utilizing that one space until the whole thing is solved.

I have this feeling every so often, when a relatively simple garden task becomes a complicated puzzle. My plan for this past weekend was to remake the bed shown above. I've posted about this before, wanting to turn this struggling mishmash of plants into a unified planting. (It looks quite good now, but one month of beauty doesn't make up for the preceding months of unsatisfactory results.)

Finishing the rose removal

>> Wednesday, October 22, 2014 – planting

Recently I started removing a climbing rose that was infected by Rose Rosette Disease. At the time I just pruned the poor thing to the ground, saying that I'd remove the roots later.

Part of my delay was that I wasn't sure what plant to put here in its place. This is the type of thing I might have thought about over the winter a few years ago, carefully weighing the pros and cons of every perennial vine that would grow in my climate. Not now though -- I don't have the patience for that anymore. Now I just weighed a few choices, saw a plant I knew I wanted to grow, ordered it, and dug in.

Making more space, permanence

>> Thursday, June 12, 2014 – ninebark, planting

I realized something late last week: my walkway planting beds need to be wider. They also need more permanence, or year-round interest, as they're quite barren in the winter.

So I decided to do a little turf removal, some plant shopping, and I think I did something good.

New plants, cheap!

>> Friday, May 2, 2014 – herbs, planting

I'm determined not to go to crazy buying plants this year, as for the last couple of years I ended up with too many things to plant -- my driveway was a nursery for most of the year.

Since the harsh winter appears to have taken out plants throughout my garden, I certainly do need to add some new ones though, and to be honest, I couldn't resist buying at least a few plants every spring even if I had no place to put them!

Sow, what's first?

>> Monday, January 20, 2014 – planting, seeds

It's mid-January, with single-digit temperatures (F) arriving again later this week, so what can I do in the garden on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon? Why, plant lettuce of course!

At last Thursday's seed swap, Jack at Schlafly Gardenworks showed photos of his young lettuce plants that had survived the recent polar vortex with its -5ºF or lower temperatures with only a lightweight row cover protecting them. He insisted that any short warm spell at this time of year is the perfect time to sow lettuce seeds. So I did.

Fall is for planting!

>> Tuesday, October 29, 2013 – clematis, planting, salvia

At least that's what the local garden centers all remind you, as most casual gardeners plant in spring and that's it for the year -- or that's how I perceive it. Of course fall is a great time to plant perennials, shrubs, trees, and bamboo, with the ground staying relatively warm for a while still, cooler temperatures and more rainfall (in theory).

Although I pretty much plant new stuff during spring and summer too, I've been spending some time recently getting plants into the ground. Some of them have been growing from seed all summer, but others are brand-new plants picked up on sale as nurseries try to reduce inventory for the winter.

Planting Peonies

>> Thursday, September 19, 2013 – peonies, planting

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from my gardening friend Michael letting me know that he's going to be digging up some of his peonies very soon, and wanting to know if I was interested in a couple of divisions.

Since I don't currently grow any peonies, and since they're a plant that my wife really likes, and since they're free -- I said yes! Since it's Mike I should have known that "a couple" really meant six.

Finally, planting cactus!

>> Tuesday, June 25, 2013 – cactus, planting

This past Saturday morning I was really excited to get outside and do some work in the garden. I wasn't able to get out there as early as I had hoped to, and when I did it was more difficult to get started than I expected.

Oh, it's not that my enthusiasm was waning. No, my problem was choosing the right project to start with on what I expected to be a long day in the heat.

Ugly plant, fixing it

>> Friday, May 31, 2013 – clematis, planting, vines

I'm a fairly patient gardener compared to most. I'll give a poorly-performing plant a decent chance before I relocate it, or even banish it. Usually this means an entire growing season, but sometimes it means a few years.

Take for instance this 'Fine Line' buckthorn, Rhamnus frangula. I picked it up at least 5 years ago at a bargain price, and envisioned it forming a column of green, feathery foliage.

The walkway beds expand

>> Wednesday, May 22, 2013 – digging, planting

My newest planting beds -- those along my new-last-year walkway -- began their expansion this past weekend.

Although I'm more than pleased with the way these beds are going, they're just not big enough. There's much more room for plants out here!

It's Not Work, It's Gardening!

Pages

A little walkway help

Bamboo Planting, part 2

Big project gets small

Getting started...

Hide those feet! (more new plants)

Bird planter(s) project

Trouble bed helped

Small bed no longer ignored

A new approach to watering strawberry pots

Buying unseen plants

Garden slide puzzles

Finishing the rose removal

Making more space, permanence

New plants, cheap!

Sow, what's first?

Fall is for planting!

Planting Peonies

Finally, planting cactus!

Ugly plant, fixing it

The walkway beds expand

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