My driveway

I've always been a "park the cars in the garage" type of guy, and never understood how people could have a garage full of "junk" or whatever and therefore need to park their vehicles in the driveway or on the street. Well, I still don't know how it happens for other people, but I'm one of those "cars in the driveway" people now.

Not that I really want to be. It started with the kittens last year, then continued with all of the potted plants over the winter, but we haven't been able to park our cars in the garage for over a year now. Because of that, there's really no reason to keep the garage end of the driveway clear, so naturally I filled it up with potted plants.

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Greenhouse finally comes down

This past winter was the second one that I've built a temporary greenhouse in my garden from PVC pipes and plastic sheeting (and a few other parts). Last year I took it down on May 24th, which I thought was pretty late.

That was nothing compared to this year though, as I've been putting this job off again and again. I finally took it down last weekend.

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Outdoor table makeover

This past weekend I continued the process of getting the deck into shape. Previously I had cleaned the deck stairs, then cleaned the deck itself (which I don't think I posted about). This weekend's project was the table.

I built this table a few years ago, and have always had a problem with the edging on it. I think I've taken care of it now though... read on for the whole process.

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Adventitious roots means more plants

I'm pretty bad at keeping on top of my tomato plants, as I never seem to remove the "suckers" when they're small. Every once in a while I realize the plants are getting way out of control, and I remove what has become a pretty large section of plant. Of course this makes me feel guilty and wasteful, as it seems like I'm holding a pretty substantial plant in my hand, and I hate throwing away good plants.

So this year I decided to pot up a few cuttings and see what happens. I figured that the cuttings would root pretty easily, as tomatoes can create adventitious roots, which means they can form roots all along the stem. That's why you always hear to plant your tomato plants deeply -- don't just plant them at the same depth they're growing in the pot. Roots will form on the buried stem, and more roots means stronger plants.

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Not really "purple"

I've grown echinacea purpea or "purple coneflowers" for years. They're beautiful, bee magnets, bulletproof in the heat, feed the birds -- just a perfect native garden flower. I've always grown the traditional purple varieties like 'Magnus', but a couple of years ago I added a couple of 'White Swan', which (not surprisingly) have white flowers. "Purple" coneflowers are now available in almost any color you want. Last year I added a few new varieties, and although I lost two of them over the winter (the reports on some of the new types seem to indicate they're not as reliably cold-hardy as older varieties), they're starting to bloom now and they're wonderful!

I'll need to put out some plant tags so I can remember which plants are which, but I think this one is 'Big Sky Twilight'. It's sort of a dusky pinkish orange. Kind of pale but really nice.

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This bamboo has to go... or does it?

As you may know from reading my previous 400 or so posts, I love growing bamboo. The problem I have right now is that I'm limited in planting space, so many of the around 50 varieties I grow are kept in pots. I'm constantly evaluating the ones that have been planted in the ground though, looking for signs of weakness, poor winter hardiness, or any other reason to remove a plant and free up its location for one of my potted species. I did this last summer when I removed one bamboo and planted another.

I've been keeping an eye on this species (Semiarundinaria fastuosa 'Viridis'). It did better than I hoped last winter, staying about 50% green. It's not sizing up for me very fast though (it's about 8' tall right now), and it's reported to have rhizomes -- the underground "runners" that allow the bamboo to spread -- that grow deeper than usual, making it difficult to rhizome prune and keep the plant from taking over.

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Don't know what it is, but I love it

I first saw this plant last summer, in an expensive hanging basket at one of my local garden centers. What caught my eye was that it looked a lot like a variegated bamboo, but in hanging basket form! Beautiful! Unfortunately the basket didn't have a plant tag in it, so I had no idea what the plant was.

I found another specimen this year, and although its price was a bit more than I usually like to pay for plants of this type I decided I needed to have it in my garden this year. Besides, when compared to the hundreds of dollars I've spent on trees (Japanese Maples mainly) that have since died, $16 was nothing. (I find it easy to rationalize garden purchases.)

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Mango seed

I've only recently been introduced to the wonderful fruit that is mango. Technically I had my first taste of mango a decade ago in California, and I've been drinking mango juice for a while, but I've never started with a whole mango until now. I won't talk about the luscious fruit, how to tell if it's ripe, how to eat it -- as interesting as all of those topics are -- but I will talk about the pit.

As a gardener I'm usually interested in the seeds that fruits produce, but this one was extra-fascinating. Mango pits are gigantic!

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More about cicada damage

The other day I posted about the damage that cicadas were causing to small branches of trees and other woody plants. The females make slits in the woody but still soft branches and lay eggs in them. I was somewhat surprised to find that they were using the bamboos in the same way.

Today I have a little more information about this damage to the bamboos, as it's more significant than I thought.

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