OT: I HATE Gardening

My DH built me super-raised beds (they're half a metre deep) with seats on the edges so I can weed in comfort. That's 'WEED', OK? The cost was minimal, but the benefit to my need for flowers has been huge! This year, he put up a massive (20ft) wall of wire mesh for my sweet peas. They're up and running already and I'm anticipating a riot when they flower. We recently realised that lawn is a pain in the bum and so I've planted Oz native violets and they're busily filling in all the spaces. Eventually, there'll be no real need to mow because the bits that aren't paths will be full of little white-and-purple flowers. I've also put violets around the bottoms of all my beds, so they've competed successfully with the grass and weeds and make a much prettier edging.

I have to say, if I were limiting myself to a single type of plant, it'd be roses, roses all the way! You should just *see* the glorious assortment I've had this summer. At the moment, we've only got twenty or so bushes, but the new season is coming soon and DS and I will be out there planting as many more (I hope). DS loves to put rainbows of roses on the kitchen windowsill (ie. a collection of different colours) because you can't help but smile at them first thing every morning.

Anyway, best of luck with your gardening. Why not take your iPod out with you and listen to music or a beaut audiobook while you weed? ;-D

Trish Brown wrote:

Give it up Trish -- it's just NOT going to work. Trying to get me to look at working in the garden as a "happy" thing to do is like convincing MOI that it's fun to go workout!!! NOT HAPPENING -- LOLOL! We have tried the weed preventive mat put under the mulch but it gets so wet & humid here in Magnoliaville that the *(*(*%&*&*(* weeds take root in the mulch! VBS -- I can't wait to get settled in the mountains of Lizard Land. We don't plan on having any sort of "garden". I will have raised bed planters along the front of the house so that I don't have to be bending & stooping, etc. I will have lots of perennials there. I also plan to plant lots & lots of trees. Up in the mountains, there is mostly just pine & juniper with a few aspen thrown in for looks. Not much in the way of colour during the autumn. I want to plant different types of maple trees, some river birch, maybe a weeping cherry -- just different things that will give a bit of colour during the autumn and then again in the spring. We are zone 7 here and zone 6 in the mountains of AZ. This means that most of what I have here that I truly love will do OK once we have moved. I will so miss my dwarf ornamental lace leaf maples but I checked and they are OK down to about zone 4. The only thing they require is some judicious pruning and I don't mind doing that at all. I could also plant butterfly bushes, peonies, hydrangea and I will

*always* have gardenias. They might take a bit of fussing over when winter comes but I don't mind that so much since I absolutely love those flowers. Regardless, I still have to plant the stuff that has been sitting in the shade for almost TWO weeks now. With DH (AKA My Sherpa) to be errand boy, it won't be quite as tedious as it could be! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

We live in a RV community, and people come cut the grass etc. DH decided we need to grow our own veggies.(Will not go into that). Last year was first test, and actually we garnered quite a crop of tomatoes, eggplants and peppers from pots. The front flower bed ( used to be hibiscus, but the bad frost crippled them), we had squash growing in them

This year, more pots on the deck, plants started indoors with an Aerogarden, and four VERY expensive earth boxes to make a bigger crop of stuff..

DH kindly concedes that I was the one with a garden when we first met (

30 years back) and know so much. ""If you need help, PLEASE call me"

So, with the weird winter, crappy deluges of rain and 30 mph winds, I wonder how much will survive.

BTW my DH is allergic to grass...happily we have people who do that..........but he is having a blast trimming the palm-type trees. If anything has electricity, a battery whatever..........technology rubles in his world.

Whine over!!!!

LOL

Gillian

But therein lies your problem. You are overdoing it! (How unusual?!) By contrast, last weekend dh and I bought one flat of impatiens, one of begonias, one of petunias and a half dozen geranium plants. They are all planted in the porch pots and the hanging baskets, we took two afternoons over it, and I pointed out to dh that it is perfectly acceptable to fill pots on the porch table, while sitting down. Next weekend we will probably get at least one more flat of impatiens (my porch only gets sun in the late afternoon) plus some dianthus if they have any. I will then need to go to the more specialized nursery to find some interesting shade plants for a large urn on the porch, but that can wait for at least one more week. Also, I have to think what to put in the pot which currently holds pansies right on the edge of the porch, where there is some sun, and which is looking decidedly the worse for wear, poor thing.

A little at a time, that's my motto for planting.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

And I am of the "Do it all at once to get it done & over with" frame of mind. I buy what I know I will like as soon as I see it. I have waited and tried to stretch things out and then when I went back in a week or two, what I wanted was gone & no idea when more would be coming in -- always got the old "Check back with us every 2 or 3 days, OK?" That's a crock of bovine scat if you ask MOI -- LOLOL! So, I'll muddle through this weekend with help from The Sherpa and hope that there isn't a late season frost like we have had for the last 2 or 3 years!! I will have to say that most of my creeping phlox is in bloom and looks absolutely lovely. We get people driving by who stop to enjoy all of the flowers. It's nice to know that we have curb appeal! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

I'm with Tia Mary. The problem with gardening is, it's never *done.* I want to do it and walk away and forget about it...no more weeding, trimming, etc. etc. That's why I *love* bulbs!

Sue

Ok - I do understand exactly where Tia Mary is coming from...so lots of hints.

Hardest thing to do first is to not over buy. Really, really hard to do.

Second - the idea of flowering shrubs, with some succession of bloom and interesting foliage and bark. Mary - there are some great shrubs with lime green or deep purple leaves. And really cool bark

Same goes for some perennials - look for interesting leaves, buds and seed heads. Peonies will give you lots to look at. Ditto Siberian Iris. And look for a trellis for some vines.

And use pots and planters. Some of the new plastic pots are really nice looking and are light weight. If you have in ground irrigation, you can get drip emitters to fit right in the pot. And you could replant them if you want a change. And pots can be done on a bench or table so you can fill them more comfortably for you and then the DH can move them for you...

(as an aside, I mix and match perennials and annuals in pots and overwinter everything with the pot buried in the ground below the soil level.

Finally, establish a nursery area to shelter things still in their flats/pots - close to the house and the hose is important. That way when you overbuy (and get more than what you can plant), you can take more time planting them

My problem this year is that my back has been very bad ever since returning from the cruise. This means DH MUST be here to help me plant. Unfortunately, after buying what I thought we could plant in a week's time, his work required him to be gone all of last week!

I have bunches of lorapetilum (sp??) which has lovely purplish leaves all year round. Come summer it has beautiful bright pink flowers

I do have a peony and iris and gladiolas, heather, gardenias, lavender, rosemary, day lilies, LOADS of stuff.

WE have a drip system **everywhere**. When we first moved here we couldn't find the supplies anywhere. The local Home Creepo had to special order the stuff for us! In Lizard Land, absolutely EVERYTHING is put on a drip system! I have four long narrow planters along my front walk that I put the annuals in. Everything else is a perennial.

There is one area right outside the pedestrian door to the garage that works well as a nursery area. It gets morning only sunshine an is protected from harsh wind, etc. by the shrubs. The problem is that my yard is HUGE. I mean, really, really big and since we live on a corner (sort of) both the front and back yards can be seen from the street. The stuff I plant each year is done to fill in bare spaces and to add more color. I don't mind doing the actual planting, I don't even mind pulling the occasional weed or cutting back the dead flowers. It's the CONSTANT, never ending round of work that is required. We do all the right stuff to try and keep the weeds under control but it's a drop in the bucket when you look at the areas I have to take care of. VBS add to that the fact that DH just doesn't want to admit that I have gotten older and can no longer work in the yard for 6 or 8 hours without ending up in such pain that I would gladly let a bus run over MOI -- LOLOL! I can do all the helpful stuff anyone can think of and I STILL will NOT LIKE gardening. My Mother loved it and would spend hours at it, I truly dislike it. I also get scabies if I am not careful so I can't let even a blade of grass come in extended contact with my skin or I am in for a few weeks of dealing with that lovely skin problem. I look like a freakin' mummy now when I go out to work in the yard! Long sleeves tucked into my work gloves, long pants, some sort of hat or scarf -- the only thing showing is my face and my floppy hat covers most of that. Nope -- I am not a gardening sort of person. What's funny is that I seem to have two green thumbs when it comes to this garden! Everyone in the 'hood thinks I am some sort of super gardener -- LOLOL! That's likely because I have to be out in the yard every weekend pulling weeds or oak seedlings or planting something to keep the yard looking nice. All I can say is we got curb appeal up the wazoo -- LOLOLOL! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

Astroturf?

DHs idea of a perfect garden is to pour concrete on the whole lot. Paint green. Then plant as amany antennas as you can..preferably with a nice crank-down tower in the middle.

I could still grow my veggies in pots, unless they are in his way. You can tell the technofreak in this house.

Your husband would probably prefer a garden 200 feet long and 3 feet wide! Just the right length for a nice dipole.

Two words. Ground Cover. With a few flowering things poked in here and there.

I live close to the heart of the city, and my front and back yards are each the size of a pocket handkerchief. The back yard, however, does indeed have ground cover plus a few pots. The front yard, with a big tree close to the sidewalk, has a few flowers round the tree (annuals, but they usually winter over anyhow). The "lawn" takes all of fifteen minutes to mow and edge.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Olwyn.Mary wrote:

I have loads of ground cover. Mostly Blue Star Creeper and Creeping Phlox -- which, BTW, is in full bloom now and looking lovely. I have just finished up planting everything and it only took about EIGHT hours. with several 20 minute rests in there. I planted a flat of Blue Star Creeper, a flat of Viola and a flat of Grace Ward Lithodora and a flat of Blue Hawaii Ageratum. The planters have gotten some dianthus and pansies but still need a bit more. I also put in some summer flowering bulbs -- Peruvian Daffodil, Bleeding Heart and some other pretty little thing that starts with Acida... . Two weeks ago I put in six 4" pots of Creeping Phlox, six 2" pots of Irish Moss and another six

2" pots of stuff I can't remember the name of! The Lithodora went in the back yard and I had a wonderfully horrid surprise when I went back there to start planting! Right in the area where I am doing the planting I noticed that the ground was VERY wet in an area about 2 foot wide. The water appeared to be coming from underneath a small retaining wall that DH put in. Now, there is NO drip system or sprinkler stuff back there -- no water of any sort -- and when I bent down to look closer, I noticed that the water stank to high heaven! Stank just like mild sewage!!!!!!!!!! DH talked to the neighbor because his leach field and septic system are on that side of his yard -- ours is in the front yard. Let's pray the neighbor gets this taken care of quickly! We have family coming next weekend to spend a few days and they will want to be spending most of their time outside in the back yard! Anyway, I had also wanted to put in some of the summer bulbs right in the area where the water is seeping through. I guess that will have to wait for a little while. I really wanted to get all of this planting done and out of the way. I'll need most of this month to recuperate from the gardening and get myself ready for the trip to Lizard Land next month :-). YAHOO -- NO gardening for a whole month. Then I am home for just a few days and we leave to go to Ireland & Scotland so there's another two weeks away from pulling weeds. Of course, the nasty weeds will be here -- waiting for me to return and do battle with them! Once back in Lizard Land, I will have trees, a few shrubs and flowers in raised flower beds along the front of the house. No more bending over pulling weeds and planting stuff, etc. I can hardly wait -- LOLOL! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Yeah, but he has radials too. I am also a Ham, but thank Heaven, am not too uninterested in technology.Bing me the fabric and floss.

On 4/2/10 5:25 PM, "Olwyn.Mary" wrote:

You're all making me jealous or something. As I look at the semi-mess which now needs serious work. Our yard is much smaller than the prior house with the nearly an acre that I'd done much work with. This one, we did a sort of bed in front with rhodies/specimen boxwoods, lavender, sage, some smallish speicmen trees - the Weeping Pussywillow & a gorgeous Bloodgood Japanese Maple, some brooms, and small lower flowering annual plants & and Lady in Red hydrangea. It is now after the snows a wreck. Cousin It - the pussywillow is listing - and we have to stake it and hope. Part of the gorgeous maple seems to have died as there are no buds on some of the upper limbs. Broken rhodies - I think we're pulling all 5 and putting them in the back and praying. The lawn - ugh - hopefully we're going to hire someone to deal with the lawn and we're going to deal with the plants ourselves. But....the daylilies which I put in late last fall are actually coming up - well, about 80% of them. Which is great. It's a mess and I think that next week will be all about dealing with it. Then we'll go to the back - have to pull the broken cryptomerea, and our specimen little Sango Kaku Japanese maple has also died. But, on the good side the Serviceberry is blooming, as is the lovely flowering plum, and our "the builder supplied" Bradford pears and cherry tree (too close to the house in the front/side). The skinny weeping peach up front seems to be budding, as is our Macoun apple tree in the back. Mostly all the weeds are coming thru the stonework - I thought I got them last year with the round-up, but, oh- well.

I've been sorely tempted passing by a couple of nurseries - but am waiting a bit. Our favorite just sent out some coupons for hefty discounts on trees and some plants.

I think of you, Mary, as my DH is all about putting in some stone edging and having a bunch of mountain pink (evidently the front of his childhood home in NJ was famous for this). So, I think we're going to do something a bit sculptural and do that. Hoping to get some annuals in eventually, and will be container planting a bunch of herbs, and tomatos - as I actually found all my clay pots!

Well, back to weekend chores, and more matzoh.

Ellice

My peonies are just beginning to poke through, I have crocuses and early daffodils in bloom, plus icicle pansies which survived the winter. Daylilies are going great gangbusters. I heavily cut back my lavender which did make it despite the lack of snow cover, and within 24 hours my forsythia should be in full bloom. As far as I can tell everything has made it through the winter with little damage, although I won't know about my lilies, trilliums or jack-in-the-pulpit till later in the season.

I do no more than two hours at a time. Bus since this is only our second year here, I have lots more beds to build. I'm going to do the potatoes-in-pots on the deck again this year. I had pretty good results with them as well as tomatoes and herbs.

My worry is that with the early spring and little snow cover we are in for a very hot and dry year.

MargW

ellice wrote:

One of The Willow Sisters (we have three in a small grouping along the "gully" fence with a bench place amongst them) we planted about 4 years ago seems to be dead :-(((. That makes me most unhappy but at least it's not a big tree. I'll have to go one of these mornings and cut some limbs to see how bad off it is. I can't complain because, if it *is* dead, it's the only large thing we have planted in the last ten years that has died! Pretty good luck for MOI. I'm praying my new weeping Pussy Willow adjusts to its new home and starts to thrive. Speaking of which, I need a name for the weeping pussy willow. I have just been calling it the cat tree and might name it Neko. But then, I'm open to suggestions from the group! Can anyone think of a fun name for it? The large oak tree is called Oakley, the two river birch are called The Birch Brothers (River and Phoenix), the magnolia is Maggie, weeping cherry is Saki (sakura = cherry tree in Japanese), the old dwarf ornamental maple is Momi One and the new maple is Momi Nee (momiji = maple tree in Japanese) and nee is the number 2), Guiseppe Verde (aka Joe Green) the small lace leaf maple who has green leaves all season, and there are the three Willow Sisters with no individual names. Obviously, I name all my large trees or very ornamental things so now I need a good name for the weeping pussy willow. DH is outside again, putting food on the trees, poisoning bugs & weeds and doing something else he is all gung-ho about and I can't remember -- LOLOL! I'm gonna sit my "full figure size" tired, sore, aching Irish butt in my chair downstairs and do some mindless knitting! Anyway, let's hear some names for the new yard addition, OK? CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Ours did very well, very quickly. I hope the same for you.

LOL- we name all our trees and some of the ornamental plants as well. The Weeping Pussy Willow - which I confess - was DH's big choice - is called "Cousin It" - as when it is in full leaf, well, it is so full and you have to lift aside the long draping limbs to get in for maintenance that the name seemed apropos. The Sangu Kaku maple is actually called "Saku Koivu" for the hockey player, who came back after a serious bout with the big C.

I think we're going to pull the crpytomerea and instead put a group of River Birches, and maybe a different ornamental willow. We had Golden Curly Willows - a pair - that arched together with a bench beneath at the old house. They're hard to get trees - and the nursery we got them from has been looking for us. Even though the builder put in drainage after we made them regrade the rear of our yard it's still not right. Too damp - so hence the River birches and willow thought. We have these 2 oddly placed Bradford pears - that if all works well, we'll hire someone to pull those, and move them to somewhere else... We'll yank the crypto & Saku, and I think the bloodgood as well - though it may take someone else. DH has just decided that our tiller is going - as he did till the entire front/side bed before we started. Ack. Your yard looks great.

I'm hopeful - as DH has decided not to play on his softball team this season as a starter, and it's too late for the county league sign-up - so he plans to do the yard stuff with me. It's a thought and a hope. Argh. Then I'll think about the bed full of grass that is supposed to be my flower cutting garden - which we had the stone guys place when we had the patio done.

OK - well - we just got back from errands, and riding 'round the 'hood looking at all the garden ideas. Hope springs eternal. But, for now - not today. Tomorrow a.m. Very, very early we're going to see the Tidal Basin Cherry Blossoms (before the post-Easter services rush). Hopefully we'll wake-up. Tonight - 2nd night in a row - we're at Ken Ctr to see the last of the Terence MacNally "Nights at the Opera" - this is "Master Class" with Tyne Daly playing Maria Callas. So, we'll see plenty of flowers, crowds and tourists on the way down.

I'll think about it.... Sounds great having DH do the pesticide thing. I'm the one here who does that.

Ellice

Our temps are more like June or July. Earliest it has ever been this warm. Record of 85 yesterday. Looks like it'll be 70s into most of next week. So I spent part of yesterday washing the screens and putting them in.

Our forsythia (an early bloomer) already has some green leaves. The early daffodils are in full bloom and I see the tulip buds sticking their green heads up between the leaves. And the lilies of the valley are sticking their heads out of the ground.

I did some bed cleanup and cleaned out the window wells. Then I tackled the sticks and limbs from the locust tree. Dragged the big one over to the "compost" pile. Did some early weeding in one iris bed. That was one I cleaned out last summer and low and behold there are a few tulips that got overwhelmed by the iris. I did the "carpenter ants thing"... hopefully we won't see them this year.

That was about 1 1/2 hours worth. Then I washed the car. Enough for today.

Then there is the pyracatha (firethorn) that got bent over by the snow. Two thirds of it is bending toward the front yard, the rest is hitting one of the cellar windows. It will probably have to go. We were thinking of replacing it anyways.

Tia Mary.....just reading your list ....made me tired.

Nancy