GardenArtist Posted September 2015
Gardening as therapy.
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Since you're a tomato lover, you can experiment with different kinds of tomatoes - ranging from the beefsteak variety to the little grape tomatoes. And of course order garden catalogues! They'll provide information on the kind of tomato for your specific use - eating, canning, cooking...
It is easier to buy plants when you first start out. If you have a problem with cutworms, wrap the root ball in something like newspaper (no colors as some of them used to have lead; I don't know if they still do) or cardboard, which will deteriorate but protects the tender roots from nibblers in the ground.
If you get hooked on gardening, you can also consider starting seeds indoors. Now or in February are the best times. This can be done inexpensively or not so much so if you get into the equipment -- "flora carts", fluorescent lights, grow lights, etc.
Some people just use things like yogurt containers set in a tray on top of a refrigerator.
There are also electric mats to provide bottom warmth, as a frig would do Some seeds like peppers and some flowers usually need bottom warmth to sprout.
You must have a large garden if you had room for 60 tomatoes.
You can find info about your average last frost date online if you are in a northern climate. Generally things like lettuce, or peas can go in as soon as the ground dries out and is easy to work up. Other crops like beans, cukes, squash or melons hate to be cold so you have to wait until the ground is warm. People usually buy tomato or pepper plants instead of starting them from seed, around here the garden centers have them out a few weeks before it is really safe to plant them out without a lot of TLC. The seed packets also have a lot of info right on the back.
Strike up a conversation with other gardeners you see buying seeds or plants, most of us are willing to share (you might have a problem getting us to shut up lol)
Eager to see the skink again, and hope he survived the winter. So much rain!
Today was another very grey day. Looking forward to more sun.
We don't get gardening magazines. I found some gardening topics in some recycled magazines over christmas in the laundry room.
Sorry to say, the newer bouganvillas did not make it through.
I gave up on catalogues several years ago, there were an abundance of garden centers and the shipping charges for small orders just seemed too high. Now the garden centers all seem to have disappeared too, I guess the boomers all have enough disposable income to hire pros to do it all for them.
The format has changed slightly; photos of the plants are larger and there are a number of full sized pages just of one plant. I need to order another catalogue as many of these full sized pages are going to become covers for my gardening notebooks.
Who else has received their catalogues for 2016?
I would love to see irises this early - what a treat!
The idea of recycling furniture for outdoor use is a great suggestion. I have 2 mattresses that I was going to put out for trash pickup but now I'm going to take a good look at the springs to see if they can be made into trellises.
Did either of you add a frame to the mattress springs to keep them more stable? I would think that, like chicken wire, they would tend to flop without some kind of framing.
I'm thinking sweet peas would look nice on those kinds of trellises as well, and of course my favorite morning glories.
Has anyone ever grown the Japanese morning glories?
Sharyn, I love Jasmine! This summer we had to cut off the prolific blooms because it made us sleepy!
Just saw t.v. show with the old metal grates on screen doors removed and used as trellises for butterfly plants to climb. They were attached to a fence, looked nice.
Windy, the fence would be roughly 250' long, if I decide to only fence in 2 sides.
I never thought about the T posts; I have them for laundry lines, and they're quite sturdy. I'm trying to picture how fencing would be strung - would it wrap around the posts, or just be run in front of or behind the posts? If fencing is anchored to the posts, how is that done?
Willie, my father had us help dig holes with the old post hole digger decades ago. I wasn't very fond of it then and would be less so now. I like the idea though of using the T posts for strength, then using the vines for more extensive cover.
I envision "T's" with hanging morning glory vines - they could also follow wires or even heavy string from one post to the next. With the portable pots for larger shrubs, or even more posts, I could just move then with me when I go, but they'd also serve as landscaping variety since they'd hold bushes that I don't want to grow too large.
And if the posts aren't anchored in cement, I can take them with me with I leave.
Thanks for the good suggestions. As many times as I've passed the T posts in my yard, I never even considered them.
SendMe,
As to intent and background: My yard is long and narrow close to the end of the block; there are 5 neighbors on the N side, 2 on the E side, and one, an abandoned house, on the S side. It's part of the N side and the S side that I want to block off, and create privacy fences through trellises. I've priced actual fences, and it's a bit more than I want to spend for a place I want to leave in a few years. When my father's gone, I have no reason whatsoever to stay in this area.
I do have honeysuckle, and some of the older vines are thick enough to be used in a trellis, but I don't think they're stand alone vines or have the strength support that would be needed for that, but they could provide lovely, fragrant covers.
I do understand that most bamboos are invasive, but as I recall from a previous discussion on another forum, there is one variety that's not. That's an excellent suggestion.
I would check with the Michigan DNR to make sure the variety isn't invasive, but frankly I don't think they do anything about nonnative invasive if they're not on public property. One of the neighbors has a black locust which is very invasive and nothing's been done about it, even by the city.
CWillie,
Sturdiness is one of my concerns. I have visions of peacefully hoeing one warm sunny day and suddenly having a whole trellis collapse on me.
What I probably would do is plant morning glories, my favorite vining crop, as well as beans and peas and possibly some other annual viners. I might even run strings down to the ground to channel some of the weight off the verticals.
Using scrap wood was my intention as I don't want to put a lot of money into a place where I don't plan to stay.
I was thinking of wood trunks of at least 2 -3" in diameter for the verticals, and even just string from one vertical to another but preferably other branches trimmed from the many vigorous and unwanted trees in the area. I was thinking of weaving the horizontals into the verticals in a wattle style.
When you plant yours, do you support the trunks in any way, such as staking them to posts in the ground, or planting them in cement? I want to avoid the latter, as I really don't want to go to the trouble of creating fence posts along the long property border.
The use of metal is something I've considered, but thought generally in terms of PVC b/c it's white and wouldn't be as visible as something darker. However, I've read that there's a powder type dust used as a finisher that can be toxic, so I'd need to do more research on that.