Viewing comments posted by lauribob

I am moving this guy out of some prime real estate to the "wild zone" this year for two reasons: It stinks and it flops. Maybe the tall grass will hold it up. The flowers are pretty, but mine are always in a horizontal position.

Remove any solid colored leaves to keep it variegated.

This plant has striking dark purplish foliage, which provides interest from spring until the masses of flowers appear in late summer. It does best in full sun but will tolerate a bit of shade. Native to North America.

This is very similar to the cultivar 'Lady in Black' but it is shorter and does not spread as readily. Can be grown in partial or dappled shade, but the foliage will have the best color in full sun.

This is often sold in my area with incorrect zone information. I have purchased it twice where the tag said zone 5 or 6. It's an (expensive) annual for me and the zone 9 information here is undoubtedly accurate.

It is suggested to grow this one in part shade for the most intense dark color.

This melon is absolutely to die for! Ours don't get very big, but the flavor is huge. I savor the subtle spiciness of this melon - if you cut one in half and put a small scoop of vanilla ice cream in the middle, you will have a dessert that will transport you to melon heaven!

I'm not usually a big fan of beefsteak tomatoes. This one is an exception. It's got great flavor and gets real big, but doesn't have the disagreeable texture that I associate with beefsteaks. It's juicy and tart and produces well for me.

This is one of my go-to tomatoes every year. While the tomatoes are not large, they ripen early for us and have a nice tart flavor. They produce abundantly and are a nice size for cutting up in salads. These are similar to the "vine tomatoes" you can buy at the grocery store.

Space produces well for us pretty reliably. We like the flavorful, slightly savoyed, thick leaves, which are reasonably slow to bolt here with our early hot summers. I'm not a big fan of the thinner small-leafed varieties.

I've never had much luck growing broccoli here - the summer gets hot too fast. This variety has performed really well for me. We were still harvesting tasty broccoli in early August! The slowest to bolt for me ever, and delicious flavor. The earwigs got into the cauliflower this year to the point that we tossed it all on the compost heap, but they stayed away from the broccoli.
Days to maturity 65-70 days.

This is my all-time favorite cherry tomato (so far). The right amount of sweet and tart, a good producer here. The seeds are getting harder to find for some reason. I wish it was an heirloom variety. It stands up well in its cage and we've had no cracking of the fruit. Tomatoes are about an inch in diameter, firm and juicy, with thin skins. This is one of the varieties we grew on the dashboard of the RV last winter and planted into the garden when we got home. That plant is still producing, albeit not as prolifically as the others started in the greenhouse this spring.

Care should be taken to avoid contact with poison sumac, which can be more toxic than either poison oak or poison ivy. Never burn poison sumac, as inhaling the smoke can cause life-threatening pulmonary edema.

While the blossoms on this variety are enormous and stunning, they are so heavy that they are pulled down into the foliage facing the ground. Not a particularly good garden look, in my opinion. They do make lovely cut flowers.

I have mixed results growing this in my zone 5 garden. I start it from seed and some years it comes back, but just as often it's never to be seen again when the snow melts off in the spring. I have had it grow as large as a small bush in one season, covered with gorgeous blooms that hang on well after a frost in mid October. Other years, not so impressive. I basically plant it like an annual and if it decides to come back the following spring, it's a bonus.

This plant supposedly likes it very moist and will even grow in water. (I'm going to try that one of these days.) I planted some next to a rock water feature to hide the supporting grate. It has taken off from there and is quite aggressive in my sporadically watered rock garden of succulents. It has also crossed my gravel driveway and is now growing in another rather dry area. It's very bright and pretty.

Silvermound prefers poor soil. Overly fertile soil will cause it to have excessive vertical growth, which can result in it opening up in the center unattractively and sprawling everywhere or splitting. Cutting back by half in mid summer before flowering will prevent this when grown in fertile soil. The leaves are very silky and soft.

This bloomed profusely for me this year in very early May. I am now having a smaller, paler second bloom in the middle of June. The fragrance is still strong.

Tansy grows wild all over my property here in Eastern Washington. A little bit more than I would like sometimes, but I've learned to live with it. It's pretty when it's blooming, but I don't care for the smell of it.

I put this under a crabapple tree as a groundcover - the tag on the plant said it would only be a foot tall or some other nonsense. I really like the looks of it when it first comes up and it's short, but mine ends up about 4 feet tall and it's a thug! I'm thinking about just cutting it back with the lawnmower from time to time to keep it looking nicer. I think it looks ratty when it gets so tall and is not at all what I had in mind. I would try to pull it out except that it's already moving into the surrounding lawn, so I'm guessing that's not an option.