Can you tell me how to add a new plant to your Plant Database? I have around 90 different varieties of peonies that aren't currently there but when I tried to add the first one it didn't work. I put in all of the required fields and hit Add the Plant but it never updated afterward. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks!

Liz Best
LizinElizabeth

I can help you with this. I'll use the phony name of Ambrosia as the cultivar name. The form should look like this:

Primary common name: Peony
Genus: Paeonia
Cultivar: Ambrosia

Leave the other lines blank, unless you know the species, in which case you can enter it on the Species line.

And of course it will take a little time to actually appear in the database since it has to be approved. So maybe it was just that.

Thank you! I was trying to add info in to the wrong areas, worked like a charm with the 3 you pointed out, Zuzu! I'll at least add the few I took photos of last spring, then add the others a few at a time so they're available when I take pics next season! I'm fairly new to the forums in general and labeling my plants but I'll catch up!

Hi Liz, and to ATP.
Look forward to seeing your new database entries. And the photos you have entered are gorgeous.

Thanks for the welcome! I've been browsing though all of the forums here for weeks, so much to see and such an upbeat and generous feel all around! Exactly what a gathering of gardeners should be!!!

How could it get any better than ATP. Great and helpful information, and wonderful people to share it all with.

There is a great group of members in CO, mostly around the Denver area. Maybe you could get together with some of them? I have personally met 4 of them, what a great time we had together.

You are very And we will be so glad to have even more input for gardens here in CO.

OH I meant to say, how nice I think Elizabeth is. I sometimes just drive out east to get out into the country.

Liz from the Florida panhandle

Thanks, everyone! Marilyn, we'll have to talk! I'm still figuring out what will grow here in Elizabeth. Was in Parker until 5 years ago and even though it's only 15-20 miles away it feels like a completely different zone! Do you collect any specific plants? I've found the deer hate peonies and they're easy to grow so.....I'm working on new gardens in a completely unlandscaped large lot so could use some ideas!

Liz!

Can't wait to see your peony photo's and we're so glad you're here

Welcome Liz! Thanks very much for contributing to the Plant Database.

One of my favorite ATP features is the "Memeber Map". I don't know any way to navigate to it unless you saved the link when dave mentioned it. I keep that link in my signature block!

http://garden.org/users/member...

On the map, I see 14 Coloradans, mostly around Denver. "Kathy" and "Bennysplace" flank you on Rt. 86, maybe 10 or 15 miles east and west of you.

Liz, I am in a very urban area so do not worry about dear, just bunnies and birds. So cannot give you a lot of help.
I am into collecting hardy succulents ... Since I have no ground (I am in a townhouse community) I have to do everything in pots.

Looking forward to seeing how you fill all that wonderful land.

>> I'm working on new gardens in a completely unlandscaped large lot so could use some ideas!

A thought for long-term improvement -

If you have some spots that you know you won't get around to for a couple of seasons, ripping up the sod ASAP, flipping it over, and planting small patches of cover crops could save you a lot of work and cost, later, amending the soil and weeding.

You probably would even reduce the number of weed seeds "in the bank" when they sprout but are out-competed by the cover crop.

The cover crop roots will break up and enrich anything they can get into, and many cover crops reach deep, capture minerals, transport them up near the surface, and then release them when they die. And of course the tops make great green compost either in place or enriching a compost heap with something you know is weed-seed-free and herbicide free.

If "Colorado" means "sandy soil", the cover crop will add much-needed organic matter and water-retention.

Clover, fall rye, mixes with peas - there are so many options that a good idea is to find a farm coop or feed store near you, and plant whatever they stock the biggest bags of. They'll know what does well in your micro-climate and for each season.

Or pick some inexpensive native vegetation that you know you can uproot and be rid of when the time comes to plant there "for real", and start it in a few spots to compete with weeds and build up organics.

If you start by buying plants instead of seeds, buy 1/10th as many right now, and multiply them yourself so that when you want to populate more plots, you are your own nursery.

RickCorey, like the idea of cover crops! We don't have a sodded yard though, the only previous tenants here for the last 30 years were cows! We do have plenty of prairie grass, yucca and cactus! Our Colorado soil is crazy hard clay, unfortunately. Thought the guys were going to break their Bobcat planting a tree up front, had 1 guy operating it and 5 on the back trying to keep it from going completely vertical while digging!

I've been mowing as close as possible and layering with cardboard before adding planter's mix to make raised beds. Figured the worms would eventually make their way though (seem to like the areas with cardboard) and it would all break up in the end.....

I did look on the member map, that's a neat feature! See one each in Parker and Castlerock that are nearest to me.

>> Our Colorado soil is crazy hard clay, unfortunately.

Ouch! You've got a few years of hard work coming, unless you can get YARDS of leaves or manure or coffee grounds or fruit stand throw-outs.

But my theory is that heavy clay CAN be amended if you have enough organic matter and a little coarse stuff like crushed rock or sand including some very coarse sand. Plus I like pine bark fines and nuggets, because they last longer than wood products.

Maybe you'll have to combine a cover crop with some "lasagna" sheet composting, to give the first cover crop anything it can get it's rootlets into.

Sandy soil, now ... However much organic matter you add one year is likely to be 100% digested in a year or two, and then you're back to sand. I guess with both kinds of problems, you have to add compost or OM every year, but I hear that sand eats a LOT of compost. Clay-ey soil is less well aerated, so i think it tends to digest OM slower.

>> Thought the guys were going to break their Bobcat planting a tree up front, had 1 guy operating it and 5 on the back trying to keep it from going completely vertical while digging!

Hah! I bet six guys with picks could have done it faster than 6 guys with a Bobcat. Did they moisten the soil the day before? I used to make that mistake, trying to break up DRY clay. That's when I was glad I had lots of rocks, because they made the dry clay easier to break up.

But if I wet it down and gave it time to soak in, a pick-blow would sink in 4-8 inches instead of chipping off tiny clods.

>> I've been mowing as close as possible and layering with cardboard before adding planter's mix to make raised beds. Figured the worms would eventually

I see you already know ho to save hours of work and gallons of sweat. Let time and nature do the hard work!

I picture the OM, water and NPK leaching out of the top layers and enriching the underlying clay enough to attract worms and roots.

By the way, do you have drainage problems with the clay? If the RBs are 100% above grade, I guess not. But once the below-grade clay is softened and opened up, that deep root zone might fill with water after a rain and hold it long enough to drown roots.

I make sure that the hard clay floor of my RBs slopes towards one edge or corner, and add a slit trench to drain it to a yet-lower spot. But I usually excavate beneath each RB when I create it, and amend the sub-clay a little, so that part of the new bed is sunken below grade, and the rest raised above grade.

My RBs tend to dry out pretty fast, especially at the corners. Sometimes I line the walls or corners with heavy plastic cut from bags of bark mulch, to hold more water in.