Thank you everyone for the nice comments, I was overwhelmed by the nice comments.
I look forward to getting to know you all.

Welcome Sunny.
I'd vote on Indian Chief, Ayres, 1929, as being the one you posted. It varies in shade depending on the soil, etc. Here is a bloom and a few buds for comparison.

Hi Sunny,

For awful soil and good winter reading, try The Square Foot Garden book. My library has it. It also ought to be inexpensive, used, after gardening season is over. It is all about raised beds or food and flowers. I don't follow it as I am too cheap to buy dirt, but i got a lot of good ideas from it - especially about not over crowding my plants.

We compost a lot. I have 4 - 5 compost piles going at any given time. Maybe I should have bought the dirt in 1997 when I bought the house. I still have tons of hard clay. Hmmm, I just had an idea. I think I will take 1/4th of my veggie garden and layer it with dirt and leaves and then leave (pun?) fallow for a year. I can test the soil and fix the pH and nutrients after it has become fluffy soil. Maybe a small fence like the kind that just pokes in the ground would hold the leaves. Yup. If I always took my own advice, life would work better.

Nice to see you back! See your Tree Mail about plant lights.

Linnea

At a prior house I rototilled an area for veggies. In the fall I gathered leaves and mowed them with a mulching mower to chop them up, letting them lay there all winter and tossing in kitchen vegetable waste. In the spring I turned it all over. Did it again the next year. Now I had fairly nice soil at no cost. After that I did not turn it over again, but planted it another 2 years, continuing to cover with chopped leaves, grass clippings and kitchen waste. Only added some ground limestone because of all the acid in the leaves and fruit.

Yes, the book The Square Foot Garden looks like an excellent one...it's on my wish list!

You can do wonders for your soil by layering it with dirt and leaves...but don't forget the cardboard and newspaper! The worms love it, it blocks light to keep weeds down, and is a great way to re-cycle. Just don't use the glossy paper as it has toxic chemicals in it...but normal newspaper is printed with soy-based ink and is find to add. I just toured an iris garden that was doing this and getting great results.

Marilyn

I'm so lucky to have a sandy loam soil here. I just add composted horse manure every once in a while, and it's a really rich, black soil. It runs about 18 to 20 inches deep before it turns to pure sand.

I don't think I would use the soy ink newspaper as most soy is GMO. That glyphosate (Roundup) residue is deleterious breaking down shikamate in plants and our intestinal bacteria. I would also be wary of dioxins from paper processing. I mix food with my flowers.

Folks have told me straw is wonderful. I use the leaves because they are free.

I like to add tree leaves , when available...besides the humus..there are quite a few trace elements.............Arlyn

Good point Linnea, I have not started doing this but have read a lot about it and spoken to people who do it. I guess I'll have to give it some more thought and do some more research. Thanks for sharing your opinion/knowledge! Marilyn

There are drawbacks to the natural mulch too. Pests and disease can hide there. We have a lot of daylily rust in Maine. I am working with copper sulfate. There is some stuff called Actinovate that is a safe bacteria to kill a number of mildews and other fungi. I also want to use nematodes next Spring. I have seen very little borer damage, but I have increased my iris markedly.

With all the heat, no rain and a lot of new gardens; I have been cutting the grass when it isn't too high and using those nice short, seedless grass clippings around my plants. I use a rechargeable mower, so no gas, oil or fumes get in the mulch.

Next year I will concentrate on soil testing and natural pest/fungi control even more.

You are miles ahead of me Linnea! I have had good success with composting my green waste, but it's very labor intensive! I have been using the compost to improve my sandy soil. I have been very lucky on the pests and diseases so far...a little leaf spot, the occasional rot (where there is too much water/shade...I'm still learning where my iris can thrive), and an occasional gopher are all I've had to deal with so far, but then I only have 100 cultivars in the ground and that has only been for about a year.

I have recently completed the Master Gardener training offered through the UC Davis Cooperative Extension. We get a lot of 'science-based' gardening information...but they are geared toward dealing with the agricultural industry here in the San Joaquin Valley so the finer issues (e.g. dioxins and GMO soy ink) are not of any concern to them at this point. They are just beginning to acknowledge the problems with the neonicotinoid based pesticides!

Maybe we should have a thread on sustainable iris gardening practices? Thanks for sharing!

Marilyn

Marilyn

For sure, our gardening will be completely different! My back yard even has high ground water. With not much rain last month, the front yard is dry, but the back isn't!

I wonder if our extension service does a Master Gardener program out here. That would be a good thing to take. Well, as long as I am careful. My great grandmother took all the extension courses she could in the early 1900's. DDT was becoming all the rage. In her 80's, she died with cancer everywhere. We must be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.

John uses a string mower so can no longer chop leaves. We do take them down to out 'pit' & let them decompose there.

Good going on the Master Gardener training, Marilyn! {{tipping hat and applauding}}

Our local community college has a horticultural program. It would take way longer than an Extension course, but it looked good. Fortunately, I could skip the non-core courses, having done them with the B.S. (that sounds funny) degree.

Ha! In 4 years, when I am 62, I can go for free!

Way cool, Linnea!!!

OK, I have a question for some of you who have been growing irises for a long time. I have read that you should always dispose of the iris leaves (as in send them off site) due to the possibility of spreading disease, yet I know a commercial producer that just stacks them in a huge pile to slowly decompose. I don't have a chipper shredder so I can't easily add these to my compost piles...so how do you guys dispose of your green iris waste? Help...I'm drowning in iris leaves and don't want to throw away valuable green waste if it can be safely used!

Marilyn

I can't be of much help. I have a manure pile (ongoing) from the horses. I add all of my green waste to it -- including Iris leaves.