Yes the blooms are so beautifully scented! Smells like jasmine on my tree

That is an awesome harvest, Tarev! I use limes and lemons in almost every recipe and LOVE the lemonades and limeades from their fresh juices.

Hi Teri! Yes I do that too, love it for marinades and the juice with a little honey is just awesome, to kick the colds and flu. It has been actively making fruits and I just recently harvested overripe ones, looks cute, like marble sized oranges.

@Newyorkrita, I'm hoping Rita will come in here and help me out with this one, to do with mulching daylilies with leaves.

The daylilies are still showing green but we are having below freezing temps every night now, though the days go above freezing. My question is, should I just mulch and cover them now? And, like, how deep? I guess I am asking also for the other areas that still have plants showing green: do you just layer leaves right on top of everything?

I am realizing I've never dealt with this kind of seasonal change before. When I have lived in cold climates, it hasn't been this back and forth thing: either it was too cold and frozen and snow-covered to even think about gardening, or it was never really an issue with frost heaving and that.... because it rarely froze down in the ground and never for long at all.

So. Big newbie question going on here, about this.

kylaluaz said:@Newyorkrita, I'm hoping Rita will come in here and help me out with this one, to do with mulching daylilies with leaves.

The daylilies are still showing green but we are having below freezing temps every night now, though the days go above freezing. My question is, should I just mulch and cover them now? And, like, how deep? I guess I am asking also for the other areas that still have plants showing green: do you just layer leaves right on top of everything?

I am realizing I've never dealt with this kind of seasonal change before. When I have lived in cold climates, it hasn't been this back and forth thing: either it was too cold and frozen and snow-covered to even think about gardening, or it was never really an issue with frost heaving and that.... because it rarely froze down in the ground and never for long at all.

So. Big newbie question going on here, about this.

Well here I just collect fall leaves and mulch in November. I don't care if the plants have already frozen or not. I just mulch when I can. I try to put the leaves around the daylilies but always some blow over. But they always puch thru in the spring.

So, you don't worry whether you cover them or not? And thank you, I think I get what you mean. I just worry that things will not come back!

I put them around the actual plants, or at least I try. But they do get covered. Even if it is just from the wind moving the leaves, The daylilies have always pushed thru in the spring.

Gotcha. Heh. I think I probably have enough leaves to bury everything. My ratio of leaves to daylilies is pretty heavy on the leaves side.

I need to mulch my garden for weed prevention.

I usually go out to a friends place and gather a few car loads of oak leaves and bring them home and shred them and use them for my winter mulch, but her husband had a massive heart attack the week before I was supposed to start the annual process of gathering leaves. She didn't need another thing on her plate at that time.

My second source of weed prevention mulch has been the utility company's chipping pile. We have had soaking rains since the end of September. I don't want to put wet wood chips, which are heavy, on top of very wet soil.

Since the rains came, the weeds have jumped out of the ground. At first, I didn't worry about it too much because usually we have a hard freeze by this time of year and they die back. Not this year. Lots of wonderful rain, but no below freezing night temps.

Yesterday between rain periods, I started cleaning the creeping spurge out of a ground cover rose as the spurge is no longer creeping, but growing up through the rose. I found a lot of dead growth and I think I am seeing a lot of canker. I don't want to leave the soil bare because I'll have even more weeds in spring.

I think I can buy dry straw or hay at the feed store to use as mulch. Will these suppress the weeds ? I know it will get wet with the continuing rain that is predicted, but I feel like I need to do something. I don't know if it will matt or how thick to put it down.

We have a couple of days predicted with no rain, so I know I can work out there.

Is this a good idea ??

Smiles,
Lyn

Hi Lyn. That's a good question about what suppresses weeds besides mulch. I'm sorry I don't know the answer but maybe one of our other members will!

I think so. Straw is a lot cheaper, but hay (alfalfa?) is a wonderful soil amendment. Both mat but straw less so. Layer it thick! Like at least two inches. You'll see there is a lot of air space until it gets wet and then it sort of collapses. But enough of it will supress weeds, just as well as leaves do. You will have some wheat sprouts from the seeds in the straw but it should be easy to pull out and lay down to add to the mulch. Or leave it! Hard to advise on that without being in the space and seeing the situation. (I tend to be lazy with the sprouts from straw mulch, myself.)

Good luck! And, sorry about your friend's heart attack, geeze.

Oops, Catmint, we cross posted. I've used straw and hay both as mulch many times. Works just fine.

Thanks for the response, Cat. My goal is just to keep the weeds from growing up into the rose. I think the constantly wet leaves of the weeds on the canes are what is causing the problems I am seeing, but that's a guess on my part.

Smiles,
Lyn

Thanks, Kyla.

At least now I have a plan.

Smiles,
Lyn

I use 9 bales of straw every year in my gardens to suppress weeds and to help with the extremely cold days that we get here. It has been working well for me so far.

Thanks, Teri.

It's been raining almost every day, so I haven't been out there and the weeds are winning. At least the freezing night temps are predicted to start at the end of this week. That will help.

We are supposed to have sun tomorrow. I'll stop off at the feed store after my dump run and get some straw.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn, I'm glad you got some rain!

I put many more leaves on the new beds here the other day, in advance of the rain (which did come and still is.) I figure any of it that doesn't sufficiently decompose over winter I can just rake up and put in the compost, if it's in my way.

So your straw will be great; it will keep that moisture from evaporating as much as it would otherwise.

Hi Kyla ...

Oh, yes, we have gotten rain. It's been raining pretty consistently since the end of September. I think there will be more sunny days next month.

However, the drought isn't over. There is no snow pack on the Trinity Alps.

At this point, I don't have to worry about evaporation since the soil is still totally saturated, but weed suppression is a big issue because we haven't had our freezing temps.

It's always something.

Smiles,
Lyn

We recently came home from vacation where the weather was sunny and warm. It seems that winter weather will be returning here today with temps going into the 20's in the daytime.

the mild weather was nice while it lasted!

Roses_R_Red said:We recently came home from vacation where the weather was sunny and warm. It seems that winter weather will be returning here today with temps going into the 20's in the daytime.

Winter has finally gotten here .... the weeds and the volunteer poppies are finally dying. My day temps are only in the 30s ... HA ! ... and that is too dang cold for me to work outside.

Normally, the poppies would have never germinated this time of year to create a problem.

From yesterday ...



The poppies and other weed are even less viable this morning ...

I'll be working inside for a while ..

Smiles,
Lyn