AmargiaExp said:

@MISSINGROSIE, I recalled the comment in your January 29th post when I read the following in Jim Wilson’s book.
In a decade, if God grants me that much time, I will have lived as long as three of my grandparents. I hope that, like them, I will have had the guts and strength to garden until the day I die and that death will come to me in my garden. What a way to go! I just hope that the emergency medical team that comes after my remains will avoid tromping on my flowers.

That's perfect!

Even better for me is to perhaps 'stick it ' to my doe-eyed garden-thwarters as I leave this earth.

So, leave me exactly where I go down....and I can hope that perhaps as I return to Mother Earth during that one brief period of moldy transition....I will somehow manage to keep the deer away.

I pray that I "land" in my great big wannabe patch of blue-eyed grass that I find frequently gasping for life --its dessicating roots up to the sun and sky.

Oh Joy!! A final (singular) triumph! Thumbing my nose (NAY (!!) ALL my parts) at my four-legged tormentors. May their eyes run buckets water (even if not tears) from my parting! Ha!

Let my gravestone say "her lingering fragrance was such that all the creatures of the woods could not bear to return to her garden"

MISSINGROSIE said:

That's perfect!

Even better for me is to perhaps 'stick it ' to my doe-eyed garden-thwarters as I leave this earth.

So, leave me exactly where I go down....and I can hope that perhaps as I return to Mother Earth during that one brief period of moldy transition....I will somehow manage to keep the deer away.

I pray that I "land" in my great big wannabe patch of blue-eyed grass that I find frequently gasping for life --its dessicating roots up to the sun and sky.

Oh Joy!! A final (singular) triumph! Thumbing my nose (NAY (!!) ALL my parts) at my four-legged tormentors. May their eyes run buckets water (even if not tears) from my parting! Ha!

Let my gravestone say "her lingering fragrance was such that all the creatures of the woods could not bear to return to her garden"

And let the buzzards and coyotes say "dinner is served!" ??

daylily said:
I have been trying to kill the few clumps that remain

I've been keeping (most) of them alive: they are very tolerant and resilient...but I HAVE accidentally killed some. Here's some of these mistakes: spraying a strong solution of Epsom salts (in tap water) on the leaves. . . repeatedly; damaging the meristem (growth center. . below ground, very base of a stalk / center of the clump....the plant stops growing) when hoeing / weeding; not mulching in the fall, so that the winter cold/snow/ice etc damages the meristem. While I haven't done so, hellebores are very tolerant of soil pH, but their OPTIMUM pH is 7 (neutral). . I'm guessing that if you were to dump a jar of vinegar directly on a clump, they/it wouldn't tolerate THAT!

FYI To stop having any more seedlings (oh, I am SO envious!!), pick . . deadhead those blooms a few weeks after the buds open (BEFORE they ripen and shed those seeds) For hellebores that are sposed to have upright-facing blooms, the blooms will droop until they have fertilized seed....so if you see an upright bloom: nip it in the bud (so to speak).

Gee, this remind me of how I learned to start seeds indoors! @RickCorey posted "100 ways to Kill Seedlings" (or something like that), so I just did the exact OPPOSITE!! It worked like a charm!!

Weedwhacker said:

And let the buzzards and coyotes say "dinner is served!" ??

A gourmet meal!!

Well you ladys are GRUESOME.
@lovemyhouse, Kay asked me to say she didn’t mean to ignore you. Her screen reader is skipping and reading repeatedly. I thought I would do her a favor and change her web browser to the one I like best. I should have remembered. “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I’m glad the tea olive did okay for you. We hope to be adding a few more colors of those. The daylilies are growing and multiplying like gangbusters. They fit in with the low maintenance plan for sure. . We are down to cultivating a ¼ between the four of us here now. The outer rim of the property is given over to wildflowers, native trees and shrubs.

Is Zuzu still with you?

Yeah, I got Nadi to proof read this one. The dyslexia has been kickin’ my backside lately. Probably the pain meds.
So... if you would like to grow hellebore and not have them take over, do we grow the cultivars?

Thought this might be of interest to someone ..
we're going to try doing it .. start with 2 bales .. try tomatoes
Nothing ventured ,nothing gained
~M~


http://www.gardeningchannel.co...

Hey, Jim. I didn't think she was ignoring me, just busy.

Yea on the Daylilies!

Yes, she is still, here. Getting creaky and having tooth problems, but fine otherwise.

Hoping this batch is more effective for you. Not much worse than back pain you can't alleviate. Is it time for me to make you a new sticker?

MarilynneS said:Thought this might be of interest to someone ..
we're going to try doing it .. start with 2 bales .. try tomatoes
Nothing ventured ,nothing gained
~M~


http://www.gardeningchannel.co...

I want to watch this for sure. Tell me,mon ATP is there a bookmark option so that I can go back without searching the thread?

Rosie, if you click the star at the bottom of any post, it will show up on your profile page and you can go right back to just that post.

but, in this case, the follow-ups wouldn't necessarily be anywhere near that original post...

Marilynne, you might want to start a new thread in the All Things Gardening forum about the straw bale gardening project! With photos!! (we love photos here )

lovemyhouse said:Rosie, if you click the star at the bottom of any post, it will show up on your profile page and you can go right back to just that post.

I'll be darned!

and it goes yellow!

I never noticed it...it appears greyed out and generally that meansit can't be used.

Hot off the presses

DH did his usual morning 'cronie coffee' there's about 6-8 guys that get together ,most avid veggie gardeners ..
Well .. DH brings up the 'straw bale' gardening, and, 3 of the fellas do it already, and RAVE about the potatoes they get .. clean a disease free.
So .. now DH is 'ON IT' !!! Says he can get the straw free .. can't beat that !
All I keep thinking about is the fact it would be like a 'raised bed' ..

I am willing to start a thread .. but .. we wouldn't be starting anything hear in the north until April ..
Ahh what the heck, almost everyone at ATP gardens, either flowers or veggies, maybe someone has more info.

DH did mention putting the straw inside old tires ..

OK .. off to start a thread ..

~M~

@MarilynneS

Would you post that thread link, here, please? Thank you.

BetNC said: …. deadhead those blooms a few weeks after the buds open ….

@BetNC I have been cutting all the scapes BEFORE the buds open since I noticed a problem with the seedlings coming up. I would bring a couple scapes of each in the house to let them open up, and bag and put the rest into the trash. The last couple years since I have been trying to get rid of the plants, I have been cutting all the foliage and scapes and everything to the ground before they even have a chance to bloom.

Years ago, I used to have a lot of clumps and let them bloom, then cut the blooms off as you describe. I think I must have missed doing it a year or two, and those seeds are STILL germinating in the soil.

Here's the link to the Straw Bales thread ..

The thread ""STRAW BALE GARDENING" .. likes/dislikes/shares :-)" in All Things Gardening forum

It is hard to come by straw bales in this part of the country, but I want to give it a try with alfalfa hay bales.
we've been setting up the large containers for the growing season.
small containers don't work for us except in shade they get too hot and dry out too fast during summer. Containers ten gallons and up do okay. and are usually a good height for gardening from a chair. We've had to get creative on large containers because they are expensive that size from the nursery. The drums of washers and dryers have been re-purposed and even an old refrigerator in one case. All
Purtyed up with concrete stucco and paint to blend into the landscape.
@lovemyhouse No one gets to see my wheel chair stickers much. I don't use it as much as I used to. I mostly use my cane now.

@mellielong I really like the Birds, Bees and Butterflies forum here on ATP.
Kay's offline for a few days, her computer went kaput. I've been swamped with work, that's the downside of freelancing. Sometimes the work is barely there and sometimes there's way too many jobs at once. I just take the jobs when they come.
I like straw bale gardening. We've done that with tomatoes. It's just that wheat straw is hard to come by around here. This year, I'm going to try it with alfalfa hay.
So I'm looking forward to the new thread.I was feeling cold and not wanting to go outside today. Then, I checked one of my favorite bird cams in Manitouwadge, Ontario. Seeing so many birds in the snow made me feel like a wuss. I'm headed out to see what I can see.

http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/...