Up here at 52 degrees latitude my first strawberries are starting to ripen and I am getting a regular crop on lettuce, radishes and green onions. The irises are also starting to bloom.

This year we didn't miss our peonies because of our annual trout fishing vacation... they are still beautiful.



Fly

I finally got the rest of my seedlings in the ground today, and planted more seed for beets and salad greens (lettuces for heading, mache, arugula and mixed lettuce for cutting small). I tried something new with the cutting greens: instead of planing anal, tidy, single rows, I planted anal, tidy 5" wide swaths of seed (sort of the carpet-bombing theory of greens seeding).

And TJ built a new nursery bed for some little treelings we have going (4 American Chestnut, 2 Blue Spruce). Just need to transplant a young Blue Angel hosta and some adolescent Siberian Iris, and we've freed up another bed in the vegetable garden. I think I'll use it for cutflowers.

Fly, that is gorgeous! It was too late for me to try and grow peonies this year, but definitely for next. My father loved his and they held pride of place in his garden... one of the few things that he planted that wasn't edible!

Thanks, although we had nothing much to do with it - our peonies came with the house. There are close to 40 of them, some with c. 80 blooms. I hate to miss seeing them when they bloom during our vacation, because they are so fleeting, but this year despite quite a bit of rain beating down on them they are lasting well.

Here is another (we have only about four basic types that the previous owner no doubt subdivided)



Fly

Beautiful colour. I didn't realize they were so fleeting. My childhood memory of the Peonies in my father's garden aren't.... but just because they were only around for two weeks or so (how long do they last?) doesn't mean anything. The fragrance, the beauty, and the little ants that would crawl on them made an indelible impression.

I have some cut ones blooming in a vase on my table, I bought them at the farmer's market this past weekend.

I'm not too sure how long they last unmolested, because here in Ottawa in zone 5a they usually get battered by rain and winds at some point during their tenure. But they are magnificent in bloom. Our neighbour (who was cat-sitting for us, and who has in the past been told to help herself to our peonies and liliacs) cut a few for a vase while we were away and then said she hoped we didn't mind. Mind? Heck, we have so many, I wish she would take more while they last!

Fly

More annoyances with that rose plant, little tiny green bugs on the new leaves... I donned a pair of latex gloves and pulled each tiny thing off and squished it. Are these Aphids? Do I have to check those leaves every day or is there something else I can do about them?

And my lovely little pansies are getting eaten by the billions of snails hiding in my garden..

Someone more experienced with roses might know, but my experience with aphids - on bouganvillea - is that they are in the flower buds. Try hosing them off daily with a jet stream of water to see if you can knock back the colony of whatever they are. Then next try an insecticidal soap sprayed on the critters, before you go to anything more lethal, to you and the bugs.

I know snails don't like to cross copper wire, but if you have zillions, it's unlikely that you could surround the area with copper wire and not have encircled some close to your pansies. This Australian site has some suggestions that don't involve nasty chemicals: bye-bye snails

The board, grapefruit peeled half, and beer traps are quite successful with what we call roly-polys - snails would probably be similar.

And try this UK site for other pest advice: organic controls

Issues, issues.

There are so many trees that are leaf-bare from the caterpillars. Are the leaves going to grow back this season?

We got a 12' blue spruce, and it's coming tomorrow and being planted. How much watering does it need in the beginning?

We need some decorative plants for 2 pots on the front porch, but it's shaded all the time. Any ideas? Also, something flowering for some pots on the terrace in the back, full sun...these items should last, ideally, all summer.

More herb planting today, with chocolate mint and apple mint in a pot by themselves.

When the caterpillars decimate Austin's oaks each spring, they leaf out again - and can even take a second chewing a year - a third round in a year is what finally gets them. Yours should survive. Can you reach the tops of the trees with a spray of BT - bacillus thuringiensis? That's what I use when they come through to feast on my possumhaws and yaupons. When they eat the sprayed leaves, they die, die, die. But then I have a trumpet sprayer that will reach 20-30 feet in the air.

Down here in Texas, caladiums - both the pink- and white- splashed varieties fill shady spots - I think white ones really stand out in shade. But you may be wanting a different look.

I can't see your "aphids," but...ladybugs eat them by the thousands. See if you can buy ladybugs in a container (something like 1500 per). Wait until nighttime and distribute them onto your plants. They will be less likely to roam at night, and to take up your yard as home base.

Snails are also easy, but I don't know what you have in the way of snail bait there, which is not toxic. Your best bet if you are really committed is to go out after dark with a flashlight and turn up the leaves of things. No, I am not kidding. Find snails under big leaves—they seem to like waxy leaves in our yards, like the lemon tree, the calla lily leaves and stems, and like that. Smooth is better.

I have heard that snails also hate to cross copper, and you might try a passive approach: ring your plants inside a 1" strip of copper. (We never had to try this because Bob does method A, enjoying the death raid on the creatures who would threaten our herbs and flowers.)

Good luck.

For slugs, I go out and pick them off with chopsticks, then drop them in a bowl of salt (die, motherfuckers, die!). Also, if you leave a board lying on the dirt in the garden, slugs and snails will take refuge under it. Lots of them. Turn over the board and pour salt on them!

What are those?

native Texas hollies - ilex vomitoria. The possumhaws have bright red berries that stand out in the winter when they lose their leaves - the yaupon's evergreen with red berries

I tried to be kind:

Evening 1: Spray rose plant with mix of liquid detergent and water.... don latex gloves and pick up all snails I can find and toss them over brick wall at end of garden.

Morning - pansies with even more holes, worried they will not recover from the damage. Aphids seem undeterred by detergent spray.

Evening 2: Armed with Rose Clear and slug pellets, douse rose plant and sprinkle around pansies.

Morning - the area around the pansies looks like a big snail slaughterhouse. There are a few still clinging to the pansies but are dead. Rose plant looks happy.

I succumbed to the power of chemicals.

I have been told that something dug up one of my containers of baby carrot seedlings overnight. The second container, adjacent to it but planted with a different variety, was spared.

Fly

This is the first year that my basil is actually flourishing. The only thing that I've done differently is omit tomatoes. Hmm. For the first time ever, my thyme has started to flower. Should I pinch off the flowers? I'm hoping the answer is no because there are a lot of those little suckers.

You can use the flowers, too, but pinching is good for herbs.

You must and fast. If they bolt, the plant becomes very bitter.

Great, I'm about to go home to taste a bit of the lemon thyme that had such pretty little flowers blooming on it last week in my garden

Fantastic. It's only 170 degrees out today. Grumble, grumble.

the good news, if my basil plants are any guide, is that you won't have to do it again--at least not very soon. i pinched a set of flowers off a few weeks ago, nothing's come back.

my sage plant has exploded. well, not literally. soon i will post in the cooking forum for suggestions for sage usage.

No, basil flowers like a mofo.

Also a reason to be cheerful. Apparently the basil I planted last year seeded the pot resulting in an unexpected, and large, basil plant this year.

i must have different varieties then. my genovese basil plant is thriving but no flowers yet. my generic sweet basil has flowered only once after transplant but is also thriving.

what do basil flowers themselves taste like?

What I meant to say was that once the basil plant starts to flower, it flowers like a mofo. Mine hasn't started yet.

Basil. They are lovely. Pinch and sprinkle on anything.

One unusual use for basil is dried apricots, goat cheese, and basil. The flowers make particularly nice garnishes on these.

I have been very naughty. I've been planting things like mad without really planning things out in the garden. I simply bought the plants I love (after making sure the area I planted it in had the right amount of sunlight and soil) and rearranged what plants were already there to accommodate.

And now I've decided I can't live without planting two small cherry trees - a weeping one and a winter flowering.... how many times can I dig up and move shrubs and lillies (lillies don't mind being transplanted do they?) and pinks? Those are the things currently inhabiting the space I intend for one of the trees. I don't want to kill them.

My general assessment is that digging up things while they're actively growing is risky, but when they are dormant you can get away with a lot. I transplanted two very well established rose bushes last winter in order to expand my vegetable plot, and one in particular was a major operation involving a hole about four feet deep and sawing through a big root. I was pretty convinced it wouldn't survive but it's now happily flowering in its new home.

Akiko, with regards to the greenfly on your roses, these are the rose grower's most common bugbear. Spraying does the job as you've found out, but if you want to be organic then you need to find ways of encouraging natural predators, especially ladybirds and hoverflies. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_pest_control for more information. The Henry Doubleday Research Assocation http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/ is another good source - it's worth joining as you get their magazine, which is excellent. We try to be organic most of the time but keep weakening. Blackfly on my broad beans prompted a light spraying the other week and Lucy gets so angry if slugs or snails munch her hostas that she inevitably resorts to pellets sooner or later.

I love ladybugs (ladybirds in English English speak) and I'll do whatever I can to attract them to the garden. I like them even more now that I know they eat those horrid little green aphids.

The rosebush has survived all our abuse (at least for now), I see double buds coming out.

I'm scared to move the daylillies now that they are just beginning to bud, plus that pink will definitely drop all its flowers, which would be a shame but if that tree comes... I might have no choice but to move that stuff in the prime of its flowering... its either now or then.

We have some very hungry and handsome little birds visiting our two feeders. My husband is complaining about the £5 that is being spent weekly on bird seed right now!

Here in the States, we can buy packages of 1500 or so. If you are able to do the same, buy a package and let them out at night into your yard/garden. The night thing keeps them from flying away as quickly, and they are more likely to stay longer.

I ate a HUGE salad made of greens from my garden today; spinach, sorrell, red leaf lettuce and arugula...But I'm constantly picking the bolting shoots from the middle of the arugula...Who are these people that are able to keep greens growing all summer, without them constantly bolting?

They might be those who live in cooler climates.

No, they're the ones who have the time and/or discipline to succession-seed. I just yanked out a row of bolted arugula, since the patch I planted a week and a half ago is now ready to use. Need to get another patch planted tomorrow or so.

Okay, off to succession seed....I do have some plants in my window boxes at home, and transplant to Fred's house....

Does anyone know what is eating my lillies? I see ants crawling up and down them, are they a pest to lillies? I see no aphids (although I haven't looked TOO hard for them) and no red lily beetles...

I think my orange tiger ones died an early death (just the blooms) because some unseen pest went at it and I don't want these to suffer the same fate.

Akiko, I didn't see this post before now - not sure re the red lily beetles, they are sometimes very hard to catch in the act. Ants are probably not too problematic. Do you have a local garden centre or agricultural extension service of some type that you can ask about local lily pests - maybe something new has moved in?

Fly

Is anyone else getting absolutely MUNCHED in the garden? Here in Boston we've had the perfect environment for mosquitos... tons of rain and then impossibly hot. When it cools down in the evenings and I can bear to think about weeding or cleanup, I'm irresistable to the pests even when doused in DEET. I blame this and not my inherent laziness with why the garden looks like shit this year.

And for after the munching, do people have anti-itch remedies passed down from grandmothers and great aunts? My British nana would have made a baking soda slurry and then applied it to the bites, and then wrapped in gauze to keep contact between the poultice and the itch. I don't want to look like the invisible man, so I've tried tea tree oil, tiger balm and rubbing alcohol on them. To no avail. I think I'm allergic because the welts are huge and the bites are quite painful afterwards ... especially that one on my right instep. Ouch.

Bastards!

Have you ever tried After-Bite? My youngest stepdaughter is terribly vulnerable to bug bites, so we got her her own stick to carry around. It seems to help. Or try dabbing the bites with ammonia.

Yeah, I looked on the web and many people had recommended After-bite. It has a small amount of ammonia which seems to work for most people. I still cannot be arsed to get in the car to go to the store (did I mention it's bloody hot?) but I'll go check out what they carry at CVS. Someone else recommended Aveeno and someone else benadryl. I'll test each one on a different spot and see what works. Right now I'm just working on not touching them.

GG, does it work on spider bites? Poor little Logan is just tormented with them.

I'm not GG, but my DH used the AfterBite Xtra gel on a spider bite and it seemed to help. Not sure what type of spider it was though. Of course, the old standbyes of antihistamines, hydrocortisone and calamine lotion help too. I find the AfterBite gel is better than the liquid kind because it stays on the bite better.

Poor Logan!

Fly

Yes, but do you play me on TV?

Just on a local cable show...

Fly

Good enough.

I get horrible, horrible bites, in massive quantities...Like hives. Usually scratch them til I get scars, Afterbiite has never made a dent..i take antihistamines when I have a ton, and I have found some relief liberally spreading with Gold Bond powder, of all things. It seems to work very well on the ankles and legs, which is where I seem to get bitten in the garden. There's something about the menthol in it that is fairly aneasthetic..

And the favorite when I was a child - calamine lotion. Yum yum, you can probably take benadryl and apply something topical at the same time and then you'll hit the bites on two fronts.

Fly, thanks, those lillies are almost gone now... and no one here seems to know what might be munching them. I'll try again next year and keep my eyes on the lillies still to bloom. Right now, I have some day lillies in bloom and the bugs don't seem to care for those.

The only home remedy I can think of is cider vinegar. Works okay for some bites but not others.

Fly

Thanks all. Got an anti-itch cream (Aveeno) yesterday and it does NOTHING. Actually, it gives me something to do besides scratch, but that's it. The store didn't have Afterbite. I'm going to try a different store. And I'll try Gold Bond too ... I like that stuff in the summer anyway. Galley, I think we have the same skin -- my bites begin as huge welts and then turn into painful red lumps if I don't scratch them to bits. Last night I sat on a friends porch reeking of Deep Woods OFF (c'mon you cancer) and the bastards still got me. I know this is all terribly whiney, but in this heat, the last thing I need is to be itchy and scratchy too.