[Liza]

I'll start.
Today I planted a weeping cherry tree. What a lovely, gentle tree.
Also did one window box and a row of marigolds where the vegetables will be.

[clb]

Three window boxes - mostly deep purple petunias (can't resist the delicious vanilla scent floating in through the drawing room windows).

And some pots - marguerites and Convolvulus sabatius; a dark red pelargonium.

Bought a tarragon plant and a 'Porlock' thyme at the farmers' market this morning but haven't decided where to plant them yet. Datura and basil continuing to acclimatise.

Surrounded the hostas with holly trimmings. Damn slugs.

The two year old watered everything. A really happy day. :)

clb

[Liza]

And don't you love the way the deep purple petunias look like they're made of velvet? I just want to rub them all over.
The cherry tree is acclimating, too. Realizing that I have designs on the garden but that it's not my garden, it's my parents garden. Working on letting go. :D

[Melonious Thunk]

Liza, on May 1 2004, 07:37 PM, said:

Today I planted a weeping cherry tree. What a lovely, gentle tree.

Some time ago, I planted one of these. It was about 1" thick and five feet high. Today, it is about a foot thick, thirty feet high and in bloom. It is so delicately beautiful.

[Jaymes]

So sad for me. Left all my "stuff" in Texas. Put it into storage. Am up in Missouri helping my elderly parents. Gave away my plants. My laurel bay. My fig, my roses, my jasmine. My strawberry pot laden with small green fruit. Saddest of all was my Meyers Lemon tree. When last I saw it, it was covered with blossoms, bees buzzing about noisily. My daughter tells me that now it is sprinkled with the tiny green nodules that someday will grow large and heavy and yellow, putting sunshine into someone else's life.

I couldn't stand it any longer. I went to the nursery today and bought another. Of course MINE was about six feet tall and happily ensconced in a huge ceramic pot. The newcomer stands ten inches at best. But it, too, is covered with blossoms. And I'm happy again.

I think I'll make lemoncello.

[Melonious Thunk]

Jaymes, on May 2 2004, 09:52 PM, said:

So sad for me. Left all my "stuff" in Texas. Put it into storage. Am up in Missouri helping my elderly parents. Gave away my plants. My laurel bay. My fig, my roses, my jasmine. My strawberry pot laden with small green fruit. Saddest of all was my Meyers Lemon tree. When last I saw it, it was covered with blossoms, bees buzzing about noisily.

:(

[Melonious Thunk]

Jaymes, on May 2 2004, 09:52 PM, said:

I couldn't stand it any longer. I went to the nursery today and bought another. Of course MINE was about six feet tall and happily ensconced in a huge ceramic pot. The newcomer stands ten inches at best. But it, too, is covered with blossoms. And I'm happy again.

I think I'll make lemoncello.

:D

[Jaymes]

Ah yes, Melonious... It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. B)

[Melonious Thunk]

After several years of benign neglect, I decided to commission Tim Heady to refurbish our gardens. He's an excellent landscaper who know plants, is honest and has a good aethetic. Today he notified me that he had redone two of the gardens. He called to ask if I'd been up to the house, and I said I was waiting for my daughter to give birth so we were staying in the city. I asked how does it look and he said "awesome." I can't wait to get there!

He also transplanted many iris that had spread rather randomly into thicker clusters, enriched the soil and added the these plants to two of the garden areas. One is a perrenial border and the other is a woodland garden under trees.

42 astilbe
18 galium
8 columbine
18 heucera
10 foxglove
10 phlox
8 yarrow
8 lamium
8 Japanese iris
8 nepata
8 alchimilia
6 peonies
9 heleborus (1 gal.)
6 heleborus (2 gal.)
4 Blue lacecap hydrangea

There is a marsh garden yet to be done and a part of the property that has long swaths of granite shelving protruding, on which I want to make a rock garden. Finally, if I can find a place with enough sun, a cutting garden. No veggies though. Except I might try tomatoes in containers and herbs in pots.

[Rail Paul]

Working the iris bedis a backbreaking project, but it makes a huge improvement in subsequent seasons. Pulling out the knobs, breaking them up, rejuvenating the soil, replanting them.

Works well for people, too. Sometimes we get very comfortable with the view, so it's time for a new view...

[Rail Paul]

Jaymes, on May 2 2004, 10:52 PM, said:

I couldn't stand it any longer. I went to the nursery today and bought another. Of course MINE was about six feet tall and happily ensconced in a huge ceramic pot. The newcomer stands ten inches at best. But it, too, is covered with blossoms. And I'm happy again.

I think I'll make lemoncello.

Good for you.

And, may your new plant bring happiness into your life, and into other folks' as well. I drove past a property where I lived for a few years as a child, and it was nice to see kids in the (now) huge weeping cherry tree which I remember planting in 1958 or 1959...

[galleygirl]

I planted the impatiens in the window boxes on my back porch, ie, grow in the dark gardening...Altho compared to all of you, that feels comparable to admitting I eat at McDonald's...


I thought I had jumped the gun, but they seem to have weathered the weekend well..

And in a bonus *not* of my own making, I harvested armloads of lilacs from the boyfriend's hedge....Lovely...My whole house smells of them.... :wub:

[Robert Schonfeld]

galleygirl, on May 10 2004, 02:40 PM, said:

I harvested armload of lilacs from the boyfriend's hedge....Lovely...My whole house smells of them.... :wub:

And the plants should benefit from the cutting.

When you see huge old lilac hedges, you may notice that they only flower on top. This is because they haven't been deadheaded each season following the bloom. By cutting some (hopefully in the right places), you'll help the plant with its budding for next season.

[galleygirl]

Yes, yes; I had to pull down the top of each branch to get to the flowers....He's fairly clueless on how to deal with this bounty(tho willing to put lots of effort into his yard); where *is* the right place to deadhead this year?

[Robert Schonfeld]

galleygirl, on May 10 2004, 03:52 PM, said:

where *is* the right place to deadhead this year?

Remove the spent blooms where the stem intersects with the next largest stem. Do this right away, before more growth occurs.

To prune the plant:

-if you want a shrub: remove one third of the oldest, thickest stems at their base each year for three years.

-if you want a tree: prune up from the bottom, but don't forget to deadhead

Hope you keep the boyfriend long enough to see the results.