[Country Cook]

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.

[flyfish]

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



Fly

[GG Mora]

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.

[akiko]

flyfish, on Jun 14 2006, 11:34 PM, said:

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



Fly

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!

[flyfish]

akiko, on Jun 15 2006, 07:14 AM, said:

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

[akiko]

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.

[flyfish]

akiko, on Jun 15 2006, 12:50 PM, said:

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.

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

[akiko]

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..

[memesuze]

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

[omnivorette]

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.

[memesuze]

omnivorette, on Jun 16 2006, 07:56 PM, said:

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

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.

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.

[tanabutler]

akiko, on Jun 16 2006, 04:30 AM, said:

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..

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.

[GG Mora]

tanabutler, on Jun 17 2006, 01:32 AM, said:

Snails are also easy... Your best bet if you are really committed is to go out after dark with a flashlight and turn up the leaves of things.

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!

[omnivorette]

memesuze, on Jun 16 2006, 10:11 PM, said:

my possumhaws and yaupons.

What are those?

[memesuze]

omnivorette, on Jun 17 2006, 09:05 AM, said:

memesuze, on Jun 16 2006, 10:11 PM, said:

my possumhaws and yaupons.

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