It's become clear to me through posts and PMs that there are some gardeners here just waiting for the chance to discuss gardening!
So, I was thinking... how do you use gardening, or how does it affect you if you need a break, need some respite, need to relax, need inspiration....how do you use it as a therapy tool in caregiving?
What are your activities: Do you go out and pull weeds, read a magazine, design new beds? Look through garden catalogues? Go to garden stores?
And what interests have you added to your gardening? Visit estate or garden displays? Do you go to garden shows?
Does anyone design and plant Knot Gardens? Raised bed planters? Assistive gardens? Pollinator gardens (and have you thought of ways to help the bees and butterflies?)
Are your gardens primarily for pleasure or food, or a mix of both? Do you grow plants for medicinal purposes? Which ones, how do you harvest and process them? Any suggestions?
Do you grow plants that can be used in crafts, such as grapevines for wreaths and lavender for lavender wands? Do you make herbal products such as creams, lotions, chapstick?
What else can you share about gardening and the means in which it nurtures your soul?
They have enough water, but I will ask hubby if he has put soapy non-potable water on them.
I will call the skink ZINK, and hope he moves to the neighbor's yard.
If I were superstitious, I could say naming the skink brought it out. It was in plain sight, but on line with a shadow on the blacktop about two feet from it's home. It is only about 10" long, thinner and more lizard-like than a snake, so, no screaming. Zink the skink. It did turn it's head and looked at me when I spoke.
Now what do I do, o well. It's back is patterned, much like a rattler, or the common garden lizard that Colorsue described as anole. G'night Zink. You are safe here.
I'm a lousy housekeeper but pretty OCD when it comes to neat and tidy. House renovations continuing so there's stuff everywhere but it's a priority as the wind howls across these open fields. My gardening efforts are coming to an end this year but the thought of all neat, tidy and growing come spring is keeping me going!
Re: hubby and soapy non-potable water: A florist neighbor once told me that soapy water is used by florists because it kills soft-bodied insects. It's considered a good thing. Mild soap as in the hand wash dish soap kind. And non-potable water can be full of nutrients for plants, it just depends what's in it. I can't use our softened water in the house to water plants, nor do I use the city water with chemicals. I use the well water. Our sprinkler system uses the well water as well. We have too much iron in the well water but the plants are happy.
Some food for thought, anyway.
I'm glad to hear your bougainvilleas are doing better. Do they winter well or must they be brought inside?
That area of the garden has been host to a lot of white/ecru butterflies over the summer, but I don't think they're the Wooly Bear Butterfly/moth. Not really sure about this species. I noticed the little white butterflies were usually hovering around the mulleins, which grew like Amazonian plants this year.
Another sighting was of several very small bees, smaller than I've ever seen. They were barely 1/2 inch long. I'm wondering if they were baby bees? Or maybe they're just smaller because of lack of food. They were in what I think is False Bugbane, which now has a reprieve from being pulled up to be composted since it attract these little bees.
I've seen regular honeybee sized bees as well as the bumblers, but never the minis.
Anyone have any experience with these smaller bees?
Finally decided that I can't keep up a large garden anymore and am going to begin downsizing. I don't want to put in grass because of the cost, time, and energy expenditure, and I don't want to mow any more lawn than I already have now.
What I do want is a ground cover of various flowering plants and herbs, probably no more than about 6" high.
I probably will get some thyme, but the thyme I've had is slow growing and I'd like something to spread a bit faster. I might use morning glories to cover large areas until I get more perennial flowering plants. Sweet alyssum might also be a nice annual until the perennials become established.
What I also could is use taller herbs but train them to grow along the ground through gentle bending of the stems as they're growing.
Has anyone done this, on a small or larger scale? What plants and herbs have you used? I'm in zone 5/6, depending on the severity of the winter.
You might consider filling the space with a variety of small shrubs like euonymus, spireas, low growing junipers and low maintenance perennials like grasses, hostas, lavender etc depending on your sun/soil and location.
Try googling going lawn free, there is some interesting info and it's fun to look at the pictures even if you don't use the ideas.
My oregano was a slow grower, so I'd probably have to have something temporary to fill in while it was becoming established. Morning glories could easily provide a fill-in, as well as sweet alyssum.
CWillie, I do have vinca, but it's so aggressive, although it's met its match in the more aggressive black locust seedlings which blow over from a neighboring yard. They're even worse. And I have had weeds poking through the vinca.
I guess I'd have to hand weed the ground covers but hopefully not as much.
I do like ornamental grasses, love hostas and a lot of other shade plants.
What I might do is use a mixture of the larger types of plants as more extensive borders to minimize the "lawn", and fill that with herbs as Linda suggests.
I did google "lawn free" and can tell that this is going to be a funfilled venture, if I can just not think about all the digging that's involved, although I've been thinking of getting a tiller. Digging isn't as easy on the back and thinning soles of my feet as it used to be.
Thanks for taking the time to help me out. I'm envisioning fragrant, flowering herbs surrounded by lovely green foliage and ornamentals.
This is going to be a nice project to develop over the winter when the snows obliterate the yard.
Just FYI....for those who enjoy the garden magazines, Houzz does a series of regular articles on gardening - both seasonal and regional - and they have a nice online archive, also, that you can search.....beautiful pics, too.
It eventually died, I think because it became overgrown and woody and I didn't realize that I probably should have cut it back or cut out some of the woody stems.
I'll check my own gardening records to see what specific variety I grew. I think it was Munstead but I'm not sure. There are some newer varieties now that I'd like to try.
Did you mulch your lavender heavily? Was it in a prevailing westerly wind? I lost some good roses because I didn't realize how drastically the west winds would harm them. But the lavender was way back beyond the house so it was somewhat buffered from the harsh winter winds.
CWillie, I've read something to that effect as well. I guess lavender doesn't like to be babied. My soil was fairly rich as I had added a lot of compost.
I recall reading something else about lavender that was surprising, something that affected its longevity. It's somewhere, back in the recesses of my mind...somewhere....
the dirt from blowing or splashing on the undersiding. A dark geen looks best, but beige, grey, or brick red would work. Brick red can be sprinkled with much less red bark chips than one would normally need because they don't sink into the dirt.
I just stood and watched it; I've never been that close to a robin, even if separated by the exterior wall. It sat, very alert, moving its head in small increments to check the surrounding area. It was just sooo close!
Then it hopped to another branch, continued to conduct its surveillance, but sensed when I moved to gently pull back the drapes and immediately flew away.
For a few moments, I experienced the thrill of seeing a wild little creature closer than one of its kind had ever been.
When I moved to this house in town I was plagued by squirrels and knew that trying to put up my bird feeder was pointless, but then I found a window feeder that attaches with suction cups. I was skeptical that it would actually stay attached, but it has been stuck on my patio door for a couple of years now. It can only accommodate the tiny birds, finches, juncos etc, but it is so cool to see them right up close! And may of the larger birds will wander the deck in search of dropped seeds.
If you're in zone 9a, 9b or 10, it should be safe to have your bougainvillea outside all year long. I'm guessing you know they can grow to 30 feet and more and are hard to contain in those zones. Their thorns make them difficult to trim. But they are so gorgeous we try anyway!!
I'm in zone 10 and we control our once huge bougainvillea by frequent trimming, not allowing it to get out of control. I personally liked it when I trained it to grow in an attractive curve of vines around a window and over a portion of roof to provide shade and blossoms to that roof. My husband voted me down. If you have the space to let it get huge, it will be large and beautiful, blooming often. Potting it will restrain it's growth, if that's what you desire. Blossoms appear on the newest shoots that tend to be several feet long on a full sized variety.
Potting allows you to bring it inside if you get freezing weather and can handle the weight of the pot. You'd have to look up the lowest temperature tolerance of bougainvillea. I hope you enjoy yours.
CWillie, do you ever get any hummingbirds in the feeder attached with suction cups? Wouldn't it be wonderful to see the little hummers up close? I've seen just a few in my honeysuckle. It would be worth moving the whole honeysuckle bed up close to the house just to see the little birds fluttering their wings as they feed.
My parents used to have a feeder hanging by their enclosed front porch, they can be territorial little things and it was fun to watch them chase each other. One little female used to sit on a dead tree branch and chase anyone that had the nerve to try to use 'her' feeder! What was really cool was when the orioles decided they would like to share too, they tried so hard to fit on the little perches or hang upside down to get a sip... double duty feeders!
The bougainvillea didn't need a trellis to curve and wrap several vines around themselves and make a curve. They seem prone to do this and my trimming helped to get & keep them in that shape. New shoots were regularly having to be trimmed in order to keep that shape. Otherwise it would have just filled in the curve with many more branches and the curve would be obscured.
The bougainvillea was extremely similar to our wisteria vine in curving and wrapping around itself. The main difference is the wisteria doesn't require regular trimming to preserve the curve. If needed, I would have tied the bougainvillea temporarily to pull it over to make a curve instead of it growing straight up.