Gardening as therapy.

Instead of a flat wall of trellis, I imagine a small square or rectangle shape arbor to grow the vines up on two-three sides, sitting under that shade in the summer, avoiding bees.

We have an over abundance of bamboo. I never do it, but have alwats thought weaving that would make a great trellis. Btw, bamboo is prohibited locally, or something, this must be granfathered in. We tried to cut it down, take out roots, but it came right back. It makes a good privacy screen along the back yard, but also a fire hazard.

Garden Artist, I can see you are looking for natural support trellis' for your vines. We do not have that luxury here, and I plan to make the vines (cape honeysuckle and jasmine) live there forever. Looking around, all vines up trellises have fallen over or had to be cut down entirely. Building strong supports, adding vinyl lattice. May not be the most natural earthy way to go, but it is looking cute/country cottage-style so far. I like white or taupe lattices.

Glad, yes, "up close and personal" is the only way to garden. Some gardeners I know even garden barefooted.


On another subject: has anyone made trellises from vines in their yard? I'm thinking of a combination of grapevines and honeysuckle vines, but wonder if they're strong enough.

The older, thicker vines might be, or could be if wrapped together in a doubling effect. Or what I might do is use tree limbs for the vertical posts and vines for the horizontals, which don't have to be as strong.

Any suggestions?

GA, my favorite gardening clothes are my favorite cut off blue jeans. That is what they are made for aren't they? Scooting around in the dirt... I knew I kept cutting off jeans for a reason. Up close and personal with my gardens. Reclamation in the spring.

I thought dibbles were used to push into the soil, extract a ball or circle of soil large enough to insert a bulb, drop the bulb in, then release the soil back on top of it. If it's 3' tall, would that work for you? Somehow the idea of scooting along getting your clothes filled with dirt doesn't seem like such a great way of planting!

The handle is probably 3/4" and about three feet long, then the blade another foot. Best way to garden IMHO is sit in the dirt and scoot along on your back side. That is what I usually do, I am too high from ground, so a long way to bend over for me which is really hard on my back.

Glad, that looks like a really good one with a thick post, high enough that you don't have to bend over, as planting bulbs can be pretty rough on the back.

The dibble.

we had cloud cover until early afternoon. Breezy and in the upper 50's but still a beautiful day.

Sun today. Garden is still looking good as I sit on the porch.

We have a frost warning in effect until tomorrow afternoon. We go from warm to cold in just one day around here. It happens every year like that, lol!!

Moving, in remembrance, is my favorite thing to do!! What a jaunt down memory lane for me! Thanks Glad!!!

Glad, so many surprises to come, hoping they are happy. It has been more than one move where we had to put the mattress and box spring on the floor, waiting for the frame to show up. Will you have help tomorrow? Wait for it.

I thought my dibble had been lost. Knew it was in the garage, then they brought more things to go in there. One of the things they brought was the under box spring supports that attach to the bed rails on a king size bed. Kinda need those for the new bed coming tomorrow.

And I spotted the dibble! It is beautiful, painted with flower design down the wooden handle. Will try to pull it out tomorrow and take a picture of it.

Out quick. Drip irrigation helps.

No frost here as yet.. we are still averaging 60 -65 daytime. We did have a couple lows of 37-38.

I had a break in the rain around 3:pm so i did plant around 70 bulbs.soil here is very sandy so very easy to do to...about 30 minutes total.

This bed has drip irrigation. There is good points and bad to having sandy soil. Lacks organic matter which is added as compost andy it dries

We had our first frost last night and this morning. It is soooo lovely! But it's such a reminder that the colder days are coming. I guess we gardeners always think we have more time, then suddenly it's just too late.

I was thinking of you and all your bulbs as I remembered a few times when I bought so many bulbs I was still planting around Thanksgiving. I learned my lesson, though.

Sharyn, is your cat an outdoor cat, or does he just go out occasionally?

No planting irises today or possibly tomorrow too. Rain, rain and snow in the mountains. Poor Tiger Kitty wants out so bad. I opened the patio door and he goes out on the covered patio, he sits looks at the grass then back in the house and eventuaaly comes back in the house, lol!!

Must have missed the fertilizer joke. Is the husband chopped up for the fertilizer on top, or is he placed whole, 6 ft. under; or did he just miss his last two therapy sessions and now no one can find him? Because, no one has done any gardening since halloween.

They are not harmful to the plant Send, they just cut the leaves I guess for their home, lol!!

Thanks for that, SharynMarie! Guess they are hungry. Could not bring myself to kill any bees, unless it was a threat. Will be taking the planter off the porch.

Carpenter bees usually are responsible for the half circles on leaves. I get that on my roses too.

Yes, GA it is a dibble. I googled it though I did not see ones like mine. Tge most similar ones were all metal. They dig about a three inch diameter hole toplace the bulb in. In loose soil they would be easy to use, but hard clay soils would be difficullt.

Sharyn, I have a hard time with the shovel action too!

Bouganvillas have become winter food for something BIG! But they are on my front porch for the cold protection. Big half circles, tiny holes, withering leaves from leaf curlers. Who knows. Heartless when it comes to grasshoppers, worms, or bugs, but if its a bunny, it's okay. Should I just give up the fight? Maybe start again in the spring? Maybe it's Zink the skink eating at night?

I picked up a trowel with an extendible handle...to 34 inches. I think this wool work fine for planting the bulbs as we have very sandy soil. There was a bulb digger about 4ft tall but I thought it was heavy and it hurt my right knee and hip to lift my foot up on the foot bars for pushing it in the soil.

I won't be ordering anything more this year. It is too temping to order plants, etc for the garden and then become overwhelmed with getting it done.

I love irises, the blue and lilacs especially. I think I've seen photos of the blues with yellow throats - they're so cheery. I feel myself being pulled away to the pile of gardening magazines...someone, stop me please before I order things I know I can't get planted!

Years ago when I started ordering irises from Schreiner's, I would get a free iris with every order. One was Indigo Princess, a magnificent deep lilac/purple one with ruffles like a can-can skirt. It was just so beautiful.

Great idea!! I will check with OSH for a bulb hole digger. Sure will save my back.
GA-they are Dutch iris blue magic with yellow throats.

Mina: Maslov's hierarchy of needs: food, shelter, warmth, gardens. Oh, I guess money would help too.

Glad your burning bushes survived the winds!

Sharyn: 120 irises? I am in a serious state of iris envy! Names, colors, please....let me dream vicariously!

Crepe myrtle isn't meant for my zone, but it is so pretty I'd still like to try it. Guess I'll have to wait until I get my Victorian conservatory built so I have a place to over winter it!

Can anyone imagine having that kind of greenhouse attached to one's Victorian mansion? That must have been a gardener's lifelong dream come true.

Anyone grow elephant ears (colocasia or alocasia?) If you're in a Northern climate, how do you overwinter them? I generally lose everything I try to overwinter in the basement b/c of the high humidity.

Glad, I've seen the much smaller bulb planters that look like a trowel but have a curved, more roundish blade. I'm wondering if what you have is a "dibble"? It can be short like the bulb planters I've seen or it can be as you describe - looking something like a pogo stick.

I think that's quite a find. Some gardeners I know make their own, but one from the 1950's is a real treasure.

As to those broken things...are any of them clay pots? If you want a creative project, you can make your own stepping stones and embed broken clay in them to create your own designs. Are you familiar with hypertufa? It can be hazardous to your health though if you don't wear proper respiratory protection.

Pfontes, I just remembered that the slogan of a long time gardener I met on another forum is something to the effect that the sign of a good gardener isn't a green thumb; it's brown knees. I would add sore back and legs, stiff hands...but of course it's all for a good cause.

I think I've missed responding to some posts so please don't think your contributions have been ignored. I need to set aside some time to go back and reread what I might have missed.