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?
How fine is the mesh in your fence? If there is food to be found the toads will find a way in on their own I think, but adding a couple and providing a shelter for them couldn't hurt, but if they don't like it there they won't hang around.
1 slug utopia, lots of nooks and crannies to hide in,you would think holding in moisture would be a good thing but not if you have lots of slugs.
2 fresh wood chips are not going to be good for your plants, trust me I know
3 know your soil PH before you add in a lot of acidic pine needles and bark
At any rate, I think the mulch might work if the chunks are sharp enough. If they're weathered, they might have lost that sharpness though.
You might also be aware that gardeners don't agree on whether or not mulch depletes soil of nitrogen. One year I had some trees cut down around spring (I think) and gradually spread the mulch over the garden, until I was forced to spread it all quickly because code enforcement decided it was "blight."
Leaves of daylilies, irises, other perennials and I believe (if I recall correctly) even some weeds, turned yellow, a sign of nitrogen depletion. So I began raking all the mulch off again. I don't even recall what I did with it - maybe piled it on top of some weeds.
You could try some of the mulch on top of the massive piles (wow, I'm envious of all your space!) as it would have been exposed and be less likely to deplete nitrogen, but I'd watch the surrounding plants carefully.
The gardeners I know generally use beer to get rid of slugs, but as I recall I think there were some other methods that involved use of sharp objects as well. Let me search my gardening forum and see what I can find.
Snails have soft underbellies so anything that scratches or causes them discomfort can be a deterrent. But I've used landscape stone, which is easier to work with than gravel, and it gets mixed in with the soil if you turn it to plant, or you have to pull all the gravel/stone away to turn the soil. And weeds definitely grow through it.
After gardening for about 60 years, I don't use anything but biodegradable substances - leaves, dead plants, etc. Nothing artificial except the bricks and patio stones goes into my garden.
Keep good air circulation around your plans. Thin your plants like lettuces so that they are not a dense patch but rather individual plants. Avoid anything that gives them a place to hide, any kind of mulch will just make them happy.
While they wouldn't like the stones I think they would be able to hide under the fabric.
They will be most active early in the morning and on drizzly days, so if you want to go organic you can pick them off and drop them into a bucket of soapy salty water.
People put out beer traps for them to drown in, but I would rather drink the beer. I have heard of surrounding plants with sharp sand will discourage them.
I have found the only thing that really works is commercial slug bait, it is safe for pets and wildlife so no worried there.
A neighbor gave the plant to me when they moved. Six blooms!
My garden is blessed!
he sez a lot if s*it that aint so but this tidbit makes sense and i plan to try it .
A neighbor makes huge round paver stones by hand, and those appear throughout his yard. I like the beach motifs, the little sailboats or seashells.
Occasionally, a paver is presented as a gift and ends up in someone else's yard
We are going to have to find a safe landscaping solution so seniors won't fall in our driveway, especially me. Maybe crushed rock, surrounding a paver.
and theyre so beautiful canned up .
the more i provide for myself the less im at the mercy of butt-hole customers . they count on you being desperate . in 18 yrs , i could write a book about human phsycology probably . itd be a pretty crappy book tho . no capitalization lots of misspelling and profanity .
i doubt if ID even buy a copy .
It was spring weeds.
If I was my neighbor, I might get jealous of the yard next door, where the husband has hand-trimmed the edging of dripping with blooms ice plant, the bougainvillea has started to grow; the other plants discarded from neighbors have been renewed and have tall desert blooms in a beautiful magenta color; down the driveway is one rose bush blooming several pink roses; across the front a rosemary bush with little blue flowers transitions from a country garden appearance with Vinca, as one passes by the ornamental apple tree to the opposite side garden full of yellow blooms of succulents and a few cactus in pots complimenting that neighbor's choice of cactus-only landscaping. This is gardening success-yard of the month award goes to, ME. lol.
Stacey, I'm wondering if your rhubarb is edible or ornamental. It seems to be pretty big for an edible rhubarb, unless you're in the deep south and it never died back overwinter. In SE Michigan, it always dies back completely over winter.
An episode of Victory Garden featured some of the ornamental rhubarbs; it was the first I knew that there were ornamental varieties.
If you google ornamental rhubarb, then google Victoria rhubarb, you'll see some of the differences between the ornamental and the edible (we've always grown the Victoria edible variety).
And totally off topic, but large leaves and ornamentals just brought to mind those beautiful and massive Victorian water lilies, some about 6' in diameter. I find it hard to believe they're strong enough to support people, but photos show children sitting and standing on them.
CWillie, I like the idea of intermingling veggies with flowers and have done it for years. I haven't mastered the timing yet, but ideally the plants would produce fruit and mature as the flowers are also starting to bloom, and would have died back when the flowers begin to become very full. That's "ideally."
Stacey, does your rhubarb plant not die back in the winter there?? Old shoots will get kind of tough, look for the new growth. My rhubarb is just peaking up from the ground a few inches... I think the eastern exposure has set it back a little.
Mmmmm, rhubarb sauce, even better rhubarb pie!!
I broke down and planted some lettuces, chard and flower seeds, even though I still don't have anywhere to transplant the veggies to. Last year I put my bell peppers amongst the flowers, but they were pretty crowded. Hmmm, still planning and dreaming and planning and dreaming... lol
Yours will have a good start and advance on setting fruit.
Tomatoes might need more sun exposure if they're spindly and leggy.
DD, the squirrels in my area must think they're master gardeners. They feel free to move bulbs around after I plant them. And they're always inspecting the garden for treats that they probably think are just for them.
Hyacinth bulbs are poisonous to dogs; perhaps they're poisonous to squirrels as well and that's why yours leave them alone.
I took a stroll through the early spring garden this afternoon and was happy to see so much had grown just in the last few days. Daffodils are back in bloom after the cold spell, along with lilac and white violets, vinca minor and some pretty little ground cover that is easy to remove with a scuffle hoe and generally ends up in compost.
Rhubarb, peonies, trilliums are up. Haven't made rhubarb bread in years; maybe this year I'll get motivated.
The Siberian Squills are beginning to set seed; this warm weather is just too much for them. Every year I commit to harvesting their seeds so I can plant more of them, as I really love their "seas of blue" growth habits. And every year spring segues into summer so quickly that the seeds don't get harvested.
man thats capitalism ..
I see you're in a cold weather state as some of the rest of us here.
I'd love to have a lemon tree - imagine how nice it would be to pick fresh lemons! Do you have a space to overwinter it when that time comes?