Posted on 05/11/2012 8:02:17 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Good morning FRiends and fellow gardeners!! Here's wishing all mothers and grandmothers a very joyous and beautiful Mother's Day. We rock!
It has been a very busy couple of weeks in my yard. Lots of projects going on and I was able to finish a few of them in between serious dumpings of rain. My rain gauge has registered just over 4" since Monday. We have a 50% chance of more by the first part of next week. Need to be harvesting wheat, but can't really be upset with the rain after the drought we experienced last year.
A look at the radar this morning shows blessed rain falling in Texas. I hope that everybody that needs some rain is receiving it.
The main project I've worked on for 2 weeks is placing flower beds around 4 of the 7 old oaks in my front yard, utilizing reclaimed railroad ties. Each bed contains 10 azaleas, with some assorted colorful plants added to offer something appealing until the azaleas grow and bloom next Spring.
I don't know what it is, but RR ties look HUGE when they are being loaded on your trailer, but when you dump them out next to a big oak, all of a sudden they look as small as a landscape timber. It took 2 men to move these things around. Step one: dump 8 of them by each tree.
Next, we layed-out the first bed in the basic configuration I had been pondering in my head, and figured out how we wanted to cut them. Note: the creosote in RR ties totally ruins the chain on a chainsaw. Be prepared to sharpen the teeth every 6-8 ties, and replace the whole chain when you're done.
After settling on the joints we would use, the ties were cut. Really happy with how the joints turned out. We have drilled 2 holes in each of the long sides and hammered a piece of rebar through the tie and about 18" into the ground. The secured ties hold the angled pieces in with the joint.
I purchased 30 yards of soil from a friend and he delivered it right to the front yard. He dug from an area where he fed his cows for a decade or more, and the soil is rich with decayed hay and composted poo. Very loamy and absolutely gorgeous. Everything I planted should do very well.
The four bundles of azaleas that I ordered from my very favorite nursery in Georgia. They had their patented (named) azaleas on clearance for $3 each, so I got 10 per tree. Each bundle is a different color. The colors were Lady Mildred which is purple, Peppermint which is a pink/white stripe, a red and a hot pink, neither of which names I can recall right now. The nursery takes them out of the pots and packs the roots with moisture-retaining gel. Then they ship them to me via UPS. They experienced some transplant shock when I put them in the beds, but the stems are still very much alive and green, so I have every confidence that they will recover nicely. If not, they are guaranteed and I'll get replacements when they resume shipping again in the Fall.
Bed #1 when we got finished with it:
Bed #2:
Bed #3:
Bed #4 doesn't have any accent flowers yet ... I ran out and haven't had a chance to buy any yet.
With some soil left over from the flower beds, I moved on to my raised garden bed where I grow my lettuces and other salad makings. When I originally built this 8' x 16' bed, I filled it with potting soil, which turned out to be a poor choice. I put 100 feet of soaker hose down before I added the new soil:
Added the soil and got it spread out nicely:
Then I covered the soil with commercial grade landscape fabric, utilizing an old framing square to tuck in 4" on all sides.
Got the bed finished just in time for a thunderstorm! The tucked edges, along with 5 landscape pins down the middle, kept the fabric nicely in place.
Some of my geese, very much enjoying playing in the rain:
Finally, I took this photo when I had one of my bee hives torn apart. This frame shows nurse bees tending everything from eggs (lower right corner area) to larvae ready to be capped until the baby bees form and emerge.
Looking forward to hearing about your week in the yard and garden! Please check in and let everyone know what you've been up to. Photos are always appreciated and enjoyed!
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If I plant three varieties of okra in such a small area, about 8ft x 16ft, will I be able to save seeds of each kind or will I have cross-polinated hybrids seeds?
...>>Only on a Friday a Friday cause that’s my day of rest<< One of those tunes from the past that pops up in my defective memory bank.
Thank you. Could not remember what I needed to worry about with filling around a tree and it was, as you said the soil on the trunk.
I generally don't worry too much about it because seeds produced from cross-pollination are going to produce a plant that is characteristic of one or the other parent, not both. So, you'll get true okra, you just won't know which one until you see the pods. I don't know if I mentioned, but Jade has turned out to be my favorite and can't be beat when the pods are 3-4".
Since she only lurks on Fridays, she won’t see this, so tell her I said that I’m honored she enjoys my posts. That makes the time well spent for me!
I brought home another flat of caladiums, and 3 flats of other bedding plants, and also a dozen or more quart-sized lilies and other perennials for making beds on either side of the end of my driveway. Also got a gorgeous braided-trunk shrimp plant that is about 4 ft. tall. SCORE!!!
I am going to cut some tree limbs that should make the sun area larger out there. We are excited about the new garden area.
Over the weekend I remembered a shade plant that we couldn't have before, a Confederate Rose! Gotta find one now.
I snapped this photo of the shrimp plant blooms. This one is called red, and it is my understanding that they come in other colors as well. I went back and got another and have worked them into the driveway beds. Hope to get a couple of photos posted later. We got one bed done and will do the other one tomorrow.
That is really beautiful, the rings and beds.
I am surprised that my wife has not offered to take a week off and come over and help plant in your beds! :)
The bright yellow is Coreopsis, and I liked the dense growth habit and multitude of flower buds.
The beds look a little sparse right now, but I planted so that everything should touch slightly when it grows to size.
I'm going back later this afternoon for some more lilies and hostas. A bargain like that is hard to pass up. My husband is going to kill me. I am concentrating on the flower beds and neglecting the vegetable planting, but I am having so much fun with the flowers and veggies almost seem like work to me right now.
Wife doesn't know it yet, but I am going to put in a new bed for partial sun/shade plants. We discussed putting a short, low fence to partition off an area for an outdoor table and chairs from a parking area. It occurred to me that a 2ft wide bed along the fence would be a great addition. So far, on our second spring here, we have not created any new beds, just concentrated on refurbishing the old, long abandoned existing beds. I'm thinking Hostas along here, but she may have other great ideas when she hears my plan.
I will turn in my FR Garden Badge if you keep posting photos of those lovely warm weather flowers and plants... and that’s the truff. I wore a undershirt, a tee shirt, a sweat shirt and a old down jacket to spend 2 hours in the garden THIS AFTERNOON.
Bless your heart ... I keep tellin’ you to get yourself down here, and you, me and the berry thief can hang out and garden together. Anyhoo, Lady Bender’s flower beds are so far superior to my little efforts. Y’all are my inspiration.
You’ll want to use pre-1983 pennies if the idea is to add copper to the soil.
My ‘Heavy Hitter’ okra is doing extremely well! One of my plants was sporting 32 tender pods of okra this morning! I picked 40 pounds from two rows, 150’ feet long. And the bees love it!
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