My NC Garden 2024
Ang NC_7B
11 days ago
last modified: 11 days ago
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Lessons from the 2023 garden - dreaming of 2024
Comments (23)For the longest time, I pretty much operated a gardening free-for-all...which was insanely labour extensive, frequently on the verge of chaos, shunned by family and friends. I made absolutely no concession to age, agility, maintenance demands, space, climate....and as I especially enjoy raising my own plants from seed, you do tend to end up with quite a lot Unsurprisingly, it all got a bit out of hand. I would have had to think quite hard to come up with lessons I had learned (none). Anyway, after a season of falling over more than usual (tripping over tangling vines and dodgy edging boards), as well as being lashed by vicious thorny briars, I bought a sort of mini-chainsaw pruner and set about editing. I have (mostly) got the roses in hand (discovering parts of the plot I have not stepped for a decade) and grubbed out many of the ancient currants, And decided I was not going to be guilted into anymore manic vegetable growing (I am a reluctant cook), The biggest change though, has been to row back on my habit of growing far too many annual and biennial flowers, especially since I no longer have a raft of gratefully impressed customers and my offspring grow their own: I had to resort to planting the extras in the local cemetery and various public spaces. Pruning: As a terrible meddler, experimental pruning was the basis of much of my novice garden training. There is ALWAYS a load of this when you work as a jobbing gardener and growing large roses and a lot of fruit trees and bushes means the secateurs are always busy. However, the dilemma of pruning still confounds me since one of the very first dictums I learned at hort.school was 'growth follows the knife'...which it certainly does. Initially, chopping back the roses opened the plot up to a lot of light and space but the furious rose plants grew back with a vengeance...and all at exactly the height where they could inflict major damage to eyes. Prior to the great cutback, the most unpleasant surprise usually entailed a painful puncture on the top of my head, from some wayward branch but now it was turning into a bodyline massacre. Had no choice apart from the spade. I took cuttings of many of the removals but I am currently ignoring the numerous buckets of hardwood cuttings, all awaiting planting holes...somewhere. I grubbed out a lot of the fruits with a sigh of relief at no longer needing to spend many,many hours picking and preserving (there are jars of redcurrant and bramble jelly going back years in the larder). I have had the allotment for 20+ years and finally, I decided to attempt to build a garden rather than a random collection of plants...but have had a painful and confusing time deciding what sort of garden I want. Over the years, I have been a helpless dilettante, with shiny new enthusiasms every single season. I have grown (and killed) an unconscionable number of plants...and the plot still looked a mess. However, I have set a few ground rules and am replanting the old vegetable beds with plants which will need no irrigation (quite an ask, living in the dryest part of the UK). More important (to me) is an honest attempt to rediscover some sort of genius loci - a spririt of place, or a set of plants which are perfectly at home in the flat, open fenlands, growing in harmony with the resident fauna and weeds and wildflowers. It is still in it's early stage - I planted up 3 new beds this year - but I have a sort of guiding principle and am learning that restrictions and obstacles are more helpful than negative, making this undisciplined gardener make measured choices instead of random whims. This seems like a potentially more fruitful route to building a coherent, aesthetic and sustainable garden. Plus, the perennials I have been tenderly growing can finally be planted in spaces which have been prepared, considered and planned (and not the random plonking which characterised my garden (ahem) 'style'. Onwards and upwards. And on another topic altogether, I have been watching a series on BBC about American gardens. Sadly,it is helmed by the odious Monty Don and an unfortunate eurocentric (English, really) direction...while Don manages to be both obsequious to the great and good and hugely condescending to gardeners with less social and financial capital. But if you can get IPlayer, do check the series out. And grit your teeth (although Don seems bizarrely popular in the US). 'Monty Don's American Gardens'...just the title alone is enraging, but if I didn't let it put me off, I am sure you will manage to find something to enjoy....See MoreGarden plans for 2024?
Comments (6)I love your Rangoon Creeper! I left my other one at the old place. I had the double type. I am going to get another one asap! I have big plans for vines this year. We have cleared pastures all around the house and the front 6 acres up to the ponds. So I need to plant trees and shrubs and flowering vines. Right now, I am starting butterfly pea vines..double blue, double lavender, and double white. I have grown the single blue before. It is supposed to make a good blue tea! If you add lemon to the blue tea, it will turn pink! The back acreages are all woods that still need clearing. The vines back there are Kudzu and Smilax and Japanese Honeysuckle..Everwhere!!! lol Luckily, the goats and pigs love them. It just isnt properly fenced off back there yet so I cant let them on the loose yet. What seeds are you all planting? I started my tomatoes they need up potting badly. I still need to start peppers. My last frost date here is supposedly April 1st! However, they now say we are zone 9a instead of 8b. I will believe it when I see it. We got a late March freeze last year that killed off all my mulberry fruits....See MoreShow Us Your Landscape and Gardens - A Photo Thread April 2024
Comments (14)Thyme2dig, Love that you are posting regularly again. You were having trouble posting from your iPad, wasn’t that it? Did that get resolved? I love getting a good look at your property during all the seasons. Where do you store your tuteurs in the winter? Did you paint them black this year? I thought they were purple? Love them! Do you have something climbing that trellis entry? The walkway with all the daffodils planted along it looks great! Such an attractive walkway! Daffodils have to be one of my favorite flower. They really mean spring to me. They are a perfect plant. No diseases, no pests, no rabbits eat them, they come back reliably year after year, need very little attention. Ahhhh! I put mini Daffs in my front bed and I’m so glad I did. The foliage dying on the larger diffs is just too much for me. I barely notice the dying foliage on the minis. And they are SO cute. I bought a mix at Scheepers and there has to be about 5 different varieties and I love each one of them. And they seem to be multiplying and even reseeding. A lot of them have gone by but these two just opened, so I have early and later. So, when you chip that big pile of leaves, what is left under it for the season? That is a LOT Of plants in your shade garden. I didn’t realize there were so many varieties of Trillium. Quite the foliage on that one pictured. And that epidmedium is very full and it looks just like one of mine but fuller…lol. Sorry about your diminishing double bloodroot. It’s a gorgeous plant and not easy to acquire. I wonder if there is a way for you to propagate it and increase yours? I don’t grow Tree Peonies, so I have no idea, but, if you have multiples, maybe you could try different solutions on a few and see which one works best? Move one into more sun. Keep one weeded so nothing is growing in it, etc. WOW! Look at that new bed!! And you added to the bed above too, didn’t you? You have increased the amount of square footage of your garden, so you have a LOT more to take care of!! Lol Wow. That last photo is definitely NOT an awful spot! It has excellent bones. The evergreen tree, a pine? The birch. I am sure when you get to it, you could add a lot to make it the way you like it. You can add bark mulch, but couldn’t you just pile leaves there for a few seasons? I’m really happy with my front bed this year too. I didn’t have to do too much extra after normal clean up and pruning. I did want to move a few things, but I potted up a few things that I want to move and waiting to see where they will fit best. I added the Basket of Gold 2 years ago? Then added a 2nd last year. This year when they started to grow, they looked so healthy and vigorous I decided to add another. Now I want two more…lol. The 2 yr old plant is filling out and covered with blooms and the yellow is SO saturated and it’s almost neon. It is really noticeable even from a distance. I looked it up after I saw how well they were doing and turns out they seem to be in conditions that should keep them very happy. Just adding that plant seems to have pulled it all together at this time of year. Julia Child had no die back at all. New foliage to the tips of the canes and I just had to remove a few crossed branches. It’s so dense right now, I’m even wondering if I should remove some from the middle. The epimedium are just opening. Looking so fresh and full this year. Some of those I thought I lost to the rabbits did come back but are small with no blooms. These epimediums were not touched by the rabbits last year and they look very good. They haven't been there long. This is by my kitchen gate. We added some bricks under the gate 2 years ago to keep the rabbits from digging under it. I didn't get around to fixing the ground along the new fence and I've been so happy to see it fill in with moss! I've been waiting for the Hellebores to fill in all the way to get a good idea how large they are this year. These are two new ones. One is that Dark and Handsome from the Wedding series and the other has variegated leaves and I bought it for the name 'Dorothy's Dawn', my mother's name. Hope you can see the variegated foliage in the photos. That's it for me for April too! I'll start the May thread tomorrow....See MoreRose Garden Tour - Spring 2024
Comments (15)Thank you, Hoang Ton, for the quite fabulous spring rose tour of your beautiful garden. I surprised myself by being most impressed by the stunning Lady in Red climber, which I know nothing about. What a gorgeous way to welcome visitors to your house. Also impressive were the Iceberg hedge, Raold Dahl, Jubilee Celebration, the great color of Lady of Shalott, and the many rose companions you grow so well. I loved the vignettes you captured in your video. You've got a lot of lovely views to just stare at. Thanks. Diane...See Moreelenazone6
11 days agoMarkay MD-Zone 7A (8A on new map)
11 days agopink rose(9b, FL )
11 days agooursteelers 8B PNW
11 days agodianela7analabama
11 days agolast modified: 11 days agoArtist-FKA-Novice Zone 7B GA
11 days agolast modified: 11 days agoerasmus_gw
11 days agoTututara Zone 7
11 days agoSheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
11 days agommmm12COzone5
11 days agolast modified: 11 days agoBenT (NorCal 9B Sunset 14)
11 days ago
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sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)