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30 year old house. In my third growing season. Still A LOT of work to do. Gardening in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Zone 7b. E-mail me at gsmith@email.com with comments!
Friday, September 17, 2004
Hurricane Ivan paid a visit on Thursday evening and Friday morning.
Here are a few pictures.
Messy messy! But the front yard had pretty much drained off by 10:00 PM or so.
Here are a few pictures.
Messy messy! But the front yard had pretty much drained off by 10:00 PM or so.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Much needed work on the backyard continues, but with much much work still to do. I have added a swing. It's very nice but the mosquitoes keep me from sitting there for too long. I have been hearing an owl occasionaly for the past couple of weeks. Black stem and black runner colocasia are quite showy. The banana shrub has done well, hiding the air conditioner as intended.
The new bed in the front has become very overgrown. Perennial sunflowers and zinnia have taken over. I have been having to cut back some of the sunflowers because they have been falling over. One good one is pushing 10 feet tall though. It's hard to believe that this area was all grass 6 months ago. Wiegela has grown exceedingly fast. They are all about 3 feet wide now. There have been some casualties - petunias and sambucus have died. The autumn moon japanese maple that I got at a bargain price a couple of months ago is doing spectacularly. It's hard to believe your eyes when you see a tree with yellow and red leaves in the middle of the summer.
The shade area around the new patio has done well, although I have been slack about keeping the weeds out. Hostas and caladiums planted early this spring have all done well. The hellebores and azaleas all look very good. I still want to put an arch in the middle of it. Impatients are doing well. There are many of them that came up from seed from last year.
Many of my cannas have struggled. The ones planted down near the road in particular. That is my swamp area. During heavy rains, water may stand there for a couple of days. But we haven't had any super heavy rains like last year. This is the area where the cypress trees died last year. The sea shore mallow is very showy, although not very tall. The joe pye weed is blooming, although still only about a foot tall. Zinnias dot the steep bank along the road, but overall the weeds are winning the battle.
Hopefully I will have some pictures soon. Too many weeds right now.
The new bed in the front has become very overgrown. Perennial sunflowers and zinnia have taken over. I have been having to cut back some of the sunflowers because they have been falling over. One good one is pushing 10 feet tall though. It's hard to believe that this area was all grass 6 months ago. Wiegela has grown exceedingly fast. They are all about 3 feet wide now. There have been some casualties - petunias and sambucus have died. The autumn moon japanese maple that I got at a bargain price a couple of months ago is doing spectacularly. It's hard to believe your eyes when you see a tree with yellow and red leaves in the middle of the summer.
The shade area around the new patio has done well, although I have been slack about keeping the weeds out. Hostas and caladiums planted early this spring have all done well. The hellebores and azaleas all look very good. I still want to put an arch in the middle of it. Impatients are doing well. There are many of them that came up from seed from last year.
Many of my cannas have struggled. The ones planted down near the road in particular. That is my swamp area. During heavy rains, water may stand there for a couple of days. But we haven't had any super heavy rains like last year. This is the area where the cypress trees died last year. The sea shore mallow is very showy, although not very tall. The joe pye weed is blooming, although still only about a foot tall. Zinnias dot the steep bank along the road, but overall the weeds are winning the battle.
Hopefully I will have some pictures soon. Too many weeds right now.
Monday, June 14, 2004
The black pearl calla...
The dahlia imperialis (center left) is already about 7 feet tall. I wonder how tall it will get this year? Also, the black stem elephant ear on the center right....
Butterfly bushes....
And one last yard shot...
The dahlia imperialis (center left) is already about 7 feet tall. I wonder how tall it will get this year? Also, the black stem elephant ear on the center right....
Butterfly bushes....
And one last yard shot...
Saturday, May 22, 2004
I managed to get the lawn mowed before it started pouring down rain. We sure do need it.
Parkseed is having a great closeout sale this weekend. It was one of those "couldn't afford not to buy" situations.
Here's what I ordered:
Merchandise Subtotal 111.42
Shipping and handling Standard Shipping 14.48
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORDER TOTAL 125.90
Here's a photo of the ongoing work in the backyard. Still a long way to go:
Parkseed is having a great closeout sale this weekend. It was one of those "couldn't afford not to buy" situations.
Here's what I ordered:
Qty 3 Azalea Autumn Sunset 14.13---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Qty 1 Ben Franklin Tree 9.43
Qty 1 Butterfly Bush Nanho Purple 1.56
Qty 2 Daylily Forty-second Street 8.16
Qty 2 Daylily Apollodorus 3.74
Qty 1 Dogwood Sunsplash 15.73
Qty 1 Geranium Brookside 4.08
Qty 1 Japanese Maple Autumn Moon 22.03
Qty 1 Rhododendron Capistrano 5.34
Qty 3 Shasta Daisy Highland White D 8.46
Qty 5 Siberian Iris Dreaming Spires 7.80
Qty 1 Spiderwort Zwanenburg Blue 2.50
Qty 3 Tortuous Cobra Lily 8.46
Merchandise Subtotal 111.42
Shipping and handling Standard Shipping 14.48
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORDER TOTAL 125.90
Here's a photo of the ongoing work in the backyard. Still a long way to go:
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Sorry for 4 months between posts. Lots of work has been going on. First, a progression of my new patio:
August, 2003:
February, 2004:
May, 2004:
And another angle.
February, 2004:
May, 2004:
The area around the patio and the bed in the foreground are comprised mainly of hellebores, azaleas, and hostas. Some of the azaleas are encores. But as you can see, the beds are mostly only green right now. So this area will need more color. It also needs a lot of weeding and mulch. But I'll worry about that later.
And here's a progression of my rose bed.
November, 2003:
May, 2004:
The bed contain 9 roses (and 2 gardenias in the background). 4 butteryfly ("nearly wild") roses on the left and center. A knockout rose in the back center. A pegasus rose in the middle. An eyeopener rose on the front right. A rugosa in the back right. And the star of the rose bed is my green snake rose, planted on the right side. This picture does not do it justice. The remains of a snowfire rose is also in the middle, but it looks like it has died.
My new "wolf eyes" dogwood from wayside gardens:
Here is my new front bed:
Sorry for the extra grass in it right now. Seeds have been planted and I am a little afraid to use roundup on it. More mulch! More mulch! This bed has 6 weigelas, 2 wave petunias, 3 bee balms, 4 salvias, a sambucus, japanese maple, a poncirus "flying dragon", and some perennial sunflowers. Only the japanese maple was there before this spring.
Next time I hope to show some of the work being done in the back yard.
August, 2003:
February, 2004:
May, 2004:
And another angle.
February, 2004:
May, 2004:
The area around the patio and the bed in the foreground are comprised mainly of hellebores, azaleas, and hostas. Some of the azaleas are encores. But as you can see, the beds are mostly only green right now. So this area will need more color. It also needs a lot of weeding and mulch. But I'll worry about that later.
And here's a progression of my rose bed.
November, 2003:
May, 2004:
The bed contain 9 roses (and 2 gardenias in the background). 4 butteryfly ("nearly wild") roses on the left and center. A knockout rose in the back center. A pegasus rose in the middle. An eyeopener rose on the front right. A rugosa in the back right. And the star of the rose bed is my green snake rose, planted on the right side. This picture does not do it justice. The remains of a snowfire rose is also in the middle, but it looks like it has died.
My new "wolf eyes" dogwood from wayside gardens:
Here is my new front bed:
Sorry for the extra grass in it right now. Seeds have been planted and I am a little afraid to use roundup on it. More mulch! More mulch! This bed has 6 weigelas, 2 wave petunias, 3 bee balms, 4 salvias, a sambucus, japanese maple, a poncirus "flying dragon", and some perennial sunflowers. Only the japanese maple was there before this spring.
Next time I hope to show some of the work being done in the back yard.
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Gearing up for my third year! But first, a little catching up........
Wow, it's the new year already. Ok, so I've been lazy about posting. But don't think for a minute that I've been lazy in the yard. Well, maybe a little bit. It's been 3 1/2 months since my lasy post. There's no way I can go over everything.
I cut down all 6 of the cypress trees that died. I replaced them with 6 fragrant osmanthuses (how do you spell that? maybe I should just say "tea olives"). I moved them forward about 8-10 feet from where the cypress trees were. They shouldn't get so wet there. I also planted a holly in the vicinity. It's a large one; about 15 feet high eventually. This was done in late October probably.
I planted a few daffodils in early December. I cut down a couple of trees in late December. I have been wanting to cut them down for awhile. These were near the road. They somewhat blocked the view of the azalea bed under the oak tree. But they also made a mess. I could sure use a chipper to chew up all of these trees.
I planted a tree form lorapetalum in the square bed. The main reason is because I really do not have anything evergreen in there. There are some irises that have so far stayed green, and the verbena I have in there hangs on in a bronzy / burgandy state. I am not exactly sure how tall this plan will get. The tag said 6', which is an approximate size of a lorapetalum. But does that include the "trunk"? And how tall will the "trunk" get? Well it should look different, if nothing else. We'll see how it goes.
Orders have been sent to Pinetree Garden Seeds and Bluestone Perennials. I will post more about my orders and plans next time. Happy gardening!
Wow, it's the new year already. Ok, so I've been lazy about posting. But don't think for a minute that I've been lazy in the yard. Well, maybe a little bit. It's been 3 1/2 months since my lasy post. There's no way I can go over everything.
I cut down all 6 of the cypress trees that died. I replaced them with 6 fragrant osmanthuses (how do you spell that? maybe I should just say "tea olives"). I moved them forward about 8-10 feet from where the cypress trees were. They shouldn't get so wet there. I also planted a holly in the vicinity. It's a large one; about 15 feet high eventually. This was done in late October probably.
I planted a few daffodils in early December. I cut down a couple of trees in late December. I have been wanting to cut them down for awhile. These were near the road. They somewhat blocked the view of the azalea bed under the oak tree. But they also made a mess. I could sure use a chipper to chew up all of these trees.
I planted a tree form lorapetalum in the square bed. The main reason is because I really do not have anything evergreen in there. There are some irises that have so far stayed green, and the verbena I have in there hangs on in a bronzy / burgandy state. I am not exactly sure how tall this plan will get. The tag said 6', which is an approximate size of a lorapetalum. But does that include the "trunk"? And how tall will the "trunk" get? Well it should look different, if nothing else. We'll see how it goes.
Orders have been sent to Pinetree Garden Seeds and Bluestone Perennials. I will post more about my orders and plans next time. Happy gardening!
Sunday, September 28, 2003
I have cut down 3 of the 4 dead cypress trees. I still have the biggest one to cut down, plus the other two which will probably die.
I have expanded the rose garden area out to where I originaly intended. Last year when I first started, I had visions of a 12' X 15' area. At the time, I didn't have enough roses to fill up that area, and I wound up making it about half the size I really wanted. With the extra roses I bought a few weeks ago, it now makes sense to make it bigger. I had sprayed grass killer a couple of weeks ago and then I got out the tiller yesterday and put down some nuggets. I also added some watering tubes, mainly to help for future roses, but there was one rose there that was not getting any water. I still need something to edge it with. It will take about 80 bricks if I want to go that route. I think I would actualy prefer some long pieces of wood, like railroad ties or something.
I have cut down all of the zinnias. Well, almost all. I left 4 or 5 of the best ones that were still blooming in the long garden. I have also finished putting bricks around the shade garden under the oak tree. That one took 110 bricks. The azaleas in there might make it after all. I'm sure the watering system I set up is helping.
Two good things to report : The 2 encore azaleas that had not bloomed finally started blooming about a week ago. I had started to wonder if it was going to wind up being a normal azalea. Also, the snowfire rose came back out and has actually had 4 or 5 blooms on it. It sure looked dead about a month ago. It's fairly small now, compared to how big it was when I transplanted it last spring. But it's stealing the show in the rose garden right now. I think I will transplant the pegasus rose from mom's house this fall, rather than in the spring.
I have expanded the rose garden area out to where I originaly intended. Last year when I first started, I had visions of a 12' X 15' area. At the time, I didn't have enough roses to fill up that area, and I wound up making it about half the size I really wanted. With the extra roses I bought a few weeks ago, it now makes sense to make it bigger. I had sprayed grass killer a couple of weeks ago and then I got out the tiller yesterday and put down some nuggets. I also added some watering tubes, mainly to help for future roses, but there was one rose there that was not getting any water. I still need something to edge it with. It will take about 80 bricks if I want to go that route. I think I would actualy prefer some long pieces of wood, like railroad ties or something.
I have cut down all of the zinnias. Well, almost all. I left 4 or 5 of the best ones that were still blooming in the long garden. I have also finished putting bricks around the shade garden under the oak tree. That one took 110 bricks. The azaleas in there might make it after all. I'm sure the watering system I set up is helping.
Two good things to report : The 2 encore azaleas that had not bloomed finally started blooming about a week ago. I had started to wonder if it was going to wind up being a normal azalea. Also, the snowfire rose came back out and has actually had 4 or 5 blooms on it. It sure looked dead about a month ago. It's fairly small now, compared to how big it was when I transplanted it last spring. But it's stealing the show in the rose garden right now. I think I will transplant the pegasus rose from mom's house this fall, rather than in the spring.
