Gardeners: how's it looking?

[magnemite]

We lost most of our garden space last year when we put in a garage, but now over the past few weeks I have built six raised beds using reclaimed cedar fencing, used four half-barrels that held whiskey, and a host of large pots to begin growing our gardens again (GOGA!). Filled them all with four yards of nice soil, and they are planted with a mix of seeds, and starts from a plant place. The corn, squash, lettuce, peppers, beans, peas, Brussels-sprouts, pumpkins, cucumbers, gourds, herbs, rhubarb are all growing nicely, and they enjoy the nearly 18 hours of sunlight we have now. The blueberry crop is sparse, as we moved the bushes a bit too late in the spring, and the heirloom grape is doing well after its move.

The bane of our gardening is the pernicious bindweed, and our goal is total eradication this year. Not sure if it will be accomplished, and advice appreciated.

[Kron3007]

The bane of our gardening is the pernicious bindweed, and our goal is total eradication this year. Not sure if it will be accomplished, and advice appreciated.

Give up, you will never win...

There is likely years worth of seed hiding in your soil, so eradication in a single year is not very realistic, but a noble persuite.

[Trogdor]

A few days ago we looked at a house (we're in the market for one) that had half it's yard covered in japanese knotweed. the stuff was 10 feet high in some places.
The realtor had no idea what it was. "look at all this pretty bamboo looking stuff!"

[Puget]

A few days ago we looked at a house (we're in the market for one) that had half it's yard covered in japanese knotweed. the stuff was 10 feet high in some places.
The realtor had no idea what it was. "look at all this pretty bamboo looking stuff!"

Oh dear!
I invite you to come join us one the "buying a house" thread Trogdor-- lots of house buying happening this summer.
http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=158.0

[mamselle]

A few days ago we looked at a house (we're in the market for one) that had half it's yard covered in japanese knotweed. the stuff was 10 feet high in some places.
The realtor had no idea what it was. "look at all this pretty bamboo looking stuff!"

Is that what some people call "kudzu"? Or is that different?

A friend who does a large community garden and I were discussing that the other day...

M.

[drbrt]

Oh, and a concern: squirrels

Do folks have any methods that work for keeping them from chomping through your fruits & veggies?  They have happily finished off the last of the oranges and a good amount of our strawberries.  The neighbor says they eat his pomegranates.

I'm worried about my figs and cherries and corn.  Do I spray the plants with hot sauce?  Surround them with used cat litter?  Stand outside with the hose to squirt them?  Or just resign myself to sharing the bounty?

We always used tobasco

[lillipat]

Plus and minus.  I am no gardener, living in a neighborhood of enthusiastic ones (not that they're eager to tend to any but their own, you understand.)  So I resolved this year to focus on a limited area, and I'm pleased to report that several of my new-last-August dwarf daylilies are putting on buds and have the potential to be very nice in a couple of years.  However, yellow nutsedge, the bane of my late husband's lawn life, has appeared extra-early this year, and is thriving as never before.  So, 1 flower bed to the good; the entire front lawn to the bad.

[namazu]

A few days ago we looked at a house (we're in the market for one) that had half it's yard covered in japanese knotweed. the stuff was 10 feet high in some places.
The realtor had no idea what it was. "look at all this pretty bamboo looking stuff!"

Is that what some people call "kudzu"? Or is that different?

Different invasive plant.  Worse. 

Japanese Knotweed, the Plant That Just Won't Die by Henry Grabar in Slate

[magnemite]

I read that knotweed article, and that stuff sounded quite nasty!

Perhaps a planting at certain golf courses may be a fun idea?

[mamselle]

Don't think I'd want to go there....

M.

[Thursday's_Child]

Ah, critters and gardens.  My squirrels mostly haunt the ground under the birdfeeder - the dog may have something to do with that.  Rabbits, when dog is in the house, may wander in to drink from the birdbath and snack on the lawn but I haven't noticed them in the garden.  The birds confine their nibbles to the blueberries with occasional nips at tomatoes or peppers.  The most diverse snacking is actually done by the box turtles, but they're limited by neck-length.

I wish I could re-plant squash because the vine-borers were done for the year.  They completely destroyed my hopes of early zucchini and have recently gone after the cucumbers, so I'm afraid they're still active here.

[namazu]

We are growing a limited selection of edible things (mostly herbs, and attempting a few varieties of chili pepper) in containers on the deck. We may step that up next year, because the very local organici-ish farm where we used to get our produce and eggs has been sold off to become a housing development.  :(

The herbs are doing fine -- we'll see how well they hold up in the heat, which will likely depend on how often I remember to water them.

The peppers seem to be flowering and setting fruit, but some of the nascent fruits are falling (or being knocked) off.  My containers seem to be very popular with the chipmunks, so it's possible that the peppers are a casualty of chipmunks rooting around in the pots.  Otherwise, I'm not sure why they'd drop.  Anyone have experience growing chilis?

Otherwise, we mostly do native-ish and pollinator-focused plant gardening, with a few non-native plants that were here when we bought the house (and the invasive weedy things we haven't been able to eradicate).  Our "lawn" mostly consists of violets (which I love) and ground ivy (which some insects love, and I can't get rid of).  The heavy-clay soil is being aerated by moles, though not as evenly as we'd like. 

Early-to-mid-June is a bit of lull in flowering things: the early-season woodland wildflowers are long done, and the late-summer prairie plants haven't gotten going yet.  At the moment, the following plants are putting on a good show:

• coral honeysuckle vines (Lonicera sempervirens, var. Major Wheeler),

• beebalm (Monarda didyma), which the hummingbirds love,

• great coneflower (Rudbeckia maxima), and

• butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)

The common milkweed stalks have buds, and looks like it should flower soonish, if the deer don't munch off the flower heads.  Have I mentioned that the deer here eat everything, including the plants they're allegedly supposed to avoid?  They eat milkweed leaves (toxic), lobelia (toxic), etc.

Our first monarch caterpillar has stopped eating and formed a "J" and should pupate this afternoon.  (Yay!) 

The spicebush swallowtail caterpillars in our sassafras shrubs (but not in our spicebush!) have been making leaf-tacos, which is where they hang out when they're not munching, but they seem to be disappearing one by one, and it's probably not because they're pre-pupal.  They are fascinating and hugely entertaining as temporary "pets" on a stem of sassafras in a bottle, but after having one overwinter as a chrysalis and then not emerge in the spring...or summer (despite being kept in a ventilated aquarium outside -- maybe too dry?), I've stopped bringing them inside at all.  Probably at this time of year they wouldn't try to overwinter, anyway, but I don't want to take responsibility for them if I can't be sure I know how to care for them properly.

Thursdays' Child, I love box turtles!  In the decade we've lived here, I've only seen them about 3 times, but I like when they put in an appearance.  (They don't seem to be a major player in the Things That Eat My Plants category.)  I always wonder how old they are.

[Vhagar]

Hey, my first post in the new fora! Hi everyone!

We bought our house four years ago. The first two were really just about keeping what the previous owners had done neatly groomed. Then last year, we took out the boxwood hedges and all the greenery in the front and planted roses where the hedges were and started a pollinator pocket with perennials where the greenery was. Two (of five) roses didn't survive the winter (they were ill going in) and only about half of the perennials came back. So, this year, made some replacements. Then we took out a huge row of hedges between our house and the neighbors' (we took a poll; both households hated it). So now, my neighbor and I each working on our side of the fence. I have more roses, azaleas, clethra, and some ground cover. THEN I decided to get into some climbing roses; two in the back next and one on the front. I have planted a bunch of spring bulbs and daylilies at the sides of the house and by the driveway.

So, it was all coming together this year. The plants are immature, but everything was doing well. And then...there was a tornado, which is unusual, but not unheard of, in our area. Both of the big trees in the front yard were snapped in half. They fell and squashed my lilies. It has been a lot of clean up. Today, the city came and took out what was left (they were city trees, luckily). Now with no trees and a bunch of young plants, the front of the house looks surprisingly bare. I am hoping that the city replants something. Those trees were so nice!

[namazu]

Glad you made it, Vhagar!

And oh, no!  re: your trees!  What kind(s) were they?  I hope they'll replant, too. 

On the bright side (literally), unless your young plants are all strict shade-lovers, I guess they'll enjoy the extra sunlight!

[Vhagar]

They were some sort of maple trees. We estimated about 50 years old. They turned the most beautiful red in the fall. I will miss that. I will NOT miss the raking though.