Gardeners: how's it looking?

[namazu]

Looking for suggestions:

I'm going to move a shrub to the back yard and would like to replace it with a perennial that puts out red or yellow flowers (front yard is on the north side of the house, gets partial shade, so I want warm colors). Height should be anywhere from 6" to 2'. I'm in hardiness zone 6b.

I already have a few red poppy plants in the yard, blooms are nice but they don't last very long.

Also there is often a bumper crop of rabbits. Tulips get eaten down to the soil.

If you want native plants, some good (and colorful, pollinator-attracting) low ones for shade include:
- Columbines (Aquilegia canadensis) -- red flowers with yellow accents in spring
- Wood or celandine poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum) -- bright yellow flowers in spring and in some cases reblooming in summer (not to be confused with the extremely invasive yellow-flowered plant called celandine!)
Both of the above tend to reseed freely in my yard.  They are both ephemeral, though, and won't last all summer.

Other possibilities include:
- Lanceleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) -- bright yellow aster-type flowers in late spring

Taller than you may want, but really great for late summer color and hummingbird/butterfly value, is cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis).  The plant has a taller (2-4') spike of bright red flowers.  Similarly, Monarda didyma has fantastic red flowers but is in the 2-4' range.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Students will be harvesting French Breakfast radishes today. That is all.

[spork]

Looking for suggestions:

I'm going to move a shrub to the back yard and would like to replace it with a perennial that puts out red or yellow flowers (front yard is on the north side of the house, gets partial shade, so I want warm colors). Height should be anywhere from 6" to 2'. I'm in hardiness zone 6b.

I already have a few red poppy plants in the yard, blooms are nice but they don't last very long.

Also there is often a bumper crop of rabbits. Tulips get eaten down to the soil.

If you want native plants, some good (and colorful, pollinator-attracting) low ones for shade include:
- Columbines (Aquilegia canadensis) -- red flowers with yellow accents in spring
- Wood or celandine poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum) -- bright yellow flowers in spring and in some cases reblooming in summer (not to be confused with the extremely invasive yellow-flowered plant called celandine!)
Both of the above tend to reseed freely in my yard.  They are both ephemeral, though, and won't last all summer.

Other possibilities include:
- Lanceleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) -- bright yellow aster-type flowers in late spring

Taller than you may want, but really great for late summer color and hummingbird/butterfly value, is cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis).  The plant has a taller (2-4') spike of bright red flowers.  Similarly, Monarda didyma has fantastic red flowers but is in the 2-4' range.

Columbines, noooooo! :) I had some of these in the back yard, and they propagated like crazy. There is even one in a crack in the concrete stairs to the front door that I haven't been able to kill yet.

[namazu]

Columbines, noooooo! :) I had some of these in the back yard, and they propagated like crazy. There is even one in a crack in the concrete stairs to the front door that I haven't been able to kill yet.

Haha!  We also had a gloriously stubborn plant growing out of a crack in our asphalt driveway.

[mamselle]

Pull hard, get all the root you can, and then dump bleach on it (or squirt some in the hole) if there are no nearby aquifers to be affected (interthreaduality).

M.

[namazu]

Pull hard, get all the root you can, and then dump bleach on it (or squirt some in the hole) if there are no nearby aquifers to be affected (interthreaduality).

To me, columbines growing out of cracked asphalt are a feature, not a bug.  We have also let the native violets overtake our lawn.  They're gorgeous when in full bloom.  At least, I think so.  (I'm sure we're bringing down property values in the neighborhood.)

[mamselle]

Ah, in that case, let 'em grow!

I actually like flowers going wherever they want to go, but at times when I've 'shared' a lawn with others, I had to barber it to suit their tastes (which were pretty restrictive.....when I left, I discovered they'd hacked down a beautiful forsythia bush I'd pruned and gotten to flower again, after it had lost vigor, and put in itty-bitty little nothings in its place because they "looked neater.")

<<De gustibus non disputandem>> apparently applies to gardens as well...

M.

[Puget]

Pull hard, get all the root you can, and then dump bleach on it (or squirt some in the hole) if there are no nearby aquifers to be affected (interthreaduality).

To me, columbines growing out of cracked asphalt are a feature, not a bug.  We have also let the native violets overtake our lawn.  They're gorgeous when in full bloom.  At least, I think so.  (I'm sure we're bringing down property values in the neighborhood.)

I'm with you-- I love the violets and don't know why anyone would try to evict them from the lawn. They are also the only thing that seems very happy to grow in the bed under my pines, so they are welcome to it.

[Kron3007]

Pull hard, get all the root you can, and then dump bleach on it (or squirt some in the hole) if there are no nearby aquifers to be affected (interthreaduality).

M.

It would be more environmentally friendly to just spray them with round up...

[Harlow2]

Lettuce and kale doing well.  Peppers still indoors for next 3 weeks. problem:  one variety of tomato has leaves that are quite yellow. Everything else in same potting soil w same fert is fine.  On advice bought Epsom salts and painted some leaves with dilute mixture and watered one with same mixture.  No change

Advice welcome.

[mamselle]

Any stray nails or aluminum tabs from soda cans stuck in the soil anywhere?

Metals sometimes poison the plant and make the leaves turn yellow.

M.

[Kron3007]

Lettuce and kale doing well.  Peppers still indoors for next 3 weeks. problem:  one variety of tomato has leaves that are quite yellow. Everything else in same potting soil w same fert is fine.  On advice bought Epsom salts and painted some leaves with dilute mixture and watered one with same mixture.  No change

Advice welcome.

Which leaves are yellow old or new growth)?  Is it the whole leaf or just between the veins? 

Could also be pH.  Do you know your water?

[Puget]

I've been busy this weekend--
Used leftover pavers from the patio project the pave the path through my back veggie garden area
Put in edging along the beds on both sides
Assembled a garden arch at the entrance to that path with grape starts that will hopefully grow up it eventually planted on either side, plus scarlet runner beans to grow over it this year
Potted up my zucchini and cucumber starts into bigger pots.

Next weekend: edging along the flower beds, planting bush beans, and probably potting up some of the other starts.

[Harlow2]

Lettuce and kale doing well.  Peppers still indoors for next 3 weeks. problem:  one variety of tomato has leaves that are quite yellow. Everything else in same potting soil w same fert is fine.  On advice bought Epsom salts and painted some leaves with dilute mixture and watered one with same mixture.  No change

Advice welcome.

Which leaves are yellow old or new growth)?  Is it the whole leaf or just between the veins? 

Could also be pH.  Do you know your water?

The seedlings are in potting soil in 4-inch pots and the yellowing was working its way up. Veins were still green but the remainder of the leaves was yellow. Each leaf would then die.   Oddly this affected only 1 variety of seedlings; the others were fine.  I gave them a full strength shot of fert late yesterday and they seem somewhat better.

I've never tested the ph; that's a great idea, and Mamselle's comment on stray metals is interesting. (Everything is in potting soil and still indoors for the next 3 weeks, so no garden soil).

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Lettuce and kale doing well.  Peppers still indoors for next 3 weeks. problem:  one variety of tomato has leaves that are quite yellow. Everything else in same potting soil w same fert is fine.  On advice bought Epsom salts and painted some leaves with dilute mixture and watered one with same mixture.  No change

Advice welcome.

Which leaves are yellow old or new growth)?  Is it the whole leaf or just between the veins? 

Could also be pH.  Do you know your water?

The seedlings are in potting soil in 4-inch pots and the yellowing was working its way up. Veins were still green but the remainder of the leaves was yellow. Each leaf would then die.   Oddly this affected only 1 variety of seedlings; the others were fine.  I gave them a full strength shot of fert late yesterday and they seem somewhat better.

I've never tested the ph; that's a great idea, and Mamselle's comment on stray metals is interesting. (Everything is in potting soil and still indoors for the next 3 weeks, so no garden soil).

Could it be a watering issue? Is the dirt damp? Early blight? Not enough light? Too much fertilizer?