Picture thread...plants, flowers, landscaping, & horticulture

[Crowbob]

Originally Posted by ben parrish

It is but I enjoy it and at 50, it beats the hell out of going to the gym to stay in shape. The best thing for me is knowing that the trees and anchor features will be here for many generations to enjoy.

Well done, Ben.

You plant apples for your children, you plant grapes for your grandchildren.

For you, you just plant.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by peteremsley

Thanks guys. Just discovered the 1/4" hose with the built in drippers. Will be wary of the 18" spacing, but sounds like a really simple solution.

It's a zone on the regular irrigation system, so I'm not sure pressure will be a problem. I will add a couple of valves - one for each bed just in case.

I decided to add a pressure regulator for my project because there was too much pressure and the drip tube fittings were too prone to popping off.

I used one made by Rainbird and added it to the main feeder line, which then branched out to the three beds.

Worked great.

I don't think you'll find any of the 1/4" tubing with spacers further than 6" so you should be fine. It's the 1/2" tubing you have to watch for the right spacing.

[Baz]

Too late now, Peter, but for a base material for paths and parking sometimes I used "washed shell" but you may not have it in your area. It's basically very small sea shells. Almost like a coarse sand but more durable to walk on - very easy to handle and spread and somewhat decorative as well. Much finer texture than rock. I hate using rock myself so gravitate toward washed shell as much as possible when not using wood chips/bark.

[Mothy]

Found this in the garden the other day. I love what nature throws up.

[Baz]

Some kind of Lichen, Mothy? Very nice!

As it were.......I happened to take this pic earlier today at one of my accounts of emerging new shoots after I pruned back a mature Plumeria. I was beginning to wonder if it would survive the pruning.

It did.....

[RSBob]

Recently discovered this thread, so I’ll play. Here are a couple of shots of the back hill, but just one side of it. I make the gates which access our deer proofed vegetable garden. Will take more pics soon.

[stevej37]

^^^ Very nice!

[john70t]

^superb RSBob

I like perriwinkle/vinca as a ground cover instead of grass. Nice carpet of purple flowers in the spring. Grass will invade if it's been weakened in any way though. Vinca grows slowly (unlike similar euonymus which chokes out everything). For a small planter bed? Naw, I wouldn't. cover it up if not doing anything this year or plant bee-friendly wildflowers from seed.


Those rocks in your pic will start getting filled with weeds five years out after the neighboring leaves decompose so rake/blow them out religiously. The good news is it's deep enough you can use the flat of a garden rake to pull through the stones and break all the roots easily.

I'm starting to go with the bigger perennial shrubs so hopefully less work. I've neglected the yard and house for a few years and it shows. The elderberry bush center back has not been doing well and three butterfly bushes died this winter but some wild sprouts survived and can be moved over. This harsh long winter seems to have reduced the plague of green mildew all over this neighborhood even with us being elevated and southern facing.

-Got some new flame grasses which are perennial and looks like spectacular color. Just have to save them from the dog.
-Also got a gorgeous flowering almond for color in early spring. Going to put it against garage for visual contrast.
(spring tulips are fading this week and magnolia trees popped and dropped a week ago after only a few days)
-Chopped the montmorancy cherry tree about in half and it liked it. Hopefully there will be another good crop this year.
-Need to do a lot of work on the walk, but instead of spraying or pulling weeds again and again, I'm going to plant spanish moss and other ground cover between the stones and hopefully nature will sort itself out without my help.

[RSBob]

Good work John. Your work is certainly paying off.

A word of caution about periwinkle, in moderate climates it can become highly invasive. I lived in the Santa Cruz mountains in Calif where periwinkle spread like wildfire through several forests covering square miles.

When we bought our place in Wa my wife insisted all of the existing periwinkle in our landscape be killed, contained, like by concrete barriers going into the ground 6” or dug up. I took the easy route and used Roundup which I know is environmentally unfriendly as well as carcinogenic, but it easier than digging it up. In the mid west this might not be an issue. Here in Wa butterfly bushes are also invasive and can be found throughout the local mountains crowding out natives but in Ca where my mother lives, they aren’t a problem. All are region specific.

[john70t]

Thx to you RSBob et all who set the higher standards here!
Beautiful. We all learn something new every day.

Originally my butterfly bushes in Michiagn brought in all swarms of insect visitors including weird hummingbird moths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macroglossum_stellatarum There also used to be tons of cone flowers, false sunflowers, beebaum, and others. There used to be almost way too much bees in the backyard in the beginning despite my brown thumb. Swarms covering everything. I'm going to try to get back to there.
No sprays. Always natural.
Some of the native stuff was crowded out from pruning, neglect, and being planted in the wrong place. Especially because I did not even amending or feed the crappy soil. There were also very hot summers, terrible woodchucks which ate everything in 2 days, moles, tomatoe blight right before picking, powdery mildew destroying all the vegetable vines for the last decade and an entire list of gardening disasters.
There is always last year's garden. And next year's garden. But this year something will go wrong. Hey.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by peteremsley

Rock, dirt, and sprinklers roughly in place. Hopefully planting this weekend. Veggies on the left, weed on the right The CMUs on the far right have soil in them. I didn't really know what to do with them so I was thinking of putting some kind of ground cover in them ... periwinkle perhaps?



wish the flams and rabbits would eat the darned weeds.

I don't want to see my wheelbarrow again until at least 2020.

Periwinkle would be a good choice for those blocks, Peter but for summer months I use Pentas a lot around here and may be worth checking out.

Your project turned out very nice...please convey to your son my compliments for his part.

That will be his bed there on the right, I take it?

I took a few pics today of the washed shell product I mentioned. This was at my bulk material supplier. I have other pics somewhere of projects I have used it on but for now this will give you an idea.

It's so much easier to install than rock.....and makes for a nicer surface, IMHO.








After a solid week of rain....the loading area was a bit muddy.....

[RSBob]

another pic of the south 40

[RSBob]

Nother The wisteria was beautiful last week but is now past its prime. Bringin in 20 yards of dark rich mulch, which should really dress things up.

[RSBob]

Shot of part of the front. Three separate lawns necessitated the purchase of a lawn tractor

[RSBob]

Is that Peter’s rabbit? Sorry, couldn’t resist.

They are so cute when small. We have several of them visit regularly until our lab chases them out.

[Baz]

'Painted Lady' Hibiscus...my fav. variety......

[Baz]

Picked up a bunch of 4" Purslane to put in my hanging baskets now that Petunia season is over.

Trying out a new variety....Colorblast Mango Mojito!

TBH....I've never been into double-flowers. My take is that no matter how beautiful they may be when blooming....when the blooms die - you have twice the amount of dead tissue to look at until they rot or fall away.

Small flowers (like these) are one thing but when you have those large blooms like on a Hibiscus...whoa.....things can get real yucky!

My Purslane......

[Baz]

Also picked up a couple 10" deco pots of a "new to me" plant called Soiree Kawaii Lavender Vinca.

It comes in a few other colors....the nursery owner said 'Coral' was his favourite colour but I got the Lavender because all he had in Coral were very small liners just planted in gallons.

Looking forward to observing it over the warm season. Here's an online pic....

[drkshdw]

The last few evenings this stuff has popped up in my veggie bed. Literally it grows in an hour and is dead and gone by morning. A quick google says something about slime mold or 'dog vomit fungus'. Thankfully not toxic but I'm definitely rethinking the use of natural mulch in a vegetable bed. Especially since it's absolutely full of roly poly's that have eaten every single one of my beans. Gnawed right off at the base and left to rot. Thanks guys.

[vash]

I quickly learned buying lawn furniture in the spring time is unwise. Nothing is on sale.

Thank you China! Picked up a temporary place to eat breakfast until the big fall sales.
$200. Hehe.

I hope it last for a bit.