Had a tough week as far as my mental health goes. My man went to meet with friends and I decided to stay home. Dog sat the little dog again and did some plant therapy. Just me and the fur babies. Did some transplanting of the new succulents. Bought some little fish tank rocks and decorated the tops even. Also planted some seeds. 3 OG Kush auto seeds, only 1 of 5 I put directly in the ground came up so I went with starters this time. I have plenty of weed, just having fun through fall and winter and autos are always easy and fun. Also started some Hungarian Blue poppies, some of the puffy yellow marigolds and some giant hyssop as I want to feed more hummingbirds. No idea if poppies will germ in starters but I’ve had no luck direct sowing them. Threw some bread seed poppy seeds down when it rained last week. I see all kinds of things popping up in what has become the wildflower patch, but it honestly could be all weeds. No idea.
So transplanting and seed starting 2 of my favorite things to do in the world. That made me feel better. Also bought a new fern for my shade bed called an autumn Fern. A few of them stick around all year, but the Japanese painted ones croak in the fall and come back beginning of summer. My oldest one comes back, some just die. My shade beds are always a mystery and there is still so much empty space back there. Also couldn’t resist buying this beauty, my pink one from last year is just now starting flower buds…
This Thanksgiving cactus was too cheap and gorgeous to pass up
Didn’t realize how wet the soil was underneath. The mulch under there helped that. Didn’t keep the Bermuda or crab grass out though. Maybe once I dig it out, some major carpet ground cover or will it choke my plants out as well?
I planted an ice plant in a bed. Was searching for it online and came up invasive in california. I bought it from a Master Gardner show they put on at a garden reopening. So may not work for you.
I agree, but my back doesn’t. I spread 15-20 yards in all the beds here every spring. Thats more than a tri-axle load, with a wheelbarrow and pitchfork. The real bonus is after doing it for 20 years, the soil in the beds is a rich black topsoil thats priceless. I only do triple ground, no dyes. It looks almost black, and breaks down quickly…
These guys are perennials like the hostas here, but they come back bigger and bigger. I do find they like more shade and moisture than other ferns. Just brought two giant boston ferns inside before the hard frost here kills em, they got GIANT this year and kinda wanna keep em around… My Japanese painted ferns are under oakleaf hydrangeas near the pond. Love the purple fringes on them…
Hate to say it, but pull, pull pull, get ALL the roots (spreads by runner), and pull some more. Any roots left make more. I hate herbicides, there’s always a downside somewhere…
neither in my experience. It would just make weeding even more tedious as the bermuda grass pops up in the middle of your groundcover. I plant a heavily overloaded bed style, so stuff does choke out other stuff here, but groundcovers usually coexist with most things that aren’t another groundcover. Even then they tend to blend between them.
handpick as much as you can, if you can sieve out roots, even better (usually bermuda grass is in sandier soils). then if you are doing mulch, also lay down a layer of weed barricade (not that rolled crap that doesn’t break down and costs money to make you pull out your hair later), just several layers of newspaper (8-10 for blocking) under the mulch helps to also minimize re-growth, but naturally composts away.
Home ownership… with a garden involved… who woulda thought you’d feel it so much in the body?
I’m filling in more cottage garden style now as well. Just need the new plants to grow in faster than the frickin grass. Dug up a crap load of bulbs and rehomed them across the yard where the can just be under the grass border style when they come up. Dug up maybe 2 or 3 feet of the planter really deep, but I’d have to dig to China to really kill all the grass down there. Still beating it back best I can. A lot of very small bites today but many hours of work.
Question . This is a euro pot, what is the point of the black insert? Distribute drainage better? Something for hydro? I never used the black part before.
I may have ordered the wrong pots. The other ones I have just have a bunch more drainage holes than regular pots. Awesome for orchids or succulents. No idea what this black thing does. It just sits on the bottom. Wondering if it’s some sort of wicking thing or self watering apparatus. It seems to block the pot holes in a sense. Seems water would flow out much slower. Maybe Ill just stick one in the sink and put water in it both ways.
Well, 3 OG Kush autos popped up today, all of my marigolds and a few poppies. No sign of my giant hyssop yet. I have another auto cross that sprouted in the ground still alive as well. Fun!
Also, I called up my 23 year old growing protege yesterday to thank him for his service on veterans day and he offered to help me dig out the rest of the planters early next week. How could I pass up, young man power. This will help so much.
Oh, I learned something extremely useful recently as well.
You know how every gardening book and plant instruction on in ground plants say that plants need an inch of rain per week? Well, I live in Southern Cali, seriously WTF is rain . I honestly never knew what that meant. Finally, I found out that an inch of rain would be the equivalent of 5 gallons of water per yard (approx 3 feet). Boy, this was mind blowing. That’s a lot of water. lol. Needless to say, I timed myself filling up a home Depot bucket with water so now I can kinda time how long I water every 3 feet. It does make for some nice deep watering. I was seriously underwatering most of the time.
So may not work for you.
He’s not quite sure about the Bermuda grass tho
. This is a euro pot, what is the point of the black insert? Distribute drainage better? Something for hydro? I never used the black part before.
. I honestly never knew what that meant. Finally, I found out that an inch of rain would be the equivalent of 5 gallons of water per yard (approx 3 feet). Boy, this was mind blowing. That’s a lot of water. lol. Needless to say, I timed myself filling up a home Depot bucket with water so now I can kinda time how long I water every 3 feet. It does make for some nice deep watering. I was seriously underwatering most of the time.