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Latest Activity: Oct 8
As a gardener, I believe you know spring is a great season for your garden to grow plants, flowers, vegetables and fruit. However, before growing new plants, your yard needs maintenance after the long winter. Hence, get your landscape off to the best start with these hints and tips for the early spring.
Survey the yard. Make not of tree limbs that should be removed or cabled, especially those that overhang structures. Hire an arborist to maintain large trees if necessary. Cut down last year’s perennial foliage and toss it into the compost pile. Rake mulch from beds planted with bulbs before foliage appears, and refresh mulch in other planting areas after soil warms. Check fences, steps, and pathways for disrepair caused by freezing and thawing.
Check soil PH with a soil tester, taking several samples from different planting areas for an accurate reading. Enrich soil as necessary: add dolomitic lime to raise the PH or elemental sulfur to lower the PH.
Prune trees and shrubs. Remove dead, damaged, and diseased branches from woody plants. Thin and trim summer-blooming shrubs such as butterfly bush, hydrangea, and most roses, except for old-fashioned once bloomers. Prune cold-damaged wood after plants resume spring growth. Prune spring-blooming shrubs and trees after flowering.
Prepare new beds. Clear the planting area as soon as soil can be worked, removing sod or weeds and debris. Spread a 4-inch layer of compost or well-rotted manure and any amendments over soil, and cultivate it to a depth of 10-12 inches with your garderning tools.
Choose a cool, cloudy day to plant new trees, shrubs or perennials if you want. transplant container-grown plants anytime during the growing season except midsummer; be sure to water them thoroughly. Sow seeds of cool-season flowers like poppies and calendula, or vegetables such as spinach and parsley.
Hope these tips can help you to refresh your garden in the early spring.
Started by Julie. Last reply by Julie Oct 8. 15 Replies 4 Likes
Lavender is a wonderful herb and a great garden plant, it has found its home in English…Continue
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Yes those are drone flies on those leaves,often confused with Horse-flies and deer flies that lay those tiny wee white eggs on horses legs,...Fright you say,geepers I must have almost given her a heart attack many times over,l assure you, lol I was a wee toad and just a whirl wind ball of life & fun when I was young & always out in nature,running with no restrictions,often taking my cloths off & running naked with not a care or fear in the world,...but yet bring me inside the house it was a different story however, I was overly sensitive frightful and suffered major over stimulative anxiety attacks as sensory overloads raced through my body it was horrible..the only way she could calm me down was to put me in the bath as the water talked to me...hense even these days I spend a lot of time in the shower even at work luckily..I can handle it to some degree these days though being I know and understand when I feel it coming on,so I can block it in its tracks..but as a kid I had no idea what was happening to me..
Yes, they're real pretty and their bodies are flat, I love watching them on the wild roses. I think your nanny must have had a fright Vlada.
Ahhh had to look up done flies they're different colours with the male and female, I've seen these in the garden
Ahh well that is not a bee on your rose, but instead a Hoverfly (Syrphidae) it mimics a bee..I used to freak my nanny out as a kid, I used to get them and put them in my mouth and hold them then go running into my nannys and motion with my hands something was in my mouth, lol naturally shed open my mouth and flip out big time as they flew out, see they dont sting..hhahahha I was a rat bag alright..how I knew they didn't sting I have no idea..I used to do it with Drone flies also..
Thanks about the bee picture Vlada
maybe you'll like this video I made
Yes I've left the hydrangea flowers to dry, also the lavender and roses.
I've noticed that when the roses are in a vase they seem to dry themselves so I either save the petals for a while or the complete rose and stem.
I've placed crystals in a wooden box with dried lavender and or rose petals.
It's good to dry sage and make a sage bundle too, I've used a home made bundle to cleanse before medicine wheel
Only one self seeded pumpkin this season for me but its a big one at least,last season I got 9 so had to give them away before they went rotten..its not ready to pick as yet the vine is still green,but its gonna make some wonderful pumpkin soup for winter...
my Tree Dalias are about to flower any day now, when they do the monarch butterflies will be here in abundance like last year..
love the bumble bee pic Julie, I took one last year entering my ' Bears breeches - Acanthus plant' it visited every flower on the stem,he was a busy old bugger like a avenger on each flower.. he had hardly any colour on him but he was huge...
Yes I had one also in my garden down south,hense I knew it instantly as a older plant species..it is a beautiful bush,mine looked like this one below..
the other is this pinnacle hydrangea see it below which had these huge pyramid shaped flower heads in a soft pale green shade its perfect as a vase flower or in a florist bunch..
I had them dried in bunches hanging from a drying rack in my garage which I'd made myself from Kauri plants with manuka branches in between hanging from chains, I still have it and intend to bring it into my kitchen when its finished to hang pots from..and believe it or not I still have 5 bunches of that exact bush flower dried,they have slightly changed colour over the years but I still hold on to the memories of the bush looking at them..this is it below with my fabric poppies in a vase..and growing in someones garden as a hedge its so beautiful..
then the other bush I loved big time was this Viburnum opulus its a shrub or small tree known as the guelder-rose or snowball tree. Similar to the hydrangea but much smaller flower bunches and its unrelated...
I also tried drying these ones, but they dont dry well sadly & just went brown & shriveled..maybe they hold too much water in them IDK??? but it was a total fail on me..
Thank you Vlada, and thank you Julie.
Ahhh yes that's what the bush is Vlada, it was planted as a cutting, I have one in the front garden too but some of the variegation has left the leaves at the back of the bush. I love the deep pink variety you posted. The bees love this bush. When I first had a garden of my own I planted varieties of plants that attract the bees and butterflies
variety of plant ~ medicinal for the roots ~ elecampane....the bees love this plant too....this plant spreads like crazy, the seedlings ending up everywhere and the root tubers grow outwards and form really big clumps. This one lives in my garden at the bottom end where it's quite damp...sloping garden down to the back fence
The Weigela comes in many varieties some variegated some not..dwarfs & bushes too..
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A single thought...a mere whisper, ...... barely upon a breeze that catches a spark... all is tinder before the firestorm... and yet.
ONLY that whisper
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the world is forever changed beyond the fears and dreams of cardboard men.
Freedom and change starts within:
It is encouraged by truth and courage of people who love
Built by the respect of true beings standing as one before each other.
Lets us cross every man made borders
without fear stare into eyes and hearts of all our brothers and sisters: within our words without shouting,or force to hold each to our truths; and let us without fear freely share what works...
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