Gardening- For those who love to grow.

**sumas** · June-10-09, 01:44 AM

Forans might be a possibility. My partner can't work this Friday and Tuesday/Wednesday of next week due to other obligations so I am sadly idled. Are you working any of those days? Also is one or two o'clock too early? What is the closest parking that isn't an arm and a leg?

Barrier contruction works great for plants that spread by root but doesn't help for invasive plants that spread by seed. A great example is my battle with Lillies of the Valley. There is no barrier so I am always fighting them back into place. I know I need to contain them and install a barrier but I never seem to have the time.

**reddog289** · June-10-09, 01:58 AM

I have the same problem with the Lilly of the Valley. I need to control that stuff this year. I never knew the stuff was in front of my house till after I rottotilled. I am having trouble with some chocolate mint I bought, the opposite of the lily deal. It's dead or dormant.Another thing I hear that will spead if you don't watch out.

**jams** · June-10-09, 06:30 AM

I'll be there at 2 every day except Monday.

3 meters in front, and more around the corner on Cadillac Square

**sumas** · June-11-09, 03:36 AM

I know I have recommended staying away from invasive mints but am thinking about planting Corsican Mint as a filler for a wall stone patio. Anyone try this or have comments? I like Wooley Thyme and have good luck with it on commercial jobs but Mom doesn't like green gray plants. In the past, I've used lemon thyme and also Mother of Thyme between the stones but they get too tall and not tidy looking. Right now I have weeds which is definitely ugly and time consuming to remove weekly.

Today was a fun day as a gardener, I installed field stone edging for a customer and it came out great. Most plant/nurseries supply places grade the stones by size but not the place I went to today. I had to climb a mountain of stone and boulders to hand select the stones and sizes I wanted. My partner says she is going to call me the stone warrior or stone woman from now on. Thankfully she didn't have a camera with her. I most likely looked ludicrious on top of that heap.

Jams-I'll get you the raspberry bushes soon. When, I am not working, I maintain two personal properties. So I stay busy! I want to dig the bushes fresh and get them to you. If Friday, Tuesday or Wednesday are inclement you'll see me.

**Dutch** · June-12-09, 01:04 PM

Back to the Euonymous dilemma, I had a row along one side of the garage that became badly infested with scale. A couple of weeks ago I cut them to the ground and burned all the branches. I'm experimenting to see if they grow back from the stumps disease free - has anyone else tried this? - otherwise I'll chop out the stumps and plant something else.

Sumas, I'm doing the rock thing tomorrow. The place I go to has a huge selection of stuff, and I can hand pick what I need to finish up a project I'm working on. I've not tried Corsican mint, I thought it was more of a Zone 6 so I've shied away from it.

Good thread.

**courtney** · June-13-09, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by Dutch

Back to the Euonymous dilemma, I had a row along one side of the garage that became badly infested with scale. A couple of weeks ago I cut them to the ground and burned all the branches. I'm experimenting to see if they grow back from the stumps disease free - has anyone else tried this? - otherwise I'll chop out the stumps and plant something else.

I've heard that going that route will work sometimes but other times they'll just get re-infected as they get larger. I'd maybe try spraying it every couple of weeks with some neem oil - it may help to prevent the scale from recurring.

Summer before last I bought a Euonymus fortunei 'Sarcoxie' which has grown wonderfully. Absolutely no signs of scale [[it's supposedly more resistant than most other Euonymus) but when the little flowers come out this time of year - ick. The flies are more attracted to it than a bag of smelly garbage and every carpet beetle in the state seems to plant themselves on the flowers.

This year, I was late planting everything due to 7 weeks out of state helping my mom after her knee replacement so I won't be having the peas and garlic I wanted. I'm not hopeful for the outcome of the seeds of corn and beans I planted, but I'm hoping the tomato plants I put in will give me something other than last years diseases.

Has anyone had any luck/seen anyone who has had luck getting a crape myrtle to survive and not die back to the ground every year?

**sumas** · June-13-09, 07:11 PM

Courtney, you didn't say what zone you are in. Crape Myrtle isn't zone hardy in #5.

Dutch, I keep looking into your scale problem and not finding great answers. Varigated varieties are more susceptible, there are 5 varieties of scale bugs, dormant oil should be applied in late winter and late summer, the bugs can be airborn and the best treatments are only available to people with IPM liscenses. I am intrigued as to cutting back the plants as a solution. I will keep researching til I get a good answer. A good reminder is to clean cutting tools from shrub to shrub to not transmit disease.

Just completed week #5 selling herbs at West Park Market. I'd never get rich doing this but talking to other gardeners, new and experienced is so much fun. I also get such great recipes using herbs. Just got another today on cooking with Sorrel.

Cute story, last week a potencial customer came up and asked where to find Lillys of theValley. I told her I would dig some from my personal garden for her for free and bring them next week. Another [[very good customer, saw the bags and begged for some) I brought more than one bag so I said sure, take some. Potencial customer showed up and was thrilled I had remembered. She told me friends, relatives and coworkers had promised her cuttings for four years and never delivered. She was thrilled that a "total stranger" had finally delivered.

She also never bothered to look at the product I was selling and made no purchase. Too funny! No good deed goes rewarded.

Also thanks for the heads up on Corsican Mint, it's labeled as a "tender perennial" ie: not zone hardy.

**Dutch** · June-17-09, 03:05 PM

Thanks, courtney and sumas, for sharing your thoughts.

Planted a bed of daylilies near the stone path I just finished. Years ago, we would go to a place on Lahser between Nine and Ten Mile called Hughes Gardens. They had all kinds of plants, but specialized in daylilies and irises. When you arrived they would hand you a chart showing where each variety was, and I could spend hours wandering through the vast plantings studying flower form, color, bloom time, etc. When you decided what you wanted, a worker would grab a shovel and dig up a hunk of the plant, put it in a paper grocery bag, and charge you according to how big a piece they gave you. After old Mr. Hughes died, his son ran the business for a while, then he closed it down. Sigh . . . I miss that place. Now I usually order stuff from catalogues.

**courtney** · June-18-09, 01:17 AM

Originally Posted by sumas

Courtney, you didn't say what zone you are in. Crape Myrtle isn't zone hardy in #5.

I'm in St Clair Shores so it's 6b. I have heard of success of some varieties in other 6b areas but they seemed to have slightly better soil than we've got here. I just don't want it dying back to the ground each year because I want it for the bark, not the flowers so much - not to mention I don't have such a strong love for the shrubby non-tree shaped crape myrtles.

Anyone else having general bug issues big time this year? This has been the worst year for me so far that I've been in Michigan. If I get one more honeylocust plant bug on me I swear I'm going to nuke the damn tree next spring with the most toxic crap I can find and I've been getting way too much joy seeing how many ants and baby crickets [[they destroyed one of my prettiest zinnias last year grrr) I can douse in diatomacious earth. And yet I haven't seen a single ladybug or firefly here yet - just a few fish flies.

**reddog289** · June-20-09, 12:42 AM

Into the 1st night with my new rain barrel, A few bugs to work out yet, I will be happy to put it to use.It is quite full.

**sumas** · June-20-09, 04:47 AM

Aphids have been my bane this year. As to the scale problem, I checked with my partner who is an advanced master gardner, she said its in the soil and plant something else.

You might try cooking your soil this fall. Not everyone has the luxury of rotating crop locations and so fungus and disease can over winter. To cook the soil, use plastic landscape rolls, anchor with rocks or spikes and I cover with mulch for aethtic look. Remove plastic in spring. Up side, it kills bad bacteria and fungus, down side, is it kills benneficials too. So you have to amend soil with compost etc.

My personal garden is mostly perennials and flowering shrubs but I do a lot of pots hanging or other wise of annuals for extended color. Mostly, I've been doing it this year on the cheap but I did do three pots of creative plantings [[I used to be a florist). All the colors in them are foliage only plants although in one I did some diamond frost as an accent.

**reddog289** · June-26-09, 12:29 AM

I must be jinxed or be glad we got plenty of rain.My rain barrel has bugs to be worked out.Yet I plan to have another online by the end of the month.I myself would never imagined that you could get so involved into planting a garden.

**jams** · June-28-09, 06:51 PM

I myself would never imagined that you could get so involved into planting a garden.

I'm sitting in my garden right now, enjoying the scents of those flowers that started out as tiny little seeds just a couple of months ago wafting over me and watching a bee busily moving from flower to flower on some amazingly huge tomato plants that had looked so tiny and frail just a month ago.

No matter how bad my day was in the "productive" world, my garden is my refuge where sanity prevails and nature's laws rule.

**reddog289** · June-28-09, 11:01 PM

Thats the good thing about gardens they sorta draw your attention away from other deals.But there are times when I look at my garden and say where is my lawn?.OH WELL at least I got some peas already.

**jams** · June-29-09, 08:01 AM

.But there are times when I look at my garden and say where is my lawn?.

That is the thing I enjoy about my backyard, three very small patchs of lawn to pull up a chair and enjoy lots of veggies, herbs, and flowers. This morning, in my wild flower bed some new flowers bloomed, I've no idea yet what they are, but just the idea they are there makes my world more tolerable.

And I hope your peas were as good as mine.

cheddar bob · June-29-09, 03:55 PM

Slugs are laying waste to my hostas. Fuckers. I'll fix their wagons.

cheddar bob · June-29-09, 04:19 PM

What the hostas looked like before. They don't look so well now...

**alsodave** · June-29-09, 04:40 PM

Morning glories and grapevines are trying to take over one corner of the yard. Of the three neighbors next to us, two do great jobs with keeping up with their yards. You can guess where the invaders are coming from...

**jams** · June-29-09, 06:51 PM

Put a bit of beer into a small tuna or cat food can and bury it so the top is about 1" above the soil near the hostas, slugs, like certain forumers, love beer, but at least the slugs drown.

cheddar bob · June-29-09, 07:53 PM

Originally Posted by jams

Put a bit of beer into a small tuna or cat food can and bury it so the top is about 1" above the soil near the hostas, slugs, like certain forumers, love beer, but at least the slugs drown.

Yeah, I already did that. I hated to waste a beer on them, but I didn't have any old beer left in the empties. It was just Bud Light, though. I also put salt on them when I found them. Hope the salt doesn't hurt the plants.

Gardening is pretty difficult when you have about 150 different plants in your yard and you don't know anything about plants.

**reddog289** · June-29-09, 11:26 PM

I was gonna say try the beer in the cup method of trying to catch slugs. I caught more slugs in a couple of buckets of water the with the beer. Slugs must be beer snobs. As for my peas they were better before they got overcooked.Good off the vine though.

**eriedearie** · June-29-09, 11:32 PM

I'm just gonna throw this out here - one of my grandmothers always washed dishes in a dish pan. When she was finished she would take that pan of soapy water and fling it over the porch railing onto her flower bed. She never had any problems with bugs or anything on those plants. And had the nicest flowers.

When I water our outdoor hanging baskets I put a drop or two of dish washing liquid into the watering can and we don't have any problems with bugs.

It may work on your hostas - give it a try Cheddar

cheddar bob · June-30-09, 12:06 AM

Originally Posted by eriedearie

I'm just gonna throw this out here - one of my grandmothers always washed dishes in a dish pan. When she was finished she would take that pan of soapy water and fling it over the porch railing onto her flower bed. She never had any problems with bugs or anything on those plants. And had the nicest flowers.

When I water our outdoor hanging baskets I put a drop or two of dish washing liquid into the watering can and we don't have any problems with bugs.

It may work on your hostas - give it a try Cheddar

I did that yesterday, too. I checked my beer traps tonight and one of them caught 7 slugs and had a couple more drinking out of it. The other one wasn't full enough because the foam had gone down. I had to open a beer to fill it, so it gave me an excuse to drink the rest of it [[like I've ever needed an excuse).

**Maxine1958** · June-30-09, 01:08 PM

Originally Posted by cheddar bob

I did that yesterday, too. I checked my beer traps tonight and one of them caught 7 slugs and had a couple more drinking out of it. The other one wasn't full enough because the foam had gone down. I had to open a beer to fill it, so it gave me an excuse to drink the rest of it [[like I've ever needed an excuse).

The soapy bath should work on all but the most determined bugs. When my moss roses came under attack a few years ago by some sort of bug that ate holes clean through all the buds, I tried the soap bath. That slowed them down but didn't stop them completely. Some one recommended adding a cayenee pepper to the cocktail. End of the boring bugs. Again, this is a cheap solution so even if it doesn't work, you're not out a bunch of money for insecticide.

Good Luck!

**jams** · July-05-09, 09:25 PM

Just wanted to share this piece:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/200...ing/index.html

It brought up several salient points.

I garden not because it is a "cool" thing to do, or to save vast amounts of money by not giving my money to the chains for my tomatoes, or to make a political statement, I simply have gardened for over 20 years simply because I enjoy it.

I bought my first house in Detroit, with almost a half-acre lot in Old Redford in 1981. One of my neighbors taught herbal gardening, my other neighbor tapped the sugar maples in the area in the spring and made his own syrup and sugar, and the old Italian guy behind me taught me about the best way to plant escarole and peppers.

I learned a bit about mixing cow manure and peat moss with the soil before planting tomatos will increase the yield from these people [[BTW my Beefmaster tomato plants now exceed 5 feet tall following their advice).

Gardening, I believe, is one of the best teachers of patience available, one cannot rush nature to fit a schedule, but it has given me many pleasurable surprises.