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Must have missed the fertilizer joke. Is the husband chopped up for the fertilizer on top, or is he placed whole, 6 ft. under; or did he just miss his last two therapy sessions and now no one can find him? Because, no one has done any gardening since halloween.
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No planting irises today or possibly tomorrow too. Rain, rain and snow in the mountains. Poor Tiger Kitty wants out so bad. I opened the patio door and he goes out on the covered patio, he sits looks at the grass then back in the house and eventuaaly comes back in the house, lol!!
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We had our first frost last night and this morning. It is soooo lovely! But it's such a reminder that the colder days are coming. I guess we gardeners always think we have more time, then suddenly it's just too late.

I was thinking of you and all your bulbs as I remembered a few times when I bought so many bulbs I was still planting around Thanksgiving. I learned my lesson, though.

Sharyn, is your cat an outdoor cat, or does he just go out occasionally?
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No frost here as yet.. we are still averaging 60 -65 daytime. We did have a couple lows of 37-38.

I had a break in the rain around 3:pm so i did plant around 70 bulbs.soil here is very sandy so very easy to do to...about 30 minutes total.

This bed has drip irrigation. There is good points and bad to having sandy soil. Lacks organic matter which is added as compost andy it dries
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Out quick. Drip irrigation helps.
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I thought my dibble had been lost. Knew it was in the garage, then they brought more things to go in there. One of the things they brought was the under box spring supports that attach to the bed rails on a king size bed. Kinda need those for the new bed coming tomorrow.

And I spotted the dibble! It is beautiful, painted with flower design down the wooden handle. Will try to pull it out tomorrow and take a picture of it.
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Glad, so many surprises to come, hoping they are happy. It has been more than one move where we had to put the mattress and box spring on the floor, waiting for the frame to show up. Will you have help tomorrow? Wait for it.
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Moving, in remembrance, is my favorite thing to do!! What a jaunt down memory lane for me! Thanks Glad!!!
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We have a frost warning in effect until tomorrow afternoon. We go from warm to cold in just one day around here. It happens every year like that, lol!!
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Sun today. Garden is still looking good as I sit on the porch.
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we had cloud cover until early afternoon. Breezy and in the upper 50's but still a beautiful day.
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The dibble.
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Glad, that looks like a really good one with a thick post, high enough that you don't have to bend over, as planting bulbs can be pretty rough on the back.
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The handle is probably 3/4" and about three feet long, then the blade another foot. Best way to garden IMHO is sit in the dirt and scoot along on your back side. That is what I usually do, I am too high from ground, so a long way to bend over for me which is really hard on my back.
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I thought dibbles were used to push into the soil, extract a ball or circle of soil large enough to insert a bulb, drop the bulb in, then release the soil back on top of it. If it's 3' tall, would that work for you? Somehow the idea of scooting along getting your clothes filled with dirt doesn't seem like such a great way of planting!
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GA, my favorite gardening clothes are my favorite cut off blue jeans. That is what they are made for aren't they? Scooting around in the dirt... I knew I kept cutting off jeans for a reason. Up close and personal with my gardens. Reclamation in the spring.
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Glad, yes, "up close and personal" is the only way to garden. Some gardeners I know even garden barefooted.


On another subject: has anyone made trellises from vines in their yard? I'm thinking of a combination of grapevines and honeysuckle vines, but wonder if they're strong enough.

The older, thicker vines might be, or could be if wrapped together in a doubling effect. Or what I might do is use tree limbs for the vertical posts and vines for the horizontals, which don't have to be as strong.

Any suggestions?
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Garden Artist, I can see you are looking for natural support trellis' for your vines. We do not have that luxury here, and I plan to make the vines (cape honeysuckle and jasmine) live there forever. Looking around, all vines up trellises have fallen over or had to be cut down entirely. Building strong supports, adding vinyl lattice. May not be the most natural earthy way to go, but it is looking cute/country cottage-style so far. I like white or taupe lattices.
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We have an over abundance of bamboo. I never do it, but have alwats thought weaving that would make a great trellis. Btw, bamboo is prohibited locally, or something, this must be granfathered in. We tried to cut it down, take out roots, but it came right back. It makes a good privacy screen along the back yard, but also a fire hazard.
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Instead of a flat wall of trellis, I imagine a small square or rectangle shape arbor to grow the vines up on two-three sides, sitting under that shade in the summer, avoiding bees.
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I think you could make something that would last a season or two, but if you want to grow perennial climbers or even heavy annuals I would opt for something more sturdy. I'm cheap, so I have made trellises and garden supports out of all kinds of scrap lumber and metal, but they have always just been short term solutions.
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Sorry to be so long in thanking you for comments and suggestions.

SendMe,

As to intent and background: My yard is long and narrow close to the end of the block; there are 5 neighbors on the N side, 2 on the E side, and one, an abandoned house, on the S side. It's part of the N side and the S side that I want to block off, and create privacy fences through trellises. I've priced actual fences, and it's a bit more than I want to spend for a place I want to leave in a few years. When my father's gone, I have no reason whatsoever to stay in this area.

I do have honeysuckle, and some of the older vines are thick enough to be used in a trellis, but I don't think they're stand alone vines or have the strength support that would be needed for that, but they could provide lovely, fragrant covers.

I do understand that most bamboos are invasive, but as I recall from a previous discussion on another forum, there is one variety that's not. That's an excellent suggestion.

I would check with the Michigan DNR to make sure the variety isn't invasive, but frankly I don't think they do anything about nonnative invasive if they're not on public property. One of the neighbors has a black locust which is very invasive and nothing's been done about it, even by the city.


CWillie,

Sturdiness is one of my concerns. I have visions of peacefully hoeing one warm sunny day and suddenly having a whole trellis collapse on me.

What I probably would do is plant morning glories, my favorite vining crop, as well as beans and peas and possibly some other annual viners. I might even run strings down to the ground to channel some of the weight off the verticals.

Using scrap wood was my intention as I don't want to put a lot of money into a place where I don't plan to stay.

I was thinking of wood trunks of at least 2 -3" in diameter for the verticals, and even just string from one vertical to another but preferably other branches trimmed from the many vigorous and unwanted trees in the area. I was thinking of weaving the horizontals into the verticals in a wattle style.

When you plant yours, do you support the trunks in any way, such as staking them to posts in the ground, or planting them in cement? I want to avoid the latter, as I really don't want to go to the trouble of creating fence posts along the long property border.

The use of metal is something I've considered, but thought generally in terms of PVC b/c it's white and wouldn't be as visible as something darker. However, I've read that there's a powder type dust used as a finisher that can be toxic, so I'd need to do more research on that.
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Garden Artist, here is the take it with you method: Create a 'fence' with those huge nursery boxes they grow trees in, plant anything to make it private. The boxes can be purchased empty.
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Welcome to the forum, David. Perhaps you could tell us a bit about your gardening efforts. Do you grow veggies, flowers, herbs?
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Garden, I don't how long you need this fence to be but a relatively cheap and easy way is to use metal T posts abs wire fencing. The post are 4 to 6 feet tall and can be easily driven into the ground. The wire fencing comes in rolls and there are a few different gauges. I use lots of the stuff for pastures and string elevtical fence on it, but I also use it for a dog run in the back yard and planted some ivy which is now beginning to climb up and hid the fence. You can get the stuff at tractor supply or any farm store.
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Sorry, I haven't been checking here. I find the most difficult part of putting up a fence is digging the post holes, you either need to rent an auger or know a farmer who has one and is willing to do you a favour. And the hand held ones at the rental places are not a one person do-it-yourself project. While simple round cedar fence posts are fairly inexpensive and may be more visually appealing, Windy's suggestion of using metal T posts is more practical. Perhaps if you used the metal posts for structural strength you could then compromise by using the vines etc as the cross pieces or weave them through wire fencing to make it more visually appealing in the off seasons. I brought a few 5" sections of woven wire fencing with me when I moved to town, I wish I would have had room for the whole roll, it is wonderfully useful!
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SendMe, that's a good idea. The pots would keep the plant somewhat rootbound, or act like a large bonsai pot. I might even add casters and put it on patio stones so I can move it around.

Windy, the fence would be roughly 250' long, if I decide to only fence in 2 sides.

I never thought about the T posts; I have them for laundry lines, and they're quite sturdy. I'm trying to picture how fencing would be strung - would it wrap around the posts, or just be run in front of or behind the posts? If fencing is anchored to the posts, how is that done?

Willie, my father had us help dig holes with the old post hole digger decades ago. I wasn't very fond of it then and would be less so now. I like the idea though of using the T posts for strength, then using the vines for more extensive cover.

I envision "T's" with hanging morning glory vines - they could also follow wires or even heavy string from one post to the next. With the portable pots for larger shrubs, or even more posts, I could just move then with me when I go, but they'd also serve as landscaping variety since they'd hold bushes that I don't want to grow too large.

And if the posts aren't anchored in cement, I can take them with me with I leave.

Thanks for the good suggestions. As many times as I've passed the T posts in my yard, I never even considered them.
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Garden, they make wire clips to attached wire fencing to one side of the posts. You buy the wire fencing in rolls, attach the beginning of the roll to the first post and just keep rolling it along and attaching it to the posts. You could also use plastic zip ties. If the fence is not use to keep critters contained you could use cheap chicken wire type stuff or buy aluminum electric fence wire, run as many strands as you need for your plants to climb on. You could probably place your posts about 8 to 12 ft apart depending on what you are planting. If you use lots of t posts get a driver. Just a pipe with handles that slides over the post. Much easier than a sledge hammer.
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Anyone receive the 2016 gardening catalogues yet?
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My irises are coming up!!!' Yay!!' We are getting g a lot of rain here in the valley and snow in the Sierra's. The reality of it all will become clear if we continue getting rain and snow after the New Year.
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