Your summer garden plans?

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally Posted by carnation

This year I'm trying a moongarden. It'll have plants that are fragrant at night, mostly white ones, and we're planting them right off the deck area. Actually, the deck was crushed by a tree last week (thank God I hadn't put the plants in yet) but the new deck is already in, so here we go today!

This is the first year that I've tried heliotrope.

We have a couple of those that we put in pots and allow to wrap around the deck railing. We love them!! My husband built an arbor a few weeks ago and we are putting some more in. I would recommend that you buy them from a nursery. They take a LONG time to get going from seed and they dont always transfer very well...at least not in our experience.

[ree-Xi]

I never have anything to talk about garden-wise. But this year, we are getting the back of the land cleared out (it has underbrush and weeds) and I am going to attempt to grow pumpkins and sunflowers. I don't have a green thumb and am allergic to bees, so I have to be careful, but I have wanted a pumpkin patch for years. We're finally getting my holly bushes planted in the front this year, too. I never thought I'd be excited about landscaping or planting things, but I guess this is what a grown-up does!

[honeychile]

I'm going to try to make my yard appealing to a potential buyer. Unfortunately, the borough won't let me use napalm on the back yard.

[PhoenixAzul]

I have a small concrete postage stamp they shamefully call a "patio", and I think I'm going to get some containers and see what I can make grow.

I really want fingerling potatoes, the Ozette variety. They're super tasty. I think if I get a big enough pot, it will work.

I'm going to get a tomato plant or two, and a jalapeno plant. Also; basil. Because what doesn't taste good with fresh basil?

I figure I can get some cheap containers from somewhere, buy some dirt and have at it and maybe be out $40, and if it works, then woohoo!

[aephi alum]

I haven't decided what to do this year. We have a huge deer population around here, which poses major problems.

I still have my faithful chives that have come back year after year for, what, 12 years now?

A couple of days ago, I sprayed my flowering plants with deer repellent. This includes azaleas, rhododendrons, and hydrangea. My lady's mantle is also poking through. I want to put down some daffodils and lily-of-the-valley this fall.

For veggies and herbs, I'm restricted to container gardening because of the deer. I've grown tomatoes and cucumbers, and I get so many that they rot on the vine. So I'm thinking of being Queen of Herbs this year, with maybe a tomato plant or two and a cucumber plant or two.

Note to self: Visit nursery next weekend.

[carnation]

Yeah! The new wisteria that got clobbered by the falling tree ('Blue Moon', supposedly blooms 3 times a year) is going to make it! Other shrubs we've put in include 2 hydrangeas ('Invincibelle'), a beautyberry, and a rhododendron.

I bought purple heliotrope plants from a nursery, couldn't find white, and they're going on the deck rail. My husband has also put the Confederate Jasmine on a trellis over there.

[WCsweet<3]

Bump!

As the apartment we moved into in October has a huge deck and faces West, I am actually planting containers this year. I've never had a garden, sunlight, or good enough soil for a garden. Starting with gerbera daisies, tomatoes, dahlinova, gaillardias, and calibrachoa. Now if only I knew how I wanted to organize them.

[carnation]

I want to try a raised garden this summer. With all the water woes we've had, it could mean a lot more vegetables for us. However, we always have an oversupply of tomatoes and hot peppers and I'll bite my husband in the leg if he brings in another plant of either of those.

The only hydrangeas that have thrived around here the past few summers have been the old varieties; the new ones can't take the heat.

[AOIIalum]

Originally Posted by carnation

The only hydrangeas that have thrived around here the past few summers have been the old varieties; the new ones can't take the heat.

I desperately want hydrangeas but doubt I could make them survive and thrive up here. Grrrr.

I've had a lovely flat of impatiens to plant for two weeks, but the thought of planting them makes every joint in my body ache. Tomorrow, maybe tomorrow!

[IrishLake]

We planted our veggie garden. Early girl, Big boy, Harlequin, White, Pink, and cherry red tomato plants. Jalepeno, Habanero, Green bell, red bell, purple bell, Hungarian hot wax and sweet banana pepper plants. Some zuchinni, watermelon and eggplant, plus the strawberries we transplanted from our old house. Mulched in the flowerbeds as well. Put some plant food on the roses. The knockout rose bush is exploding right now, it looks awesome! Wish I had something to do with that (new house). I'm trying really hard NOT to kill the beautiful rose bushes. Put in 4 different varieties of petunias, geraniums, gerber daisies, marigolds (in the veggie garden to help attract bees), begonias, dalias, salvia, and snap dragons in the hanging baskets and flower beds.

I'm all gardened out right now. Just have to keep on top of the weeds.

[carnation]

Our plums, blackberries, and raspberries are fruiting now. So happy!

[PGD-GRAD]

It has been such a wild year weather-wise in Indiana this year I don't know what to expect yard-wise. It was actually 80 degrees one day in March! Anyway, EVERYTHING is blooming at least a month ahead of schedule. Our clematis are nearly done (usually bloom through the end of June), our coral bells are nearly done--began in April rather than May, our roses are blooming like they do in July, our peonies have been gone for over two weeks--used to still be blooming well after Memorial Day, our iris are bloomed and gone, our daylillies have been blooming for weeks and--our hostas are HUGE--some as big as bushel baskets--I will need to divide them this fall!

Nothing died out, including the weeds! Memorial Day weekend was the hottest on record (at least for the Indy 500), and I had to water the flowers every night; our geraniums and petunias in pots would be dead had I not. I would like to plant a flowering dogwood now that I have a spot for it, but I think I should wait until fall.

Crazy warmer-than-usual winters and period of extreme drought and then rain play havoc with gardening these days. We really had no true winter and have gone right into summer with maybe a week of spring. I guess we will just settle back and see how the summer plays out. I do know this--I bought some New Guinea impatiens baskets--beautiful but very thirsty!

[carnation]

Oh, we had little to no winter either; I really thought it would affect fruit set but we've had good crops. Almost everything has bloomed and/or fruited 2-3 weeks ahead of time. Usually our yard smells like honeysuckle and privet by graduation week (a week ago) but all that flowered in April. I'm wondering if anyone will have daylilies flowering after the middle of June.

In good news; I won a $25 gift certificate from my favorite garden center! Though I'd love to get more plants, I should really get fertilizer or maybe some plant supports.

Can anyone recommend a good crabgrass killer?

[honeychile]

Anyone harvesting yet?

[carnation]

So far, only the berries and plums plus now tomatoes. My husband is trying one of those upside-down tomato planters.