<p>My Blenheim apricot tree is blooming for the first time ( after maybe 5 years)!</p>
<p>i just left the gap open until this spring… decided that the pickings at the garden centers were too slim and that I would do better this spring. </p>
<p>Spring is definitely on the way here on the central coast of California. I was checking out the cherry trees today and the buds are swelling. The daffodils are in full swing (along with a couple of really confused irises. </p>
<p>The garden continues to evolve and the mega rose bed got bigger with a few new plants in January. I decided that the bed needed to wrap around the corner so that I couldn’t see the end when I was sitting on the little patio. so that meant a lot of digging and a few new roses along with space for more plants in a month or two.</p>
<p>I also, for the first time in years, shovel pruned a few plants. It was hard to do - but two years of nothing from those plants meant it was time to go… Hopefully the replacements will do better.</p>
<p>I just planted my first batch of tomato seedlings. I hope they survive. I’m going to plan my strawberry beds tomorrow. I have bluebells, daffodils, freesias for Spring flowers.</p>
<p>
Yup, tomatoes going in here tomorrow. Peas are already 8" tall and should bloom in a week or so, won’t be long before they are in the salad. Daffodils - they, like the almond trees and star magnolia are already finished blooming. </p>
<p>Ah, spring…</p>
<p>Nothing here, but maybe when we return from Mexico in a week, something will be popping up through the ground.</p>
<p>I did manage to work outside for a couple of hours the other day, cleaning out some beds… am hoping to do a little at a time so it doesn’t all seem so overwhelming when the warm weather really hits.</p>
<p>My absolute favorite annual is gomphrena (buddy purple) and I thought this spring I would try to start some from seed; however, being out of town, it will be late March before I can start them, so it may be too late. I like to get them in the ground in mid to late May if the weather looks appropriate. I want to plant more than usual this year, and buying the plants in pots adds up.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I discovered the rabbits have been using more than one area of our yard for their ‘business’ this winter. Goal this year… get all gaps under fences/gates filled in so that rabbits cannot get in our yard anymore. We have a vicious cycle going on… my dog is on prescription only food, and the only ‘treats’ (human food) she can have is carrots and green beans. So she gets carrots. So I’m guessing the dog poop (with some undigested bits of carrot) are attracting the bunnies. So they eat the carrots out of the dog poop, then the dog eats the rabbit turds, which I’m sure she can smell carrots in. Like I said, vicious cycle. At least the dog isn’t eating her own poop.</p>
<p>TMI (Too much information… smile?)</p>
<p>Can you really keep rabbits out?</p>
<p>Yup, tomatoes going in here tomorrow.</p>
<p>so do you rotate where you plant the tomatoes?
I won’t even be thinking about tomatoes for months- it snowed here in Seattle today.
:p</p>
<p>Well, I ordered my veg seeds yesterday–decided to go mostly heirloom/non-hybrid. Except doing hybrid and heirloom tomatoes/peas/lettuce/beans. </p>
<p>Then the Wayside catalog came and I’m back into the drooling over ornamentals. I haven’t grown vegs since the first summer here (1994) when the critters ruined everything. I have developed quite a flower garden since then. I now specialize in frangrant plants/shrubs. So I’m drooling over daphne, clethra, etc. pictures. I bought my flower seeds last summer, but have many self-seeding Grandmas garden annuals. I’m planning on interplanting vegs in the flower beds. The soil is so wonderful. I do, however, have a large area staked out for a typical organic garden plot. Here in Western PA Zone 5–no daffodils flowering yet!! Had school delays last week due to below freezing wind chills, lol.</p>
<p>teriwtt - I’ll put off reading the rest of your post until I’ve finished brunch . . . </p>
<p>scualum - shovel pruning is tough. In fact, my biggest gardening vice is developing a “personal relationship” with the plants. I’m just not strong enough about giving up on a plant that’s not working, or pruning enough when those tender little shoots start to come out. I will have to resolve to grit my teeth, and move on from that spindly little plant that just isn’t pulling its weight, probably because I didn’t fertilize it enough, or I put it in the wrong spot so it isn’t getting enough sun, or I didn’t prepare its bed properly . . . there I go trying to rationalize giving the poor thing another chance.</p>
<p>hayden, I have a 3-year rule. If you don’t impress me within the first 3 years, you’re outta here. No exceptions. :)</p>
<p>dsc6, is it possible to get free shipping from Wayside Gardens? I’ve checked out every coupon code website without luck. Last weekend, I had entered a huge order on their website but when I saw that the shipping would be $43, I canceled it.</p>
<p>My take on Wayside Gardens and Whiteflower Farm is that the varieties you can get are worth the shipping. I don’t order things from them I can get elsewhere. </p>
<p>Last year I couldn’t get daphne or clethra anywhere, even at the high-end nursery in my area. </p>
<p>I don’t do my usual plant-three-at-a-time rule, though, with perennials from those mags. I plant one and be patient. Eventually divide it.</p>
<p>Only thing I have ever ordered by mail has been bulbs and that has been a while.
I bought some stuff when I visited D in Portland- great nurseries there- of course we have lots to choose from in the Puget Sound area too.</p>
<p>but no more snow! :p</p>
<p>well, I’d tell you all about how I have no luck with bulbs… due to rabbits… but you’ve made it pretty clear that you don’t want to hear about my bunny problems ;)</p>
<p>Rabbits can be kept out - it’s called a golden retriever…</p>
<p>and why not a miniature schnauzer?</p>
<p>I can tell you that German shepherds do not help with the bunny problem. I wish I had a video camera handy when one morning I saw a fat cottontail peacefully grazing next to our dog who was catching some zzz in the middle of the backyard lawn.</p>
<p>I tried many things to deter the pests from eating my veggies with mixed results. Finally, this year I bought some sturdy chicken wire and can’t wait for the spring to make up its mind (it snowed agan today - yikes) so I can erect the Great Wall of Chickenwire around my vegetable patch.</p>
<p>Around here that “Great Wall of Chickenwire” has to extend 8 to 10 inches underground because of gophers. I actually use what’s called rabbit fence. It’s welded wire with half inch spacing at the bottom gradually increasing to 3" spacing at the top, all coated in green plastic so it doesn’t look too offensive. Every four or five years a wild boar cruises through and totally destroys that fence and everything in the garden, and I swear each time to replace it with what’s called pig fence… Very ugly, industrial grade, includes strands of barbed wire strands near the bottom and underground. It’s expensive and and has to be strung tight and well supported to deter a boar, so it hasn’t happened, yet…</p>
<p>teriwtt:</p>
<p>Having had both Sam (the miniature schnauzer I grew up with) and Rocky (the Golden Retriever that we have now), I can assure you that either would chase a rabbit but Rocky has a much higher probability of making sure the rabbit doesn’t return!!! He is without a doubt the fastest big dog I have ever seen - and he loves to chase. Never catches anything but that doesn’t seem to matter :)</p>
<p>As for gophers, the answer is the blackbox</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Victor 0625 The BlackBox Gopher Trap: Patio, Lawn & Garden](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBMFDO/ref=asc_df_B000FBMFDO736604?smid=A165HF78ROWQQM&tag=dealt10320-20&linkCode=asn]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBMFDO/ref=asc_df_B000FBMFDO736604?smid=A165HF78ROWQQM&tag=dealt10320-20&linkCode=asn)</p>
<p>I started off with gophers everywhere - and after three years of using these traps, I no longer have gophers. PM me for details - but you need two of them as you set them back to back. (I actually have 6 as I had a big problem)</p>
<p>Lol, Bunsen, after all, none of your sheep are missing!</p>
<p>I guess there are some perks to having a city garden after all.
As long as I don’t try to grow pumpkins in the planting strip ( where the rodentia would find them), I don’t have a huge problem with wildlife.
- someone* is feeding the squirrels peanuts though & I know they don’t live at my house.</p>