<p>I’ve already overhauled the bed at the bottom of our driveway since our house is on the market. I have three more Pacific Blue Juniper (a low growing shrub, almost a ground cover) to plant near my pond. (I love the way they soften the edges year round and don’t drop needles in the water.) I’m heading back to the nursery today to see what they got in for the weekend. It is hard for me to restrain myself, despite the fact that we hope to be out of here by the end of the summer. There are a few plants that I plan to mention in any contract as not included in the sale.</p>
<p>Gourmetmom, are you offerings garden tours? Anyone with a conservatory must have magnificent grounds. I would sooo love to see them. hayden, I can visualize your balancing act but can’t even dream of replicating it. No upper body strength here.</p>
<p>BB: you say Molbak’s and a surge of lust goes down my gardening muscles. And I live half a mile from the best nursery in Portland (which is right up there with Molbak’s to be honest). </p>
<p>I have been planting fruit trees in my sidewalk median strip (taking out the grass). I planted five last year–and they’re all blooming!–and five this year–and they’ve all broken cold storage dormancy and look very healthy. I have more blueberries to go in (it’s not possible to have too many blueberries) and more raspberries are coming up where I replaced the sour grapes with raspberries (it is possible to have too many grapes). I also planted a fig tree to replace the one the dogs destroyed.</p>
<p>I have also started the vegetable garden planting. The potatoes are first in, new chive plants, and some lettuces. I’ve begun fantasizing about this year’s tomatoes, of course, but they won’t go in for another month, at least.</p>
<p>Last year I found hanging baskets at the grocery store called Superbells - Lemon Bells. Like a miniature petunia, they bloomed like crazy all summer, self-deadheaded (or did so after giving them a good shake) and generally looked just fabulous from May-October. I’d like to find more of them this year, but I was wondering if anyone has seen seeds for them, because I’d really like to get about a dozen hanging baskets started indoors. I’ve never had a hanging basket behave as nicely as these did despite our dry weather and exuberant sunshine. Anyone else seen them? The lemon yellow looked great against our house; this year I’d like to use them to line both the front and side porches.</p>
<p>dmd77 – Do you have to plant chives every year? Mine overwinter (in Colorado, which gets pretty cold) and come back again early every spring – I’m forever taking them out of places they’ve seeded themselves into where I don’t need chive plants. What I really need is more recipes for chives. Or the ability to sell them at a farmer’s market. Or something.</p>
<p>Chives are great to plant by roses- they deter aphids.
They overwinter here too- I am forever moving them around. I like them in scrambled eggs- but you could use them maybe instead of scallions- like in Chinese scallion pancakes?</p>
<p>I have more blueberries to go in (it’s not possible to have too many blueberries</p>
<p>I agree but my soil is just short of glacial till, I have been amending it for years- it is really a PITA when you can’t afford to do everything at once & have sand for soil ( that is where I don’t have clay) However they are very hardy & getting well established now.</p>
<p>What kind of fruit trees did you plant?
I have an Orcas pear & a Comice, but they are in big pots because I can’t decide where to plant them.
( Our planting strip is about 14’ x 44’ but I planted a scarlet oak in the middle of it years ago, through the Seattle street tree program before I realized I have somewhat of a green thumb. Another section that is underneath the neighbors pin oaks has a native ( well to the east coast) witchhazel, but at the other end I have more sun & thinking about planting a crabapple- I pretty much buy the plants- then I design it :o)</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>arabrab, “Calibrochoa” is what you are looking for.“Superbells”,or the older “Million bells” is a “brand name” cultivar/variety. I see them in my mail order catalogs, but don’t think seeds are available yet.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.greenhousegrower.com/news/?storyid=1803[/url]”>http://www.greenhousegrower.com/news/?storyid=1803</a></p>
<p><a href=“Propagating calibrachoa (million bells)”>http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/propa/msg0710124715550.html</a></p>
<p>I’ve tried Calibrochoa in my patio pots but don’t seem to get enough sun to keep them blooming. Anyone have a foolproof combination for containers set in partial shade to shade and subject to Japanese beetles (which I use chemicals to control)? It’s an uphill battle every summer.</p>
<p>For shade, you can mix all varieties of coleus which will give you a riot of color, or stick to all of the same type mixed with impatiens - the New Guinea type look more exotic. This mixture looks nice with a few ferns mixed in. Very carefree and if you pinch back the coleus, it won’t become too leggy.</p>
<p>Yes, chives come back every year around here. I should have explained that I was planting new because some weird insect infestation got them in the fall–all my chives were eaten to slime–so I pulled all the plants out. I love chives, I have them all over the place. In some places I let them go to blossom/seed as sheer decoration. </p>
<p>A few years back I had a very ugly succulent of some kind–low and vaguely like a dandelion with a disease–that I really liked the look of–it was ugly and warty and bizarre and I thought it was great. I gave the plant away in a move and can’t now remember the name–can anyone help me?</p>
<p>Oh, and fruit trees–nectarines, peaches, plums, cherries, apples, figs. I think I’m going to have to pull out the peaches, they’ve got leaf curl already :-(</p>
<p>Lobelia will grow in some shade. I think the trailing variety is nice in a planter. A little ivy is another way to get something trailing down the sides of a pot or window box.</p>
<p>I’ve had good luck with New Guinea impatiens and Lobelia and will no doubt repeat those. Thanks!</p>
<p>Thanks for the Calibrochoa links, Shrinkwrap. I’ll look around. After many years of having hanging pots that were either a pain or not great looking, it was wonderful to have something that looked so great and behaved so nicely.</p>
<p>dmd77, RE: Peaches. We used to have a commercial peach orchard and were able to control curl with the proper equipment. For backyard peaches, its practically impossible to grow freestone peaches/necterines even with the right chemicals but without the equipment. Curl infection takes place very early in the year, Like Jan. and will manifest itself in the first leafs and continues until the weather dries out. </p>
<p>Some of the newer chems are very powerful and may control curl infection better.</p>
<p>Clingstone peaches such as RedHavens are less suspectible to curl and can be grown fairly easily-I like redhavens they are a fine July-August soft fruit.</p>
<p>Applies to threads that are older than 360 days.
Politicals are OK.</p>
<p>LongPrime: thanks! Strangely, the nectarines are fine but the peaches are going to have to learn to cope or become kindling. I’m not going to use chemicals, I’m way too lazy.</p>
<p>LongPrime, is the Statue of Limitations kind of like that Vegas Statue of Liberty they put on the postage stamp? </p>
<p>Or maybe like the statue of the Venus de Milo, whose limitations are missing arms? ;)</p>
<p>"I think I’m going to have to pull out the peaches, they’ve got leaf curl already 
"</p>
<p>Don’t pull them out unless you don’t like their fruit! They may recover. You only have to spray twice, in the winter, a relatively un-busy time in the garden.My trees are dwarf, and I don’t have any equipment besides my felco pruners.</p>
<p>But figs are much more self sufficient, at least around here,</p>
<p>I never understood fig leafs, the figs we have just aren’t that big.
Grape’s are better.</p>
<p>I thought my pears had fire blight one year- but it was just that they had a late frost.
If they think you are going to toss them- they will recover.</p>