Blueberries -most berries actually, need acidic soil with good drainage.
I have pretty sandy soil, and it is certainly acidic due to the amount of rain, but I also incorporated a great deal of organic matter- peat as well as mushroom compost and manure.
If it is just sand, they can’t absorb nutrients/water.
I live in an old house in the city & when we moved in our yard was grass with a few foundation plantings that were common but non native ( and not my favorite)
I have kept a couple of the camellias, ( but their day will come), but removed all the lawn, English holly/laurel/ivy.
The deciduous & evergreen huckleberries, I have planted from 4" starts, from the native plant group I belong to. Smaller is usually better, & they have grown quickly. The evergreen huckleberries, I’ve planted in the ground, but the deciduous huckleberries, I have growing in stumps, that were rescued from a neighbors yard.
I am so ready to get my tomatoes in, but I am going to wait just a little.
Poppies usually do pretty well, they are a self seeding annual. Not familiar with with growing red poppies, just that they take a good 20 days to germinate, so don’t mistake them for a weed!
I think this year may 1st is going to be a stretch, given how crappy this weather is, snow on the first day of Spring is not a good thing…:(. Going to plant our seedlings in our window this weekend. I have to laugh on the radio when they have these ads for lawn care products, yeah, going to seed and fertilize through the snow…
We are finally reaping what we sowed last April. Ripped out the grass in our front yard and had a professional horticulturist design and plant a drought tolerant garden. We have already cut back on our water usage by 40% and the garden is a riot of color and texture… No more bills from the gardener (sorry Jose) since all we now need to do is pull the occasional weed.
To you So Cal planters…check with your water district on rebates. Pasadena is paying $1 and Los Angeles $2 per square foot of grass that is torn out and replanted with drought tolerant plants. Be sure and check out what sort of documentation is required. Both programs also have caps. Pasadena’s is $2500.
Weekends have been busy for me lately, causing a “procrastination attack” and neglect of my garden preparation.
Finally got my seeds into starter cups a couple of days ago. Next thing to do is to mix my soil amendments and fill the containers. Got plenty of composted manure. Will add azomite in the mix and put some bone meal in the holes when it’s time to transfer the seedlings to the pots. Had a big problem with blossom end rot on my tomato plants last year, as well as brown patches on the chili peppers, which might have been caused by a calcium deficiency, hence the bone meal.
Gophers ate my drought tolerant groundcover. I don’t even feel like replacing it because I know they would just eat it. I’m thinking about putting in bark. My neighbor two doors down doesn’t water, doesn’t do anything and has red apple exploding over the sidewalk. I’m thinking maybe the gophers don’t eat that? What do you think? Should I try red apple? (succulent groundcover - not apple trees)
My brother-in-law, whose lawn was under gopher attack for years, only defeated them after paving the entire area and decorating it with large but stand-alone containers. His neighbors did the same. I know it’s probably not what you want to hear, PhotoOp.
A friend has a lot of starter plants she has ready for me to pick up but it is definitely too early to pot them and put them on my deck. Should I just keep them inside in a sunny spot until they are ready to be transplanted?
Bougainvillea doesn’t need water to survive. We had to pull 2 out and dump them, very invasive. The next one is honeysuckle, a pest in the south. Only water them initially but once it starts going, it’s like a weed.
Tiny fruit on our lemon, lime, orange and grapefruit trees. Looking like it may be a good year. Tomatoes and peppers have blossoms already. Green bean plants are a foot tall. Herbs are full and bushy. Ah, Texas Gulf Coast!
So I’m bragging today, but in July when it is all burned up, you northerners will be enjoying homegrown tomatoes and sweet corn.
I have my first little green tomato! One plant I haven’t grown before is growing like crazy - Japanese Black Truffle tomato. The Swiss chard exploded in the last week too.
Went to my community garden meeting last night. We learned about bugs. Was able to pick up some free plants - 2 broccoli, 2 kale and 2 something else I can’t remember! They also are nice enough to share lots of seeds.
I’m in NW Ohio - I garden a raised bed at this community garden and then will do some herbs at home. Hoping to go and turn over my mulch/soil later this week and maybe throw some cold weather plants in. May is a bigger planting month for me. SO excited!
I used to have some nice blueberries and raspberries, but then my neighbors trees got too big. I must be the only person wishing for trees to fall down in wind storms. (As long as they don’t hit anything.)
We got the crocus in time for the holidays, now we are finally getting daffodils. I think this is the latest they have ever come up. My garden looks so bare I went and got a flat of pansies. My back yard is seriously depressing - it’s one big brown expanse. I can’t do anything to it until the guys finally come back and finish our porch and we redo the driveway with grass pavers.
It looks like only the chives and the lemon thyme managed to overwinter this year, so I’ll have to get new plants soon.
My peas went in mid-March. I have my seedlings on a warm mat and under grow lights now. We haven’t grown from seed in a few years. I have marked in a calendar the earliest date to plant, which I believe is around May 20th. I have a pretty large garden, with built in sprinklers and sandy soil. I do veggies and herbs. I hate buy herbs in the winter from the grocery store…
I worked in my gardens yesterday (it was 75 and sunny) cutting back my ornamental grass and cutting dead branches from the dogwood bushes. Looks like the winter was really hard on my rose bushes. I’m hoping there are enough branches on each one still alive that they will come back. Will just have to wait and see. I see lots of shoots poking through on all of my perennials and the buds on my flowering bushes are getting nice and big. I love this time of year where every day I go out and see another plant showing signs of life.
I cut my roses way, way back in late February (the time to do it here). They apparently hadn’t been pruned in years. I was worried, but they’ve all come back and most of them are blooming already. Roses have amazing powers in rejuvenating!
I need a fenced veggie garden. I built raised beds & they have greens and potatoes. But I want a bigger protected area for veggies.
I also have strawberry pots and hanging baskets.
The dog has been aiming at the strawberry pots.
It took me a while to identify the culprit.
I’m ordering starts from Mini. Tomatoes, peppers & melons.
Some of the tomatoes are even container friendly, so I can have them in front of the garage where the dog can’t go.
My perennials are doing great. I have English and Virginia bluebells & the hosta are up. I pruned the berries, and have dug & redistributed lots of the English bluebells.
Enough procrastination, now back to the taxes.
Was able to pick up some free plants - 2 broccoli, 2 kale and 2 something else I can’t remember! They also are nice enough to share lots of seeds.