smelled minty when crushed, a single leaf wasn’t foul and I haven’t had any reaction. I don’t remember planting mint there (I remember tarragon and parsley), but I suppose it could have volunteered or I could have forgotten. I’ll pull back the geranium there and see how it does with the strawberries.
oh, and I think trying a small serviceberry in that area I pulled the vinca from. In June once the budget resets.
Anyone plant garlic in the spring? How did it do? I understand normally it’s planted in the fall. This is garlic from my sister’s garden last fall that’s been in the fridge since Easter…over 4 weeks. It has huge cloves! I’d like to propagate the remaining cloves.
We had garlic along the back fence. I’d pull up a bulb a couple times a week for dinner
But I’d suggest grabbing some fresh from a farmers market and planting that, a lot of other stuff will be too old
Last year I did a late winter/early spring planting of garlic. While the grew they didn’t produce massive bulbs due to a lack of time in the ground, so they went back into the ground this year in autumn. They’re all up and happy so far and we’re not into winter…yet.
Managed to clean out the deep bedding in one of the chicken runs today. Over 1m³ of mulch/poop for the compost heap.
Now I have to build more compost bays as I’ve got the second chicken run to clean out and my three new ones I built last week are already full.
They look so neat and tidy!
Dilemma—the back bed we want to clear out for the pollinator garden has a bunch of early flowering weeds (not really sure what they are? I will take a picture today) in it and I don’t want the bees to lose that food source. We’ll be putting in a selection of native plants in mid June so we do have to rip out some hostas and such. But I’m torn about the big purple weedy flowers. I hope the bees forgive me! The long term plan would provide food for several months as things bloom in turn. Maybe I’m overthinking it.
The probably have other food sources and mid June isn’t that far away. I’d want to avoid any possible seeds getting into the dirt because it will cause more work later.
Agree with meercat, there’s a lot of stuff just starting to bloom now, the rhodies just started at my house, as well as those damn invasive bush honeysuckle - don’t feel bad about removing weedy flowers at this point (sounds like some aster like fleabane?)
Hi Garden Chat! I despise gardening, and leave it to everyone else to make beautiful places and grow food…
We want to rip out a ton of sod in our backyard, on a slope, and create garden beds that do not need mowing. To get funding from our city, they need to meet soil management best practices for rain gardens; but I would also like to create pollinator gardens specifically.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a source that would best teach me how to do this? I am going to try to find a landscaper who can create retaining walls for the garden beds; but how do I know what to plant, so that it blooms continuously through the growing season?
Well, TBH it looks like dame’s rocket to me, and if it is, it is listed as invasive in CT (and some other states). There is a lookalike native but I think it blooms later (or I might be getting them mixed up …)
I think you nailed it! Looks like it’s non-native in IL too. I will feel no remorse replacing it with natives. Thank you!
Some state’s agricultural extension have explicit instructions on how to do that (eg construct rain gardens) - I am almost positive that CT does (and I’m sure many other states ag ex do too…) I would start there. Sometimes water districts (especially in dry western regions) have info as well.
Things like this!
Thanks!
I need to read the whole thing, but I’m wondering if it will be possible to do this with a hill. Every photo is flat.
The funding would be nice, but we can only do that if it’s a rain garden. Pollinator beds are all on us.
(We actually already have great drainage/inflitration- our sidewalk is usually dry within a few hours of rainfall. Four houses down they have puddles for days.)
Are you 100% set on doing this yourself? Between the slope + goal for continuous blooming, it would be a not tiny planning task. I’m imagining myself doing this as a new gardener and it would be hard but fine, but I like gardening! I wonder if it would be worth it to outsource.
You can do this on a hill, but you will need to make ponding areas. Terraces would work well. Chapter 3 gives a cross section of a basic rain garden showing how the rain garden section needs to be lower than the surrounding area.
ETA: i could maybe do a sketch for you if you post a layout of your yard?
If I can find a landscaper to do it, I am hoping someone else can build the retaining walls, but we would probably do the planting. I don’t want to spend $30k just to get rid of grass to mow…
The main thing is knowing how to pick plants that will flower in succession for our pollinator friends.
Start with the plants you like and Google when they flower, then find when the gaps will be, and Google “plants that flower in [state] in [month]”. Swimsuits drilling the [state] if you aren’t getting results., Or refining the search for native plants etc. This is how i am building a garden of successively fruiting plants, internet search engines are our friends!
