Anyone else garden? Part 2

Kat, I don't know anything about cultivating irises but I think I have mentioned on here before that I have some, which my parents planted over 50 years ago. They are almost impossible to kill. I don't cultivate them at all. I even dug some up and threw them out in the pasture and they took root and spread. They've been mowed, trampled by cows, turned totally brown and almost disappeared from drought. A few always bloom. Give them some good rains and they'll all perk right up! Maybe mine have just gotten tough from decades of neglect and abuse, I don't know. But they are still beautiful when they do bloom. I bet yours will be okay. Some of the real gardeners on here will tell you.
 
I might trim them then. It will make the garden look better without all
the droopy leaves.

I need to separate a bunch of them in the fall. I hope I can
find the time and weather is nice.
 
I divided my irises 2 years ago - and last year they did fine and this year they went crazy! I am going to need to divide them again this fall.

Right now I'm struggling to keep my flowers, and herbs watered - it's a daily task. I don't care so much about the grass but my husband is a fanatic about keeping the grass watered. He's gone so often that the task falls to me. I have about given up on my tomatoes - they just will not ripen.
 
I'm having my first tomato right now in a salad. Oh, my goodness, it is delicious. Plus it doesn't have that nasty white core that the store bought tomatoes have.

I have 15 tomatoes in various stages of yellow and orange. There are another 16 that are still dark green. More buds appeared today, too. My first baby squash is about 3 inches long so far.
 
Sorry to hear about your tomatoes medrel. Last year,
I had one plant. I got several tomatoes, but with the
drought I couldn't keep them coming.

I water my flowers, but not everyday.

I make sure the birds have water.
 
I had the same problem last summer. We had tomatoes and a few peppers. But for whatever reason, there were not enough bees around, and everyone that I knew in CA had big problems with their crops. They eventually died because of the drought and very hot weather. Luckily, the bees this year are more plentiful.
 
I've got bees here DaysD if you want some.

I don't know what the name of the bush is. I call it pom pom bush since
the flowers are round and white. Last year, it didn't bloom. This
year, there are so many flowers. The bees and hummingbirds are loving it.
 
Sounds like hydrengias to me.... Mine always started out A beautiful blue, and each day for the next couple of months, they would change colors just a smidgen... and then before the freeze came, they were a funny colored pinkish red. I loved them, and very popular.... Katmouse wants to know this ....

I don't know what the name of the bush is. I call it pom pom bush since
the flowers are round and white. Last year, it didn't bloom. This
year, there are so many flowers. The bees and hummingbirds are loving it

It is only an idea, but that is what they looked like was snowballs, and were called that by the neighbor kids..... Just a thought...
 
kat - Take a look at this site to see if it is what you have. If it isn't this then it is probably a white hydrangea as Days Pretender said.
There are beautiful pictures and information about the snowball bush there, but the site owner has blocked linking to the photos. The photos posted there look just like the bushes that my Mom had when I was growing up.

http://shoaibnzm2.blogspot.com/2012/06/snowball-flowers.html
 
I think it's interesting that hydrangeas in this area with acid soils bloom blue, but in alkaline soils farther west bloom pink. I guess it's easy to switch that up by adding lime to our acid soil, or what, sulfer? to alkaline soil. It's funny how the plant does that, though. Strange things happen in nature.
 
rs, it could be a snowball bush, the flowers aren't as big as the
ones in the picture. the flowers are turning brown after the bees
and butterflies are done.

I should be getting my film back on Sat. I took several pictures
of it. I can post and maybe we can see if it is one.

that's interesting about the hydrangeas where you live, rs. I had hydrangeas
where I used to live and added stuff to soil to change color.

thanks for the help ladies :)
 
I think it's interesting that hydrangeas in this area with acid soils bloom blue, but in alkaline soils farther west bloom pink. I guess it's easy to switch that up by adding lime to our acid soil, or what, sulfer? to alkaline soil. It's funny how the plant does that, though. Strange things happen in nature.
While I lived in Seattle, I used to take my dill pickle juice left when the pickles were gone, and go and dump the juice on above and around the plant, and thus as long as it took me to eat the pickles, it kept the soil just acid enough... I think the two kinds, both the snowballs and the hydrangeas are one and the same. The tiny little blossoms in the center of the flower, might be just a hairy bit different, but the over all flower are so similar... I think the blossoms in the center are smaller in the snowball plant, than in the hydrangeas though..... Wow this was all clear as mud, right??
 
Beautiful flower meldrel.

My tomato experiment didn't work out. The plant
getting flowers, but it's not making tomatoes.
 
Back
Top